GYMNASTICS ISSUES

WOGA Training in Italy with Nastia

2010-06-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

I was on youtube and I came across these videos of the WOGA girls training at their Italian camp this week. Nastia coaching Lizzy Leduc, Katelyn Ohashi, Grace McLaughlin, Briley Casanova and Sophia Lee on Tumbling:

Katelyn Ohashi training 2 flicks to a layout 2 feet on beam (can't believe how many people are that close to her filming!):

Thanks to youtube user 88gymnast for the videos and hopefully there will be more to come!

Europeans News

2010-04-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

All the WAG teams seem to have made it so we are in for an exciting competition!

The AllAround Gymnastics News had some notes on Junior podium training here

Some of the main points include:

Viktoria Komova: some problems on floor with triple twist and double arabian pass and overrotated her DTY. She looked good on bars though and she was the only Russian not to fall on beam. She performed an excellent routine but did not include the double arabian dismount.

Anastasia Grishina: performed a beautiful floor but with a sat down 2 1/2 at the end and showed a well executed bars routine. she fell on her full twisting tuck back and was hesitant throughout.

Violetta Malikova: She was showing the signs of her injury with a watered down floor and problems on bars. 2 falls on beam including on her layout to 2 feet.

French Juniors - problems on vault, all had good bars, the team as a whole were solid on beam with only one fall and a good amount of difficulty. Floor was not so good with some falls and average difficulty.

Swedish Juniors: One of the improving nations and showed good basics and execution throughout.

British Gymnastics have posted a few photos of Junior Podium Training on their facebook page. There is one of the Romanians and it seems that the team is now Larisa Iordache, Diana Bulimar, Madalina Neagu, Ana Maria Baicu and Beatrice Margarit. No Maria Balea which is a shame hope she is not injured.

the GB Teams have changed the Senior Team is Tweddle, Hibbert, Downie, Rippin and Hunt with Danusia Francis out from a hamstring injury. Junior Team is now Rebecca Tunney, Ruby Harold, Jessica Hogg, Billie Mckenzie and Laura Mitchell. No Venus Romaeo or Lizzie Beddoe both are my favourites, not sure if they are injured or not.

What are the best in Europe doing? - Senior Beam

2010-04-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

Unlike bars there are a lot more gymnasts with high difficulty scores on beam, so I only included gymnasts who have proven this year that they are also able to get high execution scores. From reviewing the scores from this year I think gymnasts would need a score of mid to high 14s to make the final which low to mid 15s probably taking the medals.
The best gymnast on beam is obviously Ana Porgras and if she can hit I don't think anyone can beat her. I believe her highest score this year is 15.250 (D Score: ) at the Romanian International.
Second Place I think will go to the other Romanian qualifier whoever that may be. It's mostly likely to be Amelia Racea or Raluca Haidu, although Diana Chelaru is also capable and has more experience. Amelia Racea scored a 15.150 at the Romanian International and Raluca Haidu scored a 14.90 and if they perform up to their potential they are more than capable of winning a medal.

Another medal contender is definetley Youna Dufournet. Although I don't like her on this event and hate her Onodi! She has proven to be consistent and has a lot of difficulty (D Score: 6.1 - 6.4). Top Score this year: 15.150 at a Euro Trial. Below is her routine from the FRA/GBR/ROU meet Score 14.90:

Ksenia Semenova is also still capable of scoring well on this piece which I think is now her best piece. D Score: 5.80 Top Score this year 14.675 (Russian Championships) which can be seen here.
Last years European Beam Champion Yana Demyanchuk who is injured should still be able to make it to the final as she scored a 14.850 earlier this year at the Ukraine Cup.
Other gymnasts who should make the final include:
Elisabetta Preziosa who made the World Beam Final last year with her extreme flexibility and excellent leaps. Top Score this year 14.90 (Serie A2, D Score: 5.90):

Vanessa Ferrari is still coming back from injury but we all know she is able to fight and perform under pressure. This year she has put up some impressive performance her best being a 15.00 (Serie A2, D Score: 5.80):

Vasiliki Millousi suprised everyone by qualifying in first place for the beam final at last years Euros but unfortunately could not keep it together in the finals. She could be capable of better this year and has already had a string of good performances this year her best score being in Greece (14.60, D Score 5.70 - 6.10). Below is her routine from Paris finals Score: 14.250:

Sanne Wevers: I would love to see her and her spins make a major final! It always impresses me how easily she spins whereas nearly every other gymnast has problems with just their one spin. Top Score this year 14.550 (Euro Trial, D Score: 5.70). Check out her 3 spin combo below:

Valeriia Maksyuta: She made the final last year but has had very inconsistent performances this year with scores ranging from 12.30 to her top score of 15.10 at the Zakharova Cup. So depending on which gymnast turns up will determine if she makes the final. Below is her routine from the Cottbus final which kind of highlights her so far:

My last mention for this bean final is Aliya Mustafina who has only been able to score 14.20 this year because of injuries but I'm hoping she has recovered as I want to see as much of her gymnastics as possible!

What are the best in Europe doing? - Junior Bars

2010-04-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

I think the Russian Team as a whole will be points ahead of everyone else on this apparatus. the top 2 should be Viktoria Komova annd Anastasia Grishina. The rest of the team are also good on bars and are worthy of the bars final if one of the top 2 messes up in qualification: Anastasia Sidorova (D Score: 5.40), Maria Paseka (D Score 5.80) and Violetta Malikova (D Score: 5.90).

Although it will be close I think Komova will win ahead of Grishina but either way they are both excellent on this piece and have start values of 6.50:
One of the best routines I have ever seen Komova do is available here

Even though the Romanians are not strong on bars I still expect Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar to make the final, they have improved on this piece and apart from the russians, bars is a weak piece in Europe for everyone. Of the 2 I prefer Iordache's line and she has more difficulty:

Others who have a good chance of making the final include:
Andrea Foti (ITA): She has a D Score of 5.60 and she has been hitting consistently this year.

Sara Catanzaro (SUI): D Score 5.60. She has some execution errors but there is potential if she can put it all together.

Rebecca Tunney (GB): D Score 5.50. This is more of a hopeful choice as she has potential on this event but is really inexperienced, but I'm hoping at least one Junior from the home team can make a final. She is from the same club as Beth Tweddle but with a different coach.

Julie Croket (BEL): D Score 5.40. She is a real talent, this is not her best event but she still has a chance to make the final if she can handle the pressure.

Mira Boumejmajen (FRA): D Score 5.50. Another stylish gymnast from France who has soke really great skills in her routine.
Maria Livchikova (UKR). She is also lacking experience but I really like her and recently at the Zakharova Cup she performed well woth good execution.

What are the best in Europe doing? - Senior Bars

2010-04-14T20:36:00.001-07:00

I decided to do a series of post on the best gymnasts in Europe on each apparatus for Seniors and Juniors in the lead up to this years Europeans in Birmingham.

SENIOR BARS

Below in no particular order are the gymnasts I think have the best chance to make the bars finals and/or medal as well as some outsiders who could sneak in:

Beth Tweddle - D Score 6.80

Youna Dufournet - D Score 6.90

Aliya Mustafina - D Score 6.60 (with potential for more if adding her new dismount)

Tatiana Nabieva - D Score 6.50

Natalia Kononenko - D Score 6.40

Ana Porgras - D Score 6.30

Serena Licchetta - D Score 5.80

Others with a chance:

Laura Svilpaite - D Score 5.80
Becky Downie - D Score 6.10 (if she can hit)
Ksenia Semenova - D Score 5.90 (I would think she needs Nabieva or Mustafina to mess up in order for her to make the final but it is possible)
Ekaterina Kurbatova - D Score 6.00 (probably needs to improve her form a lot to beat the others on her team but she has the D Score needed)
Vanessa Ferrari - D Score 5.80
Pauline Morel - D Score 5.80
Celine Van Gerner - D Score 5.80
Marie-Sophie Hindermann - D Score 5.60
Raluca Haidu - D Score 5.50
Amelia Racea - D Score 5.60?
Aagje Vanwalleghem - D Score 6.10
Elisabeth Seitz - D Score 5.70

Romanian International Videos

2010-04-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Videos are available on Ecorn1x's Youtube Channel. For the Seniors young star Raluca Haidu won the AA scoring 58.150. She actually performed a DTY (14.700) which is impressive for someone so tiny. Beam was solid with just a few wobbles but landed her tuck back full fine (14.900) and can be seen here. Her floor routine (14.350) is below:

Ana Porgras was 2nd in the AA (57.050) after yet another inconsistent performance this time it was problems with bars (13.300). Her beam (15.150) was ok a few wobbles but nothing major:
Its weird normally I watch the Romanian floor routines for the tumbling but with Porgras (14.600) it is the opposite I watch it for the spins and bits in between the tumbling:

Amelia Racea competed well apart from a low score on floor (13.250) and earned 56.700 All Around. She performed an untidy DTY to score (14.550) and apparently she was having tropuble with it in warm ups. Her beam (14.950) was nice and interesting to watch with some different combinations then we normally see:

Cerasela Patrascu seems to be getting nearer to her best with a nice performance on beam (13.700), but she still has a watered down dismount which limits her score a little:

Sandra Izbasa returned to competition with an exhibition on beam to prove all the non believers wrong!

