Gymnastics Coaching.com

Alabama defeated Auburn. Again.

This was their 101st victory in a row against the SEC rival dating back to March 13, 1979.

… Who says the NCAA is boring and predictable?

… Coaches Sarah and David Patterson notched their 400th regular-season victory Friday night as the No. 7 ranked Alabama gymnastics team beat No. 21 Auburn 197.075-194.850 in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,075 fans in Coleman Coliseum Friday night.

… going 24-for-24 for the first time this season, and posting its high score of 2011. …

This is impressive since the team self destructed a week earlier vs #1 Florida.

… Friday marked the eighth time in program history that Alabama has sold out the Coliseum ….

Prior to the meet the A-Club, the UA athletic department’s letter-winners organization, announced the donation of $50,000 to establish the Sarah Patterson A-Club Scholarship. …

Roll Tide

We don’t have to worry about Alabama terminating this team. They know how to bring in the fans and dollars.

Kayla Hoffman won the AA with 39.525

@samanthapeszek: Tonight was so much Fun! First time competing in a college meet! Can’t wait for more of this!

Click PLAY or watch her Bars on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/MzY3NDU2NzI0

Watch more video of 2011 Chicago Style College Session: UCLA, Stanford, and OSU on gymnastike.org

9.90 with a big step. Welcome to the NCAA.

Tight competition.

Stanford 196.475
Oregon State 196.35
UCLA 196.3

… Four Bruins took home first-place finishes, with Frattone winning vault (9.9), Peszek and Hopfner-Hibbs tying with three others for first on bars (9.9), and Courtney tying for first on floor (9.9). UCLA claimed the highest team totals on vault (49.2), bars (49.275) and beam (48.975, tied with Stanford). …

UCLA Bruins

Oklahoma went 197.225 away at Iowa State.

The season is building nicely. Teams are improving, counting very few falls.

But – as Aunt Joyce keeps pointing out – there is a lack of ‘star’ power this year.

All times are PST

Gymnastics Online

Sunday, February 13; 5:40am – 4:30pm (Women’s Team Event)
Monday, February 14; 7:40am – 4:40pm (Men’s Team Event)
Tuesday, February 15; 1:30pm – 4:45pm (Women’s All Around)
Wednesday, February 16; 2:10pm – 5:25pm (Men’s All Around)
Thursday, February 17; 7:40am – 5:10pm (Event Finals)

Online Coverage

Thanks @GlacierGym and Gymnastics BC

This looks official. And devastating for the guys.

Women’s Gymnastics is being kept. The Men’s team dropped after this season.

… Three athletic teams at the University of California, Berkeley, slated to cease intercollegiate competition at the end of this academic year – women’s lacrosse, women’s gymnastics and rugby – will be preserved, campus officials announced today (Friday, Feb. 11).

New philanthropic commitments will support the teams’ expenses while plans are implemented for long-term financial self-sufficiency. …

… it was determined that the pledges for baseball and men’s gymnastics fell short of the criteria provided to potential donors: sufficient funding to support team expenses for the next seven to 10 years and the presentation of a feasible plan for sustained financial independence. …

UC Berkeley

Of course the real reason the women’s teams were saved is Title IX.

… Is there any chance to appeal?

by site editor Rick McCharles

When the International Gymnastics Federation moved from the perfect 10 to an open ended Code of Points in 2006, I feared it would be a complete disaster.

I was wrong.

But everyone agrees that the new system could be far better. Here’s my assessment of how it’s working as of February 2011. … As compared with the regulations used at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. (10.0 maximum)

I’m liking Rings, Parallel Bars and especially Pommel Horse even better than I did under the last perfect 10 system. (In fact, the only way I can see to improve Pommels would be to eliminate the Scissors, requiring instead some counting value part with the legs straddled. … i.e. Scissors, straddle to handstand, Flair Flare.)

Women’s Vault, Bars and Men’s Vault are about equally good as in 2004. I would rate Bars as even better … except that today gymnasts tend to overuse the families of skills they do best. (El-grip, pirouettes, etc.)

The choppy Beam routines we see today are worse than the more elegant routines of the past, but I’m less critical than most pundits.

My least favourite apparatus for women in 2004 was Floor. It’s worse today. Choreography has been nearly completely abandoned. Many of the most valuable leaps and jumps are ugly.

Men’s Floor is a disaster in 2011. Amazing tumbling. The rest is crap.

Compare Shewfelt in 2004 (VIDEO) vs Jake Dalton 2011 (VIDEO) to see what the rules changes have done. (I pick on Jake only because his is the hot routine of the moment. And because there’s so obviously no effort spared for connections.)

