I put this page together to help my daughter achieve the American Heritage Girls Gymnastics Sports Pin.
Types
Artistic Gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines (30-90 seconds) on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting. The different apparatus for women are vault, floor exercise, uneven bars, and balance beam. For men: vault, floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, parallel bars, and high bar. This is the style of gymnastics my daughter practices.
Rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which individuals or groups of five or more women manipulate one or two pieces of apparatus: rope, hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon and freehand (no apparatus).
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport that combines elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance, and apparatus manipulation.
Each movement involves a high degree of athletic skill. Physical abilities needed by a rhythmic gymnast include strength, power, flexibility, agility, dexterity, endurance and hand-eye coordination.
- Rope: (no longer used in competitions) The length of the rope is in proportion to the size of the gymnast. The fundamental requirements of a rope routine include leaps and skipping. Other elements include swings, throws, circles, rotations, and figures of eight.
- Hoop: A hoop may be made of plastic or wood, provided that it retains its shape during the routine. Fundamental requirements of a hoop routine include rotation around the hand or body and rolling, as well as swings, circles, throws, and passes through and over the hoop.
- Clubs: The club is a basically a well-crafted regulation-sized stick with a foam piece on the end. The skills involved are apparatus mastery and body elements, Clubs are thrown from alternate hands; each passes underneath the other clubs and is caught in the opposite hand to the one from which it was thrown.
- Ribbon: It is made of satin or another similar material cloth of any color, it may be multi-colored and have designs on it. The ribbon is 20 feet for seniors and 16.25 feet for juniors. Compulsory elements for the ribbon include flicks, circles, snakes and spirals, and throws. During a ribbon routine, large, smooth and flowing movements are looked for and the ribbon cannot stop moving.
- Ball: The ball is made of either rubber or rubber-like synthetic material in any color. It is 7-8 inches in diameter and weighs at least 14 oz (almost a pound). Fundamental elements of a ball routine include throwing, bouncing or rolling. The gymnast must use both hands and work on the whole floor area in constant, flowing movements.
Tumbling
Acrobatic Gymnastics (a.k.a. “Sport Acrobatics”)
- Balance: the focus is on strength, poise, and flexibility
- Dynamic: includes throws, somersaults, and catches
- Combined: includes elements of both balance and dynamic
Scoring
Artistic Gymnastics
Competitions use the New Life scoring rule, in which marks from one session do not carry over to the next. “In other words, a gymnast’s performance in team finals does not affect his or her scores in the all-around finals or event finals; he or she starts with a clean slate. In addition, the marks from the team qualifying round do not count toward the team finals.”
- D score: includes 3 criteria, no max points, adds up as criteria are judged
- the Difficulty Value (DV) – the 8 highest value elements including dismount are added together, points assigned according to difficulty rating in the Table of Elements (no max)
- Composition Requirements (CR) – gymnasts must demonstrate skills from four required element groups on each apparatus with 0.5 points awarded for each CR presented (max 2.0)
- Connection Value (CV) – additional points for connecting 2+ elements of a specific value (max 0.4)
- Exception* – Vaulting: Each vault has a specific point value in the Code of Points and every gymnast performing the same vault will receive the same points.
- E score: covers execution, composition, and artistry – base score of 10 (which is the max). Deductions are main for any errors with a full point deducted for falling off an apparatus. Otherwise, errors are small (-0.1), medium (-0.3), or large (-0.5).
Exception* – Vaulting: Judges start with a base score of 10 points and deduct for form, technique, execution, and landing. This is the most important score in vaulting.
Code of Points
Table of Elements
The Table of Elements is the section of the Code of Points which is used to identify, classify and assign a value to gymnastics elements, and it is re-evaluated frequently. Every acrobatic and dance skill is listed, illustrated and assigned a specific difficulty rating.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
- Composition: difficulty body (jumps, balances, and rotations), a combination of combined rhythmic steps with specific key technical groups for each apparatus, dynamic elements with rotation and launch (or risk), and mastery of the apparatus
- Execution: consists of values in all elements; musicality, body art, and technique with the appliance
- Failure to keep the appliance in constant motion.
- Failure to end the exercise at the exact moment the accompanying music ends.
- A low degree of difficulty in the device or in the movements of the gymnast (some degree of difficulty must always exist).
- Non-rhythmic steps within the tapestry are penalized.
- Certain non-permissible uses of the hands are penalized.
- Going beyond the boundary of the designated performance area, whether by the gymnast or the apparatus, is penalized.
- Non-regulation attire is penalized.
- Communication with the coach or with partners during the execution of the exercise is penalized.
Tumbling
- The degree of difficulty (DD) is calculated by adding a factor for each half turn (or twist) or quarter somersault.
- In senior-level competitions, a “Time of Flight” (ToF) score is added to the overall score. ToF is the time spent in the air from the moment the athlete leaves the mat until the time they make contact again and is measured with electronic timing equipment.
Sport Acrobatics
- an artistic component which evaluates the acrobat’s performance in terms of choreography, diversity, and ability to perform to the music;
- an execution component which evaluates the deductions incurred by the acrobats whilst performing the partner and individual skills of the routine (for example, bent legs or unpointed toes); and
- a difficulty component which is the overall equivalent score based on the degree of difficulty and number of skills (according to the Code of Points).