Pre-Release of Straight-Line Difficulty Framework 2025+

Important Links

[OTHER DOCUMENTS] Below you will find links to two other important background documents provided by the team of people still working on the final detailed catalogue:

Dear Wheel Gymnastics Community,

We have some exciting news to share with you regarding the new Straight-Line Difficulty Catalogue for Gym Wheel.

Overview of New Straight-Line Difficulty Skills

We know how eagerly you are awaiting the new Straight-Line Difficulty Catalogue. We have also been in suspense for a long time, but there is no doubt that the wait will be worth it. The time-consuming work that has been diligently undertaken by the Competence Team (Miriam Kaufmann, Brigitte Faber, Elfi Reuter, Dagmar Henningsen, Shaheen Kapadia) over the past years is phenomenal in its depth and thoroughness.

The team has created a brand new structure, allocating each difficulty skill its logical place in a matrix layout of difficulty and type of skill. By applying the Technical Language of Wheel Gymnastics to describe each element, they have created a framework that will serve as a “single source of truth” for the Difficulty Catalogue as a whole. Room has been made within the framework to be able to add not yet defined skills without having to start from scratch.

As a pre-release, we will present the above-mentioned framework that provides an overview of the difficulty skills listed in the upcoming detailed catalogue. The full catalogue will contain detailed descriptions about how to perform the skills and set out the criteria for recognition. It will be published as soon as it is ready, but the team still has some months of work ahead.

Katharina Heymann (IRV Head of Judging) and Max Brinkmann (IRV Judging Team Member) have worked hard to define and assign structure groups to the elements in the new framework and IRV Vice President Maria Sollohub has been responsible for the translation into English so that we can publish it as a pre-release to the international wheel gymnastics community.

Thank you all for your hard work and the long hours you have volunteered and continue to volunteer to our sport!

Let us stress again that what we are sharing now is a pre-release. It is ready for you to start reading and training, but changes in phrasing or structure group allocation might still occur. Possible corrections might be made and additional examples of skills might also be added.

Some of the descriptions might be difficult to understand for those of you who are not familiar with the Technical Language of Wheel Gymnastics. Many of you will want to see a video or be able to read the detailed description in the full catalogue to understand the exact nature of the difficulty skill.

Video Links

We will be adding some video links to the live online version of the difficulty framework over the next few weeks. Some skills do not currently have a video, while some of the existing videos will need to be re-recorded with better quality and more precision with regard to the element(s) they are supposed to show. Despite these drawbacks, we feel that something is better than nothing, and we will publish the videos we have in order to make the interpretation of skills easier. However, the more detailed text descriptions of each individual skill and criteria for recognition will not be available until the full catalogue has been completed.

New Structure Groups

The structure groups associated with the Straight-Line Difficulty Skills Framework 2025+ are as follows:

I. Moves or element combinations in at least one binding

II. Centralised and semi-centralised moves without bindings

III. High rolls

IV. Hip circles

V. Knee, back, and elbow circles

VI. Moves and element combinations with a free knee swing

VII. Moves and element combinations with a tuck over

VIII. Static high supports and handstand positions

IX. Heel, toe and knee hangs

X. Dismounts and elements with a flight phase

You will find structure group (SG) allocations in the Difficulty Skills Framework. This is one area where it would be useful to receive feedback through your national judging officer if you are in doubt about the way the structure group allocation has been made.

Procedure for Submitting New Difficulty Skills

We are aware that some of you have already come up with new elements that you wish to be included in the respective difficulty catalogues. You are welcome to submit new skills according to the following submission procedure:

If you want to hand in a new spiral or vault skill with the aim of having it recognised at the upcoming World Championships 2026 in Göttingen, the deadline for submission is the 30th of September 2025.

It is also possible to submit new straight-line skills, but we ask for your understanding that the evaluation and incorporation of these will start later in order to first gain some experience in working with the new straight-line difficulty framework and give everyone an opportunity to familiarise themselves with it before we start expanding further.

Implementation

In dialogue with the Athletes’ Commission, who recommended a timeline of at least 1½ years from the release of the catalogue to it being applied at a World Championship, we have agreed to push the effective date later than originally planned. This will allow ample time for gymnasts to adjust their routines as well as for judges to be trained under the new system. Access to the full detailed catalogue is essential for all parties to be sure of the recognition criteria for specific difficulty skills.

We have therefore made the following decisions:

  1. The upcoming Individual World Championships 2026 in Göttingen will be held under the current 2023+ straight-line difficulty catalogue and Code of Points
  2. The new Straight-Line Difficulty Skills Framework and upcoming Catalogue 2025+ will come into effect AFTER the 2026 Individual World Championships.

As the competence team members indicate in their Introduction above, they still need some time to finish their work on the detailed catalogue and pass it on to the IRV for translation and incorporation into the Code of Points. In the meantime, the IRV will assist in collecting and making available videos of the difficulty skills in the new catalogue and linking them in the online version of the Difficulty Framework.

Thank you for your understanding.