- Location
- Retired in Minneapolis
For quite a while, there's been talk about wanting to have a pruning event included in the TCC. This would be a way to make the TCC more work related and less sport related. While I was on my trip I had the opportunity to talk with some others about an idea that I have.
I've used a similar idea for homework and testing for the pruning classes that I teach. It's simple to score too.
My idea would be to have many branches selected ahead of time and numbered with the competitors number. At some time during the competition, they would be required to take their sample and perform three cuts following current trade practices like in ANSI A300 Part 1: Tree Pruning. The climber would make a Branch removal or thinning cut, a Reduction, lateral or drop-crotch cut and a Heading cut. Tools for the job would be available or they could use thier own. Hand pruners, loppers, handsaws and pole pruners would be near by. The climber would have tags available to label each of the cuts for scoring. Each cut would have a three point score: one point for correct style, and then either a pass or fail. That means each cut would have three points, a perfect score would be nine points. These points would be added to the climbing event scores. Since the judge would only have sample numbers there wouldn't be any way to show favoritism or bias.
I know that there could be many variations on this idea. Would you give me any feedback? I might be doing this as a demo event for the MnTCC in September with the idea that we incorporate it as an event in 2004. My preferance would be to have it included this year but I got a little resistance from the planning committee this AM even though I said that I would run the whole event.
Thanks for any input,
Tom
I've used a similar idea for homework and testing for the pruning classes that I teach. It's simple to score too.
My idea would be to have many branches selected ahead of time and numbered with the competitors number. At some time during the competition, they would be required to take their sample and perform three cuts following current trade practices like in ANSI A300 Part 1: Tree Pruning. The climber would make a Branch removal or thinning cut, a Reduction, lateral or drop-crotch cut and a Heading cut. Tools for the job would be available or they could use thier own. Hand pruners, loppers, handsaws and pole pruners would be near by. The climber would have tags available to label each of the cuts for scoring. Each cut would have a three point score: one point for correct style, and then either a pass or fail. That means each cut would have three points, a perfect score would be nine points. These points would be added to the climbing event scores. Since the judge would only have sample numbers there wouldn't be any way to show favoritism or bias.
I know that there could be many variations on this idea. Would you give me any feedback? I might be doing this as a demo event for the MnTCC in September with the idea that we incorporate it as an event in 2004. My preferance would be to have it included this year but I got a little resistance from the planning committee this AM even though I said that I would run the whole event.
Thanks for any input,
Tom
