Gymnastics: Short Hop or Hold Balance at All Costs?

[Mardi]

I watched the women’s and the men’s gymnastics almost every night it has been on. I have a question regarding the scoring on the landing.

The announcers seem to be very critical of the “short hops” on the landings, but seem pleased with someone who lands and keeps his or her feet in place but wobbles like crazy to keep balance and not move the feet. Keep in mind I am talking about short hops – not a large step.

So my question is: Gymnastics is a sport of grace and power. How can a landing with a short hop be seen as worse than a landing where the gymnast does keep his or her feet in one place, but flails arms and wiggles hips to stay upright?

From an aesthetic point of view, the short hop is much better. Even from a balance point of view I see the hop as better.

[sdimbert]

From http://www.olympics.com (emphasis mine):

Judges

Two panels of judges rate the performances. One panel is comprised of two difficulty judges who give each routine a difficulty rating out of a possible 10. In Olympic competition, routines with difficulty ratings of 10 are common.

The other panel consists of six execution judges, who mark each performance for its form and technical execution. Those judges deduct points from the score determined by the difficulty judges for any flaws in the gymnast’s performance. Gymnasts lose 0.10 points for small errors, 0.20 to 0.30 for medium errors and 0.40 for large errors. If a gymnast falls off — or onto — an apparatus, it costs 0.50 points.

Other rules

<snip, snip>
…
A dismount from any apparatus must end in a standing position with the legs together.

That’s about it, I’m afraid.

I am sure that this thread will soon be inundated with gymnasts… for now, the rules seem to leave the answer to your question up to the descretion of the judges.

I suppose that is why some gymnasts receive scored the commentators consider “too high” (like several Romanian women did during last night’s all-around). Perhaps the judges in question feel as you do while the commentators believe differently.

[Cartooniverse]

IT was truly shocking to learn that the vaulting horse had been raised two inches. That’s a mile, to those athletes. I’d think that a controlled small step beats the hell out of a fall, or stumble, but the judges are merciless. Then again, this IS the Olympics…not a local meet…

Cartooniverse

[mrblue92]

The other panel consists of six execution judges…

Merciless, indeed!

[Lance_Turbo]

I was a bad gymnast, but a gymnast none the less. When I competed, a hop was -0.1, a step was -0.3, and if your ass hit the floor -0.5 from your final score. There was no deduction for wild flailing to keep your balance after you hit the ground. Its called sticking a landing, and it is a lot harder to do than taking even a little hop. From your non-gymnast point of view it might be more pleasing to see a little hop, but the judges reward skill, and doing things the hard way should be and is worth more points.

I’m pretty sure that scoring thing mentioned above is actually in the rules, but I could be wrong. I think the page quoted by sdimbert is an abstract of the rules, and not the complete rules for olympic gymnastics. I could be wrong about this too.