There is next Professionals’ World Cup ahead of us. Supporters "of the industry” know it for a long time, but I would also like to encourage authorities of other strength and combat sports disciplines to visit our crown event. Especially those who take care of the development of their disciplines, trainers, athletes, referees, managers, promoters and organizers.
In armwrestling there are a lot of excitement, accumulated in microseconds, exploding suddenly in one move of the clasped hands. There are also controversies arising from the inconclusive outcome of the fight for players, like everywhere, like in every sport. But only Armwrestling copes with refereeing - best of all martial and strength sports I know.

Help, but not kill!

Judging may "kill" a sports discipline. You do not have to look far - the amateur boxing has lost a lot because of unfortunate devices counting points. Whatever is done now, the former beauty of fencing on the fists can no longer return. Why was it decided to use those cursed device? To move away from the personal decisions of referees. Why are the roles of referees brought in to "clicking"? Because, with the development of amateur boxing in the world, referees from exotic countries began to appear at the contests, also having an "exotic" training and no experience. The resignation of the existing rules in the name of - wrongly - understood universality of the discipline. The effect can be seen at every amateur boxing competitions. Meanwhile, "good old" professional boxing scrapes along perfectly without those strange devices. A referee - a person who is entrusted to care of the rules. It was he, who personally, with all him and his honor - is responsible for the correct result. Those devices certainly not did not help the sport.

Another example is two, seemingly close fields: powerlifting and weightlifting. The weights - as specialists say - "the audience may judge". Picked up is picked up, not is not! Meanwhile, in the powerlifting an athlete performs battle, and referees look for incorrectness. Why is one strength sports discipline full of frills, and the other clear and simple? It’s the question for a sociologists ...
Ski Jumping, a 'natural' sport, taking place in "natural circumstances" and thus - assuming that the conditions for each of the participants can vary. Why, then add or subtract points for the wind under, over or across? Would not it be easier just to measure the achieved distance and rely on a random factor?

Do devices used for wind measurement make jumping a discipline clearer for fans? Probably not!
Let's move on to the next combat sport. Classical style wrestling and leisure one, due to weird rules, drawing the buckle and the ground floor and other quirks – it completely lost its  the character of a dynamic, spectacular battle, which after all was and should be its essence. In contrast - Mixed Martial Arts rules are for the referees and fans "natural" and legible. Two sports, two visions of development, clear and easy solution in one, and stupid and obfuscating the fight in the second one. Why? Another question for sociologists of sport (if there is such a specialization).

In many sports, refereeing is either neglected, or making it fanciful is promoted to give referees too much to say. It is the disregard of discipline, players and fans.

Meanwhile, the people and organizations that deal with a given sports discipline are responsible in view of players and fans. Among other things there are:
1. Taking care for the rules to be clear and legible and to promote the essence of the discipline;
2. Taking care for the good rules to be enforced clearly and unequivocally.
3. In addition, "technique" needs to be exploited so that fans would be able to keep excited by the course of the competition, when they last very long.
Engineering, electronics, video, whatever - they're just tools! First he must be the meaning, brightness, compatibility with the "Spirit of Discipline." The technique should come later. This is what happened in armwrestling!

A terrible "ladder"

Let's start from the third point, that is terrible ladder, when you fight until two defeats. Long, long ago, when Igor Mazurenko suggested that I should conduct competitions as an announcer, I took it up with alacirity. But when I looked at the drawing of a "ladder" ... somewhat I got confused. It was a small event, one table, a few athletes in each weight class, not a big deal. And what if competitions take place at many tables simultaneously? If there are twenty or more players to fight in each class? An organizer must have at least ten clerks of the court, people knowing the sport, dilligent, precise, accurate and resistant to stress. It’s probably easier to find as many representatives, than as specifically educated and predisposed people to work! Well, this happened until recently. Huge sheets of paper filled with pencil, also unfortunately, many mistakes and problems. Yes that’s how it was!

