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Amit Finkel and Maya Bielik caught up with Ofir Netzer, the 2013 European Vault finalist and Israel’s big hope for Rio 2016, right before her anticipated return following an ACL tear.

One of the days 18-year old Ofir Netzer will never forget was the Vault final of the 2013 European Championships in Moscow. She came in 4th behind two gymnasts who are household names in the sport – Giulia Steingruber and Larisa Iordache (who shared the silver with Dutch gymnast Noel van Klaveren). Overnight, she was the talk of the town, coming out of nowhere and ranking 4th in Europe, missing a bronze by 3 tenths at such a prestigious meet.

Another day she will never forget came about a year later …

“I was working a whip to triple twist and landed with straight knees and tore my ACL,” she recounts. The recovery was long and difficult. “I continued training to maintain my fitness level. I came to the gym daily during my rehabilitation, doing mainly fitness and physiotherapy. I returned to gymnastics training six months ago,” she adds.

Her training regimen tends to be a bit erratic, with weekly trips to a superior facility in Tel Aviv, training camps overseas and her military duties.

“I usually train twice a day, three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening,” she says. …

Israeli Gymnastics – Ofir Netzer Interview: Her Rise, Her Fall and Her Return

Wish her well in her return to competition in 2015.

OlympicTalk: Who are you looking forward to seeing compete at Jesolo for the first time this season?

Karolyi: It’s important that we take the girls who potentially will be in the World Championships (in Glasgow, Scotland, in October) and use that as a team bonding competition …

OlympicTalk: Which first-year senior gymnasts have impressed you this year?

Karolyi: We don’t have so many. I think probably (2013 P&G junior all-around champion) Bailie Key is one of the upcoming girls, and there is another new one, Emily Schild (Key and Schild are the only first-year seniors on the reported Jesolo nominative roster). These are the younger ones who this year will have the age and possibly will be players by the fall when it comes to the selections for World Championships.

Nia Dennis (who trains with Douglas in Columbus, Ohio) is also a strong gymnast, but this year in training camps, unfortunately, always has some small nagging injuries. So she really could not prove herself. Nia won’t go to Italy. …

Martha Karolyi on Simone Biles’ dominance, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman returns

Jordyn:

… My elite career started at a pretty young age. I remember traveling to the Karolyi Ranch in Texas, starting at age 10. By the time I was 17 years old, it was like a second home to me. I looked forward to being with my National Team teammates, who were some of my best friends. Some of my fondest memories are of traveling across the country — and the world — for competitions. I realize how lucky I was to see so much of the world at such a young age.

Sure, it wasn’t all fun and games. I had my share of injury set-backs, falls during competitions, bad practices and disappointment. But I honestly believe that all of those experiences helped make me who I am, and who I will become. Even if I had not had the chance to be on the Olympic team, I still value all the lessons I learned from the sport of gymnastics.

It goes without saying that the Olympics was the highlight of my career. …

A New Routine

Click PLAY or watch a tribute from 2014 on YouTube.

I’m not so sure. Many teams are hitting a LOT of routines. This has been a very good season. Has anyone got stats on number of “counting falls”?

Attendance is up, even at UCLA. Good news for the sport. 🙂

Balance Beam Situation:

… Welcome to senior night scoring. Expect more of the same this coming week. It’s a little frustrating because when you’re giving out 10s for vaults that aren’t stuck just because it’s a senior’s last home meet, it cheapens the 10. It shouldn’t just be a gesture. But it’s also sort of hilarious. Not ha-ha hilarious, but more am-I-having-a-mental-collapse, is-this-even-a-real-sport hilarious.

Oklahoma won the weekend with a 198.500, which isn’t quite at the level of the 198.8s that were being thrown out in 2004, but it is the highest score we’ve seen in a while in a meet featuring a downright alarming number of 9.9s for both sides. In all, four teams broke the 198 barrier this week, and UCLA came just short of making it five. These kids today with their 198s. Back in my time, if you wanted a 198, you had to get out the checkbook and buy it yourself. You know, the good old days.

Senior night scoring sure makes everyone seem amazing and ready for the postseason. That’s not necessarily true, but the level of hitting does make me ready for championship season to see how it all plays out in less fanciful and creative circumstances. Hopefully, everything will come down to earth once we get to four judges …

Week 9 Rankings and RQS Update

I’ve got no problems with another Georgia Dabritz Bars 10. 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

There are a number of male Cheer tumblers this good. But I’m not sure I’ve seen a female chuck this much difficulty connected.

Yeesh.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Coach Mauro di Rienzo got a big round of applause in the Junior Finals at Gymnix. Sara Berardinelli will never forget this routine.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’d noted earlier that the Italian and Swiss Bar spotters were very careful while spotting these young girls competing BIG skills. I appreciated their caution. And it paid off for Sara in this case.

After the first catch, I switched my camera over to Bars. Here’s a different angle.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

See Grace Chiu’s photo on Facebook.

Trailer – The Hard Way To Success – Episode 17

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Posted February 17, 2015 by Michigan Men’s Gymnastics Team member Hub Humphrey:

Visual Data has transformed the way collegiate gymnastics is analyzed. Pie graphs, line charts, and bar graphs give gymnasts and coaches the ability to analyze trends of each team and individual gymnast by competition.

Road to Nationals is the best and only website that I know of that takes all the results and statistics of each competition and displays it in a visual form. …

The Value of Visual Data in Collegiate Gymnastics

There’s a permanent link to Road to Nationals in the right hand navigation.

via @StickitMedia

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Anne Josephson:

Here are 25 lessons that gymnastics (and other sports) brings to us:

1. How to deal with fear
2. How to deal with failure
3. How to get along with others
4. How to manage time
5. How to take criticism
…

25 LIFE LESSONS GYMNASTICS TEACHES (WITHOUT EVEN TRYING)