Author: Rick Mc

For the first time in years, I don’t have strong predictions on the Women’s Championships.

So I’ll post CalicoIzzy’s best guess:

Afternoon session:
1. UCLA, 197.125
2. Michigan, 196.850
3. Oklahoma, 196.750
4. Georgia, 196.625
5. Illinois, 196.375
6. Arkansas, 196.050

Evening session:
1. (tie) Florida and Alabama, 197.100
3. Oregon State, 196.900
4. Utah, 196.675
5. Nebraska, 196.425
6. Kent State, 195.275

All-around
1. Kylee Botterman, Michigan, 39.575
2. Kayla Hoffman, Alabama, 39.550
3. (t) Brittani McCullough, Sharaya Musser, Geralan Stack-Eaton and Rebecca Simbudhas, 39.475

read reactions to that on College Gymnastics Board

… gymnastics is one of the few (NCAA) sports where the finals aren’t televised live.

Instead CBS will televise the meet on tape delay on May 14. …

Marsden, others, unhappy with new nationals format

NCAA does promise to LIVE stream Women’s Championships online. Quick link atop the home page.

NCAA competition home page

It’s been many years since there’s been no clear favourite to win the NCAA Team Championships.

Aunt Joyce and others are leaning towards #1 ranked Alabama. But in recent years The Tide has lacked finesse.

… My hunch is that a team that has never won before will end up winning in 2011.

Oklahoma is ready. Healthy. And obviously well coached.

Gymnastike:

The University of Oklahoma is back at the National Championships after finishing 2nd nationally last season and sweeping the NCAA Coach of the Year awards. We chatted with head coach KJ Kindler and junior Megan Ferguson via skype before the Sooners head to Cleveland for the 2011 NCAA National Championships.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/ODQ4NDg0MTE2

Watch more video of 2011 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics National Championships on gymnastike.org

The 2011 Oklahoma Sooners are:

Hope Bruce, Candace Cindell, Megan Ferguson, Natasha Kelley, Madison Mooring, Kayla Nowak, Brie Olson, Nitya Ramaswami, Natalie Ratcliff, Melanie Root, Taylor Spears, Sara Stone, and Hayden Ward

Oklahoma will compete in the first of two preliminary sessions, facing UCLA, Michigan, Georgia, Arkansas, and Illinois.

In North America many of the best gymnasts are trying to ‘peak’ for the BIG meet. Here’s some advice on how to do that.

Mas Watanabe:

… Our level 9 & 10 gymnasts generally have 2 … routines, especially in the beginning of the season. One is a core routine and the other one is the future routine.

The core routine should be the routine, hopefully, with all the requirements for the level and be able to hit it with ease. The future routine should have skills or a sequence in it that she is still working to make or trying to improve on the consistency of it. …

When they compete, how they warm up in the competition is very critical. When a gymnast is competing a Yurchenko full for example, we try to make her warm up in 5 turns. We ask her to do the 1st turn: timer, 2nd & 3rd turns: layout, and 4th & 5th turns: full.

We try to warm up on bars in 3 to 5 turns. Generally we will allow 5 turns in the beginning of the season but make sure to do 1 complete routine within the warm up turns. Hopefully the routine attempt should not be the last turn in case they make a mistake in the routine. If the routine was attempted in the 4th turn, there is still a correction turn available within the time limit.

For Beam and Floor click over to GymSMARTS – Preparation for Competition

Edited by Dan Connelly

Follow Mas on his blog and check out his DVDS.

This clip of Jozef from Poland has exploded online.

He got a lot of attention on Yahoo Sports yesterday, for example.

Click PLAY or watch Jozef on YouTube.

Great exposure for Acrobatic tumbling.

Many posts confused him with Leszek Blanik, the first Polish Artistic Olympic Champion.

Thanks for the link dastrapp.

With an escalation in the Japanese Nuclear crisis, I fully expect FIG to move the World Championships, almost certainly to Moscow, .

Perhaps the world will rally around Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Olympics, instead.

Russia successfully hosted the 2010 Rhythmic Worlds. And would love to host Artistic, too.

Russia’s literally throwing money at sport right now – $1.44 billion if Russia wins the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Dagestan, for example.

What can we look forward to IN MOSCOW and at the Olympics?

Blythe on Gymnastics Examiner from Europeans:

… Perhaps no team can benefit more from three up, three down on each event than the German men. They have not had the depth in the past, but with Fabian Hambuechen and Matthias Fahrig back in the mix, they will be very, very dangerous in London.

Skill of the meet: Nguyen’s wonderful full twisting double back off (parallel bars). So hard, so rare, and so well done. …

Souvenirs of Berlin…

I love the 3 up, 3 count sudden victory Team Final. There’s a delicious uncertainty, more drama, when one balked Vault could drop your team to last place.

It helps a team like Germany (with less depth) challenge a team like the USA for a Team medal. Russia, too, could HIT 3 up, 3 count.

The rules change for World’s 2011, Olympics too.

With one fewer gymnast on the “team”, no longer can most afford to carry an athlete who has a chance to medal on just one apparatus. Hungary’s Krisztian Berki, the World #1 on Pommel, is now competing Vault, as one example.

AJ clarifies:

Teams will still be six gymnasts at Worlds this year – it’s five only for the Olympics.

You’re right that the five-member teams will have to be structured differently and a lot of teams won’t be able to afford a one-event specialist.

… in Berki’s case, my guess is he’s doing vault (and high bar) because of qualifying rules for individual event medalists: all medalists whose teams do not qualify to London will qualify, but have to have competed at least two other events (one more for WAG) with a score on the best two additional events that is 85% of the average of all scores on that event.

hmm …

It will be interesting to see the strategy taken by each nation.

Wow. Bart Deurloo of Netherlands gets amazing swing out of his Kovacs.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thank WS van Wijk for the link.

If you can’t afford accommodation for the 2012 Olympics, bring a tent.

Athletics Olympic Champion Sally Gunnell will rent you a campsite, cheap.

The Caravan Club Chigwell Temporary Site will cater for around 1,300 outfits per night throughout the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, from 25 July 2012 to 11 September 2012.

You’ll have a port-a-loo. And it’s only 15min to the Tube from your trailer. 🙂

Telegraph – London 2012 Olympics: Sally Gunnell to host thousands of Olympics fans on her family farm

Thanks Tom Trapp, USA Diving Coach, for the tip.

His Dad posted this clip from training today on Facebook. … From last year.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Nice. … Now he’ll need to connect it to Kolman to keep up with Epke who showed the combo at Europeans. This apparatus is getting crazy fast.

Update: These are from World’s 2010, Rotterdam.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.