2013 - 2016 WAG CoP Analysis

Edit: The links don't work no more, boo. You can all download from the FIG site.

Alright, so I got a chance to read the women’s new 2016 CoP. I’ve read some of the men’s CoP but I don’t even know where to begin in discussing that code. I only understand men’s floor, vault and high bar. I probably won’t make a MAG post. You might get bored to death reading my analysis but here goes nothing.

Vault: Not much has changed from the provisional one. The calculation for vault finals will be (DVT1 + DVT2)/2 + 10.00 – (VT1 ex deductions + VT2 ex deductions). The most difficult vaults have been devalued. 

• Cheng 6.5 to 6.4
• Rudi ( FHS 1 ½ ) 6.3 to 6.2
• Produnova (FHS 2/1 Tucked) 7.1 to 7.0
• Tsukahara 2 ½  6.7 to 6.5
• Amanar (Yurchenko 2 ½ ) 6.5 to 6.3 – This is good because a team with all Amanar vaults will not have a huge advantage. This will also be good for the AA competition and maybe vault finals.
• Mustafina (ro 1/2 on fwd 1/1 twist) 6.1 to 6.0

Uneven Bars: Connection Values (CV) are a bit simpler to understand now. There are three formulas.

• D+C or more (low bar to high bar only) will still be 0.2CV. An example would be shaposh (D) + clear hip 1/2 (C).
• D+E (both flight elements) will get 0.2 CV. For example, Beth Tweddle’s signature move Toe-on Tkatchev to mix el grip (F) + Ezhova (D) will get two tenths. Another example, Piked Tkatchev to Pak Salto (E+D) 0.2CV.
• The E+E connection has been removed. I actually liked the E+E pirouettes that the Chinese were doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese will still do them. It will still get 0.1CV because of the D+D or more rule. It seems that FIG is trying to encourage more high flying release skills and less connection bonus value. One skill that I am disappointed to see not get upgraded was the Seitz (Toe-on Shap 1/1 to high bar), it is still an E and should be at least F in my opinion.
• The Shushunova will now be an E element. It used to be a G.

Balance Beam: There have been some significant changes here.

• Some mounts have been upgraded to one letter higher. Most of these mounts will probably never be used anyway, like a round off flic flac ½ walkover forward. It used to be a C now it’s a D element. Also if you add a full twist it will be E instead of a D.
• Remember all the front tuck mounts in the 90’s? God I got so bored of seeing them but kind of missed them now. Well they have been upgraded to D’s and the Pike to E (à la Alicia Sacramone’s mount). I feel like the FIG is bringing back the 90’s code. I just hope the skills and CV won’t be overused.
• Kochetkova (flic flac 1/1 twist) and Gainer flic flac 1/1 twist have been upgraded to E’s. I really like those skills. The catch is that 3/4 of the twist must be finished before hands touching the beam. I could see a gymnast doing Kochetkova/Gainer 1/1 + flic flac + laid out step out (E+B+C) for 0.2CV, beautiful series. EDIT: These two skills have both been downgraded back to D.

Connection Values for beam got a little bit more confusing. If you’re already having trouble with connection values (CV) you’ll be even more confused because there is a new “series bonus” (SB). Example (CV+SB=)! It took me awhile to understand it but I finally get it. I’ll explain more about it in a new post: Click Here

• Most of the connection values are pretty much the same from the ’12 code.
• New CV combos are mixed ones. D(salto) + A(Dance) 0.1CV e.g. Front Aerial (D) + Wolf Jump (A). D + D 0.2CV e.g. Onodi + Sheep jump, Front aerial + Sheep Jump etc. 

Floor Exercise: Not much has changed. Most of the connection values are still the same.

• Remember how the provisional CoP had 0.3 CV? Well there will be no 0.3 CV. I’m HAPPY to see it not being approved, YAY.
• There will still be an “H” value on floor. H skills will be the tucked double double and full twisting double layout
• Some dance elements have been upgraded too. I’m not sure if any gymnasts will actually do them though. Cat leap 2/1 and tuck hop/jump 2/1 are now C elements. The split ring leap is now C, basically it is the same value as the switch ring leap. I suspect that most gymnasts will just do the split ring leap now. EDIT: some cat leaps have now been removed from the CoP.
• The D (Salto) + A (jump) is here to stay. I must say that when a gymnast performs the D+A well, it can look pretty but most of the time I hate them. I mostly hate backwards D saltos with A jumps because they look a bit awkward, especially when not performed well. EDIT: D (salto) + A (jump/dance) must be D+B. E (Salto) + A (dance) is allowed.
• The connection turns will materialize. So D + B (with step allowed) or B + B (no steps allowed). I hope to see some creative spin combos e.g. Memmel + Illusion or Double L-Turn + Illusion. Although we could be in for some disastrous combos.
• The gymnasts are now allowed “one” lunge step.

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FIG talks a lot about artistry for beam and floor in this CoP. If you read the ’12 CoP there is barely any mention of artistry. In the new code, artistry is the first thing mentioned for beam and floor. I think artistry should be taken very seriously. I love that FIG stated artistry first for beam and floor rules.

I mostly talked about the skill upgrades and the D-score. There is still a lot more to the CoP, like execution. The CoP is very difficult to understand. I pay more attention to how a gymnast builds their difficulty scores because it is less subjective than the execution scores. Plus I find D-scores more interesting than execution deductions. Execution can be very subjective and sometimes I feel really obnoxious when I nitpick at a gymnast’s flaws.

To make it short a judge is only allowed to take 0.1/0.3/0.5 and a full point (falling off apparatus) off each skill a gymnast does. There are other special deductions like 0.8 on vault. There are a lot of little details as to how a judge can arrive to a skill getting 0.1/.3/.5 deductions. I won’t go into these details because then my post would never end.

Usually when I watch a gymnast perform I can naturally tell if she/he performed a good executed routine. Toes pointed, legs together, nice amplitude, straight arms/elbows, no crossed feet/legs in twists, good landing positions etc. A bad performance would obviously be not performing like the above list, wobbles, wobbles, wobbles, out of bounds, uncontrolled landings, sloppy form, not hitting handstands, deep landings, heavy laboured bar work, hesitations, takes long to perform a skill, lack amplitude, lack of precision etc. The execution deductions can be found on page 28 in the CoP.