Good news- Elizabeth Price WILL compete at Classics despite not being on the roster. Two events, according to her aunt. I'm guessing bars and beam since these are the events she showed in the camp videos. Luckily since she's qualified to Nationals anyway it doesn't matter that she's not doing the AA, she can still do the AA at Nationals.
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| Source- gymfanconfessions.tumblr.com |
Technically there should be an accent on the i but I've always found this funny. I can take her seriously but she's basically yellow Kim to me...which I've just realised sounds really racist. Damn. And Oana Ban's surname is spelled the same as the word for white, bit not pronounced the same (Bui is) so I won't count it.
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| Source- gymfanconfessions.tumblr.com |
Now this one made me sad. What kind of state are beam routines in if a new fan thinks Shawn Johnson's and Alicia Sacramone's low to beam choreography is something other gymnasts should aspire to? Granted they were a little better than some we are seeing but still very perfunctory and kind of pathetic. I know I know, they don't have time to writhe elegantly anymore, but there's plenty of moves that wouldn't even be time consuming. Anything is better than my least favourite, Aly Raisman's flop. I have it tagged as 'Aly finds a coin on the beam' since it reminds me of someone diving to pick up a coin off the road.
This should be required viewing. Most of my favourites are in this- the first girl, who I believe is Scandinavian but I forget her name, the second girl- Charlotte Mackie who only did this in 2004, Elena Gurova who appears at 0:25, the girl at 1:24, Li Li and her back spin at 1:49, the girl right after her, Oksana Fabrichnova with a cradle at 2:29 (Khorkina did this as a junior), right after her- Jackie Bender (check out her mount, it's the hardest non-acro by far) and right after her- Maria Filatova in 1977. Other favourites are Elena Abrashitova in 1990 (very skill-skill, but awesome) and Eythora Thorsdottir's current routine. And this, which must count since she starts from sitting. That is Shannay Gentles of Jamaica at the WOGA Classic, seeing as the uploader went for the shock title. Yes, she dislocates her shoulder on that. I know I've forgotten some. What's your favourite?
While I'm on the subject of Mostepanovafan's amazing videos, check out the dismount one if you haven't already.
My ultimate favourites are the flyaways which begin at 1:47. And guess who's bringing it back..Eythora Thorsdottir of course! She has a double which as you'll notice is not a D so hopefully they have a 2.5 planned. If they were going to upgrade her previous double pike to a boring double layout of full in tuck, then they wouldn't have bothered chucking a flyaway in now so it must be here to stay. They ARE very hard to stick though. Victoria Moors and Ellie Black are also breaking the monotony nicely. Anyway, other favourites are Li Ya's arabian piked double front (Semenova does it in the video at 3:28 but hers wasn't near as good), Betty Okino's dismount at 1:13, Li Ya's piked full in at 2:31 (thanks FIG for rating it the same as tucked, it's harder and so much prettier than the tucked version so there's no incentive to do it!), Adrienn Varga right after her, Jamie Dantzcher's dismount at 3:14, Shantessa Pama's triple back at 3:44 (That's right folks, not a Jordan Randall original! Personally I think there's gymnasts that get enough height to do this cough Biles), Laura Martinez at 4:17, Elena Mukhina at 4:51 and of course Ma Yanhong's dismounts which begin right at the end, 4:56. What are your favourites? Will we see more of a break from the traditional DLO/Full in?
And a bonus! A confession that really annoyed me.
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| Source- gymfanconfessions.tumblr.com |
Wow, you KNOW something's wrong when people think Johnson's and Sacramone's low to beam work is "creative". They just rolled over to fulfill a requirement. Although, compared to the video, they are nothing. I loved Fabrichnova's and Filatova's low to beam choreography. They are AWESOME. Asking for that much creativity these days would be a bit much...