Diana Chelaru did not have a good day with falls on bars and beam (13.700). Beam can be seen here.

Among the Juniors Diana Bulimar won the AA. She had a very exciting upgrade on floor which was a well performed double layout! She also had a 1 1/2 step out+double tuck, piked full in and double pike in the routine and never stoppped moving. I love that she performs with a smile:

Maria Balea is so cute and tiny! Her floor routine (13.500) was tiring to watch she never stopped moving and she tumbles so fast:

Larisa Iordache seemed to have many problems with 3 falls, one that did not look good was on a double twisting front layout on floor where she seemed to miss time it. Her floor along with Patrascu and Porgras performing FTYs is available here.

Credit goes to Sri Ea for all coverage, Thank You!

Review of Recent State Championships

2010-04-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Gymnastike covered some of the State Championships including Virginia Level 8 - 10, Texas Level 9 & 10 and Illinois Level 10, and as there were so many videos I decided to post some of my favourite routines from each.
Simone Biles - She trains at Bannon's and is a real powerhouse winning 1st on Vault (9.725) and 1st on Floor (9.750) at Texas States. Her floor routine is impressive for a young junior and includes a tucked full in, 2 1/2+punch front and double pike.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Alaina Johnson - She qualified to the National team but because on injuries is competing level 10 and will head to Florida next season and I hope she does well. Her form and presentation really impressed me winning 1st on Floor with a 9.900! as well as 1st on Vault (9.725) and 3rd AA (37.625).

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Megan Tripp - Another of WOGAs little stars who competed in the Junior A category of Level 9. She had a really nice presence on floor and I appreciated her effort to add artistry. She had a very successful meet placing 1st on Vault (9.525), 2nd Beam (9.550), Joint 1st on Floor (9.750) and Joint 1st AA (38.375).

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Samantha Kolbas - She placed forst on beam (9.70), 3rd on floor (9.575), 2nd on bars (9.50) and 2nd AA (38.425) at the Illinois Level 10 State Championships. She trains at Arena Gymnastics and has a full scholarshi[ to Arkansas. I liked her whole beam routine but the best part was her stuck double tuck back dismount!

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Justine Callis - I really liked this elegant floor routine from this level 9 Virginia State gymnast which earnt her 2nd place (9.450). She trains at Ocean Tumblers and is 12 years old.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Alex McMurty - She is a Level 10 gymnast from Richmond Olympiad and won the AA in the 12 - 13 year old division with 38.125. She was really impressive on all events and I most liked her Floor in which she had some really good tumbling and won with 9.60. She was also competing in her first meet since October as she has had wrist surgery! Check it Out:

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Wild Rose Event Finals videos

2010-04-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

Deng LinLin
Bars

Beam

Floor

Sui Lu
Beam

Floor

Jiang YuYuan
Bars

Rose Kalam Woo
Beam, very impressive for a 10/11 year old! Score 13.000 (D Score 5.2) 3rd Place

Sabrina Gill
Floor, Score 13.85 (D Score 5.2) 1st Place:

Jocelyn Hunt
Floor, I like this girl more and more I hope she gets a spot on the GB Euros team:

Jesolo Review - USA

2010-04-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for more videos to appear before I posted my thoughts on the results.

USA
Seniors
Mackenzie Caquatto: I have to say I have never been a fan of hers, I find her gymnastics boring and I don't think she has the personality or performance skills to be a top elite gymnast. Her floor was a disaster (11.650) with two falls and two OB, I read somewhere that she had an ankle injury and there certainly seemed something wrong which makes me ask why did they put her on floor? Why not save her ankle? Her beam was better (14.300) but nothing special, the only event I like her on is bars (14.350). To be honest I hope she goes to college and finishes with elite after this season, I can't see her making the Worlds team and I much prefer her sister and others.

Alexandra Raisman: She is another one who lacks personality and performance skills, but I really want to like her as her talent and skills are amazing. I was never Alicia Sacramone's biggest fan but what I did like was her personality and it needs to rub off on Raisman somehow! She performed a really good yurchenko double twist(15.150) and I want to see her with an amanar. Bars was better than I thought, she has more potential here than Alicia did and she stuck her double front dismount (13.700). Beam was good, some of the leaps were suspect but her acro skills were fine, just a hop on the dismount (14.250).
Floor (14.550):

Amanda Jetter: Excellent stuck yurchenko 1 1/2 (14.400), nice high releases (piked&straddled jaegers) and transitions on bars just a few late pirouettes (13.550), nice double front dismount. On floor she had a nice variety of tumbles (double arabian, back 2 1/2+front layout 1/1, back 1 1/2+front layout 1 1/2, dbl tuck bk), most with good landings (13.800). Although I'm not a fan of her music I like that she puts effort into the performance I just think she needs to mature a bit she still seems like a junior to me.

Kytra Hunter: Love her power and energy but hate her dance and choreography! Her floor dance is not what an elite should have and its a good job she can tumble (14.200). Her yurchenko double was a bit untidy in the air and had a big step on landing (15.00! possibly a little overscored).

Cassie Whitcomb: I really like her elegant style, her floor music is the same as Steliana Nistor's in 2008 but it is completely different in style. I enjoyed her whole performance, and although she may be weak on Vault and Beam I wouldn't mind seeing her on a World team even just for 2 pieces. She only scored 13.650 but I hope she can upgrade by the summer, Bars was better with 14.200 (no video).

Morgan Smith: She needs to work on her leaps and feet but I like her and she has some big skills. Her beam was solid (14.150) and I can see her being a good contributor to the team if she keeps being consistent. Her floor was also solid with nice high tumbles but she seems to have gone to the same choreographer as Kytra, surely someone can do better than this:

Juniors
Kyla Ross: She looks like she has grown a lot and I think it has given a much more elegant look. As everyone has already said she was well beaten by Grishina especially on bars but people should remember that this is early in the season for Kyla whereas Grishina is being peaked for Euros in a couple of weeks. She still has a couple of years before she is Senior so there's time for bars improvements. She had some different combinations in her beam routine including free walkover+flick+layout step out, tuck back+sheep jump. Unfortunately she fell on her side somi but really tried to stay on(13.450)! Regardless of the result at Jesolo I think she will be a real asset to Team USA as a senior if she can stay healthy as she has proven she can perform under pressure and I much prefer her to many of this years seniors.
Floor (14.250):

Sabrina Vega: I love her personality and gymnastics, she didnt have the best meet especially on beam (13.550, 7.550 E score) and floor she landed her 2nd pass out of bounds which cost her .5 as well as loss of difficulty, but the rest of the routine was nicely performed (13.300).

Wild Rose Invitational Event Finals

2010-04-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

UPDATE Full results can be found here

I managed to get access to the live feed both days but Saturdays stream was impossible to use so I couldn't really see any routines, but Sunday was much better as they had a more zoomed in camera on each event. The results of the All Around were not suprising:
1. Deng LinLin 58.900
2. Jiang YuYuan 57.550
3. Sui Lu 56.350

Event Finals:

Vault
I didn't see much of this final only Charlotte Mackie who performed a Yurchenko layout 1 1/2 (nearly sat down) and a Yurchenko 1/2 on front tuck off (stuck). Score 13.225 3rd Place. Overall Charlotte didn't see in competition shape and I really hope she does well this year as I loved her as a Junior and she hasn't lived up to that potential.

Bars
Sui Lu: She's obviously not a top bar worker but she did have some interesting skills including toe on Shaposhnikova+pak salto, stoop in to handstand+piked jaeger(she stopped on something after this that I couldn't see), full in dismount. Score 13.700 3rd Place.
Deng LinLin: Her routine was good with just some small errors. She performed Inverted giant+Endo in Invert+Endo in Invert 1/2, 2 pirouttes (couldn't see what)+Straddled Jaeger, pak salto, full twisting double layout dismount (very piked down). Score 15.400 2nd Place.
Jiang YuYuan: This is definetely her best piece at the moment. Giant 1 1/2+Tkatchev, Healey 1/1+Ono+straddled Jaeger, pak salto, double layout dismount. Score 15.650 1st Place.

