About this document

This manual covers how to judge an Aerialympics event: what is expected of you as a judge, how judging is organized, how to record deductions so they can be audited, and how oversight works.

It deliberately does not contain the rubric. What you assess, how many points are available, what each level must demonstrate, which movements are restricted, and every deduction you may apply are in the Rubric, reproduced in full as the Rubric and read by competitors as well. Judge from the Rubric; use this manual for everything around it.

Mission

We bring the aerial community together.

Values

• Provide constructive, meaningful feedback that allows performers to grow and improve.
• Appreciate historical traditions in the aerial arts that set the foundation for future creativity.
• Foster positive relationships that support and strengthen coaches, performers, and other members of the aerial community.

What you need to read

• The Rubric — every season, in full. This is what you judge against.
• This manual — every season, including seasons where you are already familiar with the event. Take note of what has changed.

Judges are paid for study time. Please use it.

The judge's role

We expect our judges to provide objective and constructive feedback that is fair and helpful, and that improves the performance level of every person regardless of their current ability. Reinforce and augment what a performer is doing well, while helping them improve in areas of weakness.

Judging is the most difficult part of the Aerialympics job. We know it can feel almost impossible to assign a placement to someone's art. Art is subjective; our goal is to help cultivate great performers and provide helpful, fair, constructive feedback without being critical of any person's art.

As an Aerialympics judge you are expected to be proficient in our guidelines and rules, and to keep current with modifications. As the industry grows and changes, so will our judging procedures.

Judge communication

• Share an email address you check regularly, and be responsive to communication from the competition.
• Judges must accept a judging invitation at some point in a season to be invited to participate in the following season. Judges with extenuating circumstances may request to remain on the judging roster.
• During a LIVE event, once you have been given a start time and an end time for your judging, respond to messages from the competition within 10 minutes. Judge from wherever suits you — you just need to be reachable for the whole of that window.
• When judging In the Wild, respond to messages from the competition within 24 hours.
• Judge Oversight requests must be answered within 24 hours. Payment for the event is released once oversight requests are resolved, and repeated non-response affects future invitations.
• Continue checking email for 3 days after you think you have finished judging, in case oversight has returned guidance that needs acting on.

How judging is organized

Requirements to be a judge

Judges are required to be skilled and experienced in the apparatus they are evaluating. Preference is given to individuals who have previously performed, competed, coached, or judged. Because specialty apparatus varies widely, judges in the specialty category are required to have a broad range of performance, coaching, or judging experience across apparatuses.

Judge tiers, training, and testing

There are three tiers. A provisional judge’s scores count toward a performer’s result exactly as a senior judge’s do.

• Provisional. Accepted on the strength of your knowledge and experience, with this season's test not yet taken.
• Certified. This season's test passed. Certified judges are invited to events ahead of provisional judges.
• Senior. Designated after consistently demonstrating alignment with our rules and judging guidelines. It is not applied for — it follows from your scoring over time. Senior judges are invited first, and paid the most.

Slots are filled from the most senior tier down. Senior judges are invited first, then certified, then provisional. Because panels are built that way and not every tier is available for every event, a performer can expect a mix of provisional, certified and senior judges on their panel.

Every tier is paid, and the rate rises with the tier. Rates are communicated to you directly rather than published here.

Certification does not carry over between seasons, and there is no deadline. The rules change between seasons, sometimes substantially, so each season begins with the test untaken. You may judge as provisional in the meantime, and you move to certified as soon as you take the test — at any point in the season, including part-way through it.

You receive a digital certificate at each stage, along with a badge you are welcome to post on Instagram or anywhere else. Judging well is a skill that takes years to build, and there is no reason it should be invisible.

Training and the test. Training is delivered as recorded sessions you work through in your own time, and it is paid. It ends in a test confirming familiarity with the Rubric, this manual, and the judging criteria.

Mock judging. New judges also complete a mock round using performances that have already been scored consistently by an experienced panel. Your scores are compared against that known result and you are sent a summary showing where you sat against it, so you can see how your scoring compares before it affects anyone's placing. Senior judges are exempt, because the scoring review after every event already shows the same thing.

How judges are assigned

• Judges are assigned only to apparatus with which they have extensive experience.
• Judges are not permitted to judge any part of a division in which they have students entered.
• Judges are not permitted to evaluate divisions containing performers with whom they may have a conflict of interest.
• Declare a conflict as soon as you see your assignment. You do not need to be certain it matters — tell us and we will reassign. Conflicts may also be declared by team coaches and independent performers, and we act on those the same way and without asking them to justify it.

The judging panel

A minimum of three judges evaluates every division, with additional judges assigned as backups or for training. Judging is performed via video uploaded to the judging platform. This allows judging by highly qualified people worldwide rather than relying on who is available in a given location, reduces potential conflicts, and ensures the judges assigned to a division know the apparatus well.

Approximately 30 judges participate in each regional event, with roughly double that number at Nationals. Judges attending Nationals may judge in person and are given preferred seating for the best view of performances.

Feedback delivered to competitors

Each performer receives points and narrative from three judges, the names of the first three performers to place in the division, their own placing, and their total points. Names, studios or teams, placings, and points may be announced at an event, along with Nationals LIVE invitations.

Feedback on every category

Write a note in every scored category — Difficulty, Technical, Artistry, and Composition — on every performance you judge.

Where a category did not receive full marks, say what would have earned more. That is the most useful sentence a performer will read from you, and it is the difference between handing someone a score and letting them know what could improve it.

Write about the routine in front of you. If a note would fit any performer on that apparatus, it is not a note. “Work on your musicality” is not a note. “Your entry into each ankle hang started before the phrase did” is.

Because the three of you judge independently, a performer who hears the same thing from all three learns what matters most, and one who hears three different things gets three angles on their act. Neither works if your notes could have been written about anybody.

This is not a stretch expectation. It is what our returning judges already do, and it is the clearest single factor in who we invite back.

Recording deductions

The Rubric states which deductions exist and what they are worth. This section covers how to record them so that oversight can review them.

Clarity in deductions

• Provide a timestamp for every deduction, so the Judge Oversight team can review it quickly.
• Do not combine deductions. When combined, it is difficult for oversight to know how many deductions were included per infraction.
• Do not stack deductions. A single infraction incurs a single deduction, not the same deduction repeated.
• The deduction field is your channel to Judge Oversight. It is the only field oversight reviews for every performer. Enter deductions there, with the rule cited — and one other thing: where you believe a performer is competing below their level, record that here as an observation with no points attached, because sandbagging is directed by oversight rather than applied by you. Nothing else belongs in this field. General observations, encouragement, and any comment not tied to a deduction or an oversight decision go in the Composition comments.
• Explain every deduction. Each must include the rule and why it was applied.

Recommending disqualification

Judges do not disqualify performances. Where a rule provides for disqualification, apply the stated deduction and record a recommendation for disqualification. Because disqualification is a serious step, the Judge Oversight team reviews every recommendation as part of the deduction audit, and the disqualification stands only if oversight agrees.

A disqualification recommendation must contain four things, in this order.

1. The rule. From the published list, named exactly.
2. The timestamp. The moment it happened.
3. What you saw. One or two sentences describing only what is visible on the recording — not what you concluded from it, and not what you assume was intended.
4. The deduction you applied alongside it. A recommendation never stands alone; the points still go on.

A recommendation missing any of the four is returned to you before oversight reviews it.

