Videos From 2014 Worlds Qualifying

The women's qualifying sessions have concluded and all the gymnasts have competed and no one team had a clean day. The closest team to going error free was the US team but they ended up having quite a few issues on their last piece - the uneven bars. The other teams had errors here and there on one or more apparatuses and lacked the difficulty

Russia Qualifying Video,

US Qualifying Video,

China Qualifying Video,

Romania and Great Britain Qualifying Video, 

Gymnastics News: Ekaterina Tyunina Beam Winner and Larisa Wins Swiss Friendly

A few weeks ago the Russian meet Spartakiade took place and a relative unknown gymnast won the title. Ekaterina Tyunina was the winner and yet we haven't heard much about her nor have we seen her at major Russian competitions. I'm not sure how old she is but I would dare to say that she is new to the senior field or might even be a junior.

I like her style of movement on the beam, she does need to extend her split leaps and improve little things here and there. The best thing about her is her nice connections and some very hardly seen skills. The skill that I found most interesting was her full twisting wolf jump. The move has been done before but none of the elite gymnasts perform it regularly.

Check her out!

Larisa Iordache has continued with her impressive all around streak by winning a small friendly meet in Switzerland. The Swiss meet is an annual tournament that gathers three national teams and includes an all around competition. The Romanian team lost the team competition to the Germans and aren't looking good for the Worlds. 

On the bright side Larisa easily won but can she win a model with those routines and those scores? I don't really know what to think about Larisa, she impresses me sometimes and then I see her give mediocre and inconsistent routines with misses elements. Only time will tell what the Worlds has in store for her. 

Breaking Down: Nabieva Release on Uneven Bars

I decided to do a breaking down of the Nabieva release upon recent news that young and promising Brazilian gymnast, Rebeca Andrade, was training said skill. The Nabieva shares the honor of being the most highly rated element on uneven bars and is considered one of, if not, the most difficult releases in the women's field.

The Nabieva release was introduced by Russian gymnast Tatiana Nabieva back in 2010. Nabieva was performing that skill very well that year but did not keep it in her program the following years. She is said to be working on the release and a video of her emerged not too long ago showing her training it. She is close to being able to do the skill but that skill is never a sure bet even when it's fully prepared. 

The Nabieva is defined as pike sole circle backward with counter stretched hecht (layout position over HB) to hang - assuming on the high bar. The skill has a G letter value and is 7 tenths. Below is the diagram provided by the FIG in the CoP. 

Nabieva's attempt,

 

Andrade's attempt,

It is safe to say that both gymnasts have better than not form on entry but misjudge the the distance. I don't think either is close to having the skill down as competition ready but they are working on it. 

- videos via Alyssia Spaan and Gymnastics Coaching. 

Live Blog of Russian Cup

I am live blogging from watching the live feed of the Russian Cup. The feeds are very bad, they don't show all of the scores and the names of the vaults. The commentators are speaking in Russian and I know very limited words in that language.

FTY=Full Twisting Yurchenko (5.0) DTY= Double (5.8)

OOB=out of bounce.

Floor

Maria Kharenkova on floor mount double arabian, memmel turn, one and a half twist to double piked, whip+whip triple twist, double turn with leg at horizontal, double back tuck dismount - hand down. D-score 6.0.

Vault

Ekaterina Kramarenko performs a clean full twisting yurchenko. Score 14.0.

Maria Kharenkova full twisting yurchenko much cleaner than Kramarenko, for a 14.1.

Aliya Mustafina does a double twisting yurchenko sticks it then takes a step back.

Alla Sosnitskaya looks off on her vault, DTY. Performs a second vault.

Maria Paseka appears to do an Amanar vault or a one and a half twisting yurchenko with a low landing and a step to the side - definitely out of bounce on the step. Does a second vault with a large step back and out of bounce.

Daria Spiridonova does a clean FTY with a very slight step.

