Women are hands on the beam considered a fall? JO / elite

[gymgal]

I was watching a recording of the world cup in London and Amy Tinkler put her hands down on the beam to save herself from a fall on her series. The commentator mentioned she would get .5 deduction for it. I thought putting hands on their beam to prevent a fall is still considered a fall, that's why gymnasts try so hard to save it without touching. Otherwise why wouldn't they just stabilize themselves by touching the beam instead of hopping off and get the full 1.0 deduction?

Also, is this the same for JO? If the gymnast touches the beam is it a lesser deduction than a .5 fall?

 

[wandrewsjr]

In JO grasping the beam to avoid fall is 0.3, so would make sense if it's 0.5 in FIG.

 

[azara]

Pretty sure it counts as a fall in elite, gymnasts are desperate not to touch the beam if they're wobbling for that reason. Not sure about JO.

 

[azara]

So I went and looked it up in the FIG COP. The specific deduction is "support on mat/apparatus with 1 or 2 hands", and is a full 1.00 deduction. It is not, technically, a fall. The three "falls" are falling to knees or hips, falling on or against the apparatus, and failure to land feet first.

In the JO COP, the deduction is "grasp of beam to avoid a fall", which is 0.3.

In both cases, grasping the beam doesn't count as a fall, but the FIG doesn't see a difference anyway whereas JO does.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

It's a 0.5 deduction in the FIG COP. You have to check the specific apparatus deductions. On the beam section it says: "Grasp on beam in order to avoid a fall" and that's a 0.5 deduction. Technically, the judges CAN deduct the whole point if the gymnasts falls on the beam AND grasps the beam.

Simone Biles got 0.5 deduction on the beam final in the Olympics. She grasped the beam after the front tuck.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

If you are closing your hip angle to less than 90 degree's it is a .5 wobble in FIG, you may as well grab the beam while your down there

 

[gymgal]

wow, a lot more complicated than I thought. Thanks everyone. Tinkler was fully bend over at the hips and grasped the beam with both hands to avoid the fall.

I wonder why more girls don't do this in JO. I mean, most are going to get the .3 deduction anyway for trying so hard to save it and a lot of the time they end up foaling anyway. I know they aren't double penalized but instead of flailing so much and getting .3 off, why not just touch the beam to stabilize and get the same .3

 

[ayyyrial]

I think part of the reason gymnasts are often taught in JO never to grasp the beam to save themselves from a fall is that you don't want to encourage squatting and grabbing the beam as a technique to keep from falling. You want them to keep trying to stay upright and stabilize using their muscles, so that if a skill is off they can minimize the wobble and get a smaller deduction. If they are thinking "I can put my hands on the beam if I start falling", they will probably do it, even if they didn't have to.

 

[gymgal]

I think part of the reason gymnasts are often taught in JO never to grasp the beam to save themselves from a fall is that you don't want to encourage squatting and grabbing the beam as a technique to keep from falling. You want them to keep trying to stay upright and stabilize using their muscles, so that if a skill is off they can minimize the wobble and get a smaller deduction. If they are thinking "I can put my hands on the beam if I start falling", they will probably do it, even if they didn't have to.

Good point and I can certainly see that for small wobbles and when teaching girls, but I have seen many gymnasts at the upper levels literally bent in half at the waist struggling to stay on that beam, arms around the back of their knees, trying so hard not to topple over. If they would just put their hand down, they might stabilize and continue with the routine. I have to imagine that staying on the beam, even with a hand touch is better than falling and getting back on in terms of psyche.