Saturday, August 25, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About This Blog
The Australian Gymnastics Blog: A gymnastics news and commentary space for fans at home and around the world.
Tip your editor Meredith at ozgymblog@gmail.com.
Log in using Google or OpenID to leave comments. Cheers.
This blog wishes, with all sincerity, to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people; the original and ongoing owners of the land upon which this author lives and upon which these words are collated.
Tip your editor Meredith at ozgymblog@gmail.com.
Log in using Google or OpenID to leave comments. Cheers.
This blog wishes, with all sincerity, to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people; the original and ongoing owners of the land upon which this author lives and upon which these words are collated.
50 comments:
Happy birthday Chloe, can't wait to see you out there for Australia!
Agreed! Does anyone have updates on her or Dasha?
I would love 2013 worlds to be Sims/Joura/Simpson and then one of Donald/Brown! i.e Simpson and Sims AA, then Donald BB and Joura FX/UB.
2013 worlds is not a team event. But otherwise I agree, it would be awesome to see Georgia, Dasha and Chloe in action.
i know it's not a team event...hence why i listed two AAers and two event specialists, since only 3 can compete on any event.
fI agree - would love to see Simpson, Sims, Doura and Donald at next year's worlds.
Ok I see. I don't know what the format is just that it isn't a team event. How many athletes can go? Is it just 3 per apparatus? Is there an AA conp?
I know I sound stupid but why isn't it a teams event?
There is just AA and EF. Each country sends 4 girls. I think it is correct as someone mentioned earlier that only 3 can compete on each event in prelims, so you would probably have your two all arounders and two specialists sharing the events. From memory in 2009 we had Mitchell and Morgan as AAers and Miller and Bonora trying to make EFs only. There could therefore definitely be spaces for Joura, Donald and Sims if they can pimp up their best events. They wouldn't have to worry about team contributions.
Of course, for me it would be the ultimate to see Dasha make and medal in a floor final at worlds with that awesome routine. I hope she keeps the faith and keeps at it because that exercise deserves to be seen!
oh and presumably why they don't have a team event is simply to give countries time to rebuild after the Olympics, which usually comes with many retirements. They had a team worlds in 2001 but even China couldn't field a full team.
Ok well this being the case my wish list is;
Little and Sims AA and both doing 2 vaults!
Donald BB (does she have another event?)
Joura VT (with a second vault), UB & FX
Simpson UB & BB (beautiful floor but having been injured twice doing it I wish she would focus on UB & BB)
I know that is five but I can't make up my mind! Any of the above would be awesome! All of these girls have the potential to make a final - how good would that be!
What about Miller on bars and floor. I think I heard she wants to continue, she was unfortunately injured during Olympics and unable to show her beautiful floor routine. She also has some new skills that were just not ready for her bar routine, she could get that up around the 6.5 mark.
Ummmmmm are we all giving up on Mitchell now? She hasn't been mentioned once!!!
No one's given up on Mitchell - if she maintains her level and wants to be there I think it is a given. I think people are just getting excited about some of those we weren't able to see at the Olympics who also show a lot of promise. Personally I don't see Lauren continuing past the end of this year but who knows? It would be handy for her to continue for another 2 years until some of the 98 girls are senior and some of the others are ready to step up.
Nade, China did not send a full team to 2001 worlds because it clashed with the Chinese national games. The provinces/coaches make money off success at this event, the girl who competed (sun Xiaojiao) was from a small province who had no shot/political pull.
For me Miller needs to improve her bars and show she is actually a specialist there. She has steadily declined on that event since 2009, and her e-scores have been dreadful, in the 7s at the Olympics for a 'hit' routine. She has barely cracked 14 internationally for quite a while now. She was beaten by Mitchell on bars in Tokyo, and only placed 29th in London.
Things like bent arms etc need to go if she wants to score better. She even scored lower than the Romanians in execution there. I would be more inclined to take Chloe who has a similar d-score.
