We are so screwed.

DancingMommy

DancingMommy

Active Member
You know, it would have been easy to bow out of SRC gracefully if we felt we weren't ready. And you know, the thought did cross my mind. Heck, I'm getting all fluttery in the tummy just THINKING ABOUT the awful thing that has happened.

My worst nightmare has come true. Our coach agreed to judge at SRC in Atlanta. And you know what?! I think he agreed because he KNEW we'd try to back out of going. I swear! We are so screwed.

Of the THREE people in the world who know what our routines are SUPPOSED to look like.... NOW ALL THREE of us will be there. And I'm darn sure he's going to end up judging our events. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

At least Tony Meredith won't be judging us... I hope.... That's a funny store in and of itself. But it STILL doesn't help the PANIC I feel knowing that "the boss" is going to be watching. And are we "lucky" enough to have a coach that would give us good marks *just* because he's our coach?! Heck no. He has to be all honest and junk. We are so screwed.
 
Silly girl! You are not screwed. You and your DH are so ready for this. You're going to kick butt. Just you wait and see. :wink:

btw, has anybody here been judged in a competition by their coach? Was it a net positive or negative for you? Thoughts? Pointers?
 
Mixed,

Sometimes I get the worst marks from my coach (or ex coach), sometimes it's great to get a feedback after the competition is finished...

I feel more pressure when judged by a coach..
 
I've often wondered about whether the judges feel a conflict of interest. I'd like to believe that the majority of them distance themselves and look at their own students as objectively as possible.
 
pygmalion said:
btw, has anybody here been judged in a competition by their coach? Was it a net positive or negative for you? Thoughts? Pointers?
Click to expand...

We have in collegiate, by both of our coaches. Sometimes we get good marks, and sometimes we don't. I don't really see that much correlations.

What freaked me out was the one time when my teacher's ex-boss was judging us in a pro/am competition. That was really scary since they hate each other.
 
How did that comp go? Did you feel you were fairly judged, despite the bad feelings between your coach and his fomer boss?
 
pygmalion said:
btw, has anybody here been judged in a competition by their coach? Was it a net positive or negative for you? Thoughts? Pointers?
Click to expand...

Yep. We got honest feedback from him. It was positive, and since he's not the type to blow sunshine up your Er..... nose, I'm confident we deserved it. If we had done poorly I'm also confident that the feedback would have been just as honest.

I would say, treat the situation like your coach is just another judge. If they are performing their role as judge they should mark you in the context of how you compare to the other couples on the floor, not how well you are doing what they told you to do on some past lesson. And if they don't mark you this way, you don't have any control over it anyway, other than to dance as well as you can.
 
@DM

I would be so afraid of disappointing my coach on the comp floor that i will probably mess up big time. That is sort of what i read in your message, is that what you meant ?
 
cl5814 said:
@DM

I would be so afraid of disappointing my coach on the comp floor that i will probably mess up big time. That is sort of what i read in your message, is that what you meant ?
Click to expand...

Precisely!
 
pygmalion said:
How did that comp go? Did you feel you were fairly judged, despite the bad feelings between your coach and his fomer boss?
Click to expand...

We got nice marks for his ex-boss, and we actually ended up winning at that comp.

I would say, most judges are mature enough to not take personal emotions into judging.....or at least they try not to. :D
 
I have been judged by my coaches, both current and past, on many occasions. Sometimes it helps the marks, sometimes it hurts them, but it ALWAYS helps my dancing.

You will never dance exactly the same in competition that you do in practice. And a lot gets lost in a video. Think of this as an opportunity to gain valuable insight. Your coach will see what you look like in competition, and how you compare next to other couples. Whether the reaction is good, bad, or in between, just ask a lot of questions. After the competition ask what your coach thought of your performance, you compared to other couples, the effectiveness of your choreography and execution, what your strengths are, what needs more work, etc.

Having your coach on the panel might make a difference in your placement for better or for worse. Even if it's unintentional, people are human, and biases are unavoidable (although a truly good judge can look past these biases). But having your coach on the panel can only do good things for your dancing.

So if your dancing is more important than your placement, welcome this opportunity. :wink:
 
In April I danced in front of my ex-pro/am teacher (who I had taken lessons with and competed with for seven years) with my amateur partner. Now, he and I have talked enough about favoritism and bias in judging for me to know that he honestly strive to do his best to look at the dancing on the night and not take previous performances or personal or business relationships into account.

I was nervous about dancing in front of him, but after we danced the first dance I was fine for the rest of the comp. In fact, I partly forgot he was even judging in a way. Afterwards he was asked to hand out the awards for our events, and we made the finals in everything and even placed decently. He congratulated us on our dancing and told us we did a really good job. He later saw my partner and again told him we produced some fine dancing and he was very happy for us. And then the next week he saw us in the studio and again he reiterated his compliments. So despite all my butterflies we pulled off a good set of dances in front of him.

Moral of the story: don't worry so much.
 
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