Beam
Jiang YuYuan: She had a complete meltdown during this routine, she seemed really unfocused from the start. It began with a fall on a front pike, flick+straight bk (not enough height hands down), front tuck (pause)+tuck back+sheep jump (fall), switch ring (wobble), 2 flicks into 2 1.2 dismount (step). Score 11.450 8th Place.
Miranda Meyer: I really like her and hope she comes back well from her injury as I think she has potential on this piece everythinbg had good form just not enough difficulty. She had a nice round off tuck bk 1/1, 2/1 spin, switch side, front tuck, back tuck and a round off 2/1 dismount. Score 12.400 4th Place.
Deng LinLin: She started off really well and was impressing me with a new 1/1 spin leg at horizontl into 1/2 spin combination, high layout 2 feet and nice front pike, until she got to her switch ring leap which looked fine but she was a little off and her foot slide down the beam. She didn't actually touch the floor though as she hung under the beam and got back up, finishing with free walkover+sheep jump, side somi, split change+ and double pike dismount (chest low). Score 14.250 2nd Place.
Sui Lu: She had a different routine to last year and showed a verry steady performance with few wobbles, perhap this routine will work better for her than the one at Worlds. Front tuck (pause)+korbut, Front tuck 1/2 (stuck), switch ring, free walkover (pause)+flick+pike back, 1/1 spin leg at horizontal, side somi, round off double pike dismount. Score 14.750 and a well deserved 1st Place.

Floor
Jiang YuYuan: She had the same music as Beijing and performed watered down tumbling so she is perhaps not at full fitness or anywhere near that yet. I missed her first tumble, 2nd was back 2 1/2 twist, triple spin (foot down), I think next it was a triple twist (not sure the stream kept cutting out) and finished with a double pike. Score 14.100 3rd Place.
Deng LinLin: She also still has her Beijing music, I'm hoping for a new routine later this year. All tumbles were performed well but almost every landing had a step which is costly with the new rules. Tumbles: tucked double arabian, tucked full in, back 1 1/2+front layout 1/1, double pike (stuck landing). She had also added a new spin which was a 2/1 leg held in splits (memmel). Score 14.700 2nd Place.
Sui Lu: She did her job with another solid routine, with nice choreography. Tumbles: whip+triple full, back 2 1/2+front layout, back 1 1/2+front layout 1/1, double pike. The best part of her routine was the spins she performed a new spin 2/1 leg held in splits (memmel) and a beautiful 2/1 with leg at horizontal. Score 15.250 1st Place.
Just a quick mention of Jocelyn Hunt (GBR) whose routine I missed on floor but she scored a credible 13.900 and a good performance in the AA this weekend which is good considering she was a last minute addition to the competition. She proved yet again to the selection committee that she can be consistent, maybe she will be a suprise European Team member?

Overall Impressions
I was pleased to see China taking this meet seriously considering there wasn't much competition and it is early in the season. Sui Lu was the most impressive to me winning her best two events, I actually like her more and more each time I watch her. I think if she continues to be consistent she will definetely be headed for another Worlds team and perhaps medals. Deng LinLin looked good overall, apart from that mistake on beam and had an excellent performance in the AA so she will surely be hoping to do better than last year at Worlds in the AA. Jiang YuYuan is the one I'm not sure about. The only event where she can contribute is Bars and as China has He Kexin and many other excellent bars workers, YuYuan is not going to be put on a Worlds team just to do bars, she did put up a good AA score but I'm sure there is a few who will be better (Tan Sixin, Huang Qiushuang as well as Deng). So where does that leave her? Will she get back to her best or will she retire?

I couldn't watch the Juniors as they were streamed on a separate video at the same time as the Seniors. I only got to see Riley Cholod on bars which she won with 13.750 and showed tkatchev, clear pike circle to handstand 1/2+Endo 1/2, overshoot 1/2 and double pike dismount. She is a real talent and also consistent coming 2nd on Beam and Floor and winning the AA on Saturday (53.400). The only video available is of Sui Lu training floor in the training session od Friday:

Paris World Cup

2010-03-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Lauren Mitchell is out and will be replaced by Georgia Wheeler who compete all 4 events and Jenny Pinches is also out and will be replaced with Niamh Rippin competing vault, beam and floor. Other changes: Halina Ivanets and Elsa Garcia are not competing, Jiang Tong has been added to the Chinese team (vault).

This is the 10 - 11 April and it actually looks like there is going to be some competition! Some of the most notable entries are below:

Lauren Mitchell - Bars, Beam and Floor

Larissa Miller - Bars

Emily Little - Vault, Beam, Floor

Halina Ivanets - All 4 Events

Bruna Leal - All 4 Events

Dominique Pegg - All 4 Events

Brittany Rogers - All 4 Events

Wu Liufang - Bars, Beam

He Kexin - Bars, Floor

Huang Quishuang - Vault, Beam, Floor

Ana Maria Izurieta - Bars, Floor

Youna Dufournet - Vault, Bars, Beam

Marine Brevet - Floor

Pauline Morel - Bars, Beam, Floor

Becky Downie - Bars, Beam

Jenny Pinches - Vault, Beam, Floor

Beth Tweddle - Bars, Floor

Valeriya Maksiuta - Vault, Beam

Elsa Garcia - All 4 Events

Ramilya Musina - Vault, Beam, Floor

Aliya Mustafina - Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor

Adela Sajn - Beam, Floor

Luisa Galuilina - Bars, Beam, Floor

Jessica Lopez - All 4 Events

There are some interesting new Seniors competing:

Wu Liufang who won Beam and Floor at the Doha World Cup last weekend, unfortunately she is not set to compete on floor but she will still be one of the favourites:

Jenny Pinches - She is one the of the new hopes for Team GB and is coached by Amanda Kirby the same coach as Beth Tweddle. I hope she can be competitive at Worlds this year so it will be interesting to see how she does here. She has 2 good vaults as long as she hits, a nicely presented floor routine with some upgraded tumbles and big skills on beam if she puts them in.

Aliya Mustafina- She is replacing Anna Dementyeva who was supposed to compete. She is stogon all 4 events and my favourite of hers is floor:

Emily Little - She is powerful gymnast and has a big chance of making the vault final and perhaps medalling depending on what her 2nd vault is.

Apart from the new senors against the older seniors there will also be some other interesting battles including He Kexin vs Beth Tweddle who are both competing on bars and floor, as well as Larissa Miller who will be looking for medals on bars. Lauren Mitchell, Huang Qiushuang and Youna Dufournet will be fighting with new seniors for medals on beam. And finally the vault competition will have a lot of young talent including Youna Dufournet, Brittany Rogers, Dominique Pegg and Ramilya Musina.

Doha Videos Day 2

2010-03-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

A few videos of the floor final are up on youtube. I really like Wu Liufangs floor routine, her choreography and performance really suprised me. She just needs to upgrade her tumbling but she has shown she can perform under pressure winning both the Beam (14.700) and Floor (13.975) finals.

Huang Qiushuang won the silver medal on floor (13.850) but fell apart on beam scoring only a 12.600. I think she is one of those gymnasts who cannot perfrom consistently under pressure as was the case last year at Nationals which I think is why she was left off the worlds team. I hope she improves or I think she won't be given a chance at bigger meets when the Chinese have other gymnast who have proven to perform under pressure. Her floor routine was nicely performed but lacked difficulty.

Goksu Uctas from Turkey won the bronze on floor (13.700) which was the first World cup medal for a Turkish woman. She actually had the highest difficulty on floor (5.4) with a tucked full in, double pike, double tuck and 1 1/2+front layout full. I'm happy to see different nations starting to come through in the International scene as it can only improve the sport.

Doha Videos

2010-03-23T00:36:00.000-07:00

There are 2 videos on Noursalehgym's youtube account of Wu Liufang and Huang Quishuang's bar routines. Both look really good and if they can perform under pressure they should take the top 2 medals in finals and hopefully move onto bigger things. They were close in qualification with Quishuang scoring 15.250 just beating Liufang with 15.025. Liufang also qualified 1st on beam (14.525) and 6th on floor (12.950). Quishuang was 1st on floor (13.575) and 4th on beam (13.325). Jennifer Khwela from South Africa qualified in 1st on vault (13.700). Overall I thought the scores on Vault and Floor were particularly low with no score over 14.00.

