WAG Level 5 Floor critiques?

[StringBean'sMom]

OK, I'm going to be really brave here and ask for some thoughts on my girl's Level 5 floor routine. She's been pretty stuck with the same score for the past 3 meets - so I know the judging is accurate, lol! But, she's a little frustrated that she's working on things and not seeing the score budge up even a little. Any input? (Plus I'm just generally academically curious about these kind of details. I have a need to know "why" about most things in life and when I see a score it just bugs me to not understand "why" the judge arrived at that number.)

 

[Ali'sMom]

We're still in L4, but I love to watch
I found it to be very pretty, but I think she might be getting "tenth'd" to death.
The beginning seems a little rushed, and bent legs in the leap, that sort of thing. Other than just working on "form", I thought it was pretty good!

 

[bogwoppit]

I would agree on tenthed to death.

Leaps and jumps need to be bigger. Legs are a big issue, knees tight, toe points. Tumbling legs need to be together. Overall a little tighter would help.

 

[thefellowsmom]

I agree with tighter. They love to tenth tenth tenth. Couple things I noticed. Straddle jump a little bendy legs and not super high. The leap was also low and although hard to see the angle from where you were filming, I would bet there was a pretty good deduction on that for angle. And there were some form deductions on both tumbling passes. Bent legs, feet separation, that kind of thing. Other than that just tight and finished. The girls that seem to score very high really pop and finish each move with a tight clean line and attack their tumbling.

She looks very pretty though, a really nice routine. Just needs some polish. I'm sure it will continue to improve as the season progresses. Good luck!

 

[LizzieLac]

Agree with other comments. Need bigger jumps and leaps, tighter and sharper movements. Legs together, etc.

All of the elements are there, though, so she should not be discouraged! I think some girls need to think about it like performing on stage. They tell stage performers that they need to be really BIG so that people in the way back of the audience can see. Something like that might "click" when it comes to the jumps and leaps.\

Good luck to her!

 

[EastCoastGymMom]

I see several skills with bent legs - tumbling and dance. She has a nice split on the floor, but her leaps need to be bigger. She probably lost a lot on the back extension roll too - her form, her hand moved, and she may not have gotten credit for holding the handstand.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

Wow! My untrained eye thinks it looks pretty good! She has gorgeous lines. (Much better form than my DD right now!) May I ask what it scored? They want DD to score out in the spring/summer (she's doing Xcel Gold instead of compulsories) so I need to start getting an idea of what is expected. Obviously she's watched the video a thousand times, but she's not that clean yet. No prob if you don't want to share though!

 

[sce]

Well I see why you are StringBean'sMom.

I agree with the others it's a lot of little things, extra steps, not fully following through on some positions etc, bent legs, unpointed toes. Really just missing tightness on most everything. My dd is long and thin, though not as tall as yours, but has had a coach tell her she needs to work extra hard to be tight as those long legs really show it when you're not tight, on the other hand when they are tight they are extra gorgeous.

 

[Aero]

Your daughter certainly has the legs. Now she must learn how to use them! A large amount of the deductions I saw came from the fact that she is bending her knees, even ever so slightly, on most skills. Pointing the feet needs to happen on every single movement, too. I tell my students about the few "gymnastics laws," one of which is "whenever you are not standing on a foot, it must be pointed. Always." Another one: "there are straight legs, and bent legs. There is no in between." Even the slightest bend is still a bend, and it will get deducted. There were various other small problems, too, such as looseness in some tumbling and acro. I teach Xcel, so I don't know if there was anything wrong as far as text errors.


On a good note, your daughter's leaps will look gorgeous when she reaches full split and refines the technique and muscle tension throughout. Any skill that involves straight position (e.g. handstands, bar swings, twisting saltos) will look fantastic too. I do have to say that her front tuck made me go "WOW!" It looked very high and effortless for her.


Is she tall, or just very lithe?

 

[StringBean'sMom]

Well I see why you are StringBean'sMom.

Yep....it's all clear now, huh?


My "athletic" background is ballet so I definitely notice the lack of full extension in the knees and toes. "A foot not on the ground must be pointed" is so deep my subconscious that I still do it to this day! I didn't think she was missing huge gymnastic skills or details, but it's good to get that confirmation. I figured she was being "tenth'd" to death. Guess the good news is that some work on tighter knees should improve a lot of the deductions at once!

The leap is a work in progress - a new coach this summer noticed that she was leaping with the "wrong leg" compared to her other skills in the routine. (That's all still greek to me...) So, after an entire season leaping with one leg she had to change. It's come a long way but that back leg still tends to be a bit too passive. Her other lead leg leap is better, sadly. I wish that had been caught earlier!

 

[StringBean'sMom]

[QUOTE="

Any skill that involves straight position (e.g. handstands, bar swings, twisting saltos) will look fantastic too. I do have to say that her front tuck made me go "WOW!" It looked very high and effortless for her.


Is she tall, or just very lithe?[/QUOTE]

Strangely she is much tighter on bars and her lines are really pretty there! Her front tuck has been looking great lately - thanks!

She is quite tall for her age, has always been in the 95% percentile for height. So, yes they are a lot of leg to control!

 

[StringBean'sMom]

Wow! My untrained eye thinks it looks pretty good! She has gorgeous lines. (Much better form than my DD right now!) May I ask what it scored? They want DD to score out in the spring/summer (she's doing Xcel Gold instead of compulsories) so I need to start getting an idea of what is expected. Obviously she's watched the video a thousand times, but she's not that clean yet. No prob if you don't want to share though!

