Episode 191
Ep. 191 - Navigating the Complex World of Tournament Judging
Judging is the focal point of today's discussion, as we delve into the intricacies and challenges inherent in tournament evaluation. Drawing from personal experience at a recent regional tournament, I reflect on the responsibilities and privileges that accompany the role of a judge. Throughout our discourse, we emphasize the paramount importance of humility when communicating about judging, particularly in relation to our students and their parents. It is crucial to recognize that each judge is a volunteer, undertaking a complex task that necessitates an understanding of a multitude of criteria across various martial arts disciplines. Ultimately, we advocate for a culture that prioritizes respect and constructive dialogue, transcending mere competition to foster growth and learning within our martial arts community.
Takeaways:
- In this episode, we delved into the intricate nature of tournament judging, emphasizing the essential humility judges must possess when evaluating performances.
- The discussion highlighted that every judge is a volunteer and that judging is a challenging and complex task, requiring a deep understanding of various martial arts disciplines.
- We explored the importance of how we communicate about judging with students and parents, stressing the need for humility and patience in our discussions.
- We must remind ourselves and others that competition is not solely about winning medals, but about fostering respect, sportsmanship, and personal growth throughout the martial arts journey.
Transcript
It's time to talk judging on today's episode.
Speaker A:Let's get started.
Speaker A:Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.
Speaker A:Ladies, gentlemen, instructors, students, parents, masters of Ata Nation, welcome back to the Ata Nation podcast.
Speaker A:This is episode 191.
Speaker A:I apologize for this episode being a little later in your feed than you are usually used to.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:I thought we were going to get some content that I wanted to add in, and then that got delayed, so I was a little behind.
Speaker A:But I have this here ready for you today.
Speaker A:Not only do we have our awesome athlete of the week, which you want to check out, because these athletes are just killer.
Speaker A:And you can apply to be an athlete of the week.
Speaker A:Just talk to one of the ATA brand ambassadors, reach out to them, and they'll tell you the process of how that all gets done.
Speaker A:But today I wanted to talk a little bit about tournament judging.
Speaker A:And the reason why was I was at a regional tournament this weekend and is my opportunity, my privilege, and my responsibility.
Speaker A:I judged.
Speaker A:I actually judged all day.
Speaker A:After opening ceremonies, I sat in a chair, started judging, and when I got up from my chair, I did get a little like between a ring.
Speaker A:I got to go eat, you know, go to the bathroom real quick.
Speaker A:I plowed down a soft pretzel, which is my go to when I go to a tournament.
Speaker A:And after the.
Speaker A:The last ring I judged, I lined up and we bowed out.
Speaker A:So I know a thing or two or two about judging.
Speaker A:It's something that I enjoy doing.
Speaker A:I have parts of it that I like more than other parts.
Speaker A:I've got just like everybody else, parts that.
Speaker A:Or groups that are easier to judge and groups that are harder to judge.
Speaker A:I was telling some students and other instructors that I went from judging a group of fourth and fifth degrees, 18 to 29, which is arguably, maybe not arguably the most talented group in the ATA, to judging a group of 11 and 12 second, third degrees, which I'm not saying they're not talented, some really talented kids in there, but it's a big difference, right?
Speaker A:And so I wanted to just spend a couple of minutes before our athlete will be talking about judging, and most importantly, how we talk about judging to our students, how we talk about judging as parents to our kids, how we talk about judging to other parents that are in our martial arts schools.
Speaker A:And I think the first thing that we need to do is keep a sense of humility when it comes to talking about judging and dealing with judging.
Speaker A:Every judge out there is a volunteer, right?
Speaker A:And judging is a very difficult thing.
Speaker A:It is not an easy Job.
Speaker A:It is not simple to just look at a group of 8, 10, 12 kids and go, or adults and go, oh, yeah, obviously that was the best.
Speaker A:Obviously this is the next best.
Speaker A:Obviously it's not easy to do.
Speaker A:Also understanding that there are a vast number of rules.
Speaker A:This is not like being a ref at basketball, because basketball has one set of rules.
Speaker A:This is many different activities in one sport.
Speaker A:All right, so you're doing forms, which is a completely different thing than weapons, which is a completely different thing than combat sparring, which is a completely different thing than traditional sparring, which is a completely different thing than extreme, creative.
Speaker A:Extreme weapons and creative weapons.
Speaker A:These all have their own intricacies, their own nuances, their own rules.
Speaker A:And oftentimes we don't always do the best job when we're discussing judging, about making sure that we are showing humility in not portraying ourselves as the expert.
Speaker A:I used this example the other day with an instructor I was talking to at my school, and I said, hey, I, you know, we have sometimes, you know, it happens that people, when we go to tournaments, you've got these parents that are always saying they know the rules, they understand the rules, they got the rules.