The third one is where recommendations succeed or fail. “The performer did a kamikaze” is a conclusion. “At 1:42 the performer released both hands and both legs from the wrap in a face-down position before catching at the ankle” is something oversight can review, and something that still holds up when a coach asks why. Describe the movement, not the verdict.

Judge oversight

Every deduction is reviewed before that level's awards, every time. Not a sample, not only the large ones — every deduction on every performance. This is the keystone of the oversight process, and it is why your deductions must carry a rule and a timestamp: oversight is reading them against the clock.

The Judge Oversight team may contact you to request a change where a deduction or your feedback does not align with competition guidance. Requested changes may include:

• Removing a deduction that is not in our list of deductions
• Adding a deduction that should have been included but was missed
• Modifying the points assessed in a deduction to align with guidance
• Modifying feedback that is harsh or derogatory
• Modifying feedback that does not align with competition guidance

Respond to oversight requests within 24 hours. Payment for the event is released once requested modifications are complete.

Review of the scoring itself

Every judge receives a private, personalized summary after every event — not only the ones with something flagged. It shows how your scoring compared to your own panel, with practical guidance on staying calibrated. Judges never see one another's summaries, and coaches, studios, and performers never see any individual judge's report.

Oversight reads these alongside a panel composition report for the event — who judged what, at which tier — so a pattern can be read against the panel a judge was actually sitting on.

This is separate from the deduction audit above, which runs against the clock on the day. The scoring review happens afterwards and looks at two things.

First, patterns. Whether a judge tends to score higher or lower than the rest of their panel. Whether they bunch scores so tightly, or spread them so widely, that a placing could swing on a single opinion. And whether they score a particular studio's performers noticeably higher or lower than the rest of the panel scored those same performers. Because you are compared against your own panel on the same performances, a judge who simply runs generous or strict is never mistaken for one showing favoritism. We are looking for studio-specific patterns, not personality.

Second, whether it changed anything. Where a pattern turns up we look at the closest divisions to see whether a placing truly depended on one judge's scoring, or would have held up regardless. Most results are robust. The handful close enough to warrant a second look get one.

No result is ever changed by a spreadsheet. Where a pattern is significant enough that it could have affected a placing, it goes to a person. Any adjustment is a deliberate human decision made with the full picture in view.

This is not a disciplinary process. A difference in scoring can come from bias, but it can just as easily come from experience, or a genuinely different and completely valid read of a performance.

Rigging concerns raised by the head rigger

The head rigger may raise a rigging concern with Judge Oversight after a performance — an apparatus that was unsafe, a height set too low, or contact with rigging hardware that a recording does not show clearly. They watch the hardware from a position no judge has.

A rigger does not apply a deduction and does not contact judges. They report to Judge Oversight, who review the concern alongside the recording and direct a deduction under Rigging-related issues where one applies, in the same way as any other oversight-directed deduction.

Code of Conduct for Judges

Developing aerial performers is a privilege that we do not take lightly. We recognize that the values, rules, and guidelines set by this organization carry real-world impact for the aerial community.

We value and respect the judges who help make this competition part of many studios' performer development programs. While performance scores are subjective, we strive to offer guidance that creates fair outcomes. We promote the understanding that aerial circus performance can be pursued well into adulthood, and that friendships and reputations built through competition can lead to long-term career opportunities regardless of placings in any single event or season. Judges are expected to foster these relationships through their feedback, their in-person interactions, and their online statements about this competition.

Health, safety, and longevity

Judges are expected to:

• Support the mental and physical health of the performer by offering positive, actionable feedback.
• Be aware of the effect certain moves and techniques may have on the health and longevity of the performer, and support both immediate and long-term functionality by including concerns in feedback.

Rules and regulations

Judges are expected to:

• Understand and apply the rules regarding skills for each division they are judging.
• Adhere to our commitment to family-friendly, positive language and comportment when representing Aerialympics as a judge, in person and online.
• Not communicate, in person or online, details about any individual or division they are judging. This includes screenshots. Anything posted on social media should be generic and should not let others identify who you judged. We are proud of our judges and enjoy promoting them, but we choose to avoid the targeted attacks we have seen when too many details are shared.
• Be impartial. Do not reference other performances you may have seen from a performer, even if you judged the same performer doing the same act in the past — not even where the comparison would be positive.
• Read the Rubric and this manual each time you judge, even if you are very familiar with this event, and note what has changed.

Positive interactions

Judges are expected to:

• Promote positive interactions between performers and other participants when judging in person.
• Refrain from abusive, offensive, belittling, or obscene comments or gestures directed toward anyone involved in Aerialympics, including performers, coaches, spectators, and fellow judges.
• Be kind. Most of our performers are children. Most of our adults are beginners. A message delivered gently is easier for a performer to take on and act on.
• Not publicly disparage others in aerial and circus arts. The aerial circus community is relatively small; exercise discretion in what you state online about others.

Communication with the competition

Judges are expected to:

• Share an email address they check regularly.
• Communicate closely with the judge oversight team during any event in which they have agreed to participate.
• Continue checking email for 3 days after judging appears complete.

Judges who violate the Code of Conduct may not be invited to participate in future Aerialympics events.

Judging in person

Do not discuss anything with another judge in or around the judging area. Not scores, not the performance, not what you are having for lunch. Your scoring is independent, and every conversation between two judges near the judging area reads to a watching parent as though it was not. This has been raised by families who could not tell the difference — and they cannot, which is the point. If you need to speak with another judge, step well away from the judging area first.

Take questions to Aerialympics staff rather than to another judge. If you need clarification on a rule, or you want a gut check on something you have just watched, Aerialympics staff are the right route. That is what they are there for, it does not put your independence in question, and it gets you a faster and more consistent answer than a colleague could.

Revision history

All three Season 14 documents carry the same version number and are reissued together. A clarification to any one of them produces a new version of all three, so that a coach, a judge, and a competitor comparing documents can confirm at a glance that they hold the same edition.

The Rubric

The Rubric governs everything that affects a score: what is assessed, how many points are available, what each level is expected to demonstrate, which movements are restricted at each level, and every deduction that may be applied. Judges and competitors read the same text.

Scoring criteria

Every solo, duet, and parallel performance is assessed against four scored criteria, with deductions applied separately. Ensembles are assessed against a different set of five criteria, set out after these.

Difficulty

• Difficulty of individual moves
• Difficulty of combinations
• Difficulty and uniqueness of transitions

Assessed against the expected execution of moves on that apparatus at that level.

Difficulty is what the act attempted. Technical is how it went. Score here on the demand of the content — the moves chosen, how they are combined, and what the transitions ask for. A hard sequence performed shakily is still hard: reflect the shakiness in Technical rather than marking the difficulty down. Scoring the same wobble in both places charges a performer twice for it.

Difficulty is always graded against the expectations of the level entered, never against the hardest thing anyone has ever done.

Technical

• Intentional lines
• Controlled toes, pointed or flexed
• Control of the apparatus

Neatness, control of feet and legs, and intentional movement throughout.

Intentionality. Technical assesses whether the shapes in an act are chosen and held, not whether they match one aesthetic. Aerial covers every genre. A pointed foot and a long straight line are right in a lyrical piece; a flexed foot and a deliberate angle are right in a clown piece, a character piece, or a contemporary one. Neither is worth more than the other.

