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Why Judges Drop the Top Score

Three short lessons on judged sports: dropping the top and bottom card, difficulty as a multiplier, and one judge who leans.

For grown-ups, from what TourneyForge teaches children at Spark & Anvil.

  1. Lesson 1Drop the top and bottom
  2. Lesson 2Difficulty as a multiplier
  3. Lesson 3One judge who leans
At the table · Four or more, ages 7 and up

Judge the paper planes

You'll need: Paper for planes, cards numbered 1 to 10 for each judge.

  1. Everyone folds a paper plane and flies it once.
  2. Three or five judges hold up a card from 1 to 10 for each flight.
  3. Score each flight two ways: the plain average, and the middle cards only.
  4. Talk about any flight where the two ways disagreed, and why.
Where the numbers came from

A little history, and what nobody knows

Seven judges

With seven diving judges, the two highest and the two lowest scores are dropped; the middle three are added and multiplied by the dive’s degree of difficulty.

The source does not say when diving began dropping the top and bottom scores.

Source: Diving (sport) (Wikipedia)

Your child's ladder · on Spark & Anvil

The same idea at every age

  1. Ages 3–5Low Board, High Board
  2. Ages 6–8Five Judges
  3. Ages 9–14Hard Dive or Perfect Dive?
  4. Ages 15–18One Judge Leans

Your child will meet this idea again at every age. The tools and courses here are the part for you.

Everything for a child who loves diving →

Print the guidebook (all lessons + the table activity) →