Yogasana words · Beginner

Yogasana as a competitive sport, intended to encourage the practice of yogasana and promote wellbeing among people of all ages. Boys and girls compete separately, in under-14, under-17 and under-19 age groups at the school games.

Four events: Traditional Yogasana Single, Artistic Yogasana Single, Artistic Yogasana Pair and Rhythmic Yogasana Pair. At the school games an athlete may enter at most three events. The traditional event has three rounds (quarter-final, semi-final, final); the other events start at the semi-final.

A yoga posture. An athlete must hold each asana for a minimum time, and each one has a code and a base value (a difficulty weight) taken from the official charts.

The asana charts group postures into forward bend, backward bend, twisting body, leg balance and hand balance. Each category has two sub-categories: for example forward bend standing (FBS) and floor (FBF), backbend standing (BBS) and floor (BBF), twisting forward bend (TBF) and backbend (TBB), leg balance forward bend (LBF) and backbend (LBB), hand balance forward bend (HBF) and backbend (HBB).

The difficulty weight of an asana, which the judges multiply by the execution mark. The score of an asana in the artistic events is the base value times the execution value out of 10.

In the traditional event each round has set compulsory asanas and chosen optional ones: 5 compulsory and 2 optional in the quarter-final and the semi-final, and 4 compulsory and 3 optional in the final. Optional asanas must come from different categories, may not repeat a compulsory asana or an asana from earlier rounds, and the groups allowed grow with each round.

The individual event in which athletes hold set compulsory and chosen optional asanas for the required time in each round. Each asana is scored out of 8 by the D judges and multiplied by the base value, and a time judge's marks are added.

An individual event (Kalatmak Ekal Yogasana) of 10 asanas chosen from the optional charts, performed to music in 150 to 180 seconds. Each asana is held for at least 5 seconds, transitions are artistic and synchronised with the music, and the athlete greets with Namaste before and after. Men's and women's events are separate.

A pair event (Kalatmak Yugal Yogasana) of 10 asanas or formations in which the two athletes show two different postures at the same time, as a unit, in 150 to 180 seconds. Both doing the same posture at once is prohibited. Men's and women's pairs compete separately, with no mixed pairs.

A pair event (Talatmak Yugal Yogasana) of 10 asanas in which both athletes perform the same asana at the same time in synchrony, in 150 to 180 seconds. Body touch between them is not allowed and costs marks. Men's and women's pairs are separate, the costumes of both must be the same or follow the same pattern, and the artistry mark covers rhythm, synchronisation and artistic steps.

Four judges who score the difficulty and execution of the asanas. In the artistic events each asana is marked out of 10 and multiplied by its base value, giving up to 100 for ten asanas. The highest and lowest D judge scores are dropped and the rest averaged, and in the traditional event the same drop is made, leaving the average of the remaining three judges (so there are five).

Two artistry judges, whose scores are averaged, who score out of 20: costume 1, theme and music 1, character and expression 3, rhythm and artistic steps 10 and use of floor 5. They take penalties off the total, and deduct in multiples of 0.25.

Two judges who each time the whole performance (TW) and the holding time of each asana (TA) with two stopwatches. The score is out of 10: up to 5 for the total time and 5 for the asanas, 0.5 each if each is held at least five seconds. Times are in whole seconds, rounding up when the judges differ.

The routine must last between 150 and 180 seconds and finish in time with the music. It scores 3 marks for 150 to 160 seconds, 4 for 161 to 170 and 5 for 171 to 180, and zero under 150. Beyond 180 seconds each second costs 0.5 marks, and after 10 seconds the athlete is disqualified.

In the traditional event, the D judge score minus the evaluator's penalties. In the artistic and rhythmic events, the D judge score plus the A judge and time judge scores, minus the evaluator's penalties. Pairs score the average of the two athletes' execution marks combined with formation marks.