NCAA High Scores in College (Coach Owen Field)

[JBS]

Be sure to read the whole thread. What do you all think?

 

[gym_dad32608]

I am proud of Owen actually saying the quiet part out loud. Twitter being twitter, some folks still gotta try and dunk on him and UF (why I hate twitter). I agree, scores are getting way out of hand. I think there are 2 avenues to address. One is the COP and the other is the judging.

On the COP side, I don't have the technical knowledge to call out specific skills, but changing the value of certain skills and combinations makes sense, much like the vault, and would very directly lower scores for the near future. I do think we would need to be careful though. Some of the commentary implies a push for more "elite" type scoring and difficulty. One needs to remember that the overwhelming majority of college athletes are from the L10 ranks and not the elite world. Plus the weekly competition schedule, injury rate in elite world, and you know what I mean. I would put KJ in charge of this. She deserves the utmost credit for understanding the nuances of the COP and how to work it to maximize scores.

On the judging side, there are many things to address that could tighten scoring. Unfortunately, they would almost all include additional expense that I am not sure NCAA, conferences or colleges are interested in paying. Just having a judging review mechanism/central office to review judging performance at meets and provide corrective feedback and if needed punishment for missed calls. Having judges independently assigned to meets is another area. More judges conferences where particular areas of emphasis are highlighted, like stuck landings.

Some of the things I can think of.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

I don’t think it’s the rules, don’t they use the same deductions as level 10 technically? It’s 100% the judging. However don’t NCAA judges get rated by the college coaches… seems like a conflict of interest there if so…

One of our level 10s scored a 9.9 at a meet on bars last month and we all said we can’t wait for her to get to NCAA next year and get her 10. lol

 

[Coach Kate]

I have said it before: take the deductions and use all the numbers.

 

[gymgal]

I don't have X so I couldn't read the replies. Just my two cents in general: We have to remember that when we compare to L10, these college gymnasts have been training longer (as much as 4 years for seniors) and most are specialists so they have the extra time in practice to focus on cleaning up all the little deductions. However, I do feel it is time for some rules tweaking again. I like the change to stuck landings and the vault lines. It reinforces objectivity rather than subjective judge decisions.

- bars: take away the 10 degree rule. All handstands that are not exactly vertical incur a deduction. There is such a huge difference visually in routines where every HS meets vertical and those that are in that 5-10* range. Reward those gymnasts who make that vertical hit.

- floor: tighten the scoring of those 180 splits. Just like on bars, the difference visually is so glaring and yet judges don't seem to deduct for the sloppy splits. Forcing a better blend of acro and dance elements could help as well - right now gymnasts overwhelmingly rely on acro for their floor requirements. Not only does this increase the risk for injury, it also devalues the dance elements to mere afterthoughts, which likely is why we get so many sloppy looking splits.