samedi 18 août 2018

Floor Exercise Mat

Have they ever considered widening the floor exercise by a few feet?

I'm not usually a fan of changing equipment too much in any sport because I think part of the fun and creativity in sports comes from different people finding ways to adapt their different abilities to a fixed point. Plus, I want to see what humans are capable of, not what science and equipment and technology is capable of.

That said, gymnastics has evolved its equipment in the past. They rightly changed the vault for safety reasons and they've changed the materials that constructed the bars, beam and floor. Most importantly, when female gymnasts started doing "bigger" skills on uneven bars, they drastically widened the bars. Is it possible it's time to also widen the floor mat as gymnasts are doing much bigger passes?

Argument for:

1. I don't want to change the rules to excuse gymnasts' mistakes, but an errant step on a landing is already a deductible error. I'd rather see OOB penalties be reserved for when a gymnast either SIGNIFICANTLY doesn't control the landing OR because she wasn't properly trained and needs a half-mile run before she tumbles.

I'd like enough room on the floor ex so that there are 3 available stages of landing: 1. Sticking your pass perfectly 2. Taking a .1-.3 step or hop 3. Going out of bounds. It seems these days for many girls, if you don't absolutely stick your pass, you end up out of bounds. Simone is 4'9" and she has trouble staying in. It's got to be way harder for any girl taller than her.

Argument against:

1. The men are on average taller than the women and have been doing the women's harder passes successfully since the 90s and manage to stay in bounds. If the men can stay in bounds, then the women should learn how to as well.

(although, I don't know for sure if this is true. I also don't know if the fact that the men don't leap and dance, plus get to stop, breathe and collect themselves slightly before their passes helps them control the pass)

In conclusion:

I don't know if I'm for or against changing it. Just curious what other people's thoughts are. I'd love to see data on the # of OOB penalties from previous decades compared to now, for both men and women. If the data shows there are significantly more OOB penalties now, that might signify the penalties are less because athletes are tumbling worse, than simply because the skills have gotten bigger and if so, that might be a reason to give them all a little more room.
Floor Exercise Mat

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