HOW IS A BODYBUILDING SHOW JUDGED?

You’d be amazed at how many shows I go to where coaches and athletes don’t know how a show is judged. What that can sometimes lead to is a lack of understanding as to why an athlete has been awarded a certain place. This can often lead to the coach telling their athlete that the “judges got it wrong”, when in fact that wasn’t the case.

Once you understand how athletes are scored, it really does simplify results and make you recognise the right calls being made. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explain how a bodybuilding show is judged and explain what a scorecard might look like

What are you being judged on?

What you'll typically see is an odd number of judges, anywhere between around five to nine depending on the show. Competitors will be judged on a number of different elements of the criteria such as conditioning, muscularity, balance, presentation, and symmetry. The judges will then compare all athletes against one another to determine the athletes placing.

Each category (e.g Open bikini, Mens Physique etc) has specific criteria for the judges to follow that helps them make their decision.  The closer an athlete is to that criteria, the better the are going to do. One important thing to note is that the criteria is simply a guide and is open for interpretation on the day and from show to show. One week you might see competitors place that look leaner and the next week they could look a little softer.

How is judging scored?

If there are ten competitors on stage, the judges will begin ranking you in order of where they think you place, from first to tenth. Let's say you win your class; you see the scorecard and you have a total score of four. The person in second had a total score of six and the person in third had a total score of eight, so how does that work?

The judges rank you in order of where they believe you should place and then each judges score cards are collated and counted for each competitor. The highest and lowest score for every athlete is discarded to remove any bias whilst the remainder of the score cards are counted to leave you with your total score.

That still doesn't explain how you scored 4 though does it?

Well let’s assume there were five judges on the judging panel, the score cards are collated together and you were placed: 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st. Upon collating those score cards together remember that the highest and lowest score are thrown away, which would leave you with the following placings from the judges. 1st, 1st and 2nd. These are then added together, giving you a total score of four.

What about the person in second place? Why were they awarded 6?

Their scorecard may have looked like: 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd and 3rd. The highest (3rd) and lowest number (2nd) will be discarded. Leaving them with a total score of six. This same process will happen for every single athlete on stage. When there are a large number of athletes, e.g 15-20, the judges may only score the top eight, and then everyone thereafter will simply get a score of nine. This is simply due to the large number up competitors and the time it would take the score them all.

What If there is a tie?

Have you ever seen a score card where a placing was separated by a single point? What that will tell you is that it was incredibly close between the two athletes involved and it could have gone either way on any given day.

However, what happens if there was a split decision, and two athletes have the same score? It will then be down to the head judge on who they feel is worthy of the higher placing.

This is generally how most federations run there judging, some might be slightly different, but they will still tend to have the same concepts of highest and lowest scores being thrown out. 

Now you know how the judging system works, you may find it easier to accept a close call that didn't go your way. Although, as I attend shows week in week out I’m sure I will still hear the phrase “the judges got it wrong bro” or "everyone in the audience thought you should of won".

In summary, the judging panel will be made up of an odd number of judges. Judges will score athletes on different elements within the criteria and give them an allocated score. These scores are collated, the highest and lowest number thrown away and what is left is added together to give the athlete a score, the lowest score wins. In instances where there is a split decision the head judges will make the call on who has the higher placing.

Vaughan Wilson Bsc Hons