The 2024 college gymnastics season is mere days away (no really), so I have updated the annual rundowns of college gymnastics scoring on each event—Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor.
As for an abridged version, here’s what we’re dealing with exclusively in terms of revised judging standards for the brand new season.
Finish Position
The biggest change in college gymnastics judging in 2024 comes from the addition of a .05 deduction on vault, bars, and beam for not holding a “finish position” for at least 1 second at the conclusion of the routine. Because what college gymnastics most needs is to sound even more like a cotillion. Gracefully and grandly.
So, what is a finish position?
The finish position is specifically defined as having your legs straight and your hands up (like if the police just caught you trying to steal a tenth) and must be shown facing the same direction that you landed.
All other deductions that already existed still apply, but now after you’re done with all the various stepping or sticking that came with your landing, you have to freeze in an extended position for 1 second, otherwise you lose .05.
The finish position is considered the end of the routine, and gymnasts do not then have to turn and salute the judges, but they also physically won’t be able to help themselves because of their entire lives of being immediately murdered if they didn’t turn and salute the judges.
So, but, for why?
The finish position is a thing now because of a desire to curb the epidemic of 10s being given out for “college sticks.”
A college stick is a situation in which a college gymnast—full of the newfound adult freedom of getting away with things—will realize that there is zero chance in any timeline that she’ll be able to hold her landing under control for a real stick. So instead, she just pretends that she stuck and then got so bored of her obvious stick that she had to step out of it. She’ll land, leaning, and then immediately slide-step and turn toward the judges to salute them, while at the same time celebrating and running far away from that definitely real stick that happened. Even though at no point was actual landing control shown.
College judges will then say, “Yes, I will go on this character journey with you and score this a 10.” For example:
Last season, this vault received a 10.000 from one judge and a 9.950 from the other.
In 2024, this vault cannot receive a 10.000 because the arms-up finish position was not held for one second (.05 deduction), which will also hopefully serve to emphasize a lack of landing control to ensure that gets deducted as well. If your momentum prevents you from holding a finish position for one second, then it wasn’t a stick anyway.
At least, that’s the whole plan behind making finish position a thing. Last season, one judge went on the journey with Suni and gave this landing a 10.000.
Perhaps being required to continue watching the whole routine to the end to see if she held the finish position for a full second would also force one to see the obvious landing movement and admit to oneself that it happened for a deduction? But at the very least deduct for not holding a finish position.
Medium Step
While the finish position is the headline, there are other landing changes that should be priced into the scores to change slightly how things are evaluated.
In terms of steps, judges now have the opportunity to deduct .15 for a single medium-sized step. Previously, the landing deductions were
.05 = tiny scoot/rebound
.10 = actual step
.20 = lunge of a yard or longer
(maximum .40 total for steps)
Now, judges have a .15 deduction to use for a single medium lunge/hop that’s larger than a normal step but shorter than a yard.
Squat Deduction
The deductions for a landing squat have been revised so that a landing where the hip joint and knee joint are both at horizontal is no longer a deduction (previously that was .10).
Now, the hip joint has to be below the knee joint in order to start receiving a deduction. Basically, this change was made in order to ensure that the Kyla landing is not deducted for squat.
Short Vaults
On the topic of vault landings, a slight change was made to the deduction for under-rotation of salto vaults. A short landing was previously a flat .10 deduction but is now an “up to .10” deduction.
This has been a point of contention for Yurchenko 1.5s in NCAA because if a vault was short enough that a gymnast had to step back, then it should never have scored higher than 9.800 because of the flat .10 for the step and the flat .10 for the short landing.
But we’ve seen lottttsss of short Yurchenko 1.5s score higher than 9.800. Now, the judges basically have cover to give that short vault a 9.850 because they can decide to take .05 instead of the full .10 for short salto rotation.