What is the Maximum Effort rule (the old "honest effort" rule)?

Because athletes are placed in divisions by their divisioning scores, they must give maximum effort at every stage, including preliminaries. Holding back to land in an easier division is a Maximum Effort Violation (Sports Rules Article 1, 2024, section 11).

How it is applied (one or both, per event):

• Percentage rule: a published maximum percentage improvement from divisioning score to final score. An athlete or team that exceeds it may be disqualified. Some sports' rules already set the percentage.
• Jury review: going over a published percentage automatically triggers a jury review to decide whether to disqualify.

Protections for athletes

• The coach must be given a chance to submit an improved score if the divisioning score doesn't reflect the athlete's true ability.
• Competition management may use the better of a submitted training score or the divisioning score.

Sanctions where management finds an athlete or team deliberately underperformed to gain an advantage: a verbal warning to the player and/or coach, a changed division, changed final placing, or disqualification from the event or the whole competition.

Entry-level events tend to see bigger swings between divisioning and finals, which should be considered when setting the percentage.