So just for starters, gymnastics has been part of my life since I was about 2yo. At that point my mum just needed something to get me to stop climbing the counters.. She brought me to a "Mommy and Me" class in Suwanee, Georgia. I apparently took an interest in it because I've been doing it ever since. Well at least up until now. I have an injury called Spondylosis (look up sprondylosis gymnastics on google). But that's not what I came to talk about.
Gymnastics is like a tree with many many branches. The first two branches are men's gymnastics, and women's gymnastics. Men's gymnastics then branches off into artistic gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, and tumbling and trampoline. Women's gymnastics includes all of those and another branch called rhythmic gymnastics. I'm female, and I do artistic gymnastics. That's what I'm going to explain. I may or may not come back to the others on another day.
Artistic gymnastics- I've spent the better portion of my week, up to 25 hours each week, just in practice for artistic gymnastics. Then competitions on weekends. Of course when you first start you don't go 25 hours a week, you have to work up to that. This branch includes four events for women, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, Floor Exercise, and Vault. Bars is my personal favourite. Women use a set of double bars, officially called Uneven Parallel Bars. Generally we just call it "bars." I actually love this event and I'm really good at it.
This is a picture of a basic set of bars. It probably doesn't look to intimidating for you when they are just sitting there, but when your about to do your routine at a meet, no matter what level, it's pretty darn scary.. Here's a link to a level 9 gymnast, she is doing a basic routine for her level and has good form. Note that she uses both the high and low bar and transfers between them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouuHWvEm28k&feature=related This next video is a Level 4 gymnast, which is the first competitive level. This is the most basic routine a gymnast will do. This girl has excellent form. She only uses the low bar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Gm372dUk8 These girls make their routines look easy to perform, but it takes HOURS to practice, and pratcice is not always easy or safe. Many injuries can occur. You can bang something, break something or twist something. It can happen from incorrectly performing a skill, or just because you made a small miscalculation. Once I was doing giants (when you swing in a straight line all the way around the high bar- Think sword fighting scene in Princess Bride), I hit my foot on the low bar and it was a big bloody mess. Ended up losing a toenail.
On to beam. Sometimes I love this event, usually I hate it. Well, sometimes I hate doing beam myself, but I always love watching a good beam routine. The beam looks a little something like this:
This is possibly THE scariest event. It's about 4 feet off the ground, 3 inches wide, and 16 feet long. Standing or walking on it is not hard. The hard part is turning - full turns especially, leaping, and tumbling. Here's a video link of a level 9 at practice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5qqKrnYiv8 This video is one of my routines as a level 4 at the state meet a few years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2t3nMyMlzU Notice the difference between the two in skill levels. As a level 4 there are only a few half turns, a hand stand, some small leaps - absolutely zero tumbling. The upper levels have tumbling. This is what makes beam scary. I cannot tell you how many times I have fallen off that beam doing back handsprings. Thankfully my worst injury is a bump on the head, some beam burns and possibly a small crack in my shin - it bruised like mad and hurt for a while, but we never thought it was broken...
Floor is usually considered the easiest event, and also the most creative. Gymnasts have just as long on the floor as they do on beam, but because there is music and a wider/safer space to work with you can be more creative. Each level has different requirements. Levels 4-6 are kind of boring. These are compulsory levels and in each event every gymnast does the same routine. The parents go crazy at meets listening to the same music for four hours straight. It's like the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend, some people started singing - oh sorry. Actually that's a good point - NO lyrics or human noises in floor routine music. Score and instruments only. The floor is springy, it's a wooden platform with massive springs under it, another wooden platform, followed by foam and carpet. Upper levels require gymnasts to have some part of their routine low on the ground - some of these carpets smell absolutely disgusting. *shudder*
I got really distracted trying to find a floor routine video. Sucked into the youtube void... It's one reason my blog is late. Here's a level 8 gymnast from my friend Char's gym. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C-gW3ANUSc&feature=related Returning to the lowest level, here's a well done Level 4 routine. The level of tumbling, the time and the dance all increases as you go up. The level 4 routine is, if I remember correctly, just under a minute, while an optional (level 7-10) routine can be no more than 1:30 and no less than 1:00. There's one element of floor that I lack - grace. There needs to be a balance of grace and power in a good routine, and I lean more towards power. Off the floor and in real life I'm such a klutz.
Last but not least, vault. Way back in the day men and women used the pommel horse to vault, we (the women) just turned it sideways. Now we have a vaulting table. Lucky us. On this event, the goal is to push yourself off the table using your hands. In upper levels there's flipping involved. Right now level 4 vaults onto a foam mat. They don't go over it, they just jump on a spring board into a handstand on the mat and fall on the mat flat on your back. Basic and boring. Levels 5 and 6 do a simple vault (called a handspring) over the table. It looks like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Ge-CaPWtU . Level 7 can add a slight variation called a half on and or a half off, but most coaches keep the gymnast doing the basic boring vault until level 8. Then the gymnasts are kind of split between those that do a Yerchencko - a vault that begins with a round off onto the springboard then a back handsrping onto the table, adding many things to the second flight portion, or those who do a Tsukahara (Tsuk) entry. A Tsuk is a half on, and then at minimum a back tuck off. You can add tucks and twists to it. I was learning a Yurchencko, but I really don't like them, I have enough problems with my feet that I was worried about landing wrong on the board. I can stick a Tsuk no problem. Vaults are really hard for parents to video - they are usually placed in odd locations at competitions and happen so quickly that it's easy to miss. I couldn't find a good video of an upper level vault to show you, they all had different issues. At competition each gymnast gets two vaults. The higher scoring vault is the one that is recorded.
Scoring is highly subjective. There is a code of points that all judges use, and it tells basic deductions, but the problem is that some items are listed as deductions "up to" a set ammount. So for split legs in a bar routine you may get a deduction of "up to .20" each time it happens. There are a lot of elements that also have degree elements and the judges have to assume that you did or did not make that degree (ex - a 180 split leap) as they are watching your routine. USAG levels 4-10 use a 10.00 scoring system. Really it should be called a 9.995 scoring system since they're not allowed to give out 10's. Levels 4-6 are compulsory, every girl does the same routine on every event. Level 7-10 are optional levels, the girls have a set list of requirements and get to use their imagination and creativity to come up with routines. Well, the coaches get to use their imagination and creativity to make a routine for the girls. College, eliete and Olympic gymnastics use a different scoring system where the gymnast recieves 2 scores - one for technical ability and one for artistic presentation, then those scores are added together. Awards are given for individual events and then for All Around, which is the combination of all four of your scores.
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