Wu Liufang Bars Qualification:

Huang Quishuang Bars Qualification:

GBR - ROM - GER Friendly

2010-03-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend there us a friendly in the UK and today was the senior competition. They had a 5 day training camp before the competition which was used to prepare for the European Championships. Results of the Team Competition:
1. Romania 221.850
2. Great Britain 221.600
I'm glad to see the British Seniors showing their potential finally and I hope they are this close to the Romanians at Euros this year. Germany only had 3 Seniors competing as Marie-Sophie Hindermann sustained a slight injury during Fridays training. Results of the AA:
1. Diana Chelaru 56.800
2. Ana Porgras 56.050
3. Niamh Rippin 54.650
4. Raluca Haidu 54.300
5. Elisabeth Seitz 54.100
6. Amelia Racea 54.000

Beth earned the highest scores on Bars (15.700) and Floor (15.050).! Her bars was much better than at the English Championships, she hit all of her difficulty, I saw a few short handstands and pirouettes but she ended with a stuckj full in dismount. Her floor was good, she added a split jump after her double pike arabian and her leaps are definetely improved from last year.

Becky Downie competed and seems in better shape than at the english. Don't think she did all around though there are videos o her yurchenko 1 1/2 with nice form and

Jenny Pinches competed her Handspring tuck 1 1/2 on vault that she slipped on at the British Champs last year and it looked good, hopefully we will see it at Europeans. She had trouble on floor with her whip to double arabian pass which she sat down but she successfully landed her 1 1/2 to 3/1.

Ana Porgras looks ok I'm sure she will improve further before the Europeans. She is still performing a yurchenko full but it was very well done with stuck landing. She had trouble on bars where she fell on her jeager and took a big step on her double layout dsmount. On beam she perfored fre walkover+sheep jump, flick+flic+layout 2 feet, a very nice switch ring, free cartwheel, split change+tuck back, full spin in split, side somi and flicks to a double pike dismount (chest low). Overall the routine seemed easy for her and she is definetely heading for more medals on beam this year. Her floor has not been upgraded (full in, 2 1/2+front layout, dbl tuck, dbl pike) and I think lacks a little difficulty (I would like to see a triple twist) but she definetely makes up for it with her artistry!

Amelia Racea - I liked her floor lively music with a nice mix of leaps and tumbles including full in, triple twist, 2 1/2+front tuck and double pike. On beam she had a new intersting combination of free cartwheel+tuck back as well as free walkover+flick+pike back, split change+side somi and double tuck dismount. Definietely a big improvement on form for these 2 pieces.

Diana Chelaru - She looks like her form is bette nd she mus have improved as she won the AA with 56.800. Beam was solid with a tucked full, free walkover+tuck back and dbl tuck dismount. Nothing really exciting though and choreography was average.
Cerasela Patrascu competed afer being injured for 2 years,she looks like shes getting there but she still has a little way to go. Beam was good, she missed a few connections but she did have a nice yang bo and split change+side somi connection.

Raluca Haidu - I love this gymnast and hope she does wel this year. There are not many videos of her from this weekend but on beam she had some cute choreography with improved form and an excellent double pike dismount.
Niamh Rippin best of GB in the all around showed a impressive floor routine including a stuck piked double arabian, 1 1/2 to 3/1, 2 1/2+front layout and double pike. She looked really good and has a better chance than I originally thought of making the Europeans team.

I'mgoing to mention Jocelyn Hunt again, although lacking the difficulty of others her style and form is beautiful and in her floor routine she performed a stuck triple twist and full in with knees locked together just needs to upgrade the other passes.
Nicole Hibbert - She was a completely different gymnast than a coulpe of weeks ago and she has definetely upped her game and was taking it much more seriously. I have never been a fan of her floor but she now has new music and performed this with great first 2 tumbles both a piked and tucked full in. I really enjoyed her performance:

Thanks to youtube user PavLiukin for all the videos.
Sunday is the Junior competition it will be interesting to see how the British Juniors compare to the top Romanians of Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar.

Cottbus Finals Results

2010-03-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

The first day of finals were today and the results are below:

Vault
1. Oksana Chusovitina 13.875
2. Kristina Vaculik 13.787
3. Renata Toth 13.625

Bars
1. Kristina Vaculik 14.050
2. Anysia Unick 13.775
3. Maria-Sophie Hindermann 13.750

Kristina Vaculik had a good day and she definetely looks like shes almost back to her best. Her bars routine included a high tkatchev, some really nice handstands and lines and finished with a stuck double front dismount. She performed 2 clean vaults (8.950 & 8.825 execution) both with 1 large step on the landing which were a Yurchenko full and a Yurchenko 1/2 on front pike off.

Marie-Sophie Hindermann had some really nice bar work with high realeases and beautiful form and would have scored a lot higher if she had not caught her pak too close to the bar.

Tatiana Solovyova could not repeat her excellent qualifying performance and had problems straight away on her first full piroutte and then had a fall on her double front dismount (12.700). I hope she can put that behind her and show what she is really capable of other wise I have a feeling that it is going to damage her European Championships hopes.

Renata Toth is a first year senior from Hungary. She performed a very nice handspring front pike 1/2 with an almost stuck landing (13.725) and yurchenko full with ok form (13.525). She also made the bars finals and performed a good routine but had problems on the double front dismount.

Oksana Chusovitina won vault with a good handspring pike front full and a fall on her tsukahara 1 1/2 because she had so much more difficulty than the rest of the competitiors. Credit to her for still being able to compete these vaults though and hope she cleans up for Euros.

Russian Junior Championships

2010-03-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

After watching the videos user RussianCup2009 posted on Youtube, I was really impressed with the Russian Juniors. There is so much talent and depth in the Juniors that competition for Junior Europeans this year is going to be fierce!

For the team this year Viktoria Lomova is obviously a lock but the other main contenders are Anastasia Grishina, Violetta Malikova, Eleonora Goryunova, Yulia Belokobylskaya, Anastasia Sidorova, Kristina Sidorova. Other possibles are Maria Paseka and Anna Rodionova. There are only 5 spots available and at the moment everyone seems reasonably healthy and injury free!

Anastasia Grishina
I really love her gymnastcs she has such good form and presentation and I would say she is definetely going to Junior Europeans this year. On Vault she performed a new yurchenko 1.5 which was good until she fell as she was a little under rotated. Her bars has lots of pirouetting and beautiful handstands and she had also added a piked tkatchev into pak salto connection and a toe on to handstand full piroutte into afull in dismount. Beam was a little shaky with a fall on her double spin and some balance checks but everything was done really clean and she still scored 14.450 (6.2 D Score). I really like her illusion turn into full spin connection. Floor was nicely presented with some complex spins and leaps and she stuck a triple twist! (unfortunately it wont let me embed any of her routines)

Eleonora Goryunova
Another likely member of the Junior Europeans Team. She seemed a lot better than last year, her floor routine had improved presentatin and she showed a 1 1/2 step out into doubel tuck and 2 whips into a triple twist. On vault she performed an almost stuck yurchenko 1.5 which good form in the air. Her beam routine was also improved and included a round off layout 2 feet, free walkover+sheep jump and roundoff+flick+double pike dismount.

Anna Rodionova
One of the lesser known little Russians, but she has some really great skills on beam (arabian, free walkover+onodi) just needs to clean her form up but I really like her. I thought her floor routine (below) was beautiful just needs to sort the landings out!

Violetta Malikova
Another strong contender forJunior Europeans! She had a few issues on beam and bars, but overall she showed polished skills and I love how she attacks her beam routine! She also had a very nice double twisting yurchenko.

Anastasia Sidorova
She also as a good chance of making the team, and seems to have grown in height a lot since last year. Her difficulty on beam is impressive and she normally hits, unfortunately she fell this time on her layout step out connection. She is really powerful and has good vault anf floor difficulty as well.

Kristina Sidorova
She has areally nice style and I especially like her bars and floor routines. Floor has been upgraded with a full in and 2/1 front layout and all her tumbling is sky high. Bars is really clean and she has great potential.

Yulia Belokobylskaya
I really hope to see her at Junior Europeans this year she is one of my favourites. she seemed to be haveing a off day on bars and the routine was a bit of a mess with a fall on her jaeger and a near fall on her dismount. Her beam was excellent though she has great difficulty and her form has improved so much. Her floor is also one of my favourites I think the choreography is clever and she performs it well.

Ekaterina Shtronda
She is not age eligible for Junior Europeans but I just used this opportunity to post her beautiful floor again!

Russian Championships 2010

2010-03-10T18:37:00.000-08:00

Everyone is posting the results so I thought I would just post some of my thoughts and routines of interest instead. All routines can be seen on RussianCup2009's Youtube channel as they can not be embedded here.