Speaker A:And I try very hard to make sure that I double check.
Speaker A:I. I've done this for a long time.
Speaker A:You know, I've been judging since before there were 20 events, you know, when we had three events.
Speaker A:And making sure that I don't always go, oh, yeah, this is the rule.
Speaker A:I know for sure when you might actually have a little bit of a doubt, or maybe you don't, but you just need to show the humility to say, hey, let me double check.
Speaker A:There was a situation came up in our school not that long ago, and I was pretty sure I knew the answer.
Speaker A:I was pretty sure I knew the answer, but I made sure that I reached out to a national tournament staff member to double check.
Speaker A:Because I don't want to just always assume that I know the answer.
Speaker A:And we do a bad job of being a good representative for our students or other parents or our kids if we just always assume that our answer to judging is the right answer.
Speaker A:Now, sometimes your answer is the right answer, but the right answer might not have happened.
Speaker A:And this is the perfect opportunity.
Speaker A:Now, this is where we will, at the beginning of a tournament, we will, you know, do our oath and say, hey, yeah, I'm going to be.
Speaker A:To compete is to win.
Speaker A:This is thing we're going to tell our, you know, kids and our, our fellow students and each other that the most important part of competition is the way we behave, the way we learn.
Speaker A:It's not about the medals.
Speaker A:And then sometimes our actions don't back any of that up.
Speaker A:When we yell at a judge or when afterwards, we're always like, well, it's because the judge did this.
Speaker A:Oh, it's because of the judge did this.
Speaker A:Oh, it's because they did this.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:That behavior, the way we're speaking that way, is communicating to our.
Speaker A:The people that we lead by example.
Speaker A:It is communicating to them that what is actually most important is that they get it right.
Speaker A:And if they don't get it right, it's their fault that something happened badly.
Speaker A:Now, should we get it right?
Speaker A:I want to.
Speaker A:I wanted to get it right every time I judge.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Do I get it right every time?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:I make mistakes.
Speaker A:It happens.
Speaker A:Even after 30 years of judging, you make mistakes.
Speaker A:And those are the times that we have the opportunity as instructors, as parents, as competitors, to not say, well, they messed it up, but to say, hey, life isn't fair.
Speaker A:You're going to be in a job someday, and they're going to treat you unfairly.
Speaker A:How you respond to that makes the biggest difference.
Speaker A:Because in 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years, no one's going to care what your trophy was.
Speaker A:No one is going to care if you were a world champion.
Speaker A:No one's going to care.
Speaker A:They're going to care about the attitude, the behavior, the way you speak, the way you act.
Speaker A:And we say that all the time, but we don't always model that when we are at a tournament.
Speaker A:Now, on the flip side, if you are a black belt, it is your job, your duty to provide the very best service you can to the other students at a tournament.
Speaker A:So take that job seriously.
Speaker A:Hone the craft of being a better judge.
Speaker A:Don't avoid it.
Speaker A:This is the other thing.
Speaker A:A lot of.
Speaker A:A lot of black belts, a lot of people complain when tournaments go long, when things happen, but they don't look at themselves first.
Speaker A:What, one of our great grandmasters?
Speaker A:Change yourself first and go, hey, have I been honing the craft?
Speaker A:And are the.
Speaker A:The students around me?
Speaker A:Are my black belts all right?
Speaker A:Are they learning this well?
Speaker A:We're the ones responsible for our own judges.
Speaker A:We don't like our own judges.
Speaker A:It's on us.
Speaker A:We need to just continue to work that and just be an example of the way in which we should treat judges that are volunteers, that are trying their best.
Speaker A:I hear a lot of times.
Speaker A:I hear a lot of times people talking about unfair judges or biased judges or this judge wasn't.
Speaker A:Behav.
Speaker A:Wasn't.
Speaker A:And I think one of the things that we need to do is start with more humility and go, that's how I perceived that.
Speaker A:But I don't know if that's the honest truth.
Speaker A:I perceived it this way.
Speaker A:And this student favor or this judge favored this person.
Speaker A:This.
Speaker A:They like these kind of tech.
Speaker A:That's how I perceived it, but I am not in that person's shoes.
Speaker A:I was recently doing a school talk or these.
Speaker A:These sets of school talks, and one of the.
Speaker A:The school talk things that I was talking about was building these.
Speaker A:These skills, these muscles.
Speaker A:And I wanted.
Speaker A:I talked to these kids about building the muscle of compassion.
Speaker A:And the anti.
Speaker A:Skill of compassion is indifference.
Speaker A:A lot of times we are indifferent to the thoughts, the action or not the actions, the thoughts and the behavior, the intention of another person.
