Competition Roles

Competition Roles

All competitions require volunteers to undertake a range of official tasks, each competition entry form requires a number to be provided depending on the size of entry.  The following explains the main volunteer roles:

Introduction

There are a number of volunteer official roles required at a competition, without which the competitions cannot run.  Note that there is really no difference between the club competition, a friendly open competition and an NDP grading – they are run the same way and the same officials are needed.

On each panel, and there are typically three or four panels, the following officials are needed.  Without these people, all volunteers, the competitions cannot run.  With four panels that makes approximately 40 volunteer officials required.

 

Per Panel Officials

  • Chair of Judges
  • 5 x Execution (Form) Judges
  • 1 x Tariff Judge (if a panel is running groups that need a tariff)
  • 1 x Computer Recorder
  • 1 x Manual Recorder
  • 1 x Marshall

Who provides the officials?  The clubs that enter the competition have to.  The more entries that a club makes the more officials they have to provide.

A brief description of the various roles and responsibilities is listed below.

Chair of Judges

This is normally undertaken by a qualified Judge with significant experience, typically qualified to at least County level.  The Chair ‘directs’ operations on their panel, indicating when judges should be alert to judge and instructing gymnasts when to commence their routine.  Together with the Competition Marshall, this role is most important if the competition is to run to time.

Manual Recorder

You’re provided with a list of all competitors per group and space to write in their scores.

Each competitor in the group does their set routine, then each competitor does their voluntary routine.

After each competitor bounces, write down their five scores (between 0.1 and 9.9) as read out by the chair of judges.  Don’t worry about totalling them as the computer does that – the manual recording is really only there as a fall-back in case the IT breaks down temporarily.

If you miss a score or have any issues ask the chair to repeat / for help.

 

Computer Recorder

This is the same as a manual recorder except you key the scores into the laptop.

Competition Marshal

This is organising up to about 14 performers per group/flight to warm-up by rotation, then sit on a bench and get them up in the right order to perform their routines.  No more difficult than organising pass the parcel at a kids party!

You’re provided with a list of all the performer names per group.

A good Marshal is worth their weight in gold – they, and the chair, are key to an efficient panel.

There is a little more to it than that, and therefore a more detailed guide is provided below.

Club Judge

To become a judge there is a two-day course and a short exam.  The course and exam are not difficult – I’ve only heard of one person failing.  No trampolining experience is necessary.

Once you’ve passed the club judge course you can be the execution (form) judge on a panel.  Basically watch the performer do their routine, make a note of deductions per move, then add up the scores.  Deductions are 0.5 to 0.0 from a score of 1.0 per move for a 10 bounce routine.  So, if they get a “3” deduction from every move they will score 7.0.

The chair of judges will tell you if there are any further deductions, whether to mark the routine out of less than 10 moves, zero score them etc.

There’s a decent judging guide at http://nightflyers.co.uk/judging.htm which includes pictures of how to score various moves.

Also see the official judging documentation – the BG code of points – at http://www.bg-coaches.org/Judging/Index.php

County Judge

Once you’ve done seven competitions as a club judge you can sit the county judge course.  This teaches you about tariffing and more about being a chair of judges.  (Tariffing is where you count up the difficulty of each move as the performer does them).  County judges can do form, tariff or chair of judges roles.

These are the next four levels of judging – don’t worry about these.  You’ll need more than this swift guide for those if and when.

  • Regional Judge.
  • Zonal Judge.
  • National Judge.
  • International Judge.

Detailed Competition Marshall

These guidelines are primarily for the competition marshals, but will also be of interest/use to chairs, coaches and performers.

You will have a clipboard with every group for the panel on it, with times and competitor names on it.  Together with sections for ticking them off as needed.

  • First try and gather all the competitors together for the group, marking off the competitors to make sure you have them all. If you are missing any competitors shout for them or feel free to use one of the wireless microphones to call for missing competitors.
  • Remind the competitors to practice both their set and vol routines during the free warm-up. But it is completely up to them what they do.
  • Note that free warm-up time is set at 90 Seconds per competitor – e.g. in a group of 10 competitors the warm-up time will be 15 minutes. The chair can vary this time based on how the competition is running.
  • Agree the time period for free warm-ups with the chair based on how many folks you have in the group (there may be drop-outs on the day that won’t be reflected on the print-outs).
  • Rotate the performers round on the beds for this period – one routine performed then get off and rotate. Remind the coaches to get their competitors to use both beds to see which they prefer.  They will get more practice bounces if they are fairly evenly split between the two beds.
  • Ideally everyone will get at least four practice bounces but they can have more or less if the beds are unevenly used. Don’t stop anyone bouncing until the free warm-up period finishes.
  • At the end of the free warm-up period get the competitors to sit in the order that they will be competing, checking that they are all still there, and make a note on your sheet of which trampoline they wish to use (nearer judges or further away).
  • Each competitor must be told to stay on the bench in order and not to wander off to talk to coach/club officials – as this causes delays.
  • Confirm with the chair / recorders any missing competitors so that their sheets and the computer scoring can be updated as needed and let them know that the controlled warm-ups are starting. The chair needs to be calling the judges back to their positions at this point.
  • Each competitor then has one more warm up known as their “controlled warm up” or “one touch”.
  • Each competitor should be ready to get on the trampoline as soon as the previous competitor has performed – it means that they are generally waiting on the bed as the scores for the previous performer are being held up.
  • Tell the competitors (or Club official/coach) that they need to have spotters and to spot for each other. Waiting for spotters causes delays.
  • The competition runs straight through without any further warm ups between the set and vol. routines.
  • At the discretion of the Chair, a controlled one touch warm up may take place before a final (finals are only for D grade and are optional – the competitors decide if they want one)

Other notes :-

  • Keep the area clear at all times to just the bouncers in your group, coaches and spotters. Encourage anyone not in those categories to vacate the competing area back to the spectator area
  • If you spot any of the competitors with inappropriate clothing, jewellery etc. either let them know yourself, or tell their coach or the chair if you prefer
  • Make eye contact with each competitor, this helps you to remember who they are
  • Use a strong confident voice, so people can hear you
  • Be confident in your approach, then people will respect you, and the competition will run smoothly