stonesoffire
New member
"Beginner's Guide to Watching and Understanding Artistic Gymnastic Rings Events"
Hello /r/BWF! I wanted to thank you for everything I've learned here and decided to write my first post.
In the past few months I began paying more attention to Men's Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) events. They are governed by a Code of Points (CoP) which you can access on International Gymnastics Federation's (FIG) website, but it's 160 pages long―ain't nobody got time for reading that! So I will try to explain how the gymnast's performance is rated, focusing on rings (but the others are all similar).
[sup]Two quick points I want to make are that I don't speak English natively, if anything sounds wrong―please point it out. I don't have a gymnastic background, either.[/sup]
Male gymnast can perform on six apparatus, each with a two-letter acronym useful to make YT video titles shorter:
-Floor eXercise (FX)
-Pommel Horse (PH)
-Still Rings (SR)
-Vault (VT)
-Parallel Bars (PB)
-Horizontal Bar (HB)
He performs an exercise which consists of 10 or more elements. Elements are unique to each apparatus. They're often named after an exceptional gymnast who first performed them at a large event. For diversity, no element can be repeated (if repeated, it won't give more points). Elements are divided into four Element Groups (EG I―III plus a Dismount Group). For variety again, gymnast must do at least 1, but no more than 5, elements from each single group.
The whole exercise is rated by two sets of judges. One adds points for Difficulty and thus gives a D-score. A very good one is 6 or higher. The other judges start with 10 points and deduct each time they see an Execution error, making an E-score, often around 8.
Judges add both D and E scores to find the final points result. Thus an elite score should be >14, and closer to 15, in order to win a medal at Worlds/Continentals
Every element has a difficulty value represented by a letter. It ranges from A=0.1, B=0.2 etc... up to F=0.6 points [sup]to be fair, there is one G[/sup] The final Difficulty score (D-score) is a simple sum of 10 best element values, plus a bonus of +2.0 points for having an element from all four groups (+0.5 bonus from each)
At elite level, D-scores are commonly around 6, meaning the sum is around 4, giving an average element value of D.
[sup]For reference, front/back-levers are worth only A, and the iron cross is just B[/sup]
(The tl;dr ends here)
On rings, the Element Groups are:
I Kip and Swing Elements Through (or to) Handstand
This includes all the cool double saltos etc. There aren't many high-value skills in this group, so it used to be quite underrepresented. Now there's a rule to do an element from this group after doing 3 elements of group II and/or III in direct succession, so that the routine is more balanced. Additionally, a routine must include a swing to handstand (held for at least 2 seconds).
[sup]Fun fact: the "crossfit muscle-up" aka
II Strength and Hold Elements
Including planche (C), Maltese (D) and similar static positions, as well as various presses e.g. from back-lever to cross (Nakayama) (D). Because a routine always starts from dead hang, a popular first element is to press from hang through FL and inverted hang to iron cross (D) named after Azarian.
[sup]Like handstands, all final positions have to be held still for 2 seconds[/sup]
III Kip and Swing to Strength Hold Elements
Self-explanatory name. Again, swing (or kip) then hold for 2 seconds. These are often more difficult, so you might often see e.g. an EG II press to Maltese, but EG III swing to just straddle planche.
IV Dismounts
Just a fancy way to say "jump off". The dismount must be at least value D in order to get all bonus points. If you count the previous 9 elements correctly you will know in advance when the dismount comes, feels fun to predict that!
An interesting rule is that "a maximum of 1 final strength position in each EG may be recognized", meaning one can only do a maximum of two crosses, two Maltese, etc. and one has to be from group II while the other from group III. FIG really tries to force balance and variety into the exercises.
The E-judges pay close attention to Execution errors and remove points from E-score (starting at 10) every time they spot a mistake, aesthetic or technical imperfection.
Deductions can be -0.1, -0.3 or -0.5 (for small, medium and large error, -1.0 for major falls but that happens rarely). Some examples:
- Small (-0.1): using false grip, slightly bending body or legs, using inverted/piked hang to rest for >2 seconds
- Medium (-0.3): landing with feet wider than shoulders, not holding a strength position still for the required 2 seconds, lack of a swing to handstand element
- Large (-0.5): supporting legs on cables (straps), holding a position (e.g. torso during planche, arms during cross) at a large angle 31-45° from perfect
Again, good E-score is >8
This is gonna be all. I recomend you take a quick look at CoP table of ring elements to get some more vague idea about how difficult and valuable some of the skills are. Other than that I hope you can now enjoy the events a lot more and will have an idea of what the scores mean.
Thanks for reading
I've never thought of head position, but now you say it, it makes perfect sense!