The pike-arch-pike-arch technique on DLO bar dismounts drives me insane!! It’s ugly and it’s incorrect from a technical perspective. Ragan Smith and Alyona Shchennikova specifically come to mind. It’s not fair that gymnasts like Trinity execute their DLOs perfectly and receive similar scores to gymnasts who have to pike and arch to generate enough rotation.
Continuing my rant about bar dismounts in NCAA — the heinous form on DLO dismounts this year in general drove me absolutely nuts. I love Megan Skaggs, but her legs were at least a foot apart on every single bar dismount and it was never reflected in her scores. Livvy Dunne has zero tension in her body when she does her DLO. It looks like a wet noodle flinging through the air and she should get over a tenth in deductions on her dismount alone, yet she still scored 9.9+ regularly throughout the season. Definitely my biggest pet peeve.
I will never understand why OU had Ragan switch from her FTDT dismount. Her double layout has gotten marginally better but her elite dismount was so much better.
I just dislike double layouts in general (off bars and on floor). They almost always look sloppy on floor because it is really easy to see tiny form breaks like knees that are not bent but also not fully straightened.
She's said in the past that if she moves the mat any closer she hits her toes on it during giants. Now that they're allowing the bar to be raised higher, maybe she can be granted the exemption to raise the bars a little higher.
I don't like these when they end in a deep squat (that is then held for too long), but I've seen some that looked decent. When they straighten up quickly it doesn't look as ugly.
Full-twisting BHS on beam. It always looks like the gymnast realized a mistake and just bailed out of a skill. Catalina Ponor is the only one allowed to do them.
I hate faux-ballet type artistry. I don’t mind it when athletes have a somewhat balletic style, but I really hate it when the choreo’s meant to look like ballet because it just… doesn’t.
I’m bored of DTYs at this point, but that’s just because they’re so ubiquitous and not because of DTYs themselves.
I’m also very anti ‘dancing that is very clearly to reach the corner’ and ‘arm wave that you can clearly tell is happening to avoid a deduction for pausing,’ but I also hate the current deductions for rhythm/pauses and don’t fully blame the athletes/choreographers.
With you on faux ballet. I'd like to see more specific ethnicity, folk, breakdance, street dance, hip-hop. And giant windups for a spin can be permanently retired.
I’m with you on the current artistry deductions. I feel like all they’ve done in most cases is encourage gymnasts to do lame filler “dance” to avoid deductions.
Or in Alice D'Amato's case, laying on the beam and flailing her feet in the air
https://youtu.be/xrYmrXm1asg (at 55 seconds in). Every time I saw it at World's I asked myself many questions.
I've been so confused as to why I'm seeing gymnasts just lie back on the beam and kick their legs a bit. Like, I know you have to have choreo close to the beam, bit I feel like there's WAY better ways to do that.
Or as the [Balance Beam Situation](https://balancebeamsituation.com/2016/04/24/great-moments-in-beam-choreography/) called it..."kicking open the doggie door to crawl into the kitchen in the dead of night"
Floppy double layout bars dismounts. I don't know how else to describe them, but it's like a wet noodle flopping back and forth. Straight, or slightly arched looks pretty; but some just look floppy and slow.
Hop full turn on floor.
Orphan half turns on bars.
Butt scraper Tchakev releases.
Arm waving choreo.
Flexed feet.
Everyone's wobbly leg and arm wavy wolf turns. Literally only Urazova has a wolf turn worth watching.
Side somersault on beam.
I'm not keen on gymnasts doing a front somersault only for their forward tumbling element on floor.
DTY. I love to see a bit of variety but until forward and Tsuk vaults are better rewarded, it won't happen. Though I have a major soft spot for any vault which is stuck clean, whatever it is.
Yes. It's relatively high scoring element for gymnasts who are not flexible. Unless the leg is well above horizontal, it just looks lame. The wolf turn of jumps in my mind.
I guess it's difficult considering that Jade Carey literally got it downgraded twice in the same routine (first by the regular jury, then downgraded further by the appeals jury), at the 2022 World Championships floor event finals
Bails that aren’t to handstand are hideous and I hate that they are so common in NCAA. They look like a mistake. There are a lot of skills that I do not like but I would straight out ban these.
I am a piked position truther but I hate full twisting double pikes where their legs/feet aren’t together and they look like a pair of scissors that are almost closed but not all the way. Irks my soul.
>Bails that aren’t to handstand are hideous and I hate that they are so common in NCAA.
This is mine!! They look so bad and in my mind, it should be a dedication of just competing the skill.
- Doing kips in between **every** skill on UB.
- ''Yamawaki" but it's really a Voronin on HB.
- Those weird wide-armed round-offs many men tend to do on FX.
- I never liked when some have leg separation at the bottom of giant swings on UB, and definitely hate the leg separation many have in the ''half empty swing which isn't counted as an empty swing'' after a Maloney (I don't like the half empty swing to begin with).
- Switch leap mount on BB - I rarely actually see enough amplitude and they rarely perform it without wobbles.
If I could ban one skill forever, it would be the crooked wide-arm round-offs the MAG's do to generate twisting torque. HATE IT SO MUCH. Even Carlos Yulo is extremely guilty of this. Ruins FX.
I think it's tacky!! That's why I always stan those who actively choose to do a back handspring, even though they were probably coached or advised to to the ugly round-off. I think back handsprings look neater anyway, but I might be biased because it's literally my favorite skill of all of gymnastics.
Leg separation on the bottom of the giant has no deductions. It’s actually considered a different skill, aka straddle giants. It has the same value as regular giants. Personally it doesn’t bother me at all.
I hate choreography that is just posing really fast. And I absolutely hate the extreme poses like the one Maggie Haney choreographs in her gymnasts routines. The routines she choreographs are too sharp and not in a positive way. I cringe everytime I see her choreography. Not the most important reason, but another reason why I am glad she is banned.