Viktoria Komova
She is definitely heading for medals at the Junior Europeans this year and her 6.5 D Score on Bars is the reason why the Romanians will have trouble beating her in the All Around because they can not come close to that. She doesn't have a weak piece and seems to have solved the consistency problems on beam. I also like her floor routine better as well now.

Tatiana Nabieva
Only her bars is posted (6.5 D Score, 15.400) but she seems to have cleaned up her form a lot since last year and hopefully this is the case on all events. Not sure if she is injured and didnt compete AA or not?

Ksenia Semonova
I'm happy to say she looks in much better shape and has recovered from her injuries from last year. i still love her floor routine, she watered down her first pass but the rest were good (14.425). Vault was a Yurchenko 1.5 which was clean enough, her Bars which I have never been a fan of was good maybe better than last year apart from the Deltchev and dismount (5.70, 14.400). Beam was very good, definitely her best event (5.6, 14.675).

Ksenia Afanasyeva
Unfortunately she does not look like she is completely back from injury yet. She had problems on bars (13.200) and her floor although it had beautiful dance the tumbling was weak and watered down (4.3, 13.125). I don't think she competed all around so lets hope thay are just saving her body and letting her heal before major competitions.

Anastasia Novikova
She is a new senior for this year and showed a nice bars routine with some good pirouttes for a 13.950 and on beam she had an interesting connection of flick into front somi off one leg.

Anna Pavlova
She looks in excellent shape and I'm impressed at how quickly she is back performing competitive routines. She competed All Around (53.800) but with some watered down dismounts. Bars looks good she obviously had time to work on them while her knee was recoverig, she is just not ready to dismount yet. Her floor was impessive she is actually back o tumbling a double pike and triple twist and beam is almost back to full difficulty. She is obviously wanting to compete Internationally if not at Europeans definitely at Worlds this year.

Anna Myzdrikova
Her floor routine (14.700) is back to what it was at Worlds and she has improved her 3rd tumbling pass that she had trouble on last year. It is interesting to compare Beth Tweddle and her on floor they both had similar scores (Beth 14.850) and apart from the landing and the dance there is not much between them. Beth has better landings and Anna is definetley better at the artistic part and the choreography. I have always preferred Anna's but am British so will always support Beth!

Ekaterina Kramarenko
She is making a comeback and it seems like she is doing well as she came 4th in the AA with 55.250. There are 2 videos available: her bars and were really clean routine with some nice transitions (5.7, 14.500) and beam was really nice until she fell on her double tuck back dismount where she overrated onto her back (5.3, 13.650).

International Gymnix - Junior Cup Review

2010-03-10T18:33:00.000-08:00

This competition was interesting and I was impressed with the Canadians their gymnasts have improved a lot. The results of the Junior Cup team competition were:
1. Russia 208.825
2. Canada 1 206.300
3. Canada 2 203.075
4. Canada 3 193.700
5. Romania 161.100

AA Results:
1. Madeline Gardiner 54.225
2. Riley Cholod 54.050
3. Mariya Karpova 53.725

The Romanians were disappointing overall, Larisa Iordache appeared to be injured and watered down her floor and beam routines. She didnt seem like herself at all having a falls on beam and floor in the team competition. But she came back in Event Finals to get 2nd place on beam (14.025) which can be seen here. All I can say is I hope she recovers in time for Europeans so she can do herself justice. Diana Bulimar had an ok competition and the highlight for me was her gold medal winning floor routine from event finals (13.800) I just love that she seems to enjoy performing and hope she does well at Europeans.

I was impressed with the young inexperienced Russian Team during the team competition, unfortunately they seemed to fall apart during the event finals. I posted a few of my favourite routines below:
Ekaterina Shtronda - She has a new floor routine which I like because she is so elegant and has really solid landings, just needs to upgrade the tumbling. Below is her floor from the Team cup (13.525):

Ekaterina Baturina - Below is her beam routine which was really amazing she hit everything and finished it off with a stuck dismout to score 13.775. Unfortunatley she must have had some major problems during event finals as she only scored 11.350 and is going to have to improve her consistency in the next couple of years.

Riley Cholod - She really impressed me with her consistency, she placed 2nd AA (54.050), 4th beam (13.500), 5th floor (12.925) and won bars in event finals (13.250) and she actually scored better than that during the team competition (13.675). She has real potential on bars just has some minor form errors.

Jordyn Pedersen - She has some impressive tumbling for a 13 year old especially her first pass which is front layout into double front!. Her form and presentation need to be improved but she definetely has some talent.

English Championships Videos

2010-03-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

Some of the routines are now available to watch here on BGtv. After watching all the routines of the senior girls I've got to say I'm not impressed at all. The only gymnast who showed any routines that are going to be competitve at Europeans was Beth who I have already talked about in my earlier post. I know it is still earlier in the season but still accounting for that I was disappointed especially with a lot of the gymnasts attitudes and focus. Becky Downie for example who was obviously not in shape which is fine but she fell on her beam mount which was a straddle press to handstand! Nicole Hibbert performed a good bars routine until her double front dismount where she fell and got up and was smiling and laughing like it didn't matter and I think that sort of thing is why Great Britain is that successful as a whole in gymnastics. Our gymnasts don't want to win enough and are not made to fight for their position on the National Team like they are in the US because of our lack of depth which has caused GB gymnasts to be lazy annd have bad attitudes.

Anyway moving on! The only other gymnast (apart from Beth) who I think has potential to be competitive at Worlds and Europeans if she hits is Jenny Pinches. Unfortunately this weekend she wasn't at her best but overall I think Amanda Kirby has done a good job with her. On floor she has upgraded and performed a whip connected to a double arabian and also had a full in as her 3rd pass and I know she is capable of more difficulty. She had also upgraded beam to add 2 flicks into a straight back which she had trouble with but she still scored 13.500 with a fall. What I liked most was her presentation and attitude and I wish her success at the Europeans.

Another few things to take note of were Danusia's beam routine which had nice presentation but just not the difficulty. Niamh Rippin seemed well prepared and had nice form throughout but again lacks difficulty and the same comment also to Jocelyn Hunt who has a lovely style.

Fu Bo Bars - Houston National Invite

2010-03-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

She doesn't have a lot in her routine but it was done with really good form. I especially liked her dismount I had never seen in before: Score 14.8001st place

Another Little Star!

2010-03-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

I'm still reviewing all the routines from the many competitions this weekend! But while I was watching the Northern Lights Classic Event Finals on Gymnastike I came across this tiny gymnast and just had to post this routine. Norah Flatley is 9 years old and trains at salto gymnastics and she qualified for the beam final for level 8. I was really impressed with her routine and she seemed so confident and focued for such a young gymnast, the judges were impressed too she scored a 9.85 for 1st place!

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Beth Tweddle & English Championships

2010-03-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

On Saturday she competed at the English championships on Bars and Floor. Bars (14.850) was going well until her shaposhnikova 1/2 which she left out, I just hope Bars doesn't start becoming a problem for her and she can leave her problems at Worlds behind her. Floor (14. was actually better than last year, she downgraded her last pass but she probab;y not completely fit yet. She also added a split jump after a tucked double arabian pass and the leaps as a whole were better. Still don't like the choreo though and please change that end position!

The All Around competition this weekend was dominated by new Seniors who will be hoping to compete at the Europeans in Birmingham this year and I think all 3 have a good chance:
1st Danusia Francis 54.250
2nd Jenny Pinches 53.500
3rd Nicole Hibbert 52.950
Looking at the actual scores apart from Danusia 14250 on beam, Jenny 14.00 on Vault and Nicole 14.150 on Vault, the rest of the scores were in the 13s and I really think they need to do better to be competitive at European and World level. Lets hope there are upgrades before then. Becky Downie and Rebecca Wing did not compete all around but from their scores they are not in competition shape.
There are no other videos yet but I will post when they appear (should be on BGtv).

WOGA - Future Stars

2010-03-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Recently on WOGAs official youtube channel BADurfee has been adding lots of videos of this years WOGA Classic and Gymnastike also had videos from the Pikes Peak Cup so I thought I would post a few of WOGAs future stars to look out for.
Emily Zeng - She competed in the 8 - 11 years Level 8 division. She only did Bars but she won with a 9.90! Check it out below. Last year she also won level 7 states and scored a 10.0 on bars so she is definetely someone to look out for.

Lauren Farley - She also competed in the 8 - 11 years Level 8 division. I was impressed with her form and performance especially on floor where she scored 9.600 for 3rd place. She is coached by Valeri Liukin so he obviously thinks she has a lot of talent.

