Friday, October 15, 2010
Worlds, American Style
Highlights from the American men's podium training.
Martha had no choice but to keep Bridget Sloan from defending her World AA Title after she was crashing her double twisting yurchenko in podium training. Anne the Pollyanna from Gymnastike is surprised by this, but the rest of us could've seen this coming. Chelsea Davis, long suspected to be the alternate, made it official by being carried off the floor mat after dislocating her knee cap. Davis already had her leg wrapped above and below her knee. She was able to walk out of the arena by herself and could still be subbed in to do bars in Team Finals after Sloan bombs her routine in prelims. The team competes at 9 AM on Sunday (Rotterdam time) which is another excuse for our girls to look less than stellar. Caquatto was shown having her hamstring wrapped after podium training. She has been dealing with the issue for several weeks and looked fine during yesterday's training session.
It is important to note how thin these bitches are looking. They have had 3-4 works of starvation and two-a-days. Martha requires 3-5 bar routines a practice, two practices a day. They do take some hard landings, but one must admit that these girls looked as prepared as they've ever looked during yesterday's training session.
The Lineup:
Vault – Bross, Larson, Caquatto, Raisman and Sacramone;
Uneven bars – Raisman, Larson, Sloan, Caquatto and Bross
Balance beam – Caquatto, Larson, Raisman, Sacramone and Bross
Floor exercise – Caquatto, Sloan, Bross, Raisman and Larson.
The Ladies worked beam under Martha's watchful eye yesterday:
Team Tumbling
Mattie Larson had a stronger floor routine, but her third pass is still causing us all to have abdominal issues. Queen Nastia looked gorgeous cheering her on.
Sloan looked useful on floor until her third pass, which she didn't even attempt in her podium training routine.
Aly Raisman's artistic masterpiece
Macko Caquatto is the thinnest she's ever look.
Bridget Sloan's moment of truth on bars
I want whatever Rebecca Bross is eating.
Why Macko is on the team
Steve Legendre looked mighty solid on vault:
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How many years has this been going on??? It's like clockwork. Martha always overworks the crap out of these girls, to the point of exhaustion and severe injury, and then we wondered why our team (what's left of it) looks like crap right before competition. She has no concept of the word "pacing."
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don't think we can blame Marta for Chelsea's injury. She's been having knee trouble for years. I think this was just bad timing for her. So unfortunate too because I thought this was going to be a great year for Chelsea. At least she'll be good for the gymdogs.
ReplyDeleteNot a surprise that Sloan is out of the all around considering her vault disaster, but I am pretty surprised they're putting Macko up over Sloan on beam. I think Sloan's competitive instinct would make her a better choice there.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'd never really paid attention to Caquatto's floor, but I don't think that those split leaps and jumps were convincing enough to escape deduction from the international judges.
Have you ever seen Sloan on beam?
ReplyDeleteNot to be snarky back at you, but have you ever seen Caquatto? That "I'm about to cry" look that she sports half the time seems most prominent on beam, and, well, she doesn't usually stay on. I'm not saying Sloan's beam is currently tops--quite the opposite in fact--but in a pressure situation I would have more faith in her to pull it together and deliver.
ReplyDeleteIs it too much to ask for some innovative or artistic choreography? Except for Mattie, those routines are cringeworthy!
ReplyDeleteMattie is really starting to flail her arms.
ReplyDeleteI am overwhelmed by the number of training videos! The access people have this year is just unprecedented. Thank you so much for linking to all of them.
ReplyDeleteThe US team has the best mix of execution, difficulty, and consistency right now. Russia is the more talented team, but their consistency issues will keep the door open.
I imagine Macko is going on beam over Sloan just to get her in the AA. I think Marta is set on having Larson, Macko, and Raisman duking it out for an AA spot because depending on the day, all of them could beat each other.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not Sloan does beam is irrelevant. She wouldn't be needed for TF, so might as well put Macko up there for AA purposes
Macko looks great. I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality and execution of her FX.
ReplyDeleteShe also really reminds me of ASac on FX, her style and music choice.
ReplyDeletePounds off of Macko have improved her tumbling. That's the reason for losing weight. Not some waif gay supermodel rationale. But I repeat myself. "Bitches".
ReplyDeleteGirls look pretty professional and eye of the tiger. Marta does do that well. Though, the way we ding people up, we ought to just spend the money and bring another alternate. Every big meet.
Guys look loose and motivated. Liking it.
Think we can give the Euro/coms competition on both sides of the house. USA is in the fight. "Bitches".
Sloan's first two tumbling passes actually look great. When healthy, there is no doubt she is a top floor worker in the country right now. She's just not in optimal shape, which is a shame, but I do think she's usable on this team.
ReplyDeleteHoly Mother of Jesus you're right, the entire team is the thinnest I've ever seen them.
ReplyDeleteLet's start w/ Alicia - The notorious Brick House. She looks thinner than she did in Beijing and got there without losing any power. Idk what Martha is feeding the girls at the ranch, but I'm impressed with how great of shape she's in. Bridget - Who was starting to gain womanly weight has managed to keep it off for another run at the Olympics. Not that she looked bad, but she's back to muscly rather than shapely. Better for the sport, maybe not a swimsuit. Macko - She's probably the stockiest of the team and even she got way down to size. Raisman - a compact cutie is now looking taller and slimmer. Bross - Always in shape. Mattie - Thin as a rail since she stepped on the scene.
Is this healthy that they are all so small? Or would they just say "in shape"?
Caliper them. This should not be so hard to figure out. High school and NCAA wrestling teams do it all the time. It's a normal part of training science. Considering all the money spent on coaching, equipment, travel, etc. getting some proper (trained) PT to do body fat testing by calipering is a no brainer.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the girls look fine (not dangerous). Jana could have been competitive too if she would only have gotten on the diet plan. It's not even something that needs to be kept hard core all the time (although never a reason to slip to McCool shape). But a consistent reasonable BF% and then a taper while peaking, makes sense.
Horton dropped his BF as well.
I saw a guy in college, who could never get it done on rings and was struggling to stay in the lineup on enough events. He dropped a few pounds and it did the trick. He could hold a cross for that stupid 2 seconds. Made a big difference and he ended up being team captain. It's a tool to use. Look at the elite distance runners or cyclists. weight is an issue that affects performance negatively.
I also saw one girl in college gym go anorexic. It is a danger (although more girls struggle with overweight than the latter). however, if youg get too light eventually you lose power and performance drops. I've seent that cylce as well.
The girls are fine and dropping the weight was smart. For athletic reasons. Not aesthetics. God I hate that crap of how they look, rather than how they perform...
Jonathan's so cocky, it's sexy.
ReplyDeleteJonathan's that way when he competes, but he's nothing like that in person. Total sweetheart. Dumb as a box of hair, but sweet.
ReplyDelete