Where’s the donate button?

So Coach Rick has a little donate link on his blog.   I’ve noticed it before but I just ignored it.  As I scrolled past it the other day, I thought of Jenny Hansen’s donate link which I wrote about a few days ago.  I started to wonder which top gymnasts are asking for donations as well.

I’m not sure how many are.  Gymnasts have asked for donations after they make the Olympic team and still ended up doing NCAA.  Then you have gymnasts like Jordyn and Ali who just went pro.  Where are their donate buttons?  Seriously, I’ve seen level 5′s with donate buttons on their website.  What is the deal with folks who are actually within spittin’ distance of making the Olympic team not asking the public for help until the last minute?

Fund Jenny Hansen’s bid for the post-Olympic tour

I came  across a post on the College Gymnastics Board about Jen Hansen’s new skills.  She has a “Fund my Olympic Dream” link on her Facebook page.  I had to raise an eyebrow.  I really wanted her to make it to2011  Classics and Nationals but I have felt from the beginning that this comeback is about getting on the post-Olympic tour.  I don’t believe Ms. Hansen truly thinks she can make the Olympic team.  No doubt there will be other “comebacks” next year where the tour will also be the main goal.

I’m still dying to know what her routines are going to be like.  I hope she ditches that leap series on beam and does a simple split + wolf or something to get the connection and then does her harder leaps separately.  I also hope she can add a half turn on the bar to the end of her clear hip hecht half so she can avoid the built-in deduction for the empty swing and just kip + cast out of it.

::UPDATE::

Hansen posted a new video on her youtube channel a couple of days ago.  She is totally working Shaposhnikova to bail half handstand!  It would be nice if it turned out she could do one of the shaposh variations so she could milk that skill for as much credit as possible.  She also posted on her Facebook that she did her Jaeger.  Hmmmm.   That could be some bar routine right there!  She had posted a video on her Facebook of a new beam connection.  Punch front + back handspring + layout step out.  I’m not crazy about  it.  Why give the judges time to wonder if your connection is really connected?  I wish she would do back handspring + 2 layout step outs like she did in college.

How to make the World Cup relevant.

The FIG has been struggling to make the World Cup mean something.  The latest attempt was some scheme to offer more prize money.  Apparently, they haven’t been able to make that work.  Coach Rick states “FIG is on the right track. But they need to have the money in hand before making promises.”  I agree with the latter but not the former.  If the FIG wants to make the World Cup important, the only thing they have to do is make it a qualifying event for worlds.   Look what happened with the mid-quad worlds.  When the FIG made it a qualifier to the pre-Olympic worlds it instantaneously became the most important world championships.  No team can get to the Olympics if they are not at the mid-quad worlds and for many countries it became their only chance if they ever want to send a full team to worlds.

Currently, any country that pays their FIG dues can have gymnasts at worlds.  I think this is awesome but I know not everybody does.  If gymnasts had to qualify to worlds then only the best gymnast would be able to compete at worlds.  It would also help the FIG keep worlds from getting too big which has been a concern of theirs.  So far, they’ve managed to keep the numbers down by making the post-Olympic worlds an AA and EF only event with countries only allowed to send four gymnasts.  The pre-Olympic worlds is somewhat controlled because only teams that qualified from the mid-quad worlds are allowed to send full teams.  The mid-quad worlds has gotten gigantic.

I know some feel that there’s no way to accurately compare teams across different events.  Since many judges are not quality, Sherg-type material and don’t simply judge what they see, this is probably true.  However, so what.  These same judges would be at worlds breaking the code with their poor ethics and/or crappy judging skills anyway.  It would be great if the FIG would do something about their crappy judges but if they won’t, it makes no sense to let “crappy judges” be an excuse to not try new things.   Of course, I know some folks will be like “WTF Sherg!  That’s sooooo cold!”  Okay, okay!  Calm down over there.   The FIG has about eight world cup meets per year.  The first six or seven could include the main team qualifying competitions.  The teams can compete once and the 12 highest scoring teams go to worlds.  The next eight teams can compete against each other at the last World cup meet for the remaining four team spots.  If anybody was going to get screwed out of a team spot, it would most likely be those teams on the bubble so it makes sense that only those teams have to go head to head again.  Individuals could be qualified to worlds basically the same way through the same meets.  No team could qualify from it’s own event.  For example, the Swiss or Americans could have individuals competing at their World Cup meet but not teams.

I do still like the big, gigantic worlds.  It just seems like such a great opportunity for the gymnasts.  If the Mid quad worlds remained a come one, come all type of affair, that’d be fine by me.

Geddert opens mouth, inserts foot

So Jordyn went pro.  Good for her.  Just stay healthy and be smart with your upgrades, thanks.  That’s not why I’m writing this post.