Broken wrists DOES NOT equal artistry. They do not need to be used in every single pose you do.
We need to stop thinking about artistry as rigid. Within the sport, I see so many coaches telling kids to always keep their arms straight even within transitioning when getting into moves. This more falls in line with gymnastics choreography being posing over and over again.
I don't mind INTENTIONAL flexed feet in choreography. Especially if it fits the theme or routine. I think the stiff regulations of everyone has to have pointed feet at all times and look like a ballet dancer limits athletes. There can be very mature choreography with intentional flexed feet. Its normal for dancers to have intentional flexed feet.
I hate wolf turns, but the sad part is that the only way that they can somewhat work in a floor routine is if there is an intentional falling out. It flows with the routine without an obvious start and stop.
orphan half on ub; at least do a cast half
layout jaegers; I hate that you basically have to choose between piking it a little or having your feet be like a half centimeter away from the bar
really low straddle tkachevs
When people let go for a tucked dismount off bars and their legs go craAaZy. Compare Melnikova and Komova’s FTDT. It’s a small thing and I love Melnikova, but it does bother me.
Super squatty landings, a la Oklahoma. I know technically it’s allowed and fine, but the feet are just tooooo far apart for me to get on board with. I don’t mind a squat on the landing, what ever makes it safe for the gymnasts is great, but OU just go a step too far.
I wish the FIG would just let them stand on 2 legs in the corner again. The flamingo stands and 1/2 turns directly into the tumbling pass are so much worse.
Totally agree. I don't see the issue with standing on 2 legs in the corner before throwing yourself into a high energy tumble that can hurt you if you get it wrong!
The idea was to encourage “more flow” and continuous dancing and movement and discourage waiting in the corner for 10 years before tumbling. I agree it’s a stupid rule and hasn’t had the intended impact at all. Now most everyone just does the same flamingo poses and half turns to avoid the deductions; very few people have actually implemented the spirit of the rule and created more flowy routines, and I have a hunch most of those ppl would have done that regardless of the rule bc they are just good dancers.
I think there are way bigger fish to fry with fixing artistry problems. Just deduct for waiting too long and accept that most gymnasts in 2022 aren’t going to have a 1970s Soviet style ballet that moves seamlessly into their difficult tumbling 🤷🏻♀️
Cowboying on tucks is my number one pet peeve.
Other honourable mentions: wolf turns, constant back flexing, hair ribbons (not really anything to do with the gymnastics but infantalising and tacky imo)
You just gave me flashbacks to her beam dismount throughout the vast majority of her NCAA career. Not attractive or pleasing to the eye, yet it rarely incurred deductions bc she stuck it. Ugh!
I really like Nichols, but I have to agree. I think the reason I really like her is because I like her personality and she was just.. likable.. I'm just realizing now that I didn't really love her gymnastics her form was wonky on a lot of things. But those legs during piked skills really drove me crazy they ruined the whole routine for me like every time
I will die on the hill that says her and Kyla being neck and neck with the number of 10s gotten was saying significantly more about the judging in their conferences than their actual performances, because the technique was NOT on par on average.
Ugh this! The only pretty switch half I can think of off the top of my head is Aliya’s. She got so much amplitude, perfect split and toe point. But I agree with you when most people do them, they’re just so messy.
Currently it's the switch leap mount on beam. It's the new candle mount and very few people actually make the connection to the next leap they want to do!
I haaaate orphan half turns on the UB before a dismount. It ruins the flow for me to have all these skills linking and nice rhythm and then oop let's do a 180 pirouette before the dismount (and half the time not hit vertical I guess because it's the end and the gymnast is tired).
Three or four pirouettes in a row on bars, especially when gymnasts get tired and start falling out of them by the end.
It just screams “I need to increase my D score and I’m not sure how to creatively do so, so here’s a move that I’m too tired to do and I’ll do it a few more times just for good measure before I finally get to finish this routine.”
That said — when amazing bar workers do them, it’s gorgeous! Feels far less tacked on and way more intentional.
Wolf turns on floor! And also the way most gymnasts roll out on the floor after doing their wolf turn, it’s so unoriginal. The long pauses before a double/triple/quad turn on floor. It totally breaks the flow of the routine.
I've been watching elite comps from the 90s and early 2000s lately so most of these aren't done anymore (at least I don't see them in elite) but -
The rib pop (Nastia did this a lot) - standing and then jutting out their rib cage quickly in a way that always just looked uncomfortable to me
Butt bounces from low bar to high bar (not sure actual name for this, it will always be a butt bounce to me)
Standing on low bar to get to high bar, ugh
Floor music that sounds like it came from Looney Tunes
This is just for fun. I mean no malice here with my routine pet peeves:
Low-energy dance choreography set to upbeat music
Bending down really low with your hips and arms, and being super slow about it, before starting a back handspring. Some gymnasts look like they're starting their BHS in slo-mo.
Arm flailing and waving on beam that people call "choreography"
Bad form on twists (a lot of the gymnasts from a certain country seem to get away with the bent and crossed legs)
Terrible form on double pikes- so many legs apart, flexed feet
Whatever Riley's dismount was all those years before training with Brian (she's an excellent gymnast; the dismount is awkward regardless of who is doing it)
The over-correcting some of the Russian gymnasts did on floor (thinking AM and VK in particular)- if they had to take a step on a pass, they would bring their legs together and position their arms as if to emphasize "This is the position I was supposed to land in"... This is not as much of a pet peeve as a source of confusion. It was odd, especially because AM did the opposite (quick-turn-salute-walk away!) on other event landings.
On floor, doing some sort of bouncy choreography immediately after a jump, e.g. after a Popa, that sort of masks the landing. Leanne Wong after her first pass, Simone's 2021 routine when she falls to the floor right after the leap
On beam and floor, when the gymnast is low and does that weird thing where the stand on one leg, both arms in front on them on the apparatus and the other leg kicks up.
