Gymnastics Regulations

Complete Gymnastics Regulations will be posted at a later date.  Following are the changes for the 2008/09 season.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (January 23, 2008) - New rules changes for high school girls gymnastics will allow for better understanding of skills and more consistent judging.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Girls Gymnastics Rules Committee adopted 52 rules changes, which will be effective with the 2008-09 school year, at its meeting last October in Indianapolis. The NFHS Board of Directors has approved the rules changes.
"The majority of the changes were keeping with current trends and terminology of the sport and addressing skills to better reflect today's high school gymnasts and their performances," said Becky Oakes, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Girls Gymnastics Rules Committee.

The definition of "angle of lowest body part" was added to Rule 1. The definition reads, "a line from the shoulders through the midpoint of the lowest body part used to evaluate the angle of the body."

The leap and jump charts in Rules 8-4-4 and 9-4-1 were replaced with charts that are easier to use.
"The new charts provide a logical progression of the skills being performed and allow for greater consistency in judging," Oakes said.

The descriptions of several skills were changed to better reflect the skills being performed. Rules 6-3-1 through 4 and 6-4-1 through 4 will reflect current terminology to describe phases for the vault: first flight phase, repulsion phase, second flight phase and landing.

Four padding rules changes - Rules 6-1-1, 6-2-5b and 6-1-3d, which were approved last year for the 2007-08 school year - were established for risk minimization. Those changes will appear formally for the first time in the 2008-10 rules book.

"Many of the changes were adopted to reflect current trends in the sport," Oakes said.

Following are other changes approved by the committee:
* Removed skills that are no longer performed due to changes in equipment, including: Cast Wrap, Eagle Wrap, Pop 1/1 and Double Leg Overshoot.
* Added Hand Placement Mat, Bonus High Superior and Direction Change to list of definitions in Rule 1.
* Increased the number of choices to fulfill the requirement of having eight skills in a routine.
* Adjusted the angle for a handstand to 20 degrees.

A complete listing of all rules changes approved by the committee is available on the NFHS Web site at www.nfhs.org. Click on "Sports" on the home page, and select "Girls Gymnastics."

The NFHS Girls Gymnastics Rules Committee meets every two years to consider changes to the rules book. According to the 2006-07 NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, 1,516 schools offered girls gymnastics in 2006-07, and 18,929 high school girls participated nationwide.