‘Member when Shawn Johnson’s mom said something a bit negative about college gymnastics?  It caused a bit of drama because some folks were upset that she seemed to think Shawn was too good for college gymnastics.  After that happened, I would think most folks would want to stay away from drama, but I guess not.

“I’m supportive of the idea in that Jordyn isn’t cut out for college gymnastics,” said her coach, John Geddert. “I don’t think the 14 weekends in a row doing watered-down gymnastics, that’s not what she’s all about. When you compete with the best in the world, I don’t see her sinking her teeth into that type of situation.”

I’m not a big fan of college gymnastics because I don’t like the judging.  I understand that there are people who don’t like college gymnastics because they think it’s watered down.  Still, I can’t tell you how surprised I am to see something like this come out of Geddert’s mouth.  It just seems like such a non-politically smart thing to say.  How many gymnasts does Geddert send to college gymnastics?  Why would he diss the program like that?  It just doesn’t seem smart to me.

Some people think this is a bad decision because Jordyn might not make enough to pay for college.  I think she’ll make the money to make up for the lost scholarship and probably more.  Even if she wants to go to an expensive college, she’ll make the money for that.  If she goes to a less expensive college (not every college costs $100k or more) then she will make the money easily.  Shawn had already made $500k before the 2008 Olympics.

I wonder if Geddert will get a percentage of Jordyn’s endorsement and prize money now.  For some reason, many coaches take a cut of the athlete’s earnings.  I don’t understand this since it seems to me, the athlete has already paid the coach tuition and coaching fees for years.  I don’t see doctors and engineers and politicians giving their former teachers a cut of their salary.  What is the deal with coaches getting money once the athlete has succeeded?  Not every coach does this so maybe Geddert won’t either.  When Mary Lou Retton was negotiating her endorsements after she wont he AA, an amount for Bela Karolyi was included in the deal.  When the deal was signed, he turned that money over to her.

And what’s the deal with Wieber’s prize money from Worlds?

The decision allows her to accept prize money for her gold medal individual all-around win at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo.

Her coach, John Geddert, would not say how much she will receive but said it was a five-figure total.

It makes sense that there is prize money for Worlds since the World Cup has prize money.  The amount is probably posted somewhere so I don’t know what is the deal with Geddert being secretive about it.

What is the meaning of this?

Yamilet Pena is rocking a tuck position on her double front vault that is completely ridiculous for someone of her ability level to use.   Her best competition attempt at worlds was in qualifications where she had an ass landing that was still under-rotated.  Not one but TWO big steps back!  To rotate faster, she needs to pull her knees to her ears.  I’m not saying that she shouldn’t work towards a nice tuck position.  I’m just saying maybe she should just try to land the thing first.

When I say “land” I don’t mean a butt landing.  I don’t see why they even count as feet first landings.

::UPDATE::

Almost all the videos on youtube of Pena are of her crashing the Produnova.  She does do the other events though.  Judging by her scores, there may be a fair amount of crashing involved on her other events too but she does have some good skills.  On this UB routine she drops off on her toe shoot but does a nice double layout dismount.

Gymnastics: Returning Olympians

Double front has an interesting post about predicting the US women’s gymnastics team for 2012.

 ”During the last three Olympic cycles, between 50%-83% of the US team were members of the preceding year’s World team. Based on this recent history, at least half of the athletes selected for this year’s World Championships in Tokyo will be on the 2012 team.”

DF goes on to predict the chances of the returning Olympians from 2008.

“It’s also worth noting that the last two Olympics have not included any returning Olympians. Sydney 2000 was the last Games where the US team had returning Olympians. 2000 Olympians, Dominique Dawes and Amy Chow, were members of the 1996 Magnificent Seven. (Dawes was also a member of 1992 team in Barcelona).

Nearly all of the 2008 Olympians are still competing or are making a return to the sport. Historically, it is unlikely that more than two of them (if any) will get another berth on an Olympic team.”

While DF says that no returning Olympians made the past two Olympic teams, so far as I know only one even tried and she made alternate.  Going beyond Olympians, you can also consider gymnasts who were either ineligible or didn’t make it to one Olympics but kept going and made the next one.  For 2004 that’s Hatch and Bhardwaj.   For 2008, that’s Liukin, Memmel, and Sacramone.   Chow and Dawes were mentioned for 2000.  A banner year for comebacks was 1996.  Three returning Olympians and Borden who barely missed the previous Olympic team.