What is assessed is whether the shape was chosen. A flexed foot that is flexed the same way each time, and that serves the piece, is controlled. A foot that is flexed because nobody was thinking about it is not, and the difference is usually visible in whether it repeats. The same applies to lines: an angle held with intent is a line; a limb that drifts is not.

Score what the act is reaching for, and how consistently it gets there.

Artistry

• Flow between tricks, spins, and floor-to-apparatus movement, and musicality
• Stage presence throughout, with character, story, and emotion

A story does not have to be a narrative. A plot with a beginning, middle and end is one way to do this and not the only one. A consistent character, a single sustained emotion, or a clear quality of movement carried from beginning to end all count. What is assessed is whether something holds the act together beyond the order of the skills.

Novice is the exception, deliberately. A Novice act is not expected to carry a storyline or an arc, and is not scored down for lacking one. At that level, assess flow and whether the act holds a consistent mood.

Composition

• Balance of the program across tricks, spins, strength, and flexibility
• Variety of movement
• Effectiveness of the interpretation of the music

The program as a whole: how it is built, how it is paced, and how it uses its music.

Composition is not a second Difficulty score. Whether the act contains hard enough skills belongs in Difficulty. What belongs here is the MIX — whether the act spreads across tricks, spins, strength, and flexibility or leans on one — whether it repeats itself, and what it does with the music it chose.

Two of these sub-elements are performance judgments, not structural ones. The balance and arc of an act, and its interpretation of the music, are as much about the show as anything scored under Artistry.

Elite

Elite uses three of the four criteria used everywhere else — Difficulty, Technical, and Composition — with Artistry replaced by Impact, and with the weightings redistributed. Difficulty carries the most.

What separates acts at Elite is technical ambition and spectacle, not story and character. A visually electric, high-difficulty act should place above a beautifully told story. That is the whole point of the division, and it is why it exists alongside All Star rather than above it.

The total is 135 points per judge, the same as All Star, so the two are directly comparable.

Elite runs on All Star's rules. Performance time, floorwork allowance, restricted moves, required content, and every deduction are the same as All Star. Only the judging criteria differ.

Impact — Elite only

• Command of the space
• Use of height and amplitude
• Moments that land

Whether the act creates moments an audience remembers. This is not story or character — it is physical presence, the use of the full vertical space, and genuine wow. A technically clean act that stays small scores low here whatever its execution.

Impact is never a reward for taking risk. A spectacular act and a safe act are not opposites, and nothing in this division asks a performer to attempt anything they are not ready for. Score the effect on the room, not the danger to the performer.

Deductions

Deductions are separate from points not awarded. Every deduction must cite the applicable rule and include an explanation of why it was applied. The full deduction schedule appears later in this document.

Points not awarded are not a deduction

A score reflects what the performance showed against a criterion. A performer who scores 8 out of 12 on Difficulty was assessed at 8. Nothing was taken away from them.

A deduction is a separate subtraction from the total, applied for a specific named infraction from the schedule below, after the criteria have been scored. Every deduction cites a rule and appears in the performer's feedback with a reason.

If your feedback shows no deduction, none was applied — however low a criterion scored.

Points available

A Flight act scores on the same points as the level it belongs to. Elite totals the same 135 as All Star, so an Elite score and an All Star score are directly comparable.

Every division is evaluated by a panel of at least three judges.

Judging is normally done from video, remotely. That lets us draw on the most knowledgeable judges wherever they are, so every performance is scored by people who know the apparatus well rather than by whoever happens to be in the building. The only exception is Nationals, where some judging may take place in person.

Level expectations

Level should represent both the difficulty of the skills chosen and how well they are performed.

Flight

Flight is a variation, not an apparatus. The height of the apparatus changes during the performance, using a motor or hand-operated pulley. It may be applied to any apparatus, and is available at Advanced, All Star and Elite only — at every other level the height may be changed only while the performer is off the apparatus.

Operation. At LIVE events a rigger operates the height change from verbal cues, which are not rehearsed. Never the performer, never a team member. At regionals the host studio’s riggers operate their own rigs and nobody else does. At Nationals a coach may operate the motor for their own act where the head rigger is satisfied they can; there is a set demonstration time, a coach demonstrates once and that carries across seasons, and the decision is final with no appeal on the day. Qualifying costs $30, charged once. A coach operating may work from the performance directly or from cues given by someone else.

Cues. The act designates one person to give them, and that person is expected to be at the motor in time. At Nationals they require backstage access.

Scoring. Flight acts are judged against the standard criteria and point totals for their level, in their own division, never against non-Flight acts. There is no minimum number of height changes.

Duets, parallels, and ensembles

Duets and parallels

A duet is two performers sharing one apparatus. A parallel is two performers on separate apparatus of the same kind. The expectations below apply to both; the apparatus rules that follow differ.

In addition to the expectations above, both are expected to demonstrate:

• Both synchronized movement and movement that is not synchronized — together in a duet, complementary or coordinated in a parallel
• Unique and smooth transitions appropriate for the level
• A mix of strength and flexibility moves

Mixed levels. Performers of different skill levels may compete in a division reflecting their combined ability, but no lower than one level below the more competent performer's solo level on that apparatus. For example, if one performer is All Star and the other is Competitive, the act must compete in either Advanced or All Star.

Duets — base and flyer work

A duet may include base and flyer skills in which the performers take each other’s weight or work in sustained contact, and one performer may be primarily base and the other primarily flyer. This is not required at any level. A duet built on synchronized and complementary work without base and flyer content is not penalised for it, and is scored against the same criteria as any other duet.

Parallels — shared apparatus

Parallels are evaluated against the apparatus criteria above. Performers may swap apparatus during the performance but may not share a single apparatus for longer than the time shown for their level.

Ensembles

Every ensemble, whatever its size, competes at Level 1 or Level 2. More than half the performers at Novice, Intermediate, or Competitive makes it Level 1; half or more at Advanced or All Star makes it Level 2. Both levels are scored on the same 100 points, so you do not need to know which level you are looking at in order to score it.

Everyone performing on stage is part of the ensemble, whether or not they ever mount an apparatus. There are no human props in an ensemble — a cast member whose whole role is on the ground is a performer, counts toward the ensemble size, and appears on the roster. Coaches and other functional helpers are unaffected: spotting, handling props, throwing a mat, assisting a mount or dismount, managing Spanish web or spinning a performer are work rather than performance, and do not make someone part of the cast — unless those activities are worked into the choreography in a performing way, in which case that person is performing and counts as cast.

Score the piece, not the people. An ensemble is judged as a whole. Consider the effectiveness of the piece rather than tracking breaks in technique performer by performer. Featured performers may be weighted more heavily than chorus performers when you assign points, because their work is what the piece is built around.

Ensembles are scored on five criteria of their own rather than the four used for solos, and feedback is written on all five, as it would be on the four for a solo. Three of the five have no equivalent in the solo rubric, so read them before your first ensemble.

Floorwork works differently for ensembles. Individual performers have no floorwork limit; the limit is on the group. See Floorwork.

Scoring criteria for ensembles

An ensemble is not a group of solos happening at the same time, and it is not scored as one. The four solo criteria were written for a single performer on a single apparatus: they ask about that performer's lines, their toes, the difficulty of their individual moves. Applied to a cast of twelve, they measure the wrong things — and they reward giving the hardest work to your strongest performer rather than building a piece for everyone in it.

