The Lost Art of Mounting the Beam

Mounting the beam with an acrobatic series used to be more popular in the 80s and 90s. Gymnasts would grab the attention of the viewer from the get-go, as this was a very flashy and gutsy way to start the routine. However, there's quite a bit of risk involved in performing such mounts, as one inch off to the side could end in a fall, and a full point deduction on your first sequence is one of the worst ways to start a routine. It can be very challenging to mentally recover from this and stay focused for the rest of the exercise, so this is one of the main reasons most gymnasts avoid taking big risks on their mount. Nonetheless, with the right choice of elements, these combinations could still be pretty beneficial in terms of connection bonus, and even help fulfill the acrobatic series requirement on this apparatus. Luckily, we still have a couple of gymnasts, like Italy's Manila Esposito, who keep the trend alive. Still on the topic of mounting the beam, handstand mounts used to be more popular, up until the early to mid-2000s, but unfortunately, have gone out of style ever since. They were a wonderful display of balance, strength, and control, and some athletes even created their own trademark pose, which set them apart from the other competitors. But as cool as these mounts were, realistically, they simply consume too much time and energy. On top of that, their current ratings are not very encouraging either. Modern gymnastics heavily focuses on two main avenues, big skills with high degrees of difficulty, and connecting elements to boost the gymnast's start value. So, wasting 10 seconds on a mount that is just going to receive a C or D rating at most, is simply not smart or worth it. There's also no incentive from the code to perform them, as, unlike the dismount, the mount does not have to be among the eight counting elements.