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Twistars’ gymnast Kamerin Moore discusses her long road back from injury, punctuated by strong performances at 2012 level 10 Regionals and J.O. Nationals and earning a place on the J.O. National team.
She also talks about her rivalry with teammate Grace Williams and their plans to compete at the University of Nebraska together.
Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
MAG: Zou Kai, Chen Yibing, Zhang Chenglong, Teng Haibin, Feng Zei.
Alternate Guo Weiyang, Yan MingyongWAG: Yao Jinnan, Sui Lu, Huang Qiushuang, Deng Linlin.
fifth member : one of the three He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Tan Sixin
That’s from a TV news report from China (VIDEO) posted by Komova2012.
She looks quite strong on Floor and Vault. Those German surgeons did good work.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Not much is yet confirmed for Team China. But a few rumours are posted on Blossom:
… Sources say everyone hit beam, floor and vault in the internal test.
Bars however was less than desired with falls from He Kexin (on her Li Ya to Jaeger release combo), Wu Liufang (on her piked Tkachev), and Huang Qiushuang (on her Stalder 1/2). Yao Jinnan only competed bars in the internal test, but she did an excellent job.
Following this internal test, the 14 member training squad will be downsized to 7. I think the team will make the announcement later this week …
More rumours and discussion:
… There are four virtual locks, apparently; Sui Lu, Yao Jinnan, Huang Qiushuang and Deng Linlin
and these four are battling for the last place; Tan Sixin, Jiang Yuyuan and He Kexin …
Great Arabian. Great Patterson dismount.
But she certainly doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Better quality videos from this competition are posted on the larasidl YouTube channel. Thanks Gymnast #391.
Stoi posted some comic commentary:
… Russia do have the potential for a great floor lineup in London, but at the moment their top ranked FX athlete mounts with a double tuck (Afanasyeva) and the second best, Grishina, was too injured to compete.
Komova debuted a new set and achieved the impossible: an even worse music choice than that technohead 90s nightmare Swan Lake cut they foisted on her last year. Do not want. …
Albert updated The All Around ranking list after the Russian Cup. Scores from 2012 only.
All Around Total and D scores are from a single competition, we have not taken the highest scores from different competitions and added them up to keep it real. We acknowledge the difference in scoring between competitions and the possibility of National bonus in some scores; this is only an indicator for the Olympic year.
ALL AROUND: Total
1. Douglas, Gabrielle (USA) 61,299
2. Wieber, Jordyn (USA) 61,250
3. Raisman, Alexandra (USA) 60,832
4. Komova, Viktoria (RUS) 60,767
5. Iordache, Larissa (ROU) 60,150
6. Ross, Kyla (USA) 59,850
7. Afanasyeva, Ksenia (RUS) 59,733
8. Price, Elizabeth (USA) 59,600
9. Mustafina, Aliya (RUS) 59,533
10. Finnegan, Sarah (USA) 59,150
ALL AROUND: D Scores
1. Douglas, Gabrielle (USA) 25,5
2. Raisman, Alexandra (USA) 25,4
3. Wieber, Jordyn (USA) 25,1
4. Komova, Viktoria (RUS) 24,9
5. Iordache, Larissa (ROU) 24,8
6. Mustafina, Aliya (RUS) 24,8
7. Price, Elizabeth (USA) 24,5
8. Finnegan, Sarah (USA) 24,5
9. Ross, Kyla (USA) 24,4
10. Maroney, Mckayla (USA) 24,2
Since FIG judges no longer discriminate (much) on execution, the D-scores list would be the one to look at closest.
… On the other hand, recall that Gabby Douglas was credited for Amanar at Pacific Rim when every small child and hotdog vendor in the arena saw only a Double Twisting Yurchenko.
On TAA list, Maroney has the highest score on Vault. Mustafina on Bars. Iordache on Beam. Raisman on Floor.
Big Fake Smile – The Patterson: a Breakdown
That post speculates that it’s easier to get a good take-off from back handspring than round-off.
Click PLAY or watch Komova’s on YouTube. (at 25sec)
She did not fall 2 of 3 Beam routines this weekend. With Patterson and double double off Bars, Vika’s fans will have plenty to worry about in London.
(via Aunt Joyce)
Jordyn Viktoria Yao Larisa Aliya Gabby Huang Kyla Anastasia
A terrific “competition” preview of some of the gymnasts likely to be fighting it out for an all-around medal in London.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (9min)
Brigid posted a rumour that Huang Qiushuang competed Amanar at a closed Chinese selection event.
The Chinese women’s gymnastics team was dealt a major blow on Thursday morning when four-time world champion Cheng Fei tore her Achilles tendon during a training session, rendering her unable to compete in the London Olympic Games. …
Team leader Ye Zhennan criticized the Games’ preference for high-difficulty routines, saying it’s the reason competitors get hurt more often.
… Ye wrote on his micro blog on Friday. “The development of the game’s difficulty has gone beyond the female athletes’ physical limits, causing a lot of injuries that will cut their careers shorts.”
Ye said FIG (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) should take Cheng’s injury seriously and revise its rules. …
Not surprisingly, it was triple twist on Floor. Extreme ankle dorsiflexion.
