Gymnastics question, the beam

[Twolipstulips]

I’m watching the gymnastics, women’s beam. Do they get marked on the fancy arm twizzles, arched backs, dancey moves, or are they just there to fill in some time and give the gymnast a breather between the difficult moves?

There’s no music, unlike the floor, so seems unnecessary to the routine, to an uneducated viewer like me!

I'd like to know too.

No, no marks for the choreography, but they help the routine to flow and yes, give time for a breather!

They have to include linking moves like leaps and presentation.

Spins are included in the difficulty score though.

Spins and jumps are scored, and if I recall correctly they can be penalised for standing still for too long, the elements have to be part of a continuous flow.

Think spins are similar difficulty to some of the harder leaps...

I get the spins and leaps, they look hard! Just looks a bit flouncy with all the arm movements, but I can see how it helps the flow of the routine.

I struggle to differentiate between difficulties on the men’s vault, it goes too quick!

I am not a fan of the flicky wrist or bend your knee poses either. In the old days there were some really lovely beam routines where there was far more dance involved.

Just seems so superfluous when the actual moves they get marked on are so complex, athletic and challenging.

There are marks for artistic impression as well which the dance stuff contributes towards.

I don't like the pointless flicky wrist stuff. It just irritates me as a spectator. I note the men don't seem to need this in their routines, nor did women back in the day.

It pisses me off that female competitors have to do all that ridiculous “dancing” in their floor routines, wear make up and glitter spray and barely-there leotards, whereas the males get to just do their skills/tumbles and that’s that, and not wear skin tight clothing that leaves their lower half virtually naked.

But the girls I know enjoy the dance aspect and I was talking to a boy gymnasts dad the other day and he said he his son wishes he could do more artistry in his floor routine