UNCLE TIM: Last year, we talked a lot about this girl, mostly because there was a huge gymternet debate about whether we should like Hall’s floor routine or not. It was, if you might recall, ostensibly a gospel tribute which featured a lot of fierce stank face right?
EVAN: She got buck.
UNCLE TIM: Exactly
[LAUGHTER]
[EXPRESS YOURSELF INTRO MUSIC]
ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts. Elite Sportz Band is a cutting edge compression back warmer that can protect your most valued asset, your back. I’m Allison Taylor on behalf of Elite Sportz Band. Visit elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
JESSICA: This is Episode 71 for January 22, 2014. I’m Jessica from Masters Gymnastics
UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym
EVAN: I’m Evan. Find me on Twitter @yoev
JESSICA: This is the number one gymnastics podcast of all time bringing you all the news from around the gymternet.
UNCLE TIM: So Jess, let’s start off with some follow up from last week’s quiz. As we mentioned during the podcast, we didn’t have all the answers. So we have a few corrections and clarifications.
JESSICA: So the first one is, first of all we did very well I would just like to say. I think the things that we didn’t know are the things that no one knows and you can’t find the answer anywhere. So it’s a good thing that we you know, had that quiz because now it gives an opportunity to people who actually know the answers. Because I did a lot of research and could still not find the answers so I had to ask people in the know. So number one is oh and Evan won the quiz by the way last week so congratulations to you.
EVAN: [singing] Oh yeah I did. I beat everyone.
JESSICA: Just like his Michigan team dominating. All Americans are actually defined this way. We wondered and we could not find this anywhere. So this is for women’s gymnastics, NCAA. The top four on each event in each session in NCAA. So there’s a morning session and an evening session so the top four on each event in the session, not finals but the session make first team all American. Fifth through eighth places in each session are the second team. So it’s the first day of prelims. That’s how that works, first team All American and second team All American. In 2012, they added regular season All American which is like I don’t know. We can discuss how we feel about this. You can tell how I feel about it already. I feel like this is the whole helicopter parent, everyone gets an award for everything problem that’s going on with society. So regular season All Americans 1-8 is first team and then 9-16 is second team All-American. So you could potentially be a regular season All American and a post-season All American. I don’t know. What do you guys think of the regular season All American thing?
EVAN: I think it’s a good reward for probably consistency throughout the season but when you look at the NCAA meet as a whole, it’s hitting when it counts and when it matters. So I see the difference between the two and I think they both have a place but I think the really true shining value is hitting when it counts.
UNCLE TIM: I generally agree but last year, I remember that lot of people were disappointed because Lloimincia Hall didn’t make floor finals even though she was ranked number one or close to number one the entire season. So I’m a little bit torn because I do feel like people like Lloimincia who were you know very consistent throughout the entire season, maybe they should be recognized in some way. I don’t know that we should use the term All-American though. I don’t know. I think it’s silly to have two different types of All-Americans. We should think of a different name for this regular season recognition.
JESSICA: I agree. Besides, the All American is totally confusing. Like what, what is that? That title itself, there should be two different titles for during season and post-season. Also it should be something else like top ten or top twelve or something that makes sense. I don’t know. All American is just weird. It’s just weird. It sounds like I got an American flag tattoo during season and so I’m…oh like Geddert. He could qualify for that all American with his back tattoo. Have we all seen that? Yes. Alright number two from our quiz. You can redshirt without an injury. So we were talking about redshirting where you get injured and you can have an extra year basically. Thanks to one of our commenters on our site for clearing this up. So you get five years of eligibility and four years to compete. So basically, if something happens one of those years, either you’re academically ineligible, you get hurt, or say you just can’t make the lineup. You are on the team but you aren’t able to compete because you’re not getting one of those spots, then you can apply to have that as a redshirt year and you’re granted that fifth year to compete. But you can only compete four years total no matter what unless of course you get hurt during that first 20% of the season. Ok so we’ve had a lot of comments, which is fantastic, from so many listeners who are like you know, I only know elite but you guys are getting me into this thing. I’m kind of interested in NCAA. And so I just wanted to help people understand why we spend so much time on NCAA gymnastics and why we love it so much. So I have asked Evan to read a quote from the Reverend Spanny Tampson from Episode 25. If you would sir.
[dramatic music plays]
EVAN: [clears throat] Our one escape from this new math Olympics is collegiate gymnastics. For those who miss the perfect 10, we have that. For those who miss less difficulty and more execution, we have that. And for those who miss artistry, we definitely have that. Which is why we here at Gymcastic have been trying to spread the holy NCAA spirit. Few people realize the glory that lies within collegiate gymnastics because they have become so accustomed to accepting what elite gymnastics has to give.
JESSICA: Amen. And as a former NCAA gymnast, do you have anything to add as to why it’s so glorious?
EVAN: You know, I do have a lot to add and it could probably be the entire episode but NCAA gymnastics is such an opportunity to grow as a person and as an athlete while being trained by some of the best coaches in the nation alongside some of the best athletes in the nation at the top universities in the nation.
JESSICA: NCAA is also, it’s an international fantasy league of competitors from all over the world. And it’s also an international fantasy league of coaches. The coaching staff is like a who’s who of the best coaches in the world in NCAA, especially on the men’s side. And also you know, it’s about education. So it’s intrinsically about more than just sports which as you know, at Gymcastic, we believe in that. It should be about something bigger. It’s about doing something important. So with that, let’s discuss, Evan, you watched the Michigan and the North Carolina meet. Tell us about it.
EVAN: Indeed I did. So it was Michigan, University of North Carolina, Towson, and NC State was the host. So surprise, I was going for the Wolverines. And I will be completely transparent in telling you that I am biased for the University of Michigan. So let that sink in. You might be familiar with one Joanna Sampson, defending NCAA floor champion. Yes? Yes?
JESSICA: Yes.
EVAN: Alright, well she went 9.95 with a double layout, a front full front layout, a roof shattering, like all venues need to make sure their roofs are secure for the rest of the season when Joanna Sampson comes to town. Because she just hangs it up and then opens like no other. It really sets her apart. It’s part of the reason why she won floor last year, it’s because she’s truly mastered that skill and also kind of made it her own. So Michigan came through pretty big on floor. They had over a 49 which, you know at this point in the season, for some of those teams lingering around 8th, 9th, 10th in the nation in the rankings, you wanna see that.
JESSICA: So why are you loving Nicole Artz? What about her?
EVAN: So she just has really, first of all, aesthetically pleasing gymnastics. And she has a huge piked full in on floor. Like I said, she’s just developing. You can see that everything is there. And even in the moments where there is kind of a hiccup, like this week she had an out of bounds on floor, you can see that the potential is there and that she’s not perfect. For me, that’s one of the greatest things about this Michigan team, is that they haven’t been perfect so far. Do I think that they’re capable of high 197 scores? I do! But have they put that up there? Not yet. But the room for improvement, it’s pretty evident. So so often, you see those teams kind of on the cusp. Michigan has been around that 6th, 7th, 8th. You know, they were ranked number one in the country in pretty recent history. But they’ve always kind of lingered around those spots. Finally they’ve brought in a team where you can start off with a 9.8 on every event and just build from there. So Michigan watch out for them. Not just because I went there, not just because I like them all, but they’re doing legit gymnastics and you can see that the vision and the process is there. And that’s something that I like to watch. I can’t say that I like seeing mistakes this early in the season, but I think that you need to have mistakes because that’s how you learn and you feel and you become more aware as an athlete. Would you guys agree with that? Do you want to see perfect meets all of a sudden right now?