She’s smiling. Click PLAY or watch Cheng from her hospital bed on YouTube.
Seems it takes a serious injury to a major player to get any attention from mainstream media. Gymnastics is dangerous. FIG’s new Code rewards most whomever has the highest start score. Many times that requires athletes to risk more dangerous routines.
I previously said there’s not much we can do to reduce Achilles injury. But perhaps I’m wrong. Here’s full commentary from Dr. Bill Sands on the topic:
I’m really sorry to see another ruptured Achilles tendon. Sadly, I do know the mechanism that causes these injuries …I have a presentation that I hope to do at the USECA meeting at Congress. The research involving two types of springs is complete. One equipment company has taken the information and redesigned their floor due to the results that I shared with them some months ago.
Achilles tendon ruptures have occurred on foam and spring floors, so it’s not the spring system alone that “causes” the problem. And, herein lies much of the complexity. Again sadly, Achilles tendon ruptures are due to the interaction of “worn” connective tissues from the triceps surae group (e.g. too much training with insufficient recovery), concentration of forces in one of the bundles of connective tissues in the tendon (from Bruggemann, anatomical loading factors), foot position (increased pronation) during takeoff (athletes generally don’t take off symmetrically), and the way the spring floors recoil and move during a take off (causing sudden increased stretch of the triceps surae complex).
Interestingly, I had the first American girl to do a full-in on floor exercise (Christa Canary, I know ancient history) and she did it on two inches of ethafoam over concrete (I’m so old there were no spring floors then). In fact, with a lengthy list of excellent tumblers – I never had a single Achilles tendon rupture. However, we monitored training repetitions of skills very closely using (then) very primitive computers. In my view, there needs to be a paradigm shift in thinking to “preserve the skeleton and connective tissue while training the muscle.” Of course, there are a variety of ways to do this, but monitoring is crucial.
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1. Sands WA. National women’s tracking program pt. 2 – response. Technique. 1990;10(1):23-7.
2. Sands WA. Fragen zum training der nationalmannschaft der US-Junioren (Frauen) im kunstturnen. In: Gohner U, editor. Leistungsturnen im kindesalter. Stuttgart, Germany: Internationaler Turnerbund (FIG) und das Organisationskomitee Weltmeisterschaften im Kunstturnen Stuttgart 1989; 1990. p. 81-96.
3. Sands WA. Monitoring the elite female gymnast. National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal. 1991;13(4):66-71.
4. Sands WA. Monitoring elite gymnastics athletes via rule based computer systems. Masters of Innovation III. Northbrook, IL: Zenith Data Systems; 1991. p. 92.
5. Sands WA. AI and athletics. PC AI. 1992;6(1):52-4.
6. Sands WA. How can coaches use sport science? Track Coach. 1995;134(winter):4280-3.
7. Sands WA. Monitoring power. In: Bardy BG, Pozzo T, Nouillot P, Tordi N, Delemarche P, Ferrand C, et al., editors. Actes des 2Šmes Journ‚es Internationales d’Etude de l’AFRAGA. Univerist‚ de Rennes, Rennes, France: L’Association Fran‡aise de Recherche en Activit‚s Gymniques et Acrobatiques (A.F.R.A.G.A.); 2000. p. 102.
8. Sands WA, editor. Monitoring gymnastics training. 3èmes Journées Internationales d’Etude de l’AFRAGA; 2002 7-9 November 2002
2002; Lille, France. Lille, France: AFRAGA.
9. Sands WA, Henschen KP, Shultz BB. National women’s tracking program. Technique. 1989;9(4):14-9.
10. Sands WA, Shultz BB, Newman AP. Women’s gymnastics injuries. A 5-year study. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 1993;21(2):271-6.
11. Sands WA, Stone MH. Are you progressing and how would you know? Olympic Coach. 2006;17(4):4-10.
12. Sands WA, Stone MH. Monitoring the elite athlete. Olympic Coach. 2006;17(3):4-12.
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Interestingly, I co-hold a patent on a device to prevent extreme ankle dorsiflexion. Feel free to look it up and see if it might help your athletes. The device was required for some of my former gymnasts.Patent Number #4,227,321. Device called the “Safe-T-Strap” designed to prevent extreme ankle dorsiflexion in gymnasts and other athletes.
————————————————————-I’ve been studying the spring floor now since about 1994, and even back then the old 2 inch spring floor showed the same problems. I will be submitting the results and manuscript for publication after Olympic Trials. The work includes high-speed video (500-2000 Hz), Vicon kinematics (200 Hz), and the accumulation of work from myself and others for almost 20 years.
Certainly, considerably more research remains to be done. I believe I know the mechanism, but then comes the hard part, how to change apparatuses to reduce or eliminate this problem.
Modeling is going to be needed, and my ability to do that level of work is very limited (I’m a physiologist, although most seem to think I’m a biomechanist). I hope that Maurice Yeadon, Peter Bruggemann, and Jeroen Van der Eb, along with the FIG Scientific Committee will take up this issue. This work is long overdue, and current means and methods of certifying a spring floor are pretty good for engineering, but do nothing to look at the athlete-apparatus interactions. I’ve been preaching this for almost 20 years now. But, then again, who listens to me.
We do, Doc.
Thanks for your work ongoing.
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