In the world of collegiate gymnastics, a hundredth of a point can separate a good routine from a great one. The subtle differences between the two often cannot be distinguished by mere spectators, yet they're almost always obvious to the judges scoring the routine.

How is that?

Unlike swimming or track and field, where athletes immediately know the result of their efforts by looking at an electronic board, gymnasts often complete their routines with just a general sense of the score to come. And unlike a time that cares not about the order in which the athletes compete or who is competing, judges have far more influence on the outcome of a competition.

Collegiate gymnastics judges must know the rules inside and out and score routines that last barely a minute or two. They must avoid the slightest appearance of partiality even when they know the coaches or the athletes personally. With a different set of rules for each level of competition, they must continually study and retest to be prepared.

Sometimes, they learn on the fly.

In early January, one week into the women's collegiate gymnastics season, new rules modifications were sent to NCAA women's gymnastics judges and coaches. But not everyone received them in time for the handful of meets taking place that weekend.

While not real cause for concern, Marie Robbins, chair of the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Committee, said, "There was the potential for a score to be lower than the coach or gymnast thought it would be." The situation highlights how judges are expected to adjust to changes quickly.

Robbins said the last-minute modifications were an aberration, coming at a November 2001 meeting of the United States Gymnastics Association's (USAG) Women's Technical Committee (WTC) after the rules already had been published three months earlier. By the time the NCAA committee could approve them, December had come and gone.

But Robbins said the changes made were all beneficial to the athlete. "So we had to decide to make an exception," she said.

And the judges were sure to do their homework; studying is part of the job.

'You can figure it out'

This year marks the start of a new code of points for collegiate women's gymnastics. The men started under the code in 2001. After every Olympics, the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) establishes a new code in which the various gymnastics elements are assigned different point values and degrees of difficulty. The USAG, the national governing body for the sport, modifies those rules for women's gymnastics. NCAA women's gymnastics follows the rules of USAG's junior Olympic level 10 (elite), and they are subject to changes by the WTC and the NCAA.

Collegiate men strictly follow the FIG code with some modifications made by the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Committee.

No matter the level or the rules, preparing collegiate judges for evaluating under the new code is a process that requires keen memorization skills and an ability to apply the different point values quickly and properly. Judges must absorb this information in their spare time because most of them have careers beyond the gym walls.

Judges range from teachers and lawyers to business owners or even mothers of gymnasts. For all of them, though, the process is very much the same. The learning curve for the judging process occurs through a series of tests, as well as hands-on experience through judging varying levels of meets. Years of study result in the achievement of one of the three ratings.

"After you've learned more than 1,000 emblems and symbols, when they make a change, you can figure it out," said Yvonne Hodge, who assigns gymnastics officials for the Southeastern Conference.

Achieving nonpartisanship

Butch Zunich, president of the National Association of Gymnastics Judges, said the atmosphere of NCAA meets has a certain level of excitement that adds pressure on judges to be accurate.

Hodge agrees. She said that because of the often intense rivalries between competing schools, "It kind of makes you want to do a better job for them."

But a fine line exists between schools wanting judges to do a good job and creating situations in which they are expected to play favorites. Some conferences have gone to great lengths to avoid the appearance of partiality in the selection and treatment of meet judges.

"In the SEC, we're not supposed to speak to the coaches or the athletes at the meet," Hodge said.

In assigning officials for the SEC, Hodge has several things to keep in mind. She must move judges around to different meets in a cost-effective manner, be careful to have several states represented at a particular meet to avoid partiality and keep communication with the SEC coaches to a minimum.

"It's hard, but I enjoy it. I want to be fair to the judges, the coaches, and ultimately, fair to the gymnasts," she said.

Hodge's job is the exception, not the rule, and that has some NCAA committee members and judging officials concerned. Schools with lesser budgets, and without a neutral party to assign officials, choose their own. Many Divisions II and III schools use a state judging director to assign judges to collegiate meets, but such an approach is not required.

