Hold Your Landings! The one T&T deduction that rules them all

Welcome to the latest JUDGE’S CORNER post, in which our T&T judge breaks down the one deduction that rules them all: Hold Your Landings!

As an athlete myself, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to make corrections on skills when the utmost thing on your mind is, simply put, just being able to do the skill without fear. This often manifests itself in competition, too, with athletes receiving lower execution scores than usual in the beginning of the competition cycle and these scores gradually increasing throughout the season as they become more comfortable performing the skills in their routines. This is normal, completely okay, and the exact reason we have multiple competitions over multiple months– improvement is always the goal no matter your baseline!

However, there is one very common deduction that I personally believe is the easiest of all to fix. Moreover, this deduction is applicable at every level; all athletes, from level one to senior elite can quickly correct this for an almost immediate boost to their scores!

What exactly is that deduction? In the simplest terms possible: HOLD YOUR LANDINGS!

T&T judges are picky about landings! Athletes are expected to show stability in their legs upon landing and take as few steps as possible before they stand completely upright, count to 3, and salute their judges. So often, though, athletes fail to take the time to truly lock in their landing and prove that they have reigned control over their body. When an athlete turns too quickly to salute, judges must take the maximum instability deduction (-0.2 for trampoline, and -0.3 for double mini and tumbling) even if they did not take any steps! This mistake is especially common in younger athletes who get excited that they’ve successfully completed their routine and want to immediately salute. However, an athlete’s score can easily improve if they get in the habit of fully standing still and counting to 3 after they’ve taken all of their necessary wobbles and steps to get control. We love the excitement to salute, but we love not having to take any landing deductions even more!

Own your landing, count to 3, and THEN give us your biggest salute and smile instead!

Some Additional Reminders About Landings:

1. Taking 10 (or even 100) steps will still always score higher than putting your hands down or falling! 
2. On individual trampoline, you can receive an instability deduction if you fail to show body control in your out-bounce or if you do not kill the elasticity of the trampoline immediately after your out-bounce. 
3. If you’ve taken a step, move this same exact foot back when you join your feet together. If you move the foot that didn’t already move, this will be considered another step!
4. Athletes who just count “1, 2, 3” after they land often count too quickly and may still be putting themselves at risk of receiving a landing deduction. Force athletes to slow down their counting with phrases like “1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi”, or “1 Gymnastics, 2 Gymnastics, 3 Gymnastics”!
5. Skills must always land on both feet at the exact same time. If an athlete’s feet do not make contact with the ground at the same time, the routine will be interrupted wherever this offense occurs to encourage athlete safety.