Gymnastics Coaching.com

Vault
1 Alla Sosnitskaya 14.800 (6.4, 5.8)
2 Maria Paseka 14.367 (6.4, 5.8)
3 Seda Tutkhalyan 13.867 (5.8, 5.0)

Bars
1 Daria Spiridonova 15.033 (6.7)
2 Ekaterina Kramarenko 14.600 (6.0)
3 Maria Paseka 14.567 (5.9)

Click PLAY or watch Daria’s Bars on YouTube.

Beam
1 Maria Kharenkova 14.533 (6.6)
2 Daria Spiridonova 14.233 (5.9)
3 Seda Tutkhalyan 14.200 (6.6)

Click PLAY or watch Maria’s (wobbly) Beam on YouTube.

Floor
1 Ksenia Afanasyeva 15.133 (6.4)
2 Evgeniya Shelgunova 14.033 (5.9)
3 Maria Kharenkova 13.967 (6.0)

Click PLAY or watch Afan’s FX on YouTube.

The biggest upset of the event finals was Viktoria Komova falling on both bars and beam. Komova looked to be in good shape on both events but will need a bit more repetitions and upgrades in order to compete with the likes of Spiridonova and Kharenkova on bars and beam respectively. …

See commentary, results and video on Couch Gymnast – Russian Championships Event Finals

Aliya is skipping Europeans.

At the conclusion of this weekend’s Russian Championships, Valentina Rodionenko named the nominative team for European Championships, just about a month away in France.

This year’s Euros are individual championships only, and Russia has opted to send the four apparatus gold medalists from Russian Championships – Alla Sosnitskaya (vault), Daria Spiridonova (bars), Maria Kharenkova (beam), and Ksenia Afanasyeva (floor). …

Overall, these championships were a mess, to put it frankly. But it’s not totally bleak. The little core group going to Euros should do very well there, and can realistically aim for at least one medal in every final, even without Queen Mustafina. And in addition to this group, there is so much promise. If everyone can stay healthy all year, they could have a considerable amount of depth going into Worlds.

Gymternet – The Russian Ladies at Championships

UPDATE: As is so often the case, Valentina Rodionenko spoke too soon.

Head WAG coach Evgeny Grebyonkin:

On the basis of their performance at the Russian Championships, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Kharenkova and Daria Spiridinova have been confirmed for the team. Fighting for the final place will be Alla Sosnitskaya, Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka and first year senior Seda Tutkhalyan. …

RRG – Komova, Tutkhalyan will fight for a place on Russia’s Euros team

related – Russian Men’s Team – Seven men compete for six places at Euros – Valery Alfosov

On YouTube.

… Missing ’06, ’09, ’10. If anyone could upload those again on Youtube it would be appreciated!

College Gymnastics Board

Former British Champion Dave Eaton has the best write-up I’ve seen on that topic:

• System
• Community Of Learning
• Olympic Bump
• X-Factor
• Size Matters

… Great Britain is the size of the state of Oregon, with the population of California and Texas squeezed in to it. This made it much easier to unify a country around the Soviet system than would be possible here in the US. It allows national team members and coaches to come together every week at the national center to solidify the community of learning and ensuring everyone is working to the same beat of the drum, yet importantly allowing for a good “work-life” balance, which psychologically is so important. …

The British Gymnastics Revolution

Though the Yanks beat the Limeys at their own National Training Centre recently, I’d say the two nations will be very, very close in the final team standings at Worlds 2015.

via Jake Dalton on twitter

Rod Floor to resi pit.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Horizontal Bar. In training.

Click PLAY or watch them on Facebook.

I visited the Cirque du Soleil studios in Montreal on Tuesday. They are training nothing this crazy. 🙂

Cool.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

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.