When judging forms competitions, do you judge based on flash or technique? For example, if you have two competitors, one does a solid but less technical pattern (like the TKD pattern Po Eun) with good stances, power, etc and another competitor does a flashier pattern (like Gae Baek) with high kicks, but otherwise sloppy technique, which would you score higher?

Laura

Hmm... If I remember correctly, the competitions my school participated in judged how well you knew a form/pattern. You didn't accumulate points by being flashy, even if the move itself is consider flashy. Instead, you were graded on proper execution, power, stances, etcetera. So, I'm going with "solid but less complicated technique".

I voted for "solid technique". I have seen a number of folks try to do flashy stuff that they weren't that good at. Ideally, one should be voting on how faithfully they did the form as well, but this is difficult in open tourneys because (as a judge) :

* You may not know the form in question

* It may be a modified of completely made-up form

But good technique will show through, either way.

In the few tournaments that I have judged, I scored much muhc lower for those that were doing trash n Flash.

I voted solid. If someone though does a flashy form and does it very good, of course they will get judged higher. But if they dont remember the moves and screw them up, the basic solid one will get a higher score.

Oh and make sure you kia, or chi, or however you breathe in your style.

I remember competing in an open tournament several yrs ago. My kata was traditional Japanese & I got 3rd. After the event, one of the judges came up to me & said, "It's good to see a good, strait-ahead kata for once".

You see, too many officials don't know what to look for so they just judge the appearance...doesn't matter if the kata is legitimate, invented or made-up on the spot.

BTW: what's the purpose of KIAI doing the splits (is it really pain?).

I dont know if this question was asked directly to me from my first post. I wouldnt kia on a split. I use a kia or a chi when I strike. It adds power and energy to your strike.

no, just a general question based on XMA-style competitions (veiled ridicule).

and folks, it's spelled Kiai ("key-eye"), not Kia (a Korean car).

Oh sorry I will try and remember to spell it like that from now on.

Like most people here Laura, I would always put a technically sound demonstration of an easier pattern ahead of a porrly performed difficult pattern. Basics are basics, and if your basics are poor then you simply cannot achieve a high mark. I would liken it to how judges score gymnastics routines:

The top mark you can recieve in gymnastic competition is a 10 from a judge. However, your personal top possible mark will be different according to how difficult your routine is. So a reasonably easy routine may only be given a maximum mark of 8.5, in which case if the routine is performed perfectly you can get no higher than an 8.5 for it. However if the routine is very difficult it may be given a top possible mark of 9.8, but only if the routine is performed perfectly. Large mistakes will be very damaging to a score as will sloppy technique.

So, in conclusion, harder patterns should have the potential to be scored more highly, but sloppy technique should always be punished in judging a pattern, and the easy pattern performed well should usually beat the hard pattern performed badly.