Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) is a rebellious 17-year-old who is forced to return to the regimented world of gymnastics after a run-in with the law where she and two of her skateboard friends accidently cause damage to a development house. A judge sentences Haley to her ultimate nightmare, attending an elite gymnastics academy run by legendary coach Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges).Haley was once considered one of the most talented gymnasts in the US. She made it to the World Championships, but the previous year she walked out of competition in the middle of the finals, costing the American team the gold medal and leaving many people hurt and crushed making her one of the most hated people in gymnastics.After arriving at the school, Haley has a talk with Coach Vickerman, who convinces her to take up the sport once again at least until she can enter an upcoming invitational competition. Vickerman convinces her that she can use the prize money from the competition to repay some property damage debts she still owes and after that, she can leave gymnastics once and for all. Disliking the sport's rigid rules and intense training schedule, Haley is reluctant to come out of retirement. Her attitude toward her fellow gymnasts (as well as her past that she avoids talking about) causes conflicts. After getting the cold shoulder the first day at the gym, Haley realizes what she is up against.At the invitational, Haley's talent shines and her return from gymnastics retirement seems for the better. But all is not what it seems in the scoring system. She starts to remember one of the many reasons she retired: the flaws in judging. The panels do not look at the difficulty of the move nor do they look at the technique; they merely take deductions for unimportant minor errors. As Haley narrates: "It doesn't matter how well you do. It's how well you follow their rules."In addition, Haley is severely stressed by her dominating divorced mother, who has arrived to watch the meet. Her conduct at the World Championship ("Worlds") has not been forgotten by the other athletes and spectators in which they treat her with open hostility. During the competition, Haley is at first dominate and wipes the floor with passing gymnastics act after act.Haley finally breaks down in the middle of her balance beam routine and, in a repeat of the World Championships, leaves the arena before completing the competition. Before she leaves, she reveals to Vickerman the reason she walked out of Worlds Championship: she had just discovered that her mother was having an affair with her then-coach, and her parents divorced as a result shortly thereafter with her father gaining custody of her.Haley goes to the same judge who sentenced her to gymnastics training to tell her that she has decided to drop out and be either sent to juvenial hall prison or a military academy. But the judge tells her that there is no need for that for the damage caused by Haley to the development property has been entirely payed off by Coach Vickerman who as apparently sympathised with Haley and what happened to her. He persuades Haley to continue to train with him.Although she did not complete the invitational, Haley decides to accept Vickerman's offer and continues to train. At the end of training, Haley and three of her teammates Mina (Maddy Curley), Wei Wei (Nikki SooHoo), and Joanne (Vanessa Lengies), qualify for the National Championships.But at the National Champtionships, the judging leaves her far back in the all-around standings, but this does not keep her out of the event finals. In the first event final, the vault, Mina executes an extremely difficult maneuver perfectly but receives a low score (9.500 out of 10). When Vickerman questions the judges, he learns that Mina was deducted on the technicality of showing a bra strap. Haley is next up, however, instead of vaulting, she shows her bra strap to the judges and forfeits her turn in disgust (otherwise known as a "scratch") as well as flipping her 'rebel horn' hand jester to the judges (the rock 'n roll sign of the forefinger and little finger extened which is Haley's symbol of rebellion that she shows throughout the movie). One by one, other gymnasts follow suit, earning a string of zeros and forcing the judges to award Mina the vault gold medal anyway.Haley's bold action sparks a movement. The gymnasts all talk amongst themselves and realize that if they could choose the winner, the judging would be fair. They convince all the others in the competition to do the same, choosing one person from each event who they deem the best to be the "winner". The winner completes her routine... while the others jump on and off the apparatus and scratch for all the other events, from the pole vault, to the balance beam, to the freedance. However, it seems the movement will be ruined when Trisha Skillkin, a long-time judges' favorite and firm supporter, arrives and threatens the choice of winners by competing herself first with the balance beam, until Wei Wei decides to compete with an unorthodox move of neior-breakdancing on the beam to the tune of rock music.At the final event, Haley competes to the part of the freestyle dance while the others scratch. When it comes to compete, Trisha finally comes to her senses and scratches though, and realizes that scratching is for the good of the competition to make a point. The whole event is not about competing or winning, it is about free thinking.What started out as a gymnastics competition turns into a small revolution for the rules and Haley. Her talents are recognized once more and her future seems to be set with numerous colleges offering her athletic scholarships to compete in NCAA gymnastics.