Editor’s note: The following article was first published on College Gym News.
Thanks in no small part to larger broadcasts and high-profile gymnasts like Sunisa Lee and Olivia Dunne converting online followers to fans, college gymnastics is growing out of its niche and reaching more mainstream audiences. In fact, after ABC bumped last season’s national championship to an earlier time slot to accommodate a regular season NHL game, the gymnastics broadcast outperformed that game by over a hundred thousand viewers. There’s no denying that college gymnastics has officially made it.
Watching a gymnastics meet can be fun regardless of your level of knowledge about the sport, but actually understanding what’s going on certainly adds to the experience. So, to give all of the sport’s new fans a warm welcome, we created a how-to guide for understanding NCAA gymnastics, complete with references to the ball sports we all grew up watching. We’ll assume you’ve already read our comprehensive breakdown of the Code of Points (COP) explaining mundane things like the rules, meet format and common skill names and jump straight into the fun stuff.
Need to Know
These are key words and phrases you’ll want to know to follow NCAA gymnastics at an enjoyable level….
