Seda Tutkhalyan DLO || 2015 FX QF Russian Championships

Nice DLO and she's also using some of Ekaterina Kurbatova's old floor music :).

5.5D + 8.067E = 13.567

Quick Thoughts on Massilia Cup

Okay so I've seen some videos. I'm only going to quickly talk about the Chinese and Russians. I was really impressed by the Chinese and very disappointed with the Russians. I'm not really feeling the Russian juniors. The Russians still have time to peak and get in top form but I hate to say it, they are the biggest chuckers. I'm not really impressed by the Russian juniors. They could get better, they need to work on their execution ASAP! I feel like the new up and coming Russians will not be dominate in the next quad. I think most of their seniors will have to stick around for awhile. I could be totally wrong though. China on the other hand looks pretty great. They at least do skills they can handle.

I'm really liking Liu Zhilin's beam combo. Wolf + aerial cartwheel. It's a really creative combination. I don't think anyone else has done that combo before? It's worth nothing in this code but in the new code it will be eligible for the Acro + Dance connection value = 0.1.

 (Source: monigymnastics)

I was not impressed by any of the Russians. Check out new 2013 senior Evgeniya Shelgunova's uneven bars. Oh the horror! She could improve so I guess I'll just have to wait and see how she does next year. This was a massive upgrade routine for Shelgunova.

Viktoria Kuzmina did an interesting bar routine for a Russian. She did an Ono pirouette, she has potential. Hopefully she can maintain the hard pirouette. She reminds me of Kurbatova. Kurbatova couldn't maintain her hard pirouettes so hopefully Kuzmina can. Kuzmina also has the exact same floor music as Kurbatova check it out:

Hopefully the Russians can improve on their beam and floor too. I just think they are rushing things. Maria Kharenkova who will be a senior in 2014 won floor EF. I'm not really feeling it:

Videos via: piibunina  & MademoiselleS13

Just Because...Ekaterina Kurbatova

 

 

It's a boring Tuesday today so here's some Ekaterina Kurbatova videos. She was a promising gymnast for Russia. Her pet events were vault and uneven bars. She once had a 6.6 D-score on bars and she did a Healy connected into double front 1/2 out dismount, pretty cool. She managed to win gold at 2010 world championships with her teammates. If anything that was a good achievement for her gymnastic career. She was used as a vault specialist in team finals and hit her bar routine in prelims. She qualified to vault finals but was sadly subbed out for Tatiana Nabieva. Kurbatova is not one of my most favourite gymnast but I do like her floor style. She doesn't have the most difficult and cleanly executed floor routine but her artistry style is pretty hard to ignore. She has presence on floor. She should be proud that she can say, "I was a world gold medalist champion."

Here's her 2010 team vault. Note, in 2009 hater Elfi said that she would be surprised to see Kurbatova make it to another worlds. Ha ha Elfi she made it to another worlds and won GOLD.

 

Shaposhnikova Variations

There are many different terms for the Shaposhnikova skill on the Uneven Bars. The Shaposhnikova variations are some of my favourite bar skills. Natalia Shaposhnikova was the first to do this element way back in the 80's. For short, I will refer the Shaposhnikova as "Shaposh." Let's take a look at some of the variations and the terms I prefer to call them.

Shaposhnikova - All Shaposh starts on the low bar facing away from the HB. The Shaposh is from a clear hip circle with flight backwards to hang on high bar. This skill is rated at D (0.4).

Khorkina - Clear hip circle with flight backwards, 1/2 turn to hang on HB. Skill rated at E.

Here is a video of Ekaterina Kurbatova competing these two skills.

 

Chow - Is from a straddle stalder. The skill is rated at D. I believe Amy Chow was the first to do this variation.

Chow 1/2 - Is from a straddle stalder with 1/2 turn. This skill is rated at E. Currently no one is technically credit with this skill name.


Huang Huidan competes these two skills in her routine.

 

Maloney - Is from a toe-on bar. This skill is rated at D.

Van Leeuwen - This skill is from toe-on with 1/2 turn. It is rated at E. It must be respected that Van Leeuwen was the first to do this with the 1/2 turn. It sometimes annoys me when I hear it as a Maloney II or Khorkina II.

Here Laura van Leeuwen performs these two skills in her routine

 

Komova II - This time it gets trickier. This skill starts from inbar stalder. It is worth E.

   

Komova - Inbar stalder with 1/2 turn, worth E.


Here is Komova competing her own skills.

Seitz - Is a truly amazing skill. It is a toe-on with full turn to HB. It's a shame it's only worth E.


The daring Elisabeth Seitz performing her own skill