From two-pass routines to frequently recycled music, NCAA gymnastics fans have many grievances with the current state of the floor exercise. What once felt like an opportunity for gymnasts to perform in a manner unique to them now has the same formulaic approach as the other events.
To avoid beating a dead horse, we tried to avoid the usual complaints, but here are five floor trends we want to die off come the 2027 season.
1. Too many cuts in the music
Have you ever watched a nice, balletic floor routine and thought, “Wow, I’m really enjoying this,” and then wham—sharp cut to some high-energy track of a completely different genre? And there’s hardly ever a smooth transition in choreography to go with the change. It totally breaks the audience’s immersion in a routine, and frankly, we want gymnastics to be a more enjoyable sport to watch—not less.
2. The term “floor party”
Perhaps this issue lies with commentators above anyone else, indicating a need for the diversification of gymnastics commentary. When every team has a floor party, no team has a floor party, and it isn’t even an appropriate term for every team. Take Oklahoma, for example—a team with highly stylized floor choreo and music; the Sooners’ floor rotation feels like more of a performance than a party.
3. Boring lead-ups to leap passes
The NCAA needs to see more variation in leap entries. Chassés are, of course, an efficient way to build up momentum, but they’re getting a little excessive. Sometimes it feels like gymnasts have to bound around the entire floor before actually doing a leap, not to mention the way some swing their legs out to the side in their lead-up looks rather awkward.
4. The rise of the layout step-out
Listen—we get it: after Brooklyn Moors showed up and showed out with the most floaty, time-stopping layout step-out to ever grace the NCAA, everybody wants a piece of that beauty. Countless routines seemed to have a tumbling pass ending with a layout step-out in 2026, but none quite had the same appeal, often due to directional issues or a lack of height. A relatively simple skill like this should appear so flawlessly and seamlessly in a routine that it feels part of the choreo—not something that the athlete has to fight to make look nice.
5. Crown choreography
Alright, we’re cheating a bit with this one since gym fans have been calling for the end of crown choreo for years; however, it hasn’t stopped. There seems to be this notion that the only way to do an empowered/confident routine is by having the gymnast dub themself a queen. The move lost its impact about five years ago, though. Now it just reads as uninspired.
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Article by Logan Driedger
