Parents I'm a children's author looking for some advice for my next book - a gymnastics adventure for 9-12 yr olds

[Eloise_the_author]

Hello all,
Another stupid question about competition routines . . . How much last minute changes are there to a gymnast's routine in competition? Is every element locked down fr weeks, or might there be last minute changes - if a coach doesn't feel the gymnast is nailing a particular element, might they suggest a simplification - say from a double tuck dismount to a single? Or even, if the gymnast is in a competition, has high enough scores to qualify and just needs to maintain her position in her final rotation, might she be advised by a coach to not to a particularly tricky dismount.
Thank you!

 

[RTT2]

Hello all,
Another stupid question about competition routines . . . How much last minute changes are there to a gymnast's routine in competition? Is every element locked down fr weeks, or might there be last minute changes - if a coach doesn't feel the gymnast is nailing a particular element, might they suggest a simplification - say from a double tuck dismount to a single? Or even, if the gymnast is in a competition, has high enough scores to qualify and just needs to maintain her position in her final rotation, might she be advised by a coach to not to a particularly tricky dismount.
Thank you!

It's pretty unlikely and would never happen at my daughter's gym. Others may weigh in who have seen it happen, but they spend so much time practicing their routines that my daughter's coaches would never make a change right before they were about to compete. If a kid was really struggling for some reason in warm up and not making any of the skills (maybe tweaked something during warm up or an earlier event or wasn't feeling well that day) they would most likely scratch the kid from that event for safety.

You are asking a lot of good questions! This reminds me of things I've seen in gymnastics tv shows and movies that don't fit, but they have nothing to do with your thread or your questions, so I'll start a separate thread.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Hello all,
Another stupid question about competition routines . . . How much last minute changes are there to a gymnast's routine in competition? Is every element locked down fr weeks, or might there be last minute changes - if a coach doesn't feel the gymnast is nailing a particular element, might they suggest a simplification - say from a double tuck dismount to a single? Or even, if the gymnast is in a competition, has high enough scores to qualify and just needs to maintain her position in her final rotation, might she be advised by a coach to not to a particularly tricky dismount.
Thank you!

That varies a lot, and I don't think there's a hard-and-fast rule. Generally, coaches aim to have everything nailed down at least a month or so before the first meet of the season, and then make minor tweaks as the season progresses.

In practice, sometimes a kid has sudden unexpected struggles on a particular skill, and last-minute changes have to be made. It's almost always the result of a sudden mental block, or minor injury.

(Also, this isn't common or ideal, but sometimes there's a bit of multiple choice built around inconsistencies -- for example, when I was a level 8, the second half of my rings routine would be one of two things, depending on which way I came down from my handstand, because I didn't have the best control of that at the time, but was good at covering up either way)

 

[Aussie_coach]

Usually it’s locked in, but there have been many occasions where I have changed a skill for a gymnast in the day.

The main reason may be a small injury. Nothing a day enough to take them out of the competition, but I may change a skill that’s going to irritate it.

The other main one is for a mental block, or this occasions where they had a skill that was consistent but has suddenly become inconsistent.

The gymnasts safety and well being needs to be the first priority.

 

[TXMamaBear]

Hello all,
Another stupid question about competition routines . . . How much last minute changes are there to a gymnast's routine in competition? Is every element locked down fr weeks, or might there be last minute changes - if a coach doesn't feel the gymnast is nailing a particular element, might they suggest a simplification - say from a double tuck dismount to a single? Or even, if the gymnast is in a competition, has high enough scores to qualify and just needs to maintain her position in her final rotation, might she be advised by a coach to not to a particularly tricky dismount.
Thank you!

Research difficulty and execution scoring. That should give you some insight into how scoring works. I didn’t read this whole thing, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but seems like a decent overview:

A Guide to Understand Gymnastics Meet Scores

 

[TXMamaBear]

Hello all,
Another stupid question about competition routines . . . How much last minute changes are there to a gymnast's routine in competition? Is every element locked down fr weeks, or might there be last minute changes - if a coach doesn't feel the gymnast is nailing a particular element, might they suggest a simplification - say from a double tuck dismount to a single? Or even, if the gymnast is in a competition, has high enough scores to qualify and just needs to maintain her position in her final rotation, might she be advised by a coach to not to a particularly tricky dismount.
Thank you!

Also watch the 2013 senior American Cup. Katelyn Ohashi defeated Simone Biles on the strength of her floor routine, but I THINK she (not her coach) pulled a skill from a tumbling pass, possibly from a back injury, though I may be misremembering. I don’t think the change was coach sanctioned though, because Nastia Liukin, the commentator, seemed surprised. (Nastia’s dad Valeri was Katelyn’s coach, so presumably Nastia was familiar with the routine). Double check me because I think I’m remembering this right, but I’m not certain. The meet should be on YouTube. Here’s a summary, and again, I think she made this change herself and that later interviews suggest it was because of a back injury, but I may have that part completely confused!

“Biles was leading after two rotations but the perilous balance beam gave her problems and Biles went off the beam on her back handspring layout (to two feet). Biles fought back and ended her routine with a huge full-twisting double back. Biles made the skill look entirely too easy. Bile's score of 13.133 put Ohashi in the lead going into the final rotation.

Ohashi debuted with her new floor routine and it was a crowd pleaser. Ohashi 's routine included a big pike full- in and a gorgeous Memmel turn. Ohashi did some quick thinking on her last pass resulting in a two and half punch front. Ohashi was off on the two-and-a-half and took out the twist on the connecting layout and closed her meet with a score of 14.400.”

 

[Dahlialover]

I highly recommend that you reach out to gyms in your area that produce gymnasts that go on to compete on your country’s junior national team. Got to practices and meets. Find some gymnasts that are in your target age group and learn from them. Your audience is going to be kids who do gymnastics and they will not enjoy a book that is full of errors with a totally unrealistic plot.

 

[Dahlialover]

Also, girls have to be 14 to participate in the junior world championships and boys have to be 16.

 

[ProudGymnast]

if a coach doesn't feel the gymnast is nailing a particular element, might they suggest a simplification - say from a double tuck dismount to a single? Or even, if the gymnast is in a competition, has high enough scores to qualify and just needs to maintain her position in her final rotation, might she be advised by a coach to not to a particularly tricky dismount.

If we are talking this specific situation, I would say probably not unless there was a injury. In the USA for level 9 or 10, most likely a gymnast would need the dismount for the start value, as well as to not get up to level deductions. On bars, maybe your ankle was bothering you and you don't want to injure it further than maybe I could see a downgrade. But in my opinion it seems pretty unlikely on both beam and bars to go from a double tuck to a single as you may get deductions and lose bonuses.

However, I could totally see downgrading a twisting dismount 1/2 of a twist or a double to a single on beam if it wasn't working comp week.