Ensembles are therefore scored against five criteria of their own, out of 100 points per judge. Each criterion is worth 20 points, made up of two sub-elements worth 10 each. Level 1 and Level 2 ensembles are scored on the same 100 points; the level decides who an ensemble is placed against, not how it is scored.

The total of 100 is deliberate. An ensemble score is not comparable to a solo score and should not look as though it is.

Cohesion

• Synchronization and unison where intended
• Reads as one piece rather than several solos

Whether the act holds together. Where performers are meant to move as one, are they together — in timing, in shape, in quality of movement? Where they are deliberately doing different things, does that read as a choice rather than as drift?

Judge what the piece is reaching for, not a single standard of uniformity. An ensemble built on canon, counterpoint, or deliberate contrast is not less cohesive than one built on unison; it is cohesive in a different way. What loses points is a cast that looks like it is not in the same piece.

Use of the stage

• Formations, levels, and depth
• Entrances, exits, and coverage of the space

Whether the whole space is used, and used with intent. Look for shape and change in the formations, for performers working at different heights rather than all at the same one, and for depth as well as width — an ensemble that lives in a single line across the front of the stage is using a fraction of what it has.

Entrances and exits are part of this. How performers arrive and leave, and whether the stage empties and fills with purpose, is composition rather than housekeeping.

Use of the cast

• Collective standard of execution
• Purposeful use of the whole cast

The standard of the work across the cast as a whole, not the standard of its strongest member. Assess what the group achieves together: the general quality of line, control, and cleanliness across everyone on stage.

Whether the piece uses everyone in it. A featured performer is not a fault, and neither is a chorus — both are choices, and a well-used chorus is meaningful work. What loses points is a cast where some performers have nothing to do: standing in place waiting for their turn on an apparatus, or filling space without contributing to the piece.

This is not a demand that every performer does the same thing, or the hardest thing. A less experienced performer given work that suits them is being used well. What is assessed is whether the act was built for the cast it has, rather than around one or two of them with the rest arranged behind.

Composition and transitions

• Structure and build of the piece
• Transitions between apparatus, formations, and sections

Whether the piece is built, and whether it goes somewhere. Does it have a shape — an opening, development, and an ending that lands — or is it a sequence of things that happen in an order?

Transitions carry more weight in an ensemble than in a solo, because there are more of them and they are harder. Moving twelve people between formations, or a cast between apparatus, is choreography in its own right. Assess whether transitions are covered and intentional or whether the piece visibly stops while people reposition.

Show

• Theme and character carried by the whole cast
• Musicality as a group

The thing an audience is actually watching. Is there an idea, a mood, or a story, and is it carried by everyone on stage rather than by one performer while the rest execute?

Musicality as a group is more than being on the beat together. It is whether the ensemble responds to the music as one body — whether the phrasing of the piece follows the phrasing of the score, and whether changes in the music are visible in what the cast does.

How an ensemble score is built

Each of the ten sub-elements is scored out of 10, decimal to one place, using the ratings below. The ten scores are summed to a total of 100 per judge.

Deductions apply to ensembles exactly as they apply to every other performance, at their stated values, and are taken after the criteria are scored.

Assigning points consistently

This guidance sets the standard a score is measured against.

Judging against the level

Performers are judged against the expectations of their level.

• A performer who belongs in their level is expected to score in the Excellent range.
• A performer who appears ready to advance to a higher level soon should score Superior.
• Good or Fair applies only where the performer did not demonstrate the rubric elements throughout the performance.

All Star judging

At All Star, trick difficulty is not the most important factor. That is easy to say and easy to lose sight of with a score sheet in front of you, so here is where it actually shows up.

Story, character, and musicality are scored in four of the eleven sub-elements, across two criteria — not one.

That is 50 points. An All Star act without a story does not simply lose a little Artistry — it loses points in four places at once.

The corresponding truth about difficulty: at All Star, Difficulty is graded against All Star expectations, not against the hardest thing anyone has ever done in All Star. A performer whose skills are genuinely All Star should not score low there for choosing a slightly less demanding sequence that serves the piece because the focus should be on storytelling and character.

The error is most visible when a highly skilled performer's music does not drive the act and could be swapped for any currently popular song. Before finalizing Artistry and Composition at this level, ask:

• Does this performance include a story?
• Does it include a character beyond a single emotion or facial expression?
• Does the choreography reflect and emphasize musical moments?
• Would I expect to see this performance as part of a choreographed professional or pre-professional event?

Deductions and disqualification

The following deductions and grounds for disqualification apply. This list is exhaustive: a judge may not apply a deduction that does not appear here.

How to read this section

• Deduct means the deduction is mandatory once the circumstance applies. The judge decides whether it applies; they do not decide whether to apply it.
• Every deduction is a single figure. No category offers a choice between two numbers. Where a category lists several circumstances, find the one that describes what you saw and apply the figure attached to it. If two circumstances both apply, apply the higher one only — do not add them together.
• Recommend disqualification is used only where this section says so. A judge does not recommend disqualification on their own initiative for a circumstance not listed here.
• Maximum per performance. Where a category states a maximum, that ceiling applies to the whole performance, not to each occurrence.

Safety and the apparatus

Restricted moves

Two tables. The first is the checklist a coach needs: what may not be performed at each level, on each apparatus, and nothing else. The second is what a performance at each level must contain.

Table 1 — Restricted moves

What may not be performed at each level, by apparatus. This table is prohibitions only. A movement not restricted here is permitted, subject to the moves restricted at every level above.

Table 2 — What a performance must contain

Requirements, not restrictions. Nothing here prohibits a movement.

A missing requirement is not a deduction. Nothing in this table has points attached to it, and none of it appears in the deduction schedule. Where a requirement is missing, the performance simply does not earn what it would have earned had the requirement been met — it shows in the score for the category the requirement belongs to, and nowhere else. See Points not awarded are not a deduction.

Where each requirement shows. A missing strength, balance, or flexibility skill shows in Difficulty, and in Composition, which assesses the balance of the program across skill types. An act without a fully composed story shows in Artistry, where character and story are scored, and in Composition, where the interpretation of the music is. An act that does not use the whole apparatus shows in Difficulty and in Composition, where variety of movement is assessed.

Deduction guidance. Deduct 5 points per restricted move and recommend disqualification.

Falls and major slips

A fall is when the performer moves from the apparatus to the mat unintentionally and without control. It does not matter whether the performer maintains contact with the apparatus.

Deliberate contact within the choreography is not deducted. A hand placed on the floor to drive a spin or begin a dismount is a choreographic choice, not a slip, and does not incur a deduction. The rows above are for contact the performer did not intend.

Onstage and performance time

Two windows apply, and they are not the same length.

Performance time runs from the start of the music to the end of the music, the final standing bow, or the performer leaving the stage, whichever most clearly indicates the end. Onstage runs from the performer entering the stage to leaving it.

Scores are assigned within performance time only. Difficulty, Technical, Artistry and Composition assess the performance and nothing outside it. Do not mark a criterion up or down for anything that happens before the music starts or after the performance ends.

Deductions apply anywhere onstage. The performer is in front of an audience for the whole of it.

Crash mat

A crash mat is mandatory for all performers, all ages, all levels, LIVE and In the Wild, without exception. Whenever a performer is suspended in an aerial apparatus and not touching the ground, they must be over a crash mat. On multiple points that means a mat under every point, and under any space the act travels through between them.

The minimum specification is 4' × 4' and 8" deep, and the mat must be intended for or sold as a landing mat or crash mat.

