First Snowboard and Freeski judges' clinics of the season successful in Switzerland

From 23rd-25th September 2021 approximately 20 of the world’s top snowboard gathered judges in Saanen, Switzerland, for the International Snowboard Judges Clinic. Meanwhile, across the valley in Crans Montana, some 30 freeski judges from all across Europe were also gathering for their annual education symposium.

Last year's education process took place via the Fis-edu.com online platform, which featured different courses on individual disciplines as well as a judges ethical responsibilities. The clinic then built on these courses with webinars which allowed judges from all across the world to share their experiences and insights to work collaboratively to improve and refine judging knowledge and skills across the board.

After getting the all-clear to have in-person clinics again this season, it was exciting and encouraging to see judges once again coming together to discuss snowboarding and freeskiing. And, for judges who couldn’t enjoy in-person attendance at this year’s European clinics, they were still able to connect remotely over Zoom to listen in, and learn from the proceedings.

Communication is a huge part of judging - whether between the members of the judging community or between judges, coaches and riders, and our veteran Canadian snowboard judge Sandy Macdonald set the tone for the Saanen clinic with an inspirational communication presentation. Focusing not just what is communicated by judges, but also how those communications are made, Macdonald emphasized the importance of ensuring that the message conveyed is correctly received by all relevant parties.

Judging itself was then the focus for the remainder of the clinics on both the snowboard and freeski sides of things, focusing on all three Park & Pipe events (Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air), while specifically diving deeper into the combined-score big air format as well as section-by-section (SBS) slopestyle judging being introduced on the World Cup circuit in recent years.

The snowboard judges in Saanen (SUI).

Historically for snowboard Park & Pipe and Freeski judges the heaviest emphasis was placed on the ranking of the athletes, with the score more or less serving as a vehicle to attain that rank; which is to say that, as long as the rank at the end of the contest was correct, it didn’t necessarily matter what the scores were. However, with the more refined combined-score and section-by-section judging formats, maths becomes a significant part of the total score (and therefore, rank), which means that the actual numbers become a much more critical part of accurately ranking the athletes.

With some judges at the clinic having limited experience in combined-score and/or section-by-section formats, exercises were developed to help those individuals more extensively understand these concepts to improve their scoring knowledge and, as a result, improve their judging acumen. Throughout all the ranking and scoring exercises the judges were asked to justify their scores, and in doing so to pay close attention to the communication principles that Macdonald highlighted at the beginning of the clinic.

A significant portion of the clinics involved providing a platform for discussions about past runs and tricks the judges observed as learning tools during the clinic, focusing on action from 2020/21 World Cup competitions. In this, newer judges were able to pick up greater insight from more experienced judges into the judging process and snowboarding trick mechanics.

The freeski judges in Crans Montana (SUI).

On the snowboard side of things, a big thank you is owed to Guido van Meel from Swiss Snowboard for organising the clinic in Saaren, as well as FIS Snowboard Judges Coordinator Ola Sundekvist, and judges Sandy Macdonald and Gaz Vogen for their work on the materials, content and presentation at the clinic.

"Being able to have an in-person clinic this season was awesome,” said Vogan about the time in Saaren, “I think we covered a lot of detail in all the materials we created on fis-edu.com last year, but a lot of it was objective. By once again being able to run clinics with judges from all across Europe this season we were able to go into more subjective detail, which helps everyone in the room improve as a judge. And of course, it was a great chance to catch up with friends from all over - some that I haven't seen for over 2 years."

For freeski, thank you’s go out to the Alaia Lodge in Crans Montana for donating their meeting room and exceptional leisure facilities for use by the judges all weekend, and to judges David Ortlieb and Jason Arens for their leadership throughout the clinic.

With the European judging clinics all wrapped up, next up will be the North American clinics scheduled to take place in Park City (USA) and Calgary (CAN) in October.