Category: Gymnastics

Sweden’s Tonya Paulsson – comeback

Four months post surgery.

R.I.P. Masaaki Naosaki

SEPTEMBER 17, 1948 – MARCH 8, 2024

One of Canada’s top coaches for decades, Nao is remember fondly by all who know him.

A gentleman. Respected technical expert. Mentor to many of his gymnasts and coaches across the nation.

In the York University Hall of Fame.

He coached Curtis Hibbert amongst many other greats. Nao will be missed.

You can leave a message for the family on the Dignity Memorial page.

VIDEO – Great West Gym Fest 2024

I’ve volunteered many times at the Great West Gym Fest in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — close to Spokane.

It’s easily the best Invitational I’ve ever attended.

For hosts Dave & Lisa Adlard, I put together a highlights VIDEO trying to show just how FUN this competition is for the kids. Every aspect of the meet is FUN.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Transforming the luxurious Coeur d’Alene Resort into a Gym is no small feat.

Click PLAY or watch a timelapse on YouTube. Donny Gardiner had a little help this year. 😀

Claire Pease – Bars

Very clean.

Claire at Gymnix Jr 2024.

Amazing Grace McCallum

I’m OK with 10.0 under College rules.

a deep dive into ARTISTRY deductions

Findings weren’t as dismal and random as you’d might expect.

Personally, I’d abandon Artistry deductions as too subjective — instead evaluating execution more precisely. Likely we’d need video analysis judging to do that accurately.

– Rick

Marishiba did some analysis into Artistry deductions at Worlds 2023.

… 72 gymnasts for beam, and the top 48 for floor …

Marishiba’s thoughts:

  • In some ways, this actually made me feel better about artistry judging, in that I generally feel like the people who subjectively felt artistic and expressive (to me!) tended to get the highest artistry scores, and the people who subjectively felt messy or clunky got low scores, while the people who were pretty/polished but not expressive got scores in the middle. One big exception to this is Chinese gymnasts. I love their artistry, especially on floor, and it’s not being rewarded.
  • However, the spread of judging on a single routine is troubling. …

Takeaways:

  • All hail Eythora queen of artistry! Competing 3 times each on beam and floor, she had 3 out of 4 of the top beam artistry scores, and all 3 of the top floor artistry scores! In every single routine, at least one judge gave her zero artistry deductions! Pauline’s quals beam was the only routine that bested any of Eythora’s artistry scores!
  • Averaging across all competitions, Flavia is top-5 for both beam (3rd) and floor (4th). In the top 10 for both are Jess G. (2nd beam, 6th floor), Rebeca (2nd floor, 9th beam), Pauline (5th beam, 10th floor), and Melanie (7th floor, 8th beam).
  • The Americans are really getting dinged on artistry. We knew this, but it really stands out looking at the data. Shilese’s floor stands out as by far the best US artistry (0.29 artistry deductions average, 16th place). Simone is middle of the pack on artistry (26th place on floor, 33rd on beam, with 3 to 4 tenths deduction on each); so much potential for her to improve there.
  • Floor artistry deductions were pretty consistent across competitions, beam were not, with quals and AA being notably harsher on artistry than EF or Team.

Read the full report on Reddit.

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Haleigh Bryant’s Historic 39.925 

Here are the full routines of Haleigh Bryant’s 39.925 all-around performance at the Purple & Gold Podium Challenge on March 8, 2024.

… highest all-around score in LSU Gymnastics history and tied for the 4th best all-around in the history of NCAA Gymnastics.

  • VT – 10.0
  • Bars – 10.0
  • Beam – 10.0
  • FX – 9.95

Credit to Ben Schluter, writer for And The Valley Shook, for all the video footage, since this was not a televised competition.

Check out his (subscription) website Chalk Talk, which includes features and podcasts with NCAA Gymnasts here: https://benschluter.substack.com/

X/Twitter: @BenSLASports

You can see all the LSU routines on that Twitter account.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

LSU also posted all routines, including demonstration sets.

Highest road score in program history with their 198.425. We do need this video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Summer Gronski – original Beam mount