These do not count: inflatables, coil mattresses, panel mats, circular pole mats, and tumble tracks, including when folded or stacked. Any of them may be used in addition to a compliant mat. A pit pillow counts where it sits over high-density foam flooring, and a fully integrated crash mat floor may count but must be demonstrated to competition staff before the first recording.

Every mat must be approved this season. Approval from a previous season does not carry over. Approval is decided by the Judge Oversight team, not by an adjudicator or a host studio. Where oversight has further concerns, the submitted video may be shared with subject matter experts outside Aerialympics, who are bound by the same confidentiality as judges.

In the Wild, measurements must be shown on camera with a measuring tape. A team in the Team Program shows it once for the whole season — at the team’s first adjudicated performance, or by emailing us a separate video beforehand — on the understanding that the same or better mats are used all season. Independent performers, and teams not in the Team Program, demonstrate it every time.

Ground-based apparatus. The rules above are written for a performer suspended in an aerial apparatus. A ground-based specialty act must still have matting appropriate to the apparatus and to how the act travels.

Deduction guidance. A performance without a demonstrated mat measurement incurs a 10-point administrative deduction, even where the adjudicator passed the mat during the call. Where the mat does not meet specification, judges are directed to assess deductions. A performer who ignores adjudicator instructions regarding crash mats is disqualified and not judged.

Judges: where you have a concern about a mat, say so in the deduction field. That triggers a Judge Oversight review. Do not apply a deduction for it yourself.

Passing beyond the crash mat

A performer may perform swings, orbital moves, or anything else that travels beyond the standard crash mat, provided additional mats have been arranged in advance and the performer stays over them. A performer over arranged mats has not passed beyond the mat, however far they travel.

A misjudged swing is the first row. An act that repeatedly and predictably leaves the matted area — choreography that only works by travelling past it — is the second, whether it happens once or several times.

Rigging-related issues

Here, rigging means the hardware at the rigging point — typically everything from the swivel up, or from the carabiner up where no swivel is used.

The test is what the performer did, not what might have happened as a result. Gripping rigging hardware or taking weight on it can unscrew a gate, unthread a rescue 8, or cross-load a connector; brushing past it does not. Judge what you can see.

The performer's apparatus and rigging are ultimately their responsibility, and riggers may not be aware of a fault until after the performance.

Non-standard equipment

An apparatus that does not meet the specification for the division entered is judged where it was entered and may incur a deduction under Non-standard equipment. Remote performers are expected to meet these specifications so that performances can be judged consistently.

• Silks. Tied to a single point, connected to a single swivel if desired, attached to a single rig point.
• Hammock (sling). Single point. The fabric may be gathered into two loops that clip into one point above the apparatus; it may not be hung from two separate rig points. Connected to a single swivel if desired.
• Lyra. Single point, double point, or tabless. A double-point lyra has two tabs on the hoop and rigs through a spanset or triangle into one rig point. Connected vertically to a single swivel if desired. Size should be appropriate to the performer's height; mini, giant, and tippy lyras belong in Specialty.
• Specialty, aerial. Must connect to a single terminal rig point, except static trapeze, which may be rigged from two points at Nationals and In the Wild.
• Specialty, ground-based. Must be apparatus-focused or acrobatic in nature, not dance-focused, and circus inspired — for example lollipop, cyr wheel, or circus acro.

Motors and pulleys. Motors and hand-operated pulleys are interchangeable for these rules. What matters is whether the rig point moves while a performer is on the apparatus: if it does, the act is Flight, and Flight is available in Advanced, All Star, and Elite only. Setting a static height before a performance begins is permitted in every category by either method, as is changing height between performances. At many venues, including Nationals, the motor is the standard rig point.

The deduction. Equipment that does not meet the specifications above. The specification determines whether equipment is standard; the deduction below turns on whether the difference was unfair to others in the category.

Deduction guidance. Deduct once for the performance. Because a performance cannot be moved to another division once judging has begun, non-standard equipment is addressed by deduction rather than by recategorizing the entry.

The judgment here is binary: either the difference was unfair to other competitors in the category, or it was not. Where it was, the deduction is 5 points regardless of how far outside the specification the apparatus sat.

Time

Performance time

Performers are not required to use the full time allotted, but the entire act must fit within it.

Time begins when the music starts, and ends when the performer takes a final standing bow, leaves the stage, or the music ends — whichever most clearly indicates the end of the performance. Judges primarily evaluate what happens between the start of the music and the end of the performance, including the bow. The whole act is what is on stage, however, so how the performer enters and exits can be taken into account. An act that ends in the air must come down from the final pose and bow. The descent, the bow and leaving the stage are part of the act even though they fall outside the performance, so a catch, slip or fall on the way down is assessed under Falls and major slips and may be a disqualification. Where something happens on the way on or off, apply the deduction it belongs to rather than a time deduction: a dangerous exit from the apparatus where the act ends in the air is assessed under Falls and major slips, and a costume failure while leaving the stage under Family-Friendly: Costume.

There is a five-second grace period. A performance that runs up to 4 seconds over its allowance incurs no deduction. After that, judges deduct 1 whole point for every 5 seconds over, and a performance that extends 15 seconds or more beyond the allowance is disqualified. For example, a Novice performing 3:00–3:04 incurs nothing; 3:05–3:09 incurs 1 point per judge; 3:10–3:14 incurs 2 points per judge; 3:15 or longer is disqualified.

Excessive floorwork

Floorwork is not required, and no deduction is made for a performance that includes none. Floorwork is any time spent on the ground while not suspended by the apparatus.

All Star is allowed a larger share of floorwork than the levels below it.

In duets and parallels, the allowance applies to each performer separately — each may take the full time.

Ensembles are measured as a group, not performer by performer. There is no individual floorwork allowance in an ensemble: any one performer may spend the entire act on the ground, and a performer who never goes up at all is fine.

What the group must do is keep at least one performer suspended by an apparatus. The whole cast may be on the ground at the same time for no more than 30 seconds in total across the performance. For as long as somebody is in the air, nothing is counting against that 30 seconds, however many others are on the floor.

Suspended means suspended. A performer standing, sitting, or balancing on the ground while holding an apparatus is doing floorwork, not hanging in one. This is the same test used everywhere else in this document, and it applies in every division, not only ensembles.

An act may use a ground apparatus and a rigged apparatus together. A performer competing on both in the same act — a cyr wheel and silks, a rolling globe and lyra, handstand canes and hammock — enters Specialty, ground-based. That is true however much of the act is in the air: mixing in a ground apparatus places the act there.

In every other division, work of that kind on the ground counts as floorwork against the level’s allowance rather than as a second apparatus.

There is a five-second grace period. A performance that exceeds its floorwork allowance by up to 4 seconds incurs no deduction. After that, judges deduct 1 point for every 5 seconds exceeded, and a performance exceeding the allowance by 15 seconds or more is disqualified. For example, exceeding by 0–4 seconds incurs nothing; 5–9 seconds incurs 1 point per judge; 10–14 seconds incurs 2 points per judge; 15 seconds or more is disqualified.

Presentation and eligibility

Family-friendly standards

Three things are assessed against one standard: the music, the costume, and the choreography. Our audiences include children, and our judges come from all over the world, so the standard sits where the strictest reasonable audience member would still be comfortable.

Two tiers apply to all three. A general standard applies to every performer. An additional, stricter standard applies to performers under 18, regardless of level and regardless of coach or parental permission.