Speaker A:And we just put on our own intention.
Speaker A:We go, this person, this person scored that person because of this.
Speaker A:Did you ask them that?
Speaker A:Did you go to that judge and say, hey, I think you scored this person because they have this patch on or because of this.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:Guys, that.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The amount of time that actually happens is.
Speaker A:I'm not sure I ever see it, but minuscule.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:We are often putting.
Speaker A:We are often wearing a pair of glasses that have our point of view and putting that on and seeing everything the judge does through those glasses.
Speaker A:We need to take those glasses off and we need to be a little more compassionate about the way we see this.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And if they, if they did.
Speaker A:If they did.
Speaker A:Okay, am I going to say that it never, never has happened that somebody has been favored their own person?
Speaker A:Of course not.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I've seen some horrible things.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:Not very often, but I've seen some things.
Speaker A:That is an opportunity to learn to teach our students, our kids about how to deal with unfairness in life.
Speaker A:Because it's there, it's going to happen.
Speaker A:So I just think there's so many opportunities to learn, to grow, to talk about life when it comes to tournaments and stuff.
Speaker A:I tell my students all the time and that, that we are still working on this because so often students come back and go, how'd you.
Speaker A:I ask them, how'd you do it, the tournament?
Speaker A:They go, well, I did this, this and this.
Speaker A:But they didn't.
Speaker A:I got.
Speaker A:They didn't see this point in my form or this, this point in my sparring, and they should have called this other thing because of this.
Speaker A:And the other guy got first because his instructor was the judge or whatever.
Speaker A:And I Always say I stop, stop.
Speaker A:You get to control one person.
Speaker A:I do not want to hear about everything you can't control.
Speaker A:I want to hear about what you can control.
Speaker A:What did you do?
Speaker A:What did you do?
Speaker A:Well, what can you do better?
Speaker A:Can't control that other stuff.
Speaker A:Let's not.
Speaker A:Let's not focus on that.
Speaker A:So anyways, just some, some rambling thoughts from senior master Hayden on judging and understanding, just how to think through that, how we can be better.
Speaker A:Examples, lead by example.
Speaker A:Go beyond the belt.
Speaker A:Because that's the message.
Speaker A:That's what we want to do is go beyond.
Speaker A:Just, hey, this is, you know, I got to get this medal.
Speaker A:I got to get this point.
Speaker A:I got to get these.
Speaker A:I got to get this title.
Speaker A:I got to get the go beyond.
Speaker A:Okay, let's get to our athlete of the week, ATA Nation.
Speaker A:We have another awesome athlete of the week with us.
Speaker A:Ma', am, can you introduce yourself for us?
Speaker B:Hi, I'm Isabella.
Speaker A:And where are you?
Speaker A:Well, tell us what rank you are and what school you train at.
Speaker B:I am a first degree black belt and I train at Legendary Martial arts in Surprise, Arizona.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker A:So you guys are probably having much better weather than the rest of us are having during the winter, so.
Speaker A:Hey, first degree black belt, how old are you?
Speaker B:I'm nine.
Speaker A:Nine years old.
Speaker A:Okay, great.
Speaker A:How did you get started in martial arts?
Speaker A:What got you into it?
Speaker B:So I started when I was four and I was doing karate and then I did that for a year until they closed and my mom found Legendary martial arts and that's how my taekwondo journey started.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:And have you enjoyed it there at Legendary?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's some, some good people there at legendary martial Arts.
Speaker A:Some very talented martial artists.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So as an athlete of the week, we do, we like to ask how.
Speaker A:What you think about tournaments?
Speaker A:Do you compete in tournaments?
Speaker A:You enjoy tournaments?
Speaker B:Yes, they're very fun.
Speaker A:What's your, what's your favorite thing?
Speaker A:Just about going to tournaments, probably seeing
Speaker B:like all my friends and having a good time.
Speaker A:Oh, I love that.
Speaker A:I totally agree.
Speaker A:You know, going to tournaments is all about, you know, hanging out with your friends and then getting to kick them some too.
Speaker A:So that's always fun too.
Speaker A:What at tournaments, what's your favorite events to compete in?
Speaker B:I like to do like combat sparring and extreme forms.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:Oh, that's a good mix.
Speaker A:Combat sparring and extreme forms.
Speaker A:So extreme forms, what got you into doing the extreme stuff?
Speaker B:It got me really into doing like flipping.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Do you like, what's your.
Speaker A:What's Your, like, what's the hardest trick that you have?
Speaker B:Probably gonna be a Webster.
Speaker A:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker A:Mine's a cartwheel, so maybe I think you would beat me a little bit.
Speaker A:But extreme forms.
Speaker A:That's very cool.
