Dvora Meyers has an entertaining article on the Slate double X blog:
… puberty does not spell doom for most gymnasts (or humans for that matter—life expectancy typically exceeds 16). Most of the girls figure out how to perform with their newer dimensions after a bit of time, which is why the NCAA features a great degree of body diversity. The athletes are average sized human women who just happen to do double back somersaults with ease. …
… reduced training and lesser difficulty are indicative of a different set of priorities that govern the NCAA sport. The emphasis in college gymnastics is on consistency and execution. When you see extraordinarily difficult skills in a college meet, it’s because the gymnast wants to do it, not because she needs it for her score. …
Brittany’s STUCK Yurchenko 1 1/2 in Super 6 was perhaps the most underscored routine I saw at Championships. It’s included in a Georgia highlights video.
I don’t know how some of those College judges sleep at night. 😦
It’s embarrassing to qualify 23 or 24 gymnasts to an 8 woman final. It gives the wrong impression to the general public that judges cannot discriminate between the best. 🙂
Miss Val:
“I really feel that with how our sport is judged, we need to keep encouraging interesting gymnastics. I’m not really a fan of the fact that – how many of the vaults were Yurchenko full today? That’s not fun.”
denn333 compiled a list of options for NCAA to consider for 2014:
1) 6 judges in prelims (fewer ties to finals)
2) two vaults for all gymnasts in prelims
3) two vaults for 2-3 gymnasts per team in prelims
4) stricter execution scoring to spread out the scores
5) (optional) bonus for 2nd vaults
6) lowering difficulty values of vaults to encourage a few harder vaults (say, 93 FIG rules)
7) lowering difficulty values of vaults but ALSO awarding a bonus for an optional second vault — multiple ways to get to 10.0. (E.g., a DTY -or- a FTY + a piked front)
There are more ideas out there.
… One idea that has been discussed among the coaches is using lines on the mats to help the judges determine how straight the vaults are and the distance, while another proposal is to award the gymnasts for doing more difficult vaults by “giving them back” tenths of a point for steps and other minor miscues on challenging vaults.
“Nobody wants to devalue vaults, but something needs to happen to reward gymnasts for doing more difficult vaults,” Marsden said. …
The Romanian gymnasts returned to Bucharest on Monday evening. As it is the custom on such occasions, they were welcome in the official lounge of the Henry Coanda airport where the media got the chance to speak to the gymnasts. As usually the mainstream media don’t do a fantastic job asking the questions but we have to appreciate the warm reception and the fact that the event was broadcasted live. …
Octavian Bellu: “We are back from Moscow, from this edition of the European Championships, as you can see we have survived.
(It was) a very interesting competition and with a high level, you may have noticed that winning a gold medal at Euros is not exclusively reserved for Russian and Romanian gymnasts anymore, the Swiss can win gold medals, the Swedish can win silver medals and Great Britain and Italy were very close to medaling as well.
I think it was a maturity exam for these young seniors, they faced only some of their opponents, at Worlds they will have to compete against the Americans, the Chinese; the competition will be much stronger because then they will have to meet with event specialists from all over the world. …
Bellu: “… you must know that the girls competed on their first big meet with grips … it’s an important shift in their preparation…
By coincidence, I was in Westwood, California in 1999, a few blocks from UCLA, for the movie premiere of Any Given Sunday. Saw Al Pacino on the red carpet.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 