JESSICA: I always worry if I see a perfect meet that the team has peaked too soon and they’re going to be injured by the time it counts. That’s what I worry about. Because it’s not like elite, where you only have three or four meets a year. This, you have sixteen meets, every weekend for four months. I kind of worry you know, that they’re going to get injured. That’s how I see it when I see someone that’s like perfect right now.
EVAN: Right. Uncle Tim, what about you? Expert
UNCLE TIM: No I generally agree. I think that one way gymnasts are motivated is by scores. And so if you get a really high score early on, it’s kind of like okay well what are you striving for anymore if you are pretty much near perfect really on in the season. And if you look at the past couple of years of NCAA gymnastics, usually the champions score in the 196 range rather than the 197 at the beginning of the season. So just something to think about.
EVAN: True that! There was a graph illustrating that and I believe it. Jess, did you post that recently?
JESSICA: Uncle Tim did that. He does all the sexy data. He’s responsible for that.
EVAN: Oh I should have known.
JESSICA: Sexy data department, he’s the director of that.
EVAN: Sexy data, do you have a sound effect for that? Is there a sexy data sound effect?
[Horn sounds]
EVAN: Aaooohgah .Let me get my abacus. So just a couple of more notes on the Michigan vs. the Carolinas and Towson. NC State looked really good. I think they got a little bit of home scoring which can be assumed. But I thought the scoring overall was pretty fair. Diannah Ham, she’s been around for a while. She’s a senior now. Have you guys seen her vault before? She’s like one of those anomalies of person. Like how did you end up with 80% more leg than everyone else in the world? But she did! And props to her for also doing gymnastics because it looks absolutely beautiful. Do you guys know what Joanna Sampson went in the all around away?
JESSICA: Something ridiculous. Like crazy. 49.6 or something insane.
EVAN: Well that is crazy because that’s an event total not an all around total.
[LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: She scored over a 40!
EVAN: That is pretty insane!
JESSICA: This is why I’m not in charge of the data department.
UNCLE TIM: Was it higher than Bridget Sloan’s 39.7?
EVAN: No.
UNCLE TIM: Ok.
EVAN: So now the climax has just dipped down. But it was a 39.625 in non SEC scoring. And just as I got done saying, don’t be too early. Michigan is on a journey, Joanna Sampson is already blowing it out of the water. So I think what’s working there is she’s kind of setting the bar high for her teammates to kind of rise and perform to the level she is. That is all I’m going to say. Go blue everyone. Stay safe.
UNCLE TIM: Thank you Ron Burgundy! It sounds like a Ron Burgundy sign off.
EVAN: Just incoherence.
UNCLE TIM: Alright. So last week, we didn’t get to talk about the men too much. And two weeks ago, on January 11, I went to the Cal vs Stanford men’s meet and they had a little bit of a fundraiser. And before we talk about the meet, I want to give you guys an NCAA pop quiz. So here we go. You’re both going to answer because it’s data, it’s number driven so you guys get to try to answer and we’ll see who comes closest to the right answer. So typically, how much revenue does a men’s gymnastics team generate? Let’s start with you Evan, your guess.
EVAN: I would say about $1200.
UNCLE TIM: Okay. Jessica, what’s your guess?
JESSICA: I’m going to go with zero.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Neither of you are very close. It’s $80,000 so every year, men’s NCAA….
EVAN: Look at that!
JESSICA: Like profit or gross?
UNCLE TIM: Revenue.
JESSICA: So that’s profit.
UNCLE TIM: No. It’s how much you bring it. We’re not talking profit.
JESSICA: So gross.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah, so that’s the revenue they bring in. Now how much does a men’s gymnastics program expend? Let’s start with you this time….oh go ahead Evan.
EVAN: I was just going to add some zeros on to my answer. I would say 120,000.
UNCLE TIM: Okay, Jessica?
JESSICA: Including tuition, I’m going to say half a million or 300,000.
UNCLE TIM: So $580,000.
JESSICA: BOOM!
UNCLE TIM: You were really close yeah! In other words, typically every other year, men’s gymnastics programs are $500,000 in the hole. So not very good. Now for fun
[SOUND BYTE]
JESSICA: That was a sound effect for someone falling down the stairs. But that didn’t really work there. Sorry. Still working those out.
UNCLE TIM: So for fun, how much revenue does a women’s gymnastics team generate? We’re talking revenue. Let’s start with you this time Jessica.
JESSICA: Double that? No that’s way too much. That’s like a million dollars. In the SEC or a regular women’s gymnastics team? Because in the SEC I would say like a million dollars and everywhere else, I would say a tiny bit more, like 600,000.
UNCLE TIM: We’re talking revenue.
JESSICA: Oh revenue. Whoops. Sorry, revenue. We’re not talking about, sorry. Like $100,000, $200,000?
UNCLE TIM: What about you Evan? Guesses?
EVAN: I’m going to Price is Right Jessica over right here and say whatever her answer was plus a dollar.
[LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: You guys are way off. So it’s $89,000 in revenue, the typical women’s NCAA gymnastics brings in. So only $9000 more than the men. How much are their expenses?
EVAN: A lot!
JESSICA: Yeah more than the men already just because they can offer more scholarships than the men can.
EVAN: I would say between 800 and 900k.
UNCLE TIM: Ok. Jess?
JESSICA: Yeah wow that much? Yeah I don’t know. I’m going with my half million again.
UNCLE TIM: One million, six hundred dollars is how much a typical women’s gymnastics team spends every year
JESSICA: Good damn
UNCLE TIM: Yeah which means they are typically $917,000 in the red. So yeah not very good. And so honestly, unless NCAA gymnastics programs figure out a way to generate more revenue, more programs will continue to disappear. So in 1981, there were 79 mens college teams and in 2012 there were 17. In 1981, there were 179 women’s college teams and in 2012, there were only 83. So on both sides of the fence, things aren’t looking too good for college gymnastics unless something changes. So I went to the Cal-Stanford meet as I said and Brett McClure is trying to do something a little different. So Brett McClure was on the US men’s 2004 silver medal team at the Olympics and he called in some of his favors. He asked that John MacReady, the 1996 Olympian and USAG’s dancing buffoon make an appearance at Cal and also 2004 Olympic team silver medalist Blaine Wilson and 2008 Olympic all around champion Nastia Liukin. He asked that all of them come to Cal and people paid a little money to mingle with them beforehand and our buddy Tim Daggett did commentary for the PAC 12 network. And so far I haven’t seen any details as to how much money they generated out of this event or not. But compared to last year, I would say there were more people in the stands definitely. So that’s promising. And hopefully they’ll be able to use this to make a little bit of money. But I mean Jess, you know what people really want to hear, the behind the scenes information.
JESSICA: That’s right.
UNCLE TIM: Exactly. So what do you think Nastia Liukin was wearing?
JESSICA: Those giant heels, those giant heels with the red bottoms.
UNCLE TIM: The Louboutins
JESSICA: Yes those.
UNCLE TIM: Evan, any guesses?
EVAN: I don’t know. She was looking fierce.
UNCLE TIM: It’s true. She was looking fierce. But I think the gymternet will be surprised to hear that she was not wearing pink. I feel like we’ve given her this reputation of being our gymnastics Barbie/Elle Woods from Legally Blonde and we expect her to wear hot pink everywhere she goes. But that was not the case. She was wearing black with a kind of bold necklace I would say. And oh my God, her hair was so perfect. I feel like Shakespeare could write a sonnet about the perfection of her hair. And I also feel like Blaine Wilson, who is currently bald is a little jealous of her perfect hair. She was looking good. In terms of gymnastics, it was the first meet of the men’s season, which is I hate to see it, kind of like a Three Stooges comedy. It’s just a lot of falls usually. One guy from Cal’s team peeled off the rings on his dismount. There are a lot of pommel horse falls. It was a rough start. I’m looking forward to seeing what other college teams try to do in order to raise money. Jess, I know that you are always thinking of ideas. Do you have any ideas for college teams on raising money?