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you on the uneven bar dismounts. I'm sick of double layouts and full-ins. Personally, I like the Straight Saltos with twists. I also like the Hip Circle Hecht that Mukhina and Yanhong did. But like beam, asking for those would be a bit much, too...
Gymfanconfessions never ceases to amaze me. It's nice to see what goes on in people's heads (ex. Kim Bui's last name).
Haha, precisely! Well a cradle looks like it would suck if you did it wrong..a recipe for concussion maybe, and Filatova's is somewhat time consuming. SO GORGEOUS though, I think it's my all-time favourite. But a lot of the rest wouldn't even be that tough!
DeleteYes, the flyaways are the best. So gorgeous! But I suppose coaches aren't eager for another opportunity for a twisting injury. I'm not sure if anyone could do Ma's dismounts? They are actually ridiculous.
Gotta love GFC:) it's entertaining if nothing else. And I personally HATED Asac's "split" hold on the beam, since it never came anywhere near 180 degrees. I only liked it when Hollie Vise did it. I really want to see someone do the Ma dismount, a triple back, double front with full twist (wasn't Maksiuta trying to get this named after her?), or even a dismount off the low bar.
ReplyDeleteI hated it too. Here, let me show you my lack of flexibility! It's not as if all poses must show 180 but that thing just looked like 'I can't'. I think we'll see the triple back, extremely doubtful about Yang's dismounts...the double front full would be seriously difficult to pull off too. Yes she was, also a vault that I don't believe had been done before either, but she was injured mess in London.
DeleteI love the Aly finds a coin comment! I was just watching the Olympic quals all over again and when she randomly dove onto the beam like that I just thought who choreographs these things? I mean it was so sudden and there was no flow to it whatsoever and I'm actually an Aly fan even! I enjoy watching NCAA gymnastics during the elite off season and I like that low beam move of Mackenzie Caquatto where she kind of swings down and straddles the beam and then does a twist on her belly/chest and spins around and straddles the beam facing the other direction. It isn't anything fancy but it looks better than your average stretch and flop.
ReplyDeleteYep it's really as if they forgot about it and then oh crap, well just dive onto the beam and get back up quickly at some point..that'll do. YES I like the way some NCAA gymnasts work on beam, as they have more time. Like Danusia Francis' mount for example. Yes, and that featured in the video. Simple, but so pretty. Mackenzie's NCAA beam is beautiful.
DeleteLi Li's back spin is my favorite! It is so gorgeous! I also love shoulder rolls! Oksana Omelianchiks's right into a Korbut flip were very nice. I absolutely hate Aly's low to beam like everyone else. It isn't original and has no flow. I don't think the top gymnasts will try interesting low to beam work these days because all they care about is fulfilling the requirements and doing the difficult skills.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that there are too many double layouts and full ins. I am sick of them. I don't like the triple back because of the cowboy. I love Li Ya's dismounts, Ma's dismounts, and Jamie's dismounts the best. I also like laid out double doubles. I like the way Mohini performed her double layout with a full twist because it had no pike.
I am glad Ebee is competing at classics. What is your prediction for classics? I think the top 5 juniors in no particular order are Amelia, Laurie, Bailie, Nia, and Jordan. I'm very excited to see the juniors!
I think someone else did a back spin on beam, but maybe half the rotation Li Li does. It is just such an amazing skill. Not to mention her extension in the finishing pose.
DeleteI think Katelyn Ohashi, who of everyone has the most ambitious and short-for-time routine actually has okay low-to-beam, the Valdez at the start after her mount. It's a good example of being a bit better than the norm considering her time is more precious than anyone else's.
While I hate cowboyed skills too (I cannot really watch Laschenova's routine with THREE double backs) I'm just so in awe of the difficulty so I'd love to see the triple back again. Yes, another example of a perfect full-in DLO would be Tatiana Gutsu 1991. I know there's more I'm forgetting. The double double version though, I wonder if we'll see that again. In Shawn's case, not only was she an exceptional gymnast with the energy to pull that out at the end..but the rest of her routines enabled it, as it wasn't that taxing. Bars are wore wearing now. Maybe not from someone who'd trying to kill themselves doing Tkachev-geinger or Tkachev-pak, so maybe not top 4.
