Level 5 Floor Requirements

The World of Gymnastics is a great site that helped me compile some of this information. I encourage you to check out the site! Its author provides requirements for routines of various levels.

The USAG competitive program scores gymnasts out of a possible 10.0 in each event. Gymnasts are responsible for performing all the required skills within their routines for any given level. Each skill, then, has requirements of its own (i.e. - handstands must be held for a certain amount of time, split leaps must meet a degree requirement, bent legs and flexed feet will be deducted in a back handspring, etc.) Needless to say, keeping track of all the requirements and deductions is nearly impossible for gymnasts, parents, and sometimes even coaches, so I thought it would be helpful to compile all the main information into one place, beginning with the most important requirements for a level 5 floor routine.

The first thing to know is that the gymnast will be deducted for performing out of time with the music, stepping out of bounds, falling on a skill, or lacking fluidity. They will also be deducted slightly if their undergarments show from underneath their leotard. They will NOT be deducted for failing to smile, failing to make eye contact with the judges, etc., but many years of competitive gymnastics experience tells me that those things do make a big difference in overall appeal.



Straddle jump. Split must be at least 120 degrees. A .2 maximum deduction will be taken if the gymnast fails to straddle wide enough. Another .1 can be taken if the gymnast does not bring her feet back together upon landing. Judges will look for straight legs and pointed toes.

Dive roll. Gymnast must maintain a hollow body position (not arched, not piked). Up to .2 points will be taken for body position mistakes, and .2 will be taken if the gymnast does not show flight before her hands hit the floor. Judges will look to see that the gymnast springs off her toes and controls her landing. Hands cannot hit the floor more than once on this move. If the gymnast fails to control the landing and falls back onto her hands, .3 can be taken from her score.

Front handspring. Gymnast must block with her shoulders (for the parents out there, that means they have to "spring" off their hands with straight arms using a shoulder push, rather than bending their arms and pushing up that way). This is worth .2 points. If the gymnast fails to block at all and limbers over, .6 will be taken. A front limber is NOT the same thing as a front handspring, and the skill will be considered incomplete if a limber is performed in its place. Hands must land at the same time side-by-side, and the same goes for the feet. The gymnast must rebound immediately out of the handspring with arms tight by ears. Judges will look for nice tight body position with straight legs and pointed toes. The gymnast also must begin the skill with a hurdle.

Split leap. Leap must reach a minimum of a 120 degree leg separation. This is worth .2. Front leg bent on the take-off will be .1 deduction. Again, judges will look for tight, straight legs and pointed toes.

Split (on ground). Must be a full, 180 degree split. .2 deduction if the gymnast fails to sit all the way down in her split.

Back extension roll. Gymnast should not place hands on the floor before rolling backwards. This can be up to a .3 deduction. A backward roll to stand should not be substituted for the back extension roll. Much like with the handspring/limber situation, a backward roll in this case is considered an element change and will be a .6 deduction. Gymnast must pass through vertical (i.e. hit the handstand position) - a .3 deduction can be taken for failing to do this. Hands must be placed on the floor in unison. Gymnast should not bend arms and push up - this skill requires straight arms, opening the shoulder angle and pushing into the ground with the hands for the upwards momentum. Judges will look at body position in the vertical just like they would for a normal handstand (so arching, leg separation, head out, bent legs, and other similar mistakes will be worth a deduction).

Full turn. Gymnast must be in releve (high toe) with the other foot in coupe position at the ankle. Must turn a full 360 degrees. If the gymnast fails to do these things the deduction can be up to .4 points. Judges will look for a controlled landing.

Back walkover. Leg separation in the walkover must be at least 150 degrees. Failure to split to 150 will cause a deduction up to .2 depending on how far from the required angle the gymnast is. Hands must land in unison. Legs must continually kick over, so the gymnast should not let their front leg drop after lifting it as they go into the walkover.

Round off, two back handsprings. Judges will look for a big hurdle with this skill. The round off must pass through vertical (.3 deduction for failing to do so). Feet must land at the same time. Judges will look to see that the gymnast snaps the feet down and together, preparing for the back handspring. The gymnast should then continue into the back handspring with no hesitation. The gymnast should be in constant acceleration during this tumbling pass, which is worth .2. Gymnast must not squat too low or undercut the handsprings. Must rebound directly out of the 2nd handspring (worth .1). Judges will look for nice, stretched body position, straight legs with no separation, and a controlled landing.

These are the main skills and deductions to focus on. There are little things here and there that I didn't list - mostly dance elements like the hitch kick, the waltz step, and that type of thing. Hope this helps.

2010 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

A couple weeks belated, here is a quick recap of the 2010 World Championships.

Russia brought in the gold for women's Team Championships, with the US coming in close second. Following the US for third, fourth, and fifth place were the women's teams from China, Romania, and Japan. China brought home the gold in the men's Team Championships, followed by Japan, Germany, USA in fourth, and France.

