WAG Any beam experts?

[gympoppop]

I had a couple of beam questions I was curious about and hoping one of the many experts on this site could help me out with. My L3 daughter had a meet last weekend where she did the L2 dismount instead (handstand without the quarter turn) and then immediately saluted to end her routine rather than get back on the beam. My question is what is the deduction for this? From what I can tell, she loses a half point for a fall and then loses the points for all the elements of the correct skill that she did not complete, which in this case is another half point for a total of a one point deduction, is that correct? And if she had gotten back on the beam and executed perfectly she would have only lost half a point for the fall?

Also, my L6 daughter had a meet the same weekend and “hit” her beam routine for the first time all year in my opinion. She finally had no wobbles, got her leg straight in the bhs, etc. but I was then really surprised when she got one of her lower scores of the year. She’s always been a “beam and bars” gymnast and usually scores well on these. Would someone be willing to take a look at the video below and tell me what I’m missing? I’ve watched a lot of gymnastics and pride myself on generally be close on estimating scores at this point. I’m guessing she is losing a couple of tenths for the big step on her dismount landing and maybe a couple tenths for the pause before going into her dismount but otherwise it looked really clean to me. I’d appreciate any insights to further my knowledge and appreciation of the finer points of the sport. Thanks!

 

[HopefulGymnast]

This looks like a really clean routine to me, so I woulnd't worry too much about one score. Sometimes, judges are just stricter than other times. Maybe other gymnasts were really strong and they judged really strictly because of that. Maybe they were hungry, and were really strict because of that. Or they were more alert because she was one of the first gymnasts of the day, so they noticed more deductions. Really, I woulnd't worry about it and just say "it happens".

I don't know the american code of points, but I can tell you possible deductions I see, and the biggest thing I can see, but I would leave corrections to the coach, this is just for curiosity's sake. (I also literally just passed my judging exam for beam and vault where I'm from, so my level of experience is very limited. I did pass it strongly though)

Biggest potential thing I can see:
What is that hop before the dismount? Is that normal in an L6 routine? Because she stops afterwards, is it possible they would consider it a very poor split leap? I expect it's supposed to be part of the dismount, but because she stops between the hop and the dismpount proper, I wonder if there's a big deduction in there. Then again maybe this is normal in the US.


Possible deductions (I dont know if these are deductions in US L6). I think our system is way stricter than yours because we basically use adjusted elite code of points, so take this with a grain of salt.
- slight adjustment on mount
- hand position adjustment on roll
- leg separation on roll
- pause before split leap
- front leg lower than back leg on split leap
- foot adjustment before BHS
- pike down on BHS
- pause before full turn
- full turn position: foot flexed and too high above knee, too far back
- step into the cartwheel may be considered a poor split leap because she halts before cartwheel? Somebody with more knowledge of the US system will have to say...
- Cartwheel: flexed feet
- Back tuck: flexed feet
- Large step back (more than shoulder/hip width)

Artistry: lack of choreography sideways, lack of choreography close to beam, lack of releve, lack of cohesive choreography

 

[JBS]

They are going to hit her on everything due to the lack of rhythm. A beam routine should have nice rhythm all the way through.

 

[gympoppop]

Thank you both! This is extremely helpful and I suspect the rhythm deductions are the big culprit I was missing. I saw some of the pauses like before the cartwheel and BHS but now that I rewatch I see what you are both saying. So basically there should be continuous fluid movement throughout the routine and connecting the dance to the skills with little pause, is that about right? And every pause/lack of rhythm is at least a tenth? I guess the goal would be to do the routine as smoothly as you could do it on the floor.

It always amazes me how much these little deductions that are repeated many times throughout a routine add up. She barely outscored several gymnasts that fell and had other major balance checks in their routines and I was shocked when I first saw the score, but now that I watch again I see what you are all talking about. But I guess that also means the score could go up quickly as she gets more comfortable. My education continues...thanks!

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Like I said, I am using a different code of points, and I'm pretty sure ours is stricter. For example, I think in the US a fall is 0.5 deduction and for us it's 1.0. In my country, the level I judge at we would give artistry deduction of up to 0.8 for things like lack of cohesive choreo and lack of releve etc (each point is 0.1, and you round it to the closest of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.8). In elite I think it can add up to more as they have some deductions we don't have at the lower levels that I learnt to judge. Pauses and adjustments are 0.1 each in my country. My expectation would be that they'd be 0.05 in DP, but I really don't know.

Now, just in case you're curious or somebody else comes across this who's curious, I've written a little ramble about the code of points:

If you're ever curious about the elite COP and you'd want to read more yourself, you can read it here: https://gymnasticsresults.com/technical/code-of-points/2022-2024-wag-cop.pdf
This is the current elite code of points, so again it's not as relevant per se in DP where your daughter competes. But it might be interesting if you e.g. want to watch elite and understand where the deductions are coming from. Or to get a general idea what judges might look at.
Page 51 has the beam artistry and beam specific deductions when we're talking about here.
Page 31-33 (section 8 page 2-4) has the general deductions you'll see a lot on beam, vault and floor: bent knees, extra steps, etc.

If you are really curious (like me, I read half the code of points for fun...), I can recommend certain sections e.g. if you want to know what judges look for at the Olympics that are coming up. The code of points can seem daunting but it's really not that complicated if you know where to look.
- section 8.3 general deductions
- sections 10 through 13: info about what's expected on each apparatus, requirements and deductions for each apparatus
- section 9: most of this section describes body positions (e.g. when is a handstand a handstand, when is something piked, tucked, split, straddled etc.). Section 9 also describes the deductions if you don't fully hit the desired position.
The rest of the code is a mixture of extra details (like what happens if you don't have enough elements or if you use the wrong mats) and technicalities/stuff that has nothing to do with the gymnastics itself (like the judges oath).

End of ramble, I guess?
Glad we were of help to you by the way. (But again, I do hope you're leaving the advise and corrections to the coach and this post is just out of curiosity)