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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Aliya Mustafina vs Vanessa Ferrari (2012 Floor Final)


Mustafina clearly had better execution with stuck landings and no hip angle when she landed.  Ferrari clearly had more difficulty, starting off with a double twisting double back somersault and performing a new element in the CoP, a ring leap 1/1.

Vanessa Ferrari

Judge’s score: 14.9

D Score: 6.2
E Score: 8.6

My score: 14.8

D Score: 6.2
E Score: 8.6

[Deductions – 1.4]
.1 low landing on double double
.1 step on double double
.1 leg separation on full in
.1 hop on back tuck (after full in)
.1 stood in corner too long before 3rd tumbling pass
.1 leg separation on 1.5 twist
.1 hop on front full
.1 hop on split leap 1.5
.1 lack of precision on split leap 1.5
.1 feet were not together on “ferrari” leap landing
.1 leg separation on double pike
.1 low landing on double pike
.1 hop on double pike

Aliya Mustafina

Judge’s score: 14.9

My score: 14.9


D Score: 5.9
E Score: 9.0

[Deductions – 1.0]
.1 cowboyed double Arabian
.1 crossed legs on 2.5
.1 leg separation on punch front full
.1 lack of precision on memmel turn
.1 step on double back
.1 crossed legs on triple twist
.1 stood in corner too long before triple twist
.1 low landing on triple twist
.1 hop on triple twist

Verdict:  Aliya deservedly took her 4th Olympic medal. 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Cheng Fei vs Alicia Sacramone (VAULT FINALS DEBATE)


*Note: back during the 2006-2008 CoP, a fall was only a 0.8 deduction so I will be using that CoP to judge these vaults.

Cheng Fei:

1st Vault: Amanar

Judge’s score: 16.075

D score: 6.5
E score: 9.575

My score: 16.0

D score: 6.5
E score: 9.5

Deductions – .5

.1 lack of height
.1 lack of distance
.1 leg separation on vaulting table
.1 step on landing
.1 did not land in the middle of the line

2nd Vault: Cheng

Judge’s score: 15.050

D score: 6.5
E score: 8.55

Deductions: 1.6

.1 staggered hand placement on vaulting table (forward vaults)
.8 fall
.3 under rotation (with fall)
.3 lack of height
.1 lack of distance

My score: 14.9

D score: 6.5
E score: 8.4

Alicia Sacramone:

1st Vault: Rudi (front handspring 1.5 twists)

Judge’s score: 15.750

D score: 6.3
E score: 9.450

My score: 15.8

D score: 6.3
E score: 9.5

[Deductions – .5]

.1 lack of height
.1 lack of distance
.1 step on landing
.1 slight piked position on landing
.1 did not land in the middle of the mat

2nd Vault: Double Twisting Yurchenko

Judge’s score: 15.325

D score: 5.8
E score: 9.525

My score: 15.4

D score: 5.8
E score: 9.4

Deductions:

.1 lack of height
.1 lack of distance
.3 hop on landing
.1 slight piked position on landing

Alicia Sacromone:

Judge’s TOTAL SCORE: (15.750 + 15.325)/2 = 15.537
My TOTAL SCORE: (15.8 + 15.4)/2 = 15.6

Cheng Fei:

Judge’s TOTAL SCORE: (16.075 + 15.050)/2 = 15.562
My TOTAL SCORE: (16.0 + 14.9)/2 = 15.45

Verdict: I do not think the judges were strict enough with Cheng Fei’s 2nd vault.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

#TBT - Cheng Fei vs Anna Pavlova (2008 Olympic Beam Final)


Cheng Fei + Anna Pavlova.

Both of these gymnasts never really lived up to their potential at the Olympics.  During the floor finals, both Anna Pavlova and Cheng Fei.  This was extremely devastating for Cheng Fei because she was the top qualifier and would have secured herself a gold medal if she had performed without the fall.  Once again the top qualifier, Cheng Fei, fell on her 2nd vault, a Cheng, which is ironically her own original vault.  Regardless, she still managed to snag the bronze over USA’s Alicia Sacramone due to her higher difficulty (I will do a blog post about this debate as as well). Again during vault finals, an even harsher tragedy struck Pavlova.  Due to technical errors with the vault score table, the judges could not score her 2nd vault and she ended up getting a 0 on the vault. To say the least, Beam was both of the gymnast’s last chance to get a gold individual medal.  Unfortunately, chances of that were slim with gymnasts like Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin (World Champion on the beam), and China’s own Li ShanShan who boasted the highest difficulty out of the 8 eight finalists.

