In the end, almost everyone I spoke with thought this a surprisingly excellent Worlds. Fantastic Gymnastics. That includes Hardy Fink, who’s been at more WCs than anyone else.
It’s easy to find fault. Point out terrible form, especially twisting. … Bad technique. Cheap difficulty.
But there were far more positives than negatives.
How many times did I saw “WOW” out loud? … Hundreds. Hundreds of times. For gymnasts from all over the world.
Uematsu Koji during the H Bar final. This is fight. This is gymnastics at the highest level. One of the best routines I saw in Rotterdam. And he fell.
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We’re seeing some positions that don’t make divers wince. (As much.)
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And Ring leaps that wouldn’t be out of place in Rhythmic.
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Women’s Vault is shockingly weak compared with Men’s Vault. But I’d compete Alica against guys and win more often than not. She’s excellent. … Look at the form in the preflight of Yurchenko. That’s cleaner than Shewfelt.
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Though there’s virtually no reward for being artistic in Artistic gymnastics these days, we still have many wonderfully artistic gymnasts, including Longines winners Tanaka and Boy.
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I’m starting to like Beam again. The girls are better than ever before in history. But rules must be changed so that they are not allowed to pause between every skill. If that happened we’d see better routines than the late 1980s, for sure.
Men’s Horizontal Bar is my least favourite apparatus, the rules idiotic right now. But you can’t watch these fearless guys trying to connect Kovacs skills without admiration. It’s not fun to miss. No coach is going to slow you down.
Where’s that Epke Horizontal Bar finals video? One of the extreme routines of all time. Wow.
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Women’s Artistic Gymnastics, all-around, is nearly impossible in 2010. You can do 4 long, hard routines. But how can you train enough of them to be “ready” without getting injured.
Mustafina and Bross are incredible. So tough, durable and focused. We will never see very many young women achieve this level.
And Beth Tweddle. You can’t say enough about her. To my mind she’s an average international genetic talent, who persisted to become multiple World Champion by a supernatural psychological skill set.
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Ask a male gymnast to try Beth’s Bar routine. They’ll tell you where to go.
Bars in 2010 is a completely different apparatus than even 6yrs ago. Astonishing.
What about this guy?
Sick. Injured. Tired. On a bad day, … Uchimura’s still the greatest gymnast who ever lived.
I’m honoured to be alive in his era.
Fantastic gymnastics.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 