JESSICA: Well first of all, you should only have two people compete for your team on pommel horse period, because it’s too boring. Like it’s only exciting if they’re really really good. So it should be two up from each team and that’s it.
UNCLE TIM: We’re trying to raise money.
JESSICA: Well because, no this is it. I have logic behind this. Because men’s meets are so much longer than women’s meets because they have more events. You know, obviously I think they have too many events. So there should be less events. But no one’s going to give up their events so you just have specialists and you only have like two people compete on rings and pommel horse. That’ll make everything go faster and it will be more exciting and it’ll be like oh my God all the pressure’s down on these two guys ahhh! That’s how. And yeah, that’s my first suggestion.
UNCLE TIM: Evan, any ideas for how to raise money?
EVAN: It’s a slippery slope. I think a lot of it has to do with a coach who’s willing to kind of invest this grassroots level like Brett McClure and I know that Justin Spring has tried to be an advocate for a lot of things. I think every coach in men’s gymnastics in NCAA is an advocate for the sport. But it’s such an upward battle that I think a lot of programs are more focused really just on winning and solidifying and showing the athletic departments, maybe we aren’t bringing in the revenue but we’re going to win some effing championships and that’s a lot more than a lot of sports at many universities can say. So I think the focus is just a little bit different.
JESSICA: And music on men’s floor routines.
UNCLE TIM: I mean I’m just talking in general because the women’s gymnastics programs are even more in debt than most of the men’s gymnastics programs, as we discussed, largely because of Division I scholarships. So we’re not just talking about men’s gymnastics being kind of being up Sheet Creek without a paddle. So what about the women’s programs?
JESSICA: Sheet is French for poo poo. I don’t know. This is the whole thing. Is there a way to save money honestly? Like I know at some of the schools, it costs more money for them to host the meet at home than it does from them to travel. I don’t know. Is there a way to save money at some point? Is that something that’s important to look at?
UNCLE TIM: Yeah I’m trying to think.
JESSICA: Do they need all those extra sparkles on their leos?
UNCLE TIM: How much does each sparkle cost?
JESSICA: Those things can’t be cheap.
EVAN: I don’t think they are. I do not think they are.
JESSICA: My friend just said that she went to downtown LA to this area where you buy old fabric and stuff like that and they had like a whole stall of Swarovski crystals and she’s bedazzling all of the furniture in her room. She bedazzled her lamp. So I’m guessing they are not that much. She bedazzled her shoes. She has a really stressful job. She needs her outlet. So they can’t be that much.
UNCLE TIM: Alright well, we’re digressing here. Let’s move on to another meet that I watched. I watched number two LSU vs. number nine Georgia which was a really hyped meet. So for our listeners if you might recall, Jay Clark was Suzanne Yoculan’s successor and was the head coach at Georgia from 2009-2012 and for a head coach in college sports in general, that’s actually a fairly long time. In 2005, Rick Majerus was named the head coach of the University of South Carolina basketball team, a position he held for a total of five days. So when you put things in perspective, three years ain’t bad. Anyway, after leaving Georgia, Jay Clark headed to LSU and this past weekend was his first time back in Athens, Georgia as the coach of another team. And well, he lost. LSU scored a 196.875 to Georgia’s, 197.175. And since we gymnastics fans are conspiracy theorists at heart, many of us are crying bullets. Yeah people are saying Georgia was overscored. And the target of a lot of criticism seems to be Chelsea Davis’s 9.975 on bars. What did you guys think of this routine? Was it worth a 9.975?
JESSICA: Evan, you go first.
EVAN: I’m just going to say no. As simple as that is, I think it’s a really good set. I struggle with NCAA bars because especially watching it on a consistent basis, like ugh this is all of the same stuff. Like is there even any opportunity for a toe-shoot to the high bar to be critiqued? What are we looking against? Because some of them are really dynamic. Some of them are not. But it’s really achieving the skill. So I struggle with this but I’m going to say a very general, diplomatic no. This was not a 9.975. Sorry, Chels.
JESSICA: Well I’m going to assume that all of her handstands were hit perfectly because we couldn’t see it from the angle that the fabulous Elizabeth Grimsley who is @allflippedout on Twitter. You guys should follow her. If Georgia isn’t paying her tuition and she isn’t on full scholarship for the work she does for the gymternet, something’s wrong over there. Some booster needs to pay for her. Give her a scholarship, a social media scholarship. She’s amazing. She does these great recap videos, works for the newspaper there. She’s awesome. So from the angle, we couldn’t see the handstands. I’m going to assume they were all perfect. And then I think her only deductions would be bent arms and they weren’t that bent. But they were definitely bent on her toe-on shoot to handstand. And then on her Tkatchev, she bends her knees like a tiny bit, like a flick kind of as she arches and releases. So you could take a half a tenth or a tenth. You can’t take a quarter-tenth in NCAA like you can in elite and JO. I mean you could score that between a 9.8 and 9.9. Do I think it was a 9.975, no. But I think it was beautiful and I think it could go 9.9 if you’re only going to take half a tenth for both of those deductions. And if there’s a judge out there, maybe you can tell me if that’s the range. I’m not sure. But I mean I don’t think it was that crazy overscored. That’s basically my conclusion.
UNCLE TIM: I don’t really have a problem with the score. I mean I probably would have gone a little bit lower because I usually go a little bit lower than most of these judges.But yeah, I didn’t think it was as problematic as people are making it out to be. I guess the other routine that we should talk about is one routine from Miss Lloimincia Hall. Last year, we talked a lot about this girl, mostly because there was a huge gymternet debate about whether we should like Hall’s floor routine or not. It was, if you might recall, ostensibly a gospel tribute which featured a lot of fierce stank face right?
EVAN: She got buck.
UNCLE TIM: Exactly. So Evan, how would you describe the 2014 routine from Lloimincia?
EVAN: You know, I think she’s trying to play it cool a little bit. I think it’s more of that swagger that Jess mentioned last week. LSU definitely has that swagger and Lloimincia obviously can do her tumbling. Like, I don’t think it’s any mystery at this point. So I think she might be playing it a little low key. I remember even like her freshman year, I was like oh dang, she’s doing that. And then last year, kind of upped the game a little bit. And when those stomps came out, she was ready to bust through fiberglass down to the springs every routine. So this year, I think it’s on the same level. But she’s trying to give it something a little bit different. I would say this year’s a little bit cooler.
JESSICA: It’s not doing it for me this year. I think it has to do with the music because she uses some popular music. And so when I’m waiting for like the chorus to start, all of a sudden the music changes and I’m like oh I liked that song. It’s a lot of grapevine steps, like big grapevine steps. And she does the what’s the game where you play dice, you throw it, right that’s what she’s doing in the beginning of the routine.
EVAN: Clearly, she’s playing Yahtzee. Mincie’s going for the full house.
