Gymnastics team adds difficulty to uneven bars routines
With a blitz down the mat, freshman gymnast Kari Dieffenderfer hits the springboard and propels her body horizontal past the lower bar, clearing it to grab hold of the upper bar.
Her uneven bars routine begins with several passes around the bar; she pauses briefly in a pencil-thin position, her feet pointed sharply in the air as she controls her momentum and freezes in mid-air. With a twist of her wrists, she reverses her position on the bar and begins to rotate in the opposite direction.
She completes her routine and dismounts smoothly to the mat below. Yet she is not phased by the rotation and spinning involved in the uneven bars event.
“It’s trusting your hands, and knowing you’re going to be there,” Dieffenderfer said, “You’re used to swinging around, and I have never gotten dizzy.”
Difficult to master
The uneven bars event consists of two individual bars of the same thickness positioned four feet apart. The lower bar on the apparatus sits 5 feet, 3 inches off the ground, while the upper bar sits 8 feet from the mat.
Scoring in the event deals with similar requirements in other events; however, an emphasis on releases and dismounts constitute a majority of the points. A release deals with the “flight element” of the sport, wherein a gymnast releases her grip from the bar to perform a twist and, then, simultaneously, re-grabs the bar.
Coach Jerry Reighard said this can be a rather difficult skill to master, but the importance of releases correlates to high-scored routines.
“The more you let go, the riskier routine,” he said, “And you really have to be strong in the shoulder area.”
The varying degrees of difficulty in a bars routine, and gymnastics in general, deal with a skill rating system that goes from ‘A’ to ‘E.’ With ‘A’ being the basic level, the difficulty goes up until the letter ‘E,’ seen as the most polished.
Reighard tries to ensure his gymnasts complete D and E quality routines, which require two or more releases during a run.
“Every year, we’re trying to upgrade difficulty, and the goal for the entire bar lineup is to have an E dismount, and to have two D releases,” he said.
Dieffenderfer is one of the few gymnasts in the conference, as well as the country, who maintains two ‘D’ releases in their routines, Reighard said. The efforts on the bars can be seen by her consistent scoring over the past two weeks in the event, including a personal season-high 9.775 against Kent State last weekend.
She has maintained a score of 9.7 or higher in the past three meets.
The bar squad as a whole ranks second in the Mid-American Conference with a high score of 48.95 (vs. Kent State). Its average of 48.371 ranks 28th nationally.
The physical toll accumulated in event that requires constant friction on the hands is one that Reighard tries to impress upon those new to the sport. He compares work on the bar to using a rake for several hours without a glove — causing wear to the athlete’s hands and wrists.
“Their hands get blistered and, sometimes, that can really impair a workout,” he said.
