Olympic Gymnastics vs. College Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport not meant for the weak. It is mentally and physically draining and demands many long-lived hours in the gym. It takes strength and courage within a gymnast to conduct the skills they perform. College Gymnastics and Olympic style gymnastics is completely different. Both forms of gymnastics may seem the same however, differ in many categories.

College gymnastics is based upon a team sport. The all-around aspect is to win as a team and place higher than the opposing team. You’re competing against well-known big schools for certain college titles to take home for your college. Scoring, is different as well. Scoring typically is more lenient on the gymnasts and tends to leave a little breathing room. Lots of upper-level gymnasts tend to quite elite Olympic level gymnastics and come compete for the better SEC colleges. NBCDFW.COM, states that elite gymnastics is exceptionally harder and draining whereas college gymnastics is to be described as something the gymnasts find enjoying not just work. Competiton settings are different as well, typically college competitions are only held at colleges that range in the divisions of each other.

Olympic and Elite gymnastics is an individual sport. Competitors are fighting for individual titles to spring their names into hot topic in the gymnastics world. When it comes to elite team all arounds don’t matter. Induvial scores are what will put you on the top of the podium. When competing, you’re competing around the best gymnasts in the world. Scoring is typically more important. It is significantly harder to please elite judges then college judges. Typically, gymnasts who only enter the college realm will not enter the elite journey because it’s something nobody is exposed to unless it is the path the gymnast has set to take. Elite gymnasts don’t typically stay elite forever and can constantly bounce back from being elite to pursuing a college career.

It’s a constant conversation that it to still be determined if college Gymnastics is as hard as elite. The answer in my opinion is no, elite gymnastics takes several added hours and longer practices. It can also be harder on your mental state because of how the sport is structured individually. Typically, team sports tend to accede more, and less pressure is applied whereas, induvial sports tend to leave more room for error and mistakes because your so stressed and worried about your performances.

To summarize, there are many differences between college level gymnastics and elite level gymnastics. People think gymnasts have always had a niche for what they do, however, it has taken strong coaches and a strong mind to pursue the skill levels each type of gymnast has. As different as the types of gymnasts are they can be similar within their work ethics and strive when practicing in the gym. They each want to have a certain goal especially when it comes to putting high level skills on the mat and preparing them to their best capability. Both gymnasts are eager to do well for themselves as well as their teams.