Event
Balance beam
Skill type
Mount
Value
A
Known as
Side split
Split mount
About
The jump to sitting side split is probably the most popular A (0.1) beam mount in the world, the reigning queen of the boring mounts. For a time (a time named the Rio quad), it seemed that nearly every beam routine started with a side split.
There are so many basic, non-risky A skills in the mounts section, but I argue the side split has come out on top for two primary reasons. 1) The displayed flexibility can still get a crowd’s “ooooooh,” even though any gymnast reaching this level would not consider that a challenge, and 2) it gets you down on the beam to get your required low-to-beam choreography out of the way at the same time. Just check off all the afterthoughts together.
Strangely, the side sit split mount was removed from the code for a millisecond when the first open code was published in 2006 and had to be resubmitted.
The jump to a cross split with hand support is also in this skill box, though far less common. Most gymnasts jumping to a cross split will do it without hand support to get a more useful C value out of their mount.