Some of the highlights for the US women's team were performances by Rebecca Bross and Bridget Sloan, who came in 3rd and 4th place, respectively, in Event Finals on UB. Bross also placed 2nd on beam. Alicia Sacramone took first in VT. There were a lot of other great performances and high placements that I haven't listed, so I encourage you to watch some of the footage if you missed it in October!

Rebecca Bross placed 3rd in AA Finals, despite a fall on her last event, and in 13th was Alexandra Raisman, who, in my opinion, has received too little attention. This is Ally's first year as a senior, and we've been able to see some great improvements from her in consistency so far. She's one to watch in the future.

Outside of the US team, one of the biggest highlights of this meet was Lauren Mitchell's first place floor final, making her the first Australian woman to ever win a gold medal at Worlds! She showcased some interesting choreography and solid tumbling in that routine.

Beth Tweddle of Great Britain also had a phenomenal performance on UB, earning her the first place position. Besides a few missed verticals on the cast-handstands, it was an amazing routine with some incredibly difficult connections.

Lots of interviews can be accessed through the USAG website, as well as some routine videos, if you're interested in learning more about the meet! Check them out!

Opinion Section:
The Good - He Kexin had an excellent UB routine in team finals. Tons of difficult connections. She scored a 16.133. Unfortunately, she took a fall on that routine in event finals, but her awesome performance in team finals makes up for it.
The Bad - The men's high bar scoring controversy between Zhang and Zonderland. Zonderland gave an INCREDIBLE performance with tons of big connections. Zhang gave a cleaner routine with better pirouettes, hitting most all of his handstands, but with a step on the landing. Obviously, the audience was generally in favor of the "big routine" by Zonderland (not to mention the fact that he is from the Netherlands), so there was a lot of booing when Zhang scored higher. Honestly, I would've loved to have seen Zonderland win, but I trust the judges in this case.
The Ugly - Beth Tweddle's floor choreography. She is an awesome gymnast and a powerful tumbler on FX, but the awful choreo just brings her down every time. There were a few OK choroe moments, and a few others where she just looked like an ape. It was kind of ridiculous.

Nadia Comaneci Biography

The gymnast of the month for November is...

Nadia Comaneci!

DOB: November 12, 1961
Country Represented: Romania
Coaches: Bela and Marta Karolyi
Best Event: She was great at every event, but the very first Perfect 10 went to Nadia's incredible bar routine at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Best Known For: Nadia was the first gymnast to receive a Perfect 10 at the Olympics, but she didn't receive just ONE perfect 10. She went on to earn six more perfect scores in her career. She received three gold medals at the 1976 Olympics - Bars, Beam, and All-Around - and she won two more gold medals in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Currently: Nadia is currently living in the US and is married to Olympic gymnast Bart Conner. They have a young son named Dylan. :)
Interesting Fact: When Nadia received her first 10.0, scoreboards only had space for three digits, thus the scoreboard flashed "1.00" after her performance. Bela Karolyi, Nadia's coach, was apparently outraged and yelled toward the judges, "Where is Nadia's score?" That's when an announcement was made over the loudspeaker that, for the first time in gymnastics history, the score was a 10.0.

November Questions and Comments

Questions, comments, gym news, personal achievements, etc. etc. please post here for November! (Thanks for the reminder, Miss Callie. It completely slipped my mind. How is it already November?!?) :)

Back Handspring Tips

This seems to be a hot topic, so here are some tips for how to do a great back handspring!

1. Practice the squat!! The squat is so essential to the backward motion of the skill. You've probably heard it many times, but it should be as if you're sitting in a chair. You need to get a good bend in the legs and sit back. The backwards motion starts here!!

2. Get a strong arm swing. You should practice without the arm swing, too, so you can figure out how to push hard with your legs to make the handspring. But once you know you have that down, the arm swing will get you some good momentum. You should, of course, combine this with the push from your legs as you extend your legs and spring off those toes.

3. As you begin the first phase of the handspring, really open your shoulder angle (note: that does not mean that you should throw your head back!) and open your hips so that you find that nice tight arch position over the top.

4. Over the top of the skill, your arms need to be tight at your ears with your head staying in place, chin tucked in slightly. Of course, straight legs, tight core, and pointed toes. At this point, you can start spotting for the hand placement with your eyes.

5. Immediately after your hands hit the floor, you need to block as hard as you can off of your shoulders. Do not bend your arms and push off - the block should happen all with shoulder power, and of course with straight arms (not locked, but straight) and your fingers slightly turned in to prevent injury to the elbows.

6. Now you're ready for the turnover. What you're going to do now is to snap your legs down towards the ground for the rebound. You can do snap-down drills by kicking up into a handstand on a panel mat and snapping your feet down, first controlling the landing by bending the knees and landing with a hollow chest, then trying the same thing with a high rebound once your feet hit the floor.

7. During the rebound, your knees should not bend. Similar to your hands hitting the ground in the handspring, you do not want to lock the knees but they should be straight. The rebound really comes from pushing off the toes as hard as you can. After you get a great rebound, you can start working on sets for a back tuck!