JESSICA: It’s just, something’s missing this year. It’s all the Lloimincia without the musicality to back it up I guess. I mean when she does her little seat drop and goes into the band music,the marching band music, I’m like oooh. But that’s like the last ten seconds of the whole routine so…I’m sad to say but I’m just not feeling it this year.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah the judges aren’t really feeling it either. I think her high score this year is a 9.875 and last year at the first two meets, she scored a 9.95. And so yeah, there’s just not as much energy and so I wonder if the judges are also perceiving it and maybe if she had a more upbeat routine, they might overlook little things like the fact that her jump sequence isn’t quite as precise. It wasn’t really last year either but I feel like the judges overlooked it in the name of
JESSICA: Lord
[LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: Yes, in the name of the Lord and in the name of excitement. The other LSU routine I want to talk about is Jessica Savona. She’s using Carly Patterson’s old floor music from 2004. And I think it just raises an interesting question. And I’m wondering if you guys think there are some songs that are just so off limits because a definitive version of the routine has already been done and nobody’s ever going to be able to compare to that version.
JESSICA: I think….these are my rules. You have to wait two Olympic cycles because you’ll have a whole new group of kids who never heard that music. If it has been used by someone like Carly Patterson, it better be the best routine on the entire team, like because you’re going to immediately think of Carly Patterson. So you don’t have to dance very much but you better have perfect tumbling if you’re using that music. But I think eight years, that’s my rule. But in NCAA, I think it’s even more important. There’s an Oregon gymnast who’s using, Bridgey Caquatto, she’s the sister of Mackenzie Caquatto at Florida, they were both elites in Chicago. They were both on a world team.
EVAN: Bridgey Caquatto was on the Pan Am team.
JESSICA: Yes that’s right.
EVAN: Yeah.
JESSICA: And her sister was on the silver medal world team
EVAN: Yeah, 2010
JESSICA: Yeah so that’s where you’ll know them from, elite people. And they are both at Florida. And so one of the Oregon gymnasts is using Bridgey Caquatto, the younger one, I call her Baby Caquatto, she’s using her music. And I’m just like dude, like she’s still using that music this year. Like you can’t be using the music of a girl who competed for the number one team in the country. Like they just won NCAA’s. Like that’s not a great idea to be using that music. That’s too soon. Way too soon. So I’m kind of like eh. But Carly Patterson, that’s been a long ass time. I think you can use that music.
EVAN: I have a couple thoughts on this. I would be totally okay with some Andreea Raducan, Dominique Moceanu riverdance coming back up in this. I need that in my life. I would watch that. I would get goosebumps. I would need to perform. I would need like NBC cameras filming me doing like an intense fluff piece. I would love that. I have been to some level 10 and I guess some lower levels, but like even like Tasha Schwikert’s music, you guys know the one I’m talking about with the snapping and Carly’s music, those are all still on the circuit. Those are not going anywhere. But it is really interesting when collegiate gymnasts, and forgive me but I don’t know specific names, somebody’s using the exact cut of Jordyn Wieber’s 2011 and 2012 music
JESSICA: Too soon.
EVAN: Yes, right. I’m like oh Jordyn Wieber. Kyndal Robarts, who was a former elite in the US and also competed for Utah like snatched up Shawn Johnson’s August Rush music as quickly as she could get it. Although performed very well, I was still like this is Shawn’s music, definitely is. And then Georgia Dabritz from Utah, also former elite in the US, used Jaycie Phelps’s racecar music for like two years. It was like Georgia just wanted to buy a car or something. It was like I can’t afford a car right now so I’m just going to have this music
JESSICA: I hate that music so much.
EVAN: It was like heavy and stomping and there’s like an oil change in the middle of it. I do not understand. What do you want your floor music to be Georgia? I’m just thinking like engines, like more engines, like carburetors. Like what? No. Jaycie was enough.
JESSICA: Car music in floor routines, it’s like beeping. It’s just the most annoying sound ever. I can’t stand it. Just so you know.
UNCLE TIM: For me, I think the NCAA routine that really stands out and people use her music, is Anna Li’s 2010 floor routine, the Lux Aeterna
[Jessica hums music]
JESSICA: That one?
UNCLE TIM: No
JESSICA: The one after that
UNCLE TIM: Yeah the last one, her senior year one, to Lux Aeterna from Requiem for a Dream. I don’t know. I just feel like that routine always stands out to me because she felt the music so much and I feel like she actually put her soul into the dancing of that music. However, a lot of people are using that music. And actually, Anna Li was a line judge during US Nationals to people using her old floor music which is interesting and so for me, that routine stands out at least from an NCAA perspective. What about you Jess? What NCAA meets did you watch this past week?
JESSICA: Well first I want to mention one thing, because I forgot something from Florida last week. So my friend pointed out to me that Bridget Sloan, I don’t know if you guys have noticed this and I’m the last one to notice this. Before she does her double pike, she does not set and look straight ahead of her, she sets by putting her head back and spotting the floor and then piking. She spots the floor behind her. Have you guys ever noticed that?
EVAN: I have noticed how her technique is slightly like an arch almost into it, like she uses more of an arch. But I haven’t looked at where she’s spotting. But it seems to be working for her.
JESSICA: It totally works for her. I’m like oh my God, I hope no little kids look at that and are like oh that’s how I’m going to do it. It’s bizarre. It totally works for her. It’s just so fascinating to see. It’s like how the Romanians stick their heads out as far as they can when they’re doing roundoffs on beam. I’m like how the hell do they get their feet back on the beam? It’s so interesting when you’re super talented and you can just do certain things that other people, it would send them a hundred miles off. Other thing I wanted to mention, there was some controversy at the Auburn Florida meet, brought upset by some Auburn fans were saying that Florida was yelling and waving whenever the Auburn girls would turn towards them, like as if they were trying to distract them. So I kind of looked into this a bit because that just seemed really bizarre. Gymnasts just don’t do that kind of thing. It’s not the kind of sport where you’re like oh it would be awesome if you broke your neck right now. Let’s distract her. They don’t do that. Too much respect for the danger of the sport. So it turns out that what was happening was that the Florida videographer was on the side of the floor by beam. And the Florida girls were sort of dancing around and doing stuff for the videographer who was on the opposite side from them. So it was just a coincidence that Auburn thought that they were goofing around to distract the Auburn girls when in fact, it had nothing to do with that and they were paying attention to their videographer. That’s what was happening. To lay that controversy to rest, now I hope. So let’s discuss Iowa Oklahoma. So first we have to talk about the best moment of the entire meet, which is our favorite commentator in the entire world and by ours, I mean mine, Kelly Garrison. She used to be Kelly Garrison Steeves. She was an Olympian in ‘88. She has like a billion moves named after her, all this weird sideways kicky stuff and a handspring tucked full.
UNCLE TIM: Did you say kicky or kinky?
JESSICA: Kicky! Kicky stuff! Like she has like a sideways Valdez. You don’t do a Valdez over, you do a Valdez around the side of the beam, that’s kicky. She has like a no armed roll. She has a roundoff full tucked full on to the beam that’s named after her. She’s one of the best beam workers ever, including to this day, her routines would hold up. Do you guys agree with that?
EVAN: I think she definitely brought a level of innovation. And you know seeing the Garrison being done today, we have a Japanese gymnast Sasada was doing it and Casey Jo MaGee, former Arkansas gymnast, now coaches at Mizzou, she was training it as an elite. And everyone just takes note of that. And it’s like yeah guys, when Evan was being born, Kelly Garrison was doing that onto the beam. So yeah.
JESSICA: Yeah. Exactly. Like she’s amazing. So she does the commentary at Oklahoma, and she is one of my favorite commentators ever, not so much for what she says but her reactions and her inability to have any kind of filter about her bias for Oklahoma, that was her school. And she was actually an Olympian while she was in college, one of the first to do that. And I just let me just play the clip. So this is we’re watching Madison Mooring on floor. And she’s running to do her double pike. So here we go.
KELLY GARRISON: Madison is from the Cherokee nation. Oh boogers I can’t believe she did that!
