≡Score for Score

So many of you have been playing around with our tools lately! I'm so happy!

I thought this might be a good chance to specify a few details about how they work. I'd call this my "frequently asked questions" page, but no one has asked any questions yet. If you do have questions, leave a comment or e-mail me at brina.scoreforscore@gmail.com. I'll update this page as needed.

Which scores get used?

Any score from this quad in the database is up for grabs. I get all of my score data from TheGymternet, and they do a fantastic job covering elite meets, so I like to think it's pretty complete.

If you select scores from "this quad," the tool will search the entire database. If you select scores from "this year," the tool will search for scores between today and this time last year - that is, exactly 365 days ago. If you select scores from "this season," the tool will search for scores from competitions that happened after the last Worlds or Olympics.

If I select "average" scores, what sort of average does the tool calculate?

It's the mean, because I'm not sneaky like that.

Do your scores include domestic bonuses and/or deductions?

Ah, domestic bonuses. A longer post for another time. Suffice to say that they've been removed from the database wherever possible, so our scores should reflect the FIG CoP. However, sometimes that's not possible. If you have questions about a specific meet or a specific score that looks wrong, let me know and I'll try to look into it.

How do you calculate AA totals?

If you're using the Score Selector to compare AA performances, AA totals will be based on scores from different meets combined. AA scores therefore don't show the best that a gymnast has done on a single day; they show how well she could do if she did her best on every individual event.

For gymnasts with two vaults, which vault is used for team or AA totals?

The tools only look at a gymnast's first vault. For example, Angelina Melnikova's DTY scores about 14.4 on average, but her second vault is usually around 13.8. If you were interested in the average vault score that she might contribute to the Russian team, you'd only want the average of her DTYs since she'd certainly chose to do that in a team competition.

There could be cases where a gymnast's second vault scores a little higher than her first - most heartbreakingly, this was the case for Isabela Onyshko at the Rio Olympics - but in such cases the two vaults are usually close enough that it shouldn't have a big impact on the conclusions you draw from the results.

How can you compare scores from domestic meets and international meets as if they're the same?

I actually did some research on this a few years ago, and I found very little evidence that domestic score are systematically higher in most countries. Of course, there might be specific meets where things go a little nuts or specific gymnasts for whom judges go a little nuts.

Comment below if this is a really important issue for you. It would be time-consuming but not terribly difficult to add an option that lets you only use scores from FIG meets, and I can do it if a lot of people have strong feelings.

Hope this helps!

Tags: Score for Score Business

What's a blog without a comment section? Not much fun, that's what.

So, as of today, the Score for Score comment section is open for business!

If there's one thing I know about the gymternet, it's that you all have opinions. I'd love to hear your thoughts on some recent posts- especially when it comes to picking Team USA for Worlds.

And, as always, follow @ScoreforScore on Twitter for updates!

Tags: Score for Score Business

Hello, gymnerds! Welcome to Score for Score!

My goal is to help you all put gymnastics data to good use. There isn't a lot of data available about women's artistic gymnastics, especially when you compare it to sports like baseball or football. We don't know how fast someone ran towards the vault, or how high she flew on a release move. We don't know who got artistry deductions on floor, or which connections were credited on beam.

But we do have scores, and scores are data.

Scores are all the more important because gymnastics is a subjectively judged sport. They are an attempt to quantify qualities like beauty, grace, power, and perfection.

In basketball, you score points if the ball goes through the hoop. It doesn't matter if it's an easy layup or a mind-bending, physics-defying trick shot. But in gymnastics, these things do matter. You have to do something insanely hard, and you have to look good while doing it.

And then we assign a number to how good you looked.

So what do scores tell us about the sport of gymnastics? Importantly, they tell us who wins the competition. But I think there's a lot more we can learn from these numbers. For example:

• How consistent has a gymnast been in competition?


• How might a given team line-up do in a team final?


• Who might get two-per-countried out of a final?


• Does the current code favor some events over others?


• How has the balance between difficulty and execution changed over time?

I hope to explore some of these questions on this blog in the coming months. But more importantly, I hope this website gives you all the tools to do that yourself, if and when you want to. For now, you can check out the Score Selector and the Team Tester to start exploring score data on your own.

Sound interesting? Then come back soon for more! And follow me on Twitter at @ScoreforScore for regular updates.

Let's get started!

Tags: Score for Score Business