IJRU Competition Rules

4.0.0

In 2018, many individuals came together to develop a new rule set that could move the sport forward. Though the hosting of the 2021 Virtual World Championships, the 2023 World Championships, and numerous other national and continental tournaments, the organization was able to gather data and feedback on rules and guidelines that required attention and adjustments. The current update to the rulebook presents these adjustments in an effort to give athletes the freedom to create routines that are unique to themselves, as well as strive for the top level of athleticism and showmanship our sport has to offer.

IJRU wishes to thank the members of the Technical Committee for the hours they dedicated to evaluating and updating the inaugural rule set. The Technical Committee appreciates the feedback, suggestions, and concerns that have been shared from athletes, coaches, NGB leaders, and judges. Your involvement has been instrumental in the progression of the current rule system.

Official version​

Prior to a tournament, the Tournament Director will designate the official version of the Rule Book for use in the tournament. This will be the official version used in the competition and will be used to resolve any questions or disputes. For IJRU world championships, the current version of the IJRU rulebook will be used.

Version numbering​

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.REVISION, increments are made as follows

1. MAJOR version when rules are added, removed, or modified in a way that is incompatible with the previous version,
2. MINOR version when rules are added, removed or modified in a way that clarifies the intended meaning of the rules in a backwards compatible way (you can still compare results from previous competitions and only minor updates are required for judges), and
3. REVISION version when style changes are made to the rules, such as correcting typographical errors.

In addition to this, drafts and pre-releases might be marked with the suffixes draft and pr and a version number for these stages resulting in MAJOR.MINOR.REVISION-draft.VERSION and MAJOR.MINOR.REVISION-pr.VERSION where VERSION is a whole number greater than 0. Changes from suffix-less to draft version, draft to draft version, draft to pr, and pr to draft version may be MAJOR-, MINOR- or REVISION-level changes. Changes from pr to pr version may only be REVISION-level changes. Changes from pr to suffix-less versions can’t include any content changes.

There should be a copy of the rule book with changes highlighted accompanying the publication of any version of the rulebook. For draft and pr version this should show the changes compared to the previous pr, draft or suffix-less version, in that priority order. For suffix-less versions of the rulebook changes should be highlighted compared to the last suffix-less version.