Defining the terms Event, Competition, Discipline, ...
Comments about this discussion:
Started
During the last Rulebook update, the Track Committee realized that keywords such as Event, Competition and Discipline are not clearly defined in the Rulebook and are used differently in different places, which can lead to confusion.
As an example, if the rules state that there is a disqualification for that event - but if it is not clearly defined what is meant by event, this can lead to problems.
For the track chapter, we started collecting all occurrences of the terms and looking at what is meant where. Overall, we found that the terms are used very inconsistently. (The full discussion from the last rulebook can be found here: https://iuf-rulebook-2022.committees.unicycling-software.com/discussions/39)
Since this topic is by no means something that only concerns the Track Chapter, I would like to have this discussion again here in the Main Committee and see if we can come up with a definition for individual terms and, in the long term, standardize their use in the entire Rulebook. But before we go through the entire rulebook and collect all the occurrences of the terms, I would suggest that we think about which things we need to differentiate at all. I had already given this some thought during the discussion in the last rulebook:
I think there are essentially three entities that should be defined in any case and, if necessary, an additional intermediate level:
1. The smallest entity as an attempt of a rider - this can either be in the form of a heat, a wave, an individual attempt/run. (Of course we can also define these separately, but I think they fall out of this scheme, because they are discipline specific. We need therefore first of all a generic term for this entity.)
2. Next, the entity that contains all attempts of all riders competing in a common ranking - this would be e.g. the 100m Female 17-18
X. If necessary, as an intermediate level, the entity that summarizes all attempts of all riders of all rankings of one discipline - as e.g. the 100m. However, I'm not sure if a separate term is really needed for this, or if you can just say "all 100m entities according to 2." - if you understand what I mean?
(Assuming that 2. is defined as "competition", one could also talk about all 100m competitions and it would be clear which entity is meant).
3. The biggest entity, which contains all the entities according to 2. of all disciplines and all rankings - e.g. the Unicon.
Comment
That looks pretty clear. "Attempt" sounds a little odd for single-try events, like a 100m race, but using the same word for all will be less confusing than doing something else. In typical races, each rider gets one attempt. When a rider advances to a final, that's a new attempt. For competitions where riders get multiple attempts, they can be numbered; First attempt, second attempt, etc.
Comment
I need to repeat this back in my own phrasing for clarity:
Attempt - this one makes sense to me. A heat, a wave, an individual attempt/run. It is essentially a catch all phrase for the individual element with a competition.
Competition - I'm not clear on this one... I think it could be interchanged with Event the way I understand it currently. When I was asked how many events or competitions would be held at Unicon 21, I thought of it in terms of street and flat are each a competition/event, each road race is a competition/event. So in the end there are the same number of competitions as there are events.
Disciplines - I've thought of these as the "big 6": Track, Freestyle, Urban, Teams, Muni, and Road.
What am I missing here?
Comment
@Kirsten: This is exactly what I mean when I say that the Rulebook is currently very vague and imprecise with the terms used. For example, I would understand discipline to mean something different (for me it would be 100m, individual freestyle, etc. and not the overarching "section").
That's why my idea was to start by defining which entities exist at all/which entities should be defined. In a second step, a term should then be found for each entity and defined accordingly in the rulebook. This would then make it clear what is meant by this term in the context of the rulebook.
Comment
Very good idea to define these terms. That's how all my sport science literature starts. In order to come up with good fitting terms, its good to validate them against a set of examples one might express with a given term. So here is my idea (of how I used them in the past or learned while studying).
(Sport) Event - Gathering of people with the objective to exchange, socialize, learn and/or compete in the shared interest of sports (/unicycling)
Valid: Unicon, GUC, EUC, Freestyle Convention, GMTW
Invalid: 100m, Artistic Freestyle, Last Trick
(Sport) Competiton - Comparison of athletic achievement/accomplishment of individuals, teams or nations based on competition rules to determine a winner and a ranking. The result, according to the rules, is judged in meter, kilogram, seconds, points, hits and many more.