It's not only her fault, it's plainly obvious at domestic meets that Peggy gets her held up in the scores. Remember at 2011 worlds trials when they scored her like over 15.0 on bars and she scored nearly a full point lower for a hit routine at the actual comp.
i think australia is on a decline, im worried by 2016 we will be fighting sri lanka and oceana for the sole individual place at the oylmpics
Find something else to worry about. Programs all over Australia have been preparing for 2012 for the last 6 years. We don't have quantity but we do have quality. There are some very talented girls in the 2016 group. Several world class possibilities in fact as well as a few standout talents from this quad who are yet to realise their potential.
Yes, but can they vault more than a FTY??
I know that a certain junior has started perfecting her DTY and has started practicing an Amanar. Will be interesting to see her in the next 6 months or so.
Good on her! Hopefully a few more will follow in her footsteps.
Yay for that certain junior! I hope she's having a marvellous time throwing herself around, AND staying safe! You go girl! :-)
What junior ate u talking about?
we just might be a little stronger on vault this quad, pretty much all the 1997ers and 1998ers already have strong Y fulls.
I have a lot of faith in Tamika Jones. Clean, d-scores over 5 on every event including a 5.6 on bars, and not senior till 1998.
This quad we can't afford to carry athletes who simply can't be used on bars or vault. It was a bit of a let down for us last quad.
she was senior in 1998? Isn't she getting a bit old then ;)
lol at Bob.
Nade00 said: 'This quad we can't afford to carry athletes who simply can't be used on bars or vault. It was a bit of a let down for us last quad.'
Totally agree.
Why have we produced better gymnasts on beam and floor and not bars and vault?
I think it is because bars and vault both require special attributes - to vault you need a lot of power - to swing bars you either need a lot of power (tweddle) or the typical body type and a natural swing. Any gymnast with a reasonable amount of both of these things can become good at beam and floor with enough work. Lauren is a classic example of this. You don't need to be super strong and powerful to build difficulty on beam and floor. There are a lot more options when it comes to building difficulty on floor and beam also. Bars you either need to be really good at pirouettes or releases. Vault you just need to be explosive. Occasionally you find a gymnast who is the whole package. Dasha, Holly, Chloe come to mind.
My 2 cents worth.
True, doesn't really answer the question
Well I think it goes a fair way towards answering it. Because fewer girls/ population have the "special attributes" required to excel at bars and vault in any one cycle you are going to have fewer girls who have the ability to be world class at vault and bars than have the ability to be world class at beam or floor. I don't think we had anyone last cycle except maybe MAM and Chloe and Dasha who have the ability to be great at vault and bars. Also, Nikki Chung shows promise as they are her best events. Emily Little might have been able to do something special on vault but we so desperately needed her as an AA maybe she hasn't had time. Countries like the US and Russia basically don't have to look at anyone seriously who doesn't really have the attributes to be great on at least one of bars or vault. China is a little like us in that they struggle to find vaulters - national body type maybe?
I don't think this is the whole story but it is a big part of why we do better in beam and floor - they are easier to do well at!
Tamika Jones hasn't been at training for over 2 months and is apparently having a lot of fun out of the gym. Does anyone know if she will return to gym? It is such a huge loss.
Just speculation but it may have been coaches not treating her very well !
Speculation can be VERY VERY destructive.
Please be mindful if this discussion is going to continue.
Question: August 28, 2012 4:32 PM
Why have we produced better gymnasts on beam and floor and not bars and vault?
Answer: I think we need to look at the current IDP 1 – 8 compulsory program to answer this question.
What is the main objective/s of the compulsory program? What “body type” of gymnast is successful in competing in this stream? What type/standard of gymnasts is it producing? Is it catering to certain body types that are better beam workers? If we didn’t have this compulsory program and followed an American like system what situation would our country be in?
If I had a very powerful gymnast (Emily Little like) how successful would she be in the current or preceding compulsory programs? Would I be right in saying that a more flexible/elegant (not so powerful) gymnast would be scored higher especially in IDP 6 & 8 with all the flexibility skills required and the unnecessary dance on floor?
I think this program needs to be look and revised if we want different outcomes.
