The 2020 NFL Celebration Invitational
The NFL has some of the most athletic human beings on the planet. When they score a touchdown these players love to show off and do crazy dances, flips, and all kinds of moves. What if we dissected the gymnastics celebrations and put them through the gymnastics judging system? Ellen is a Gymnastics coach so what better person to judge our competitors…Welcome to The 2020 NFL Celebration Invitational!!
I’ve been super bored and sad not being able to coach my gymnastics team! We didn’t get to finish out our season with the state and regionals meets so I’m feeling a bit lost. I found myself judging and correcting form in the tumbling celebrations of football players… ya’ll, it has been a weird time. Anyway, we thought it would be fun if I put this knowledge to use by actually hosting a virtual meet for these football players turned gymnasts. I will be the first to say, I am not a judge. I am a coach so I know most of the deductions to help prepare my team for success. I do not know the ins and outs of judging and I could never be a judge, my attention span is too short, so with that being said… here we go!
I will be judging this in the “Xcel” gymnastics style instead of the “J.O.” style. My friends who don’t know the difference I’ll give you a simple breakdown.
Xcel= judged on skills with no bonus points added for difficulty. So if you do a really hard skill but with not so great quality you get a lower score than someone who does something easier but very well.
J.O.= judged on skills with bonus points added for difficulty after a certain level. So, if you do something really difficult with some mistakes it can get a better score than someone who does something easier even if it is done really well. Think about Simone Biles and how she is WAY above the competition level of everyone else… that’s scoring with difficulty added (among other things that I won’t get into).
I figured Xcel scoring would be easiest since they are all doing different skills and some are doing multiple skills (round off back layout/tuck) while others are doing one skill (standing back tuck/front tuck). Also, all athletes will be scored based on the 10.0 system…. basically their final score is out of 10.
The first “routine” we are judging is Antonio Brown’s front tuck into the endzone. A lot of “front tuck” into the endzone videos that Kyle sent me would not count in the gymnastics world because the athlete is hitting their butt on the ground before their feet touch. This means the skill was not completed and gets a TON of deductions on top of not being added to the list of skills the athlete needs. This is why I have not included any of these in our little meet. Antonio Brown does a pretty good job with his amplitude in this front tuck. Honestly, I was pretty impressed with his form. Here is a breakdown of his deductions and his final score:
· Leg separation in flight (flip) - .2
· Arch in flight - .2
· Flexed feet -.1 (-.05 per foot!)
· Lands with feet apart and never joins heels - .05
· Squat on landing (hips at or lower than knees) -.3
· Large hop (shoulder width or more) out of landing - .3
· Small step (less than shoulder width) out of hop on landing - .1
Score: 8.75
Our next “routine” is from Jerome Simpson on the Bengals and this is another front tuck into the endzone. Now, he goes off one foot in this skill but I’m going to let that slide even though that isn’t really a thing on floor (on beam, yes). He also has some great amplitude in his front tuck and he also encounters a bit of interference during this skill which does not normally happen during gymnastics, but he handles it well. He is also the only athlete who gives a salute after his routine. Usually “failure to salute” incurs a .1 deduction. I will not be taking that in account during this competition BUT I will be giving him an extra .1 onto his score at the end for providing this salute. Here is a breakdown of his deductions and his final score:
· Leg separation in flight -.2
· Insufficient tuck in hips/knees -.2
· Deviation from straight line -.1
· Feet flexed -.1
· Arm swing during flight to keep balance -.1
· Squat in landing lower than hips -.3
· Support of hand on landing -.5
· Small hop into salute -.1
Score: 8.4
Score after +.1 for salute: 8.5
Just for some comparison, here is a front tuck from a level 5 gymnast. Both front tucks judged in today’s competition had some major leg separation during the flip itself. If you notice, this young gymnast keeps her knees and heels touching throughout the skill. Lovely form, way to go kiddo!
Now our next routine shows off some new skills. This routine by Khalen Saunders is a round off back tuck. One of the most impressive things about this routine is that Khalen is 320 lbs. That is a lot of body to flip around and I am VERY impressed with his form during this routine! It is really something special we witnessed today on the competition floor. Here is a breakdown of his deductions and his final score:
· Feet apart in landing of round off -.05
· Flexed feet -.1
· Insufficient tuck shape -.2
· Leg separation in back tuck -.2
· Body posture on landing (chest down) -.2
· Small hop on landing -.1
· 2 small steps after hop -.2
· Feet apart in landing -.05
Score: 8.9
Okay, Khalen does a round off back tuck and this level 5 gymnast does a round off back handspring back tuck… but I couldn’t find any legit gymnastics videos of a round off back tuck. It isn’t really done. There is USUALLY a back handspring between the two skills. Anyway, while Khalen’s round off back tuck is super impressive, it’s lacking a sufficient tuck shape in the hips and knees (must be at least 90 degrees). In this little gymnast’s tumbling pass you can see that tuck shape in her hips and knees. Not having this shape shown is a BIG deduction!