Worst of all is Horizontal Bar. In 2004 we had Hamm and Nemov (VIDEO). Wonderful routines. Today we have mostly reckless Kovacs variations and Rybalkos. … I did only go as low as 4 / 10 because we’re starting to see some improvement on pipe. Finally.

Will the rules (and gymnastics) be improved in the future?

Certainly. But how soon?

I don’t know anyone with much confidence in our current Technical committees under Adrian Stoica and Nellie Kim.

If YOU know how to fix the code, leave a comment. I’ll try to forward whatever feedback we get to the committees.

It’s statistically unlikely you agree with my assessment. I may do follow up posts on the most controversial events if we get good feedback.

Gymnastics Examiner linked to the video of Mykayla from last weekend at Fiesta Bowl:

The Amanar Club just keeps getting bigger.

It’s newest member is Arizona’s MyKayla Skinner, who successfully landed the 2.5 twisting Yurchenko vaultt …

She’s 14 (born Dec. 9, 1996, making her just barely old enough to be eligible for the 2012 Olympics), and trains at Desert Lights in Arizona. …

Continue reading on Examiner.com – Mykayla Skinner’s Amanar, and why it matters

Click PLAY or watch all 4 apparatus on YouTube.

Another slight, light girl doing Amanar. That’s impressive. Komova impressive.

She competes an easy standing 1/1 on Beam and double double on Floor, too. … She’s competed the double double in 2010. (VIDEO)

Unfortunately her Bars are not at the international level. And active flexibility is lacking.

Blythe points out that if Mykayla can do Amanar on a concrete floor, how much easier is it going to be on podium?

Who will be the first to successfully compete triple?

Couch Gymnast is all about personality.

Here’s another must read post by Brigid reminding us of great Soviet gymnasts past:

Irina Baraksanova, for example:

While many remember Olga Mostepanova being pulled from the all-around competition in 1985, they often forget talented Irina Baraksanova was also unceremoniously yanked from the AA finals.

Despite placing third behind Yurchenko and Mostepanova, Irina was pulled alongside Mostepanova in order for both Shushunova and Omeliantchik to be included in the three-per-country AA competition. ….

Click PLAY or watch her Floor on YouTube.

Discussion point: Had the coaches not interfered, could Mostepanova and Baraksanova achieved the same as their team mates and gone 1-2 in the AA?

I was there at World Championships in Montreal. We were outraged that the USSR declared Mostepanova and Baraksanova “injured”, replacing them with the next 2 girls in their lineup.

… When the two replacements tied for the AA title, Shushanova and Omeliantchik, the Soviet coaches seemed vindicated.

But I suspect Mostepanova and Baraksanova would have finished Gold and Silver, as well.

At the time I felt Omeliantchik was easily the weakest on the powerhouse team. But she was the darling of the meet for her Floor routine (VIDEO).

Click over to Couch Gymnast for photos and videos of these other greats:

Aleftina Priakhina
Olga Strazheva
Armine Barutian
Svetlana Baitova
Irina Baraksanova
Elena Gurova
Elena Naimushina
Svetlana Zasyspkina
Natalia Frolova
Svetlana Grosdova

related Couch Gymnast post – From the archive… the tale of the two broken dolls.

Svetlana Zasypkina and Maria Zasypkina

IG2 – What are your plans for the 2012 Olympics?

Paul – Well the plan is to be there and be healthy.

IG2 – Do you have any steps you are going to take to make sure that happens and make sure you don’t have any more injuries?

Paul – Well this recovery is about 6 months, so probably by the fall I’ll be back in top shape. Injury is always a concern with a gymnast, and especially as you’re aging, so the only thing I can do is really design routines that I think are doable as far as getting through them on a regular basis, without too much wear and tear on my body. Maybe not pushing that extra little bit to get a tenth or two in start value, but focusing more on a solid routine that I can perform well and limit the execution errors. …

Inside Gymnastics has an interview detailing the injuries he’s had since a broken hand took him out of the 2008 Olympics.

GymNiceTic has an update on the (still confusing) new FIG World Cup Gymnastics meets:

… invited are the eight finalists on each apparatus from Rotterdam and the four best gymnasts from the 2010 World Cup Ranking List.

… The host country may nominate one gymnast (one male & one female) who competes with a ‘Wild Card’ ….

For example, here’s the start list on Bars for the World Cup in Paris, March 19-20th.

From prelims, only 4 go to Finals. The winner pockets 3000 CHF, about $3160.

There’s much more on that GymNiceTic post – FIG World Cup 2011 / Paris