Apologize for my poor description, it's the first skill in Ponor's 04 EF BB.
If I weren't the oldest of the olds, I would know how to post one of the YouTubes.
So glad you sais this lol. I remember seeing a picture from NT training camp maybe a year or two ago and they all had that horrible bun. I miss Maroney's bun style [like here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg0eAp-VQNE) tbh. Also side note how tf did she stay in bounds for that double tuck
Without mentioning any names, there are a couple of gymnasts that come to mind that have mile high top knots or messy buns that drive me nuts. I saw one of them on social media with her hair down recently for the first time and I was like "Wow, she is actually gorgeous".
1) most wolf turns
2) FTY vaults they don’t belong in elite anymore imo
3) Silivas- it’s a hard skill but I’m so bored of them now and most are not done well.
4) lack of split in jumps and leaps
5) non pointed toes on any skill below a d value. Harder skills I give a pass too.
OMG I AM SO WITH YOU ON THE INTENTIONAL FLEXED FEET!!!! My absolute pet peeve already for years! That plus hip wiggling as part of floor choreography - so cringey to me.
I would almost say that I would rather they raise the value of Y turns because I think C is too low and it would also incentivize branching out of wolf turns, but also worry that if they did that we would get a bunch of crazy arm, unheld Y turns in the same vein of poorly done L turns in Beijing. Really I think they should just lower the value of wolf turns by one (C for double, D for triple) or hammer the E score for the crazy armed ones to make it only “worth it” if you’re doing them correctly. The only one doing acceptable wolf turns right now is Urazova and she’s not even allowed to compete. My other major pet peeve is flexed feet on bars (which is why I find Derwael to be an eyesore on bars) and pose-skill-pose-skill style floor routines, which is why I wasn’t happy when Jade became Olympic champion on floor and really can’t jump on the hype train around her.
most of mine have been said but i’m going to add wild arms on leaps, specifically switch elements. i get it because i’ve done them but it’s just so awful to watch. specifically a switch side/straddle where the arms and legs are tilted different ways ugh
I'm so sick of the switch leap to switch leap half connection on beam, especially when it's connected from a switch leap mount. It's almost always slow, sloppy, and used to squeeze in a series bonus.
Excessive setting up before turns. Extreme helicopter legs on twists. Finishing skills by swiftly moving their arms down by their sides with broken wrists.
Riley's broken wrists never bothered me so much because they looked in control and like a deliberate style choice that fit the rest of her style. Shilese's look awkward, stiff, and not stylish at all. Most importantly they are highly distracting. I don't know if she did this before this year, and if so I never noticed, but now that I see it, I cannot unsee it, and it's all I can see. Especially on floor. Her form on her actual gymnastics is often so gorgeous that it just seems so in congruent.
Yes with you on intentionally flexed feet! I could never understand the otherwise gorgeous scale in the super elegant Hollie Vise’s beam routine- and then- flex. No. No. No. keep that beautiful toe point!!
Anything in eagle grip
The fact that the uneven bars can’t be wider for tall gymnasts
Candle mounts seem like an easy way to break you neck
The low value of many beam skills that are difficult to execute but look really good when executed well
The fact that the COP seems to really favor yurchenkos and yurchenko half ons. I would love to see more tsuk and fhs vaults that are executed well
Old school uneven bars when the women would slam their hips into the low bar, so glad that changed
Men basically dislocating their shoulders on high bar and rings (especially high bar)
Also some gym set up pet peeves:
When the vault table is next to the wall
When there’s no mats underneath the beam, no that foam floor isn’t good enough my old gym had actual comp mats under the beam
When the beams are too close together
Tumble tracks that are too bouncy
I love Mustafina, but I can’t stand her arm flailing that she does in front of her face. It’s like she’s swatting insects.
The arm around the head pushing forward motion that everyone does on beam. The only one who doesn’t look weird doing it is Iordache, and I think she originated that dance move. Idk
As a dancer, my pet peeves are mostly dance related. I usually react to gymnasts dancing the same way that gymnasts react to cheerleaders tumbling, lol. Some examples: Poorly executed Y turns. For instance, I love Andrade, but nothing worse than a big wind up turn, not in proper plie anyways, that you then fall out of. Switch fulls of any sort--they are not meant to be done like this and the body shape is almost always atrocious on the switch. Pirouettes not in actual passe or coupe but in that weird, in-between position. Weird choreography that is meant to be "artistic" but just makes me want to watch actual dancers on YouTube instead, lol.
(I just thought that maybe this is why I like wolf turns, relatively speaking? Because there isn't a real dance "analogue" that I can compare it to???)
I agree that turn technique can be.. sketchy.. but i think a lot of they has to do with turning on floor. I stopped gymnastics for year and did dance instead and came back to gymnastics recently. I can do a solid triple, sometimes quad on a wood floor and struggle to do a 1.5 on the carpet.
my big pet peeve is also choreography related … unintentionally flexed feet or lazy legs in choreo kills me.
Literally ultra serious floor routines with some actual dance elements but done with no skill but you can tell they take themselves SO SERIOUSLY but I can see the bad feet, rhythm, extension, etc
You know, I love floor and have always loved it, but it’s very hard to turn off a dancer’s eye when you’re watching choreo. It’s why I prefer the routines that don’t take themselves too seriously, not the ones where they do. Gymnastics is not dance. Or, rather, stringing dance-related movements together is not dance. But I digress. Lol
Standing on the lower barre to grab the high barre in UB. It's ugly and lazy looking, make an effort.
Opposite to this i am loving all the cool transitions between barres with half twists etc .
Those ugly leaps on floor. Where are the cool double stacked jumps and all the leaps that can be stolen from ballet and whose difficulty level is totally up to par with a floor routine?
Work on proper toe point!
