CoP - Tip of The Month

One of the CR (compositional requirements) on floor exercise is to show a dance passage worth 0.5. It must be composed of two different leaps or hops from the CoP. According to the code, "the objective is to create a large flowing and traveling movement pattern." This can be done directly or indirectly. Most of the times gymnasts will do it indirectly and take some extra runs into their second leap/hop. This can get boring and redundant.

Here are some examples of indirect dance passages done with some flair.

Deng Linlin 
Mai Murakami 
Marta Pihan-Kulezsa

What not to do Alicia Sacramone. She practically stopped and broke her indirect leap passage.

Example of direct dance passage by Yulia Belokobylskaya. I really like how she doesn't have to run into her second leap.

CoP - Tip of The Month

The allowed time for WAG floor exercise is 90 seconds (1:30 min). Exceeding the time limit will be 0.1 penalty.

Sometimes I forget that the rules states that the timing will start when the gymnast makes her first movement. Not when the music starts. Here are some examples of gymnasts not starting with their music.

McKayla Maroney
Mai Murakami

Part 5: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ Honourable Mentions/Miscellaneous

Alright so this is the last part of my series. Even though this is a honourable mentions/miscellaneous post these are still some of my favourite moments. Some of these choices came from anon comments in my comment sections. Without those comments I would have forgotten about these gymnasts or would have never knew about those routines.

In no particular order:

Yusuke Tanaka's Kolman + Rybalko (F+D) 0.1CV.

Jossimar Calvo Moreno PB dismount & HB routine. He was also submitting the dbl dbl  dismount off the end of pbars. I actually didn't notice that until someone mentioned it in the comment section.

Kristian Thomas VT, Nguyen Ha Thanh VT, Fabian Hambuchen HB, Kohei Kameyama PH I liked his reaction when he found out he was first, Lin Chaopan PB really good routine, Zhang Hongtao PH, Matvei Petrov PH, Aleksandr Balandin SR, Liu Yang SR, Pham Phuoc Hung PB, Scott Morgan FX,  

Sam Mikulak seems like a cool guy. He was one of those guys that could challenge Uchimura. Unfortunately he messed up HB AA. He was so close to finishing 2nd.

Ryohei Kato wining 2nd AA. He was my pick to win after Uchimura. I'm really glad he came in 2nd.

 
WAG FX - Mai Murakami, Giulia Steingruber, Larisa Iordache, Jessica Lopez, Sandra Izbasa.

Anna Rodionova was a gymnast that I liked this year. I'm glad Russia decided to send her to Antwerp. I think that was a wise move because she really showcased what Russia is all about, elegance. Some may say her long lines helps illustrates the illusion that she is elegant but it's also her hard work at the ballet barre that makes her elegance aesthetically pleasing to watch. It looks natural unlike some gymnasts who are mimicking. Some gymnasts may have the long lines but they are stiff and they are not fooling me into thinking they are elegant/artistic.

Aliya Mustafina world's BB gold. She finally wins a gold medal at worlds.

Andreea Munteanu BB, she has some of the best leaps in the world. 

UB - Kyla Ross, Rebecca Downie, Shang Chunsong I bet she will improve, Tan Jiaxin I don't like this video angle though. Aliya Mustafina I can't wait to see her full upgraded routine. I feel this is not her fully upgraded routine. Should be interesting to see what she comes up with this quad.

Well this concludes my favourite gymnastics of 2013. These were some of the things that I could remember liking. What were your favourites of the year?

Worlds 2013 WAG Floor Results

Full Results

1) Simone Biles USA (6.5) 15.000

I like her routine for the difficulty. Her DLO 1/2 out is impressive, now named the Biles :) Her opening pass dbl dbl tuck had huge bounce back and ending dismount had hop back. This was not her best floor routine but considering how much she performed this week I would say it's still an impressive routine. 6.5 very high difficulty.

2) Vanessa Ferrari ITA (6.2) 14.633

She had hop fwd on her dbl dbl tuck but everything else looked good enough. She finally gets a medal on floor. She is really good at sticking her tumbles.

3) Larisa Iordache ROU (6.1) 14.600

I never thought I would say this but I enjoyed this routine the most. She has improved on her artistry. I think the music was awesome for her. My favourite part of her choreography was when she dances and then goes low to the floor for choreo. Also her ending pose reminds me of Afan's Kill Bill ending pose :) very similar.

Other highlights - Mai Murakami did good I like her stuck DLO. I was hoping Sandra Izbasa could hit her routine and maybe beat Biles, which was possible. Sadly she had a very wonky stag jump after her 3/1 twists and she went all out by adding 1/1 twist to her dismount combo but fell :( I'm still not sure what the status is with Izbasa. Will she retire or not? I hope not but if she does she has achieved a lot in this sport and she can leave with happy memories. She always looks positive after her mistakes, she still smiled and I like seeing that.

This final had 4 girls doing the dbl dbl tuck! Steingruber did 1/1 DLO. The difficulty of this final was high.

Some 2013 NHK WAG Mini Clips

Here is a news piece on some of the Japanese WAG gymnasts. There are also some MAG but mostly WAG. It has clips of Mai Murakami, Asuka Teramoto and Natsumi Sasada. Uploaded by blackbluekilo.