I think returning Olympians actually have a really good shot at making the next Olympic team and I think there are a couple of things that determine if a comeback will be successful or not.  The most important thing is that they continue at all.  You can’t tell me that both Kupets and Patterson wouldn’t have been able to beat out Sloan and Peszek for the final spots on the 2008 team.  Patterson completely quit but Kupets, who kept in great shape in college, could’ve definitely made it had she not gotten injured.

Staying in shape is key even if they don’t compete.  It’s much easier to get back into competition if you don’t also have to get back into shape as well.  If they take a couple of years off from training, getting back into it soon enough is important.  For 2000, it was remarkable what Dawes was able to accomplish but I think she would’ve been much, much better had she returned when Chow did.  Continued learning is a must.  Many times older gymnasts fall behind not because they are less talented than newcomers but because they never upgrade their skills.  Gymnastics is a fluid sport and the skill set that was good enough at one point will not likely be good enough four years later unless the gymnast was the type to throw everything but the kitchen sink into her routines in the first place.

The last thing I would say that helps predict if a returning Olympian will make the next team is their status on the team they made.  Were they a top contender or where they a bubble gymnast?  IF they were a bubble gymnast, they can easily be surpassed by the better newcomers and would find themselves once again fighting for the last sport or two.  That could go either way for them.  If they were a top gymnast, even if they are beat out for the top spot on the team by some newcomer, they will most likely still be good enough to beat out the new bubble gymnasts.

She loves rock and roll too

Maricela Cantu Mata of Mexico used a version of “I Love Rock and Roll” for her floor exercise music in Beijing.  It was different than Chellsie’s music and I liked it better.  Maricela’s version used a violin for the vocal parts and I think the rest of the music was changed or subdued somehow so it went with the violin better.  

Sorry, sports fans.  I could not find Maricela’s Olympic routine on youtube.  She had two different ones in 2007 and early 2008.  Here’s a cute gala routine.

No more sporty leos?

The C score wrote a post about changes for the 2009 code.  When I looked at the provisional code, I was paying more attention to changes for the routines.  I didn’t notice this.  

Change Most Likely to Affect Spain
In the section where attire is described, leotards now “must be of elegant design” (vs “may be of elegant design” from the previous Code). 

The C score seems to think that this will keep teams from showing up in leotards that have gaudy colors.  Maybe.  I think it effects sporty leotards more though.  

I recall an article from 2006 where Martha Karolyi explains the hot pink leotards the US girls wore in prelims.  

Karolyi bypassed the traditional red-white-and-blue look this year for a bold blast of pink. She said it was a response to a request from the International Gymnastics Federation to have the women’s sport look more, well, feminine.

“I think we pleased FIG,” Karolyi said.

I thought then and I still think now that that was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard.  The FIG requesting “feminine” leotards?  If a woman is in a leotard or swimsuit and doesn’t look feminine, a different leotard or swimsuit is not going to change anything.  There’s a thread on IG forum which asks how are they going to enforce this?   

I hope that this is just some weird little mistranslation or if it’s not I hope the last time we see it is in this provisional code.

Why compulsories can be entertaining

The Couch Gymnast explains compulsories and lists some reasons why they are cool.  I totally agree with all the reasons.  It also warms my heart that CG doesn’t mention the tired myth that compulsories force gymnasts to focus on basics.  This is simply not true.  Compulsories give a huge edge to gymnasts who have coaches that focus on basics but they don’t force gymnasts and coaches to work on them.  

One thing that CG doesn’t get quite right.  

You could tell who hadn’t been doing their homework. Apparently the compulsories were set after each Olympics, so gymnasts had a long, long time to practice them. But that doesn’t mean they did! Watch the 1996 Compulsories and see the U.S.A fall apart on the beam. You have to wonder if they were putting in the hours. They weren’t the only ones either. A lot of gymnasts were tripped up by their compulsories.

The US team paid a lot of attention to those compulsories starting from the beginning of the quad and by 1996, the US was one of the best compulsory teams.  From the start of the quad, the elite coaches and staff got together and developed a long term plan to make great elite compulsory gymnasts.  As I recall, each year, they focused on different parts of the compulsories and scored for different things.  In meets the girls were almost competing drills instead of actual skills.  As the quad progressed, the girls were gradually competing more and more compulsory skills perfected through those drills.  I remember an interview in IG  with Murial Grossfeld, I believe.  She stated that they almost dropped the ball on compulsory vault by introducing the whole vault into competition too soon.  

What happened on beam was unfortunate but it wasn’t for lack of preparation.

Gymnastics software

Renuka Perera is making the gymnastics world a better place.  He works in information technology and has written some new software to help with judging.  

The new software allows accurate results and is easy to administer and it also stores the records of a gymnast during his entire career and is able to come up with future predictions. Its transparency allows an accurate selection process too.