Judges' pack
Everything a judge needs in one place: a 20-minute briefing script, the rules all judges follow, a printable score sheet, and a movement standards template. Copy it, add your own workouts, and give it to every judge before the event.
It is built for the example every Team Aretas resource uses: 120 athletes, 8 lanes, one day, judged by 8 lane judges and a head judge.
The short answer
- Brief every judge from the same document, with a video of every movement, before the first heat.
- Count out loud and call every no-rep out loud, with the reason. A judge the athlete cannot hear is a judge the athlete argues with.
- Get every score signed by the athlete before they leave the lane. A signed score is a settled score.
The worked example
The throwdown from the playbook: three workouts, 15 heats each, 45 heats in the day, from 08:30 to 19:40. Each lane judge judges a heat in every slot, so one crew of 8 judges 45 heats each. The head judge briefs, settles disputes and signs off the results.
| Workout | Format | Time cap | Tiebreak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workout 1 | 50 wall balls, 30 box jump overs, 20 power cleans, for time | 10 min | Time at rep 50 |
| Workout 2 | Rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats | 12 min | Time at the end of the last full round |
| Workout 3 | Heaviest clean and jerk | 8 min | None |
The briefing script
Twenty minutes, from 08:00, while the doors open. Workouts 2 and 3 are briefed again in the resets, so nobody has to remember standards from the morning:
| Time | Topic | What to cover |
|---|---|---|
| 08:00 | The day | Heat times, the holding pen, when the breaks are |
| 08:02 | How to judge | Counting out loud, calling no-reps, where to stand |
| 08:05 | Workout 1 | Every movement, with the video, and the tiebreak at rep 50 |
| 08:10 | The score sheet | What goes in each box, and the athlete's signature |
| 08:13 | Disputes | Who decides, and when |
| 08:15 | Lanes and questions | Who judges which lane, and anything unclear |
| 12:00 | Workout 2 | In the first reset, 5 minutes |
| 16:20 | Workout 3 | In the second reset, 5 minutes |
Rules every judge follows
- Stand where you can see the standard. For a wall ball that is side-on, where you can see the hip crease and the target at once.
- Count out loud, so the athlete always knows the number you have.
- Call every no-rep out loud, with the reason: "No rep, hips" or "No rep, short". The athlete then knows what to fix.
- Never coach, and never cheer your own lane. A judge who helps one athlete has judged every other lane differently.
- Note the tiebreak time the moment it happens, from the clock, not from memory at the end.
- At the time cap, stop counting. Write down the reps completed, not the reps the athlete was in the middle of.
- Write the score straight away and get it signed before the athlete leaves the lane.
The score sheet
One sheet per heat, one line per lane. Write the workout, heat and category at the top, and fill the rest in at the end of the heat:
| Lane | Athlete | Score | Tiebreak | Judge signs | Athlete signs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 3 | |||||
| 4 | |||||
| 5 | |||||
| 6 | |||||
| 7 | |||||
| 8 |
What goes in the score box depends on the workout:
- For time: the finishing time, or "capped" with the number of reps completed. Workout 1 reads either "8:41" or "capped, 96".
- As many reps as possible: the total reps, counting every rep in a round that was not finished.
- Heaviest lift: the heaviest successful lift in kilograms.
The movement standards template
One row per movement, with the load for every category. Here are workout 1's three movements:
| Movement | Starts | Finishes | Load (Rx men / women) | No-rep when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wall ball | Ball held, standing | Ball hits the target | 9 kg / 6 kg, to 3 m / 2.7 m | Hip crease stays above the knee, or the ball falls short |
| Box jump over | Facing the box, both feet on the floor | Landed on the far side | 24" / 20" box | Both feet do not touch the top of the box |
| Power clean | Bar on the floor | Standing, bar in the front rack | 60 kg / 40 kg | Hips or knees not fully open, or elbows behind the bar |
Write a separate row for anything scaled athletes do differently, such as step-overs on the box. In the workout editor, each workout carries its own time cap, tiebreak and scaled option alongside its standards:
Handling a dispute
- The athlete raises it with their lane judge, straight after the heat and before signing.
- The head judge decides. Not the lane judge, not the organiser, and not a crowd of other athletes.
- Use video where it exists, and decide before the scores for that heat are entered.
- Once the head judge has decided, it is final. Write the decision on the score sheet.
Common mistakes
- A briefing from memory. If the briefing does not use the published standards word for word, judges hold athletes to something they never read.
- Silent no-reps. The athlete finds out at the end, and every disagreement becomes a dispute.
- Unsigned score sheets. By the time a score is questioned, the athlete has gone home.
- One crew for eleven hours with no breaks. The last Rx heats are judged by tired people; use the resets, or bring in a second crew.
Run it on Team Aretas
Team Aretas keeps each workout's time cap, tiebreak, scaled version and movement standards together, and athletes read the same standards the judges are briefed from. Judges enter scores on Submit Scores from a phone or a laptop, the leaderboard ranks each heat as it is saved, and the organiser can see every score before it is published.