Casey Jo Magee Balance Beam Training June 2011

Casey Jo is a 22-year-old graduate of The University of Arkansas who decided to pursue elite gymnastics after finishing her collegiate gymnastics career.  She’s currently training at Capital Gymnastics in Austin, Texas, and has competed in the WOGA Elite Qualifier this February (video shown above) and recently at the American Classic qualifier at the Karolyi Ranch, where she won beam with an impressive 14.6 (5.8, 8.8).  She’ll be competing at the Covergirl Classic in Chicago later this month and has also already qualified for the Visa U.S. Championships in Chicago next month on at least three events – vault, beam, and floor.

This has got to be one of the coolest beam routines in the entire world…both of them.  The tucked “Garrison” mount (roundoff back with a full twist onto the beam) is an F skill and has only been done by a handful of gymnasts.  And Magee’s turning skills are out of this world; she has without a doubt one of the best triple turns ever done on beam, and her combo in the second routine of double turn immediate full turn is one of the most stylish turning sequences in the world today (Aliya Mustafina was doing a similar sequence in training at the American Cup this year but didn’t complete it in the actual competition).  Even beyond these unique skills, she has some fantastic additional skills (roundoff layout, side aerial, side somi, tour jete connection, and gainer double full dismount off one leg) that make this routine truly world class.  She’s also done a 2 ½ twist dismount in training from the same entry, just as Svetlana Khorkina competed in 2004.

Although I don’t foresee Casey being a factor on any other event, cool gymnastics is cool gymnastics.  This routine is a must-see and should be an intriguing addition to the field at the U.S. Championships in just a few weeks.

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Sweet!  Now THAT is a jam to handstand! Probably the best one ever done in fact, not to mention the unique jam out the back door into German giant at the beginning.

Shannay Gentles Balance Beam

I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth watching again.  Never even really seen a “Manna” done by a female before, and this outrageous skill takes it to a whole new level.

Lee Joo Huang Parallel Bars

Truly a high bar sequence done on parallel bars!

Dive Roll on Balance Beam

I’ve often wondered why this skill hasn’t been done on beam before, and there you go!  Haven’t seen it done since though.

Boris Preti High Bar

We’ve seen gymnasts catch with one arm by accident because when they can’t get the other hand on, but this one definitely appears deliberate…quite ambitious!

Again, thanks to wtfgymnasticsvideos for providing these videos!

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This youtube user has lots of great gymnastics clips, ranging from super cool skills to super scary crashes.  I’ll post just a few of my favorites (among the more tasteful ones) here:

Tatiana Gutsu Uneven Bars

 
Not sure when this video was taken, but crazy to see the 1992 Olympic All-Around Champion doing something unique we’ve never seen before…quite a cool way to get from the low bar to the high bar!

Sergei Kharkov High Bar

Incredible!  The only gymnast I’ve ever seen connect a Covacs to a Tcatchev, and he gets enough turnover to connect more releases out of it – fantastic!!!

Natalia Kalinina Balance Beam

The next time you start to get mad at your Level 5 gymnast for doing something so silly, go back and watch this video of Soviet world team member and Goodwill Games all-around champion Natalia Kalinina. Can’t even imagine what her coach had to say after that one…

Latvian gymnast High Bar

Awesome stuff!!  Never seen a gymnast do a Gienger out of German giants – super cool!

Melinda Baimbridge Balance Beam

Melinda Baimbridge was a super talent who kind of just disappeared. Never, ever seen this sequence done before by any gymnast.  Not sure if she ever competed this again, but what a brilliant and gutsy sequence!

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Completely random, I know, but what a cool routine!  I think I’ve only seen that double pirouette done one another time, and it was done by mistake.  This one looked intentional by Zharganova, and what made it so special is that she connected it right into a high and beautifully executed Gienger.  Awesome!  It’s unfortunate that no gymnast would dare try this skill under today’s code, as it would be nearly impossible to finish in a handstand and would thus be destroyed from a judging standpoint, but it’s also only a D skill…the same as a 1 ½!

What many probably don’t realize is that Zharganova did make a world or Olympic bar final FOUR other times in her career, though she never reached the medal podium.  She finished 8^th in 1999, 5^th in 2000, 5^th in 2001, and 6^th in 2002.  Ironically, I think this 2003 routine was better than any of them, and it missed making the final by 0.013.  Had she been a world medalist heading into Anaheim or perhaps simply carried a different flag behind her name, I think that score would have been a little higher.

