Beautiful Gymnastics – Best of 2013

Catherine from Ireland:

Favourite junior:
Laurie Hernandez

Best beam:
Luo Huan, 2013 National Games, TF. No question.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Best new skill:
i.e. named this year. The sideways side aerial, named for Silvia Colussi-Pelaez but performed by Danusia Francis at NCAA Nationals. …

Most elegant gymnast:
Eythora Thorsdottir

see her entire list

Happy New Year Victoria

… As Moors enjoys the holidays with family and friends, she is approaching the new year with an open agenda.

“I really have no goals for 2014,” she told IG. “I’m just going to take things day by day and just enjoy the experience. My New Year’s resolution is to try and be nicer and more positive toward things!”

Moors Aims For ‘More Positive’ 2014

Hanna on turn-news.com named the Moors the “Element of the Year 2013“.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Other skills nominated:

• Mo Salto
• Double salto stretched with 1/2 twist
• Mustafinas Shaposh 1/1 (the Seitz?)

Victoria is one of the most popular gymnasts online. Check GymCastic’s Top 13 Gymnastics Stories of 2013 – According to Tumblr

Let’s not forget that Skinner competed the Moors first. Respect. 🙂

Afan’s Floor

Mr. Hang has been linking to his favourite gymnastics moments of the year on #391.

Here’s a sample from Part 4: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ WAG:

Afanasyeva’s Universiade floor exercise AA and Amanar vault was my favourite thing of the year. I could criticize her faults but what’s the point? …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular

Oh no.

When there’s a single flyaway off H Bar and an Olympic Champion showing a front walkover in the promo clip, my guess is that this show will not be very Spectacular.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

EVOLUTION OF THE HANDSTAND

Former U.S. Champion Dave Durante:

Part 1-The Bad: legs bent, head out, bent elbows, flexed feet, big lower back arch, legs apart. …

Part 2- The Old School: legs are tight/together and elbows are locked, but head is still way out of line and lower back is still in an arch position. Lots of unnecessary angles …

Part 3- The Good: whole body is stacked…feet over knees, knees over hips, hips over shoulders, shoulders over elbows, elbows over hands. This is your POSITION OF MAXIMUM POTENTIAL. …

@powermonkeyfitness #crossfit #crossfitgymnastics

//instagram.com/p/ifbHOANbcQ/embed/

Coincidentally, I was just chatting with Handstand Homework author Carrie Spender Lennox. She feels we need MORE and BETTER materials for explaining common errors.

She’ll love this video. 🙂

artistry in 2013

Uncle Tim:

… for those of you looking for a “return to artistry” in the Code, well, that’s darn near impossible on the women’s side because the term “artistry” was largely absent from the first versions of the Code of Points. …

The Evolution of Artistry in Women’s Gymnastics: 1981-1984

Queen Elizabeth has a new post on artistry.

Unfortunately she does not arrive at any answers for FIG WTC.

The post includes a series of photo comparisons of Russian and American gymnasts. It was absolutely true that China & Russia have been far more artistic than the American gymnasts. Historically.

USA Russia

That’s changing, however.

In 2013 the Longines award for elegance went to an American gymnast. Legitimately.

Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney were two of the most artistic competitors at Worlds.

American gymnastics is getting more artistic. The gap closing.

Artistry hardly matters, unfortunately. E panels in 2013 do not much differentiate between most artistic and least. I don’t believe FIG will find a way to correct that. Artistry is too subjective to be consistently scored.

Read the post for yourself — Rewriting Russian GymnasticsThe State of the Art – Gymnastics in 2013

related – Gummi argues that Kyla is clean and precise, but not necessarily “artistic”.

He also notes that gymnasts from top nations are not much deducted for “poor artistry”, while those from the rest of the world are deducted heavily.

BIGGEST Handspring Front ever

🙂

Coach Irving Nóchez from El Salvador linked to this video.

Update … it’s from the film “Old School.”