This routine scored an 8.275. She's been consistently between 8.1-8.3 all season.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

This routine scored an 8.275. She's been consistently between 8.1-8.3 all season.

Thanks!

 

[gymdilettante]

I get your name totally after seeing her! Because she has long legs, she has a nice natural line but it's also more work for her flip them around! The FT looked great and she is very graceful.

Before I go into any possible errors, I wanted to make a point about her frustration at not making progress. ..The thing you and she have to remember regarding not making progress over the last few meets is that when all you have left to correct is little things, fixing them isn't going to give you nearly as much bang for your buck per thing fixed as a bigger correction...and if you are trying to focus on fixing all your little errors it's a lot more to remember than focusing a few big things. Imagine trying to do all that tumbling while also remembering to point your toes, keep your legs together, straighten your knees, etc all at the same time. Also try to imagine remembering ten corrections - you'd have trouble remembering them if you were sitting in a chair, let alone in the middle of a tough routine. So given that all her mistakes are little tenthed to death type stuff, it would be very hard to make a dent on it in three comps.

What helps is repetition of troublesome short section of the routine - or even just a single skill if she can't perform it perfectly on its own - focusing on one or two corrections at a time...until she can do that correction perfectly in her sleep. Then move onto the next correction in that skill or section of routine and then the next correction until she can do that entire skill or section of routine perfectly in her sleep. Then move onto the next troublesome skill or section, always focusing on one correction or maybe two, but also circle back to the practice the skills or sections mastered and once you've mastered a few skills or sections, also begin stringing them together and if that causes errors to reappear, then work that section one correction at a time until mastered, etc. Once you've mastered all your little bits of routine then you move onto somewhat bigger chunks of the routine but always focus on one or two things to fix.

This is consistent with a theory of gaining mastery called deliberate practice. Many studies have shown this type of approach is the best way to develop expertise. It also explains why few people become true experts - it gets boring to do the same thing over and over, trying to correct one small aspect of it, rather than doing something more fun - eg, the serious tennis player hitting hundreds of cross court forehands to improve their footwork compared to the causal player who only wants to play games (the fun part) and would be miserable hitting the same shot 1000x. We hear on here all the time that optionals and elites still do drills to improve their RO, their BH, and probably many other skills that a level 4 is already bored of.

Okay so all that being said (lol)...The things I see in terms of possible errors are lack of amplitude on jumps, some leg separations (on the BER and the BH), some bent knees/lack of toe point here and there. I'm not sure if this is a deduction but her FH looked a little slow (kind of like a FWO)...I couldnt tell if she got flight. She might get more rebound with more distinct flight. Again I'm not positive but in her back tumbling pass it seemed like the BH and BT went a little crooked. Hope this was helpful!

 

[StringBean'sMom]

Thanks so much for such a thoughtful reply! That's a great way to think about it - breaking it down to a few things at a time. It reminds me of one of my favorite quote from the TV show M*A*S*H - "I do one thing at a time, I do it *very* well and then I move on!"

I also think she is playing catch-up a bit. Last season our coaches didn't focus on the little details and form very much. We are a new gym and new team, so everyone was learning together - gymnasts and coaches! This year we have a bunch of new coaches and they are working to unlearn some bad habits and polish form that wasn't emphasized enough to start with. Also, my girl is relatively new to gymnastics - she didn't start as an itty-bitty. I think she was 8.5 when she started, so she's had some rapid progress skill-wise, perhaps at the expense of focus on the form. All the girls have come a long way, but there is still work to be done on form.

 

[flippingtogether]

My own DD started with a L5 floor score in the 8s.....but over time it has improved greatly and is now in the 9s. I bet your DD will have the same progression - her tumbling looks effortless and high, which was HARD for my DD to achieve - and the tightness comes with repetition, good coaching, and determination. She is lovely!!!

 

[Jenny]

Wow she is going to look amazing at 18 with all those legs! Leg tightening drills will help - any ballet exercises will help that work on a straight leg. If you were a dancer you can share some with her. Even sitting on the floor in pike and lifting one leg 6 inches and holding for 10 (building up to more) while pointing foot and pulling knee up really tight. Do while watching telly. Brush teeth while standing in relevee pulling knees up really really tight. Little and often. Coach can sort out the technical bits.
I can see she must look amazing on bars.

 

[wgymmom]

L5 is tough scoring. What I saw was some bent knees and flexed feet.DD said she should have been on her toe for the kick at the beginning. She went very crooked on her final tumbling pass. What I have seen over the years is that it is harder for tall girls to look tight and score well on floor. It really is just tenths though.

 

[Ali'sMom]

Can they not reverse the lead leg in leaps?
I know there are some skills in floor that can be reversed if they have an asterisk, but I don't have that in front of me.

 

[Judge1974]

Hi, I am a USAG judge. Love judging floor! Personally, I am fickle for feet and extension. So, I immediately noticed unpointed toes and slightly bent knees. Those tiny deductions can add up quite quickly. She needs to go up on releve on the step kick in the beginning and her straddle jump needs to be a bit higher. On her back extension roll and leap pass, I could not see due to the angle but thought I saw an arch in the extension roll to handstand (^.20) and not enought split on the switch-leg. Tumbling pass needs more dynamics and legs squeezed tightly together. She had a slight hop on the landing (.05). She is a beautiful gymnast! Chin up and make those feet, arms, and legs as pretty as can be! God bless!