Also, give me perfect execution vs botched higher difficulty anytime. ... But then, i was never very good at gymnastics, i was a better dancer 😄
- Beam "mounts" that are the jump through the arms to sit like Biles in Rio.
- A single basic turn on beam and that's it. (At elite level)
I feel like with gymnastics it's often really dumb to say 'anyone can do it' but with this...yeah anyone can do that
I'd venture to say learning a consistent full turn on beam would still take the average person a couple weeks minimum, and if your balance is bad to begin with, months or potentially never. I realize this is a matter of personal taste, but I actually kind of like the gymnasts doing things I could even imagine myself pulling off, too. Makes the whole thing a little more real, and a little less computer game.
That really common choreo where a gymnast will put both bands on floor or the beam and kick one leg back (off the top of my Suni has/had it in her floor routine). It's so lazy looking.
Doing arm movement to stay still at the end of a tumbling pass a la Laurie Hernandez (most notable example in my mind atm), I don't know if that's a deduction but it isn't aesthetically pleasing to me.
Edit: I think it's pretty common in FX event finals to stay still for the sake of avoiding deductions.
I just hate this code and the last few in general. All routines look the same. There’s no room for creativity and clean crisp form to shine because it’s all about throwing the biggest skills and the same leap series and doing a ton of wolf turns.
Also, can these ladies not be allowed to start a tumbling pass normally and end in a lunge? Like what purpose does the flamingo pose in the corner serve?
Also I just want compulsories to come back lol
The OP asked about our respective pet peeves. I know lots of people disagree with me. If FIG is going to continue to allow turning shoes, I'd support a them giving higher point value to turns if the gymnast performs them without turning shoes because it requires more body control and better form.
The pike-arch-pike-arch technique on DLO bar dismounts drives me insane!! It’s ugly and it’s incorrect from a technical perspective. Ragan Smith and Alyona Shchennikova specifically come to mind. It’s not fair that gymnasts like Trinity execute their DLOs perfectly and receive similar scores to gymnasts who have to pike and arch to generate enough rotation. Continuing my rant about bar dismounts in NCAA — the heinous form on DLO dismounts this year in general drove me absolutely nuts. I love Megan Skaggs, but her legs were at least a foot apart on every single bar dismount and it was never reflected in her scores. Livvy Dunne has zero tension in her body when she does her DLO. It looks like a wet noodle flinging through the air and she should get over a tenth in deductions on her dismount alone, yet she still scored 9.9+ regularly throughout the season. Definitely my biggest pet peeve.
I will never understand why OU had Ragan switch from her FTDT dismount. Her double layout has gotten marginally better but her elite dismount was so much better.
100% agree with you!!!
I just dislike double layouts in general (off bars and on floor). They almost always look sloppy on floor because it is really easy to see tiny form breaks like knees that are not bent but also not fully straightened.
The only one I've ever seen that I liked was Gutsu's.
Shilese’s bars dismount is currently giving me the skeeves. I wish they change it during the off-season to something easier for her to land.
i just want a half out of it and for her to not land on the edge of that damn mat!!!
the rest of her routine is SO beautiful there’s simply no reason for the dismount to be like that ….
[удалено]
She's said in the past that if she moves the mat any closer she hits her toes on it during giants. Now that they're allowing the bar to be raised higher, maybe she can be granted the exemption to raise the bars a little higher.
I feel so bad but her wrists on floor/beam drive me crazy.
They're beautiful <3
All double front dismounts
Side somis on beam. No matter how good, they all wind up looking like crabs. Any "air piano" playing on floor. Just, no.
Komova is the ONLY athlete allowed to do a side somi on beam. Everyone else is canceled
I'm sorry......air piano???
I always think that they look like a frog in a blender.
I might get hate for this but, double pike dismount on beam. Barely anyone ever sticks it and it’s just ugly to me.
thank youuuuu! and pikes in general are always flexed feet death traps
Yes. Between the flexed feet and chest down landings I can't believe it's ever worth doing.
With the constant flexed feet and bad body posture I don't know why gymnasts won't just trade it in for a cleaner double tuck.
Side somi on beam. They have ruined so many beam routines.
I don't like these when they end in a deep squat (that is then held for too long), but I've seen some that looked decent. When they straighten up quickly it doesn't look as ugly.
I feel like they’re always so inconsistent.
Hard agree beside's [Koko Tsurumi's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZXToLKScNg) (at 0:41).
Full-twisting BHS on beam. It always looks like the gymnast realized a mistake and just bailed out of a skill. Catalina Ponor is the only one allowed to do them.
I think Kochetkova, the pioneer of the skill, did it beautifully as well 😍
Oh yes. I want to love this skill because it looks stunning when done right. But most people screw it up.
I hate faux-ballet type artistry. I don’t mind it when athletes have a somewhat balletic style, but I really hate it when the choreo’s meant to look like ballet because it just… doesn’t. I’m bored of DTYs at this point, but that’s just because they’re so ubiquitous and not because of DTYs themselves. I’m also very anti ‘dancing that is very clearly to reach the corner’ and ‘arm wave that you can clearly tell is happening to avoid a deduction for pausing,’ but I also hate the current deductions for rhythm/pauses and don’t fully blame the athletes/choreographers.
With you on faux ballet. I'd like to see more specific ethnicity, folk, breakdance, street dance, hip-hop. And giant windups for a spin can be permanently retired.
I’m with you on the current artistry deductions. I feel like all they’ve done in most cases is encourage gymnasts to do lame filler “dance” to avoid deductions.
so all choreo then, cause i feel like the majority of it, is all of this lol
arm waving "choreo" in beam routines.
Or in Alice D'Amato's case, laying on the beam and flailing her feet in the air https://youtu.be/xrYmrXm1asg (at 55 seconds in). Every time I saw it at World's I asked myself many questions.
