The Judges Course was created for a number of reasons. First, it serves as a minimum requirement for affiliate managers to be able to validate Open scores from their affiliate. As such, it serves as an educational tool for these affiliate managers so they can help to administer the Open. Second, the Judges Course fosters a greater understanding of movement standards, range of motion, and how to evaluate movements as a judge. This in turn will help athletes who have taken the course become better athletes themselves because they understand what the judge will be looking for.
In order to accomplish these goals, the Judges Course includes basic information about:
- Responsibilities of all involved, from athletes to judges.
- Basic movement standards for common movements you might expect to see in online competitions.
- Guidelines for video submissions.
Improve Your Judges Eye
This course is also designed to foster the development of judges' abilities to see and discern good reps from no reps. Fair judging is one of the most important things any athlete can ask for, but unfortunately, it’s also a difficult thing to accomplish.
A CrossFit judge can be compared to a referee in other sports. Typically, as a play is performed, the referee has split seconds to make the right call. Was the catch good? Was the player in bounds? Did they travel the correct distance? Was there interference? The same can be said for any CrossFit movement standard. Many repetitions can take one second or less to perform. When an athlete is cycling reps quickly, calls must be made immediately.
Sometimes the calls are easy, such as when an athlete drops a barbell from the shoulders on a clean and jerk without ever attempting to lock the arms out. This is a clear no-rep. Sometimes this is a more challenging call, such as when an athlete is repping out wall balls and the judge has to track both medicine ball contact on the wall as well as the location of the hip crease at the bottom of the movement. In both cases, a call must be made quickly and decisively.
Online Judging
Each year we invite a select number of judges to join our Online Review Team. This team is an important part of our video-review process for determining valid submissions and possible penalties. When establishing our list of judges, the very first checkpoint is the most recent judges course. From there, we follow other criteria, but if you have any interest in being one of our online judges, you must complete the Judges Course to be considered.
Also remember that each year people who have passed the most recent course have the opportunity to review Open videos. In this process you can vote if a video submission is valid, invalid, or needs review. Judges can access this process by clicking on a video submission on the leaderboard, watching the video then leaving a review along with comments. These reviews help our team to prioritize potentially problematic videos and improve the integrity of video submissions.
Why Do I Have to Take it Every Year?
Each year there are updates to the course, especially within the Final Exam, that are meant to address more common or recent issues that have arisen in the past season. Our team reviews recurring situations from the previous season and incorporates them into the newest version of the course.
It also serves as a great way to “dust things off” heading into the new season. Sharpening your judging eye and ability to read and interpret movement standards as well as apply them to athletes in real life is not something most people do frequently, so the Judges Course can be very helpful as you prepare for your judging responsibilities.
Whether you are new to judging or have done it for years, the latest edition of the Judges Course will make you better prepared for the season both as an athlete and as a judge.
For more information, check out the 2024 CrossFit Games Rulebook. Contact support@crossfitgames.com with questions.