VAULTING TABLE IN GIRLS
GYMNASTICS TO BE REQUIRED IN 2005-06
The National Federation of
State High School Associations (NFHS) Girls Gymnastics Rules Committee changed
the vaulting table recommendation it made in 2002 to a requirement for the
2005-06 high school girls gymnastics season.
The committee met January
31-February 2 in
The official change, made to
Rule
“Since the rule was made in
2002 allowing vault tables to be used along with the vaulting horse, we have
been tracking what state associations are doing,” said
True said the committee
believes the vaulting table will reduce the risk of injuries, which is a key
focus of all NFHS rules committees.
Consistent
with that focus, a major theme of this year’s meeting was the emphasis on risk minimization.
Rules
“The committee is always trying to adjust and
add rules to reduce the risk of injuries,” True said. “Risk minimization
remains a top priority.”
In the case of time
infractions in Rules 2-2-1b(12d), 8-3-7b and 9-3-7c, the committee changed the
penalty to read overtime, so that a short routine is not penalized if it meets
all other requirements.
Changes to sections of Rule
5 regarding coaches’ inquiries were another focus of the committee this year. Rule
Rule
Rules 7-4, 8-4 and 9-4 were all adjusted to be consistent with current
trends in gymnastics. “Basically, revisions and additions were made to the
difficulty values on bars, beam and floor,” True said.
Of those changes, the rule
regarding the balance beam was the topic of much discussion at last summer’s NFHS
Girls Gymnastics Rules Interpreters Meeting.
In the last rules book,
either a roundoff with a flight or back handspring
needed to be directly connected to a tumbling skill to raise a gymnast’s value
to a high superior. With the change now, the roundoff
with a flight or back handspring needs to be connected to a superior
tumbling skill.
Other changes included adding
walking
on hands (with a 0.1 deduction up to 0.3) to Rule