Is that like American Idol?

Soooooo..... when I am not writing I spend my weekends judging gymnastics. Now I know that not a lot of people are familiar with gymnastics; it is obviously an elite sport but whenever people find out that I am a judge they never quite know what that means.

For anyone who was ever curious here is a super condensed version of how to judge gymnastics. First off there are ten levels. One being the easiest and ten being the most advanced. Judging has a manual that is thicker than my husband's pilot manual and changes just as frequently. To make it simple I am going to focus on level 10 for this entry. For every skill that a gymnast does it is designated a letter A-E. 'A' being an easy skill (for example a round off on the floor) versus E being an advanced skill (like a back flip with three twists on floor). The gymnast is requires to do 3A 3B and 2C's in her routine. She starts from a 9.5 and has to earn 0.5 in bonus (bonus is earned by preforming hard elements like D's and E's and also by element combinations like 2 C's in a row.) There are also 4 special requirements per event that must be met or the gymnast will lose 0.50. For example on floor she must have a tumbling pass with two saltos in it. On bars she must have a flight element that is at least a C. After you, as a judge, have figured all that mess out you know what the gymnast's routine will start from. Now you have to have also taken deductions off of moves that weren't preformed completely perfect. The most you can take on bent arms while preforming a front handspring on floor is 0.30 but on vault you can take up to 0.50. so you better know all of those deductions as well.) Once you get your score you average it with the other judges score and then you take any neutral deductions like 0.10 for going out of bounds or 0.3 for using the wrong mats. You have about 20 to 30 seconds to have all of that done and be onto the next girl because the average session is about 56 gymnasts large and if you take more than 30 seconds to determine a score you are going to be there all day long.

After judging a meet I was flying home and the person sitting next to me on the airplane asked what I was doing in Vegas. I wearily told them that I judge gymnastics and they asked the question that i get all the time and that makes me a little crazy. "Judging gymnastics? Is that like what Paula does on American Idol?"

NO! It is not like Paula on American Idol! She would not have the slightest clue how to determine Shawn Johnson from Nastia Luikin. I didn't look at all of those little athletes and decide whose smile was the brightest. There is a very complex system people! (Too complex in my opinion) But no! it is not like American Idol!

There. I feel better now. Tomorrow I am on my way to San Jose where I will do three days of clinics and take yet another test to keep my current ratings as a judge. Wish me luck. I will leave you with a video that I used for getting prepared for the practical part of my test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPz9hLk8Axg

XOXO

T