"If anything, there's a pressure put on officials to give high scores," Ide sid. "That's why it's important to have a neutral assigning official; it takes the pressure off the judge."

The NCAA gymnastics committees have little oversight of regular-season competition outside the area of championships qualification. Robbins said the responsibility lies with the respective conferences and institutions to set limits on what is acceptable.

The NCAA Men's Gymnastics Committee publishes a code of ethics for judges and coaches. Doug VanEveren, committee chair, said, "Because gymnastics is evaluated in a subjective manner, we do not want coaches trying to influence the judges."

Among other things, the code forbids judges to accept social invitations from the host coach before or after the meet unless the opposing coach also is included. Judges must not give any appearance, especially at the meet, of any particular friendship with any coach or competitor. And when evaluating an athlete's routine, judges must maintain a minimum distance of five feet from each other to arrive at scores independently.

Adding to the mix, collegiate meets can be a "who's who" of past Olympic glory. For some athletes, it's an opportunity to beat an Olympic medal holder. And for some judges, it's a test of their ability to forget the athlete's impressive dossier and focus on the immediate event.

Hodge said, "We try to look at the individual on that day at that time. If we keep our rules in mind, the face won't influence us."

Zurich said he has witnessed only a few episodes in which a judge has blatantly awarded an improper score. More than anything, he said, "Errors in judging, if they occur at a meet, tend to balance out. They're not aimed at any one school."

Judges are in it for the chance to give back to the sport in a way other than coaching, Zurich said. His colleagues contend that NCAA gymnastics is the best that competitive sport has to offer: dazzling demonstrations of physical prowess, fun and excitement, and an emphasis on teamwork.

They should know; they help make all that possible.

For judges, the proof is in the shorthand

Yvonne Hodge, who assigns gymnastics officials for the Southeastern Conference, is a past president of the National Association of Women's Gymnastics Judges (NAWGJ). She also is a "brevet," which is the highest-rated judge.

Brevets judge the Olympics and world championships, among other top international events. The next rating, a national rating, allows for judging at the national level, usually the USA Gymnastics Championships and other top U.S. events. The level-10 judge is restricted to the highest level of junior competition and NCAA gymnastics. All three can oversee NCAA meets, and most meets have a mix of judges.

On the women's side, judges might know up to six different sets of rules and points, depending on the level they are judging.

Carole Ide, president of NAWGJ said, "It can be a little frustrating, but if someone's not ready to take on that responsibility, he or she won't judge beyond a certain level. Some judges are content judging just levels 5 and 6 at the juniors level."

Though women's gymnastics as a whole is dissected into more levels than the men, judges on both sides experience similar testing of their knowledge. Women's gymnastics judges take written, oral and visual exams to earn a rating. Men's gymnastics judges have a two-part exam. They must view and score a video of 24 gymnastics routines. Then, they take a written exam of the rules.

Moving from exams to practical application is aided by the use of shorthand. All women's gymnastics judges are now starting, at the lowest levels, to learn shorthand to facilitate the scoring of routines. Men's gymnastics judges are not required to learn it, but shorthand is encouraged.

"[Shorthand] came to be because of judging at the international level -- to communicate between different languages," Ide said.

Every move has a symbol and is recorded on the judge's scoring sheet. If a score discrepancy arises, the judges, no matter the language, can compare their notes.

No judge wants to erroneously give a score that is too low or too high for the routine performed, or he or she is likely to hear from the coaches, the crowd or both. But occasionally displeasing people is part of the job.

"A lot of times (the crowd) will boo, and we hate it when they boo," Hodge said. "What the crowd may not know is (the gymnast) left out a requirement or did an incomplete routine."

When the crowd boos, sometimes a coach's inquiry is not far behind. For collegiate women, coaches are allowed to submit an official inquiry to the judges if a score seems insufficient. The judges then confer by comparing their judging sheets.

Collegiate men do not recognize an inquiry process or official protests. "Men used to but decided to move away from it because scores were often correct and it dragged out the length of meets," said Butch Zunich, president of the National Association of Gymnastics Judges.

-- Keri Potts