Both Cheng Fei and Pavlova competed at the 2004 games in Athens and in the 2008 games in Beijing.  Many people think that the judges over scored Cheng Fei, who had multiple visible errors in her routine.  Both gymnasts actually had the same Difficulty (6.8) but Cheng Fei beat Anna by only .050

Cheng Fei:

Judges score: 15.950

D score: 6.8
E score: 9.150

[.9 in deductions]
.1 heel dropped on full turn
.1 low landing on full twisting back tuck
.1 step on full twisting back tuck
.1 wobble on full twisting back tuck
.1 low landing on back pike
.1 wobble on back pike
.1 step on back pike
.1 bent legs on back handspring
.1 step on dismount

My score: 15.9

D score: 6.8
E score: 9.1


Anna Pavlova:  Anna had a higher potential start value than Cheng Fei.  However, due to errors on her handstands, her difficulty value was lowered and was the exact same as Cheng Fei’s.  People seem oblivious to Pavlova’s errors in her routine.  She had a huge mistake on one of her handstand elements.  Not only did she not achieve 1 perfect split in the handstand position but she did not hold the handstand position for 2 seconds which is an additional deduction in the CoP.  Furthermore, she will have received .1 less in Difficulty due to not holding the handstand position.

Judge’s score: 15.9

D score: 6.8
E score: 9.1

[1.0 in deductions]
.1 lack of split in handstand
.1 lack of precision on handstand (the gymnast failed to show control throughout the element)
.1 slight piked position (hip angle) in layout
.1 heel dropped on full turn
.1 lack of split in handstand
.1 balance check on sheep jump
.1 crossed legs on triple twist
.3 step on dismount (triple twist)

My score: 15.8

D score: 6.8
E score: 9.0

Verdict:  Looking at both of their routines, it seemed like Cheng fei had more wobbles and balance checks. Pavlova on the other hand had more subtle, yet equally as costly, problems with her handstand elements which not only lowered her difficulty but hurt her execution score.  Furthermore, Anna had a big step on her triple twist dismount. 

Cheng Fei deservedly took the bronze.

Monday, August 19, 2013

USA World Championship Team Prediction & Medals


Kyla Ross: Now without Gabby and Jordyn in the picture, Kyla has a real shot at a medal in the All Around, possibly even a gold medal if she can fend off Aliya Mustafina, Larisa Iordache, and her own teammate Simone Biles. She hasn’t regained her amanar and the unique beam connections seen at the training camp have yet to be seen in actual competition.  If Kyla wants to have a shot at the medals she’s going to have to take some actual risk.

Kyla is also the US’s only chance at getting into the bars finals.  Though I don’t think Kyla will be on the podium, you never know, the Russians don’t seem to be at full difficulty yet (Mustafina) and the Chinese are usually very inconsistent.

In my opinion, her consistency and execution will get her far in the competition, but her lack of difficulty will keep her from the coveted gold medal.

Simone Biles:  The 2013 national champion.  She is the US’s best potential all arounder right now and be more than capable of getting into the medals with consistent performances on all the apparatus.  In addition to a spot in the all around, Simone will be looking to make the floor and vault finals.  On floor, she tumbles like no other, performing a double double and double layout in the first 30 seconds.  Her difficulty score is a bit difficult to calculate at the moment because she has been upgrading and downgrading certain moves recently.  She had a 6.2 difficulty at the American Cup, a 6.4 difficulty at Jesolo, and a 6.5 difficulty at Nationals.  A big problem for her is that she has too much power! She’s very bouncy on a lot of her tumbles, especially the first 2.  If she goes clean, the floor final gold could be in her grasp.

She has two vaults under her belt at the moment: an Amanar and a Lopez (Round-off, flic-flac with ½ turn on – salto fwd stretched with ½  turn off) Her 2nd vault is less difficult than Myckala Maroney’s and thus she will have to pray that Mckayla fumbles in order to secure a gold medal for herself. 

She’s got the difficulty, now has she got the execution and consistency?

Mckayla Maroney:  Her presence at the world championships will secure a gold medal in the vault finals without a doubt… as long as she doesn’t land on her ass again.  Mckayla won the floor competition at Nationals and in my opinion has a good shot at getting into and possibly medalling at World’s floor finals.  She needs to clean up her landings in my opinion, maybe adding a leap or two in her routine, especially after that hard to stick double Arabian, will help out with those landings and raise her difficulty score simultaneously.