Speaker A:And combat stick.
Speaker A:Do you do any team sparring with the combat?
Speaker B:No, I want to do team, but I have so much stuff going on.
Speaker A:I understand.
Speaker A:You can't do it all.
Speaker A:It's too much.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So at a tournament, they were like, hey, you can't do.
Speaker A:You got to skip an event.
Speaker A:What would be the event?
Speaker A:That would be the one that you're like, I'm okay skipping that.
Speaker B:Probably like weapons.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker A:Okay, cool.
Speaker A:Not your favorite thing.
Speaker B:Not really.
Speaker A:That's okay.
Speaker A:Hey, I totally understand.
Speaker A:I understand.
Speaker A:If we forced you into a weapon, what would be the weapon of your choice?
Speaker B:Probably BO staff.
Speaker A:Ah, good choice.
Speaker A:I agree.
Speaker A:I like it.
Speaker A:It's so fun to listen to the different athletes, because everybody is different.
Speaker A:They've got events that they.
Speaker A:They like more than other ones.
Speaker A:I mean, and a lot of people are like, I like them all.
Speaker A:But you still have to decide which ones are your top ones and which ones are maybe not as top.
Speaker A:So as we go through this tournament season, you know, it's about half over with.
Speaker A:What kind of goals do you have for the rest of the year?
Speaker B:I really want to train my best and become a world champion someday.
Speaker A:Ooh, I love that goal.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:And I love that you said, become a world champion someday.
Speaker A:A lot of people are like, I gotta get it this year.
Speaker A:And maybe, you know, maybe it happens this year, but it might not.
Speaker A:You gotta give yourself some time to train.
Speaker A:You mentioned the first and most important thing was you got to do the training right?
Speaker A:You got to work hard.
Speaker A:Have you.
Speaker A:Have you titled in anything yet?
Speaker B:Yeah, I've titled in district champ and state champ.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker A:What events did you title in for district?
Speaker B:I think forms or weapons.
Speaker B:I think combat, too.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Well, there's a lot of great competitors down there in.
Speaker A:In Arizona.
Speaker A:You've guys, it's got some tough divisions.
Speaker A:What about for your.
Speaker A:You know, you said you're training, hoping to one day become a world champion, training at the school.
Speaker A:Do you have goals?
Speaker A:I see you've got a red collar.
Speaker A:So you're a legacy student.
Speaker A:Are you training to help out in classes?
Speaker A:You got other goals in the school that way?
Speaker B:No, not really.
Speaker A:Yeah, gotta keep yourself focused.
Speaker A:Working hard.
Speaker A:Working hard.
Speaker A:What's your okay, favorite kick?
Speaker A:Oh, that's a tough one.
Speaker A:I just Sprung you on that maybe
Speaker B:like a tornado kick.
Speaker A:Oh, yes, Good choice.
Speaker A:I like it.
Speaker A:Very good choice.
Speaker A:Okay, ma'.
Speaker A:Am.
Speaker A:Hey, what does it mean to you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt?
Speaker B:To train my best and to respect the value of Taekwondo.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:You gotta be showing those values in school, out of the school, everywhere you go.
Speaker A:Well, ma', am, congratulations on being Athlete of the Week and keep training hard and we look forward to seeing you at World Championships.
Speaker B:Okay, thank you.
Speaker A:Thanks for our awesome Athlete of the week.
Speaker A:Super.
Speaker A:Such a pleasure.
Speaker A:Now, don't forget, Spring Nationals will be here before you know it.
Speaker A:I got my email from Chief Master Stevens asking, you know, all the masters, like, hey, are you going to be there?
Speaker A:When are you going to show up?
Speaker A:What are you going to do?
Speaker A:I'm going to be there the whole time.
Speaker A:I'm staying even through Saturday so I can judge all day.
Speaker A:Just like we talked about.
Speaker A:I'll be judging, so make sure.
Speaker A:Get registered.
Speaker A:Registration is, you know, going down soon, so make sure you don't miss out on registering for Spring Nationals.
Speaker A:There's team tryouts for Team India, Team Mexico and Team Philippines.
Speaker A:I think all three of those have team tryouts going on.
Speaker A:I think I'm going to have some students trying out.
Speaker A:So excited.
Speaker A:And then, you know, all the seminars, all those events and then, guys, keep your eyes peeled.
Speaker A:Information about World Championships will be here before you know it.
Speaker A:Get your calendar set for district championships.
Speaker A:All that information is on ATA martialarts.
Speaker A:Com in the event section.
Speaker A:Don't miss it.
Speaker A:And until next time, get out there.
Speaker A:Go beyond the belt.
Speaker A:ATA Nation podcast.
Speaker A:Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.
