Archives for March 2015

English Nationals, NCAA Conference Championships and Jesolo are on the menu this week. Uncle Tim, Emma, Spencer, Spanny, Evan, and Jessica chat about:

• Princess Catherine leading her troops to battle to strike fear into the heart of the balance beam.
• Senior champ Amy Tinkler, is her pepto-pink gym at South Durham, the key to her success?
• Claudia Fragapane’s improvement from her American Cup fall-a-thon.
• Lisa Mason’s triumphant performance, pep talks to the baby gymnasts, Artistry award and practically leaping onto the judges table to dare them to deduct from her floor routine!
• The British Bars Revolution: Kelly Sim and Becky Downie are doing bars that make you wonder if their routines aren’t actually YouTube edited pranks.
• Jingoistic floor routine musical advice for the Rio Olympics, from a self-proclaimed Brazilian cultural expert.
• Louis Smith competed well but raised some eyebrows with his post-meet exit.
• The reason for Max Whitlock’s spectacular but  limited performance plus, injury updates on our favorite English gymnasts.

NCAA Conference Championships (28:00)

• Shawn Johnson tweeted that she wants to coach a college team. Where do we think she’d fit in and what are the most important traits of a great coach?
• Bedazzling Beelzebub sparkle-tards -The leotard debate.
• New vocabulary word “pusillanimous: showing a lack of courage or determination; timid.“ as in, wimp.
• Would Minnesota’s Linday Mable get better scores if she was a member of one of the six schools that have won an NCAA Championship.
• Regional seeding and our picks for biggest upsets.
• Coolest vault in college, Alex Marasco –  Yurchenko ½ on or a Yurchenko full-on Cuervo.
• Most robbed vaulter last weekend, Jaida Lawrence of West Virginia.
• Rage-o-Meter regarding the Pac 12 Networks decision to zoom in on every inopportune moment of every routine. Dear Director’s of  Television Gymnastics, here are the rules:
  • We do not use stick and ball sports analogies to explain artistic gymnastics.
  • Never, ever, zoom in during a routine, ever. That’s what secondary camera playbacks are for.
  • We do not zoom in between the hip bones and thighs, ever. If that accidentally happens, the director will immediately switch to a different camera.

Jesolo Competition Preview! (1:35:00)

• How did this meet become the debutant ball of US Gymnastics?
• Gabby, Aly, Simone, Skaggs, Hernandez, Flatley –  gymnasts we are most excited to see in Italy!

WATCH JESOLO LIVE! Watch the defending World Champion, Simone Biles compete against the defending Olympic champion, Gabby Douglas, for the first time since the 1980 Olympic Games!  The Italian Gymnastics Federation will carry a live webstream of the Jesolo competition on its YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/user/FGIfederginnastica.

Schedule: March 25, junior team qualification; March 26, senior team qualification; March 28, junior and senior team and all-around finals; and March 29, individual event finals.The defending champion (US) and host country automatically participate in the finals on March 28, and the top eight athletes, with a maximum of two per team, advance to the event finals on March 29.

• 82: Cottbus, English Championships & Danusia Francis finally gets a 10 on beam!
• 69: 2009 World Champion Kayla Williams & Alabama’s Sarah Patterson
• 84: Meet Recaps! Jesolo & NCAA Conference Championships
• 88: Rhonda Faehn & Mackenzie Caquatto
• 135: The Duchess of Stalderland
• 134: 409 Wins Restored, Lives Still Ruined
• 137: Lady Lisa Mason
• 136: Full Out Syndrome
• Episode 16: Elizabeth Price

This week it’s an all-listener feedback show. An entire episode dedicated to you, our dear listeners. Uncle Tim, Spanny and Jessica chat about:

• Nastia giving good face on Dancing With The Stars
• Why Nastia said she has never taken a ballet class.
• Who are the best freshman in NCAA this year
• Why were Tory Wilson and Bridgette Caquatto given mathematically impossible scores last week?
• How many economically disadvantaged gymnasts have made it to the top in elite?
• Why do we have such crazy gymnastics dreams, and we share some of our own.
• Rule Change! When a gymnast has more than one eponymous skill, should she be able to give her subsequent skills the name of her choice?
• Cheerleading friend or foe?
• Jingoistic music, is it only advantageous to the home competitor?
• E-Score home judging for all?

Someone please find overdubbed or English subtitled copies of Ginnaste – Vite Parallele on MTV Italy.

