While both a women’s and men’s event, high level floor routines vary considerably between them. At the “optional” levels of gymnastics (7-10), floor exercises gives female gymnasts the chance to express their personalities through their music choice and choreography. Gymnasts often get energy from the crowd and they usually welcome audience participation in clapping to the beat. It requires beauty, strength, power, and stamina to continue at peak performance throughout the entire exercise. While the routine is no more than 90 seconds, athletes must maintain energy and excellence, which can be challenging because of the demanding content in the exercise.
The men’s exercise consists of tumbling passes performed in different directions–it is not set to music and must not exceed 70 seconds in length.
Today’s floor exercise routines consist of dynamic tumbling skills that only a few years ago were performed solely on the trampoline!