JESSICA: Yes that’s right she said Madison is a member of the Cherokee nation and then she was short on her double pike and she yells oh boogers on TV. Best comment on a fall ever. I love her so much I can’t even stand it. My god. So if you get a chance to watch an Oklahoma meet, watch it just for her commentary.
EVAN: For the first time, and I may be the only person to ever say this, but I’m so disappointed that I don’t get sports south east south central mountain time zone. I’m so disappointed.
JESSICA: She’s constantly, I mean when someone does something great, she squeals. She when she likes something she can’t contain herself. It’s so nothing like a professionally trained commentator which makes it hilarious. I love love love her. Ok. So during this meet, I fell in love with Chayse Capps. I love her and I want to have her gymnastics babies. She is a trained dancer and did competitive dance. So she can do all the weird stuff where you competitive dance. I don’t want to offend anyone by my description of it. I respect it it’s cool, but it’s all where you pull your leg up then lean over backward and do five twists. She’s doing actually modern dance choreography in her floor routine and it’s not quite translating yet. I don’t know, she’s not quite into it yet or the music isn’t quite right but I think she could be a totally groundbreaking person in gymnastics in NCAA.
EVAN: Like Ariana Berlin if you will
JESSICA: Yes except more socially acceptable
EVAN: Right
JESSICA: Right? And I don’t mean that- I loved Ari’s routines and I think she is totally groundbreaking because she was a legit hip hop dancer. People were like what she’s white, this doesn’t make sense. But yeah Chayse Capps could bring dance and floor to a whole other level. It’s not quite there yet but she’s I think she’s going to do it. So I mean not like Ari because it’ll be less controversial I guess. Her beam is freaking gorgeous. Everything is so extended. She’s like if McCool and Demeo had a baby, it would be her. She’s so perfect.
EVAN: There’s a lot of birth around Chayse Capps
[LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: Are you preparing us for an announcement Jess?
JESSICA: No I am not [LAUGHS]
UNCLE TIM: Are you going to be the next Spanny Tampson on our show?
JESSICA: No, no, no, no, no. But oh my god news flash you guys, Spanny’s baby, Mr. Max better known on the show as Grumpus, he’s so not grumpy anymore. And he did his first V sit today which Uncle Tim noticed in his little video. It was adorable. And then after he finished he shook his head back and forth with a big smile on his face like haha see what I did? Kind of like Danusia in her floor routine. I think that’s where he got it. Ok so. You know why there’s so much birth in this? It’s because last week you said that someone has time to raise a child in Kytra Hunter when she does her double layout and someone said to me when I saw them she was like that was so funny when he’s like there’s time to give birth underneath that double layout. [LAUGHS] And I was like that’s not what he said, he said raise a child. Giving birth, that’s way messier, that’s way more gross than raising a child.
EVAN: Take your time with that
JESSICA: So while I was watching this meet I decided to declare on Twitter Oklahoma was the best beam team in the country. Then I was like we’ll see what the scores say. So of course I was wrong. It’s, well not of course, I mean obviously I’m right but the scores don’t back me up. Because as of right now, Troester, which is a website you guys can go to and see the rankings of all the teams, it’s Troester. I have no idea if that’s how you pronounce it but that’s what I’m going to say. Troester. Right now the beam rankings are Florida, Illinois, LSU, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Arkansas. So Oklahoma’s actually forth, so pfft. I haven’t watched LSU or Illinois yet but clearly I’m right and Oklahoma should be number one with all their double backs and interesting choreography. Iowa was also at this meet even though I haven’t mentioned them yet. Two things I loved about Iowa. They have this gymnast, her last name is Townsend, she is also from the same gym as the Caquatto sisters and Florida. She is 5’7. I’m adding in a little correction here because she’s actually 5’9. So she’s a normal height of a normal human which makes her look like a giant in gymnastics. And she is their best vaulter. She is fantastic, and I just love that she’s 5’7 and is a collegiate DI gymnast and is doing a yurchenko full like it’s nothing. So that just goes to show, stereotypes. Because we know the greatest gymnast of all time with the most medals was 5’5. And who would that be?
UNCLE TIM: Jess O’Beirne
[LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: The most medals
EVAN AND UNCLE TIM: Svetlana Khorkina
JESSICA: Thank you. Thank you gentlemen for playing along. Iowa has Kristen Maloney there, former UCLA gymnast and also was in Cirque for quite a few years. She’s a Parkette elite and Olympian. I would like to clarify that this is Iowa State and not Iowa. This is a very important distinction, so Iowa State we’re talking about here. So Kristen Maloney was with Cirque for many years and elite with Parkettes and Olympian. And she has really brought the artistic sensibility to the routines of Iowa State. The problem is they look super uncomfortable doing these routines. Like they, it looks almost painful. They’re just like oh I know I’m supposed to do this but I’m really embarrassed to wiggle my hair around in public. So I feel like if she can get them to be comfortable with this choreography and buy into it, they could have amazing routines. But right now, it’s kind of painful to watch. I really hope the team will get it and really go for it because they could be really enjoyable great routines if they buy into it. So. I don’t think I don’t know if people realize that going for it in choreography actually makes you look better than if you do it half assed and are embarrassed. Like that always looks worse than if you just do it. Even if it’s something super embarrassing. Like if you go for it, people will go along with it. If you if the audience can tell you’re embarrassed it makes it 1000x worse.
EVAN: Right if you’re pretending to slow motion hula hoop and you’re just like I’m meek, this isn’t my personality, everyone notices that and I will call you out for it. So if you’re going to hula hoop, you work those hips like Shakira and you keep that hoop going and you will get rewarded.
JESSICA: Exactly. Well put, thank you. Ok let’s talk about the Beavers vs UCLA. You guys
UNCLE TIM: Versus the Bruins if you’re going to go by the Beavers
JESSICA: Beavers!
EVAN: University of Beavers
JESSICA: I always thought that was a joke that there was a team called the Beavers. All growing up I thought- In and Out burger, I thought that was a joke too. I thought that couldn’t actually be a burger place. It was a sexual joke that people wore on their tshirts. Little did I know it’s a real place. So anywho. Oregon. This would be Oregon State, not the other Oregon because they don’t have gymnastics which makes me feel like I shouldn’t have to justify whether it’s, I shouldn’t have to give the details if it’s Oregon or Oregon State because there is no other gymnastics in Oregon. But anyway, to clarify, Oregon State. So is it obvious how annoying I get with that when people do that? Someone came up to me in the gym and they were like USC, UCLA, duh duh duh. And I was like what are you talking about, USC doesn’t have a gymnastics team, go talk smack to someone else. I could give two craps about what you’re talking about right now. This is a gymnastics shirt. So go away leave me alone. And the guy was like 80 so then I felt bad about giving him a hard time. [LAUGHS] I was like seriously?
EVAN: You broke his hip and his heart
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] He didn’t know what to do with me. He just kind of looked at me and then took his USC flag and walked away. I guess it was a towel. But he was waving at me like a flag. Who does that? I was busy working out. Please. Clearly he was intimidated by my gym skills. So back to the meet. Tim Daggett did commentary, and I loved how he switched gears. He was totally in NCAA mode. He talked about the choreography. He talked about entertainment. He talked about crowd involvement. And it was so funny watching him you guys. I was sitting across from him and he was totally bopping his head and snapping his fingers. Then during a couple routines he turned very very red and looked like oh my god I can’t believe I have to comment on this. It was fantastic. It was great. He was totally into it. I really liked just watching him and listening to his commentary on TV too was great. Syd Sawa, former Canadian national champion, better known as panda cat, did a fantastic vault. Even better than Olivia Courtney’s last week. Her feet were together, she got more distance, so I think that she deserved the score that she got it was fantastic. I think she got a 9.975. I should probably know that.