The definition here is my personal free translation from my sport science book:
Schnabel, G., Harre, H.-D. & Krug, J. (2014). Trainingslehre - Trainingswissenschaft (Bd. 3. aktualisierte). Aachen: Meyer & Meyer.
The german original (p. 515):
> Definition sportlicher Wettkampf: Vergleich sportlicher Leistungen von Individuen, Mannschaften und Nationen auf der Basis von Wettkampfregeln zur Ermittlung von Siegern und Platzierten. Das Ergebnis wird entsprechend den Regeln in Meter, Kilogramm oder Zeiten, Punkten, Treffern u. a. m. bewertet.
Valid: 100m, Artistic Freestyle, High Jump, Best Trick (you CAN rank the winners here)
Invalid: Unicon, NAUCC, GUC
(Sport) Discipline - A field with either a specific environment in which athletic actions are performed and/or a certain distinct set of skills is required to perform in a competition of that discipline.
(oof, I tried to put this into words, this is hard)
Valid: Track, Freestyle, Urban, Teams, Muni, and Road (you can NOT rank the winners here)
Invalid: 100m, Individual Freestyle, Unicon, GUC, Marathon, Best Trick, Last Trick
See also: Sportdisziplin (de), Academic Discipline
Until here, I'm always pretty solid with these terms and using them that way. Now, these _are_ very generic and I included samples, such as best trick. They still fall under that definition and that is correct. However I think what many people here have in mind (or seeking) is how it relates to the rulebook. The solution is plain dead simple. An _IUF competition_ or _IUF discipline_ are those listed in the rulebook (as such, best trick is a competition, but not an IUF competition).
Attempt - I tried to use that:
- 2 attempts _per_ height/length in jumps (ok, you get a new one then - that would work for me)
- x attempts in a best trick contest (you start to have three attempts?)
I think I found examples, where the definiton of attempt above is clearly failing:
- Last Trick (of a flatland run) - (you attempt a run to then have three attempts for your last trick ? - this is an overload of the word)
It's tricky. I wanna throw in "start" as a point of raising a discussion. I picked the word as in "you go to the start", in the meaning of "now it counts", aka you jumped the rubicon (if you are familiar with what that word means here). The opposite is a (coasting) practice _try_.
I picked it as "now you start your x attempts". You have at least one attempt, that always can fail (ie. gear breaks).
Comment
Thanks Gossi, this is exactly what we need. Apologies from me, as the author of much of this stuff we're cleaning up. Things were much simpler back in the 90s and 2000s, but as you add new disciplines and more competitions, your Events need more definitions and consistent use of terminology. :-) We'll have to take a search tool to the whole document to look for those words, and probably others, that have been used inconsistently.
I think we can make "Attempt" work unless we run into too many exceptions. Last Trick is a known part of the given competition, where the rider gets three "tries" or "chances" to successfully do that trick.
Comment
Thanks gossi for the definitions from the literature. I think that's a good starting point - but I have the feeling that not all of the theoretical definitions match what is actually used in practice.
(Sport) Event - I would agree with the definition and for me that is exactly how I use the word event. Perhaps also because I always use the word “Veranstaltung” for this in German and “event” is the most common translation into English.
In my opinion, the term and the associated definition would be something for what I called “3. the biggest entity” in my post above.
(Sport) Competition - I can understand the definition. However, I would still see competition as something more specific than just the 100m, for example. For me, a competition would be where a winner is actually determined very specifically, e.g. 100m Female 17-18; 100m Female Final etc. (in German I would call this entities "Wettbewerb")- than what I called above in general “2. the entity that contains all attempts of all riders competing in a common ranking”.
In my opinion, the combination of all these entities into a larger group (e.g. 100m) does not need its own term in practice, as you can easily say “all 100m entities according to 2.” or concrete "all 100m competitions".
