You Be the Judge!

At VBBI events, you are the judge. Our judging system allows any ABBI member to take part in the judging. How does it work? Read on...

We start out with a group of core ABBI judges. At least 6 of these judges will judge each VBBI event. Of their markings we throw out the high and low, just like at any live event, and the remaining 4 count towards the bull's final score. In addition to these core judges, any ABBI member can also judge every entry. All of them will count toward the final score.

With so many potential judges, how do we keep it from turning into a great big mess? With Judge's ratings. Each core judge starts out with a rating of 10. That means each opinion given by a core judge counts as ten opinions toward the final score an entry receives. Each regular ABBI member starts out with a rating of 1, meaning his opinion counts as one opinion in the process. A simple example of this is if an entry receives markings from 10 regular members whose ratings are 1, and 4 core judges whose ratings are 10, then for the purposes of calculating the final score, that entry recieved 50 virtual opinions. A virtual marking is one judges marking x his judge's rating. If your rating is 1.9, you provide 1.9 virtual opinions, and for example, if an entry is marked 20 points by you, then your virtual marking is (20 x 1.9) or 38 points.

Your rating can change depending on how you judge. You gain rating points for particicipating in the judging process, and you can gain rating points for good judging as well. After each event, when the final scores are calculated, the VBBI judging system calculates and records a baseline marking for each entry. Baseline marking is the average of what all 6 core judges marked the entry. We also detemine and record a high mark and a low mark for each entry from the core judges.

Then, we adjust the ratings of every judge who participated depending on how they marked the entry in relation to the baseline and to the high and low marks established by the core judges. Most ratings adjustments are made in 1/10 of a point increments or thereabouts. However, some of the penalties to your rating are more severe. If you mark an entry far outside the established high and low marks, your rating will be cut considerably, since that's an indication that you are either gaming the system or possibly incompetent.. At each VBBI event, your rating could be adjusted a number of times. Ratings penalties go into effect before the final scores are calculated for an event, and ratings bonuses awarded go into effect after the event has closed. By doing it in this order, we decrease the chances of a group of members can try to skew the results by collective effort. If you take part in the judging process, any visitor to the VBBI site will be able to view your judge's rating at any time. They will not be kept secret.

In the end, each entry will recieve a final score on a 1-100 point scale just as they do in live ABBI events. The final score is arrived at by totalling each entry's virtual markings (disregarding the high and low core judges), determining the total points each bull received, dividing that by the (total number of virtual opinions divided by 4). The final score will be carried out to the thousandths place.

One of the most common complaints in bull riding and bucking bull competition is that judges are capable of skewing the results due to bias, either subconsciously or maliciously, or by just poor judgement. At VBBI events, we'll record enough judging data to easily expose any explicit attempt to skew the results, and we're certain to learn a great deal about who the best judges in the business are (or aren't). So if you've ever doubted the judging at live events (and we know you have...) get involved with VBBI judging and help change things for the better!

Scale Judging System Elements

a. Buck: ( 1 – 5 points available)
In this system the term “buck” refers to the height achieved with the front feet and shoulders as a bull begins each jump of a trip. Technically correct bulls will complete this action by kicking their hind legs, however not all will kick, and that is a separate category from buck. Bulls that “get in the air” and get their front feet a foot or two off the ground as they peak and break over get the most credit in the buck category. Another consideration is the number of jumps they complete during the course of the trip. Still another factor can be how much ground they cover.

b. Kick: ( 1 – 5 points available)
“Kick” in the scale system refers to the extension and snap of the hind legs at the peak of each jump. Determining factors as to the number of points earned in this category are how high and how hard a bull kicks, how much vertical body angle he achieves as he kicks, and whether or not he kicks each and every jump. Additionally, bulls who kick at the peak of each jump instead of waiting until their front feet reach the ground deserve more credit in this important category.

c. Spin (change of direction): ( 1 – 5 points available)
Also referred to as the speed category, spin is the most difficult to assess if a bull is only ridden for a jump or two. In this situation, a judge must assume that the amount a bull was spinning (or the number of rounds) would have continued at the same rate for eight seconds. For this reason, it is important, in order to achieve high marks in the spin department, to “turn back” or begin to spin as early as possible so that more time is spent spinning than covering ground. Determining factors in the spin category are: how fast (how many rounds if ridden eight seconds), how far around a bull goes with each jump ( bulls who take two jumps to complete a revolution get more credit than those who take four jumps). While bulls that spin without bucking or kicking are docked points in those categories, they still can earn high marks for spin even though they are flat, the fact that they don’t perform well in the buck and kick categories will take care of itself in the total score. Another factor that makes a spinning bull hard to ride is if they are “ square” or move forward as they spin, or if they drift, or fade across the arena as they spin. These elements are measured in the degree of difficulty category, and need not be assessed along with spin. A judge must be attentive to whether a bull was in the process of turning back or not as the rider was thrown in order to successfully determine if a bull was beginning to spin. Then he must use that determination to decide how much, or how many rounds would have been accomplished in eight seconds had he been ridden.

d. Intensity: ( 1 – 5 points available)
This category is nothing more than the amount of effort, or level of intensity that a bull is using as he bucks. In other words, how much try is he putting into the trip. As in the degree of difficulty category, if a bull has high marks in the core elements, it would be hard not to assume that he is using a high degree of intensity as he bucks. However, we have all seen bulls that seem to be just “going through the motions” with very little enthusiasm even though they are, for the most part, doing everything right. This category allows for separation between bulls with similar trips when one was putting more of himself into the effort, and deserves to be marked over the other one. While the category might seem a little vague unless you’ve watched a lot of bulls, it will prove useful in that it will allow a judge who liked one bull’s trip better than another one but can’t say exactly why, to fall back on the intensity aspect, which is most likely what looked better about the trip anyway.

e. Degree of Difficulty: ( 1 – 5 points available)
There are a number of factors that can occur in a bulls trip that elevate the degree of difficulty, and it is important to note that the bull that does everything else right automatically has a high degree of difficulty for that simple reason. Therefore just because a bull is honest and doesn’t use tricks to get a rider off, he shouldn’t be penalized in this category for doing things right. Having said that, there are those elements of a trip that some bulls employ that make them harder to ride than bulls that don’t. These things don’t necessarily make a bull better, and again it should be mentioned that the most desirable methods of increasing degree of difficulty are by doing the core elements (buck, kick, spin) well. Further, the bull that is using time and energy performing some of the trickier elements generally associated with “d of d” is usually losing ground in some other area. The most generally defined elements of this category are: drift or fade, accomplished by a bull covering ground as he spins; moving forward in the spin; belly roll; drop, direction change; lack of timing etc.