The flap over the judges blowing the call in figure skating this Olympics brings to mind the state of judging in the martial arts.
To wit: It blows like a meat whistle.
I don’t know if collusion is a problem in MA the way it apparently is in figure skating (don’t you just love the image of the Russian judge buttonholing the French judge, who proclaims: “I surrender!”), but I know from experience many of the judges in MA are incompetent for the most part. Why in heavens name in a tournament would you have a KF judge determining whether someone did a karate kata correctly? Or, similarly, why would you have a tai chi instructor judge a brick breaking contest? Doesn’t it make much more sense to have people qualified in a style judge that style…? Of course, then the problem becomes in finding someone qualified in that particular style…which is a pretty tall order in itself given the current state of McDojos and McKwoons!–
MA has it’s own problems when it comes to judges, IMO. Not the least of which is that the judges themselves are are rarely qualified to professionally evaluate the programs they are supposed to. Because this is true they are impressed with loud and constant kiais which have no bearing on the movements in question, Britney Spears music in the background, spangled outfits and blonde mullets. :rolleyes:
