Judging - - From The Cheap Seats

October 2008

By Pete Fancher

All to often, and sometimes it is justified, we as judges, hear or are told in no uncertain terms, that we are all blind, don’t know what we are doing, the fix was in, the decision was political, certain competitor is a friend of one of the judges or the judge is a trainer that trains that competitor - - and it goes on and on.

It is really easy to sit in the cheap seats and become the expert.

Yes, we as judges are not always 100% correct in our decisions. But, we do the very best that we can and 99.9% of the time the correct competitors win or are placed as they should be in regards to the competition that they were up against on that particular weekend. And, at times, one of us may be having a difficult day as far as seeing what is in front of us and making a decision - - that is why we have an odd number of judges and we throw out the high and low scores.

All of the judges in the Central Florida District have contest experience and have gone through the rigors of contest training and dieting, getting on stage for the first time, wondering what those judges are looking for exactly - - - the same feelings and emotions that every competitor goes through. We all know what it is like to be up there.

The view from the judges table is close - - sometimes too close. Just moving back 5 rows will change how the competitors look and as one moves back in the auditorium, the view changes again. From the very back everyone looks fantastic. Up close - - different view and look - - which is where the judges sit and have the advantage of seeing flaws that are not visible mid-way back in the auditorium.

The fix was in - - no way!!! Having judged more shows than can be counted in close to 30 years of judging I have found that those we know are judged more tightly and stringently that those we do not. A competitor that we have seen several times during several seasons of competing has their past condition in each of our minds. Even though that competitor is being judged by what is being brought to the stage on this particular day and event and who that competitor is standing up there against.

Judges that are trainers have a tendency to be overly critical of the competitor that they have trained and will usually place that competitor a place or two lower than the other judges on the panel. We have tried to take the necessary steps to prevent our judges from sitting on the panel when a competitor that they have trained is on stage and will have the judge remove themselves from the table and sit several rows back while that class is being judged.

The decision was political - - would someone please explain that!!! We have all heard that comment more times than we care to, but no one yet, has explained how the decision was political. Even though we may know a competitor by name from having seen them numerous times - - where they train, who trains them or even where they are from is not information that we have or even care about. A competitor, while being judged and even for the overalls at the evening show, is just a number on a page.

I never intended on being a judge or any kind or official - - I was literally dragged into all of this by our first district chair, Richard Collis. I was of the opinion, like most competitors are, that they had no clue as to what they were looking for or doing and there was no way I wanted to sit down there and be a judge. Richard kept insisting that I try judging and that it would help me to become a better competitor - - yeah, right!! Well, damned if he wasn’t correct. As soon as that first class walked out on stage I realized what they were looking for and seeing right away how important just standing there and then doing the mandatory poses correctly was. I went from placing 4th and 5th to taking a lot of seconds and thirds and eventually winning.

I moved from the cheap seats - - -