Bars

Tatiana Nabieva is seen landing a full in double back dismount with a slight step. Her form looks improved.

Komova does a Komova II to Pak, Komova I, inbar stalder with half turn to layout jaeger, inbar stalder with full turn to tkatchev? and dismounts with a full in double back with a step. She looked very tired after the routine.

Note: She only did two giants before her dismount and she usually does three. Did not do a chow with 1/2 as was previously thought she would do.

Maria Kharenkova inbar stalder, toe-on full to Maloney to pak. She makes a mistake and has to do two handstands - doesn't do a van leeuewen after working it out. In bar half, piked jaeger, full in double back dismount. She did well to stay on the bars and not drop eventhough she was way off vertical. It appears she got 13 or something with thirteen.

Kramarenko does a good clean bar set but doesn't do any of the supposed complicated combinations that she had worked out in podium training. Score is 14.667 d-score 6.0.

Aliya Mustafina does a very clean set almost exactly the same routine she did at the Euros. Toe-on full to van leeuwen, piked release. Stuck full-in dismount. Almost as clean as the routine that won her a silver medal at the Euros. Total score of 15.40 and a d-score of 6.3.

Alla Sosnitskaya does a really clean set but with a few feet separation. Double front dismount was pretty clean and only took a small hop, her shaposhnikova variations were clean. Total score 13.833 d-score was 5.8, the judges were quite hard.

Daria Spiridonova did the same exact routine as her bronze Euro medal winning routine. She did the full difficulty and had a pause after one of her pirouettes but managed to keep a vertical handstand even with that. Almost stuck dismount with the smallest of steps forward but with cleaner form in the air. Total score 14.933 d-score 6.3. She missed a connection and that's why she lost the tenth.

Maria Paseka performed some uncommon connections and one into a very bad form pak salto. Did a very rushed pirouette and seemed to have a pause before her double front dismount with a large step forward. Total score 13.30  d-score 5.9.

Paulina Fedorova had a really bad day on bars with two falls but nice form in her handstands and pak salto. D-score 5.5 and a total score of 11.533.

Beam

Polina Fedorova does a BHS+BHSSO, nice L turn, sheep jump, interesting combinations especially one out of a full turn. Very clean two and a half twist. Nice job. Total score 14.4 d-score 5.7.

Aliya Mustafina double turn, excellent. Arabian stuck cold and into a couple of jumps. Split half to onodi to an aerial? and falls - she could have saved it had she faught. Double back tuck dismount with a step forward. Very impressive even with the fall as she was able to get all her combinations in. Total score14.6 d-score 6.4!

Maria Kharenkova front tuck, BHS+BHS SO + Layout to jumps. Does a front aerial into a sheep jump, aerial to back piked, L-turn to full turn, swith ring leap and a double back piked stuck but low landing. She could have won the world title on this apparatus with the performance she just did, BRAVO! Total score 16.2 d-score 7.0.

Ekaterina Kramarenko did a nice routine but I was so excited with the score of Maria Kharenkova that I didn't see half of it. Total score 13.60 d-score 5.2.

Alla Sosnitskaya layout combination was shaky almost fell, front aerial to jump, side aerial to illusion turn, side somi and a low landed double back tuck. She reminds me of the way that the Italian gymnasts do beam. Total score 14.033?

Daria Spiridonova does a y-turn to full turn, side aerial, aerial? to sheep jump, onodi, switch ring leap, nice jump combination, nice form on a her BHS+BHSSO+BHSSO but loses balance. Dismount was much nicer a double back tuck slight step. Total score 14.233 d-score 5.7.

That concludes the competition. I missed the floor portion of the competition except for Maria Kharenkova's routine.

Notes from the event: The federation has switched to digital scoring system since the Russian Championships earlier this year. I miss seeing the kids running around collecting the scores and handing them into the head judge and then manually entering the score into the boards.

Gymnast Update: Anastasia Sidorova Back in Training!

