AJJF Freestyle Judging Guide

Overview

All freestyle divisions are judged on three categories: Safety, Variety and Control, and Overall Effectiveness. Each area will be discussed in detail.

All scoring should be done relative to the rank of the division being judged. For mixed rank divisions, use the average rank of the division as your guide. The average score for any division should be 5. Thus a 5 should be awarded to a greenbelt who turns in an average performance, or for a blackbelt who turns in an average performance, even though the blackbelt is (hopefully!) demonstrating a considerably higher degree of absolute skill.

The range of numbers runs from 1.0-10.0. Use the full range, including tenths of a point.

Be consistent across all contestants in a single division.

Remember that if you get too enthusiastic scoring the early contestants of a division (giving them very high scores), you don't have much room to score subsequent competitors who may do better. Use the first contestant as the benchmark and then score relative to him. Note that this does not mean that the first contestant is automatically a 5.

The Categories

Safety

Safety is very subjective, and thus can be a difficult category to judge. Clearly, if no one was hurt, then there had to be at least a reasonable level of safety. The guidelines presented here should not be thought of as a set of rigid rules, but as suggestions for things the judge should look for. Remember, as always, these guidelines must be applied in a rank appropriate way and with common sense on the part of the judges.

How difficult were the techniques performed relative to the skill of the competitor? The more difficult the techniques carried off successfully, the higher the score. Conversely, performing only basic techniques in an effort to not hurt uke, while commendable, does not necessarily demonstrate either skill or confidence.
To the best of your judgment, if uke were to counter unexpectedly or react in a way tori did not expect, to what extent would tori be able to maintain safety? In other words, safety is not just about what happens when things are going the way tori expects, but what happens when something unexpected occurs.
If the uke behaves in an unsafe fashion, a tori who can still maintain his and uke's safety should be scored higher than one who can't. The judges should also warn the uke, replacing him if necessary. The uke can also be penalized points (to be deducted from his total score when he is the defender) if the unsafe behavior continues.
If tori throws uke off the mat into the spectators, that should reduce the score. Action should be halted and the contestants centered on the mat.

Variety and Control

Variety is a relatively easy one. How many different things does tori do in the course of a round? Scores should be higher if tori does different things in round 2 than round 1 (and round 3 than 2 or 1), lower if each round looks basically the same. Variety is, again, relative to the rank of the contestant. Greenbelts will generally not have the repertoire that blackbelts will. Judges should also remember that they will be watching a lot of competitors. Don't let them blur together.

Control is a little more subjective. The basic question is how well does tori control the mat? To what extent does he take control of uke's balance, mind, body, etc, when responding to each attack? How open is tori? Is he on balance? Is he in a strong or weak strategic position (e.g. lying face down on the mat)?

For the blackbelt two vs. one round, Control also includes how well tori uses one attacker to control the movements of the second. If tori is consistently getting between the two attackers, or turning his back and forgetting about one of them, that should lower tori's score. Similarly, if tori gets stuck on the ground, that should also lower the score.

Overall Effectiveness

Are tori's techniques lots of flash, or is there substance?

If uke were allowed to resist, do you feel that tori would still be able to make his techniques work?

Do you feel that tori could make his techniques work against a "real" attacker?

Again, the judgment must be rank appropriate.