After seeing John Orozco's Lou Yun 1/2 it got me remembering the badassery of Makoto Okiguchi's Lou Yun + Punch front 1-3/4. Awesome combo. Too bad that combo is not allowed anymore.
Here is Orozco's Lou Yun 1/2. I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it at E. Personally I'm not a complete fan of the way Orozco does it but it's pretty badass.
It's that time of year again when the interesting and perhaps the most watched world cup begins, the American Cup. Sadly this year I will miss this event live but usually this competition gets uploaded quickly. I'm gonna try to avoid spoilers. The nominative list.
The MAG will have a strong field. I would say Mikulak (USA) and Hambuchen (GER) will duke it out for gold but I'm betting Mikulak will win. It will be interesting to see how these two do since they are some of the bests in elite gymnastics. Sergio Sasaki (BRA) could surprise us all and win. It's not that he can't do it but he's not talked a lot about. I'm guessing the podium will be something like Mikulak, Hambuchen, Sasaki or Orozco. I'm looking forward to seeing what rating Orozco will get for the Lou Yun 1/2 (I'm thinking still an E). Japan is sending Shogo Nonomura. I remember him being talked a lot about but not really making a big impact. I'm interested in seeing how he will do. Either than that the MAG competition should be good and competitive.
On the WAG side it looks like American superstars Simone Biles, Kyla Ross and Romania's Larisa Iordache will not attend this meet. We saw some exciting upgrades from Biles.
She is also working on a new choreographed routine. Many were excited to finally get to see it this weekend but it was not to be. I heard she's resting her arms/shoulders? I guess it's good to take a break since it's early in the season. USA will still field two strong AA'ers. Elizabeth Price and Brenna Dowell. I'm most excited to see Victoria Moors (CAN). Hopefully she will do the new full in tuck dismount off beam and the exciting 2/1 DLO. Ah and there is Sophie Scheder (GER) and her bar routine, I'm looking forward to that. I think she will be the class act on that event. There will be Giulia Steingruber (SUI) and Roxanna Popa (ESP). They could surprise us with finishing high on the podium. Then there are the Italians, Vanessa Ferrari and Carlotta Ferlito. Ferrari will be the interesting one to watch. She really is a veteran in this sport and she's been able to keep most of her hard tricks for so long. She's one that could surprise and medal on the podium. Last I saw she got back her Comaneci (E) on bars.
So what happens when a gymnast falls on her release move off bars? Well in section 11.7 of the WAG code she will be credit full difficulty for the element if both hands grasps the bar with momentary hang or support. If only one hand grasps the bar or none at all then no difficulty for the element will be awarded.
What if that element was a connection and she fell? Will that credited fall element get connection value? The answer would be no. There would be no connection value points for the fall.
For example the infamous fall from Nastia Liukin's 2012 routine will receive credit for the Gienger (D) element but she would not receive any connection points from her difficult Ono 1/2 (E). By the way I like that connection.
I'm a little late to report these news but I've been having too much fun watching online coverage of the Sochi Olympic Games. So far Canada has been doing really well in the medal count :).
I haven't forgotten about gymnastics. Lately I've been feeling kind of uninspired and don't know what to post. I guess I'll blog that Elite Canada happened last week and the big news was Victoria Moors's and Ellie Black's upgrades. They had some major mistakes but this is early in the season and they were just getting use to their new upgrades. The upgrades are nice but they need to work on execution. Execution is something that will be holding Canada back in elite gymnastics. Hopefully they will be able to do these new upgrades at world's.
Moors's is now dismounting beam with a full in tuck (G) and Black is doing ff + tuck 1/1 (B+F) on beam. That combo is worth 0.2.
With the next summer Olympics being in Rio de Janeiro there will be some interests in the Brazilian gymnasts. It seems their best hope and current most talked about junior gymnast is Rebeca Andrade. She already has an Amanar vault and a very good DTY. She has potential to upgrade her routines. She will turn senior in 2015. I think she is a good gymnast. She has the potential to be great in Rio.
Well not really but in the Chinese New Year it's the year of the horse and I thought I would share some of my favourite pommel horse routines. Okay admittedly I don't know much about pommels but I just like these routines. I'm trying to learn more about pommels so today I watched a bunch of Olympic and World routines. If there are any cool pommel routines you guys want to share please leave a comment.