I'm thinking Biles will win and Ross will be second. As we know, Ross will need quite a few upgrades to beat Biles if Biles hits 4/4. Third, probably Dowell. No Ebee doing AA anyway. I don't think Priessman will be third. Milliet seemed to do well at camps, that would be awesome. But I'll go with Biles-Ross-Dowell. As for juniors, it's a clear-cut fight between Key and Dennis for me. Key is being wrapped in cotton wool so much, she could be bested if she doesn't upgrade as much as the other juniors are. So Key, Dennis, Hernandez or Dennis, Key, Hernandez. I won't do a Classics post because there's too much up in the air. Nationals though, yes.
When did Gutsu do a full in DLO? I thought she just did a pike open dismount. Yeah, your probably right. It would take to much endurance to do the harder dismounts with some of the skills the bar workers are doing.
DeleteI think it'll be Biles-Ross-Dowell like you said. Bailie is being paced well, so she doesn't burn out. I think she will eventually upgrade as a senior.
1991. She had back injuries in 1992 and was not herself, retired straight after. In 1991 she had the split leg-dlo and dlo in her floor too.
DeleteShe has upgrades cited since last year or before- Church, arabian, Downie, amanar. No need for them yet but the bars ones would be great.
Do you have a link to it? I can't find it. Gutsu was amazing in 1991!I think that was her peak in difficulty! She did a DTY, had more low bar work, and did a whip to double layout, whip to dull in piked, and dismounted with a double layout on floor! Her choreography was also better than in 1992. She would have won the AA in 1991 if she didn't land low on her beam dismount and DTY IMO.
DeleteI would love to see Bailie's bar upgrades! No need for the amanar yet! Her arabian from the camp videos was great!
Do Jana Bieger's knee flips count as low to beam skills? I think they're awsome specially the front one.
ReplyDeleteYes they would. There's one that slipped my mind! Seriously cool.
DeleteI have a secret dream that Skinner will sneak into the podium at Classics - apparently she hasn't been doing the double-double at camp and I'd love for her to surprise everyone since Marta clearly doesn't favor her. Her twitter is obnoxious, but I also get the sense that she's kind of isolated from the other girls which makes me sad. I also see Biles winning and I can't wait to see Ebee back, even if it's only for two events.
ReplyDeleteI liked Anna Pavlova's low to beam sequence (when she hit it...still wish she'd won a beam medal in 2008) as well.
I hate the hate Skinner is getting! Is her twitter obnoxious, sure. But people are so over the top with it, and now badgering other gymnasts about it. She probably is from the other girls precisely because she hasn't been at the forefront of the girls at camp at all and she's the only elite in her gym. Nor has she gotten any assignments with them like Jesolo or Pac Rims. She could be fine around them, no boasting, we don't know. But Biles seems to think she's annoying. Anyway, I too would like to see her do well. She's INCREDIBLY powerful.
DeleteSkinner doesn't bother me. I do find her to be a little cocky, but i chalk it up to her being a teenager.
DeleteI do hope shes able to bring it and make it back on the national team.
She will definitely make things interesting this quad. At least we won't have a media trained robot.
I cut my comment off by accident. What I meant to say is that I tend to prefer simple and elegant low to beam moves if they're integrated in the middle of the routine. Aly's, Asac's, and Shawn's all felt kind of jarring, like they were interrupting the rest of the routine. I know Pavlova, Semenova and others had very simple low to beam work but it felt like a natural continuation of the routine.
ReplyDeleteYep, simple is fine as long as it's not flop-get back up or something equally sad.
Deleteis brenna dowell's bar routine the most difficult of the usa girls
ReplyDelete