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Monday 29 April 2013

The best bar routines..

..are floaty, super-clean and dynamic. Noemi Makra never dissapoints. I'd love if she could upgrade this, she looks well capable of connecting a release to a transition or even two releases together. It's more difficult to push the boat out when she's not from a big gymnastics power with super-duper coaches but this routine deserves to medal in more than just a B-level World Cup. I am in love with her taps, the old school pike looks nicer than the straddle which breaks the line and much better than the ugly Russian bent-kneed mess. That will be harder when she grows of course, but so are they all.

Here's a favourite from last year, Wakana Inoue at Stuttgart. Glorious. She looked more laboured at Jesolo this year sadly, hopefully she can get back to this standard. And the third is the beautiful Gabby Jupp. It always sucks when someone is taken out with an ACL injury of course, but it seems extra sad when it's a first year senior just beginning to blaze a trail. Hopefully after her surgery she can, like I said before, work on her bars just like Aliya Mustafina so successfully did.

Why no Viktoria Komova? Mainly her tap swings really, they are absolutely hideous and it ruins the overall gorgeousness of the routine. She also isn't as effortless as the other three. I love agressive routines and high difficulty amazing routines, but nothing beats a floaty routine like the ones below.


STUNNING. It's worth noting that she's wearing a leotard Larisa Iordache has worn. Than Thi Phan Thanh also showed up in it and the cut was fine!

My favourite of the three is probably Makra's since her releases are just amazing into the bargain, which puts her just ahead of Inoue. Jupp's needs some attention to detail but it's so lovely and light.

5 comments:

  1. Ooh, nice routine by Makra. I find her swing more laboured and less flighty than Jupp though, it looks like she has to work a bit harder on the swing and she had not much swing left after a transition from the low to the high. But her form and lines are gorgeous and her releases are so so so high, definitely great upgrade potential for releases! I was surprised to hear that Gabby Jupp thought she struggles most on bars on the Couch Gymnast interview, as she is glorious on them.

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    1. Hmmm! I do think Jupp's swing is slightly more easy, but I still think Makra's is amazing. She's more precise I think than Jupp and I like when gymnasts kind of 'hop' into the handstand right on top of the bar. That is strange, she struggles on vault but only because the difficulty is so low. I'm sure she herself realises she would never be truly competitive with an FTY, just like Ana Porgras wasn't. I hope she can come back stronger even on vault when she has recovered.

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  2. I think both Jupp and Makra's swings look very labored, especially Jupp. Makra has some arm issue... she bends her arms too much I think. Jupp also has to fix her leg separation! I can't really appreciate her routine unless she fixes it. Why is it so hard to find a gymnast with perfect form!

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    1. I think these girls float. I know there are gymnasts with more aggressive swing who fly through their routines with perfect rythmn, but if it's not light and floaty then it just isn't truly great, to me. Jupp does indeed have form issues, she has a year off though so she could work on bars in that time. I see Makra's arms but I can't bring myself to care really. She does have one slightly muscled cast-handstand and one of her handstands is short. But you can't have everything! I think that routine is pretty much perfect, and I still don't think she is laboured.

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  3. I don't know why, but some parts of Makra's routine reminded me of Tatiana Lysenko's. You may think it's strange, but Noemi's Jaeger and Stalder on the low bar looked similar to Tatiana's. I have always thought she was quite underrated on bars (and underrated in general), she had high difficulty and great form and float.

    Vika's routines have always looked pretty effortless to me. She really seems to fly on bars.

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