For the first time, Judges will pair off and position themselves either on the ends or the side of the field. Of each pair of Judges, one will watch and score one Knight and the other will do the same with the opponent. As you might imagine, this technique works much better than the old style of one Judge scoring both Knights.
This new system was tested at Valhalla in June of this year (2001) and was truly an improvement. The Judges are really able to pick up on the good, the bad and the ugly when watching only one Knight, and the scorecards reflected the more accurate results. Good hits were scored accordingly and more than ever before, bad, poorly aimed and unsafe hits (whether high or low) were marked. These hits resulted in point reductions, and that's not the way to win.
Also as a result of studying only one Knight, a Judge is more keen to either give or deduct points for those all important factors (which keep our style of jousting from being just an extreme blood sport) - horsemanship, safety judgment and sportsmanship.
All of our Judges will be encouraged to study our rules and guidelines and judge what they see "by the book" so to speak. They will also be encouraged to use their common sense should they not have a great deal of experience in judging our sport. Most can tell when something out of the ordinary happens and whether or not a Knight is considering the safety of his opponent. And we all know good sportsmanship from bad.
We try to pick our Judges, whenever possible, from Members who have competed or trained with us in the past. As it is not always possible to get all of our Judges with this kind of experience, we sometimes ask Members without experience, but at the very least, they are familiar with our rules and guidelines. I have also found some good Judges who were experienced in live steel fighting and competitions. To reinforce and enhance their judging abilities, these Judges will be encourged to watch any practice jousting they can, as this will help them learn more about what to look for.
I always explain the margin or error when making a hit to the shield with respect to a high or low hit. The lance tip doesn't have to hit perfectly every time. It is only when the back of the shield moves rapidly and extremely into the helm or the thigh area does a point reduction occur.
One final note. Although unhorsings are exciting to watch, they often cause injuries. Our Alliance does not encourage unhorsings. An unhorsing will get the Knight the same number of points as a dislodging (three points). Should a Knight unhorse his opponent in the beginning of the match, and should the unhorsed Knight be injured or shaken up to the point he or she cannot continue, then whatever number of points the Knights have accumulated thus far are their scores for that match. It seems that a Knight should want his opponent to stay on his horse so he can accumulate as many points as possible by completing the entire match.
In our sport, unhorsings will happen from time to time. But it is neither necessary nor encouraged to intentionally try to unhorse the opponent.
James Zoppe
Founder and Director
American Jousting Alliance