Russian gymnast Anastasia Sidorova is back in training after failing to make the 2012 Russian Olympic team. Anastasia S. was pegged by many to make the team but was removed from real contention because of a bike accident. I'll describe the accident, she was riding a bicycle and apparently broke her wrists when her bike stopped. A gymnast is really really limited without the use of their wrists - they can train bars with a broken leg but not with broken wrists. She was able to make a run at a spot at trials but didn't have an amanar vault, had a weak beam set and her floor exercise was very watered down from when she was Russian champion on floor.

The videos being filtered of her are just recently out - within three hours of this post. She appears to be at her home gym and is training on vault. The video shows that she is the in the early phase of her comeback and is almost at the same point as Aliya Mustafina is. She does the basic yurchenko layout, then the full twisting yurchenko and then attempts a double twisting yurchenko. She does not successfully get the double twist in but I'm sure she can get it after more training.

I find this news to be a positive light because this particular gymnast is very talented and was on my predicted 2012 Russian national team. With that said I don't know if she has what it takes to make the 2016 team. The team is very light and needs top caliber gymnasts to supplant the aging talents but can she do it? I have hope that she can make a successful comeback and at least make a world team.  

Via Alyssia Spaan on Youtube - She always scores the best video!

Gymnastics News: U.S. Classic 2014 | National Scoring

The unofficial start of the gymnastics season in the United States is the U.S. Classic. It is the first real tournament of the season that gathers all of the top gymnasts from the US in one competition, which features Senior and Junior gymnasts. The U.S. Classic is a yearly event sponsored by Secret, a deodorant for women - a bit on point, and almost always held in Chicago.

The big deal about this event this year is that the US gymnastics federation has altered the scoring system to award bonuses for certain things. Other countries that are notorious for having bonuses in national competitions are the Chinese. The bonus system is intended to reward gymnasts for doing certain things the federation wants being done. The one bonus that I am certain of is that they are giving a one tenth bonus for stuck landings. As many of you might know there is a big deal being made of stuck landings and team GB, Great Britain, is focusing on this one particular thing.

The scores at US national competitions were always bloated and never really expected to be achieved at international competitions. This time around the bloating has gotten even worse - I think it's to the point that the US federation is going to need to deal with it. Before the scores were believable abroad and could be taken as earned but this time they are like a rigged score. Execution scores above 9.0 in the first competition of the season aren't realistic considering that most gymnasts never even get to that point after serious training and with perfect routines.

Ashton Locklear is the perfect example of over-scoring at this tournament. Ashton was awarded with a D-score of 6.6 and an E-score of 9.1 giving her a final score of 15.70. Ashton is the unofficial champion on uneven bars this year at the US Classic beating out World's medalist Kyla Ross.

That score is very generous for a routine that is being performed for the very first time in a major competition. Let's break down the errors in the routine: there is a slight miss in completing a vertical handstand, feet come apart in the first pirouette, feet come apart in the pak salto, feet come apart in the second transition to the low bar and slight form issues on her dismount. All of the errors that I noticed could face a one tenth deduction and up to a three tenth depending on how significant they were. With that said if a gymnast has a big time name the judges are more willing to ignore some errors but Ashton is not a veteran.

I believe it is better to be harsh on gymnasts when they are starting up so that they work on errors, however minor, and perfect their form. If a gymnast is given the scores they need then they aren't going to feel motivated to improve. That is just a personal opinion and should not to be taken as fact.

To put this '15.7' routine in perspective, Daria Spiridonova performed a 6.4 D-score routine at the European Championships, which had international judges and was only able to score 15.066 for a near perfect routine. I would like to make it clear that I am not comparing a national event to an international event but rather demonstrating how far from reality the US national scoring system has gotten.

Below is a video of Ashton Locklear's uneven bars routine - can you spot the errors?
- Via GymnasticsCoaching

Daria Spiridonova's uneven bars routine from Team Final at the 2014 European Championship. 