(Sport) Discipline - I can understand the definition in principle, but I don't quite understand why it's not a valid definition for the 100m, for example. I see a discipline less as an organizational unit at a event and more as something that represents the framework of a sport. A discipline is something with a defined set of rules in which I can organize events and competitions. So for me, 100m would certainly be a discipline, because it is something where I have defined rules that describe how a competition takes place. For me, discipline therefore has a different level than the entities I mentioned above, which are about organizational units of a competition and not about the organization of the sport itself - do you understand what I mean?
For example, the Rulebook currently uses the headings “2B.2 Racing Disciplines” - which in my opinion makes perfect sense and corresponds to how "discipline" is used in practice.
Comment
I'm bringing more complexity to the question, but hopefully some answers as well (the word proposals are very tentative, and overall quality vary). Sorry for the English quality.
Level 1: Unicon, GUC, EUC, Freestyle Convention, GMTW, CFM
Def: Gathering of people with the objective to exchange, socialize, learn and/or compete in the shared interest of sports (/unicycling)
Word: Event
Comment: This level is clear and mandatory.
Level 2: Track, Freestyle, Urban, Teams, Muni, and Road (the big 6)
Def: The main broad categories in which one can compete, unified by the type of needed infrastructure.
Word: Group of discipline
Comment: To explain the broad possibilities in sportive unicycling to a non-unicyclist (a spectator, the press).
Level 3: Jumps, Track, Freestyle, Trials, Street and Flat, Basketball, Hockey, Muni, Road
Def: The categories in which one can compete which require the same type of infrastructure, competitor skills, and organizer skills.
Word: Discipline
Comment: Level 2 was about communicating, this level is more operational. There are in fact at least two variants: the one of the Rulebook sections, and the one of the directors (e.g., https://www.unicon21.us/our-team/directors). One can also view it as the groups of "things" in which a competitor can specialize (if a person is good in one, it is usually good in all those of this level).
Level 4: High jump over bar, 100m, Freestyle pair, Trials Expert, Basketball B, Intermediate Cross-country, 10k standard
Def: Specific athletic event in which competitor persons/teams can be compared, typically through measures (time, distance, points, etc.), regardless of the gender/age but otherwise fairly (same rules).
Word: Competition
Comment: At this level, comparison is the key. Basketball A and Basketball B are different because we cannot compare the teams in A with the teams in B (no games between them). Note that this not entirely clear (10k unlimited: geared/ungeared distinction or not). A variant is to define it so that level 4 corresponds to the number of medals a single individual can have. In such a case, Freestyle Pair and Freestyle Solo would still be separate, but Basketball A and Basketball B would be merged (a single person cannot compete in both). This one would also be ambiguous (one races once for the 10k but one can have two medals, age-group and all-age).
Level 5: 100m Female 17-18, Basketball B, 10k standard male all-age, 10k standard male 15-18 regrouped
Def: Specific athletic event which gives rise to a podium and medals.
Word: Podium?
Comment: This one would really correspond to the actual podium/medals.
Level 6: Anything below level 5
Def: Specific athletic (almost-)continuous effort.
Word: Many, depending on the context (race, heat, wave, attempt, try, game, run, show, etc.)
Comment: I'm tired and don't know how to deal with this level. But maybe it really shouldn't be defined overall but only in each level 4 context.
Comment
Thanks for your input. I can understand de definitons but I'm unsure if we really need to define all this terms in the rulebook.
The biggest entity/the highest level/Level 1 mentioned by David
It seems to me that we agree that “event” is an appropriate term for this and that we should define it in the rulebook in any case.
Level 2 mentioned by David
I realize that in unicycling we often think in terms of these six broad categories, but I don't know if we really need to define a separate term in the rulebook. I think these categories/areas/groups can also be described with terms that don't need an explicit definition.
Level 3 & Level 4 mentioned by David
I see a certain mixture between the two levels here. I would describe a discipline as a unit that has a certain independence with regard to the specific execution of the competitions held in this, the characteristics of the competition and the competition rules. A further subdivision of a discipline is only possible for me through the organizational process of the competitions, e.g. in different age groups. However, it would also always be possible to create a common ranking for a discipline.
