How much does form matter, and how much should it matter, in gymnastics? — Brooklyn Moors talks about the balance of beauty and strength

There is no NCAA this weekend, which feels mean. For me, not for the gymnasts, who of course need the rest before regionals begin. 

Fortunately, I read this article in The Athletic earlier in the week, and wondered about its implications for gymnastics. The piece, “Why sport’s fascination with aesthetically-perfect form is misguided,” never explicitly mentions gymnastics, but it’s interesting to wonder how it can be applied to a subjectively judged sport versus one based on times (running, cycling) or one team’s ability to score on another (soccer, cricket). 

Form is implicit in the official name of our sport: Artistic gymnastics. It’s the artistic part that the current code of points is trying to balance with the technical difficulty that has raised the level of the discipline over the last few decades. And it’s the part of the name that the NCAA ostensibly values as much as or more than difficulty, though it is also frequently the part of the sport NCAA judges overlook (hey, if they can be subjective, so can I). 

The thrust of the article is that in an individual sport, such as track and field, if the athlete with visually odd form is winning, the form shouldn’t change because it is not actively working against the athlete. In gymnastics, however, the questionable form is supposed to be part of the criteria by which the athlete is judged. But  if the gymnast is not getting deducted for the form issue, should they try to fix it purely for aesthetics?

The approach to a vault is one issue that I think probably should not be altered. There are plenty of wacky vault runs out there, but the run is not part of the judging of a vault. The run can affect the parts of the vault that are judged — you just have to watch the dejection on Jade Carey’s face in the Tokyo Olympics vault final to see what happens when a vault run doesn’t go right — but if someone lunges or skip-hops on their way down the runway, it might look silly but be a critical part of her approach. Samantha Peszek, a 2008 Olympian-turned-gymnastics analyst, said on her podcast a few years ago that an effort to change her vault technique resulted in the injury that left her unable to compete anything other than bars in Beijing. 

Some form breaks are deemed not worth the effort to fix them; those are typically referred to as built-in deductions. Audrey Davis’s bar dismount is perhaps the most notable built-in deduction in NCAA right now; because she staggers her feet when completing her double front half-out dismount — a sign that she is not completing the half twist at the end. But because she so consistently receives 9.975s on the routine as a whole, the dismount stays. 

A perhaps more controversial example of this was Alyona Schennikova’s double layout bar dismount at LSU. It was … very pike-y. Schennikova’s technique, while visually distracting, rarely resulted in her being deducted enough to warrant pulling her out of the lineup — although since she has returned from injury this year, we haven’t seen it. 

In elite, we saw MyKayla Skinner’s famed one-armed Cheng require a form fix because it was so egregious that the elite code prohibits it now. 

Other gymnasts, like Jade Carey, take it upon themselves to tackle form issues; Carey’s NCAA gymnastics is nearly perfect every time, and you can really tell how much work she’s put in if you go back and watch her at 2017 worlds or even at the Tokyo Olympics. Kyla Ross’s gymnastics underwent a similar, self-driven evolution while she was at UCLA between 2017 and 2020.

Whether the NCAA judging actually underwent changes this season is, like the judging itself, subjective. But the overall push for more artistry in women’s artistic gymnastics has, slowly, moved the needle a bit towards an assessment of form and whether it is helping (or, at least, not hurting) a gymnast, or whether it’s holding someone back. I wish the article in The Athletic had tackled the issue of subjectively judged sports (including gymnastics, but also figure skating, diving, ski jumping, and boxing). Because it is in these sports, where your form may not be prohibiting you from doing skills but may be holding back your scores (and, in NCAA gymnastics, that means your team’s scores as well), that the effort to repair form must be considered. 

Other gym news

Balance Beam Situation has, of course, the conference championship GIFs. Spencer Barnes was able to return to liveblogging for the occasion of conference champs, for which we are all profoundly grateful and happy. And he’s also giving us the regionals draw.  

College Gym News has, of course, the conference championships leo rankings — in both white and multicolored versions AND for the NCGAs! CGN also brings us winners and losers of the regionals draw, a review of March’s perfect 10s (that includes the ELEVEN from conference champs), and a postseason simulator.

The Gymternet has the Antalya World Cup results.

Big Ten champions UCLA released a great video with highlights from their meet. 

USA Gymnastics and Comcast renewed their partnership. 

Five at The IX: Brooklyn Moors for UCLA Gymnastics

UCLA released this video of Moors talking about the balance of beauty and strength in her gymnastics, and it’s just as lovely as she is.