8. Coming down from the rebound, bend the knees slightly to control the landing and extend your hands our in front of you for balance. Keeping a tight body throughout the skill and the rebound is going to help you to stick the landing.

Following these basic tips you should have a pretty nice back handspring :) Remember to stretch out your back with bridges and back walkovers before jumping right into the handspring! Happy flipping!

Gymnastics Movies and Books

Just thought I'd point you guys towards some books and movies about gymnastics that you might be interested in! Unfortunately you don't see gymnastics in the media too much, but I have found a few things I enjoyed.

My FAVORITE gymnastics book is called "Gymnastics: The Trials, The Triumphs, The Truth" by a guy named Dan Gutman. I have loved this book since I was a little girl. There are a few bios in there of famous gymnasts, both men and women, of the past. It provides general descriptions of all the events and has a "gym talk" vocabulary section, which is pretty funny :) It also talks about some of the down-sides of the sport, like some occurrences of eating disorders in elite gymnasts. My favorite part about the book is the stories/biographies of Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut and their journeys in gymnastics!

There is a movie called "Nadia" that also gives an overview of Nadia Comaneci's life, being trained by Bela Karolyi in Romania and reaching success at a young age. It's a little corny but VERY interesting and definitely worth a view, in my opinion. It gives you some insight into her life, and you learn that she had to overcome many obstacles. You may be able to find this at a library, but you might need to do some searching. I also know that is available on VHS from Amazon.

Another is a Lifetime movie called "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" about a gymnast who moves from her more fun, relaxed gym to a very serious gym to follow her elite dreams. The movie deviates a little bit from the real world of gymnastics (ex: at the meets, the gymnasts compete with spotlights moving all around them. It's just little things like that), but if you're willing to look past that I think it's a worthwhile film.

This next one I would direct both to you as gymnasts as well as to your parents. It's called "Gymnastics" from the Sport Psychology Library. I have not read it myself but have heard it's immensely helpful in giving insight on how to overcome the mental obstacles that gymnastics presents.

Then, of course, we've got "Stick It" and "Make it or Break it" :)

Who knows, maybe I'll write a gymnastics novel someday. But only if all my blog readers promise to read it and pretend like they like it :D

Nastia Liukin Biography

Nastia Liukin!

DOB: October 30, 1989
Country Represented: United States
Coach: Her father, Valeri Liukin. She trains at WOGA, which is owned by her family.
Best Event: Based on scores and overall presentation, I'm gonna have to name UB as her best event.
Best Known For: Her 2008 Olympic AA win! :)
Currently: Still training. Nastia has also made a few TV/movie appearances and has her own GK leo line.
Interesting Fact: There are so many! Excuse me for listing more than one, but... Nastia was born in Moscow and is fluent in Russian. Both of her parents were champions in the Soviet Union, her father a gold medalist in gymnastics and her mother a World Champion rhythmic gymnast. She is also a spokesmodel for Covergirl!

October Questions and Comments....

Please post here. :)

How to Help Prevent and Take Care of Rips in Gymnastics

My coach used to try to make us think rips were cool. He would say, "Getting rips means you're a hard worker and a great gymnast." Maybe that's true, but nobody likes to get rips, so here are a couple of tips to help prevent them and to take care of them when they happen. There's not a whole lot that you can do about rips, unfortunately, but I'll tell you everything I know.

1) Use tape. If you feel like you're getting a blister or if you already have a rip, use a little bit of pre-wrap and then wrap your hand in athletic tape. It doesn't necessarily take away the pain, but it does help to prevent the blister from ripping further. (Ew, I hate the word blister. I bet you do, too. I don't blame you. Bear with me.)

2) If you are getting to the level where you're starting to learn things like clear hip handstands and giants, now is the time to get grips. They do NOT prevent rips like some people say they do, but when you are performing skills that require so much hand-to-bar time, they do reduce the friction a little bit. Of course you'll also need them to help you grip the bar, which is clearly their intended purpose.

3) If you get a callus on your hand, you can use a pumice stone or some other sort of file on it to reduce it a little bit. You don't want to go overboard with this, obviously, because if your hands are completely callus-free, they'll get sore pretty quickly on bars.

4) This one is a little controversial, but some girls like the "sock method." Put some lotion on your hand and then put a sock over it while you sleep. Take it off in the morning. Supposedly it has healing powers, though I've never tried it myself.

5) Try some Neosporin and a band-aid if all else fails.

6) If you're really in a lot of pain, ask your coach if you can work on low-friction skills for a while. Examples of that would be casts, cast handstands, squat ons, jump to high bar, pirouette drills, release moves, transitions, etc. depending on your skill level.

Happy bars. :)

Poll: Name One Skill You're Working on Now

Name ONE skill you're working on right now in the gym, and I will in turn provide you with ONE tip for successfully learning that skill. :)