Ward Black, a former gymnast for the University of Michigan, wrote a scathing, funny and important article for International Gymnast.
Few Come Out Swinging at Winter Cup
Any gymnast wishing to make the U.S. men’s national team, or make a world championships or Olympic team: Master pommel horse. …
Seventy-seven gymnasts competed this past Thursday in two qualifying sessions at the U.S. Winter Cup in Las Vegas. Sixty-seven competed pommel horse. Evaluating just the B-Panel execution scores: One man (Tim McNeill of Berkeley) scored above 9.00 on pommels. Eighteen scored 8.30 and above. And 48 athletes scored BELOW 8.30. …
… Pommel horse form is horrendous, proper technique is questionable and routine consistency is out the window. …
This guy did not compete, however.
Sasha Artemev – Inside Gymnastics
… Something is amiss in the men’s Junior Olympic program, and/or at the NCAA level, and/or with the Men’s Program Committee. American men did great pommel horse in the past. Why not now? …
The USA was slow to adopt the pommel mushroom. Slow to allow boys to compete the horse without pommels.
Perhaps that’s a factor.
Leave a comment if you have an opinion on why American pommel is so weak at the Senior level.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 