So the new JO Optional Code went into effect August 1st for the upcoming season. This version of the code will remain in effect until 2022. There will inevitably be updates and revisions to the code but this will be the main foundation for the code for the next four years.
I am going to go into detail about the changes for each level in separate posts and will link those posts below for easy reference. I do want to cover just shortly some of the overarching themes and big picture items in this post just to get us started.
I would also like to note that several of my previous posts will be out of date and I will be adding notices to those posts and creating new posts as we go. Please be patient, I am just one very busy gym mom 🙂
There are several very significant changes.
Levels 6 & 7 will now be competing timers instead of handspring vaults. They will have their choice of a yurchenko timer, a front handspring timer or a Tsuk timer. All of these will be landing to their feet (there is an argument that these should be landing on their back, but that is a different conversation).
For levels 8-10 they have significantly changed the way they are deducting for composition of routines. They have removed much of the balance of difficulty and skill choice and what used to be an ambiguous version of the up to level deduction and have replaced these with very clear choice of elements and what is considered up to level.
For level 10 they have added the .1 difficulty bonus like they have had for vault for all the other events. Basically it works out that if you have an E skill and at least .6 bonus then you get .1 in extra bonus. This is considered an extra bonus and is not related to normal bonus for D/E elements or connections.
You may hear people (maybe even me) referring to it as a 10.1 start value, but it really isn’t part of the start value either. But because this bonus must be displayed on the table with the start value and separately noted on the score card next to or included in the start value it sometimes is just easier to refer to it as 10.1.
And, for the record, my dd had that bonus for her vault last year and at all meets it would appear as SV – 10.1 on her score cards. Yeah, more confusing please!
Ok, here is a link to the detailed posts for each level with levels 6 and 7 combined. I will link them up as I complete them.
Level 10
New .1 Additional Bonus (The 10.1 Start Value)
Level 9
Level 8
Levels 6/7