Our next performance is from Tyreek Hill. I am going to call this a round off back layout because it is definitely NOT a tuck. I would also like to add that he will be getting .2 added to his final score for the artistry shown during his choreography before the tumbling pass. Beautiful, confident and elegant dance elements have stacked this routine! Here is a breakdown of his deductions and his final score:
· Bent arms in round off -.3
· Flexed feet in round off -.1
· Bent knees in round off -.2
· Landed round off with feet apart -.05
· Bent knees in back layout -.2
· Leg separation -.2
· Flexed feet in layout -.1
· Arch in layout -.2
· Unable to maintain stretched position till landing (piking down) -.2
· Leg separation on landing -.05
Score: 8.4
Final Score After Artistry Addition: 8.6
We are now in the second half of our competition and it is getting fierce. You can really feel the energy pulsing through the arena as each athlete completes their routine. Our next performance comes from Braylon Edwards who is attempting to bring down the house with his round off back layout. He had some fantastic amplitude on that first tumbling pass, let’s see what score he ended up with:
· Bent knee in round off (1) -.05
· Flexed feet in round off -.1
· Round off landing position (chest down) -.2
· Feet apart on landing -.05
· Bent knees in layout -.2
· Flexed feet -.1
· Knee separation -.3
· Arch in layout -.2
· Pike down to land -.2
· Feet apart on landing -.05
Score: 8.65
Again, I couldn’t find a legitimate video of a round off layout… it just isn’t as big of a thing as a round off back handspring layout, so here’s a video of that. As you can see, the shape in this layout is completely different than the shape in the layouts done on the field. Their biggest deduction was the arch shape in their layouts, which is supposed to be in a “hollow” shape (the opposite of arch...). This video shows a fantastic “toe tap” to hollow shape! I’m going to find this video and show it to my gymnasts when we get back to the gym!! It’s that impressive. What a sight to behold.
Our next routine is a short one from Damoun Patterson, he will be performing a standing back tuck. Surprisingly, he had decent turnover considering he started his rotation from chucking his head backward toward the turf. Bold strategy, we’ll see how it works for him with the judges:
· Legs starting apart -.05
· Feet flexed -.1
· Legs apart in flight -.2
· Arch position -.2
· Insufficient amplitude -.2
· Insufficient opening of body before landing -.3
· Legs apart on landing -.05
Score: 8.9
Tyreek Hill is coming out again for another routine. I am not sure this is legal but we are going to allow it because we are all bored out of our minds in quarantine. Come on out Tyreek. He would also like to perform a standing back tuck. Let’s see how his measures up:
· Legs starting apart -.05
· Arch position -.2
· Insufficient amplitude -.2
· Legs apart in flight -.2
· Feet flexed -.1
· Insufficient opening of body before landing -.3
· Feet apart on landing -.05
· Hop to the side after landing -.2
Score: 8.7
A standing back tuck is one of those skills that all gymnasts want to achieve. They look really cool and they are hard for a lot of kiddos to figure out. They really want to start off throwing their heads back to get them flipping backwards… this is not ideal. You really don’t want your head being the thing going backward, it’s going to be pulling you down to the floor. It’s all in the hip lift and hip tuck, ya’ll! Anyway, our two athletes had their biggest deductions from the arch shape in their flip and lack of opening before landing. The arch shape comes directly from throwing your head back to initiate what we call “turn-over” (flipping). The lack of opening is also stemming from that same problem. If you are throwing your head back it means you won’t have a lot of height. On top of that, your head moving backwards also makes it harder to get your lower body moving over your upper body. How do you fix that? Well, by doing a back tuck like this gymnast. It’s all in the set (keeping your head and upper body as fixed as you can while jumping to get your hips up as high as possible) and the hip tuck (turning your tailbone forward toward your face all the way till you land). Easy enough… right?
Our final routine of the day is a simple one and yet it has so much room for error. Our last routine will be from Hagen Meservy and he is performing a cartwheel. Now, I will say that he is really taking advantage of this loose Xcel judging format BUT I am impressed that he’s willing to go out there with all the other talented tumblers and put his ego and pride on the line. Let’s see how he measures up to the rest:
· Deviation from a straight line -.1
· Feet flexed -.1
· Bent knees -.3
· Insufficient split -.2
· Incorrect body positioning on landing (arms down and body facing to the side) -.2
Score: 9.1
Award Ceremony
All of our gymnasts came out today with one thing in mind and that was to blow our minds with their tumbling abilities. Now, I am impressed with the boldness of each of these competitors and the pure athleticism that was on display today… but there can only be one victor. It’s time for our award ceremony... In 3rd place with an impressive score of 8.75 is Antonio Brown with his front tuck into the end-zone. In 2nd place… Oh my goodness, it’s a gymnastics miracle! We have a tie for 2nd place! Khalen Saunders with his round off back tuck and Damoun Patterson with his standing back tuck both scored an 8.9. Finally, our 1st place champion with a simple, yet impressive routine is Hagen Meservy performing one (almost) perfect cartwheel! With a score of 9.1 he has definitely come to win today. Congratulations! Gymnasts, please salute!