Why they scratch events?

[superflipgirl]

Just a random question I had. So looking at a lot of meet results, I see gymnasts who scratch events at a meet and usually by seeing what events they scratched I can tell what kind of injury they had. The most obvious, and a lot of you probably agree, is when a gymnast only competes beam and bars, but scratches vault and floor. That would usually mean they had some injury on the lower half of their body, that made it hard to tumble or vault on. Or if a gymnast only competes bars, the injury might have even been too much to even compete on beam. If she only competes beam, maybe she had an injury somewhere in the hand that made it too painful to do bars as well as vault and tumbling. I've seen other combinations, too. I've heard of gymnasts who hurt their fingers compete only beam and floor. One of my old teammates was going to just compete vault and bars because she hurt her back and it hurt to tumble(she actually did compete all around, just with no tumbling).

The only event on it's own that I've never seen someone scratch is beam. I've seen people scratch only vault or floor because of a lower body injury, or only bars because of an upper body, but never beam alone. I was wondering, have you ever heard of someone scratch a certain event/combination of events for a reason I haven't listed here?(excluding the idea that they might have just not had the skills for that level)

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yep...all 4 when they vomited.

 

[profmom]

Also depends on when in the order of events they vomit. So if they start on floor, stumble through vault, somehow manage their bars routine, and then vomit, they scratch beam.

 

[Aussie_coach]

There are other reasons that people scratch besides injury. Sometimes they are behind on a certain apparatus and don't have the skills required to compete. Or they may have lost some skills or gone through some fear issue's with that particular apparatus. Or they may even be apparatus specialists.

 

[flipflopcrystal]

There are other reasons that people scratch besides injury. Sometimes they are behind on a certain apparatus and don't have the skills required to compete. Or they may have lost some skills or gone through some fear issue's with that particular apparatus. Or they may even be apparatus specialists.

most of the time, if its not an injury, some scratch due to a *minor lapse in ability to do something that have already done a million times or competed for 2 years it's called a fear factory. and frankly its not safe to let them compete that event if they aren't mentally prepared to do what is required, or have not practiced it all week because they are afraid of.......... (my mind goes blank here)

i wouldn't say *doesn't have the necessary skills to compete, otherwise, in my opinion, they would not be in that level.

 

[Optionals United]

yep, i feel like beam is one of the most common events scratched alone, maily due to fear. At my gym you have to do all the skills in your beam routine and in times warm up at a meet to compete. if not you scratch. We had people scratch at the first meet and one almost scratch at states and regionals(she ended up competing both times) you never know. sick, not ready, car crashes, injuries there are to many different reasons to count why someone would scratch an event.

 

[wallinbl]

DD's gym had an L10 scratch bars for the first half of last season because she had her individual skills but just didn't have them connected.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

very common. ^^^

 

[GymBee97]

My DD had to scratch Beam because of Anemia - it gave her headaches and made her dizzy when she got up on the beam because of it. Didn't seem to bother her on other events - maybe a little on bars but over all once the iron levels were back to normal she was back on beam.

I've seen a cold or cough have kids scratch too.