Skip to main content

Rewriting the Code of Points - the missing link

Image
By
There has been quite a discussion about the Code of Points going on at the Gymnastics Coaching blog - with particular reference to the safety angle - there have been 35 comments to date from all corners of the world, so it's an interesting read.

In the meantime, I have been looking back at the 1989 edition of the Code.   I found this introductory section:

'It is the responsibility of the judges, based upon the present Code of Points, to grasp in its totality:
  • the construction of the exercises as a whole
  • the difficulty value of elements and connections
  • the flow of the movements
  • the synchronization of the music with the floor exercise
while sufficiently considering, aside from the technical perfection of execution, the harmony and strength of expression as well as the aesthetics of presentation'   

Doesn't this somehow encapsulate so much of what is missing from the current, highly deconstructed, Code?

PS  I also did a little review of the current Code - a word count with the help of the search tool.  For what it's worth,  I found the following:

'Artistry' appears 16 times
'Deduction' 68 times
'Bonus' 0 times
'Originality' 2 times
'Harmony', 'Risk' 'Virtuosity' 0 times
'Amplitude' 5 times
'Choreography' 3 times
'Dance' 26 times
'Elements' 154 times

I make no claims as to the validity of this method in extracting the overwhelming focus (or lack thereof) of a text.

Labels:

Comments

  1. usa reel deal6 September 2011 at 07:19

    Agree to you girl, Personally, I thought Rebecca’s bad landing off Beam was extremely dangerous, too. She really did looked primed for injury at VISA Championships.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Queen Elizabeth6 September 2011 at 11:26

    Gymnasts' bodies will wear out when the Code demands quantity, not quality.

    Re-introducing a requirement to assess the whole routine and its appearance would reward time spent on choreography (body alignment, amplitude, etc) and integration of individual skills into a consummate routine (all four apparatus. We need to reward originality in such a way as to encourage the development of single moves of new difficulty. Such an emphasis on performance would help to mitigate the risk of injury and also make the sport better to watch.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A timeline of Soviet Olympic history

By
'If you want to be like me, just train!'  1951 poster promoting the basic physical training system in the Soviet Union.  The man in the picture has the coat of arms of the Soviet Union on his top, indicating he competes at international level.  Picture courtesy of A Soviet Poster A Day Jim Riordan published his article, 'The Rise and Fall of Soviet Olympic Champions', in 1993.   In 1992 the Soviet Union, under the aegis of the Commonwealth of Independent States, had made its last hoorah at the Olympic Games.  The Barcelona Olympics had also marked the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Union's participation in their first Games, at Helsinki in 1952.  Soviet men and women had dominated the artistic gymnastics competitions at both. In the following timeline I extract from Riordan's article key points leading to the accession of the Soviet Union to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1951.  It makes for fascinating reading, addressing such...
Post a Comment
Read more

UPDATE 23/9 - Russian WAG team for Nanning confirmed

By
Daria Spiridonova will compete at her first World Championships this autumn.  Picture : RGF Natalia Kalugina has confirmed the Russian team for Nanning : Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Tatiana Nabieva,Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Daria Spiridonova.  Reserve : Polina Fyodorova Here is a paraphrased translation of a comment by Natalia Kalugina on her Facebook page : 'Aliya has confidence in competition and she is, kind of, a coach to this team.  In Europe she succeeded in this role and she has told the coaches that she even liked it. The main fighting force will be Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya and Spiridonova.  Accordingly, the strongest apparatus will be beam (Marina Bulashenko With God!).  The Chinese women, of course, have been known to win that apparatus, but if one falls, they all fall.   Alla Sosnitskaya could compete in the vault final, and - in theory - on the floor. On bars, of course, Russia will probably lose to the Chinese women, but the...
57 comments
Read more

Komova should have won!

By
It was a very tight battle in the North Greenwich arena today, with American Gabby Douglas beating out Viktoria Komova by a mere 0.259 points (see results below) and the legendary Aliya Mustafina sealing her comeback from that career-threatening injury with a well deserved bronze medal. Yes, she suffered a fall from beam after her Arabian somersault but elsewhere she was at her best, a real endorsement of the work of the Russian coaches in nursing her back to almost-top form since that fateful day in 2011. Komova had a faultless competition apart from a step on landing her Amanar vault. Frankly, she must feel utterly shattered after coming second once again by a very small margin to an American who was treated very generously by the judges. Komova soared and took every beam move to the max, rounding off with her rare double Arabian dismount in fine style; Douglas literally sidled along the beam, seeming frightened to take her feet off the apparatus for all but her somersaults. Kom...
45 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more