Suggestion counts as much as explicit statement in all three. Content that is implied rather than shown still falls outside the standard.

Each of the three is a separate deduction category, capped at 5 points for the performance:

• Family-Friendly: Music and Lyrics
• Family-Friendly: Costume
• Family-Friendly: Choreography

They are separate because they are usually different decisions by different people. A performer's song, their costume, and their choreography can fail independently, and fixing one should not make another free.

Music and lyrics

A bleeped or radio-edit version still counts where the word is well known or can be discerned.

Applies to every performer:

• Profanity
• Derogatory language
• Explicit or suggestive content

Additional standard for performers under 18:

This divides into two weights.

• Not permitted in any degree: sexual content or innuendo, drug use, self-harm.
• Not permitted, and deducted according to how far the song goes: alcohol, cigarette use, violence.

Deduction guidance. Recorded under Family-Friendly: Music and Lyrics. Deduct once for the performance, to a maximum of 5 points.

A time stamp and a quotation of the lyrics in question are required when applying a deduction or a disqualification recommendation.

Costume

Stripping is not permitted in any division. Where clothing is removed in a family-friendly way as part of a storyline, the remaining clothing must meet the minimum requirements below.

• No private part may be visible at any point.
• Bottoms must cover from the navel to the hip crease, front and back, and must not sit lower than the pelvic bones at the start of the routine.
• Tops must cover at least as much as a standard sports bra.
• Costumes must be lined so that the outline of a private part is not visible through the fabric. Check this under stage lighting, not in a mirror at home.
• Performers under 18 must cover the midriff, and may not wear off-the-shoulder styles.

Normal riding up of clothing is understood and is not deducted. A deduction applies where the coverage standard is not met at the start of the routine, or where clothing moves out of the standard during it.

Deduction guidance. Recorded under Family-Friendly: Costume. Deduct once for the performance, to a maximum of 5 points.

Exposure of a private body part is reported and confirmed after the performance. Where it is confirmed as accidental, no deduction applies — the coverage rows above cover a costume that fails the standard, and an accident on top of that is not charged twice.

An exposure judged deliberate is not a costume matter. It is a Code of Conduct violation, the performance is disqualified, and it is not judged.

In the Wild. A performer may record again in the same adjudicated way — in the same session where there is time, or by rescheduling with the adjudicator. Catching it is the performer’s and coach’s responsibility — the adjudicator is watching over a video call and may not have the clearest view.

Costume deductions must include a time stamp in the description.

Exposure of a private body part

Costumes that fit at the start of a season do not always fit later in it, particularly for young performers whose bodies change quickly. An accidental exposure is treated as a problem to be fixed, not as misconduct, and carries no deduction where it is remedied.

In the Wild, catching an exposure is the coach's and the performer's responsibility, not the adjudicator's. The adjudicator is watching over a video call and may not have the clearest view of the performer.

Choreography

Choreography falls outside the standard where it:

• simulates sexual activity, or presents the performer's body sexually — for example grinding, pelvic thrusting, or hands tracing the body in a sexualized way;
• simulates violence against another person, or self-harm;
• depicts drug or alcohol use.

Additional standard for performers under 18: any romantic or sexual framing of a minor performer is outside the standard, including romantic partnering in duets.

Deduction guidance. Recorded under Family-Friendly: Choreography. Deduct once for the performance, to a maximum of 5 points. A costume issue and a choreography issue are deducted separately; a movement is not deducted twice because the costume made it read worse.

Wrong division entered

A performance cannot be moved to another division once judging has begun. An entry in the wrong division is therefore judged where it was entered, and the error is addressed by deduction.

Competing at a level below the performer's evident ability is not covered here; see Sandbagging.

In the Wild only

In the Wild video quality

The recording must show everything from the opening position through the bow, including the descent where the act ends in the air. Where there is no clear ending and the recording simply stops, we can only assume something went wrong that was not meant to be seen.

Judges score what the recording shows them. A performance that cannot be seen clearly cannot be scored fairly, however good it was in the room.

What a usable recording must do

These are requirements. The deductions below map onto them.

• Record horizontally. Judges view on a horizontal screen; a vertical recording wastes most of it.
• Keep the whole performer in frame throughout, from the starting position through the bow.
• Be close enough to see the performer's face, hands, and feet. Judges score expression, grip and line through the hands, and controlled toes; none of that reads from a distant shot.
• Light the performer well enough to read their lines against whatever is behind them.
• Hold the camera still, on a tripod or steady support. Small movements to keep the performer in frame are fine. Do not walk around, and do not change your distance from the performer.
• Keep the music audible, and keep whoever is holding the camera from talking or reacting close to the microphone. An audience cheering from a distance is welcome and does not affect this.
• Perform to the camera as you would to a judge sitting in front of you.

What the recording may contain

A submission contains the performer's name spoken to camera, then the performance through the bow. Nothing else. This is a separate fault from picture quality, and is deducted separately from the table below.

Picture and sound quality

Deduction guidance. Deduct once for the performance.

Directed by others, not applied by judges

Sandbagging

The administrative rules — when a performer is required to move up, when they may drop down, and how to request a level change — are in the Competitor Packet.

Sandbagging is competing at a level below the performer's evident ability. Judges do not apply this deduction. A judge sees one performance in one division; whether a performer belongs at a higher level is a judgment about their ability across divisions, apparatus, and seasons, and only the Judge Oversight team has that view.

What a judge does. Score the performance against the level entered, and record in the deduction field that the performer appears to be competing below their level, with what you saw that led you there. Enter no points with it. Record it in the deduction field, not in the Composition comments.

What Judge Oversight does. Review the performer's record and direct a deduction where one applies. This deduction is applied only where Judge Oversight directs it.

It is directed with care: many performers new to aerial arts have a dance or acrobatic background that gives the appearance of expertise while their familiarity with the apparatus is genuinely limited.

Reproducing another performer's act

Individual skills belong to everybody, and two acts at the same level on the same apparatus will share vocabulary. That is not what this covers. This covers taking another performer's sequence, concept, or act and presenting it as your own.

This is not a judge's call. A judge sees one performance and cannot know it reproduces another. Anyone may report it — a coach, a competitor, a judge, or a member of the public. Aerialympics leadership reviews the report against the recordings of both acts and directs the outcome.

A report must reach us within three weeks of the event. We act on it whenever it arrives inside that window, including after placings have been announced. After three weeks the result stands.

Where the outcome changes a placing, placings are corrected, the website is updated, and medals are sent to the performers who move up.

Repeating your own routine is permitted. There is no requirement that a routine be new to each event. You may compete the same piece at every regional and again at Nationals if you want to, and bringing an act back stronger is a legitimate way to compete rather than something we discourage.

What is not permitted is presenting someone else's work as your own, which is what this deduction covers.

We do not recall a medal. Asking for one back is not enforceable and we will not pretend otherwise. What does change: where a Nationals invitation was earned on the strength of the disqualified performance, that invitation is revoked.

Deductions applied by Aerialympics staff

Most deductions in this document are applied by judges from the recording. A small number are applied by Aerialympics staff or leadership — from what they observe at a LIVE event, or from what they find when a submission is processed. Judges are not asked to assess backstage, conduct, or submission matters and cannot deduct for them.