Ava Verdeflor - I have liked this gymnast for a while she has excellent form and leaps and nice flexibility. She came 3rd in the Level 8 8-11 years division scoring 38.250 and won beam with 9.775. There is no video of beam yet but her floor is just as good (9.600 2nd place), I really like her music choice:

Alyssa Baumann - She competed level 9 Junior at the Pikes Peak Cup where she won the AA with 37.675. She didn't even have her best competition as she fell on beam (still scored 9.45!) an on floor on a high double pike (9.025). She has excellent form and I'm looking forward to her hopefull competing elite in the future. Last year she won the Level 8 state and region 3 championships and placed in the top 3 on every event.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Bayley Wilson - She came 6th overall at th Pikes eak Cup but won 3rd place (9.325) with a good routine including a free walkover, flick layout and a mount I had never seen before:

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Megan Tripp - She came 2nd All around (37.750) and 1st on floor with 9.625 at the Pikes Peak Cup I really enjoyed her floor routine she has excellent form and beautiful presentation.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Nastia Liukin Cup

2010-03-03T18:44:00.000-08:00

My view on who should be allowed to participate is anyone no matter what age who is truly up and coming and has not yet competed at major elite events. I don't think anyone who is competing in elite meets and level 10 meets at the same time should be eligible for the cup because in my mind they are not Junior Olympic gymnasts. For example gymnasts such as Lexie Priessmann, Gabrielle Douglas, and Amelia Hundley (all I really like) should not be competing in this Cup as they are obviously high-level Elite gymnasts and there primary aim this year is to compete at Nationals and make the National Team not the JO Nationals They are also competing in elite qualifiers at the same time so they are not following the JO pathway. But I can see the benefit of them getting more experience on a podium and it will make it more interesting but I just think they should change the rules for next year.

So in my mind the JUNIOR OLYMPIC gymnasts to watch out for this weekend are:
Mykayla Skinner (1996) - Although she did compete at the US Classic last year she didn't qualify for Nationals and I think she is still improving. She won vault at JO Nationals last year and was named to the National Team Training Squad this year. Below is her vault from the Fiesta Bowl this year where she won to qualify for the NLC:

Hayley Sanders - She trains at WOGA and won the recent WOGA Classic with 37.625. She has beautiful form on all events and she won floor (9.50) at the WOGA Classic with the routine below:

Hallie Benjamin (DeVeau's) - She won the 13 & under division of the Circle of Stars meet to qualify with a score of 37.275 with her highest score on floor (9.625) she has some interesting choreography and good tumbling.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Nina Mcgee - She is 16 years old and trains at Gym Nation. From her floor routine style you can she is definitely going to be a star in college gymnastics. Her floor routine below scored a 9.65 and lastyear she was the JO Naional Champion on floor an you can see why. Its going to be very interesting to see her style competing against the elite gymnasts - I wonder who will come out on top?

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Sarah Lokos (1994) - She trains at Hills and qualified at the Parkettes Invitational with a very high score of 37.475. She is a very clean gymnast and her first 2 releases on bars are excellent:

Kiersten Wang - I really like this gymnast and I have to mention her because she qualified at the Pikes Peak Cup with a massive 38.450! She qualified elite last year but never competed at any major meets and now she has committed to the University of Florida. Her bar routine below scored a 9.675:

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

International Gymnix

2010-03-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

There are a few other gymnasts that are competing this weekend that I think are interesting. The first is Shae Zamardi she is competing in the Junior Cup for Canadian. I like that she makes an effort with the choroegraphy on floor and I think she has potential on bars. She lives with another family while she trains at Omega gymnastics and was plagued with injuries last year so she s definetley going to get better.

Elizabeth Price - She is competing in the International Cup and trains at Parkettes. She has potential on all events and I especially like her beam. There are no videos of her yet this year but her beam from the Parkettes Invitational last year is below:

Kristina Vaculik - As there is no World Cup for women she is competing in the International Cup continuing her comeback trail after winning the Nadia Comaneci Inviational. I hope she stays healthy so she can add more difficulty and we can see her at major international meets sometime.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

International Gymnix Junior Cup

2010-02-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

As it seems like the World cup portion has been cancelled on the Womens side I decided to take a look at the Junior Cup and it looks like it is going to be an excellent competition!
There are many exciting gymnasts listed from Romania, Russia and Canada (no USA yet).
Probably the most well-known gymnasts are Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar from Romania. They both have entertaining styles and big skills. Larisa's best pieces are beam and floor, below is her beam routine from Topgym 2009 which includes 2/1 spin and round off+flick to two+triple twist dismount. She won with a score of 15.050.

Diana is also strong on floor and has a nice bar routine too. Her floor routine from Topgym 2009 included a piked full-in and 1 1/2 step out into double tuck back. She scored 13.550 to win second place.

The Russian team has a lot of younger, more inexperienced gymnasts but one of them includes one of my favourite gymnasts Ekaterina Shtronda. She is a really elegant gymnast with beautiful dance and leaps. Check out her floor routine rom the Russian Championship last year.

Another interesting Russian who is only 12 years old is Maria Karpova. She has excellent form and toe point and it will be interesting to see how she performs. Below is her compulsory beam routine from the Moscow Championships last year:

Another Russian I like is Ekaterina Baturina she is a tiny, elegant little gymnast. Below is her beam from the Russian Championships last year, apart from the falls she shows great potential and is deceivingly powerful!

The Canadians have many gymnasts entered my favourite of which is Sabrina Gill. Last year she placed 6th at Elite Canada, she has a really nice style and huge potential especially on bars. She recently posted a training video where she is working on arabian (beam), pak, stalder tkatchev and some eagle giants. She is only going to get better and that is going to be great for Canada.

Another interesting Canadian is Riley Cholod who has been having a lot of success recently winning Elite Canada in December and this weekend winning the Nadia Comaneci Invitational. She has clean form and seems able to deal with the pressure well during competition.

Victoria Moors - is a really powerful gymnast especially on floor where her tumbes include 1 1/2 step out into 2 /2, tucked full-in, triple twist and double pike.

So even if there is no World Cup for Women and even if the USA don't send anyone, the Junior Cup will be an interesting competition.

Buckeye Classic National Elite Qualifier

2010-02-22T00:55:00.000-08:00

I spent a while watching the videos from this meet (big thanks to youtube user Beechurst10 who filmed nearly every routine!) and I was impressed with some of the gymnastics I saw. There seemed to be better quality routines than other recent qualifiers and quite a few gained the score to compete at Nationals. There were 2 sessions. In the Junior division the following earned the qualifying score of 52.00 to compete at Nationals (I'm sure some have already qualified before) : Kennedy Baker (53.950), Braie Speed (52.00), Amelia Hundley (54.500), Brianna Brown (53.90), Lauren Beers (53.60), Bailie Key (53.50), Lexie Priessmann (53.150). The only Senior who qualified to Nationals was: Chelsea Davis (55.250)!

Lexie Priessmann - She didn't have a great meet (falls on floor and beam) but at the end of her beam routine came a big suprise a FULL-IN! It was landed well with nice form. I really like this gymnast her floor routine makes me smile, I just hope she can keep it together to make the National Team this year. Watch her full-in below:

Chelsea Davis - She competed her first all around competition this weekend and she did well qualifying for Nationals. Her best score was Bars with 14.60, the rest of her routines were in the 13s. She has a new floor routine which I like and she definetely looked in better shape than at the Metroplex so lets hope she is getting back to her best. Her beam still needs work with some of the leaps and I personally think she should change the round off layout step out (which she is having trouble with) and work on a layout to two feet which surely is not going to hurt her back more and will give her more difficulty.

Bailie Key - She is one of my favourite little juniors and has a similar cute still and excellent form as Lizzie Leduc (shes from WGA Texans). She qualified for Nationals this weekend and had the highest score on beam (14.20) of the whole competition including both sessions and Junior and Senior!