EVAN: She did
JESSICA: Yeah. 9.975. Nush, this is what we found out about Nush this week, she can do her longitudinal aerial into her full dismount two meets in a row. She’s totally consistent with that. So I would like to declare beam finals are going to be Nush, my new love Chayse Capps at Oklahoma, and Maddie Gardiner from Oregon. Maddie Gardner as you guys remember is a former Canadian national champ as well. She was the Olympic alternate for Canada for the 2012 Olympics. Oh my god. Oh my god her beam. I can’t, ugh. It’s so perfect, so difficult. She has two series. She didn’t do them both as series in this meet but she has a front aerial to side flip and she also has back handspring layout. So do you need two series? No. You don’t. But she does them. She also has a are you ready for this, one of my favorite skills ever and it’s not a rolly one Uncle Tim. I know you’re going to think it’s a rolly skill but it’s not. She does a switch leg aerial.
UNCLE TIM: Named after Melissa Bodwin who competed for Indiana State back in the day.
JESSICA: So that is one of the coolest skills. So basically it’s exactly what it sounds like. You do an aerial and right before you’re going to land on your opposite land you took off of you switch and land on the leg you took off of. So it’s way hard, it looks freakin cool, the whole crowd was like what was that? Her routine was so perfect and I would like to lodge my very strong complaint that she only got a 9.85 on that routine because as far as I’m concerned, a 9.9 was the very very most deductions you could take was a tenth. A half a tenth- I take exception with the balance beam situation for saying she had a bobble after her front aerial. No no no. I did not think that was a bobble at all. I think she covered it up perfectly. I think it was just a stop. Oh I have two series, I don’t have to do this. I would’ve taken maybe half a tenth for that, maybe half a tenth on her landing. That routine is if she tied with Nush in at NCAA finals, that would be perfect for me. It’s just it’s heaven. Did you guys watch that routine?
EVAN: I only watched her routine from the preseason. And I tweeted about it. And I was like let this stay because she has so much difficulty that I was like oh no they’re just going to erase it. If it gets to season and they’re like we need you to hit, which I guess still could happen. But if she’s out there competing it, more power to her. Quick rewind, but also fast forward. Sydney Sawa got a 9.975 on floor and a 9.95 on vault. So that score was awarded to her at that meet, just on another event.
JESSICA: On another event. Yes. I was very excited about floor so I got ahead of myself. Thank you for that correction.
EVAN: No stress
JESSICA: But still higher than Olivia Courtney which I think is correct. Olivia Courtney from last week. The other person I wanted to mention- so Oregon really, on floor and beam they’ve got it. They totally have it. There’s a lot of falls in this meet. There were a lot of falls from just UCLA on beam. One from one of their veterans, an elite Brittany Harris on beam for Oregon. But was just kind of a messy meet but there were some great standout performances like Sydney Sawa leading the team with her alien hilarious comedy floor routine which I love. She does a reverse worm in the routine which you don’t see often. Very difficult, the reverse worm. And the biggest standout besides Maddie Gardiner in that meet was McMillan from Oregon. Are you ready for this? This is in fact a rolly skill Uncle Tim are you ready?
UNCLE TIM: Yes I’m ready
JESSICA: She does a double back spin on floor! Ah! Double back spin!
UNCLE TIM: Without getting a wedgie
JESSICA: That’s right. No wedgie because she has super strong abs so she scrunches herself up like a potato bug and is only spinning on a tiny portion of her back and that’s why she can make it around two times. And it is so awesome and so fast and it’s worth a B. It’s only worth a B which clearly should be fixed. That is a crime against all of the code that it’s only worth a B. That should obviously be a D because it’s really hard. I mean a front double full is an E and a double back spin’s a B? Have you guys tried a double back spin on carpet?
EVAN: Nope
JESSICA: Exactly. Because you wouldn’t because you’d be like that’s stupid everyone knows you do it on cardboard in your driveway. So it’s very difficult and I love her for doing the back spin.
[SOUND BYTE]
JESSICA: So if you guys were going to summarize NCAA this week, what do you think we learned? What conclusions do you think we can draw from this week? Evan?
EVAN: I would say in a lot of the meets I watched I heard a lot of commentators call out chest position. And you know I am the chest position enforcement bureau. And I want those chests up not down, not in the middle. I want them up. And I think it was great to hear some of that acknowledgement. Because a lot of times fans that come to expect these huge scores oh it’s gotta be a 9.8 oh it’s gotta be a 9.975. But then it falls a little bit short. It’s because of those chest positions a lot of the time. So I like that people are noticing that and calling it out. But I still hope for a brighter tomorrow and higher chest positions on everything.
UNCLE TIM: I would have to say we haven’t talked about them just because their meets haven’t been broadcasted but I am watching Rutgers right now. I’m a nerd at heart and I like when nerds do well. And last year the team averaged a 194.016 and this year currently their average is a 195.2. And so they’re doing a lot better than they have in the past. And I’m curious to see what’s going to happen with them in the future, whether the 195s were a bit of an apparition or if they will continue to stay in that zone.
EVAN: I watched them yesterday actually against Ohio State
UNCLE TIM: And what did you think?
EVAN: I was intrigued. Somebody had mentioned it to me and they were like Rutger’s going 195. And I was like what’s up with that 195? So I watched and they actually ended up upsetting Ohio State at Ohio State. So good for them. I do think that they’re a team kind of on the rise. Remember a couple years ago when New Hampshire all the sudden was getting 196s and everyone was like what. Remember a couple years ago when Kent State was getting 196s and actually qualified to Nationals? I think that Rutgers is kind of in that dark horse category. I do think the beginning of their lineups are a bit weaker than the end. But they have some outstanding things definitely toward the end of their lineups. So just pulling up those front of the lineups I feel like they could contend any given day. You’ve got to be ready.
JESSICA: So Uncle Tim, while we have been enjoying the first meets of the NCAA season, what’s been happening over in the elite world? And what is with these weird videos?
UNCLE TIM: So the FIG is putting up some videos. In episode 68 we discussed the elite choreography rules. And I think we mentioned at the time that tumblr the social media site had many many feels and many many questions about the new rules. And the FIG it seems wants to answer these questions. So they put up a bunch of videos showing routines and how many deductions they would incur based on for instance artistry rules, etc. And so we talked a little bit about floor already. So let’s talk a little bit about some of the new beam rules. For instance, there is a video that goes that goes over the sideways requirement on beam. So if gymnasts do sideways movements, so if gymnasts do not do sideways movements plural, they will incur a .1 deduction. So from what I gather from the videos, sideways movements do not include a press handstand sideways on the beam, sideways movements do not include just a lone side somi, sideways movements do not include standing sideways on the beam with your feet apart bending over, sticking your head between your knees waving to the judges behind you. If that’s all you do, you will incur a .1 deduction. What do you guys think about this? Jess?
JESSICA: So I like it because I think this means you actually have to dance sideways. Like you know used to be you had to do actual skills sideways forward backward, dancing like you know. You had to actually put some effort in it. So I kind of like this actually. And I like that you can’t just fulfil it with you know a cartwheel or a well I don’t know. What people used to do like Shawn Johnson, she had a little chest sideways cartwheel but that wouldn’t count anymore I don’t think. I like it.
EVAN: I don’t have anything for this.
JESSICA: No thoughts. He’s like beam, please, can we talk about pommel horse.
EVAN: Not quite
[LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: I don’t know. I guess so do you really have to move sideways on the beam in order for a routine to be artistic though?
