Women Level 4/5 scale?

[munchkin3]

I am confused on this skill in the compulsory excersices.....I have seen them done like a little L3 arabesque, to a full out exaggerated split.....I saw one girl almost with her hair touching the beam and looking right at it while in her scale.
The USAG site says upper body tilts slightly forward with the leg held high above horizontal. Our coach always says to keep the chest as high as possible, while lifting the back leg super high too.....

what is correct, and what gets deductions???

 

[Redford]

In the code (actual code not junior code) there are 3 skills listed under the same number which are:

• Standing split with hand support
• Standing needle scale (leg held up fwd/swd as well??)
  
• Scale without hand support

All three require 180° split. Although your example is not the first nor the third option I would deduct nothing in optionals since it's basically the first without hand support which is pretty difficult.
Now if we are talking scale as a requirement, the chest has to be UP and the back leg above horizontal. If the back leg is below horizontal it is an arabesque and NOT a scale and therefore would be devalued. In order to keep the chest up I learned to lift the back leg first and the lean forward until back leg is above horizontal. If you can reach split that way: Great! But the further you go, the greater the risk to drop your chest, wobble or turn out your hip, each of which would be deducted with 0,1/0,3 here.

 

[CoachJess]

As a judge, I would take the deduction if they lean too far forward, or if their leg is below horizontal. We were taught that the text is the final word.

 

[chalkbowl]

The USAG staff really emphasized chest upright when the routines were originally taught at the clinic in Orlando. I would take a deduction for a chest below hip height. Level 5 scale only needs to be done "above horizontal" & most athletes should be able to do this with just a slight forward lean.