FIG Secretary General Andrei Gueisbuhler has commented on new revisions to the Code of Points planned by the FIG to restore artistry to both the men's and women's sport, reports Reuters. He implies that the new Code will be revised to increase the importance of execution relative to difficulty :
'Artistic gymnastics should be about art, about beauty, and in the case of the women it also has to do with music, with expression. But increasingly, we are finding that gymnastics has developed into acrobatics. We have more and more difficult acrobatic movements and we are missing out on the beauty of gymnastics. There is certainly a correction which has to be made ...
This is not the fault of the gymnasts or the coaches, it is a matter of the code of points (scoring system) and how much value you give to difficulty versus execution.'
The FIG has made verbal commitment to the notion of artistry in the past, but they have not made much happen to back it up. So hopefully Gueisbuehler's clear admission that the Code is at fault is a good sign that appropriate action will be taken in the coming year. I hope they take into account at least some of the considerations raised by Dr Clive Palmer in his excellent thesis on the importance of aesthetics to men's gymnastics, and the Code revisions he proposes.
Another hot topic recently, and one that may have had an influence on the FIG's thinking about the Code, is the sport's high casualty rate. Recently, Chinese Gymnastics Federation President Ye Zhennan had called on the FIG to change the Code following an achilles tendon rupture to one of his leading women gymnasts, Cheng Fei. It was about time one of the federations made the point publicly: all of the top national teams have suffered an apparent increase in their serious injury rates, to the extent that medal contenders are regularly missing from the roster. Less of an emphasis on difficulty, and more on execution, might improve matters.
Politically, it is an interesting time for the FIG as candidates for the main senior roles announce their interest. For the first time, President Bruno Grandi finds himself challenged for re-election (Romanian Adrian Stoica and Russian Vassily Titov are the two nominees). Head of Women's Technical Committee, Nellie Kim, stands unopposed, while current Head of the Men's Technical Committee, Adrian Stoica, will fight American Steve Butcher for re-election. The poll will take place in October.
Related content :
The American School of Gymnastics
Who needs difficulty?
Photo Gallery - Russian Championships 2012
A new framework for marking gymnastics
How the FIG have killed artistic gymnastics
A qualitative investigation into aesthetics in men's gymnastics
Did you saw the article with comments responds about this?
ReplyDelete"Readers respond: Is elite gymnastics too hard?" from examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/article/readers-respond-is-elite-gymnastics-too-hard
A very entertaining especially the last comment from the coach
Thanks for the link.
DeleteI actually think it's not too rare for people to think artistry is superfluous to gymnastics - why bother? is their view. Which is a pity, but at least it becomes a point for discussion if they are open about it.
Otherwise, I think people just make too many assumptions about what artistry is, how it can be evaluated and so on - precisely the things the sport needs to be much clearer and more explicit about.
Great they do need to go back to the artistry, tired of seeing people getting high scores because their DV is higher than others even when they do badly at execution.
ReplyDeleteThat's a joke! André Gueisbühler is not a new FIG member. He has been around for many years, under Titov and under Grandi. So he's also responsible for what's happening with the Code of Points. Who killed the beauty of the sport? All FIG officials want to have their cake and eat it too. He'll be there even if Grandi is not reelected.
ReplyDeleteSylvia
Oh, the joy of journalists with no clue writing about gymnastics and sports politics.
ReplyDeleteI think Reuters didn't understand Gueisbühler. There is no new "scoring system". What he means is the usual update/revision of the CoP at the end of an Olympic cycle. But they say every time that it will emphasise artistry more. The new CoP draft has already been distributed and discussed. There won't be any major revisions.
Gueisbühler isn't even elected. Nor is he involved in the drafting of the CoP.
Well the FIG have at least publicly admitted that they have got things wrong, and that their Code, rather than coaches and gymnasts, has been responsible for the artistic degradation of the sport.
DeleteTo be fair to Reuters, they do discuss 'revisions' (and then add in 'scoring system' as a way of explaining to readers what the 'Code' is).
I would be very interested to know why the FIG has chosen to release this information and make this admission at this particular time. If there is no intention to make changes further to those released earlier this year, it would indeed appear most disingenuous to have made this announcement at all.
The FIG did not "release" any information. The Reuters guy simply interviewed Gueisbühler in the run-up to the Olympics. It's standard procedure for newsagencies to get quotes to use in an Olympic year. That's all.
DeleteI think the gymternet is reading way too much into this, really.