The 2024 Paris Olympics marks the debut of a new sport at the games: breaking. If you're new to the sport and wondering just how scoring works, you've come to the right place.
We sat down with B-boy "Crumbs" who has been judging Olympic qualifiers for breaking, or breakdancing as it's more commonly known to some. He details the five key criteria that judges pay close attention to: technique, vocabulary, originality, execution and musicality.
The Modesto, Calif. native and original member of San Jose-based "Style Elements Crew" shares what goes through a judge's mind -- and preps us for what we are likely to see during Olympic competition in Paris.
Watch the video above for the full explanation of the judging process.
How did judging of dance battles in the breaking world evolve into what it is today?
Crumbs: Before it was just pointing left or right. It sounds super basic, but if your'e a good judge, it's more than just left and right. In your head, you're scoring round for round. It can be really tough to judge if you're not a great breaker yourself and been through the fire. There's difference in opinion for sure, but at the end of the day, you're never going to kill the subjectiveness in breaking.
In MMA, in boxing, they have judges. But sometimes they don't even need the judges because somebody gets knocked out. We don't have that. It's always going to go to the judges. Always. That's why we call it the "hot seat."
Now it's broken down into categories. When I judge for Olympic qualifier events, we always have an iPad with five categories: technique, musicality, originality, vocabulary and execution. So we're looking for all of these things and we have a meter for each element to where we score in each category. So if I see that this person is really killing it in music right, I'm messing with the music bar.
So you're adjusting your score during the round so that those sliders land in the position that they're going to be recorded?
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Crumbs: Yes, and when you're ready, submit. That's done, on to the next round. People are moving fast. It's not like boxing when you end a round they sit and get a minute's rest. That doesn't happen. So as soon as a round is over, boom, the guy's already going back in or the girl's already going back in. You have to know your score before that second round really starts, and then you have to watch. You can just be like down on your iPad because then you're going to miss something.
There's different strikes - a level one, a level two, a level three. If you're on level three that's automatic disqualification. So it can be very detailed and just another thing for the judges to look at.
All the general public sees is who won the round or not. Looking at a battle is enough information already. So you have usually a red side and a blue side, so on a big screen behind, where all the crowd can see, the blue box will pop up for the blue side if the blue side won that round or the red.
A lot of times the general public, they'll boo some decisions because they think what's good is just the spins or the dynamic movements. They're not paying attention to any of the other categories like creativity [or] musicality. They just look for the blow-ups, so to speak. They think that person always wins. It's not like that.
What do each one of these judging categories mean?
Crumbs: Vocabulary is variety of moves, of styles, of flows, of transitions. You have footwork, you have power moves, you have threads, you have freezes, you have stacking, sweeps, backrocks -- all these elements in breaking that we're looking for. So many because breaking is always evolving. We're open and we're free to create and to add on. Variety is all of that.
Technique is athleticism, it's body control. It's in the same family as execution but there's more to execution also, how you perform the move. Did he crash? Did you mess up? Did you fall?
Originality is creativity. Who are you? We should be able to go behind a backdrop and dance and people would be like, 'that's Crumbs,' and they'll know right away because I have my own style. So creativity, originality is huge. Being spontaneous. Not knowing what the next move is, but it just happens with the flow. and with the music.
Which leads into musicality. All these things are interwoven and connected. And once you get to the highest levels in breaking, you see that in one individual. They'll be able to take all those elements and just connect them in a unique way.
Breaking competition at the Paris Olympics begins Friday, Aug. 9 on the networks of NBC and Peacock. Click here for our interactive schedule of events to find out when and where to watch.
