Guidance for coaches

There are 3 difficulty levels, each divided into gender and age categories.

Each Levels has a difficulty cap to help coaches choose the appropriate competition level for their gymnast. Level 1 and 2 the difficulty cap is a total from all 3 passes added together, and level 3 the difficulty cap is per skill as directed by the F.I.G.

Level 1. 

This is aimed at gymnasts competing club grades, 1-4. 

The gymnast performs 3 passes, each pass has 6 skills. Any skill can be repeated.

Total difficulty of the three passes is 3.0.

A gymnast who is younger or of less ability might use rolls, cartwheels, shaped jumps and linking chasse steps to create their 6 skill pass, All non FIG valued skills will be given a 0.1 value.

Example runs 

Cartwheel, chasse, cartwheel, chasse, cartwheel, forward roll.

Forward roll, tuck jump, forward roll, star jump, forward roll, stretch jump.

These gymnasts would get 0.6 difficulty for each pass. If they do 3 passes of this difficulty they would have a total difficulty of 1.8

Round off , flick, flick, flick, flick, tuck back somersault. 

This run has a difficulty of 1.0 so a gymnast could do this pass 3 times and max out their difficulty at 3.0

Round off, flick, whip, flick, flick, straight back somersault. This pass has a difficulty of 1.2  three repetitions  of this pass would add up to 3.6 , but the gymnast would only be given 3.0 as it would exceed the combined difficulty cap for this level of competition. A coach might decide to do the pass anyway if their objective for the gymnast was to give their gymnast the opportunity to develop experience using the skills rather than minimising risk to maximise medal potential.

Level 2.

This level is aimed at gymnasts working at club 5-6 and regional level 1-3.

The gymnast performs 3 passes, each pass has 8 skills, any skill can be repeated.

A gymnast would expect to use All FIG valued skills with the addition of jump ½ turns which can be used as a linking skill or an end skill. This skill will be given a 0.1 value.

Example runs.

Round off, flick, flick, jump ½ turn walkout, round off, flick, flick, jump ½ turn . this run would be valued at 0.8, if the gymnast repeated this run 3 times the combined difficulty would be 2.4.

Front somersault walkout, round off, flick, flick, whip, whip, whip, tuck back somersault. This difficulty is 2.0 

Round off, whip, whip, whip, whip, whip, flick, full twist. This has a difficulty of 2.0  3 runs of this difficulty would max out the combined difficulty at 6.0

Round off, whip, whip, whip, whip, whip, flick, double twist. This has a difficulty of 2.4 

Three repetitions  of this pass would add up to 7.2 , but the gymnast would only be given 6.0 as it would exceed the combined difficulty cap for this level of competition. 

A coach might decide to do the pass anyway if their objective for the gymnast was to give their gymnast the opportunity to develop experience using the skills rather than minimising risk to maximise medal potential. The coach should also consider moving the gymnast up to level 3 competition in order to be given full credit for the skills being performed.

Level 3.

This level is aimed at regional 4 and F.I.G. gymnasts.

In this level gymnasts are able to add as much difficulty as they can safely perform, limited only be the F.I.G. skill difficulty cap/ age, (see F.I.G. code of points. )

Gymnasts will perform 2 passes, each pass has 8 skills. 

Age bands are 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17+,  Senior.

F.I.G. repeat skill rules apply.

There are NO bonus marks for whips in the younger age bands.

King/Queen of the track.(Level 3)

The 4 top scoring male/female gymnasts  from any age band are invited to take part in this event.

All 4 gymnasts in the respective m/f competition perform one pass of between 2-5 skills. Difficulty is awarded for the highest value skill only, and execution deductions are applied to this skill only.

Example runs.

Round off , flick double tuck – difficulty od 2.0, execution 9.6 x 2 = total score of 21.2

Round off, whip, whip, flick triple tuck – difficulty 4.5, execution 9.3 x 2 = total score 23.1

The top two ranked gymnasts get to perform a second pass, but must use a different highest value skill in pass 2.  If they repeat the same skill then the judges look for the next highest value skill in the run to assess. 

Example of repeat skill consequence 

Gymnast repeats the round off flick double tuck pass they used in round 1, the double tuck can not be used so the judges have to use the flick as the counting skill, so the difficulty is 0.1, the execution is 9.9 x 2 giving a total score is   19.9