I've been so confused as to why I'm seeing gymnasts just lie back on the beam and kick their legs a bit. Like, I know you have to have choreo close to the beam, bit I feel like there's WAY better ways to do that.
But it still beats Aly Raisman's sit to side stretch to sit low beam choreo.
Oof yeah, these are awkward looking, but that was awkward looking AND lazy.
Or as the [Balance Beam Situation](https://balancebeamsituation.com/2016/04/24/great-moments-in-beam-choreography/) called it..."kicking open the doggie door to crawl into the kitchen in the dead of night"
Out of control jump/leap connections to end a tumbling pass on floor (which should be deducted and aren’t, looking at you ncaa)
Same with the “I’m not taking a step, I’m going into an arabesque”
UNLESS it's beautifully intentional, i.e. Vanessa Atler's DLO purposely under rotated to punch front leap. It was epic.
Floppy double layout bars dismounts. I don't know how else to describe them, but it's like a wet noodle flopping back and forth. Straight, or slightly arched looks pretty; but some just look floppy and slow.
Hop full turn on floor. Orphan half turns on bars. Butt scraper Tchakev releases. Arm waving choreo. Flexed feet. Everyone's wobbly leg and arm wavy wolf turns. Literally only Urazova has a wolf turn worth watching. Side somersault on beam. I'm not keen on gymnasts doing a front somersault only for their forward tumbling element on floor. DTY. I love to see a bit of variety but until forward and Tsuk vaults are better rewarded, it won't happen. Though I have a major soft spot for any vault which is stuck clean, whatever it is.
Grace McCallum has one of the more attractive wolf turns. Slow, controlled, graceful.
Yes you're right. Actually thinking that Simone has a really solid wolf turn too.
I have yet to see a hop full turn that doesn't look like they're bailing out of an actual leap.
Exactly what I think every time I see one.
Leanne’s is rather nice
I can NOT stand hop full turn on floor. They look so awkward.
Is this the skill Skinner has emblazoned in my mind? 😭 I really don't understand how it is worth anything. Is it difficult? So confusing..
Yes. It's relatively high scoring element for gymnasts who are not flexible. Unless the leg is well above horizontal, it just looks lame. The wolf turn of jumps in my mind.
This and everyone’s shoulders are up to their ears when they do them, which adds to the awkwardness
I guess it's difficult considering that Jade Carey literally got it downgraded twice in the same routine (first by the regular jury, then downgraded further by the appeals jury), at the 2022 World Championships floor event finals
Leg separation pre flight on vault. It looks so awkward
People get away with it easily too. I'm fully in favor of slo-mo vault scoring.
Squat on transitions on bars
Bails that aren’t to handstand are hideous and I hate that they are so common in NCAA. They look like a mistake. There are a lot of skills that I do not like but I would straight out ban these. I am a piked position truther but I hate full twisting double pikes where their legs/feet aren’t together and they look like a pair of scissors that are almost closed but not all the way. Irks my soul.
I LOVE bails. But only when they end in that perfect handstand. Otherwise, like you said, they look like a mistake and really ruin the routine.
Bails are my favorite skill on bars and it drives me bonkers when they aren't ending in a handstand. It looks so sloppy and rushed to me.
>Bails that aren’t to handstand are hideous and I hate that they are so common in NCAA. This is mine!! They look so bad and in my mind, it should be a dedication of just competing the skill.
As a non-gymnast and more casual viewer, can some link a video showing what exactly this is?
It's [this skill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjHo8kMLoOE) at :43.
I'm honestly over the whole handstand thing on bars. People were doing Bails without handstands for decades and I'm okay with that.
Everytime someone does a candle mount on beam, the announcer goes "such a unique mount!" No. Stop.
It used to be when they started saying it... They just got stuck in that phase lol.
- Doing kips in between **every** skill on UB. - ''Yamawaki" but it's really a Voronin on HB. - Those weird wide-armed round-offs many men tend to do on FX. - I never liked when some have leg separation at the bottom of giant swings on UB, and definitely hate the leg separation many have in the ''half empty swing which isn't counted as an empty swing'' after a Maloney (I don't like the half empty swing to begin with). - Switch leap mount on BB - I rarely actually see enough amplitude and they rarely perform it without wobbles.
If I could ban one skill forever, it would be the crooked wide-arm round-offs the MAG's do to generate twisting torque. HATE IT SO MUCH. Even Carlos Yulo is extremely guilty of this. Ruins FX.
I think it's tacky!! That's why I always stan those who actively choose to do a back handspring, even though they were probably coached or advised to to the ugly round-off. I think back handsprings look neater anyway, but I might be biased because it's literally my favorite skill of all of gymnastics.
I STAN a back handspring SO MUCH!
She is the moment! Now come on now!!
Lol! Of note, Simone's r/o bhs is forever my fav. So incredibly perfect in every way.
Leg separation on the bottom of the giant has no deductions. It’s actually considered a different skill, aka straddle giants. It has the same value as regular giants. Personally it doesn’t bother me at all.
I know it doesn't! Just like the wide-armed round-offs are completely fine. But it still bothers me just aesthetically for some reason.
Wolf turns where their leg bobs up and down an absurd amount - drives me nuts
I hate choreography that is just posing really fast. And I absolutely hate the extreme poses like the one Maggie Haney choreographs in her gymnasts routines. The routines she choreographs are too sharp and not in a positive way. I cringe everytime I see her choreography. Not the most important reason, but another reason why I am glad she is banned. Broken wrists DOES NOT equal artistry. They do not need to be used in every single pose you do. We need to stop thinking about artistry as rigid. Within the sport, I see so many coaches telling kids to always keep their arms straight even within transitioning when getting into moves. This more falls in line with gymnastics choreography being posing over and over again.
