Your Guide to Olympic Gymnastics: Floor Exercise

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Your Guide to Olympic Gymnastics: Floor Exercise

For two weeks every four years, women’s gymnastics is one of the biggest sports in the world. The rest of the time, those of us watching are kind of a niche group.

That can make it hard to fully appreciate what you’re seeing when the athletes take the Olympic stage. If you want to know what’s required on each apparatus or how to distinguish good routines from great ones, we’re here to help.

Here, we’ll look at the floor exercise, starting with a broad overview and then moving into technical details. We also have guides to the vault, uneven bars and balance beam.

The basics

The square floor mat is about 40 feet on each side, which makes the diagonal paths along which gymnasts tumble about 56 feet. A carpeted surface covers a layer of foam, over wood, over springs. The slight bounce of those springs allows gymnasts to do more difficult skills.

Every floor routine must include:

A flip with a twist of at least 360 degrees

A double back flip, with or without twists

Backward and forward tumbling

Two leaps or hops in succession, either directly connected or with running steps in between. One must involve a 180-degree split.

Floor routines, set to music of the gymnast’s choice — no lyrics allowed — last about 90 seconds and include three or four tumbling passes. Gymnasts generally do their most difficult passes first. They receive one score for difficulty and one for **********, and the two are added.

Unlike the vault, which showcases pure power, the floor exercise combines power with artistry. In practice, though, some gymnasts don’t put as much effort into their choreography. But when a gymnast really puts on a performance, you can tell.

The reigning Olympic champion is ***** Carey of the ******* States, and the reigning world champion is

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of the ******* States.

What the gymnasts do

Each skill has a difficulty rating from A (least difficult) through J (most difficult). Gymnasts get credit for their eight hardest skills, of which at least three must be acrobatic and three must be dance.

Backward tumbling

Backward tumbling passes start with a roundoff (basically a powerful cartwheel in which both feet land at once), almost always followed by a back handspring to build momentum for the main skill.

The most common passes fall into a few categories:

Forward tumbling

Gymnasts tend to favor backward tumbling because it’s easier to generate momentum from a roundoff and back handspring than from a front handspring, but some excel at forward tumbling.

Combination passes

Gymnasts can increase their difficulty score by doing two skills in one tumbling pass. Direct connections are performed in immediate succession. Indirect connections are performed with a roundoff, handspring or both in between skills.

Turns

Pirouettes differ by leg position and number of rotations. Gymnasts can earn a 0.1 difficulty bonus for connecting certain turns.

The simplest pirouettes are done with the nonsupporting leg bent, and if someone mentions a “turn” with no elaboration, it’s probably that kind.

L turns are done with the nonsupporting leg horizontal.

Y turns are done with the nonsupporting leg vertical.

Jumps and leaps

Leaps take off from one foot and travel forward, while jumps take off from both feet and move only up and down.

Jumps often come into play at the end of tumbling passes, because gymnasts can earn a 0.1 difficulty bonus for doing one immediately after landing a pass.

How routines are scored

Gymnasts’ final marks are the sum of a “D score” (difficulty) and an “E score” (**********).

Difficulty

The D score has three components.

Composition: Each of the four requirements — a flip with at least a full twist, a double back flip with or without twists, backward and forward tumbling, and at least two leaps in succession — is worth 0.5.

Skill values: Gymnasts receive credit for their eight hardest skills, with an A-rated skill worth 0.1, a B-rated skill worth 0.2 and so on.

Connection bonus: Gymnasts earn a bonus for connecting skills together.

Skills can be downgraded if not completed properly.

**********

The ********** score starts at 10, and judges take deductions ranging from 0.1 for a minor fault like slight leg separation to 1.0 for a fall.

Because there are so many possible opportunities for deductions — landings, body position in the air, control in pirouettes, the subjective measure of artistry — and because small deductions add up quickly, even an excellent floor routine can receive a score in the eights.

Gymnasts also receive “neutral” deductions — subtracted from the sum of the D and E scores — if they go outside the bounds of the floor, as marked by lines or a change in ******. One foot out is a 0.1 deduction, and both feet out is a 0.3 deduction.

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#Guide #Olympic #Gymnastics #Floor #Exercise

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