Letters

 

A Competition Compromise

It seems the Board of Directors came to their sense in going back to Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for first, second and third places for each category at the IJA Championships.

 

To continue otherwise would be like the Olympics not giving a Gold medal to the marathon winner because the winning time was not as fast as the previous winner. Whoever is best each year is the winner compared to whomever competes that year - regardless of who competed the previous years, and regardless of who did not compete that year.

 

Speaking of "who did not compete" brings up another point. The present policy (as I understand it), is that to compete in a championship requires that a juggler gives permission to be videotaped. This means that his or her performance - and tricks - will be part of tapes that will be sold worldwide. I have heard more than one top juggler at festivals say they do not want to compete because they don't want other jugglers to study their tricks or routine in slow motion and copy them. (Of course we all know that no juggler would ever "steal" another juggler's tricks, right?!)

 

It is understandable why the IJA wants the performances taped - the selling of these tapes. At the same time, we may be preventing many of the top show jugglers in the country or world from competing because of this policy.

 

May I suggest a compromise? Why not let any juggler compete in the championships one time without being videotaped? It's not as if they never want anyone to see them perform. Then if they wish to compete another year, it is with the understanding of being taped. If they place in the medals, that gap could be filled on the videotape by the fourth or fifth best performance - still by a top juggler.

 

It would seem that we shouldn't discriminate against some jugglers because they want to protect their tricks and patter.

 

Scott Anthony Colorado Springs, Colorado