Wednesday, March 2, 2011
This and That
Workout Wednesday with Jordyn Wieber, Kami Moore and Grace Williams a week prior to the American Cup/Nastia Cup weekend. Jordyn looks prepared to contend for the title again. With Mustafina competing in her first warm up for Europeans, I wouldn't be shocked to see Jordyn take the title and have lots of newspaper articles and media attention come her way for defeating the World Champion. I do question her coach's decision to only work on a few upgrades for 2012...even before she competes at the World Championships. So much could change between now and then. Planning on stagnating is never good, especially when your competitors are miles ahead on bars and will be even more ahead by the Games.
Serena Williams suffered a pulmonary embolism and a hematoma. Serena hopes to be back by early summer.
Aly Raisman is planning on competing an Arabian Double Pike on floor and an Amanar on vault at this weekend's American Cup. With plenty of meets under her belt, she is quickly becoming one of Martha's reliable mules.
Mattie Larson caught up with Universal Sports. Sadly, they don't ask her about Worlds. Mattie has missed a few days of training, but seems to be committed to making a run at 2012.
Shayla Worley has kidney stones and may likely miss this weekend's meet, or at least be limited in her participation against UCLA. Having the meet on Sunday gives her an extra few days to recover, but she is losing numbers in the gym yet again.
Nansy Damianova feature.
Sui and Han have a slim lead over Takahashi and Tran at Junior Worlds. Stolbova and Klimov are third after the short.
Monko and Khaliavin have a five-point lead after the short dance over Pushkash and Guerreiro. Lichtman and Copely are third. Cannuscio and McManus are currently fifth.
The DWTS match ups.
Routines in Training:
Jordyn Wieber
Grace Williams
Kami Moore
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The two US dance teams in the top 5 at Jr Worlds looked great in the short dance!
ReplyDeletethe floor routines make me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon.
ReplyDeleteI was so unexpectedly surprised by Jordyn's bars at WOGA Classic that I had hopes of something decent. But that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel for US floor choreo, and that's saying something.
I think the gymnasts in the Workout Wednesday video from geddert's are the only ones I've ever seen wearing leotards with the middle of the back cut out - is it supposed to keep them cooler or something?
ReplyDeleteI thought the EXACT same thing. It wasn't just a few of them, almost All of the girls had those cut out leos. I would think it would make spotting more difficult. With sweat on the back, couldn't your hand slip as a spot? Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteI have to assume that he misspoke about not doing anymore upgrades through 2012. In this very video, we see Jordyn working on an upgrade on beam (side aerial -back tuck, and didn't we hear about a hindorff at one point (she could also work towards upgrading one of her last 2 passes on floor). Maybe/hopefully he just meant 2011.
ReplyDeleteReally, if Jordyn can get those handstands up and consistently hit the combos on bars, that routine could be an asset to the US. A potential Wieber, Bross, Liukin lineup may not be too shabby.
Definitely your hand will slip if the kid is sweaty. More often though you could end up scratching someone on the back by accident.
ReplyDeleteWieber is still having balance checks on her turns and some of her leaps on beam... and there be lots o flexed feet in there too. Shame. If that's how it is in practice...
ReplyDeleteThe Raisman interview was pretty good. You kind of wish that Anne would read that shit and go "oh... THOSE are the kinds of questions I should ask... oh, and THAT'S how you follow up a question with another one." I'm still waiting for Anne to ask something completely stupid like "what's your favorite vegetable?... oh, that's really cool. who's your favorite disney princess? mine too. hahaha."
Just read the report from Am Cup podium training. Mustafina struggled big time on bars and was reportedly in tears. She and her coach left the arena w/o talking to reporters, even though its media day. Looks like she might be fallible after all...
ReplyDeleteOooo. Juicy. Maybe the ego effect is already in place. I hope not, but stranger things have happened. Mustafina must be feeling a tremendous amount of pressure. I'd rather see her withdraw than give a sub-par performance.
ReplyDeleteBut didn't she also have terrible warmups at Worlds??? I seem to remember her having some falls and tears during podium training.
When I watched that WW video the other day, I didn't even realize that was Kami! She looks sooooo different. Wow. Her 'injury' must be pretty frustrating since it's not really an 'injury' or something she can take time off and fix. All of their floor routines are blah. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteI must say Jordan looks pretty good. A few upgrades here and there (especially bars) would really help her, but coming off of injury, growing and taking some time off, she looks pretty good.
USAG has some pictures on FB of podium training and Mustafina looks uneasy.
Those leos with the hole started becoming popular in like 07. The IGI meet at Navy Pier has had that style for their meet leo for the past few years. My last year of gymnastics (04) was right around the time of all the different backs/straps etc. I think if a coach is worried about the leo/sweating getting in the way of spotting, the athlete is needing too big of a spot and possibly shouldn't be doing the skill anyways.
Just looked at the USAG pics...what's with Lauren Mitchell? She looks really different...I didn't even recognize her.
ReplyDeleteLauren has her bangs down. She clips them back for competition.
ReplyDeleteAnd the girls aren't wearing the heavy eye makeup and fake tans that have found their way into competition.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is usual not to upgrade a whole lot between the year before and the year of an Olympics. How many upgrades did Nastia, SJ, Cheng, or any other high level athlete have before the last Olympics?
ReplyDeleteOn FX alone, Nastia and Shawn both had significant changes to their routines between 2007 and 2008. Shawn ditched the double pike and added a whip-3/1 (MAJOR upgrade). Nastia upgraded to a front 1/1-2/1 (was just a layout-2/1... and again, big change in the physical difficulty) and she upgraded her 3rd to a back 1.5 to 1.5. Big changes that required more from the athletes. And, most importantly, they paid off.
ReplyDeleteWieber should upgrade the final pass to a full in and should do a front 1/1 out of the 2.5... at least. Her bars could do with some real pirouette work, but that's asking a lot. Her handstands out of giant fulls need some serious attention.
Oh yeah big changes one or two things each... Of course their are adjustments and a tweek hear and there.
ReplyDelete