The Fourth Spot (Brenna Dowell, Kennedy Baker, Peyton Ernst): With Simone, Kyla, and Mckayla all locks (in my mind at least), that leaves 2 more spots to compete in qualification: on the uneven bars and on the beam.  No offense to the rest of the US national team, but the real world team will just consist of the 3 gymnasts already stated in this article (Biles, Ross, Maroney).  There’s no one else that has proved that they are capable of earning an individual medal at these worlds.  The other member of this team will be going for international experience, not for medals.

This is all assuming that Mckayla Maroney does not compete in the all around in qualification. Maroney has suffered from many injuries the past years that have kept her from really showing her potential in the all around.  She’s not as good on bars and beam as she is on vault and floor but she could be a real all around threat if she’s given the chance.  Plus, after the Olympics, it’s no secret that Marta likes to have an extra gymnast competing in the all around.

Because the entire US team is weak on bars and will have to face off against the Russians and Chinese in the finals, I think Marta’s going to want to put a ‘Beamer’ on the team as opposed to someone who is decent on bars just incase something goes wrong with Simone or Kyla in the qualifications round. Kyla is really the only one capable of medaling in the bars finals at worlds and with her difficulty score, she’s already pushing it.

It’s such a shame that Ohashi is out because she would have been perfect for this spot

Medal Predictions:

Simone: AA (Gold/Silver/Bronze), Vault (Silver), Floor (Silver), Beam (Bronze)
Kyla: AA (Silver/Bronze), Bars (Bronze), Beam (Bronze)
Mckayla: Vault (Gold), Floor (Bronze)

Note: I’m being QUITE optimistic here, I’m not really sure that Mckayla could medal on floor and Kyla could medal on bars but anything could happen in event finals.  Simone however is in fact capable of getting all of those medals, except maybe the beam medal, if she stays CONSISTENT.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

My opinion on getting rid of the Lunge

So many gymnasts just used this rule to cheat.  A CONTROLLED step is fine but if you look like you had to take a step then it should be a deduction.  And technically, this is a subjective thing.  Maybe that step looked controlled to one judge but not to another, so 1 judge deducts and the other doesn't.

I mean c'mon! These are olympic class and world class gymnasts and they cant stick their tumbling passes?  1 lunge is fine in a routine, just like the men can do the rollouts on 2 of their tumbling passes, but any more than that is just babying the gymnasts.  If these girls can't stick double doubles and double layouts then maybe they shouldn't be doing them in the first place.  I'm not trying to insult the gymnasts because what they do is incredible and most people in the world can't do what they do but I don't see why they shouldn't have to stick the landing like the men.


One more thing... Why the **** couldn't the men lunge like the women?!?!?


On the plus side i do LOVE the leaps out of the tumbling passes.  I don't really get why most people hate them.  In my opinion, it's more artistic than the lunge because you're combing acrobatic and dance elements just like you would do on the balance beam.  Furthermore, the leap connections increases the gymnast's difficulty value on the floor which is a good thing because floor exercise is usually judged pretty harshly.  With the leaps, floor is one step closer to having equal scoring with the rest of the 3 apparatus.

That being said, I only like the leaps when they're done right, which is pretty much every gymnast except Lauren Mitchell.

The lunge rule was nothing more than sexist and unfair rule and I'm glad it's gone. #deuces

Friday, August 9, 2013

Is the "Liukin in the CoP ?

Back in Nastia's glory days AKA 2008, she performed a unique element on the beam.  Since she performed it, not a single girl has performed that exact move. And I'm going to explain why.

The 2013-2016 CoP calls the "Liukin" a "Front Salto piked with take off from one foot to scale (2 sec.)"  It's a bit tricky to explain with words so here, why don't you take a look for yourself:



One of the 2 main problems with this skills is that Liukin and most, if not all, of the other girls who are doing this kind of move don't actually perform a "scale"

The gymnastics CoP defines a scale as such:




Nastia and heaps of other girls like Semenova and Worley who were performing this type of skill were doing an arabesque instead of an actual scale.

The "Liukin" is technically not in the table of elements... but the tucked version of it is.  The tucked version of the Liukin is worth a C.  Thus, most likely, the "Liukin" is worth a C.  This brings up another problem.  In order to get bonus points or "connection value" for this type of skill, one must perform a D (salto) + A (Scale).  This order exactly and no step is permitted in between.

In conclusion, I don' think we'll be seeing any more Liukins or Worleys...

Monday, August 5, 2013

Nastia vs Shawn (WHO REALLY SHOULD HAVE WON)


Shawn Johnson vs Nastia Liukin

Vault: This was the apparatus in which Shawn had a huge advantage over Nastia.  Shawn performs a 2.5 twist compared to Nastia’s 1.5 twist.  Shawn’s start value was a full point higher than Nastia.  Therefore, unless Shawn fell on her butt she was pretty much guaranteed a higher score than Nastia.