The entity that contains all attempts of all riders competing in a common ranking/Level 5 mentioned by David
I think a term in the rulebook is essential for this entity, as we need it in a wide variety of places. For me, it has always been most logical to call this level competition, as a ranking takes place at this level and medals are awarded (which actually also fits the definition of competition given by gossi).
I don't think podium is a suitable term, as it is generally understood to mean what can be seen at the award ceremony, the stepped podium with three people on it - but there is much more to the competition, including all the participants who don't end up on the podium.
The smallest entity as an attempt of a rider/Level 6 mentioned by David
I agree that there will be most terms for this level that will differ greatly from discipline to discipline. Nevertheless, a definition of Attempt seems to make sense to me, as it allows other terms commonly used in the respective disciplines to be explained simply and it is clear what is meant by the discipline-specific term. I would therefore only define a very general term in Chapter 1 and leave it to the individual sub-chapters to decide whether they use it to explain specific terms or use the general term.
Comment
What confuses me the most Jan is that you are using the word "entity". Not even a german would be using that word. It took me very long, but I wanna do a guess here: Is it you are asking this to write a software for evaluation and you are looking for a term here? entity is a word you'd use here (I'm making a living as a software engineer). That would to me explain the motivation behind all this =)
I can answer a question here:
- A competition is something you train for. 100m, individual freestyle, speed trials.
- 17-18 is NOT something you train for. Thats a winning group.
100m, 17-18 = Competiton x Winning Group (no need to give this a special name, there are two descriptive ones).
ad David: The terms work very broad, inside and outside of what the IUF recognizes. Don't be confused or tempted to put extra words in for the separation, that is not needed :)
Comment
I use the word “entity” (DE: "Einheit") because I wanted to avoid using the terms “event”, “competition” etc. in the descriptions as long as they are not defined. Otherwise I would try to describe something that I think needs to be defined with the term I would use for the definition.
> A competition is something you train for. 100m, individual freestyle, speed trials.
I would always say that I train for a specific discipline, because the discipline is the thing (which is completely separate from a competitive event) that sets the rules and framework conditions and for which I can train - as you write, that would be 100m, individual freestyle, etc.
For me, competition is what is offered organizationally at an event for a specific discipline. I am assigned to this competition by the organizer, depending on which competitions he offers at his event. Therefore, I would never say that I train for a certain competition, because the allocation to a competition depends on what the organizer offers.
> 100m, 17-18 = Competiton x Winning Group (no need to give this a special name, there are two descriptive ones).
The way I always use the terms in German and how they fit the entities I proposed would be the following:
Competition = Discipline x Age Group/Winning Group
The discipline is what defines the rules, describes what it is about (e.g. 100m) and together with an age group / “Winning Group”, which defines in general which athletes are grouped together (i.e. not specifically for one discipline), it becomes an organizational unit for a competition, to which the individual athletes are assigned on the basis of registrations of athletes for the specific discipline and the fulfilment of criteria of the athletes for an age group / “Winning Group”.
I would therefore completely disagree with you when you say that no term is necessary for this entity - for the organizational process of a event, the entity (Discipline x Age Group/Winning Group) is one of the most important of all.
Comment
I would tend to switch what you call "competition" and "event".
I get your logic, but of you look at other sports, the term "event" often refers to the specific thing you train for. For example, the 100m freestyle is a swimming event, and floor exercise is a gymnastics event. (Interestingly, I would keep the german terminology as you used it, Gossi. It's the English translation that changes)
So, going back to the levels you have been discussing that would be:
Level 1: Competition (Unicon, EUC, CFM, GMTW...)- Your destination / what you travel to
Level 2: Section / Area / possibly not necessary to define (and overlaps with level 3) the broad ways we categorise unicycling: Track, Freestyle, Urban, Teams, Muni, and Road (the big 6)
Level 3: Discipline : an event or group of events following the same set of rules: Freestyle, Trials, Road, Flatland, Track, Basketball
Level 4: Event: the specific thing you sign up for (you have a start list for each event): 100m, Speed Trials, Large Group Freestyle....
