This article has been updated to reflect the changes made in the 2022-2026 Code of Points. Your Level 9 gymnast hits her floor routine. Yes! But the score comes in lower than you both expected. What’s the deal? At Level 9, there’s a good chance she had some deductions for the composition of the routine. […]
What’s my bar routine missing? What are the biggest deductions I’m getting? This is a very common question for Level 6-10 bars. What’s the answer? Often, it has to do with bar angle deductions. Angle deductions are deductions that are taken during almost every bar routine. At Level 6 and 7, the deductions taken are […]
Why is it that some athletes are able to generate huge success even if they aren’t the most talented? What is their secret? I’ve often wondered this, both about top-level athletes, as well as about successful people in pretty much any area of life. What are they doing differently than the rest of us? Here’s […]
It’s officially time for the new compulsory routines! As of August 1, 2021, the routines have changed. The old routines from 2013-2021 are no longer allowed in competition. With these changes, the level system will still stay the same. There will continue to be five levels of compulsories and five levels of optionals. Level 4 […]
The Olympics have officially been postponed, and the new date of the Opening Ceremony is July 23, 2021. Clearly, it’s the right thing to do. I was really hoping it wouldn’t happen, but once training facilities began to shut down all over the world, it was inevitable. It wouldn’t be safe to hold the Olympics […]
The acro series on beam – it’s a requirement that can make or break the routine! If the series is not connected, it’s an automatic 0.5 off the start value for the routine, in addition to any execution deductions, balance errors, or falls. But what is necessary to consider a series connected? For a forward, […]
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written one of these news posts. It didn’t really make sense to me to write about gymnastics news when no competitions were happening and the only news was about cancellations. To be honest, it was all just a little depressing. But this week I realized that things […]
