by site editor Rick McCharles
When the International Gymnastics Federation moved from the perfect 10 to an open ended Code of Points in 2006, I feared it would be a complete disaster.
I was wrong.
But everyone agrees that the new system could be far better. Here’s my assessment of how it’s working as of February 2011. … As compared with the regulations used at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. (10.0 maximum)
I’m liking Rings, Parallel Bars and especially Pommel Horse even better than I did under the last perfect 10 system. (In fact, the only way I can see to improve Pommels would be to eliminate the Scissors, requiring instead some counting value part with the legs straddled. … i.e. Scissors, straddle to handstand, Flair Flare.)
Women’s Vault, Bars and Men’s Vault are about equally good as in 2004. I would rate Bars as even better … except that today gymnasts tend to overuse the families of skills they do best. (El-grip, pirouettes, etc.)
The choppy Beam routines we see today are worse than the more elegant routines of the past, but I’m less critical than most pundits.
My least favourite apparatus for women in 2004 was Floor. It’s worse today. Choreography has been nearly completely abandoned. Many of the most valuable leaps and jumps are ugly.
Men’s Floor is a disaster in 2011. Amazing tumbling. The rest is crap.
Compare Shewfelt in 2004 (VIDEO) vs Jake Dalton 2011 (VIDEO) to see what the rules changes have done. (I pick on Jake only because his is the hot routine of the moment. And because there’s so obviously no effort spared for connections.)
Worst of all is Horizontal Bar. In 2004 we had Hamm and Nemov (VIDEO). Wonderful routines. Today we have mostly reckless Kovacs variations and Rybalkos. … I did only go as low as 4 / 10 because we’re starting to see some improvement on pipe. Finally.
Will the rules (and gymnastics) be improved in the future?
Certainly. But how soon?
I don’t know anyone with much confidence in our current Technical committees under Adrian Stoica and Nellie Kim.
If YOU know how to fix the code, leave a comment. I’ll try to forward whatever feedback we get to the committees.
It’s statistically unlikely you agree with my assessment. I may do follow up posts on the most controversial events if we get good feedback.
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