Anarchist Athlete

Australian professional snowboarder Nate Johnstone (left) is awarded 1st place for the highest individual air time in the AIS Micro-Tech Pipe Challenge by sport science consultant and Anarchist Athlete founder Jason Harding (right). Image © www.AnarchistAthlete.com

An article focused on a tech judging concept and its role in snowboard competition judging is available now [...] 

An article focused on a tech judging concept and its role in snowboaard competition judging is available now.  The article has been recently published by a new journal titled ‘Sports Technology’.  You can therefore access the article on the Sports Technology Website or alternatively you can read and download the PDF version of this article at AnarchistAthlete.  This article is an academic publication associated with the AIS Micro-Tech Pipe Challenge held at Perisher Blue in 2007.  The AIS Micro-Tech Pipe Challenge was a concept half-pipe snowboarding competition that trialled a form of technologically based automated judging. 

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Article Title

Harding JW, Mackintosh CG, Martin DT, Hahn AG, James DA.  Automated Scoring for Elite Half-Pipe Snowboard Competition – Important Sporting Development or Techno Distraction?  Sports Technology 2008; 1 (6), 277-290.

Article Abstract

The authors have previously reported a strong relationship between video based objective data (air-time and degree of rotation) and subjectively judged scores awarded during elite half-pipe snowboard competition. Advancements in sports monitoring technologies now provide the capacity to accurately and automatically quantify this objective information. This may assist current subjective coaching and competition judging protocols provided the integration process imparts a large element of control to key players within the sport. The authors therefore recently hosted an invitational half-pipe snowboard competition (2007 Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Micro-Tech Pipe Challenge) designed to evaluate whether the snowboard community would embrace a competition where results were in part determined by automated objectivity, explore the practical, logistical and technical challenges associated with conducting such an event and evaluate the relationship between subjective judging and results predicted from objective information to see if prior research had ecological validity. Ten elite male half-pipe snowboarders were instrumented with inertial sensors throughout this competition. A prediction equation using previously established weightings of average air-time and average degree of rotation accounted for 74% of the shared variance in subjectively judged scores awarded during this competition. Although our predictions of overall scores and rankings were good there was still 26% of the total variance unexplained. This should not be considered a weakness of this approach but a strength as the subjective components of style and execution should never be removed from the sport. The future of half-pipe snowboarding however may be best guided a judging protocol that incorporates both objective and subjective criteria. Read Full Article