JESSICA: Yeah because this is part of going back to compulsories. You’re supposed to show that you can do things, you have to show well roundedness in your dance and your skills. And so yes it should be a requirement.
UNCLE TIM: I guess based on the videos though it’s hard to determine how many seconds you need to be sideways or how many skills you need to be sideways in order for it to really count. I mean it seems like if you just do one skill or one pose it doesn’t count. But I don’t know how many skills you need to do. But that’s just me. The other beam video that has been going around is the difference between the two, there are two different versions of a two footed layout. And they’re a little bit confusing. So you can either get credit for an E when you do a two foot layout or credit for a D for two foot layout. And the difference seems to be if you your layout is at shoulder height when you do the layout and you can actually more or less keep a straight body when you do the layout, you get an E. But if it’s more like a whipback where your head is at the height of your butt and you pretty much pike down, then it’s a D.
JESSICA: Thank god for this. Honestly. I mean please, we’ve needed this for so long because a layout stepout is a freaking joke. It’s a whip back. And this needs to be defined for a long ass time. Oh I hated this for so long. And you know what? I feel like in IG long ago, Ziert did a whole or maybe it was one of those Stretching Out things that Dwight Normile does, or Crumlish he does them, was a whole thing about this. And I was like that’s right! It’s a whip back, it’s not a layout! Oh I feel so strongly about this I can’t even tell you.
UNCLE TIM: So this is only for the two footed layouts though not the layout step outs. But I do agree with you about layout step outs. They’re more like aerial back walkovers rather than actual layout step outs with rise of the chest. And competed-
EVAN: The chest! The chest!
UNCLE TIM: They key word of the phrase. This is episode 72, the chest version of GymCastic.
EVAN: Chest and birth
[LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: Chest position enforcement bureau, please let’s call us by our real title.
UNCLE TIM: So yeah those were two videos going around. So if you head over to the FIG’s website YouTube page you can look at a few more videos. Jess what’s going on in American elite gymnastics? Right now as we speak.
JESSICA: Oh my gosh. The first national team training camp is happening at the ranch in Texas. So you know that our Scott Bregman is he’s ours now, because we the gymternet has claimed him as our own because he is. And he is going to be putting up videos I’m sure and some news reports from there as he does. So make sure you’re following USAG, their YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook to look for updates. Really exciting. McKayla Maroney is there. Who knows who else is there.
UNCLE TIM: Kyla Ross, Simone Biles, Brenna Dowell, and Sarah Finnegan. She’s back.
JESSICA: Yes, awesome. I’m so excited about this. This is oh this is going to be fabulous. And then who knows maybe we’ll find out who’s really going to compete in the American Cup. No I think they’re going to compete. I think it’ll be good.
UNCLE TIM: Oh sorry I was going to say they probably won’t decide that till the February camp, the American Cup lineup. And the other thing is Aly Raisman said she was hoping for either January or February camp and she’s not at the January camp. So we’ll have to keep our eyes open to see if she attends the February national team training camp.
EVAN: When did she say that?
UNCLE TIM: Couple months ago
EVAN: Ok
UNCLE TIM: Yeah
JESSICA: Evan can you tell people how they can support the show?
EVAN: Certainly I can. So there’s options. Alright. Everybody loves options. You can jump on our Amazon store and by doing this as long as you start through the Amazon link on GymCastic.com, a little portion of what you buy goes back to us. And then we’re able to provide bounty that is GymCastic. Or, or, if you want to skip the hassle and you don’t need to shop or buy anything, you just want to put a little in the pockets of the GymCastic show to help the show, you can use the donate button on the About Us page on GymCastic.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes or download the Stitcher app because it works on all devices including Android. So look at all those options. I can’t even remember half of what I just said, but it’s a lot to do. So hopefully you took notes.
UNCLE TIM: And we have a lot of options for contacting us. So you can always leave us a voicemail by calling us at 415-800-3191. Or our Skype username is GymCastic Podcast. You can email us at GymCastic@gmail.com. And you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr. And Evan, did you know that we have transcripts?
EVAN: I didn’t. But I do feel like a tiny portion of my dream to be on Saturday Night Live has come to fruition because I know that they also have transcripts because I have searched and quoted them before. So for me to be in any transcript is a win. And I feel like Kristen Wiig. So. I like it.
[LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: Yeah [LAUGHS] Random. Did you know we have video playlists as well?
EVAN: I did. No I don’t know anything. I don’t know anything about these options we have. I thought it was just us like do these actually go out to people or is it just us talking?
[LAUGHTER]
EVAN: There’s a lot more. I get it. There’s many options. I don’t even know.
JESSICA: Yes many many options. And video playlists so you can watch what the hell we’re talking about which is very helpful sometimes. Especially when people are like what skill are you talking about? I don’t understand. Even when you put it in context and explain it specifically I still don’t know what you’re talking about. Watch the video playlist. Ok you guys for next week what are your absolute must watch meets? Give me one. Uncle Tim.
UNCLE TIM: So I’m a terrible person because I’m going to recommend a meet that you can’t stream. You can only go to.
[LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: So buy your ticket
UNCLE TIM: So it’s a meet at Stanford. It’s Michigan, California, Washington at Stanford on the men’s side. Yeah.
JESSICA: Michigan are going to be at Stanford this weekend?
UNCLE TIM: Yeah yeah. And it’s going to be Sam Mikulak’s first NCAA meet of the season because the American men were in China last week. And he didn’t compete last weekend if I’m not mistaken. So I’m looking forward to seeing Sam Mikulak dancing in Palo Alto this year.
JESSICA: Did Stacey Ervin go to China too? Did he compete? What’s happening with Stacey Ervin?
EVAN: He competed this past weekend. He didn’t have his best meet, so I think he’s just getting back into the swing of things. And Michigan was able to pull off the win. So that’s really good when you can have enough depth to when National team members might not have the best day, you can still come out with a victory. So that’s what happened there.
JESSICA: Ok. I mean we have to pace him. It’s a long time until World Championships so that’s fine. Evan how about for you?
EVAN: I am going to say Arkansas at Alabama. Main reason: Katherine Grable.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Shocker. Katherine Grable.
EVAN: Subtitle-
JESSICA: Is there anyone else on that team? I don’t think so.
EVAN: Subtitle reason: Katherine Grable. I mean just the effortlessness of her gymnastics is great. And Arkansas does have a legit team outside of Katherine Grable as well. So check them out. I think it’ll be interesting to see what Alabama does this weekend. They didn’t have too terribly good of a showing at the OZone invitational in Tennessee. There were some weird things going on. Milliner actually sat out. So hopefully she’s back in the lineup. And yeah it’ll be interesting. They’re a good mix of really really young and really really experienced. So see how that one pans out.
[SOUND BYTE]
ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. Elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
JESSICA: Visit elitesportzband.com, that’s sportz with a z, and save $5 on your next purchase with the code Gymcast.
JESSICA: Let’s talk about gymternet news. And of course we’re all playing Fantasy Gymnastics. So how did your teams do. Uncle Tim?
UNCLE TIM: Alright, so [LAUGHS] I don’t know if there’s any other way to put this. But this past weekend I bombed harder than Alicia Sacramone at the 2008 Olympics. The first week, I did ok. I got a 195.475. This week, I just didn’t have time and I didn’t change my lineup. And I ended up with a 156 [LAUGHS].
JESSICA: That sucks. But it is based on averages. So.
UNCLE TIM: What about you Evan?
