Dr. Pain

You always hear the expression....."What the Judges are looking for!......."

Well, that's one thing....but once they are looking for that "Something" ..we the audience and participants expext them to go about it more 'objectively' than 'subjectively'...after all..."They are Judges"...and should know what they are doing, and what they are looking for.

So, proportion, symetry, mass, cuts, poise, posing...all that criteria aside...we expect an honest, unbiased evaluation of each and every competitor...and some level of consistency and honor amongst judges!

Unfortunately, those of us who have seen any number of competitive events, know that the judging is not always fair...we see it on the National, World, and Olympic level..and we see it in BB and Fitness


I can't tell you how appalling it is, to see the "better" competitor overlooked because someone works out w/a judge(s) (or even in the same gym), or is the 'local' favorite versus some unknown. I have seen this many times. I have also seen what you would call honest, fair and consistent judging.........and no matter what, you have to "take it"..be a "good sport" and not a "sore loser"

To put this in perspective, recently I have witnessed (lose meaning of the word) an event, and want to speculate about another event......Yesterday I got to review a scorecard and .......Sometimes it is easy to see, Prejudice and Bias....

On this particular card.....they were 8 judges and 8 competitors...now how in the world can a BB get all one's and two's (good, low is good)..and then a 7 and 8 from two other judges....conversely...how can those same two judges see the the 7th and 8th place person as 1st and 2nd..yet agree on very other competitor. This was outright favoritism...I'm sorry, it's JMHO, but unless you're blind...this was obvious...two of the judges were trying to bring the two worst competitors up, by bringing the two best down...plain and simple

Now, this is just speculation on my part, me only, JMHO.....but I have a trained eye for this...at this event, I picked the 1st and 2nd places in every class..and I'm not a Judge....I just don't know how this is permitted! I also don't get how one judge can influence another judge, but it happens too

I just want to mention here......and I don't have all the pics, the facts, and this is "just my opinion only"......but in a larger contest...say with over 120 competitors in a class...if one judge didn't "like" you, and placed you at 120 plus out of spite, dislike, whatever (that Judges' right) ...you are already down by 120 points from the get-go...something you will never recover from. Repeat: JMHO

(I should mention that many organizations throw out the bottom, or top and bottom scores to prevent this, some don't)

Thankyou for listening!

DP