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Unhappy with the outcome of the judges’ decisions, Kathy Johnson Clarke ideated her own rules! Retiring from her commentating duties abruptly, she has recently been vocal about the rules and standards of NCAA judging. Calling for modifications in the NCAA gymnastics program, Clarke termed the existing set of rules as too complex. 

Commenting on the same, the US gymnast icon called for rules that clearly define the “perfection” standards of the athletes and also would be “easy-to-apply” and understand for the general mass. And now, in a recent social media update, Clarke came up with her own idea of how the scoring system should work in the NCAA gymnastics. 

Kathy Johnson Clarke calls for average scoring system 

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Taking to her official X account, Kathy Johnson Clarke proposed a simplified account of the scoring system. She wrote, “An idea just popped into my head, which translates to “I haven’t thought it through thoroughly yet,” but what if you separate the home & away meet scores, drop the high and low in each category, then average all the remaining scores, which may account for all outliers. Thoughts?”

She further broke down her idea in the comments stating that it was a more comprehensive form of NQS which would fall between the parameters of eight to eleven. Meanwhile, speaking of the current judging system, the athletes are required to maintain a specific finish position where they have to keep their hands raised and legs straightened in perfect unison for a second after landing. 

On the contrary, any fault in the same, even by a medium-sized step would account for a hefty deduction of .15. This was in addition to the already existing updated requisites for squat deductions.

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Owen Field and Kennedy Baker unhappy with the judging as well

Owen Field, the assistant coach of Florida made his intentions about the judging publicly known. Advocating for major modifications, he took his requests right to the authorities. Meanwhile, ex-Florida SEC specialist gymnast, Kennedy Baker also looked annoyed about several decisions going against the athletes recently. He openly criticized the judges and even awarded them with a below-par score. 

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Speaking about the same, Baker stated, “I would give the judging this year a 6. There are way too many deductions being overlooked, and it is unfair to the athletes. There are a lot of routines this year, and the last several years, that have been both under and over-scored, and it is time to take a look at our judging system as a whole.” Thus, with the scoring and judging process invoking a lot of heat, it now remains to be seen whether the rules get modified or not.

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