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There’s no open wifi at the NCAA Championships.
Aunt Joyce phoned text messages to Catty Comments, who posted them on Aunt Joyce’s Ice Cream Stand.
Click through if you’d like to see his typical catty, funny and insightful opinions.
Texting out is one workaround. A laptop tethered to a phone … Or a laptop and MiFi would be another.
What’s a twitter hashtag for this meet?
That might be the best way of all to follow several live bloggers at once.
Here’s UCLA coach P.J. Irvin in podium training at the end of vault training. The beatboard on top of the horse.
Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf
Not great here. But he had 3 of 6 girls “stick” at their last meet. 50% is a good stat in competition.
You’ve likely heard the buzz about Anna Li and Vanessa Zamarripa considering a return to Elite Gymnastics.
It’s a long shot, at best, for any College gymnast to qualify for the American National Team.
Vanessa should be training only for the NCAA, I feel. But a Senior like Anna is certainly free to do as she likes.
From the USA National Team point of view, why not look at College girls?
If I was Marta Karoli, I’d be phoning Brandi Personett right after her final competition this weekend.
If there’s one competitor the other girls at Championships would point to and say: “She’s a stud”, it’s Brandi.
Her last 1/1 twisting double layout on Floor in podium training today was as good as any I’ve ever seen, anywhere. Here’s some video of that skill captured by Anne of Gymnastike.
Here’s my thinking:
• Russia is the team to beat at Olympics 2012
• the USA has almost no chance to have a higher start score (Bars will be far lower)
• China and (likely) Russia will have higher execution scores
The best chance for the USA to win in 2012 is consistency. In a 3-up, 3-count Team Final, the States might make up the difference if their opposition falls twice, perhaps even only once.
And who’s more consistent than a College gymnast?
How many Beam routines has Anna Li done in series without a fall, for example?
Again, it’s a long shot. But worth a phone call. Bringing some very experienced College gymnasts to camp might help the up-and-coming younger kids.
Update: Here’s one vault from podium training. (I didn’t think Brandi did any great vaults this day. … Saving it for the competition, we assume.)
Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf
Brandi’s been training a double twisting Yurchenko. She’ll take your call, Marta.
Click through to British Gymnastics TV to watch the interview with Fabian Hambüchen.
A long bus ride from Germany to the U.K.
Like everyone I’ve met, I’m happy to have traveled to Gainesville, Florida, the birthplace of Gatorade, my first time here.
The weather is excellent this time of year. Venue superb.
Head Coach Rhonda Faehn obviously has an excellent team putting together this meet.
Today is podium training. I watched UCLA, LSU, Missouri and Florida.
Love Florida! They do a lot of difficulty. Unfortunately, though ranked #2, it’s going to be tough to win with that much difficulty. Can you stick double back off beam?
The smart dismounts are gainers from beam. And double layout from bars.
For all the importance and attention spent on landings in College gymnastics, the girls are not all that much better than in F.I.G. competiton.
UCLA Vault coach P.J. Irvin put a beat board on TOP of the horse, having the girls do standing somersault landing drills higher than they would simply from standing on the horse itself. Good idea.
LSU looked surprisingly loose and relaxed. Mizzou looks good, especially on Bars. Unfortunately one of the girls “pinged” winding up for double layout. (She looks to be O.K., but a fall like that can shake up the whole team.)
UCLA continues as the team of destiny. It’s their meet to lose, I reckon. The choreography of their Floor routines is the single rotation I’m most looking forward to seeing.
They’ll be more coverage of this meet online than ever before. This is the last year of Super 6 Team Finals, Friday. Next year they will move to a Final 4 Team Final, with live T.V. coverage (hopefully).
Thursday is the best and most nerve wracking day:
• NCAA’s live streaming Semifinal 1 – CBS College Sports All-Access. Fast internet connection recommended.
• NCAA’s live streaming Semifinal 2 – CBS College Sports All-Access. Fast internet connection recommended.
Live scoring available linked via www.GatorZone.com
Heart attack at age-89.
Rest in peace.
… “It’s hard to describe in a few words how important his presidency has been,” Pound said.
“Clearly he’s one of the three great presidents of the IOC” …
Dick Pound – CBC – The passing of The Lord of the Rings
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js
Anne Phillips, founder of Gymnastike, continues a series of gymnasts to watch on each apparatus.
I like this pick:
Another bar routine that caught my eye at Nationals last year was Elise Wheeler of Southern Utah. She qualified as an individual All Arounder again this year as she is very pleasant to watch on bars. Here is a clip of Elise from bar training at last year’s Nationals:
Click PLAY or watch Elise on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf
That was one year ago today, podium training. And this year podium training is actually on podium.
Aunt Joyce (who’s here at Championships) calls Elise Someone To Root For:
… Gifted with beautiful lines, a natural dance ability and great athletic ability, Elise Wheeler came back to the sport and has now qualified to the NCAA Championships as an individual all-arounder for the third consecutive year. Elise embodies the perfect combination of beauty, grace, precision and power. …
It would be wonderful to see an athlete from a smaller program, the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, win a medal.
Click through to see Anne’s other strong College Bar routines: Gymnastike – Uneven Bar Routines to Watch for at the 2010 NCAA Championships
Anna Li is the routine to beat, most agree.
=== Update:
Here are Anne’s Beam routines to watch. I’m not really loving any of those linked, aside from Vanessa Zamarripa.
McCool has the experience and rock solid routine to win this apparatus, IF she qualifies for the Final.
Coach tweeted: “She’s got nothing to prove.”
True. But I don’t know whether that helps, or not, as an apparatus specialist.
Dan Kendig last night brought his team and coaching staff to La Nouba in Orlando, en route to NCAA Championships in Gainesville.
La Nouba Head Coach Mathew Sparks took the team on a backstage tour, the girls getting to speak with a number of the performers.
Nebraska Assistant Coach Tim Garrison told me this was the first time he had seen Cirque live. La Nouba is one of the most acrobatic of all Cirque performances.
I couldn’t resist.
… two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce. …
It’s as disgustingly delicious as it looks!
… the sodium content is high — a whopping 1,380 milligrams — more than a half-teaspoon’s worth of salt. For comparison’s sake, the American Heart Association recommends people eat less than 1,500 mg of sodium in an entire day.
Considering the rising consciousness on healthy eating — from rules that will require calorie counts on menus nationwide to Jamie Oliver teaching kids in West Virginia to make better food choices — it was pretty gutsy of KFC to market a product that sandwiches bacon and mayo-based sauce between two pieces of fried chicken.
Still, KFC’s new creation might surprise you a little on the nutritional front. At 540 calories, the Double Down, though not exactly a dieting food, is 90 calories lighter than McDonald’s Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich. …
UPDATE – Is it really 540 calories? Or more like 1190 calories? (via JAO)
This crime against humanity will not be sold in Canada. America’s rank as the most obese major nation is safe, for now.
And just in case Wendy’s wants to challenge, KFC has this “sandwich” in the lab …
(via This is why you’re Fat)
How cool is it to compete on a full podium?
Click PLAY or watch Anne’s night-before-podium-training preview on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf
Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike
This is the SEC podium, I believe, used every year at SEC Championships.
If you have a prediction on the top teams, click through to the Gymnastike Super Six Prediction Contest!
(Most feel UCLA will win. The rest are going with either undefeated Oklahoma or host Florida.)
Gymnastics Coaching.com 