How does it reward extremely powerful kids coming through the ranks? I fear that these are the kids that could become our next top vaulters but because the IDP 1 – 8 program is not rewarding them maybe they leave the sport. Do we need to do away with the compulsory programs and let gymnasts focus on their natural strengths from a younger age? Would this help with encouraging bigger numbers?
Just my 2 cents…..
Anon at 11:10, have you said this in the current Gymnastics Australia review questionnaire?
Apart from that, do young kids training in the lower levels of IDP actually realise what their strengths are? Mine certainly doesn't! Her favourite apparatus changes depending on the weather, and which one she last had her best result in. First it was vault (because she came first in that once), then it was beam (because she came first in that). She has no idea what her natural strengths are!
And I do think that on the whole, developing well rounded skills are actually useful. Where are we going to get our AA gymnasts from otherwise?
However, I look at the girl with extremely powerful, springy legs, in my daughter's squad, and I hope that she has the chance to develop what I assume would be natural talents for vaulting.
Encouraging bigger numbers? I think that the way to do this is to ensure it is fun and that there are rewards. That's what keeps my daughter going back day after day. She just loves it. Even when she's very tired, she still wants to go, because she doesn't want to miss out on learning the next thing.
And I do think that Monday Fundays have an excellent function for the girls. (They get a Monday Funday any Monday following a competition or testing day.) Amongst other things they get to warm up in the pit (EW!!!), play silly strength/conditioning games, and try out new skills. This was how my daughter eventually got her kip - she asked the coach if she could try one, and they both found that she was quite close to getting it.
So my personal feelings on keeping girls there once they're in the program, is that they have to have fun, and keep making regular progress to bigger and more exciting skills.
IDEAL skills means they have to do some drudge stuff, and that is not going to keep any kid in gymnastics. But on the whole it is necessary and useful. (I do wonder about the trampolining skills though. Can anyone tell me why they are useful to an artistic gymnast?)
But its learning the big fun skills with the potential for a good splat that really keeps the girls there. Learning great new things on the bars, keeping on the beam while doing something spectacular, doing lots of flip flippy things on floor and vault.
Keep it fun and exciting, you'll keep them interested.
The trampolining component of the Ideal Skills testing program ensures that the gymnasts acquire the aerial and spatial awareness together with the correct body positions necessary to learn difficult skills on all apparatus. It provides many opportunities to repeat these skills in a "soft" environment.
In the lower levels the Ideal Skills program is the core of the program with the IDP routines seen as an opportunity to develop competition experience. Some programs overemphasise the importance of the competition programs to the detriment of skills development often hindering the the long term future of their gymnasts. It is important to develop skills and physical abilities at a young age before the onset of the teenage years when skill learning is often clouded by fear fear factor.
Thank you for the explanation of the trampolining skills. The young gymnast was quite happy with that.
Any news from the junior camp?
Only 2 injuries so far. The girls aren't working hard enough!
That's not appropriate.
God Mez you are annoying. Obviously a joke.
Aren't you a charmer.
I call out a comment and get derided for it. If I leave it un-monitored I get concerned emails from parents/other readers.
Can you not even consider the quandary a blog moderator ends up in when you post a "joke" (and if that was a joke, I am yet to see the funny side) like that?
Your sarcastic comments aren't constructive or helpful in any way, they're not even clever, and if you can't recognise that then take your snide contributions elsewhere.
Seriously, is there any standout performances at the camp?
Georgia Simpson is now in China as an Ambassador for the Youth Games in 2013 and the Youth Olympics in 2014.She will be there for a week and will have return when required. Go Georgia!!!!
is she still training though? I'd rather see her out on the gym floor!
Yes Georgia is still very much still training, her foot is improving slowly. It was quite a serious injury.She will be back !
But this makes up for her missing the Olympic Trials.
cool, thanks! I really can't wait to see her competing again!
So who's at jnr camp? Is Tamika there?
Tamika is not at camp and hasn't trained for over two months. Wish she would come back.
Why what happened to Tamika she was doing so well????
Post a Comment