Gymnastics is a visually exciting sport to watch regardless of the knowledge level a viewer has with all of the impressive flips and twists, but understanding the basics can enhance the experience. To make the most out of an Alabama gymnastics meet, it’s important that fans know how meets are set up and how they are scored.
Meet setup:
The four events are vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. The home team always starts on vault and then continues to compete every other event.
It is standard for each NCAA team to have six gymnasts compete in each event, with one gymnast’s score being dropped for that event. The first gymnast to compete, called the leadoff, is expected to put up consistent scores on their event to give their team a good starting place. A fall or big mistake from the leadoff can be detrimental as it puts more pressure on the remaining five gymnasts to make up for the lost points.
The second, third and fourth gymnasts thrive off the precedent set by the first to compete heavily. Often they are the younger, less seasoned athletes who have potential to live up to the precedent.
The fifth and sixth (anchor) gymnasts are expected to put up the highest scores on that event. Their routines are strong and consistent, and they have the experience to complete difficult skills to provide higher scores for the team.
Scoring
When it comes to scoring, gymnastics is a rabbit hole of hundreds of rules and opportunities for lost points. It is a perfection sport, which means these athletes have spent almost their entire lives training hours daily to be as perfect as possible.
The NCAA uses a 10-point scale with a 10 being the highest score gymnasts can receive.
Deductions are where scoring gets complicated. Here is a list of simple deductions and terms that a viewer can look out for.
- Start value: The score a gymnast starts with. If they meet the difficulty criteria it will start at a 10.0; if not it will be lower based on the routine.
- Flexed feet: Every time a gymnast’s toes are not pointed, it is a 0.05- to 0.1-point deduction, which can add up quickly.
- Body shapes and angles: This is lumped together because every single skill has specific body shapes that need to be hit, such as arching the back, piking, bending the knees and keeping the legs apart. Failing to meet these requirements can be a 0.05- to 0.3-point deduction, depending on severity.
- Extra steps: When landing a skill any step taken after is a 0.1-point deduction for smaller steps and a 0.2-point deduction for larger steps. This applies to smaller and larger hops upon landing as well.
- Connections: When two skills are completed back to back there needs to be no pause or disruption during the connection. If this is not achieved it is typically a 0.1-point deduction.
These are some of the easiest for non-gymnasts to pick out. Everything is judged, from musicality to height on skills, from wobbles to attire. When watching these high-level gymnasts compete and receive high scores it becomes even more impressive understanding the amount of opportunities there are to lose points. For a more extensive breakdown of scoring visit the NCAA site.
These details provide just a glimpse behind the curtains of a historically underappreciated college sport. Understanding the work put in to meet the expectation of perfection can put just a little more respect on the sport as a whole and each individual athlete.
