Andrew Thornton feels there are only 2 athletes certain to qualify to World’s in October who are a “lock” for the A-team: Paul Hamm and Jon Horton.
What will Paul Hamm bring to the USA Men’s team?
Most of all, he’ll eliminate the need to use up an entire spot on a pommel horse specialist. Prior to Paul’s announcement, it was looking like the USA men’s team would need at least one pommel horse specialist, as most of our top all-around gymnasts are quite weak on this event. …
Ideally, we need a couple of guys who could potentially do rings AND pommel horse. They’re few and far between, but here are four I can think of (besides Paul Hamm):
Gymnastics Examiner posted an exceptional interview with Jay, the man who missed qualifying for two Olympics. Yet has become one of the biggest success stories in the USA with his website American Gymnast.
Examiner.com: Can you tell me a little about your childhood in gymnastics?
Jay Thornton: “I was very fortunate to have several a wonderful coaches from the beginning. I was a pretty good twister. I was a little bit bigger as a kid and I had that going against me. I’m about 5’10″ and competed at about 170 pounds. I was a bit bigger as a kid and wasn’t the most physically gifted, but my first coach, Tim Erwin, started preparing me with sound gymnastics technique from the day one.”
Examiner.com: When did you decide you wanted to go to the Olympics?
J.T.: “When I was 10 years old. It was 1984, the year of the Los Angeles Olympics and I, like every other gymnast at the time, was watching the ’84 U.S. Men’s Olympic team compete. When I saw them win that gold medal, I knew at that point that I wanted to become an Olympic gymnast.” …
Read about the coach who taught him to love gymnastics, Nick Brancheau. His inspirations: Roethlisberger and Bilozertchev. And how he reconnected with the woman who would become his wife.
The advantage of buying grips and equipment from American Gymnast is that Jay truly knows the sport inside out. Here’s his reaction to to Sho Nakamori’s post on his Reisport Ring grips tearing after only 2 days.
Jay’s younger brother Andy, who also competed for the University of Iowa, posts an excellent blog, Andy’s Angle, on American Gymnast. I read it religiously.
Note that the coaching video tutorial section has a new address: Gymnastics on Demand
He was lying on the ground after peeling off on a dismount before he discovered what had happened.
The manufacturer is Reisport, as good as any of the competitors, I’d say.
Over the years I’ve seen many Reisport grips break in only a matter of days, but never Ring grips. Horizontal Bar grips normally get stretched and break sooner.
NOT unheard of. Our friend, Mario West, had the exact same thing happen at the Winter Cup a year and a half ago — High Bar was his first event, and it happened during warmups. It didn’t injure him badly, but it affected the whole meet.
Since then, he’s been going to a gentleman in Gaithersburg, MD named “Tien” (not sure of the spelling), who handcrafts his grips. Apparently, the Japanese and Chinese national teams both buy from this craftsman as well, and Mario seems to have more confidence in his grips.
Leave a comment if you have any advice on where to get gymnastics grips more durable than Reisport.