High school gymnastics skills

[superflipgirl]

Okay I am going to do high school gymnastics next year and I have been watching lots of videos on high school gymnastics. I notice some weird skills that different people do. Here are some

1. Lots of people do a roundoff two back handsprings into a back tuck. What's even weirder is that some higher level gymnasts do a front handspring into that tumbling pass, but then they repeat that tumbling pass without the front handspring into it at the end.

2. I know that not many people do front handspring front tuck because it's kind of hard when it's not a spring floor. But I have seen some people who do them, and when they do, they always do a forward roll after the front tuck.

3. Almost everyone will do a handstand on beam. I see some level 9 gymnasts who do all their level 9 skills but still do a handstand along with them.

4. On bars, everyone will do a cast to drop kip, I saw a person who did giants on the high bar but before that she did a cast to drop kip and I know it wasn't an accident because she did it again in another video

Can someone please explain why so many people do this stuff in high school gymnastics? Thanks!

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

The short answer is that the whole world of High School gymnastics is completely different than club. It's been a learning experience for me (my DD competed HS this past year). That RO BHS BHS BT series is considered a "high superior" skill.... you want as many of those skills in your routine as you can have.

You can check the NFHS website: Link Removed. There are charts showing all the value of different combinations of skills on the events.

I'm hoping others can further clarify your question. Gymdog will some great advice on this topic if she responds here!

 

[gymdog]

If you're the most common set/modified set of high school rules, passes have to have three skills. So that's why people would do a forward roll out of the tuck - sort of silly but it's to get a third skill. I did front handspring bounder pike. And it hurt my internal organs on that floor. Every time. Didn't even warm that sucker up.

The two backhandsprings is just worth more. I'm not even going to sit here and try to pretend like I understand those rules, because I don't. But I do know it's worth more. The best I could figure out was that the more you jammed in those passes, the better. Hence by my senior year I was doing FHS RO BHS BHS full. Who knew. I think I was still missing a "high superior" or some nonsense. HS gym was just kind of fun for me, I was on a team that wasn't going to win anything, we didn't really know the rules, even if we did we weren't going to win anything.

This is really different from club because at the level where you're competing any kind of salto we're kind of like, eh we know you can do a BHS, don't bother.

I think on beam it might be getting a forward or side acro but I'm not sure. I might just be imposing a JO thing on the HS. it could also be about having a balance or static hold. I don't think I did one, so there would be another random thing I was missing.

Cast drop kip? Hmm, not sure. Drop kip like a pushaway kip, or like hips come back, pendulum swing down (what I'd call a drop kip)? The second one probably isn't a skill in the code so I'm assuming you mean the first. I'm guessing she did a toe on shoot to catch high bar and couldn't kip with enough to power to cast hand, so she did another kip. Barring that she might have not had enough elements in the routine, again trying to get another medium or superior skill (I don't know what a kip is). So if she was just doing a pretty simple routine and hadn't done much before that, I'm guessing that's why.

 

[gymnastbeth]

There's a bonus for having two highbar kips... There are some really weird bonuses.

And about the front pass on floor, the way I learned was that if you have salto, you can have 2 skills and have it count as a pass (eg. fhs front) or 3 skills without a salto (eg. fhs bounder dive roll)

It doesn't really make much sense, but most of the stuff you mentioned just gives bonuses.

 

[gymdog]

There's a bonus for having two highbar kips... There are some really weird bonuses.

And about the front pass on floor, the way I learned was that if you have salto, you can have 2 skills and have it count as a pass (eg. fhs front) or 3 skills without a salto (eg. fhs bounder dive roll)

It doesn't really make much sense, but most of the stuff you mentioned just gives bonuses.

Oh yeah, i think that is true about the saltos. I think I've seen isolated FHS front tuck. I'm guessing having the roll after gives some sort of bonus or maybe just gets enough skills in the routine, or maybe they are just trying to avoid landing deductions.

 

[ryantroop]

HS Rules are modified Level 9/10 from around 2004.

Handspring + Front Salto should constitute a full pass according to the tumbling series. Why you don't have a spring floor.. is beyond me. IF they cant afford it, they can build one. IT's not hard with a full team helping.

Skill difficulty can be broken down as such:

A - Medium

B - Superior

C - High Superior

D - Bonus High Superior

A routine needs to have 1 High Superior, 2 Superior, and 5 medium skills to be a "full difficulty" set. Any C+C will give .1 (up to .2) bonus, and any D skill will give .2 (up to .4 bunus). Therefore, if you do the math, a "full difficulty set" starts at a 9.0 and you need to "bunus up" the rest.

As for kip+kip - highschool gymnastics isnt necessarily about having the best routine, it's about sportsmanship and pushing yourself to be the best you can. That said, it is also about a 14 year old coming on to the team for the first time and needing to be able to compete with other people who may or may not have experience already. Easy way to get .1 bonus Kip+Kip (C+C) as long hang kips are considered superior skills.

There are special requirements for each event, as well. That 9.0 doesn't just come because you have all the skill difficulty, but odds are if you have full difficulty you meet all the special requirements.

Beam - Handstand, Dance+Tumble(or vice versa) series (i.e., cartwheel, wolf jump or split jump, BWO), and.. something else.. I always forget since I wasnt ever a beam coach.

Bars - Handstand, turn element (change direction. Tkachev and basically any release move fulfills this requirement, as does a blind change), and I think a kip... it's been a while since I looked.

Floor - 3 skills in a pass (some things pass doing 2 skills as the mention HS Front Salto), dance+tumble+dance, and at least 1 pass has to be a different direction than the others... there's more.. floor is so convoluted I don't even think the judges know what they're looking for. If you Tumble 3 passes, dance some, and do some leaps and a HS 2/1 piro, you'll more than likely be in great shape.

Vault - Yurchenko + salto, Tskuk, or HS Front... pick one, work towards it, be happy with your 9.2. (Maybe a 9.5 if you go the HS front route).

Please bare in mind, this is in Illinois. Your state may have a few differences, but the NHSGA is pretty consistent across the board. Go, have fun, and if you're really good at what you do win a few medals It's all about the love of the sport and school spirit.

Good luck to you! High School gymnastics is my favorite forum for the sport. It's optionals right out the door, and some great coaches help develop some pretty genius routines to get all the bonus and requirements - and it's a heck of a lot of fun. And - they kept the 10.0


Edit: Of course I would mess up - B+B gives .1 bonus, as does C+C. It is a point of contention in the rules, but it's necessary to level the playing field.

 

[superflipgirl]

Thanks so much everyone! I understand it a lot better now! And by the way, ryantroop, I completely agree with you about the spring floor thing! I'm so excited about high school gymnastics but it bothers me whenever I think of the fact that they don't have a spring floor! I feel like I can't do very much without it!