Event
Balance beam

Skill type
Hold

Value
A

Known as
Scale
Needle scale
Scale forward
Standing split

About
Scales were an essential part of compulsory beam routines down the decades and remain an actual valued skill in the code of points. In modern routines, however, they are used not for their value but because they’re something to do that’s very “artistry checklist”-coded when you’re not doing a counting element. The old-timers like it. They go, “Ah good. Back in my day, we all had to do scales, and then the alcoholic centaur that coached me threw a cigarette in my face and screamed BE PRETTIER until I hit a scale. It was fine and healthy.”

By law, any time a commentator sees a scale element, they must say, “and showing off her flexibility there,” otherwise it doesn’t count. Thems the rules.