• Photo Gallery: 2015 American Cup
• 140: The 2015 American Cup
• Podium Training Photo Gallery of the 2015 American Cup
• 139: Steve Butcher, President of the FIG Men’s Technical Committee
• 137: Lady Lisa Mason
• 136: Full Out Syndrome

This week we are joined by very special guest and World Cup silver medalist, Mary-Anne Monkton of Australia. Uncle Tim, Evan and Jessica recap of the 2015 American Cup in Cowboy Stadium AKA Simone Biles new house:

• Marta was on the Nastia Cup broadcast doing commentary again and it was fantastic!
• Oleg gave Uncle Tim the best birthday present ever!
• MyKayla Skinner crashed her Cheng in podium training and completely missed her hand. (see photo gallery link below).
• Head Scratcher of the week: How does a gymnast get invited to a World Cup. Read all 16 pages of Rules here or this:
  • The top seven all-around placers at World Championships are invited. If that includes the host country already, the 8th placer is invited. If it doesn’t include the host, the 8th spot is reserved for the host. The FIG Executive Committee can invited a 9th wildcard. If after inviting the top eight they don’t have eight participants, they then invite placers nine through twelve from Worlds. If they still don’t have eight, they then invite each federation in the order they finished in the team competition at World’s (up to the eighth place team) to send a gymnast until they get eight. Then the wildcard gymnast is selected by FIG.
• Do we think it’s fair the way NBC characterizes Simone as unbeatable, as if the pressure doesn’t compound exponentially the more she wins?
• Debate our favorite moments and best saves of the meet: MyKayla Skinner on beam or perhaps Sam Mikulak on high bar.
• We give our thoughts on leveraging the host country’s music and cultural dances in floor routines.
• We pretend we are Aimee Boorman and devise a strategy to keep Simone Biles happy, healthy and engaged.
• We pretend to be Sam Mikulak and devise a plan for him to convert the consistency he had for his NCAA team to his elite career.
• The High Bar tension controversy: are the men supposed to all use the same tension on the high bar? No, we are asking. We want to  know!
• Nastia Liukin gets her first grade from us as a commentator.
• Fashion: what did we think of the Nastia Cup leo, and could Nastia’s Swarovski crystals on the nails work for the men
• Friday the 13th of NCAA Gymnastics. Every meet had a terrifying crash. The worst of which was Shelby Hilton from University of Kentucky. We have an update on her and opine that perhaps a little angel named Kylie had something to do with that crash.
• The Rage-o-Meter ; Trautwig needs to acknowledge that the majority of the gymnasts on the World Cup circuit are in their 20’s and that’s the new norm. And many women in their 20’s make the US Olympic team and even win medals.
  • We launch a new campaign. Tweet to NBC #NoPolosForNastia

• 139: Steve Butcher, President of the FIG Men’s Technical Committee
• 138: Prince Emyre Cole
• 130: Mary-Anne “Mez” Monckton
• Episode 23: Lloimincia Hall & The American Cup
• Episode 33: Simone Biles & Her Coaches
• Episode 32: Sam Mikulak & 2013 Men’s NCAA Championships

[tribulant_slideshow gallery_id=”11″] [tribulant_slideshow gallery_id=”10″]

Ellie Black’s balance beam landing positions. Unreal.

This week the President of the International Gymnastics Federation Men’s Technical Committee, Mr. Steve Butcher is here. Yes, the Nelli Kim of men’s gymnastics talks about spring board thieves, fashion rules, Execution score data analysis (nerdgasm!), tons of Code of Points nerdtastic details, gymnastics jail and if he would want his own son to do elite gymnastics. This is important to you women’s gymnastics fans becuase MAG and WAG rules must now inform each other. What happens in men’s effects the women’s rules! We discuss:

• The FIG’s analysis of Execution score parity between men’s and women’s judges.
• The downfall of having too many examples of Execution scores on the FIG Helpdesk.
• Bruno Grandi’s statement that biomechanics will become a bigger part of the Code of Points versus the medical aspect of athlete health.
• Bringing back the 10.0 and making it Execution score more visible during competitions.
• Date for the next Code of Points newsletter with bonus content for the first time in 20-ish years.
• Artistry in men’s gymnastics: What President Butcher’s female friends say they want to see on men’s floor exercise.
• Country imposed minimum scores which prevent gymnasts from competing in major international competitions.
• Release from gymnastics jail for judges – how judges from non-power house countries can gain more experience.
• Misconceptions about the powers of his position and responsibility for the current Code of Points.
• How closely he works with Nelli Kim to make sure women’s and men’s gymnastics inform each other.
• The rule making process — concnesus or majority.
• Fixing the Broken Grip Rule!
• Can the FIG regulate the manufacture of grips like they do the equipment?
• Getting the FIG to match the gold standard for social media and streaming video that USAG has set.

• 138: Prince Emyre Cole
• 124: Event Finals at the 2014 World Championships
• 123: All Around Finals at the 2014 World Championships
• 122: Team Finals at the 2014 World Championships
• 121: Qualifications Recap from the 2014 World Championships