EVAN: I actually just clicked over if you heard that. 196.863. Hello. Which is actually still like pretty bad in my fantasy league in my division. But I will take that because alright here’s the thing. Here is the thing. I got so excited during this fantasy draft that I picked like 100 f-ing gymnasts. And I was like she does one cool thing, she walked past me on the sidewalk one time, definitely. I’m all about her. So I have a really really random assortment of athletes. And so I don’t want to say that for me to get a 196.863 is pretty legit, but it is. It is. So patting myself on the back. I was alright with it.
JESSICA: Well that’s nice for you Evan. But my team got a 197.4 something. Yes. That’s right. Which I believe puts me in like second place in my division. And it is Miss one Sydney Sawa, the Minnesota girls I chose, Moriah Martin at Denver who I feel like everyone overlooks. So we had a question from one of our listeners. It’s from Olivia in the United Kingdom. Thank you for writing in Olivia. She talks a lot about listening to the show. She loves it. She’s a new fan of the sport since the Olympics. And she says “however through listening to your show every week, I have learned a lot. And love being a member of the gymternet.” Yay welcome to the gymternet family Olivia! So she says that she’s really informed about elite but she’s not sure about NCAA. She’s just signed up for Fantasy Gym. And what’s frustrating for her is she does not know how to tell how to put up on which apparatus. How is she supposed to tell who’s going to compete when and how she should submit her lineup. So. Olivia, this is a frustration for all of us because we never know who’s going to compete and be in the lineup. How do you guys, what’s your strategy for deciding on your lineup?
UNCLE TIM: Don’t ask me, I got a 156.
[LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: Evan even though you only got a 196, do you want to answer that?
EVAN: A meager 196. I would say I look a lot, not a lot, I don’t invest too much into it. But I feel like Fantasy Gymnastics is set up in this iteration online to be pretty helpful to seeing the most recent scores and also the average of the scores when you’re choosing your lineup. So that’s a pretty good gauge to go on. But also remember it’s early on in the lineup, might have some freshmen who are either coming off injuries or you’re just pacing some athletes as well. So it really is kind of a coin toss. You can go on who’s been competing, but don’t forget that some athletes will rest before conference, regional, and national meets. So later on in the season. So there’s nothing to really bank on. And I feel like that’s one of the differentiators in Fantasy Gymnastics is we don’t get a bonafide press release saying RGIII will definitely be playing this weekend. So yeah it’s kind of the beauty of it. Frustration, but also part of the appeal. Makes it fun.
JESSICA: Yeah exactly. There’s no guarantees. It’s not the NFL. And you just kind of have to guess based on the scores they’ve posted or what you think’s going to happen. So. And I would just like to say I mean I know I’m bragging about 197 but I completely forgot to set my lineup last week so I got a big fat 0. So I don’t actually rank anywhere on my conference in real life because it’s based on averages and I have a 0 and a 197.4. Which gives me no average. So I’m not actually winning anything, even though I like to brag that theoretically I’m in second place. So. I’ve set many many alarms now so that I remember to set my lineup.
UNCLE TIM: The truth comes out. So Jess, while you’re telling the truth, do you also have an apology for a girl who once upon a time injured her face while sliding down a beam and scratching her face up with a sparkle?
JESSICA: Yes. I feel like karma is as we know, a huge bitch. And that has come to bite me in the ass. So you know we always laughed very hard about Kelsi Blalock and her poor sticker face injury on beam. And of course this weekend my friend did my nails for me and she put these sparkles on my nails which I just think are fabulous. Then I was coming home from a meet really late and I scratched my eye with you know you scratch your eye or whatever but I used the finger that had that sparkles on it and I got a giant scratch on my eyelid from the sparkles on my nail polish. So I would just like to say my apologies for ever making fun of anyone for wearing sparkles and I’m a giant hypocrite. And my eyelid hurts.
[LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: That’s all
UNCLE TIM: Alright. Then in world record news, a girl from New Hampshire recently did 30 handstand pirouettes and now has the record for handstand pirouettes. Do you guys think you could do that?
JESSICA: Do you have to do them all in a row without stepping down?
UNCLE TIM: Yes
JESSICA: No I could not
EVAN: How many?
UNCLE TIM 30
EVAN: Definitely no, no. Strong no
UNCLE TIM: Me either. I used to break capillaries in my face doing gymnastics like holding handstands for a long time. And I just can’t imagine doing 30 handstand pirouettes. My face would look nasty afterward.
JESSICA: If you could step down in between them
UNCLE TIM: Then what’s the point?
[LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: Do one, stop, take half a sandwich, do another
JESSICA: Take a nap, have some tea, then I could do it. Over the course of a whole day, but not in a row. I’m just saying theoretically like my team, how my team’s in second place theoretically.
UNCLE TIM: Gotcha. The other news from the gymternet that was really going around and kind of went viral at least on Facebook is the story of a little girl from Rockford, Illinois. She had leukemia and lost a leg and her gymnastics coach said you know I’ve never coached a one leg gymnast before but I am willing to try. And they kind of look at her story in this newspaper article. We’ll link to it on our website. It’s one of those feel good stories. And I don’t know I am very impressed. I don’t know how I would, I don’t know what I would do if I lost a leg, if I’d still be like alright I want to do gymnastics or if I’d just wallow in my own self pity. Probably the latter. So I’m impressed with this young little girl.
JESSICA: So as you guys know we have our listener survey up. And I was talking last week about how I love some of the suggestions we’ve gotten from our listener survey. So I wanted to read you a couple of them. Please take the survey. It’s going to be up for another two weeks so there’s plenty of time. We love getting your feedback and we’re going to implement it all. Maybe Uncle Tim will make some sexy data out of it. Some charts. Some pie charts. Some graphs. So one of the things we asked is if you guys had ideas for the gym nerd challenge, some things you’d like us to do. [LAUGHS] So one person said they wanted the challenge to be to compete [LAUGHS] to be the next member of the Azerbaijan gymnastics team. I don’t know why I think that’s so hilarious. I love that. Ok. One gym nerd challenge they want is do a floor pose next to your local tourist attraction. I completely love that idea too. There one person suggested their dream guest host for the show would be Martha Karolyi. I wholeheartedly agree. I think it’s a fantastic idea. Another person who thinks we have magic wand, I like to think I do too, suggested that we get Maroney on the American Cup roster. So I think maybe we should just start a gymternet petition to put her on the roster, guest star McKayla Maroney. American Cup.
UNCLE TIM: It’s not entirely impossible as she competed all around at Worlds. So if you know Simone or Kyla don’t compete, she could very well find herself on that roster.
JESSICA: One of the other suggestions we got says the following: “Thanks for all of your hard work on the podcast. I enjoy listening to it and it makes my commute much more tolerable. Have you ever thought of doing any travel packages to major domestic and international competitions?” I love this idea. Gymcastic travel. Yes. Can you imagine how fun that would be? What if we could charter our own private jet. We could have a floor routine contest, trivia contest on the plane, the signs we could come up with and make on the flight over to hold up in the arena. They would be legendary. Legendary. I think that’s fantastic. All travel agencies please contact me immediately and we will start setting this up. So remember to take the survey and give us your ideas. Until next week I’m Jessica from masters-gymnastics.
UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym
EVAN: And I’m Evan. Find me on Twitter @yoev
JESSICA: Remember to take the survey. See you guys next week.
[OUTRO MUSIC]
JESSICA: I’ve got, man I’ve got audio clips this week. I have my sound machine. I’m so ready, it’s not even funny.
UNCLE TIM: I bet the sound clip is “Oh boogers!”
JESSICA: That’s exactly what it is, thank you. You are correct.
EVAN: Madison is a member of the Cherokee- Oh boogers!
[LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: That was right, that was the best thing ever.
UNCLE TIM: Working at McDonalds, that’s Jess’ wish for everything.
[LAUGHTER]