Routine Speculation: Viktoria Komova

With an injured ankle and an operation on the table, Viktoria, or Vika as she is most commonly called, leaked a video of her training bars. The very interesting thing is that she was training a move that she has never performed on bars in competition. The move she was training is sometimes referred to as a Chow, referencing Amy Chow.

The skill involves the gymnast enter facing outward, perform a stalder backward through handstand with flight to hang on high bar. The skill is a transition from low bar to high bar and falls under the category of a Shaposhnikova variation. The name is referencing a gymnast from the 1980 Olympics that performed the skill for the very first time.

The speculation is that Vika Komova is going to drop her second low bar to high bar transition, Komova II, for a 'Chow' with a half turn. The move is popularly performed by Aliya Mustafina and Yao Jinnan. It is a skill valued at an E and is much easier to perform than a Komova II, which is really an F skill but for CoP restrictions is only valued at an E. The CoP limits transitions to a maximum value of an E - an unwritten rule of sorts.

If Vika were to keep her exact same uneven bars routine the same as 2012 and add the 'Chow' with a half she would have a 7.0 D-score. That is a very dangerous D-score and would definitely help her chances of competing for an all around gold medal.

Please tell me if you think that's what Vika is training. If you have some inside news that I don't know then please tell me about it and I'll update the post.

Video
The video below shows her performing the 'Chow' without the half turn. The video was probably taken from Vika's instagram account and posted on Alyssia Spaan's YouTube Account.

Breaking Down | Positions - Tucked, Piked and Stretched/Layout

Every jump/salto has a position a gymnast's legs are in and that position is what determines the difficulty value awarded. The positions that exist in gymnastics are: tuck, pike and stretch and mostly called layout. The tuck is generally considered the easiest to perform and stretch is the most difficult to perform. The CoP has specific angles that each position must be within to be awarded credit as that type of style.

Tuck
The tucked position requires that the hip and knee angle be less than 90°. That means you are between straight and 90°, imagine yourself with your bent knees on the floor and the rest of your body straight. That position is the most easiest and probably the most commonly performed by less experienced gymnasts.

The diagram below will show exactly how the position should look according to the CoP.

Left -.10 for 90° angle and right -.10 plus cowboying deduction.

Deductions, the code is very strict these days and will deduct one tenth if you are in the squatting position. It will deduct three tenths if performed in a 135° angle, a less than pikes position with bent knees. The judges will also deduct if the gymnast 'cowboys' the jump, that means their knees aren't touching but rather open like if they were riding a horse. Pretty harsh but once you realize this you will understand why gymnasts  rarely crack 9.0 in execution.

Pike
The piked position is one in which the legs have less than a 90° hip angle. The knees aren't bent and they are at a greater than 135°. If you see the diagram below you'll recognize it very easily.

I find that a piked jump receives less deductions although they have the same deduction possibilities. They are a tenth if 90° hip angle and three tenths if greater than 90° hip angle. That means that the judges want to see a pikes position that has the legs closer to the body than not.

Stretch

The stretched position is by far the hardest position to perform and the most deducted out of all the positions. The requirement for this position is that the body is in alignment, straight at 180° when vertical. 

While the deductions only include a one tenth deduction if body alignment is out of sync by more than 10°. In actuality the judges find deductions in this position for leg separation, lack of pointed toes, bent knees, etc. It is very easy to find something wrong with a layout position and that is very evident in the scores for the people performing the move.

Note: D-Panel is in reference to the judges that are evaluating the gymnasts' performance on the difficulty level. The E-Panel refers to the judges that are evaluating the gymnasts' execution of the elements. 

Video

The video below shows a piked backflip in action. If you notice the gymnast is at a less than 90° hip angle which means she will not incur any deductions for hip angle position.

Back Somersaults - Gymnastics (Slow motion)