Devaluing the Yurchenko Full: The Effect of NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Code Modifications on Event and Total Scores

• Activity Number: 43 - SPEED: Statistics in Sports; Physical Activity/Sleep Studies, and Nonparametrics Part 1
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, July 28, 2019 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Sports
• Author(s): Elizabeth Jewell*
• Companies: University of Michigan
• Keywords: Gymnastics; Sports; Rule Change; Linear Models; ANOVA

Abstract

Prior to the 2016 NCAA gymnastics season, the NCAA modified the women’s gymnastics code of points changing the start value of the Yurchenko full twisting layout vault (Yurchenko full) from a 10.0 to a 9.95. This vault was the most commonly competed vault in NCAA Division I women’s gymnastics, and its devaluation meant that the highest score a team with a lineup of six up, five count Yurchenko fulls could earn was 49.75 out of a potential 50 points per event. I examine scores for the three years before and after this change to see that the trend in vault scores differs from those of the other three events, even when taking overall increases of scores over time into account. I also look at the proportion of the score accounted for by vault over time and compare how the scoring change differs across subsets of teams, including teams advancing to regionals and nationals, and teams competing in Division III.