Monday, July 20, 2009

She Did a What In The Where Now?

International Gymnast, covering the Japan Cup, wrote:
New Australian national champion Lauren Mitchell fell off from the beam on a flip flop, flip flop, layout full. On Saturday, it was obvious after her second flip flop she would fall. On Sunday the direction was a bit better on the skill, but it was still off, and it led her to fall again at the same point. However, she showed a good floor exercise and received applause from the audience.
Buh?
Snuh?
Guh?

Could this be for real? Or could it just be typo and they meant... well, something other than "full"? Mind you, confusing 'layout full twist' with 'layout to two feet' is a big stretch.

She didn't attempt this particular skill at Nats, and we know she had problems with just a normal ff-ff-layout series so I am surprised she'll have pulled it out here. Particularly with all the twisting trouble we've heard she had after her injury and what it's taken to get a new beam repertoire happening. I am intrigued by this apparent new development.

Hm...
Would love for a WA insider to confirm.

Meanwhile... photos!


13 comments:

nade00 said...

It's madness! I can't believe how much they are pushing difficulty all of a sudden. I'll eat my words if she hits at worlds, but I kinda feel this is maybe taking it a little too far. It doesn't seem she is proficient with this routine. I think you always need to go for balance, and while in past we perhaps didn't push a-scores enough, this is an extreme push in the other direction.

Anonymous said...

I think she can do the full it's geting other things credited that she'll struggle with. I'ld rather see her do a run into a front tuck back tuck combo instead of her front pike that has some serious problems. Her front aerial front tuck has an inbuilt deduction of her landing in a deep squat so the 0.1 connection value is negated. She usually wobbles on the aerial anyway because she's trying to maintain forward momentum. She'll struggle to get her switch ring credited as is so even if she does the back tuck out of it she might not get anything for it.

She runs the risk of having her layout crdited as a pike and losing heaps of connection value, especially since she does a switch pike combo. Even if it gets downgraded to a pike full or tuck full she won't lose further connections.

nade00 said...

The front pike was really dodgy. She warmed it up beautifully on the floor so I was surprised to see it look so poor during the routine. Unless she works on it she has no hope of getting it credited.

Anonymous said...

I hope Lauren does well at worlds and I know difficulty is very important but there is no point in her having a really difficult beam routine if she can't stay on it. There is still 3 months for it to improve but a lot still needs to be done.
To do well at worlds she has to hit twice and she has fallen four out of five times she has done this routine.

Anonymous said...

Lauren has just come back from injury. She hasn't competed against anyone except herself, since last year, until Nationals. She hits these skills consistantly in training and will be competition ready by worlds or I think she will change the routine. She is obviously going for it, taking some chances, which may or may not pay off. I say good on her. I'm certain the flip flip layout full means what we saw at Nationals, not a full twist. That would be crazy wouldn't it? I haven't seen anything like that in training and it's hard enough as it is! One thing is for sure, the WAIS coaches know how to prepare their athletes, and one way or another, Lauren will be ready, IMHO.

Anonymous said...

It could finally solve the mystery of the 7.2 that Peggy Liddick was apparently talking about. With all the connections I saw in the nationals videos, that was only a possible maximum 6.9 by my calculations, when they were all hit. Plus, I wouldn't have thought International Gymnast would make an error like that, I thought they were very reliable? In gyms I've been in nobody ever calls a layout to 2 feet a layout full, a layout full is clearly a layout with a full twist.

Anonymous said...

I think its great she's going for the high difficulty but these things take time to perfect and she'll have to be really putting everything into her beam between now and worlds if she wants to stay on. But in the scheme of the quad and on the way to London - it doesn't matter so much whether this is ready by worlds... in a year or two it'll definitely be ready and solid by London which I suspect might be her long term goal.

Anonymous said...

The IG article was written by the same people who are writing on the Japan Cup website, most of it is word for word and this is the byline; Written by Ayako Murao and Kaori Miyaura for International Gymnast Magazine.
Certainly a translation error. No way would Lauren compete flip flip layout full without testing it at Nationals.

Nic said...

Poor Lauren,
Its a lot of expectations on her for worlds, everyone's pushing for this beam routine. It's alot of pressure for a 17 soon to be 18 year old girl.

mistysakura said...

Just read the Japanese report. It says regular layout there. Translation:

Rotation 1
Mitchell VT: 1 1/2 Yurchenko. Not stuck (that's all it says, don't know if it was a shuffle or ten steps)

Greeley UB: hits the stalder full-giant-Gienger she missed on Day 1.

Rotation 2
Mitchell UB: Lost balance on transition to low bar. Large jump after double front dismount.

Greeley BB: Bent knees on layout. Sits down 2.5 twist dismount.

Rotation 3
Mitchell BB: Same as yesterday, fall on flic-flic-layout.

Greeley FX: An overall solid performance.

Rotation 4
Mitchell FX: (description of routine) stuck double pike dismount.

Greeley VT: 1.5TY, bent knees, hop on landing.

Oh yeah, and the report from team finals while I'm at it:

UB: Greeley has large pause on top of bar on stalder full, while Miller and Mitchell complete their routines easily.

BB: Coley falls on layout. Greeley hits front aerial-switch leap-back tuck. Mitchell falls.

FX: Coley falls on front layout-front layout full.

VT: Coley, Greeley and Mitchell all compete 1.5TY successfully.

Mez said...

Thanks, Misty, I guess it was just lost in translation.

Anyone know if Fiona hit floor at Nationals? Because she flubbed it both days at Vics, and it appears a similar case here.

Anonymous said...

coley does not do a yur 1 1/2 nor does greeley perform a stalder.

mistysakura said...

My bad, I meant clear hip full, not stalder full. It definitely says Coley did a Y1.5 though, which is weird.