Nastia’s Vault: Hands down the best vault Nastia’s ever done.  She definitely made the most out of her less difficult vault with a stuck landing and lovely form to boot.  She really lacks a good block off the vaulting table to perform a harder vault but performs her less difficult vault here with the utmost perfection.



Judge’s score: 15.025

D: 5.5
E: 9.525

My score: 15.1

D: 5.5
E: 9.6

[Deductions: 0.4]
0.1 lack of height
0.1 lack of distance
0.1 did not land in the middle of the mat
0.1 low landing (deviation from ideal position)

Shawn’s Vault: In warmups, Shawn performed possibly one of the best Amanars I’ve ever seen her do, just like Tim Dagget said.  She’s no Mckalya Maroney on vault but her power, short stature, and good form make this a good scoring event for her.  In terms of deductions, she had a large step on the landing.  Even more importantly though, Shawn’s vault was quite under rotated.  It was really more like a 2.25 twisting yurchenko.  Regardless of how under rotated a salto is, the CoP states that the highest deduction for being under rotated (without a fall) is 0.1.



Judge’s score: 15.875

D: 6.5
E: 9.375

My Score: 15.8

D: 6.5
E: 9.3

[Deductions: 0.7]
0.1 lack of height
0.1 lack of distance
0.1 under rotated
0.1 low landing (deviation from ideal position)
0.3 step on landing
0.1 did not land in middle of the matt

Uneven Bars: Just like Shawn had the advantage on Vault, Nastia had the advantage on the Uneven Bars.  She shared the highest start value in the world at the time, a 7.7, with 2 Chinese gymnasts: He Kexin and Yang Yilin.  Her long lines, high release moves, and difficult pirouettes make this a good scoring apparatus for her. On the other hand, Shawn is not as strong on the bars so she needed to rely on getting a huge execution score to combine with her lower difficulty score.

Nastia’s Bars:  A nice clean routine from Nastia sans the dismount.  Most of her deductions came from her handstands and the dismount.



Judge’s Score: 16.650

D: 7.7
E: 8.950

My Score: 16.5

D: 7.7
E: 8.8

[Deductions: 1.2]
0.5 Insufficient extension in kips or casts/lack of handstand in kips and casts (x5)
0.1 late handstand on ono ½ pirouette
0.1 leg separation on pak salto
0.1 cowboyed double front
0.1 low landing
0.3 step on landing

Shawn’s Bars: This is without a doubt Shawn’s weakest event but she’s definitely not a bad bars worker.  She’s ‘spectacular’ on beam and floor but is just ‘good’ on bars.  The important thing here was to try to execute everything as perfectly as she could, which she managed to do with her ‘G’ rated dismount. 



Judge’s Score: 15.733

D: 6.6
E: 9.133

My Score: 15.8

D: 6.6
E: 9.2

[Deductions: 0.8]
0.4 Insufficient extension in kips or casts/lack of handstand in kips and casts (x4)
0.1 bent arms when catching the bar on Ginger
0.3 late handstand on pirouette

Balance Beam: Nastia was the reigning world champion on this event while Shawn got last place in the beam finals at the 2007 worlds.  However, Shawn has a 0.3 advantage in terms of difficult over Nastia.  However, when you do the bigger and harder skills (such as the standing full and the full in dismount that Shawn does) it leaves more room for the judges to deduct on low landings and possible steps.  While Nastia lacks the acrobatic prowess that Shawn possesses, she still manages to bring accumulate a large D score with her difficult leaps that require her to lose complete sight of the beam momentarily.

Nastia’s Beam: What frustrated me was that the judges gave her connection bonus for her supposed Onodi + Wolf Jump 1/1 combination when she clearly did not connect the skills.  I mean even Tim freakin Dagget, who is an idiot, was blabbing on about how she didn’t deserve the connection.  Regardless, this was a clean set from the world champion and she certainly deserved that high execution score.



Judge’s score: 16.125

D: 6.7
E: 9.425

My Score: 16.0

D: 6.6
E: 9.4

[Deductions: 0.6]
0.1 heel dropped prematurely on full turn
0.1 slight shuffle on side somersault
0.1 arm movements used for balance ‘Liukin’
0.1 head not held long enough on switch ring leap
0.1 slight balance check on switch ring leap
0.1 crossed legs on 2.5 twist

Shawn’s Beam: This routine had something I’ve never seen Shawn do, a balance check.  She also had quite a few low landings on some of her acrobatic elements because they are so difficult to perform.



