What is a Floor Routine?
The floor exercise is both a women’s artistic gymnastics and men’s artistic gymnastics event.
It’s the fourth and last of the women’s apparatus, competed after vault, uneven bars and balance beam in Olympic order. Men compete on the floor first when performing in Olympic order (floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar).
Here’s what to know about the floor exercise.
THE FLOOR MAT
The floor exercise is a square, about 40 feet long by 40 feet wide.
It’s usually made of foam and springs and covered with carpeting.
TYPES OF FLOOR SKILLS
Women perform both tumbling and dance skills on floor, while men do tumbling and occasional strength moves, or flairs and circles.
Dance skills are often similar to the ones shown on beam and include leaps, jumps and turns.
Men and women usually do four or five tumbling passes in a routine, and the passes often contain multiple flips and twists.
Some examples of difficult tumbling skills include the double-twisting double back done in a tucked or layout position; a back three and a half twist; and Arabian double pikes or double layouts.
There are also combination passes, in which a gymnast performs one or more rebounding skills right in a row, and roll-out skills (at 0:10). Women are prohibited from doing roll-out skills, and there are safety concerns with this type of move.
Men are required to do a strength move, which often looks like a move similar to one done on rings.
The gymnast will hold a position for two seconds before moving on to the next skill. Sometimes, male gymnasts will do circles or flairs similar to those done on the pommel horse.
A FLOOR ROUTINE
Gymnasts must use the entire floor mat during their routine, but cannot step off the floor mat at any time or a deduction is taken.
A floor routine lasts up to 90 seconds. Women perform to music of their choice, while men perform without music.