Have a nice day everyone, whatever the weather.
I'm starting my day with the B-52's and ending it with some gymnastics news! With apologies to Dr Seuss, I really can't complain about that!
:)
Friday, November 27, 2009
Smile Time
Have a nice day everyone, whatever the weather.
I'm starting my day with the B-52's and ending it with some gymnastics news! With apologies to Dr Seuss, I really can't complain about that!
:)
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19 comments:
Happy birthday Mez, have a fabulous day.
happy schnappy birthday miss mez. enjoy yr day!
happy birthday Mex - does anyone now how much ticket prices to the AA at the AIS Arena are??
Only $5 for the IDP 5 and 6's, but I'm guessing more for the international session?
can anyone give a report from the IDP sessions? Who's looking good?
is anyone else here following aus-jpn? Things are looking a bit grim.
I missed the start and just logged on to see that Australia are already 7 points behind after only 2 rotations.
Very disappointing performance, when you consider that only 2 years ago we we beat China in a dual meet and easily beat Japan that same year even with barely any hit routines. The quality is just not there these days, and I don't know where it all went wrong.
3rd rotation better, only 5.575 behind now!
Australia lost by 9 points. I don't know how that can be seen as anything but disappointing. People need to pull their heads out of the clouds and realise that Australia is in serious danger of not qualifying a full team this quad. Winning gold at Commonwealths next year will certainly be a stretch at this rate.
GA looks mighty stupid after promoting this as some kind of tightly fought battle. It wasn't even close!
Disappointing, yes, especially the huge number of falls, but when do our athletes ever look good at national clubs? It's not exactly the time of year for them to be peaking. The Japanese team had their nationals last weekend so I'm not surprised they are all fit and competition ready.
As for the 'quality' I think the bunch of athletes we had coming into seniors in 2006 were exceptionally talented so it is not really a surprise that we are less strong this quad.
What exactly were you guys expecting? Lauren and Larrissa are the only ones who were in okay form and have adequete skills for a worlds team.
Lauren is not in the same form she was at worlds but she had had her TEE exams and media obligations to deal with so I was never expecting her to blow us away. She'll be in better shape for her meet in Japan in December.
Larrissa only did UB but she did add in her Adler. Given some time she could develop as more of an AAer. Being good on UB under this code is almost a must to be a good AAer.
Georgia B is still coming back from an injury so her scores were hardly shocking.
Fiona has been selected for a few events this year mainly because everyone else is injured/unable to go. I don't think she's ever going to be a legitimate choice for worlds or Comm Games barring the decimation of the entire Aus team to injury.
Georgia W and Emily are still juniors. Australia isn't exactly known for producing stellar juniors, more the slow and steady type. Give them time to compete and get more consistent. The D scores will come in time.
People seem quick to forget that our better gymnasts, like Dasha Shona and Emma, weren't at this comp. Japan fielded a team with its current strongest gymnasts, though Tsurumi only did BB and VT.
If we didn't have all the falls we did it would've been much closer. We need to finish outside the top 12 at the 2011 worlds to miss qualifying a full team at the Olympics. I don't see that happening. Remember after the 2007 worlds how people were saying we wouldn't make TF at the Olys? We finished 6th with out best gymnast only competeing one event and even that was below her usual standard. The top 12 countries haven't really changed that much. Sure there's been some movement amongst those countries, Japan is now seen as a bigger contender, but those 12 countries aren't really being pushed by a 13th country. North Korea and Canada are on the rise but Germany and Brazil are on the decline so it kind of balances out.
All that being said it was a disappointing event. We shouldn't have falls by half the team on every event. Shows that everyone was a bit ill prepared. I still hold hope for better things this quad. 2009 was not a good year in terms of the juniors who became seniors but 2010 and especially 2011 look like they could be so I'll reserve any judgements about Australia being doomed not to qualify a full team until then.
I think the concern is that Dasha is not coming back, Amber is more or less retired, Emma Dennis is MIA and always injured.
Emily/Britt/Fiona/Georgia W are all we've got to flesh out the team for next year, unless Mary-Anne and Zoe manage to stop being constantly injured also.
Georgia B also has developed new ankle problems, so could retire anytime soon.
So basically, yes, this is the best team we've got right now, and for 2010, and that's a little scary. Not only do the newer athletes lack difficulty, but lets face it, they have none of the polish, presentation, form and style that past Australian gymnasts have had either.
Is it really such a surprise that we don't have a strong team of "newer" athletes?. GA seem doomed to repeat their pattern of putting all their eggs in one ( or two) baskets, ignoring everyone else and then crying when they burn out or injure their stars.
They clearly choose their future stars early and pour huge amounts of their limited resources into them. These athletes are groomed and selected for everything to give them "experience" whilst plenty of talented gymnasts wait in the wings or get sick of being left on the sidelines and quit. Not great motivation there.
Inevitably, the stars are continuously injured as they are pushed so hard to achieve all that has been planned out for them.
GA has no choice but to keep selecting clearly injured kids to events/sqauds/camps or risk eating humble pie.
Eventually it all breaks down, the stars retire or simply can't compete and all the underprepared athletes who have had no resources expended on them have to step in to roles they have not been prepared for. Some may become the new "heros" and stars and become the next generation of over exposed athletes for a couple of years if they are lucky.
Our country is not so huge that we should be excluding any of our talent pool. Give them all a shot, encourage and include them all and wait and see who develops at what stage.
Maybe an overhaul of how our elite institutions do business is not a bad thing after all.
A lot hinges on Mary-Anne and Zoe. I think they have the most international appeal of all the 1994 girls and if they can sufficiently recover and have usable d-scores next year then they would be a huge asset. I think they would have the edge over a less-polished and more boring athlete with similar DV in selection. Fingers crossed for both of them, because they are too pretty and talented to lose.
Can anyone see Ash B or Naomi being an asset in the future, like even as apparatus specialists??
Who is Ash B? And do you mean Naomi Lee?
Ashleigh Brennan? Naomi Russell?
Apparently Naomi Russell's training is tepping up a notch and going better these days. She has been working at it for some months now I think. I really hope to see her around next year or in 2011. I have so much admiration for her and the sacrifices she's made and the work she's put in.
I don't think Ash Brennan will be back. She was considering a comeback as an event specialist I think but realises you don't get much attention unless you're an AAer and plus, what exactly would she specialise on? I loved her BB and FX, but is she exceptional exceptional there? I'd like to see her come back either way as I'm a big fan, but I have my doubts.
MaryAnne Monckton fully plans to come back fighting fit I believe and I think she will be reliable and a main player for the rest of this quad once she recovers from her surgery. Her love for the sport is unwavering - it's so inspiring.
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