Women’s Artistic Gymnastics is a discipline that combines acrobatics and dance and is practiced on four different apparatuses.
Floor exercises are performed to music demonstrating artistic qualities through dance and choreography in harmony with acrobatics.
Age groups used at UPAG
The following categories participate in the UPAG competitions:
- 9 and 10 years
- 11 and 12 years
- 13 and 14 years
- 14 to 15 years old (juvenile)
- 16 years and over (adults)
Women's Artistic Gymnastics Events
It competes in 4 apparatuses: Jumping, Asymmetrical Bars, Balance Beam and Floor. Likewise, it is possible to compete individually or in teams, depending on the type of event.
There are 4 phases of competition.
- The Classification, from which the gymnasts move on to the different finals, which can be:
- General Individual Final, better known as All Around, which is the sum of the scores obtained in the four apparatuses.
- Team Final, where the best 8 teams participate.
- Apparatus Finals where the 8 best gymnasts classified in each apparatus participate.
General requirements for Women's Artistic Gymnastics routines
In Jump you select an element from the jump table that already has a default value.
In Asymmetrical Bars, Balance Beam and Floor, routines are presented that must include the 4 composition requirements established in the Scoring Code and consider the 8 elements of highest difficulty value including the exit.
It is possible for the gymnast to achieve additional tenths of a point by presenting complex links and combinations.
Apparatus in Women's Artistic Gymnastics
- Jumping: The apparatus consists of the 25-meter running track, the trampoline and the jumping table, which has a height of 1.25 meters.
- Asymmetric Bars: Consists of two 2.4 m long bars, one placed at a height of 2.55 m and the other at a height of 1.75 m, separated by a distance between 130 cm and 181 cm.
- Balance Beam: The apparatus is a 5 meter long and 10 cm wide bar and is placed at a height of 1.25 m (4 ft). It is covered with a non-slip material that absorbs the impacts of landings.
- Floor: 12 x 12 meter surface made of an elastic material to cushion falls.
Evaluation of routines
There are two components:
- Composition, which has to do with the selection of the elements presented and refers to the difficulty of the routine.
- Artistic execution and presentation, which refers to how the gymnast performs her routine.
For each apparatus, a Difficulty Grade (D) and an Execution Grade (E) are calculated. The latter starts at 10.00 points and the gymnast loses tenths of a point for execution and technical errors made during the routine.
According to the rules, deductions may be applied to the final grade known as neutrals.
The D and E grades are added together, neutral deductions are subtracted and the final grade is obtained.
The full Judges Panels for the world level competitions are composed as follows:
- Individual Trampoline: 1 Head of Judges Panel (S, T), 6 Execution Panel (E, H) and 2 Difficulty Panel (D).
- Synchronized Trampoline: 1 Head of Judges Panel (S, T), 6 Execution Panel (E, H) and 2 Difficulty Panel (D).
- Double mini-trampoline: 1 Head of Judges Panel (S, T), 6 Execution Panel (E, H) and 2 Difficulty Panel (D).
- Tumbling: 1 Head of Judges Panel (S, T), 6 Execution Panel (E, H) and 2 Difficulty Panel (D).
The competitions organized by UPAG are: Pan American Junior and Adult Championships, Pan American Club Cups for age groups, as well as playing an important role in the organization of gymnastics in Multi-sport Games such as the Pan American Games.
Pan American Championships are held every year and are sometimes part of the qualification process to other events such as Pan American Games or Pan American Junior Games.