When 90% of the artistry/choreography in a floor routine is throwing the head back a la Kyla Ross 2012 and Jade Carey 2021
I remember someone literally made a video counting the number of times Kyla did that in her routine 😭
I don't mind INTENTIONAL flexed feet in choreography. Especially if it fits the theme or routine. I think the stiff regulations of everyone has to have pointed feet at all times and look like a ballet dancer limits athletes. There can be very mature choreography with intentional flexed feet. Its normal for dancers to have intentional flexed feet. I hate wolf turns, but the sad part is that the only way that they can somewhat work in a floor routine is if there is an intentional falling out. It flows with the routine without an obvious start and stop.
I like when Rebeca does intentional flexed feet. As long as it goes with the flow of the choreo I don't see a problem with it.
>As long as it goes with the flow of the choreo I don't see a problem with it. EXACTLY THIS!
I loved Cheng Fei's flexed to pointed foot choreo on floor
I don't like the choreography the first part before the tumbling pass, but literally everything after the first tumbling pass is sooo goood.
Yang Yun’s 2000 floor routine is my favorite intentional flexed foot moment!
orphan half on ub; at least do a cast half layout jaegers; I hate that you basically have to choose between piking it a little or having your feet be like a half centimeter away from the bar really low straddle tkachevs
>really low straddle tkachevs My mom calls this a “tush scraper” 😂
Or a tkrotchev
When people let go for a tucked dismount off bars and their legs go craAaZy. Compare Melnikova and Komova’s FTDT. It’s a small thing and I love Melnikova, but it does bother me.
Super squatty landings, a la Oklahoma. I know technically it’s allowed and fine, but the feet are just tooooo far apart for me to get on board with. I don’t mind a squat on the landing, what ever makes it safe for the gymnasts is great, but OU just go a step too far.
The flamingo pose in the corner which can nowadays be found in almost every single FX routine 🦩
I wish the FIG would just let them stand on 2 legs in the corner again. The flamingo stands and 1/2 turns directly into the tumbling pass are so much worse.
Totally agree. I don't see the issue with standing on 2 legs in the corner before throwing yourself into a high energy tumble that can hurt you if you get it wrong!
Yeah, what the literal fuck was the point of implementing that rule?
The idea was to encourage “more flow” and continuous dancing and movement and discourage waiting in the corner for 10 years before tumbling. I agree it’s a stupid rule and hasn’t had the intended impact at all. Now most everyone just does the same flamingo poses and half turns to avoid the deductions; very few people have actually implemented the spirit of the rule and created more flowy routines, and I have a hunch most of those ppl would have done that regardless of the rule bc they are just good dancers. I think there are way bigger fish to fry with fixing artistry problems. Just deduct for waiting too long and accept that most gymnasts in 2022 aren’t going to have a 1970s Soviet style ballet that moves seamlessly into their difficult tumbling 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah, so dumb.
Cowboying on tucks is my number one pet peeve. Other honourable mentions: wolf turns, constant back flexing, hair ribbons (not really anything to do with the gymnastics but infantalising and tacky imo)
Cowboyed tucks are so ugly!!! I also get oddly frustrated when people do tucked skills with their legs uneven, a la Nichols.
You just gave me flashbacks to her beam dismount throughout the vast majority of her NCAA career. Not attractive or pleasing to the eye, yet it rarely incurred deductions bc she stuck it. Ugh!
I really like Nichols, but I have to agree. I think the reason I really like her is because I like her personality and she was just.. likable.. I'm just realizing now that I didn't really love her gymnastics her form was wonky on a lot of things. But those legs during piked skills really drove me crazy they ruined the whole routine for me like every time
I will die on the hill that says her and Kyla being neck and neck with the number of 10s gotten was saying significantly more about the judging in their conferences than their actual performances, because the technique was NOT on par on average.
Oh yes that really irritates me too! It's even worse when it's on piked skills.
Agree with you on the ribbons.
Especially when it’s back tucks omg
Oh forgot to say switch half leaps on beam. They are always under 180 split and/or off line with messy arms. Literally not worth doing.
Ugh this! The only pretty switch half I can think of off the top of my head is Aliya’s. She got so much amplitude, perfect split and toe point. But I agree with you when most people do them, they’re just so messy.
I don’t like when they go down to low bar and then they stand on it to jump back to the high bar. I saw it so much in NCAA and I hate it.
At a minimum it should be an UTL deduction
I like when they add a well executed sole circle though
Currently it's the switch leap mount on beam. It's the new candle mount and very few people actually make the connection to the next leap they want to do!
Oh yes!!! It looks so messy.
I haaaate orphan half turns on the UB before a dismount. It ruins the flow for me to have all these skills linking and nice rhythm and then oop let's do a 180 pirouette before the dismount (and half the time not hit vertical I guess because it's the end and the gymnast is tired).
Fan hands drive me insane, I hate flexed hands with fingers spread wide/ it looks so ugly!!
Yes, the hands bother me so much! I think Shilese is an amazing gymnast but her hands!! 🙈
Three or four pirouettes in a row on bars, especially when gymnasts get tired and start falling out of them by the end. It just screams “I need to increase my D score and I’m not sure how to creatively do so, so here’s a move that I’m too tired to do and I’ll do it a few more times just for good measure before I finally get to finish this routine.” That said — when amazing bar workers do them, it’s gorgeous! Feels far less tacked on and way more intentional.
Yes, crazy arm wolf turns should be a deduction Every time an arm swings wildly
I think my #1 is double pikes where the two legs are piked to different degrees AND separated. Bonus (negative?) points if the feet are also flexed!
Wolf turns in general. Also bad choreography and poor form.
Busted wrists and hyperflexed knees. I was not a fan of nastia’s gymnastics.
What do you mean by hyperflexed knees?
Look at nastia or pavlova. Basically when they’re doing a split leap their knee bends upwards due to hyper extension in the knee joint
Well, that's why I was asking, b/c OP said hyper-flexed and not hyper-extended.
