"How The Dancers Are Judged"

The "Skating System" is a compulsory method under the rules of the National Dance Council of America and those of the International Council of Ballroom Dancing, by which all ballroom contests and championships must be assessed.

It is the method by which the adjudicators placings in the final round are assessed and the explanations which follow will, assist you in understanding how it works.

All rounds, other than the final, consist simply of adding together the markings of the judges for each competitor over all the dances. Those with the highest totals are passed forward depending entirely on how many couples the adjudicators have been asked to select.

• Individual Dance

In the final round all adjudicators are required to place each finalist in order of merit, in each dance, and they must not tie any couples for any position.

Here is an Analysis of dance in which nine judges officiated.

Judge#										Total Places							Z
Couple#	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	1	1-2	1-3	1-4	1-5	1-6	1-7
A	2	6	4	4	3	5	3	6	6	-	1	3	5(16)				4
B	5	4	6	5	6	6	4	4	4	-	-	-	4	6			6
C	6	5	5	2	2	4	5	3	3	-	2	4	5(14)				3
D	4	1	2	3	4	2	1	2	2	2	6						2
E	3	3	3	6	5	3	6	5	5	-	-	4	4	7			5
F	1	2	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	7							1

Explanation: The winner of an individual dance is the couple placed 1st by an absolute majority of the judges, which in the example quoted, with nine judges, is five. A glance at the placings table will show that with seven 1st placing, Couple F is the obvious winner. To find the second place we now look for a couple with a majority of second placings or better and find that Couple D, with six, is the obvious second. We are now looking for third place and search the placings table for a couple with a majority of third placings or better, only to find that none of the remaining couples has reached the required majority. So we now have to include the next lower placing, this instance, 4th.

Looking for fourths and better we find that two couples (A and C) have an equal majority. Therefore we total the placings which form or constitue the majority (the placings from 1st to 4th) and the couple with the lowest total is awarded the position under review, with the other couple following position. In this case, the total for Couple A is 16, and for Couple C, only 14, so the position (3rd) goes to Couple C, with Couple A taking 4th place. The two remaining couples both having a majority of 5th and better placings - Couple B, with six placings and Couple E, with Seven. Therefore the position under review is awarded to Couple E, who have the larger majority and the next position (6th) to Couple B.

• Final Analysis

Having obtained the placings for all the finalists in each of the individual dances over which the Championship or competition is being danced, these are now transferred to the final Analysis Table as follows:

Couple#	W	T	F	Q	Total	Position
A	1	2	3	1	7	1
B	4	3	4	3	14	4
C	3	5	1	5	14	3
D	2	1	2	2	7	2
E	5	6	6	4	21	}apply rule 11
F	6	4	5	6	21

With the individual dance place marks transferred to the Final Analysis, they should then be added the couple with the lowest aggregate of placings is the winner. The couple with the second lowest aggregate is placed second and the remaining places are allotted in a similar manner.

Unfortunately, it is not always so simple and should the analysis result in a tie on aggregate for first place (as above), the winner of the tied couples is the couple who have won the greater number of dances - in the above case Couple A, with two dances against the one of Couple D - and the other couple is awarded the second place. Had both tied couples won the same number of dances, both couples placings over all the dances would be treated as for an individual dance (this is known as Rule 11) - in this case with nine adjudicators and four dances the majority required would have been 19.

If neither couple then had a majority for 1st place, then 2nd placings would have to be brought into the calculations and if both had the same majority, count them as we did for Couples A and C in the example given for an individual dance - the same principle is applied. Any other tied couples for any other place should be treated on the same lines, remembering if the tie is for third place, begin examining the individual dance markings for third place and you will find it all solves itself.

If the example - Final Analysis - Couples B and C both total 14 and both have been placed third and better in two dances, but the two placings of Couple C total 4, against the total of six to Couple B, who thus has to be content with 4th position, 3rd placing going to Couple C. We now find that both remaining couples, E and F, total 21, both have been placed 5th and better in two dances, with an equal total of 9. Therefore, Rule 11 (as previously explained) must be used to decide 5th and 6th spot.

Well there you are - all simple and easy when you have learned how, and have had a lot of experience.