Time to Give Back

After getting home late late last night, I got up early this morning and headed to another gymnastics meet, for Junior Olympic (JO) gymnastics. This time I got to judge all day long: 3 sessions of what is called "optional" gymnastics.

Gymnastics in the United States is competed as "compulsory" (where every athlete has the same routine--so a kid from Texas has the same routine as a kid from California) or "optional" (where every athlete has a different routine).

Judging compulsories is not something I would call "easy" as anyone who does it has to have a fair amount of technical knowledge. However, it is "easy" in that the routines are the same, so the standard deductions apply to each kid and each routine. Also, compared to optionals, compulsories are easy.

Judging optionals is difficult, and at each level of increasing difficulty for the athletes, it also gets harder for the judges. Each optional level has a set of requirements that they must fulfill while simultaneously meeting difficulty standards. If the standards aren't met, then the "start value" goes down. (So instead of starting at a 10.0, they might start at a 9.5).

That doesn't even count all of the execution deductions (bent knees when they should be straight, for example). Then, as the level gets higher, there are "composition" deductions. Essentially, these make sure that there are certain stylistic elements to the choreography. Add a level and you also have to consider "bonus" combinations: if the athlete does two things immediately connected of certain difficulty values, it's worth extra points on the start value. Add another level and you have difficulty bonus, where the athlete is rewarded for extra-difficult skills.

Did I mention that there are also penalties at some of the levels for doing skills that are too difficult?

Or that the code of points, which lists all of the rules and skills available to the athletes is over an inch thick and the judges basically need to know ALL of it?

Confused yet?

That's why I failed my Level 9 test.

Twice.

But I passed it back in December, so finally get to judge at the level (and get paid at a higher value). Well, the pay comes when I'm not volunteer judging, like I was today. The volunteering pays for other things and raises money to help train new judges, though. Plus it's fun.

Even if it is all I get to do all day.