Brianna Brown - She is another elite from Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy. She had a solid all around competition with mid to high 13s on all events, but my favourite routineof hers is floor because I really like the music! (its the same as Sui Lu)

A group of gymnasts I was impressed with this weekend were Monmouth Gymnastics Academy who I haven't heard of much before. They had 1 gymnast Courtney Horstman in the Junior competition but I was most impressed with the 3 Hopes gymnasts: Laurie Hernandez, Breanna Ray and Khayla Jennings. They all showed real potential and are still so young Laurie and Khayla were born in 2000 and Breanna in 1999!
Laurie Hernandez - She is still 9 years old and had some really BIG skills (maybe too much for her age) but her form was also really nice and she has actual SPLIT leaps. Her skills included double pike on floor, free walkover, sheep jump, split change+pike back and double pike dismount on beam! Check out her floor here she has a really interesting dance style which I personally like as its different. She has to work on consistency but she is definitely a future star:

Juniors this Weekend - Review

2010-02-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

Lizzy Leduc - I always loved this gymnasts character and clean form so I was interested to see what Valeri did with her. I had mixed feeling, her vault Yurchenko straight 1/1 was ok but it was at Nationals. Bars was not good with 2 falls on her overshoot and double layout dismount but she had some new skills and the routine was in a different order so the potential is there she just needs more competitions. Floor - I actually prefer her jungle book routine it used to make me smile, I don't mind her new music but I thought the choreography was boring. Her leaps were ok I wouldn't say better though, she had a nice double pike and back 1 1/2 into front layout 1/2 but I thought her back 2 1/2 was too low and not quite round. Beam - She had a lot of new skills: standing arabian (low landing), front tuck (low landing), Onodi+sheep jump but although her talent and skills are impressive on this event I don't see why she needs all those skills when she won't be senior until 2013. I think her execution suffered as she only scored 13.350 at her home meet (lower than Nationals with all those new skills). I still love her gymnastics though and hope she makes the National Team this year.

Madison Kocian - She is my favourite US Junior right now. Her bars have really improved but she took out her new piked jaeger from the Metroplex Challenge. My favourite is her floor routine and this weekend she added a back 2 1/2 into front layout and i thought her switch ring was better. I think her beam still needs work and time but her excellent form makes her amazing to watch.

Grace Mclaughlin - She won the Junior division of the WOGA Classic with 55.150 which would have won the Senior competition. On beam she added an arabian (v. low landing) Beam seemed a little shaky and there was definetely some missed splits in her leaps. Bars was much better scoring 14.30 with a nice high straddled jaeger and a good double front dismount and I actually think she can score higher than that later in the season. She is actually a Senior next year so I'm sure they will be hoping she makes the National Team this year so she can get some international experience.

Asuka Teramoto or Mina Sugimura (sorry I'm not sure which) - I really like this gymnast she has a rare mix of big skils and beautiful form, I had never seen her before so it was a nice suprise another talent from Japan. Her beam routine was really nice and included a double spin, free walkover to flick layout, split change+side somi and a front walkover mount.

Brittany Robertson - A mention to this New Zealand gymnast who showed some of the best leaps (switch ring+tour jete, tour jete 1/2) of the weekend, shame about the fall but well done to her for her leaps and presentation.

Seniors This Weekend - Review

2010-02-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

This weekend's competitions (WOGA Classic and AOGC Elite Qualifier) were really disappointing to me, I know it is early in the season and new skills and routines are being tested but to me this should be no reason to have bad technique or lack of split in leaps. I expected falls but I also expected better from the National team girls and the new WOGA routines/choreography.
SENIORS
Rebecca Bross - I used to really like this girl and was sad when she didn't win worlds last year but I have actually changed my mind now and I'm glad Bridget won even though I'm not a fan of hers at least she makes an effort to have good form. I don't think it would have been good for the sport if Bross had won worlds with her form and choreography. I had actually hoped that part of her lack of form was due to injuries and had also hoped over the winter they had worked on her presentation but going from her beam routine this weekend I'm guessing they didnt! I thought her arabian was good but the dismount not at all and her split change and split jump weren't split and her back leg was knowhere near straight! You can watch it here if you want to! (I'm also looking forward to the American Cup even less now!)

Ivana Hong - Another gymnast I used to love especially in her younger years and I still do like her presentation but to me she seems to have lost some of her personality and charm when she performs. My thoughts on her beam routine this weekend: not really that bad ignoring the fall, I still don't like the mount and think she should bring back the McCool mount, her connections and leaps were good (apart from the ring) and I really liked dismount. But 14.250 wih a fall? Not sure how they got that! Watch it here.

Mattie Larson - She was one of the only Senior gymnasts I was impressed with this weekend I know how hard it can be to come back from a long injury break and I hope she gets picked to be the other US gymnast at the American Cup (not sure how likely that is). Her bars was nice with reasonable form, nice pirouettes and transition moves and a new doubvle layout dismount. I liked watching her beam routine she probably still needs a few more competitions before its really good, there are a few leaps that need work but I did see some sort of 180 degree split! Watch beam here. Good Luck Mattie I wish you an injury free successful season.

Sami Shapiro - This girl I have always loved because of her beautiful form and toes! But I'm not sure she has come back from injury as well as Mattie has. She obviously isn't ready for seriuos competition yet. Her Bars was just ok, a few short handstands and a fall on the dismount but I don't think she has reached her full potential on this piece yet, I just hope her body will let her. Beam was better with beautiful form, just a bit shaky on the connections and no dismount. I just hope they don't rush her back the Olympics are still over 2 years away and I want to see her there.

Kayla Williams - I wasn't impressed with her at all, her vaults were average at best, bars reminded me of a level 10 routine and I've never been a fan of her floor she has great tumbling but to me floor is more than that its about dance, leaps and performance and she has none of that. She also fell on her triple full this weekend, but I am expecting her to be much better later in the season you can tell she isn't back in seriuos training yet. Some of her routines can be seen here
Sophia Lee - She won the WOGA Classic with 55.00, her highest score was on bars (14.350) and I thought she looked much better than the past few elite qualifiers this year.

Mackenzie Caquatto - She won the Chicago Style Meet this weekend and in an interview on gymnastike she said she hoped to compete at the American Cup. She looked in pretty good shape, debuting a new piked Hindorff on bars (which was impressive) and side somi on beam. Her floor I think is more of a College routine which is fine but I don't like it as an elite routine (had an excellent double pike though). Overall all her routines seem almost ready to go so she must have a reasonable chance on competing at the American Cup, but I would prefer Mattie or a Junior I guess it depends what Marta wants. All her routines can be seen here at Gymnastike.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

My next post will be opinions and review of the Juniors this weekend.

The Age Rule

2010-01-31T17:11:00.000-08:00

I disagree with the age rule that we have in place now, personally I don't think there should be a minimum age for senior competition and I think we should just trust the gymnastics associations in each country to decide whether a gymnast is mature enough and can cope withthe pressure or not. Different gymnasts will be ready before others and I think their coaches should know as they spend so much time with them! At this time the only sensible thing to do is remove the age limit as some countries are always going to be able to get away with falsifying ages (eg. China) whereas others will never get away with it (eg. America).

Below are some gymnasts who I would like to see get a chance to compete at the London 2012 Olympics but unless the age rule is changed I won't and who knows if they will last until 2016?
Angel Romaeo (born 1997) - Great Britain. Our team needs some style and she has it all style, skills and good form lets hope she makes it to Senior so everyone gets to see her. Beam is her best event but unfortunately there is no video of that.

Viktoria Kuzmina (born 1998) - Russia. She has a cute style but with some big skills especially on beam and floor for her age. You can see her recent floor here

Madison Kocian (born 1997) - USA. She has beautiful form and made her 1st National Team at age 12 at her first Visa championships! Unfortunately she will have to wait until shes 19 for her Olympic chance who knows how her body will be then.

Lizzy Leduc (born 1997) - USA. We all know about Lizzy and her talent and I think she can only improve at WOGA. She reminds me a lot of Dominique Moceanu on floor and she was still 14 at the 1996 Olympics. Lizzy also has excellent beam scoring 14.30 at Nationals.

Katelyn Ohashi (born 1997) - USA. Another gymnast with nice form and she was 2nd overall on floor at Nationals. She is now also training at WOGA.

Lexie Priessman (born 1997) - USA. She has an exciting style with good routines on all events and she already has a double twisting Yurchenko at 12 so there must be potential for an amanar?

Roxana Popa (born 1997) - Spain. She is Romanian but trains in Spain and seems to be the next star and from the results over the last few years (except Ana Maria Izurieta) Spain seems to need a star and I think she could be it.

Choreography

2010-01-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

A lot of people say that the artistry has gone from our sport especially on floor, I tend to agree and love to watch the choreography from the soviet gymnasts and other nations from the 1970s and 80s. Although I think that these gymnasts didn't have as much variety in tumbling as now with the over use of skills especially double backs and full ins I can still appreciate these routines more than what we see now. I wish that we could combine the choreography and presence of the soviets with the range of tumbling in womens floor that we see today.
After recently watching many old gymnastics floor routines I found that different versions of the same music was being used by some gymnasts today so I thought I would provide a comparison to see which you prefer. I'm not criticizing any gymnast I'm just saying that their choreographers could have done a better job!
Irina Baraksanova and Ivana Hong - Sweet and Tender Beast. Ivana's routine isn't bad but I just thought WOGA could have done something better for her, Im hoping for bettr this year!

