The big deal about this event this year is that the US gymnastics federation has altered the scoring system to award bonuses for certain things. Other countries that are notorious for having bonuses in national competitions are the Chinese. The bonus system is intended to reward gymnasts for doing certain things the federation wants being done. The one bonus that I am certain of is that they are giving a one tenth bonus for stuck landings. As many of you might know there is a big deal being made of stuck landings and team GB, Great Britain, is focusing on this one particular thing.
The scores at US national competitions were always bloated and never really expected to be achieved at international competitions. This time around the bloating has gotten even worse - I think it's to the point that the US federation is going to need to deal with it. Before the scores were believable abroad and could be taken as earned but this time they are like a rigged score. Execution scores above 9.0 in the first competition of the season aren't realistic considering that most gymnasts never even get to that point after serious training and with perfect routines.
Ashton Locklear is the perfect example of over-scoring at this tournament. Ashton was awarded with a D-score of 6.6 and an E-score of 9.1 giving her a final score of 15.70. Ashton is the unofficial champion on uneven bars this year at the US Classic beating out World's medalist Kyla Ross.
That score is very generous for a routine that is being performed for the very first time in a major competition. Let's break down the errors in the routine: there is a slight miss in completing a vertical handstand, feet come apart in the first pirouette, feet come apart in the pak salto, feet come apart in the second transition to the low bar and slight form issues on her dismount. All of the errors that I noticed could face a one tenth deduction and up to a three tenth depending on how significant they were. With that said if a gymnast has a big time name the judges are more willing to ignore some errors but Ashton is not a veteran.
I believe it is better to be harsh on gymnasts when they are starting up so that they work on errors, however minor, and perfect their form. If a gymnast is given the scores they need then they aren't going to feel motivated to improve. That is just a personal opinion and should not to be taken as fact.
To put this '15.7' routine in perspective, Daria Spiridonova performed a 6.4 D-score routine at the European Championships, which had international judges and was only able to score 15.066 for a near perfect routine. I would like to make it clear that I am not comparing a national event to an international event but rather demonstrating how far from reality the US national scoring system has gotten.
Below is a video of Ashton Locklear's uneven bars routine - can you spot the errors?
- Via GymnasticsCoaching
Daria Spiridonova's uneven bars routine from Team Final at the 2014 European Championship.
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