Men’s pirouetting deductions

The rules on Men’s Horizontal Bar are stupid. 1 1/2 pirouetting elements are overvalued so almost every gymnast uses them.

Deductions are not as severe as in WAG, but they are severe. It’s very easy to suffer a 0.3 or 0.5 deduction.

FIG graphics via papaliukin

The problem had been that FIG judges were not enforcing these rules. Instead of a 0.3 deduction, they’d take only 0.1, for example.

But at Worlds 2015 evaluation suddenly became more severe. I asked judges at Worlds if a message had been sent to start enforcing these rules more accurately. They had not.

Here’s one of the best you’ll ever see. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Nobody likes messy late regrasp skills. Not even this cat.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

It’s obvious that those overused elements should be devalued. Unfortunately they’ve not been devalued in the most recent DRAFT Code of Points. We’ll suffer another 4 years. 😦