Parents shouldn't need a coaching certification to understand why their kid's team scored an 87.3. Here's everything that number actually means.
Every competition score is built from four buckets. Judges evaluate each one independently — and they're all happening at once while your kid is on the floor.
Difficulty measures the risk and complexity of every skill in the routine. A full-twisting double layout in tumbling scores more than a standing back tuck. Elite basket tosses, inversions, and specialty skills all add to this bucket. More people hitting harder skills = higher difficulty score.
Two teams can hit the same skill — but one team's flyer is locked tight, toes pointed, arms sharp. The other team's flyer wobbles and compensates. Execution is that difference. Judges look at body positions, synchronization, and whether skills are achieved with control.
Creativity is the most subjective bucket — but it's still structured. Judges score transitions, floor design, music interpretation, variety in skill selection, and whether the routine tells a story. A routine that's technically perfect but forgettable will lose here to one that takes genuine creative risks.
Deductions are flat penalties applied after scoring. A fall is the most visible one — but legality violations (attempting a skill above your level) are the most brutal. Deductions are applied by safety judges watching independently of the scoring panel, so they're non-negotiable.
This is a mock score for a fictional Level 5 Senior Small team. Click any row to see exactly what that number means — and how one fall changes everything.
The 2027 IASF rulebook is the most significant scoring restructure in over a decade. The old system rewarded raw difficulty at the expense of execution quality — meaning a team that fell repeatedly could still beat a cleaner team just by attempting harder skills. That's over.
The new system weights execution and creativity more heavily, increases deduction severity for legality violations, and introduced a new performance bonus bucket for athletic expression. MatPulse is built around the 2027 scoring model — our real-time breakdowns reflect the updated category weights and deduction rules so you know exactly where your team stands.
No more squinting at a whiteboard in the arena lobby. MatPulse sends you the score — and tells you what it means — on your phone, while your kid is still on the floor.
No spam. No pitch decks. Just scores when they happen.