Women When the artistry debate isn't really about artistry

[MaddieLynn]

Hey all,

I've read several interesting threads and blog posts lately on the artistry debate. I'm very interested in all of this even though I don't really know what my opinion on a solution is.

Anyways, I don't want this to turn into a "do we need more artistry or should we drop it entirely" debate thread. I had an interesting thought on the whole artistry thing yesterday, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized I hadn't seen anyone talk about this particular angle before, or at least not the way I was thinking about it. So I decided to write a blog post about it, which you can see here:

Fans don’t REALLY want more artistic gymnastics

So, what are y'all's thoughts on this? I'm VERY interested in seeing some discussion on this, so post away with any thoughts!

 

[Gymishome]

For part of the article, it brought up the difference between Viktoria Komova's floor routine and a college gymnast's. It definitely shows the different types of artistry in this sport, but routines like this are looked differently upon. We are used to seeing elegant routines with not much originality. There are a few gymnasts I can name that definitely stand out among the crowd, Lauren Hernandez to be one of them. Her 2012 floor routine is definitely it's own kind, and I wish more gymnasts would make theirs stand out like hers. I mean some are naturally elegant like Nastia, of course. But I wish there was more variety. I however do not believe the artistry is being taken out of the sport, but there are some pretty dumb things they're coming up with in the most recent code. There isn't really a solution to this unfortunately. They have to keep changing everything to challenge the gymnasts. Getting rid of the artistry is certainly not an option. But people really do refer to artistry as elegance now, as stated in the article.


And on another note.
The statement "Should gymnasts who do not meet the current “ideal” still be able to succeed, or is conforming the name of the game?" is definitely something to think about. When you think of a gymnast you think of short, strong and young. Correct? What if a girl who was 5' 10" and a late starter was a phenomonal gymnast? Would she be easily accepted into the elite world (assuming she really did have talent)? No. They would stand out and not meet today's ideal. You see the same type of person most of the time.

Very interesting article. Usually don't take the time to read them but this one had a lot to think about. And I apologize if some of this doesn't make sense, I'm running on almost no sleep...

 

[Deleted member D3987]

artistic? no?

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[Midwestmommy]

Balance and reason should prevail. These are kids we are taking about, not adults. Enough kids are getting hurt. Tumbling has become extreme enough, already. What are we gonna do to push the boundaries further? Recruit only kids with growth hormone deficiencies or who suffered from failure to thrive syndrome as very young children so they are really small? Take away the age limits so we can gets lots more hours in while they are little tiny girls and before they are women, because we want to make the sport so extreme that women can't do it.. I am saying this somewhat tongue in cheek... I am REALLY looking forward to the NCAAs where you can actually see athletes complete multiple meets in a year and some of them are even there for four years! Hard to be an elite fan. Three of four of my daughter's "favorite" elites over the last four years were not there the next year due to injuries. The tricks have become so extreme that they don't compete much. Is that because of injury risk? Her all time favorite got hurt right in front of us during one national championship and she was never a contender again... Of course there will always be injuries in this and every other sport. But enough already. The people making the rules for elite are impacting thousands of kids, not just the few who enter their elite privledged few who get noticed. It's a big responsibility and more should be considered than bigger, harder, huger, more dangerous tricks. With that said, I am a huge Simone Biles fan..... And watching Gabby Douglas compete "back in the day" leading up to the Olympics was an all time vacation highly for my family. I didn't really consider Ally Raisman to be particularly elegent, but I thought her floor routine had tons of artistry in it.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

the girl in my above post is only 13 years old. and somehow they thought posting that video was the 'next big thang'. nobody i know would be posting up that vault UNLESS it looked just LIKE Prudonova. i respected France gymnastics until i saw that video...that vault IS NOT artistic gymnastics.

 

[MaddieLynn]

There's some discussion on this going on at Coach Rick's blog as well:

gymnasticscoaching.com/new/2014/01/score-elegance-not-artistry/