Then Marcin Mielniczuk appeared, networks engineer - now the Technical Director of the European Armwrestling Federation. Marcin and Igor long examined the competitions, trying to understand the specifics of the course of an otherwise a cool and fair "ladder", and any possible situations that may occur at competitions. Preparatory work lasted more than a year. Now, after creation and effective implementation (already the third version) of a refereeing system, competitions logging - for the entire project two people was enough! Two people are able to lead a protocol of the event taking place at even ten tables! There are no unnecessary breaks between fights, no mistakes, everything is constantly visible to audience and players, from the first to the last fight. The system leads protocols "itself" for each table, shows the relevant information on referees’ monitors, displays statistics and results on audience’s screens, provides information for audience of the television broadcasts, which show the competition live. Players are "marked" via barcodes and the system and referees ‘recognize’ them using special scanners.
Personally I was always skeptical of innovations. But now, looking back carefully - I appreciate what happened in armwrestling and not "tricks" that it lasted so long. It is impossible to develop a system which works on large cometitions without ... re-checking it at large competitions!

A real help for referees!

Most of the fights in armwrestling are a quick win of one of the competitors. Snip, snip and the competition is over, with no doubts. However clashes also often last long, even a few minutes, but eventually one of the participants clearly and unambiguously wins. Such struggles make armwrestling a discipline simple and readable. So is there anything to judge here? – an average fan may ask. But a fight in which an elbow of one of the opponents 'falls', or action is so fast that a referee is not able to react - we have a problem. Emotions heated to whiteness, each convinced of its case, how to prevent this?
One way is to record fights  using video camera, so that it would be possible at once - before the players cool down and need to warm up again - watch the apropriate section and assess how and what happened. Such a system is now in armwrestling something obvious, as in football. Tests took a lot of time, because - again – there is no other way you can check equipment to extreme conditions as just in extreme conditions.

Do not block!

Fields of poverty, when a pretty girl works her back to the audience, as the second referee(forgive me this chauvinistic element). Indeed at the first photographs of the competitions - much more clearly and vividly presented were ... referees (and particularly mentioned by me Miss Referee). Players were coming down to second place. It had to be reconciled because the presence of a second referee was required, even though a lot was covered from audience.

Thanks to technology, specifically cameras and monitors, it became possible to bring down the "obscuring" referee, remove him from the line of sight of audience. Now it can really be seen what is happening at the table, and at the same time there are additional, accurate opportunities of assessment.

Marcin Mielniczuk so presents the story of creation and improvement of the system:

"There were two  separate monitors and cameras monitoring situations at the table disposable for the second referee during the first battles conducted using audio-video equipment. One of the cameras was set at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the left side of the table to monitor an elbow of the player's on the left. The second camera was set exactly opposite and monitored ans opponent's elbow. Both cameras showed images on separate monitors, allowing the technical referee to observations of both players. However, the problem of simultaneous observation of both images appeared. One person simply was not able to look simultaneously at both monitors and see what is happening on both pillows. Therefore, at next competitions, additional possibilities were introduced - a combination of images from both cameras and displaying them on one screen. Moreover, video material record on a computer and the ability to replay what cameras captured. Thanks to this technical referees could examine material frame by frame and figure out the verdict. Electronic recording allowed for any number of replays and close-ups. In addition, setting cameras in different positions allowed to monitor not only the elbows, but also side pads and arrangement of wrists in the starting position."

Armwrestling - tradition in HD!

How does it work today? On the stage, along with armwrestling table, appeared tripods and HD video cameras. The cameras on both sides of the table (in front of and behind the table - from the main referee’s side) set exactly at the height of table top, in the line formed by the corner of the armrest and the side pad. Both cameras are connected to the device containing Picture in Picture (PIP placement) function, configured in such a way that the screen shows both images in the same proportions. Then the whole material via analog - digital converters is transmitted to a computer, where recording of the material at magnetic storage devices takes place. Material is accessible via a special application to video management. Technical referees, after a short training have the possibility to watch the video material the way they want to.
 

See for yourself!

Armwrestling – a discipline - "old as the world," and at the same time deftly using the latest technology. When you go to this year's Professionals’  World Cup, consider the referee's "kitchen" of this event, cameras, sensors, monitors, computers. Perhaps similar solutions can be useful in other sports?

While following players, look also at the referees. Their work, at the competitions of the rank, where excitement is piled up to the limits, is truly exhaustive, it requires knowledge, reflex, "cool head", determination and deep honesty. They are also the heroes of the World Cup!

PeSzy