Comments on: gymnastics – winning with a fall

By: TP

TP — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:13:42 +0000

I like the concept of which ST spoke – would be interesting to see how coaches responded to that when designing routines.

By: Justin Slife

Justin Slife — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:21:12 +0000

Mistakes are a part of any sport. In baseball you can strike out and still hit a grand slam later on in the game. In NASCAR you can crash and still win the race. Even in ice skating you can fall and still win.

My team competed last night. Wasn’t our best performance, but we still won. Nobody is going to take that away from us.

By: Chris Houston

Chris Houston — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:57:55 +0000

Very interesting point ST – routine is terminated by a fall and score determined by skills successfully accomplished…

Would look forward to how that would change the game!

By: bm

bm — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:12:26 +0000

I agree with Marcus, gymnast46, and the others. A fall is a major mistake in a routine and flaws it, however- there are few routines that are flawless. My impression is that the All Around is just that the ranking of gymnasts in order of how well they perform their difficulty minus their flaws. It’s simply just the sum of it all.

It’s a different story in my opinion when talking about an individual event final. I don’t think you can be called the best on an event with a fall over others who did not have a fall.

Side Note: It actually would be nice if the code mandated compulsory vault in the event final: make the gymnast chose from either a front entry vault or back entry vault valued out of say a 5.3 then allow the second vault of their choice and of what ever value. To me this will help avoid something like Cheng medaling.

By: Krech

Krech — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:58:49 +0000

Bross was not near perfect. She has bad form and many execution errors and sloppy skillz.

Dana you are so right. IMO Hamm’s win with a fall was a joke. Yang Tae Young was robbed.

By: tp

tp — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:24:10 +0000

Yep, and it might make the skills they do perform look really, really nice!

By: AM

AM — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:04:58 +0000

Doesn’t anyone think that gymnasts would start watering down their start values if falling dropped you from the medal stand?

By: coach M

coach M — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:24:04 +0000

I agree with a few of the first comments that a fall on vault should definitely have a higher deduction, and there’s no way that it should be rewarded with a medal. Cheng Fei’s medaling in 2008 olympics was a joke.

However, in terms of the all-around and the other three events, I think it is more like the long program in ice skating. There have been several skaters over the years who have won major competitions with one fall on a triple jumping element but with a clean and technically and artistically superior execution throughout the rest of the program than those who skated without a fall at all but who are obviously less skilled artistic athletes. I think gymnastics is the same way, it’s not all or nothing and hit or miss. There’s a lot of other considerations in a full beam, bar or floor routine. The best gymnasts can still be the best gymnasts — even with a fall — as long as that fall doesn’t have many other deductions — as mrsolis pointed out about Bross’s floor routine. I would agree that that particular fall should have received a number of deductions because it took away from the grace and execution of the overall routine, and came at the end, which sort of left a bad overall impression. There have been other falls on floor or even on beam, where the athlete seems to step back into the routine in a way that makes the fall seem less impactful to the overall presentation.

By: MostepanovaFan

MostepanovaFan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:00:12 +0000

“The worst medal despite a fall I can recall was Cheng Fei at the 2008 Olympics. ”

I personally think the worst ever medal with a fall was Hollie Dykes in the AA at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, when she fell on all 4 events and still received the bronze over Imogen Cairns who didn’t fall once.

By: tp

tp — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:48:09 +0000

A fall is a fall is a fall! Stop making excuses for being perfect on the other 3 events. If you can nail all of your routines, you were the best of the night, or one of the top gymnasts.