An administrative deduction is taken once, not once per judge. A judge's deduction is applied by each judge to their own score, so a 2-point judge deduction removes 6 points across a panel of three. An administrative deduction is applied a single time to the final total. Every deduction in this section, and every other deduction applied by Aerialympics staff or leadership rather than by a judge, works that way.

A deduction applied by Aerialympics staff is recorded with the reason and appears in the performer's feedback alongside judge deductions, so the performer and coach can see what it was for. These deductions are included in the oversight audit.

Submissions

Backstage

Props

A prop is anything that is not a permanent part of a costume. Knee pads and shoes are not props.

These are prohibited at LIVE events and may not be used at all: glitter, confetti, shredded paper, feathers, sharp objects, liquid of any kind, and fire. They are prohibited for what they leave behind or the risk they carry, and the prohibition does not depend on how carefully an act uses them.

Anything else is permitted if it can be set within 20 seconds of the standby call, cleared within 20 seconds of the performance ending, and leaves the stage and apparatus as they were found.

The test for cleaning is the clear window. If the stage and apparatus can be returned to performance-ready by hand inside those 20 seconds, nothing is deducted. If they need a broom, a mop, or more time than that, cleaning was required. Torn paper scattered deliberately and gathered up in time is fine; the same paper left in the wings is not.

A costume that sheds is judged on cleaning alone. Stones, sequins, trim or feathers that come off during a performance are treated as anything else left on the stage: if it can be cleared by hand inside the window, nothing is deducted. Shedding is not a prohibited prop, whatever the material.

A costume built to release material is a prop. Where prohibited material is loaded into a costume so that it comes off during the act — glitter, confetti or feathers released by design — that is a prohibited prop, and the fact that it was attached to a costume does not change it.

Code of Conduct

Sanctions beyond a deduction

Some conduct is too serious to be settled by points. These sanctions are decided by Aerialympics leadership after the event and given in writing. They are not deductions and are not applied on the day.

Bullying, harassment, or threatening behavior. Where this deduction is applied, leadership reviews the team's LIVE eligibility. The review is not optional; its outcome is leadership's decision.

Where the review finds against the team, the team is not permitted to participate LIVE for the remainder of the season. A LIVE restriction is never lifted mid-season. It runs to the end of the season regardless of a corrective plan being submitted, accepted, or acted on in the meantime. The team remains eligible to compete In the Wild throughout.

Before the team may register for LIVE events in the following season, it must submit a written plan setting out how the behavior will be corrected, and that plan must be accepted by Aerialympics leadership.

Conduct that continues across a season, or that makes an event unsafe. A performer or team may be limited to In the Wild for a probationary period, or not invited to future events.

Ratings by level

How a score is built

Each of the four criteria is scored once per sub-element, using the ratings below, and the results are summed. The sub-elements are the bullets listed under Scoring criteria above:

• Difficulty — 3 sub-elements: individual moves, combinations, transitions
• Technical — 3 sub-elements: intentional lines, controlled toes, control of the apparatus
• Artistry — 2 sub-elements: flow and musicality, stage presence with character and emotion
• Composition — 3 sub-elements: balance of program, variety of movement, interpretation of the music

So a Novice score of 5.0 in each Difficulty sub-element contributes 15 points, and the four criteria sum to the per-level totals in the Points available section.

Ensembles are scored differently. They use five criteria of their own, out of 100 points per judge, on the same 100 whether the ensemble is Level 1 or Level 2. The ratings and criteria are set out in Scoring criteria for ensembles.

Why Artistry totals less than the other criteria. Its per-element value is identical to Difficulty and Technical. It totals less only because it has two sub-elements where the others have three — nobody weighted character and story below everything else, it followed from a list length. Season 14 addresses this through the calibration guidance rather than by changing the weighting: story, character and musicality are scored in four of the eleven sub-elements across two criteria, not one, and two of those four sit inside Composition. An act without a story gives ground in four places at once, not just in Artistry.

Novice — 58 points per judge

Difficulty — 5.0 per sub-element × 3 = 15 points

Technical — 5.0 per sub-element × 3 = 15 points

Artistry — 5.0 per sub-element × 2 = 10 points

Composition — 6.0 per sub-element × 3 = 18 points

Intermediate — 80 points per judge

Difficulty — 7.0 per sub-element × 3 = 21 points

Technical — 7.0 per sub-element × 3 = 21 points

Artistry — 7.0 per sub-element × 2 = 14 points

Composition — 8.0 per sub-element × 3 = 24 points

Competitive — 80 points per judge

Difficulty — 7.0 per sub-element × 3 = 21 points

Technical — 7.0 per sub-element × 3 = 21 points

Artistry — 7.0 per sub-element × 2 = 14 points

Composition — 8.0 per sub-element × 3 = 24 points

Advanced — 102 points per judge

Difficulty — 9.0 per sub-element × 3 = 27 points

Technical — 9.0 per sub-element × 3 = 27 points

Artistry — 9.0 per sub-element × 2 = 18 points

Composition — 10.0 per sub-element × 3 = 30 points

All Star — 135 points per judge

Difficulty — 12.0 per sub-element × 3 = 36 points

Technical — 12.0 per sub-element × 3 = 36 points

Artistry — 12.0 per sub-element × 2 = 24 points

Composition — 13.0 per sub-element × 3 = 39 points

Elite — 135 points per judge

Elite is All Star with Artistry replaced by Impact and the weightings redistributed. Everything else — performance time, floorwork, restricted moves, required content, and every deduction — is the same as All Star.

Difficulty — 15.0 per sub-element × 3 = 45 points

Scored on what is in front of you rather than against a fixed skill table. All Star’s restricted moves still apply; a restricted move is a deduction, as everywhere else.

Technical — 12.0 per sub-element × 3 = 36 points

Impact — 9.0 per sub-element × 3 = 27 points

Composition — 9.0 per sub-element × 3 = 27 points

A performer who attempts a demanding skill and lands it with a minor imperfection in form should not be marked down as heavily as one who executes modest skills cleanly. Reflect the imperfection in Technical. Do not suppress the Difficulty score for a skill that was hard and mostly clean. This is the same separation stated for every other level — Difficulty is what the act attempted, Technical is how it went — and it matters most here, because Elite is where the hardest work is attempted.

Deductions apply at Elite exactly as they apply everywhere else, at their stated values.

Glossary of scored terms

Ankle drop, Beat, Belay, Dive, Footlock, Knee/ankle/heel/toe hangs, Low bar, Multi-directional drop, Roll, Slide, Spanset, Spanset inversion, Strength/balance/flexibility skills, and Wrap are defined here for the first time. Each was already used in the restriction tables without ever being defined.

These definitions govern the tables and deduction categories above. Terms relating to events, formats, and registration are defined in the Competitor Packet.

Ankle drop

A drop caught by the ankles, also known as a deadman drop or fish flop.

Beat

A movement in which the performer swings the body to generate momentum, then uses that momentum to travel, rotate, or change position on the apparatus. For judging purposes, a beat must be repeated at least once. A single swing used to achieve a movement — a kip, for example — is momentum used to complete a skill rather than a choreographed element, and does not count as a beat.

Belay

A wrap that takes the performer's weight around the body, at the torso, hips, or waist, so that they are held by the tension of the fabric rather than by grip. A performer in a belay can rest, let go with both hands, or hold a shaped pose. The belay loop is the part of the fabric bearing the weight.

Direction change

A move from forward to backward, forward or backward to sideways or rolling, including stacked drops as in a bomb over a star drop. It does not include sitting up after a drop's momentum has ended, which requires different muscle engagement.

