Bars rules need to be changed …

The best “composition” of a Bars routine ever, in my opinion, was Nastia Liukin. A great variety of skill families.

Good pirouettes, forward and backward Stalder, stoop Stalder. And an interesting dismount. The weakest elements are the releases, especially the low Tkachev. On the other hand, the Geinger is as good as any ever competed.

Click PLAY or watch one of her routines on YouTube.

Compare World and Olympic Champ He Kexin:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Superb routine. But 3 Jaeger skills? … And a very average dismount, not connected directly to another value part. For me, construction wise, I prefer Nastia. (Execution, obviously, I prefer He Kexin.)

Next, the monster routine of Beth Tweddle:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Likely she’ll do even a harder routine in Finals. … Is this overuse of release moves? … NOPE. There’s no such thing.

And lastly the routine that got me ranting on this topic, Huang Qiushuang. This is clearly overusing one skill family, pirouettes. And to combine them ALL together like this is simply asking FIG to restrict it next code.

Click PLAY or wach it on YouTube.

What I want is routines more like Nastia, less like Huang Qiushuang. Variety. The thrill of release moves, especially when they are connected is what should be rewarded IMHO.

Bars rules need to be changed to discourage coaches from overusing pirouettes.

… We have a similar problem on Men’s Horizontal Bar. I’ll start with the embarrassing Olympic Gold medal routine of Zou Kai, comparing it with great routines like Nemov, Hamm, even Trent Dimas 1992. … But that’s another post.

To me there’s no issue here. It’s a no brainer. But likely they’ll be some lively comments on this topic. Leave yours too. … Start by comparing the current Russian Bar routines. Are they even better than Nastia’s?