- Joined
- Nov 19, 2017
I think it's a widely known fact that PCS system in its current form is a joke. It's relic of 6.0 past - moreover it's not working as intended but serves as mere reputation indicator. Everyone knows it, I know it, you know it, judges, skaters, coaches knows it. Nevertheless attempt to improve PCS judging was denied in last congress - which concerns me greatly. Still, whether it's accepted unspoken rule or not - it doesn't make it unneccessary to trying fix it eventually. In current form it's just bad for the sport.
Here what I would suggest to change - to address current PCS issues to an extent, at least:
1) IN and CO marks should be abolished entirely. They wouldn't serve their purpose anyway. Noone have clear understanding how they should work - neither viewers nor even judges.Their ambiguity and fuzziness just makes temptation to turn them into reputation tools that much stronger. Their functions can easily be relegated to PE category. "Performance" is much more easy to get and universal concept. It should depict how good the skater sells his program, his level of artristry and whole impression of the performance. It's easy to understand (spectators standing ovations is good sign of great PE mark, for example) and not so convenient to manipulate in that case - everyone can tell whether judges were right or not since great performances are pretty obvious even for layman eyes. Which can't be said about IN and CO marks at all - thus inviting judges to manipulate them as they see fit. And tbh, even in theoretical fair execution of that marks - it's just not possible to interpret them precisely due to their highly subjective nature. IN for example isn't possible to be higher than 5 IMO for anything - since lion share of any program interpretation lies in their music and costume - everything else is just set of standart elements. If the program have clear "down to the earth" theme - is one thing. But what about highly abstract music? It can't be interpreted at all - and any mark for it is just pure fantasy on judges part
2) all remaining 3 PCS categories (PE, TR, SS) should be assessed separately and independently. They shouldn't be affected neither by reputation nor age of skaters or their TES mark. For example, marks can be like this:
Kovtun PE 8 TR 6 SS 6
Messing PE 9 TR 8 SS 9
Zagitova PE 9 TR 9 SS 7
Medvedeva (in current form) PE 7 TR 6 SS 7
Kostner PE 8 TR 6 SS 9
Tuktamysheva PE 9 TR 6 SS 6
Trusova PE 8 TR 8 SS 7
Scherbakova PE 9 TR 9 SS 6
Kostornaia PE 9 TR 9 SS 9
and so on.
3) one can say that the above marks are still somewhat subjective and can be easily manipulated. While I agree - here I suggest some mechanisms to address such issues. PE mark is the most subjective of them all. However some new rules can be implemented to keep it at bay. For example for each fall PE mark should be lowered by one - i.e. with one fall it can't be higher than 8, with two - higher than 7 etc. Even for Messing There shouldn't be exceptions. Moreover it should be mandatory rule and not mere recommendation - it should be blocked by program on PC until the judge would mark the PE correctly in case of falls deductions.
For TR - each transition can be counted manually during all skate even by tech panel member and there can be some mandatory mark range of TR for each transitions count.
SS - it's somewhat constant category anyway. Still there can be some rule like the skater with level 4 step sequence can't get SS lower than 7, for example. To encourage junior skaters mostly.
Considering the above tweaks - new PCS score will become significantly less subjective since it is more transparent and easily verifiable (only one of the three components remains somewhat subjective). Couches and skaters would easily understand on what aspect they should work more in case of not great PCS score - which is pretty important too. Also I would revert already existing particular TES rule to an old form:
4) UR rule of jumps - 90 degree UR should be acceptable again. In current form strict UR rule is just bad for the sport. It destroys many talented skaters and gives too much power to tech panel considering huge effect it can have on overall score. IMO if the blades on landing are mostly backwards - it's ok jump. If forward - it's not ok. Simple and easily understandable. Even if some skaters would rotate some of the jumps on ice - let them be. It's still much better than what we have now when visually perfect performance with clean jumps would get low score suddenly. It's awful, confusing and highly detrimental to the sport - for spectators and fans as well as for skaters and couches too.
Here what I would suggest to change - to address current PCS issues to an extent, at least:
1) IN and CO marks should be abolished entirely. They wouldn't serve their purpose anyway. Noone have clear understanding how they should work - neither viewers nor even judges.Their ambiguity and fuzziness just makes temptation to turn them into reputation tools that much stronger. Their functions can easily be relegated to PE category. "Performance" is much more easy to get and universal concept. It should depict how good the skater sells his program, his level of artristry and whole impression of the performance. It's easy to understand (spectators standing ovations is good sign of great PE mark, for example) and not so convenient to manipulate in that case - everyone can tell whether judges were right or not since great performances are pretty obvious even for layman eyes. Which can't be said about IN and CO marks at all - thus inviting judges to manipulate them as they see fit. And tbh, even in theoretical fair execution of that marks - it's just not possible to interpret them precisely due to their highly subjective nature. IN for example isn't possible to be higher than 5 IMO for anything - since lion share of any program interpretation lies in their music and costume - everything else is just set of standart elements. If the program have clear "down to the earth" theme - is one thing. But what about highly abstract music? It can't be interpreted at all - and any mark for it is just pure fantasy on judges part
2) all remaining 3 PCS categories (PE, TR, SS) should be assessed separately and independently. They shouldn't be affected neither by reputation nor age of skaters or their TES mark. For example, marks can be like this:
Kovtun PE 8 TR 6 SS 6
Messing PE 9 TR 8 SS 9
Zagitova PE 9 TR 9 SS 7
Medvedeva (in current form) PE 7 TR 6 SS 7
Kostner PE 8 TR 6 SS 9
Tuktamysheva PE 9 TR 6 SS 6
Trusova PE 8 TR 8 SS 7
Scherbakova PE 9 TR 9 SS 6
Kostornaia PE 9 TR 9 SS 9
and so on.
3) one can say that the above marks are still somewhat subjective and can be easily manipulated. While I agree - here I suggest some mechanisms to address such issues. PE mark is the most subjective of them all. However some new rules can be implemented to keep it at bay. For example for each fall PE mark should be lowered by one - i.e. with one fall it can't be higher than 8, with two - higher than 7 etc. Even for Messing There shouldn't be exceptions. Moreover it should be mandatory rule and not mere recommendation - it should be blocked by program on PC until the judge would mark the PE correctly in case of falls deductions.
For TR - each transition can be counted manually during all skate even by tech panel member and there can be some mandatory mark range of TR for each transitions count.
SS - it's somewhat constant category anyway. Still there can be some rule like the skater with level 4 step sequence can't get SS lower than 7, for example. To encourage junior skaters mostly.
Considering the above tweaks - new PCS score will become significantly less subjective since it is more transparent and easily verifiable (only one of the three components remains somewhat subjective). Couches and skaters would easily understand on what aspect they should work more in case of not great PCS score - which is pretty important too. Also I would revert already existing particular TES rule to an old form:
4) UR rule of jumps - 90 degree UR should be acceptable again. In current form strict UR rule is just bad for the sport. It destroys many talented skaters and gives too much power to tech panel considering huge effect it can have on overall score. IMO if the blades on landing are mostly backwards - it's ok jump. If forward - it's not ok. Simple and easily understandable. Even if some skaters would rotate some of the jumps on ice - let them be. It's still much better than what we have now when visually perfect performance with clean jumps would get low score suddenly. It's awful, confusing and highly detrimental to the sport - for spectators and fans as well as for skaters and couches too.