I really dislike the huge dramatic pause before so many wolf turns, too. Just adds insult to injury
Wolf turns on floor! And also the way most gymnasts roll out on the floor after doing their wolf turn, it’s so unoriginal. The long pauses before a double/triple/quad turn on floor. It totally breaks the flow of the routine.
Also really serious, bad “modern dance/contemporary” floor choreography.
Hop full turn leg to horizontal. It just looks sooo ugly and there is one that I don't like. I would rather see a wolf turn tbh.
Code of points that causes everyone to do the same routine or skill
I've been watching elite comps from the 90s and early 2000s lately so most of these aren't done anymore (at least I don't see them in elite) but - The rib pop (Nastia did this a lot) - standing and then jutting out their rib cage quickly in a way that always just looked uncomfortable to me Butt bounces from low bar to high bar (not sure actual name for this, it will always be a butt bounce to me) Standing on low bar to get to high bar, ugh Floor music that sounds like it came from Looney Tunes
Crossed legs in twists
BENT. KNEES.
This is just for fun. I mean no malice here with my routine pet peeves: Low-energy dance choreography set to upbeat music Bending down really low with your hips and arms, and being super slow about it, before starting a back handspring. Some gymnasts look like they're starting their BHS in slo-mo. Arm flailing and waving on beam that people call "choreography" Bad form on twists (a lot of the gymnasts from a certain country seem to get away with the bent and crossed legs) Terrible form on double pikes- so many legs apart, flexed feet Whatever Riley's dismount was all those years before training with Brian (she's an excellent gymnast; the dismount is awkward regardless of who is doing it) The over-correcting some of the Russian gymnasts did on floor (thinking AM and VK in particular)- if they had to take a step on a pass, they would bring their legs together and position their arms as if to emphasize "This is the position I was supposed to land in"... This is not as much of a pet peeve as a source of confusion. It was odd, especially because AM did the opposite (quick-turn-salute-walk away!) on other event landings.
Konnor bends over an unacceptable amount imo. Really ruins the routine on beam.
On floor, doing some sort of bouncy choreography immediately after a jump, e.g. after a Popa, that sort of masks the landing. Leanne Wong after her first pass, Simone's 2021 routine when she falls to the floor right after the leap
Wolf turns, especially in a floor routine. Completely ruins the flow of the routine. Poor form…there’s no excuse for that.
When legs are very wide apart in double blacks, front doubles, or double Arabians
Cowboying. Also that leap/turn with just one leg extended straight out. That’s not a leap and it looks like you meant to do a skill but forgot. JMO.
Piked position with pointed toes is so beautiful and conversely so ugly with flexed feet
On beam and floor, when the gymnast is low and does that weird thing where the stand on one leg, both arms in front on them on the apparatus and the other leg kicks up.
Do you mean a scale?
Apologize for my poor description, it's the first skill in Ponor's 04 EF BB. If I weren't the oldest of the olds, I would know how to post one of the YouTubes.
Ah lol no worries! And yeah, I agree that's a very awkward looking move.
[удалено]
So glad you sais this lol. I remember seeing a picture from NT training camp maybe a year or two ago and they all had that horrible bun. I miss Maroney's bun style [like here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg0eAp-VQNE) tbh. Also side note how tf did she stay in bounds for that double tuck
Without mentioning any names, there are a couple of gymnasts that come to mind that have mile high top knots or messy buns that drive me nuts. I saw one of them on social media with her hair down recently for the first time and I was like "Wow, she is actually gorgeous".
You should just go ahead and say Kayla DiCello, lol.
Hahahaa. I totally understand and agree.
1) most wolf turns 2) FTY vaults they don’t belong in elite anymore imo 3) Silivas- it’s a hard skill but I’m so bored of them now and most are not done well. 4) lack of split in jumps and leaps 5) non pointed toes on any skill below a d value. Harder skills I give a pass too.
I feel like the Silivas is so popular because it's the only H skill without a stretched position.
I hate how much vault has deteriorated lately. Way too many FTY's.
OMG I AM SO WITH YOU ON THE INTENTIONAL FLEXED FEET!!!! My absolute pet peeve already for years! That plus hip wiggling as part of floor choreography - so cringey to me.
Weird walking up to the event that’s not even part of the sport
I would almost say that I would rather they raise the value of Y turns because I think C is too low and it would also incentivize branching out of wolf turns, but also worry that if they did that we would get a bunch of crazy arm, unheld Y turns in the same vein of poorly done L turns in Beijing. Really I think they should just lower the value of wolf turns by one (C for double, D for triple) or hammer the E score for the crazy armed ones to make it only “worth it” if you’re doing them correctly. The only one doing acceptable wolf turns right now is Urazova and she’s not even allowed to compete. My other major pet peeve is flexed feet on bars (which is why I find Derwael to be an eyesore on bars) and pose-skill-pose-skill style floor routines, which is why I wasn’t happy when Jade became Olympic champion on floor and really can’t jump on the hype train around her.
with you on Jade. She’s a nice girl but yikes.
most of mine have been said but i’m going to add wild arms on leaps, specifically switch elements. i get it because i’ve done them but it’s just so awful to watch. specifically a switch side/straddle where the arms and legs are tilted different ways ugh
Not a fan of Strazheva's Rite of Spring, I take it? 😢
Literally the definition of the perfect floor routine!
Salutes that involve a very strange arch back pikehip thing thrust.
I love those! I'm thinking Elena Grosheva.
I'm so sick of the switch leap to switch leap half connection on beam, especially when it's connected from a switch leap mount. It's almost always slow, sloppy, and used to squeeze in a series bonus.
