Women question about college gymnastics scoring

[2G1B]

I was looking for info on what the bonuses in men's Gymnatics are worth and came across an article (posted below) about women's college gymnastics. The article says that for college athletes a 9.7 is only OK, a 9.8 is average and you need a 9.9 or 10 to have a "great score". Is this true? Because I have to say, I have a hard time not considering a 9.7 out of 10 a great score... I also find it hard to believe that it is expected for these girls to pretty much have no mistakes (since a 9.9 is a pretty close to flawless routine). The only thing I can see making this possible is that the article talks about some girls adding more difficulty to their routines so that their SV would be worth more than a 10; but 10 is the highest they can get, so with the higher difficulty they might have had some deductions; but still manages to stay at a 9.9 because their sv was say a 10.4... At the same time though, the article made it sound like SVs higher than a 10 are not common...

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[Deleted member 18037]

Watched a meet yesterday, from what I saw there were mostly 9.9 and 9.8, even a 10 on vault

 

[skschlag]

There is an article, or interview in the latest USAG magazine about this a bit. It was interesting to read. Quote "On the women's side, they dish out 9.9s liek corndogs at the state fair. If you aren't averaging close to a 9.9 or above, you don't have a chance." Basically overall theme was that there needs to be less parity on the women's side and more on the men's.

 

[2G1B]

Wow. That is just crazy and I just don't see how that many routines are perfect!! It really seems, IMO, to almost "cheapen" a perfect 10. I have commented to friends at meets on the differences on the boys side vs girls. For boys, even though at compulsory levels somewhere in the 12 range is possible, a high 9 is still generally good and a 10 is wonderful (at least in our area). An 11 is almost a guarantee of 1st place, second at worst. But on the girls side, an 8.5 is considered a bad score. It seems like 8s should be the norms and 9s should be the AMAZING routines. Like in boys, when you watch a level 5 floor routine that scores about an 11 you generally are like, "wow! That was an AWESOME routine!!" And yet it is still a point or so below the maximum score. For the girls, from what I have seen, a 9.0 on floor is rarely a routine that has that "Wow!!" to it.

 

[gymgal]

I have read several places that college scores average .2-.4 higher than L10 scores for the same routines. If a L10 routine is close to spotless it would only earn a little higher. If there is more form-type deductions in L10, it can earn as much as .4 higher in college. So a 9.4 in L10 would be close to a 9.8 but a 9.7 in L10 may be only a 9.8 or 9.9 as well. It has something to do with the code of points and that the focus is not so much on perfect form and flexibility but more on combination of skills and sticking the landings.

 

[2G1B]

ah, that makes sense. Because I was thinking, "certainly most level 10s are nowhere near 9.9s on all events that they compete!"

 

[refugee]

In the FWIW category: I heard a Div 1 college coach describe it this way: it's the same "system" as JO, except that deductions are basically cut in half. In other words, if a routine would merit .4 deduction from SV in JO, then it would be only a .2 deduction in college. The effect is to concentrate the scores in the 9.8 to 9.9 range, when in fact there is more variation than that.

 

[bookworm]

And the college athletes' scores are tracked....if you're not scoring at least 9.8s and above, you will be replaced....nasty world college gym....

 

[GymnastMomX2]

A coach/judge at our old gym would occasionally judge college meets and once told me that it was like "fake judging". nothing like judging a normal level 10 meet. They judge way easier. Not to take away from the amazing gymnastics the college girls are doing, they just wouldn't be scoring as high at a level 10 meet.

 

[htimcj]

I have also wondered about college scoring. The scores are ALWAYS in the 9.7-9.9 range. If you score anything lower than that you did really poorly. I figured it was to keep the crowd more entertained. The gymnastics is still spectacular however it is scored

 

[wgymmom]

We watched a college meet some time last year. The routines were great, but scoring was sort of anticlimactic since it was all so darn high.

 

[Natasha]

If JO was scored like college they would have way too many ties in individual events and AA. I just know that in JO around this area, any time you hit above a 9.4 it is an exceptional performance.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

I have also wondered about college scoring. The scores are ALWAYS in the 9.7-9.9 range. If you score anything lower than that you did really poorly. I figured it was to keep the crowd more entertained. The gymnastics is still spectacular however it is scored

yes, it is a spectator sport. $$$

 

[ZJsMom]

Wow. That is just crazy and I just don't see how that many routines are perfect!! It really seems, IMO, to almost "cheapen" a perfect 10. I have commented to friends at meets on the differences on the boys side vs girls. For boys, even though at compulsory levels somewhere in the 12 range is possible, a high 9 is still generally good and a 10 is wonderful (at least in our area). An 11 is almost a guarantee of 1st place, second at worst. But on the girls side, an 8.5 is considered a bad score. It seems like 8s should be the norms and 9s should be the AMAZING routines. Like in boys, when you watch a level 5 floor routine that scores about an 11 you generally are like, "wow! That was an AWESOME routine!!" And yet it is still a point or so below the maximum score. For the girls, from what I have seen, a 9.0 on floor is rarely a routine that has that "Wow!!" to it.

For boys, the deductions are .1, .3, and .5 whereas in girls they're .1, .2, and .3. So a boy's routine with three medium errors loses .9 where a girl's routine would lose .6. Boys also have to stick their landings so it's pretty common for boys to lose .1 on every tumbling pass. Girls are still allowed to lunge out.