Dive

A dynamic movement in which the performer deliberately exits a secured wrap, traveling forwards or backwards, turns over in the air, and re-catches the apparatus on the far side. Also called a salto or a dive roll. Roll ups and controlled unrolls are not dives.

Double drop

A drop containing two or more drop elements, whether they run together or with a pause between them. A second element means the descent is arrested and then resumed, whether or not the performer re-wraps or changes grip. A drop that descends as a single sequence is a single drop however far it travels. Also called a stacked drop, a stacking drop, or a layered drop. A pause between the elements does not make a double drop into two single drops and does not lift the restriction: where a level restricts double drops, the paused version is restricted too. The pause asks the performer to stop at a set point under pressure rather than progress through the drop, which is a harder demand and not a safer one.

Drop

A movement that includes an element of downward acceleration due to gravity. Roll ups and controlled unrolls are not drops or dives. An intentional dismount is not a drop.

Fall

When a performer moves from the apparatus to the mat or floor unintentionally and without control. It does not matter whether the performer maintains contact with the apparatus.

Floorwork

Any time spent on the ground while not suspended by the apparatus.

Footlock

A wrap of the apparatus around the foot and ankle that takes the performer's weight, leaving the hands free. Used on silks, hammock, and rope. Where a restriction names a footlock as an exception, it means the performer's weight is being carried there rather than by the restricted position.

Hang

The performer's weight is on a specific body part such that if that body part came off the apparatus it would likely result in a fall. Being suspended by a wrap does not count as a hang. An unsupported hang is one in which nothing else takes any part of the performer's weight. A footlock, a hooked or locked limb, or a foot on the ground all mean the hang is supported.

Human props

People who appear onstage in an act without being aerialists in it. Everyone on stage is part of the act and is expected to behave in a way consistent with their role. There are two roles:

• Human props take part in the act. They should be in costume and have defined choreography.
• Coaches and other functional helpers work rather than perform — spotting, handling props, throwing a mat, assisting a mount or dismount, managing Spanish web, or spinning a performer.

The line is the apparatus: a helper does not get on it. Anyone who does is a performer, and the act belongs in a duet, parallel, or ensemble division. Ensembles are the exception: everyone performing on stage in an ensemble is part of the cast whether they mount or not, so an ensemble has no human props. Functional helpers remain functional helpers. A helper on the ground does not change the division entered, is not the performer doing floorwork, does not count toward the floorwork allowance, and is not scored.

Inversion

The action of lifting the hips over the head under the performer's own support. Being carried into an inverted position while fully supported by the apparatus — for example, seated in a backpack or similar wrap in hammock — is not an inversion, and is not restricted at any level. A performer can be in an inverted shape without having performed an inversion.

Kamikaze drop

Entirely restricted at all levels and under all circumstances. Performing one incurs 5 points and a disqualification recommendation, as set out under Restricted moves.

Knee, ankle, heel, and toe hangs

Hangs named for the body part carrying the weight, and read against the definition of Hang above. A knee hang holds at the back of the knee; an ankle hang at the ankle; a heel hang at the back of the heel; a toe hang at the toes or the top of the foot. Each is restricted only where the tables say so, and by name — a restriction on one is not a restriction on the others.

Low bar

The bottom of the lyra hoop, opposite the top bar. Standing on the low bar means supporting body weight on the feet there, whether upright, squatting, or crouching.

Multi-directional drop

A drop containing more than one direction change. See Direction change.

Neck hang

A hang in which all or almost all of the performer's weight is supported by the neck. Neck hangs are permitted only for performers aged 18 and over, in Advanced divisions and above. They are restricted at every other level and at every age below 18. Neck hangs supported by hands on silks or a similar apparatus are restricted because of unsafe practices observed in performance.

Open drop

A drop where no wrap catches the performer at the bottom, so that nothing but the performer's own grip stops them and, if the drop is not executed properly, nothing stops them but the mat. This includes a 360 with thigh wraps, whether or not the performer starts with the tails in their hands, because the performer comes completely out of the thigh wraps over the course of the drop. It also includes inlocates.

Props

Anything that is not a permanent part of the competitor's costume. This does not include knee pads and shoes.

Release

A drop in which the performer becomes unsecured from the apparatus and must catch it again, so that the drop depends on hand-eye coordination rather than on grip or wrap. The performer is secured for as long as some contact would arrest the descent on its own: a hand on the apparatus, a wrap, a hooked or locked limb, a footlock, or sitting or standing on it. Any one of those held through the movement means the drop is not a release, however open the shape looks. A drop performed on one hand is not a release, because the remaining hand is securing contact. Every release is an open drop; not every open drop is a release.

Roll

A movement in which the performer rotates around the apparatus, or around their own axis while in contact with it, remaining in contact throughout.

Rotation

A 360 movement that stays on the same plane. For example, head-up diving or dropping to a head-up position to finish a skill, or rolling from a face-up to a face-up position.

Secured

Held to the apparatus by something that would arrest a fall if the feet came off the point — a wrap of fabric, a limb hooked through or around the apparatus, or a closed grip on a bar. Contact that would not hold the performer's weight is not being secured — a hand resting on a surface, or fingertips steadying a balance.

Single rotation

A drop or dive that moves through no more than 360 degrees without moving or twisting through another axis of movement.

Slack drop

Performed on soft or flexible apparatuses, involving gathering material in the hands, with wraps, or by blocking with a body part, then dropping or quickly sliding into the bottom of the apparatus or wrap. An inverted slack drop involves the performer being upside down during the downward portion of the skill.

Slide

A descent in which the performer travels down the apparatus while maintaining contact with it, controlled by friction or grip rather than by a wrap.

Spanset

The webbing sling or rope above a lyra, connecting the hoop to the rig point. Where the tables require or restrict use of the spanset, they mean work performed on that webbing sling above the hoop rather than on the hoop itself.

Spanset inversion

On lyra, an inversion performed using the spanset or rope above the hoop as one would on silks or rope. Restricted where the tables say so. An inversion performed inside the spanset, as in hammock, is not a spanset inversion and is permitted.

Standing on the top bar

Supporting body weight on the feet on the upper bar of the lyra, whether upright, squatting, or crouching. Contact with the top bar that does not involve standing on it — touching it, gripping it, hanging from it, or hanging by the knees — is permitted at any level, unless that level's apparatus guidelines restrict it specifically.

Strength, balance, and flexibility skills

The three skill types a performance is required to demonstrate where the tables say so. A strength skill is achieved or held by muscular effort against gravity — a press, a lever, a slow controlled lift. A balance skill is held by controlling the body's position over its point of support rather than by grip or wrap. A flexibility skill shows range of motion held under control, such as a split or a backbend. One movement may demonstrate more than one of the three; where it clearly does, it counts for each.

Stripping

Removal of clothing with sexually implied intent.

Wrap

Apparatus material passed around part of the body so that it holds the performer's weight by tension rather than by grip. A performer is in a wrap for as long as that material would arrest a fall if the hands let go, and out of it once it would not. This is the test behind the falls table, the definition of an open drop, and the rule that being suspended by a wrap is not a hang.

Revision history

All three Season 14 documents carry the same version number and are reissued together. A clarification to any one of them produces a new version of all three, so that a coach, a judge, and a competitor comparing documents can confirm at a glance that they hold the same edition.