Level 5 (not always applicable) : Division Any broad separations within an event (not the same as age groups) For example: Junior/Senior expert (for individual freestyle), standard/Unlimited for road races
Level 6: Within each division or event, you can have gendered classes (Depending on the recommendations of the gender committee)
World Champion titles are given at this stage - some divisions do not award world champion titles because they are separated by skill level (such as B tournaments)
(Level 7) And within each event, division or class (depending where each competition stops dividing), you can have age groups or subdivisions that can get a (so called "age group") medal: for example Beginner Downhill, Hockey B, 100m U15 ...
(Level 8) Additionally, each event can be organised into smaller heats/battles/routines/matches but the terminology will be specific to each discipline
So for instance,for the 10k race at Unicon it could be:
Competition: Unicon
Discipline: Road
Event: 10k
Division: Standard
Class: Female
-> Whoever comes first at that level at Unicon is World Champion
Each competitor will start in a specific heat or wave
Each competitor will also get a ranking (and potentially a medal) in their age group
Comment
Thanks for your input Elise.
> I would tend to switch what you call "competition" and "event".
I also have the feeling that “competition” and “event” are used differently in English than the usual German translations. This is one of the reasons why I think that the rulebook should include a definition, so that there is no confusion when the rules are translated into other languages or non-native speakers interpret terms differently.
In German, the word “Veranstaltung” or “Wettkampf” would probably be used for the top level, the former is usually translated as “event” and the latter as “competition”. In German, however, there is another term for the entity "discipline x winning/age group", namely “Wettbewerb” or just “Bewerb”, which is unfortunately also translated as “competition”. I think thats why germans would more frequently use "event" for the Level 1.
> Level 1
I think in athletics the term “meeting” is sometimes used for this level. I have no idea how widespread this is in English and whether it could be an alternative term to “event” or “competition”?
> Level 2 / Level 3
As you write yourself, these two levels overlap a lot and I don't understand why on the one hand basketball and hockey are disciplines (which I would agree with), but on the other hand 100m and IUF slalom are not - but track is supposed to be the discipline here, where track is at the same time should also be an area like team sports. 100m and IUF Slalom (and not just the two) have their own very clear rules that describe how these things are to be run and executed. So for me they are clearly on the same level as hockey, basketball, flatland, street etc. - they are disciplines I would say. I'n every discipline you can host a competition/event and make a ranking.
> Level 4: Event: the specific thing you sign up for (you have a start list for each event): 100m, Speed Trials, Large Group Freestyle....
I am still not convinced not to call these things disciplines. Each of these things has a very specific set of rules that describe how it is to be performed. These things are also called “Disciplines” in the current Rulebook (e.g. 2B.6 Racing Disciplines). These things are completely independent of any competition related organizational component, they simply describe something that has a very specific set of rules and in which I can organize events/competitions. Both the term “event” and the term “competition” have an organizational component for me. I can organize events/competitions, but I would find it strange to have a list of events/competitions in the rulebook. A list of possible disciplines, on the other hand, makes sense to me.
> Level 5 / Level 6 / Level 7
Even if I can understand the subdivision, I wonder for which of these subdivisions separate terms are really necessary. As already written, the rulebook very often refers to what I described above as “the entity that contains all attempts of all riders competing in a common ranking”.
That would be what is made up of levels 5 - 7 in your case, e.g. Discipline x Age Group/Age Class/Categorie (where for me Age Group/Age Class/Categorie is alsways combined from Age x Gender (Class/Categorie)) - and it is precisely this organizational unit of a competition/event that is often referred to, which is why I think we need a suitable term for it. In German, I would call this organizational unit a “Wettbewerb” or “Bewerb”. A ranking takes place within this organizational entity and medals may be awarded.
Comment
I am in line with Elise's uses of the words. I think here in France, it is what makes sense to us. Language specificity tend to influence us I guess, as you (Jan) said with the German translations.