Gummy Bears and Gymnastics: Compulsories: maybe we need them back...

Kim Chase Olympic Balance Beam Compulsories

With the revision of the code of points in 1996 after the Olympics, the compulsory round was eliminated from the artistic gymnastics competition.
For those of us that don't remember this era, the compulsories were the first round of competition and was made up of four routines, one in each apparatus, each developed by one or more countries. These routines were made up of the basic, yet fundamental skills necessary to perform each apparatus. Every gymnast had to take part in the compulsory round and the cleanliness, amplitude, and exactness of each movement was what mattered at this stage of the competition.
The gymnasts had to demonstrate that they had a handle on all the categories of skills necessary to do that apparatus. Later in the optional portion of the competition (team, AA, and EF) the gymnasts could perform their own routines that highlighted their best features, nevertheless since the scores carried over (the score from the compulsories counted in the final score), being good at the fundamentals of gymnastics was paramount to being competitive. The champions of these era were those that could master all categories of movements, and bring something original and difficult to the table.

No wonder Shannon Miller is one of the all time best gymnasts and competed for so long. She was the US queen of compulsories, her precision was just unbeatable by her teammates. This was what she always had over other greats of her era like Kim Zmeskal.

Yelena Shushunova was a power gymnast, yet she had amplitude, perfect form, and just knew how to stick those landings. Vault was always one of her best events.

These days we hear commentators talk about how Romania is traditional not good at Uneven Bars, however this was not always the case, Daniela Silivas is a perfect example of this. She was so stylish and clean, she had a great swing and was impeccable in this event.

Svetlana Khorkina is one of the most fabulous gymnasts ever and she made gymnastics to her own image. She was original and created many skills to fit her style, but she was only capable of doing this because she was trained well in the basics of the sport. Many say the open ended score has pushed gymnastics towards more difficulty and originality, yet I feel the compulsories allowed for gymnasts to be well prepared to go into these difficult and original skills safely. Today in the myriad of bad turns we see, check out this turn with the leg held horizontally into pose that was a compulsory requirement in 1996's FX.

Svetlana Boginskaya was also a unique brand of gymnast and her floor exercises were iconic. Her body line was just exquisite. She is not called the Belorussian Swan for no reason.

The compulsories allowed judges to separate the wheat from the chaff. This round allowed them to compare apples to apples and I think that was good for the sport.
Dina Kochetkova was just another great gymnasts in a very deep Russian team. The truth is the Russians knew (and still know) how to train them. Even their table setters and reserves were capable of taking home medals.

Lilia Podkopayeva was a true all arounder, she did not have weaknesses, her technique was perfect and so was her compulsory exercises. Here she performs the same compulsory floor routine I posted from Khorkina above. We can see their different styles, but we can compare each movement and identify where one could be more clean, or the other could have more height. Today in exercises like floor and vault the judges deduct no matter what because they always feel the gymnasts could have more amplitude and height yet they do it with every single gymnast. The scores need to be defined within what the current gymnasts are capable of performing. The compulsories allowed the judges to calibrate their expectations and the scores and allowed people to get the hang of the system before the optional competition got under way.

Yang Bo was just so great on beam and her fabulous lines and technique showed through in her compulsory as well as her optional exercise. Without good flexibility, lines and amplitude you just could not pull off this compulsory routine and as such you would not be challenging for medals in this competition.

In an era of sluggish turns, bad leaps, ugly twists, rare stuck landings, and when routines without any mistakes are few and far between I believe compulsories need to come back. Compulsory exercises forced gymnasts to have great technique to be at the very top reducing serious injuries.
The open ended code of points (which I will be tackling in my next opinion piece for this blog) plays its part in the diminished cleanliness and artistry of today's routines, as well as widespread of serious injuries, but the compulsories had a large influence in the equation also. Moreover bad technique and poorly executed routines cost gymnasts much more dearly at this time since the compulsory scores played a part in the final score.
Sports like Figure Skating eliminated the Compulsory Dance as it is rather a boring round for the lay audience, but managed to incorporate a portion of it in the Short Dance. The inclusion of a compulsory dance pattern in the Short Dance serves the purpose of maintaining the need for basic training of the dancers in the skills of each rhythm as well as the ability to directly compare the competitors without overlooking the entertainment factor (and competition timeline, as a compulsory round adds to the fatigue of competitors and judges).

This is a controversial topic, but I believe that if we directly compare the gymnasts trained under the compulsory (and the perfect 10 scoring system) and those under today's structure, we can see why we need to look back at what shaped the sport and what worked. Just saying that the open ended score system and the end of compulsories pushed the difficulty and originality of the sport, is not accounting for what history shows.

One example of many (and I mean many...) possible ones: Balance Beam Jordyn Weiber 2011 vs. Shannon Miller 1992 (or 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, the girl was on top for a looong time!). Saying that Jordyn's bent legs and lack of extension across the feet, lack of amplitude in the leaps and turns, as well as poorly developed dance/choreographic elements is because of her high difficulty is silly. Miller had high difficulty and still had artistry, amplitude, and much more.