Comments on: bad gymnastics – crossed legs while twisting

By: TCO

TCO — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:15:53 +0000

Shawn is better than Nastia.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:13:29 +0000

I have a feeling that this is not a conscious effort.

My guess is that she’s moving her head while in the air. Once you’ve left the ground, your angular momentum is set. Furthermore, keep in mind that each individual segment of the body – foot, lower leg, thigh, hand, forearm, upper arm, torso, and head has a certain amount of angular momentum. Added together, this equals the total body AM. Well, if you try to “create” more angular momentum by moving around the head and shoulders, there’s going to be AM subtracted from elsewhere. I gather this from the position of her head relative to the rest of the body and the fact that the head appears to be moving in a clockwise direction while the legs are truly moving in more of a counter-clockwise direction if you were looking at it from the top-down. Notice how well aligned Sacramone’s head is.

So, the real emphasis is teaching better take-off mechanics into the twist so that she doesn’t have to try and “create” more AM to make it around.

The reason that both legs aren’t doing this is simply related to the mass of the segments. Without actually looking up anthropometric data, I can’t 100% verify. But, my guess is that the one leg is probably pretty close to the mass of the head.

By: Katrina

Katrina — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:01:20 +0000

shergymrag, sorry, let me clarify I was two different blogs at the same time What I meant was that in figure skating, you cross your legs to get more rotation but not in gymnastics.

By: Tuesday

Tuesday — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:18:30 +0000

I’ve personally not had any gymnasts that crossed while twisting – at least not any who I let get away with it – so I think it depends on the coach and what they allow. Maybe Valeri feels this is the only way Nastia can get herself around doing all those twists. Either way, it does look pretty yucky.

By: shergymrag

shergymrag — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:59:01 +0000

“Its funny to see this because like gymnastics the age of going to world events is in question (two the three girls who placed at this years Nationals were not eligible to go to the world Championships), however, you have to cross your legs when youâ€™re twisting in the air.”

What?

By: Katrina

Katrina — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:41:47 +0000

Ianthe, thats what it does (the reason figure skaters do it… to get better rotation in the air) but in Gymnastics it’s kind of a no no and technically a form deduction.

By: Ianthe

Ianthe — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:21:53 +0000

I thought gymnasts crossed their legs because it speeds up the rotation of their twists.

By: Mike S

Mike S — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:00:58 +0000

I’ve noticed this with Nastia several times. Her form is good on vault, but her dismount off of beam and her r/o 2.5 twister on floor are very cross legged. Courtney McCool and Ivana Hong have impeccable form when twisting. Maybe there’s something that the GAGE athletes are doing that some of our other top athletes are missing? I hope Nastia can fix that before olympics.

By: Katrina

Katrina — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:53:35 +0000

Its funny to see this because like gymnastics the age of going to world events is in question (two the three girls who placed at this years Nationals were not eligible to go to the world Championships), however, you have to cross your legs when you’re twisting in the air.