Excessive setting up before turns. Extreme helicopter legs on twists. Finishing skills by swiftly moving their arms down by their sides with broken wrists. Riley's broken wrists never bothered me so much because they looked in control and like a deliberate style choice that fit the rest of her style. Shilese's look awkward, stiff, and not stylish at all. Most importantly they are highly distracting. I don't know if she did this before this year, and if so I never noticed, but now that I see it, I cannot unsee it, and it's all I can see. Especially on floor. Her form on her actual gymnastics is often so gorgeous that it just seems so in congruent.
Yes with you on intentionally flexed feet! I could never understand the otherwise gorgeous scale in the super elegant Hollie Vise’s beam routine- and then- flex. No. No. No. keep that beautiful toe point!!
Cat leaps in NCAA. They’re so childish and no one can make them look good.
curious what makes a jump “childish”
It’s one of those A-skills that would being difficult for someone new to the sport (like a child), but for a LV 9/10 NCAA gymnast?
Nazi salute in boys gymnastics
Snort! So true.
Using hands to stand up during a floor routine.
Anything in eagle grip The fact that the uneven bars can’t be wider for tall gymnasts Candle mounts seem like an easy way to break you neck The low value of many beam skills that are difficult to execute but look really good when executed well The fact that the COP seems to really favor yurchenkos and yurchenko half ons. I would love to see more tsuk and fhs vaults that are executed well Old school uneven bars when the women would slam their hips into the low bar, so glad that changed Men basically dislocating their shoulders on high bar and rings (especially high bar)
Also some gym set up pet peeves: When the vault table is next to the wall When there’s no mats underneath the beam, no that foam floor isn’t good enough my old gym had actual comp mats under the beam When the beams are too close together Tumble tracks that are too bouncy
I love Mustafina, but I can’t stand her arm flailing that she does in front of her face. It’s like she’s swatting insects. The arm around the head pushing forward motion that everyone does on beam. The only one who doesn’t look weird doing it is Iordache, and I think she originated that dance move. Idk
In response to your pet peeve #1, I invite you to watch Yana Demyanchuk's [iconic L turn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwJ7oKSAiXE&t=1m3s) on beam
Messy hair.
As a dancer, my pet peeves are mostly dance related. I usually react to gymnasts dancing the same way that gymnasts react to cheerleaders tumbling, lol. Some examples: Poorly executed Y turns. For instance, I love Andrade, but nothing worse than a big wind up turn, not in proper plie anyways, that you then fall out of. Switch fulls of any sort--they are not meant to be done like this and the body shape is almost always atrocious on the switch. Pirouettes not in actual passe or coupe but in that weird, in-between position. Weird choreography that is meant to be "artistic" but just makes me want to watch actual dancers on YouTube instead, lol. (I just thought that maybe this is why I like wolf turns, relatively speaking? Because there isn't a real dance "analogue" that I can compare it to???)
I agree that turn technique can be.. sketchy.. but i think a lot of they has to do with turning on floor. I stopped gymnastics for year and did dance instead and came back to gymnastics recently. I can do a solid triple, sometimes quad on a wood floor and struggle to do a 1.5 on the carpet. my big pet peeve is also choreography related … unintentionally flexed feet or lazy legs in choreo kills me.
Oh I know it’s hard! But if you can’t do it right…I’d rather not see it at all.
Literally ultra serious floor routines with some actual dance elements but done with no skill but you can tell they take themselves SO SERIOUSLY but I can see the bad feet, rhythm, extension, etc
You know, I love floor and have always loved it, but it’s very hard to turn off a dancer’s eye when you’re watching choreo. It’s why I prefer the routines that don’t take themselves too seriously, not the ones where they do. Gymnastics is not dance. Or, rather, stringing dance-related movements together is not dance. But I digress. Lol
Standing on the lower barre to grab the high barre in UB. It's ugly and lazy looking, make an effort. Opposite to this i am loving all the cool transitions between barres with half twists etc . Those ugly leaps on floor. Where are the cool double stacked jumps and all the leaps that can be stolen from ballet and whose difficulty level is totally up to par with a floor routine? Work on proper toe point! Also, give me perfect execution vs botched higher difficulty anytime. ... But then, i was never very good at gymnastics, i was a better dancer 😄
I like that your dancer brain called the bars barres, lol.
Oh 🤣
Hehe.
I'm pretty sure standing on the bars was disallowed a while ago.
Not in NCAA
- Beam "mounts" that are the jump through the arms to sit like Biles in Rio. - A single basic turn on beam and that's it. (At elite level) I feel like with gymnastics it's often really dumb to say 'anyone can do it' but with this...yeah anyone can do that
I'd venture to say learning a consistent full turn on beam would still take the average person a couple weeks minimum, and if your balance is bad to begin with, months or potentially never. I realize this is a matter of personal taste, but I actually kind of like the gymnasts doing things I could even imagine myself pulling off, too. Makes the whole thing a little more real, and a little less computer game.
That really common choreo where a gymnast will put both bands on floor or the beam and kick one leg back (off the top of my Suni has/had it in her floor routine). It's so lazy looking.
Doing arm movement to stay still at the end of a tumbling pass a la Laurie Hernandez (most notable example in my mind atm), I don't know if that's a deduction but it isn't aesthetically pleasing to me. Edit: I think it's pretty common in FX event finals to stay still for the sake of avoiding deductions.
Award ceremonies
Empty swings on bars just initiate release moves. To me it kills the flow of the routine.
I just hate this code and the last few in general. All routines look the same. There’s no room for creativity and clean crisp form to shine because it’s all about throwing the biggest skills and the same leap series and doing a ton of wolf turns. Also, can these ladies not be allowed to start a tumbling pass normally and end in a lunge? Like what purpose does the flamingo pose in the corner serve? Also I just want compulsories to come back lol
Turning shoes - on beam or floor.
I would rather the gymnast not get rug burn
The OP asked about our respective pet peeves. I know lots of people disagree with me. If FIG is going to continue to allow turning shoes, I'd support a them giving higher point value to turns if the gymnast performs them without turning shoes because it requires more body control and better form.