Gymnastics

In gymnastics, you engage in four events. They are the vault, uneven parallel bars, balance beam, and the floor. To put it in short terms: beam, bars, floor, and vault.

Gymnastics is not all tricks, either. About half of a competition floor routine is dance. Many things on beam are dance, too.

The vault has changed! The vault used to be thinner, like a sideways rectangle. It has been changed this year, to a table like surface. When vaulting, you run to a springboard, bounce off the springboard and do various tricks onto and over the vault. Many of the earlier levels have front-handspring vaults.

In gymnastics, you progress through levels. The highest level is ten and elite. The lowest level is 1 and the lowest competition level is 4. (Some places compete in level 3, but most start at level 4.) Levels 4-6 are compulsory. Everyone has the exact same routine. Starting in level 7, you get some options. You choose your routines from pre-made routines. This is more interesting with all the different choices!

Competition time! After a lot of hard work and training, you finally get to compete! Your gym or team all has the same leotard or uniform. You go through all 4 events and get scored and then there are awards for the highest all-around scorers and the highest scorer for each event. There are different categories for each age. If you are, say, 10, you compete against 10 year-olds. If you are 9, you compete with 9 year-olds. But in level 4, everyone 11 and older competes together, because there are not very many people still in level 4 when they are 11 or older. The highest score you could possibly get is a 10.0, although hardly anyone has ever gotten a ten!

If you have any questions or comments, please y-mail me. I am glad to enlighten you all with new information.

This is me, signing off.
Iqgirl