Vaulting question

[Beverley]

I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask since there isn’t a vaulting forum…

I’m delighted the U.S. won the gold but have a question regarding their performance in the first round of the team competition. They had to stop and restart during their performance- my perception was that it was at least partially a horse issue - he was clearly bothered by the crowd noise going in, and it appeared that perhaps a minor slip by one of the vaulters prompted a need for full dismount, halt of horse, resume. Exiting the field of play the team did look a bit concerned and if memory serves they ended up third on the day, so I guess it wasn’t a major markdown- just really looking to know how that sort of thing affects the overall score.

[joiedevie99]

I’m curious as well. The commentator said that the horse counts for 20% of the total score, and that two judges exclusively judge the horse- but thats all I know.

[bounce]

Yes- answer please from someone. I watched the fall/halt/restart as well and was shocked that they finished 3rd with that performance. Bought the book… but nothing about scoring. Can someone fill us in?

[Beverley]

So…no vaulters in the neighborhood?

I did watch the Sunday closing coverage tonight (taped by son while I was flying home from KY) and when the rest of the family glimpsed the vaulting, they were amazed. Something they would as non horsey folk enjoy watching live.

In fact I think they are ready to petition the IOC to put vaulting IN the Olympics and take, oh, say, rhythmic gymnastics out!

[belambi]

The team USA accident
http://www.youtube.com/user/srhdeere#p/a/u/1/R9gQKLZmJAQ

Vaulting did used to be in the Olympics… it was called artistic riding, untill about 1940s I think.

The equestrian world have pushed for years to get it in, the main excuse against it is that there simply arent enough countries competing and achieving the high enough standard. This is mainly due to a lack of suitable horses. it would be very exciting to get Asia more involved… but again, there is a horse question. We did have some clinics in Hong Kong last year which were well attended… and its amazing where clubs are popping up… I know that Swaziland has started and are very keen to get themselves to a respectable level, and a number of African countries are keen to follow.
http://www.vaulting4africa.piczo.com/?cr=5

[belambi]

Ps. This is the worlds best site for vaulting videos.
http://www.voltigierdvd.de/

[Sasharona]

I read that Palatine was spooked by a camera’s movement. As I watched the video I could see that the lunge line was a bit slack just before the vaulters fell. After a fall I believe they have 1 minute to resume their freestyle. I am a vaulting coach but I’m not as familiar with team scoring as I am with individual. Two of the five judges were strictly scoring the horse with a dressage basis. In looking at the scores, I see his horse score was about a point to a point and a half lower than in his compulsory score and the final freestyle score. I see Slovankia’s horse score was 4.8 and 4.0. Ouch! Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to see it and only can comment from the few videos I’ve seen. As to why they scored better than other teams that finished under them, degree of difficulty of the movements, movement positions (frontwards, backwards, sideways, up, down, on the back and neck), vaulters form, flow of their program, etc. all contribute to the final score. Except for the fall they didn’t seem to have any other bobbles. I’m sure the Germans put in a great freestyle judging by their score and the knowledge that they’re usually at the top as they have a base of 50,000+ vaulters as compared to 1200-1300 vaulters in the US. It is a big coup that the US knocked the Germans out of the gold medal. The competition among the top teams though was very close with some very good scores.

It is my understanding also that to be included in the Olympics a sport must have a minimum number of countries with national championships within their country before the IOC would consider it for inclusion. In addition, I heard that they only allow a certain number of sports and for a new one to be included they have to exclude a current sport.

[Elegante_E]

Thanks for the great vaulting posts, Sash!

[Carol_Ames]

no ponies , or pony rides so vaulting was all for kids

It used to be 40 :eek:years ago, before there were riding ponies in central Europe, that vaulting was the only equine sport open to kids:yes:

[system]

To add to what Sasharona put in:
For the horse score you graded on the movement and purity of the canter - for the most part Pally moved out on the line well and maintained a very nice collected true 3-beat canter with only a few occasions where he broke contact with the lounger (think of it like a dressage test where the overall purity of gate and soft contact with the ‘rider’ is more weighted than the deductions for the occasional bobble ie - The Slovakia horse often went in a 4 beat gate with a slack line thus the reason for a lower score than a horse who spooked once and dumped everyone off - think of all the winning dressage horses who have just stopped in the middle of a piaffe) There are standardized deductions for most things and as they are one point amongst many they don’t end up affecting the overall score if you only have one bobble the whole time. That being said the US actually fell dramatically from their compulsory scores where they had about a .5 point lead but were able to not fall too far thanks to their artistic score and degree of difficulty. This was actually not round 1 but round 2 — but who really watches compulsories yawn - well I did but I had to cheer on Blake - my teammate from years ago - and that was the only time he did anything.

[Bluey]

I don’t know today’s rules, but 40+ years ago, we were told you could fall two times and depending on what happened, it would only lower the score, but fall a third time was elimination.
May not be so today.