Aurelia Dobre and Jordyn Wieber - the music is not exacty the same but its similar, I personally don't like Jordyn's choreography at all but what I do like is that she smiles and looks like she is actually having fun!

Silvia Mitova and Sam Shapiro - Blues for Klook. I love both gymnasts I just hope Sam gets healthy soon so she can show the world her style and form.

Ludmilla Tourishceva, Svetlana Lebedinskaya & Nastia Liukin - Dark Eyes, all use different versions but I think I prefer Nastia's but then I am a huge Nastia fan!

So which one do you all prefer?

Competing 'In The Moment'

2010-01-21T00:45:00.000-08:00

While watching the Australian Open Tennis an interview with Venus Williams came on where she talked about how she plays and lives in the moment. Between matches she doesn't think about who she is playing next or the pressure she will have to deal with and more importantly she doesn't think about mistakes she made in the previous match or what she should have done better if she loses. When she is playing she focuses on only the point she is playing and rarely lets mistakes affect her focus.

Although tennis is obviously a different sport to gymnastics, there are similarities and Venus describes the ideal way to approach high pressure competitions. The way she talks about it makes it seem easy but as many athletes know it is not. The difference between being successful in minor competitions and taking that next step up to winning Olympic and world medals in gymnastics is how gymnasts mentally deal with the pressure. Do you think this ability to deak with pressure is genetic or learnt through experience? Can it be learnt? As a sport psychologist I obviously believe it can be taught but some athletes are naturally better than others. There have been many times during my coaching and watching of gymnastics where gymnasts who have the most talent and potential during training but can never seem to reproduce this during important competitions. Some examples in Elite Gymnastics I can think of are Tatiana Groshkova, Ksenia Afanaseyeva, Vanessa Atler, Anna Pavlova, Mo Huilan, Daria Zgoba, Irina Krasnyanska, Yang Bo (there are so many!).

If only more athletes could learn to deal with pressure like Venus Williams, Roger Federer, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin etc. So how do you coaches out there help your gymnasts who can't deal with the pressure of competition or if you're not a coach how do you think the elite gymnasts who have problems performing in major competitions should be helped? I look forward to reading your ideas!

A montage I thought suitedthis post well, it highlights how some deal with the pressure and how some do not...

Originality and Innovation

2010-01-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

Recently I read a topic on IG forum about Overlooked Innovators and I found a few routines and gymnast I had never seen including Anastasia Dzyundzyak on beam whose mount I have never seen anyone else do, not too keen on the rest of the routine but I would love to see someone attempt her mount this year in competition. Ivana how about you bring back your McCool mount and add a front to it!?

Another gymnast I hadn't seen before was Aleftina Priakhina here beam routine is below and I especially like the mount (competed it before Zamolodchikova) and the gainer rulfova.

When watching recent gymnastics I get bored of seeing the same old skills in every routine and so I started to think of original dancework or choreography and innovative skills and connections that we saw in 2009. As the innovators do not get enough credit with the new code I thought I would praise the few gymnasts who are still trying to make their routines interesting.

One of the first gymnasts I thought of was Viktoria Komova, recently at the Voronin Cup she showed a new move on bars - a Khorkina transition from clear pike circle that I have never seen done before. On beam she brought back her flick+layout step-out+arabian connection (although she fell) and the Patterson dismount. I also like that she is doing 1 1/2 step-out into double arabian even though I know she is not the only one to do it. Oh and an amanar.

I will also quickly mention Anna Myzdrikova and her triple full into tuck back which I know she performed in 2008 but she only performed it at Worlds in 2009. I found a video of her in 2008 performing it here where she actually does it better than at Worlds. Here other pass the whip into double arabian is also interesting but I would like to see her do a front out of it as well.
Yulia Belokobylskya a promising Russian junior has some original choreography and her 3rd tumbling pass is a front double twist into a sissone which I like and wouldn't mind seeing more leaps and jumps out of tumbles. Kim Bui also does the same tumble which can be seen here

Guan Wenli showed a new acro combination on beam of free walkover into arabian whch she performed best in the all around at the National Games shown below at 2:19.

Another innovative junior who I have to mention Mai Murakami who recently attempted a triple spin into layout step-out whch probably wasnt counted but still exciting to seeand her other skills also include free cartwheel into sheep jump and 3 1/2 twist on floor.

I'm going to add more examples of this in another post because I'm sure there are others, feel free to add any that you can think of from 2009.

The New Code

2010-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Last night I watched the Beijing Olympics Team Final again and although the new code that was used last year is not perfect I actually noticed the differences from 20089 especially the beam and floor routines. I forgot how packed they were for the Olympics with so much difficulty and no dance at all! So although I don't like parts of the code we are using now I've decided perhaps it is better than I originally thought on Beam especially. I prefer the beam routines from 2009 over 2008 with the just the 8 skills and a minimum of 3 dance elements as there is time in theory for some dance and artistry work! So we won't end up with routines like the one below:

I actually like Stela but the poor gorl didn't have time to breathe in that routine, let alone for artistry.
Floor is another piece that I think has benefited from the 8 skills only rule as last year in the Olympic Team Final you couldn't get a high score without a minimum of 4 tumbling passes and in most cases a 5th side pass! Kramarenko's floor below for example was beautiful with what I think are difficult tumbling passes could only score 15.025 for 5th place! I actually preferred her routine to watch over Izbasa and Johnson. Another similar routine is Anna Pavlova's floor routine in the All Around Final where she performed a near perfect routine for just a 15.050 which was not high for last year and I don't care about her difficulty that routine was underscored. I feel like Anna was always underscored her whole career the judges just seem to appreciate her artistry.

So at least again with 4 tumbling passes being the maximum now and artistry being given some value I hope that the judges start to take more points off for lack of artistry in some way and we can maybe start to see more artisitc routines again. However the rule of landing on two feet out of tumbles and no dance step out has to go, we do not want our women's floor routines to look like the mens, so please FIG take that rule away. I mean I love Beth Tweddle because I'm from the UK but her floor routine is awful and her dance although has got better, is embarassing for me to watch!

Artistry

2010-01-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

People say the code doesn't encourage artistry but I think coaches are just becoming lazy because it is not as highly rewarded as it used to be, however there are still routines from this year that have artistry and still score well. I have posted a few floor routines that I think are 'artistic' as well as having high difficulty. So I urge all coaches please make more effort to produce artisitc routines please for the sake of the sport!

Ana Porgras (I also love the beginning of her beam routine) - Worlds 2009 Event Finals Score 14.125 (probably under scored as well).

Aliya Mustafina - Doha Gymnasiade 2009 Score: 14.650

Viktoria Komova - Voronin Cup 2009 Event Finals Score: 14.850

Huang Quishuang - Japan Cup 2009 AA Score: 14.350

How much Difficulty is Too Much Difficulty?

2010-01-08T17:58:00.000-08:00

In gymnastics today high difficulty in routines is emphasized over form and execution and this has led to junior gymnasts routines to become more and more difficult. Junior competitions to me are often more interesting than Senior competitions with the top juniors often becoming injured before they become seniors. My question is how do we determine how much difficulty is too much especially at younger ages and for those juniors who have a great amount of talent? Where is the line of not holding gymnasts back and preventing them for doing too much too soon so they make it to senior?

A few examples on youtube highlight this: One is Rose Kalam Woo who is 9 years old and trains in Canada at Gym Richelieu. She has a wide range of difficult skills in her routines including: double pike on floor, double front dismount on bars and double back dismount off beam. Below is her beam routine from this year:

I'm not saying I don't like to watch these routines becasue I do and am amazed at how many skills she can perform with reasonably good form but does a 9 year old need to be performing a side somi, free cartwheel, free walkover+back flip and a double back dismount? Perhaps this was too much as highlighted by the 2 falls. What do you guys think?

Another example is Tyesha Mattis who is a ten year old from East London Gymnastics Club in England. Her skills include shoot half and geinger on bars, dbl pike on floor and. On facebook there is also a video of her performing a full in which she has done on the hard floor! again she is an amazing talent but in the UK she will not even be able to perform these skills until she is 12-13 years old. Training montage below:

I'm not criticizing anyone for this it happens everywhere these are just 2 examples but I just don't want talented juniors talent to be wasted if they burn out or are injured before they get to senior level. Let me know your opinions.