Artistry vs. Tumbling

[Muddlethru]

Marta Karolyi when asked at an interview inidicated she felt Aly Raisman should have won the floor event finals because she tumbled much higher than her counterparts. She indicated that the code of points did not give credit for higher tumbling. While Aly Raisman certainly tumbled higher and certainly had very impressive tumbling passes, Afasaneva was also a head above Aly Raisman in grace and "artistry". Their degree of difficulty was listed the same at 6.1 but Afasaneva got an execution score of 9.033 and Raisman's was 8.9. I would say the way Raisman "executed" a tumbling pass, its height, amplitude, power etc. should add points to her "execution" score just as much as Afasaneva's grace and artistry. Each performance evoked a different feeling as I watched. Aly's performance was awe inspiring (makes you hold ypur breath) and Afasaneva was just breathtakingly beautiful (makes you release your breath). I did not think Aly's routine was lacking even though she was not that graceful. But I felt myself wishing Afasaneva tumbled a little higher. But I think I could watch Afasaneva's routine over and over again because its beautiful art form. I still can't make up my mind which routine deserved the gold. What do you guys think?

 

[marie83]

I think the judges really rewarded the more balletic style at this worlds. The gymnasts who 'rely' on tumbling rather than their dance elements did not do as well. (I'm personally really pleased about that!)
As much as I liked Raisman's routine it wasn't without fault. I actually much preferred her style to Wieber's.
I love Beth's tumbling but her choreography is terrible. I was so pleased that the winner had the ability to do both!

 

[mustlovejumping]

I think both aspects are important to gymnastics, and I think that, in general, gymnastics is a great combination of power and grace. Great tumbling and great artistry should both be rewarded. Ideally every gymnast would be able to achieve a perfect balance of the two, but realistically that just isn't possible because every gymnast has different natural strengths and weaknesses. I tend to think that if anything, great tumbling should be more important because gymnastics without tumbling is basically just dance.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Artistry is certainly no where near what it was in decades gone by. When you watch stuff from the 70's and 80's, those gymnasts really danced. Their floor routines lacked the difficult tumbles of today but each had its own inspiring character and exciting well choreographed moves.

But you can only fit so much into 1 1/2 minutes. Nowadays with 4 difficult tumbling passes and trying to squeeze in at least 3 difficult twisting leaps, jumps and turns there isn't time in the minute and a half to really develop the character of the routine.

 

[Shane]

The Code of Points is what it is, and everyone has to understand that. Yes, Aly may have had more difficult tumbling in her routine, but as you mentioned above, her execution score was lower. The girls receive their difficulty value based on the difficulty of their routines. Unfortunately, you cannot add points to the execution part of the score.

Afasaneva had a great routine. She fulfilled all of her requirements, while sharing the same difficulty value as Aly. Although Aly may have had more explosive tumbling, Afasaneva performed a cleaner routine. And since their start value was the same, Afasaneva won because her routine had fewer execution errors.

 

[flipandtwist]

I think she was saying Aly had better execution in her actual tumbling. Although Afasaneva had good dance, her tumbling was less "pretty." In my personal opinion, she had more execution errors in her tumlbing, where as Aly's was very pretty. Also, I agree that there should be a reward for having high tumbling. Such as, if Afasaneva had low tumbling, she should have a deduction, whereas Aly wouldn't have a deduction for such high skills. Although obviously there would need to be rules similar to the shoulder-width step rule, but I think that would make a lot of sense.

 

[marie83]

There is a deduction for lack of height

From page 15 of the Code of Points

Execution faults - insufficient height of elements each time 0.1 or 0.3

I know that here in GB in Compulsory Grade 4 (First elite level for 9 yr olds) the judges took 0.3 of all gymnasts who performed tucked back saltos which were not high enough to double back from!

 

[sportyspice]

I think some people forget this is "womens ARTISTIC gymnastics" not womens tumbling championships! I personally feel that Aly should have been deducted for insufficient artistry. There are plenty of sports which incorporate tumbling, acrobatics etc. which may be more suitable for these gymnasts who refuse to perform artistry in their floor/beam routines.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

^^^^ I agree with you, however Grandi has solved that pesky artistry problem by changing WAG to WG. Sadly that is a more fitting description for gymnastics now days. Regarding Aly, last year she would have won, but there was large margin between judges so the reference judge scores were added in. The reference judges had deducted Aly heavily on artistry, hence she came fourth.