D panel

Two D panel judges determine the difficulty score for the gymnasts routine by starting at zero and adding points for three categories requirements, difficulty and connections (two or more difficult techniques strung together to form a combination).

There are a few core skills that each routine must have, depending on the specific apparatus. Including all of these required skills will help the gymnast earn the requirements points for her routine.

To calculate difficulty points, the judges assign point values to the ten most difficult techniques in a gymnasts routine (for men) or the eight most difficult techniques (for women )but of course, a gymnast only gets points for those impressive skills if he does them correctly. If a gymnast tries a difficult move and does it incorrectly, he wont get any points. If he falls or makes another serious mistake, the E panel will take points offso not only will he forfeit the points he would have gained for his difficult move, but hell also lose points for his execution.

Extra points are added when difficult skills are connected to one another to create a sequence (a little bit like a double play in baseball, except that the gymnasts can connect as many skills as they like, and theyre going for points instead of outs).

To calculate a gymnasts final difficulty score, the two judges compare their results and agree on a point value that they both think is appropriate.