by yeniseri » Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:01 pm
I judged once at a local tournament and have been an off and on competitior for the past 20 years. Actually, I may have the distinction as being a terrible judge when compared to the other judges!
Much of present taolu relies on too much acrobatic and gymnastic finesse as part of the scheme and there is a tendency to rate higher those whose 'degree of difficulty index' is higher. That is not what competition is about but it makes for good sport! In that realm, taolu is great.
Examine the results for yourself and the people who win at taolu do not win at sanda, shuaijiao, sanshou and like events. If i were to see 'snake creeps down' in Yang style taolu, I would rate that a 7.5 to 8.5 based on the structure of other postures while another would rate it 8.5-9.0.
In Chen style, I would rate 'Dragon on ground' if done properly 8.5-9.0 since that would be expected in Chen style!