Difficulty
General
Difficulty judges will award a level for each skill performed in a routine. A skill is defined as a motion of the rope and/or athlete, beyond a double bounce jump, single bounce or basic side-swing, that is assigned a level of difficulty. The starting levels of difficulty and modifiers are described in the paragraphs below and illustrated using tables/matrices.
During a routine, the difficulty judges mark the difficulty level of each skill successfully performed within the time limit of the routine. A skill should only be marked by one of the three judges, so it is important for judges to be able to recognise when a skill includes an element that falls under the responsibility of one of the other judges. The determination of which of the three judge types will judge a specific skill is as follows:
- Any skill including a power or gymnastics element will be judged by the Power and Gymnastics judge (Examples: frog, double under push-up, flip with a mic, aerial with a wrap).
- Any multiple under skill that takes off and lands on two feet and does not include a power or gymnastics element will be judged by the Multiples judges (Examples: triple under TJ, quadruple AS, Hummingbird, double under crosses)
- Any other skill, meaning skills that do not contain any power, gymnastics, and isn't a two-foot take-off/landing multiple under will be judged by the Rope Manipulation judge. (Examples: wraps releases, footwork, change in direction of rope movement in the air, single bounce crossing, double under crougar wrap, mic release, can-can, Awesome Annie etc.)
For freestyle with more than one athlete, if different skills are performed simultaneously, award credit for the lowest skill completed. If one athlete misses during a skill, this skill does not count, and no difficulty will be awarded until all athletes have resumed executing skills.
Judges should watch for skills that come before or after the skills that fall into their categories and make adjustments to skill levels as they deem appropriate. For example, an intricate wrap and release sequence that ends with a double under frog. The power judge may award a level 6 for the frog if the sequence prior to the double under frog added to the difficulty of completing the double under frog.
Note that the matrices and modifiers below are based on properly executed skills, judges should adjust the levels down if a skill is so poorly performed that it has become easier. Examples of this includes, but is not limited to, "fake" multiples (multiples starting with a side swing where the athlete has not left the ground when the rope passes by their feet on the first turn), "splits" that aren't deep enough and instead turns into a forward straddle, push-ups where the athlete doesn't jump out far enough and ends up looking like a "tent", etc.
Determining the level of individual skills in single rope includes a variety of factors: the level of athleticism required to complete a skill, the intricacy of a skill and the length of time required to complete a skill. Levels for skills have been adjusted to account for these factors and promote the use of skills to create well rounded routines that include a balance of all skill types.
Repeated Skills
The Difficulty judges are responsible for counting exact repetitions of skills and make a "repeated skill" mark any time one is performed.
Any time an exact skill with difficulty level 3 or higher is clearly repeated during a routine the difficulty judge should NOT make a mark for that skill, and instead make a "repeated skill" mark. Variations that are not considered repeated:
- Changing the direction (forward vs. backwards)
- Different ways of entering or exiting a skill
Variations that are considered repeated:
- Performing a skill on a different side or with different arms
- Performing a skill in a different direction relative to the floor or rope (for example looking north, south, east or west)
- Performed by a different athlete (or different combination of athletes) in the routine
Required Elements
In order to ensure that freestyle routines are well-rounded and varied, athletes will be required to perform certain skill types or elements. For each required element not fulfilled points will be deducted from the score.
The amount of required elements performed is determined based on the skill level marks made by the different difficulty judges, or by the Technical Judge for pairs interactions. Skills level 3 or above count as one completed required element, skills level 2 or below count as 1/2 completed required element.
For the IJRU World Championships Series, the following number of elements are required for freestyle events in the Senior competition, with the number of required elements for the Junior Competition and Open Tournament in (parenthesis):
- 6 (4) Power and/or Gymnastics skills
- 6 (4) Multiples
- 6 (4) Rope manipulation skills
- 4 (4) Pairs interactions (recorded by the Technical Judge)
The event organiser for other events than the IJRU world championships may adjust these numbers.
Power and Gymnastics
Gymnastics matrix
| Starting Level | Examples of skills |
|---|---|
| Level 1 |
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| Level 2 |
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| Level 3 |
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| Level 4 |
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| Level 5 |
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| Level 6 |
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| Level 7 |
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| Level 8 |
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Power matrix
| Starting Level | Examples of skills |
|---|---|
| Level 1 |
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| Level 2 | One of the following skills to standing with pulling the rope under the feet in the exit (single bounce)
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| Level 3 |
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| Level 4 |
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| Level 5 |
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| Level 6 |
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| Level 7 |
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| Level 8 |
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Modifiers for powers and gymnastics
- +1 for Criss-cross performed with power or gymnastics skills and/or flips
- +1 to the level of a multiple landing in Push-up, Split or Crab position
- +2 to the level of the starting skill if landing in a frog position
- +1 for assisted flips without supporting interaction
- -1 for assisted flips with supporting interactions all the way around
- +1 for every 90-degree turn in power when the rope is pulled (90° = +1, 180° = +2, 270° = +3, etc.)