Judge’s Score: 16.0

D: 7.0
E: 9.0

My score: 16.0

D: 7.0
E: 9.0

[Deductions: 1.0]
0.1 leg separation on layout
0.1 bent legs on piked front
0.1 low landing on piked front
0.3 low landing on standing tucked full (chest touching knees)
0.1 balance check on standing full
0.1 lack flexibility on switch split leap
0.1 legs not parallel to beam on Johnson
0.1 low landing on full in (chest at hip level)
0.1 step on full in

Floor Exercise: Shawn was the reigning world champion on floor and technically had a more difficult routine than Nastia.  Just like on balance beam, even though Nastia’s routine doesn’t seem as hard as Shawn’s, Nastia was only 0.2 lower than Shawn’s potential D score.  Nevertheless, the judges didn’t always credit her switch ring leap and her straddle jump 1.5 so she didn’t get her difficulty advantage over Nastia. 

Nastia’s Floor: She’s had to rework her entire routine so that she’s pretty much only doing front tumbling due to an ankle injury, which prevents her from doing back handsprings.  Nastia also has some form issues (crossed legs on her twists and an EXTREMELY cowboyed double front) however the code only allows 0.1 deduction no matter how cowboyed a salto is or how badly a gymnast crosses his or her legs during twists.  Despite her form issues, Nastia does not suffer from low landing deductions like most gymnasts because it is easier to land upright when doing a front tumble (even though it has a blind landing)







Judge’s Score: 15.525

D: 6.2
E: 9.325

My Score: 15.3

D: 6.2
E: 9.1

[Deductions: 0.9]
0.1 crossed legs on double twist
0.1 cowboyed legs on double front
0.1 hop on split leap 1/1
0.1 crossed legs on 1.5
0.1 crossed legs on 1.5 punch front
0.1 hop on 1.5 punch front
0.1 leg not held at horizontal on turn
0.1 hop on switch leap ½
0.1 crossed legs on 2.5

Shawn’s Floor: At this point, Nastia was leading Shawn by an enormous 0.6.  In gymnastics terms, where the line between gold and silver can be differentiated by a thousandth of a point, Nastia was light years away from Shawn.  She needed a number in the 16’s to catch up to Nastia, something that just wasn’t possible on floor exercise.  Shawn knew that but still gave a huge and powerful floor routine that was certainly worthy of a medal.  Shawn performed one of the best double doubles I’ve ever seen her do and finally competed her front 1/1 + front rudi combination.  However, she had the usual big uncontrolled step on her whip to triple twist combination and the lack of rotation in her straddle jump 1.5.



Judge’s score: 15.525

D: 6.1
E: 8.933

My Score: 15.5

D: 6.3
E: 9.2

[Deductions: 0.8]
0.1 hop on double double
0.1 early rotation on triple twist
0.1 uncontrolled step on triple twist
0.1 lack of flexibility on switch ring leap
0.1 legs not parallel to floor on Johnson ½
0.1 lack of precision on straddle leap 1.5
0.1 step on straddle leap 1.5
0.1 uncontrolled step on full in

- Verdict –

JUDGE’S SCORES

Nastia Liukin’s AA score: 15.025 + 16.650 + 16.125 + 15.525 = 63.325
Shawn Johnson’s AA score: 15.875 + 15.733 + 16.0 + 15.525 = 62.725

MY SCORES

Nastia Liukin’s AA score: 15.1 + 16.5 + 16.0 + 15.3 = 62.9
Shawn Johnson’s AA score: 15.8 + 15.8 + 16.0 + 15.5 = 63.1

It wasn’t so much that Shawn was under scored but that Nastia was over scored. Personally, I have a feeling the judge’s preferred Nastia’s graceful and elegant style over Shawn’s powerful gymnastics.  The fact that Nastia won by over 0.6 is absolutely ridiculous and totally sounds fishy to me.   Granted, people complain about Nastia's form issues like her crossed legs during twists and cowboyed saltos but each one of those is only a 0.1 deduction.  No matter how bad form errors may look they're only just 0.1 in deductions.  

Regardless of who won it was already too late.  Shawn was already considered America’s sweetheart with her perky attitude and pixie like stature.  She was reminiscent of America’s first sweetheart, Mary Lou Rhetton.  Even though Shawn didn’t have the gold medal on her neck, from the endorsements and media attention she was getting, it seemd like she had actually won.  (Infact, I didn’t watch the 2008 Olympics but I remember hearing about and seeing Shawn Johnson everywhere.  It wasn’t until I actually started watching gymnastics that I knew who Nastia was and that she actually had actually won the all around and not Shawn.  So in a way, I do think Shawn did win...