Event
Balance beam

Skill type
Dance

Value
A

Known as
Cat leap
Cat
“I don’t know…stepping?”

Named after
Cats. You know how cats do that thing where they alternate lifting both of their legs above horizontal? No? You mean you’ve seen a cat before and that’s literally never happened? Cool.

About
Sigh. In theory, the cat leap should involve some serious height and both knees reaching clearly above horizontal at alternating times. As it is currently conceived in NCAA gymnastics, however, it basically involves just sliding along the beam with kind of high-ish knees. Many casual viewers of NCAA gymnastics are surprised to learn this is actually an element for value, rather than just choreographic walking to prep for the next skill.

This is pretty much an NCAA-specific phenomenon because an A (0.1) dance element can garner bonus preceding an acro element. In elite, the A value means it cannot receive bonus and renders the cat leap essentially unusable.