The Bible of Gymnastics Gets Its Quadrennial Revamp: Code of Points 2017-2020

I was trying to come up with a funny and clever title for this post, but failed. I almost went with The Newest Edition of the New Testament of the Bible of Gymnastics: Code of Points 2017-2020, but that was just too heavy. And the one I ended up with isn't much lighter.

Anyway. I decided to write a post exploring some of the bigger changes to the CoP (link). I really don't think this new version differs much from the draft they gave us last fall, but my memory is not the best. And I want to warn you that I'm probably going to bring up a lot of my own opinions and then end up being super apologetic about having opinions, but that's just me. You're free to message me with your thoughts, or just comment this post, because I'd love to hear what you think about the changes and what you think caused them.

One major change overall:

No more D-dismount composition requirement. This is obviously going to lower the D-scores significantly (-0.5 start value for every routine). The D-scores have so far dropped at the beginning of the quad with every new code, but I think this quad we will see even bigger of a drop. It will be interesting to see, if they will rise to the former level at the end of the quad like now, or if they will stay down. As for the actual dismounts, I don't see top gymnasts going for the easier ones, because the dismount still has to be counted for the 8 elements. So even if you don't get the extra 0.5, you still want to get a decent value for it, definitely no As or Bs and probably not even Cs. it's I think it may level out the field between the top gymnasts and the mid-tier, which is going to be interesting.

Devalue-fest on vault:

Many, many downgrades.* Let's face it, we knew this was coming. They took that half a point out with the dismount composition requirement, so now vault has to suffer the same fate. And they already began the process of evening out the start values on vault in 2013, but now they're going for more drastic changes. They're probably trying to level out the field (USA vs. the rest of the world), plus vault also tends to have significantly higher E-scores, so lowering the difficulty will perhaps match the overall scores between the different events. I think they also want more variety with the vault entries, since front handspring and tsukahara entries suffered less of a drop in difficulty. Or this is what I think they're trying to do, I honestly don't know how this will play out.

Minor changes on uneven bars:

I was expecting more changes on bars since it still tends to be a relatively high-scoring apparatus despite FIG's attempts at lowering the start values significantly with their last two codes. But it looks like they're happy with being extremely strict with the execution scores, it certainly showed in Glasgow and evened out the scores.

Kips after shaposhnikova-transitions (without twisting) are counted as empty swings. This is an interesting change, but I don't think it will affect the top seniors. Every gymnast in an uneven bar final connects their shaposhnikovas to either paks, bails, stalders or releases etc. already, so it won't make a difference to their routines. However, it will affect the juniors and distinguish the best from the average bar workers, so this is one rule that won't level out the field.

Jaegers on UB upgraded. Straddled is still a D, but piked is now E and layout is F. This is obviously happy news for Russia, the promised land of piked jaegers, almost everyone on the national team has one. However, I'm afraid that everyone will now abandon straddled jaegers (still worth D) completely, which will result in even more cookie-cutter UB routines. Hopefully this means that we'll see more layout jaegers, I absolutely love them. So few currently perform them and now they're actually going to be worth the effort in difficulty. Although I still think that they could be worth even more...

Layout gienger and double front 1/2 both upgraded to E. Either Nastia put in a request, or FIG is fed up with half-assed giengers and Seda rolling out of her double fronts. I'm happy with this change, truly laid out giengers are pretty and rare, I hope this change will result in more of those. We also have plenty of double fronts, maybe some gymnasts will now add the half twist and start sticking those landings.

Lots of changes on balance beam:

Several balance beam mounts get higher D-values. The FIG seems to be tired of gymnasts just hopping on the beam because they have given higher D-values to several mounts. This will be interesting, because the top gymnasts from the Big 4 are the ones guilty of just hopping there with a simple mount. The top gymnasts from smaller gymnastics countries who we don't get to see in finals usually have these more difficult and creative mounts and are going to get some leverage. I hope we also see new mounts from Big 4. However, I think that this could have been fixed by simply making mounts count to the 8 elements in the D-score just like dismounts. But maybe that would have been too big of a change.

Sheep jumps on BB downgraded to C and switch ring to D. I'm not happy with this. Sure, we mostly see some ugly-ass sheep jumps, but instead of downgrading the entire skill, I wish they could just have the judges be more strict with the requirements. When done right, it's a beautiful skill and now I'm afraid that it will disappear completely. At least we're getting rid of those ubiquitous but often missed front aerial+sheep jump connections. Downgrading both of these skills together makes it seem like losing sight of the beam is not considered that difficult anymore. Or maybe these skills are too popular and they want more variety.

A LOT of other dance elements upgraded.** FIG obviously wants more variety with dance elements on beam and I'm fine with this. Although since they upgraded so many elements, it seems a bit pointless to downgrade sheep jumps and switch rings. 

Gainer dismounts from the end of the beam downgraded. Layout is now only a C, and steingruber (1/1 twist) a D. I'm quite happy with this, hopefully it will put end to those millions of piked gainers counted as layouts.

Dance and mixed series can now have the series bonus, starting from B+B+C. I'm not sure how I feel about this. BHS+BHS+sheep jump? I don't even know how this works. But we'll probably see an increase in bad dance skill combinations, hopefully they'll be strict with what counts as connection.

A few changes on floor:

Saltos in both directions have to be withing acro lines, no aerials. This is the rule we have been waiting for and I'm so happy. 

Turn+turn connections with demi-plie before the second turn won't get bonus anymore. I like this. bad turn combos are a bit too common on floor. This will separate the truly great from the good.

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I think these are the most important changes, but I'm 100% sure that I've forgotten something or gotten something wrong. If you notice anything important I left out, feel free to let me know :)
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*Some examples of the new vault values:
   Produnova: 6.4
   Cheng: 6.0
   Amanar: 5.8
   Rudi: 5.8
   "Mustafina": 5.6
   Tsukahara 2/1: 5.6
   DTY: 5.4
   Lopez: 5.2
   Tsukahara 3/2: 5.2
   FTY: 4.6
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**Some examples of the new values on BB dance elements: HERE.
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And now, let me tell you a funny thing that happened to me this week. I was going home and standing in front of the door to my building while looking for my keys. As I was going through my pockets, my downstairs neighbor (whom I don't know at all) was hanging curtains to his window right in front of me. Our eyes met for one awkward moment, and suddenly he started hiding behind his curtains and popping out repeatedly, essentially playing peekaboo with me. I was too stunned to do anything but stare and he just laughed at me. Then someone came out of the door probably confused about why I was a just standing there frozen and I escaped inside. It was weird, but it made my day.