From the Judge’s Chair…Men’s P-Bars

We’ll next take a look at an event that many fans find a bit difficult to judge because the values of the skills can be hard to remember – men’s p-bars.  As we did on floor, we’ll use the current world champion in order to see how a D score is calculated from some of the most difficult skills in the world.  I’ll first mention that, unlike floor, there are no connection points on p-bars, which will make the calculation a little easier.


Wang Guanyin P-Bars 2009 Worlds Finals

Step 1: Calculate the Element Group Total

-Each EG is worth 0.5.

-The dismount must be a D to get the 0.5.

-A “C” dismount is worth 0.3, and anything lower is worth 0 points.

EG 1: Support skills

EG 2: Upper arm skills

EG 3: Long hanging skills

EG 4: Underswings

EG 5: Dismount

The piked Morisue (double back from support) counts for EG 1.

The Richards (front uprise Diamidov) counts for EG 2.

The piked Belle (giant double back) counts for EG 3.

The peach ½ mount counts for EG 4.

The double pike dismount fully fulfills EG 5.

EG Total: 2.5


Step 2: Calculate the Skill Value Total

Count only the ten best elements (must include the dismount).

A’s:             0.1

B’s:            0.2

C’s:            0.3

D’s:            0.4

E’s:            0.5

F’s:            0.6

G’s:            0.7

Peach ½ to handstand E 0.5
Peach to handstand D 0.4
Richards (front uprise diamidov) E 0.5
Dimitrenko (front uprise double back) E 0.5
Piked Morisue (double back from support) E 0.5
Piked Belle (giant double back) E 0.5
Tippelt D 0.4
Healy D 0.4
Straddle front 1 ¼ to upper arms D 0.4
Double pike D 0.4

Skill Value Total: 4.5


Step 3: Add both totals together

2.5 + 4.5 = 7.0 D-Score

Believe it or not, his E-scores ranged from an 8.4 from the RSA judge (Republic of South Africa) all the way up to a 9.5 from the Italian judge…what??!!!  I cannot possibly imagine giving an 8.4 for that routine…I would been around a 9.3.  He had a slight break in that last handstand at the end (we’ll say a 0.3 deduction at the most), the peach ½ at the beginning was slightly short of handstand (0.1), the peach handstand had a slight arm bend (either 0.1 or 0.3), and the straddled front 1 ¼ landed slightly rough (0.1). I thought all his other upper arm landings were smooth.  The code says they are supposed to show adequate “extension” before regrasping after all saltos, so this could be applied with various levels of strictness.  I actually thought he adequately opened out of all his piked elements (including the dismount), and honestly it seems unreasonable to me to expect an opening on the front uprise double back, so I wouldn’t deduct there.  These two scores were obviously thrown out, and the average was an 8.975, for a final score of 15.975.  He won by 0.2 over teammate Feng Zhe.