- -1 for gymnastics with rope held with only one hand and not jumping the rope (for example, one-hand handspring (L2) with both handles in one hand (-1) = L1; front aerial (L3) with both handles in one hand (-1) = L2)
Common modifiers for skills done as pairs interactions
- +1 for one athlete being scooped by one rope
- +2 for multiple athletes being jumped by scoop
- +2 for multiple ropes moving during scoop
- +2 for leap frog (scoop)
- +3 for Multiple ropes and multiple athletes moving during scoop
Multiples
Judges should be familiar enough with multiples skills to recognize when a side swing has been completed on the ground before the skill. Thus, not resulting in an additional level being added to a skill. Ex: Triple under toad (TJ) with initial side swing completed partially on the ground would result in only a Level 2 (double under toad) recorded by the judge (the initial side-swing being "Level 0").
| Starting Level | Examples of skills |
|---|---|
| Level 1 |
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| Level 2 |
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| Level 3 |
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| Level 4 |
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| Level 5 |
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| Level 6 |
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| Level 7 |
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| Level 8 |
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The first one- or two-arm restriction of a multiple will add one or two levels respectively. Any additional arm restrictions, such as any changes in arm restrictions will only add one level each regardless of how many arms are restricted.
Multiples ending with a side swing should be scored as if the side swing was not part of the multiple. For example, "Triple under" open open side-swing should be judged as a double under open open.
Modifiers for multiples
- +1 for body rotation more than 270° in twist or flip direction (for example, EK, BC, full twist)
- +1 for every additional 180° turned in the air beyond a 360° turn when jumped. (540° = total +2, 720° = total +3, 900° = total +4, etc.)
Common modifiers for skills done as pairs interactions
- +1 for one athlete being scooped by one rope
- +2 for multiple athletes being jumped by scoop
- +2 for multiple ropes moving during scoop
- +2 for leap frog (scoop)
- +3 for Multiple ropes and multiple athletes moving during scoop
Rope manipulation
| Starting Level | Examples of skills |
|---|---|
| Level 0.5 |
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| Level 1 |
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| Level 2 |
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| Level 3 |
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| Level 4 |
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| Level 5 | |
| Level 6 | |
| Level 7 | |
| Level 8 |
Levels increase as athlete combines wraps, releases, increases the speed of jumping, or preceded by or connected to a skill that makes it harder to complete. Example: Frog to AS. An AS performed as a frog exit requires more rope control than an isolated AS.
Modifiers for rope manipulation
- +1 for switch crosses (AS×AS, criss-cross×criss-cross, AS×CL as long as the arm on top changes, etc.)
- +1 per layer for go-go's/crazy criss-cross (one hand crosses twice across body, leg or arm without uncrossing)
- +1 (max +3) per extra wrap layer for wraps
- +1 for changing the direction of rope movement in the air (Note, skills like EK where the rope continues in the same direction but the athlete turns doesn't count)
- +1 for switching handles
- +1 for transition jumps (jumping a one-hand restricted skill and in one jump, jumping the opposite side one-hand restricted skill, such as crougar-crougar)
- +1 for each restricted arm catching the release when catching a release in a one-arm restricted position
- +1 to the release for releasing a handle in a restricted position if, and only if, the hand is completely behind the body (behind the back or behind both legs)
- +1 for catching a release with something other than a hand (such as scooping the rope, squeezing it with a body part, or landing the rope on a foot, shoulder, or similar, jumping the rope with the rope caught on a body part)
Common modifiers for skills done as pairs interactions
- +1 for one athlete being scooped by one rope
- +2 for multiple athletes being jumped by scoop
- +2 for multiple ropes moving during scoop
- +2 for leap frog (scoop)
- +3 for Multiple ropes and multiple athletes moving during scoop
Footnotes
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Historically referred to as a "suicide flip" ↩
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Historically referred to as a "kamikaze" ↩
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Under the leg wraps typically consist of multiple components. For example, a crougar wrap may consist of: Crougar, wrapped crougar, 2 restricted swings to unwrap. These steps would result in 4 separate scores: 1,2,1,1. ↩