Here’s a tribute to this innovative and perhaps underappreciated gymnast, with a look at some of her other routines from world and Olympic competition:

Tatiana Zharganova Uneven Bars 2000 Olympics Event Finals

Tatiana Zharganova Uneven Bars 2001 Worlds Event Finals

Tatiana Zharganova Uneven Bars 2002 Worlds Semi-Finals

The post One of the coolest bar routines you never saw! appeared first on American Gymnast and Ninja.

Check this out!

As you may know, a “Ri Jong Song” is a triple twisting double back on floor (named for the Korean who competed it in Athens in 2004).  There have been a very small handful of other gymnasts who have competed or at least done this skill on the real floor…Justin Spring and Kohei Uchimura to name a couple.

Want to see it stuck perfectly in competition?  Germany’s Marcel Nguyen did just that in the all-around competition of the Japan Cup this weekend.  This video shows four of his routines, but his floor routine starts right at 3:00.

Marcel Nguyen PB, HB, FX, PH 2010 Japan Cup

If you’re like me, you might have had to watch it a few times to fully convince yourself that it’s a TRIPLE twisting double back, because at first glance it may appear like just a double-double.  However, it is a triple twisting double, and his start value of 6.6 substantiates it as well:

Triple twisting double (G)   0.7

Front double full +        (D)  0.4

Front full                          (C)  0.3

Connection                              0.1

Laid-out Thomas            (E)  0.5

Wide-arm press               (C)  0.3

Whip +                                (B)  0.2

Laid-out Arabian 1 ¾     (D)  0.4

Connection                                  0.1

Back 2 ½ +                          (D)  0.4

Barani                                    (B)  0.2

Connection                                   0.1

Full-in                                    (D)  0.4

Total Difficulty                         4.1

Element Groups                       2.5

Total D-Score                             6.6

Just wanted to prove to myself that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, because that one was pretty hard to believe!  Marcel scored a 15.45 for this routine, and ended up 7^th in the all-around with an 88.55.  He scored a 15.6 on floor in the team competition, where Germany won the silver behind Japan.

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We all saw this young Japanese star compete a layout full mount on beam (named after American Kelly Garrison), and in fact did so quite easily.  Well at a competition last month in Japan, Sasada turned it into a really cool and stunning combination:

Natsumi Sasada Beam 2010 All Japan

Incredible!  It’s hard to even appreciate how difficult that is because of how easy she makes it look, but no one as ever done anything like that before.  Similar the layout to immediate back handspring swing down that many of the Chinese girls do, but this is a whole new level entirely.  Here’s a look at a floor routine Sasada competed at the NHK Cup in Japan just a couple of weeks ago:

Natsumi Sasada Floor 2010 NHK Cup

Nailed double-double…wow!  She makes that look really easy too…in fact I wasn’t sure she was going to go for it when I saw her run.  She has amazing control over all her landings, and everything is very clean.  I would expect a little more difficulty in the other passes is coming.  This routine scored in the low-14 range, which is very strong for floor.

Natsumi finished 5^th all-around in this two-day competition, with scores of 56.15 and 54.65.  Kokp Tsurumi won with a 58.125 and 57.65.

And just to show you how consistent that double-double is…back to the All Japan competition:

Natsumi Sasada Floor 2010 All Japan:

If you’re looking forward to seeing Natsumi Sasada at worlds this year, don’t hold your breath.  I believe she is still 14 years old…can anyone confirm this?

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In today’s gymnastics world nothing is criticized more than the lack of artistry.  It’s the common complaint among judges, coaches, analysts, fans, and even the athletes themselves.  “Artistry” is hard to quantify because it’s such a subjective term… we all have different pictures in our heads about what true artistry really means.  I’m going to do a few blogs on some of the gymnasts and routines in history that I think exemplify the beauty and magic that this sport is all about.

I’ll start with one of my favorite female gymnasts of all time, and one who I think exemplifies the artistic side of the sport. – France’s Ludivine Furnon.  In my opinion, Furnon is the best dancer in gymnastics history, and I believe she’s someone that every single elite female gymnast should not only watch, but genuinely study.  For  the entire last half of the 90’s (and even some between 2000 and 2002), Furnon delivered what I consider the most entertaining floor routines of all time.  What’s most impressive is that her routines weren’t entertaining in a “cheesy” sense, but rather were entertaining on a truly professional level.   As she also mixed in tumbling that was among the best in the world in her day, Furnon’s floor routines were absolutely stunning to watch.  Let’s get a better idea what this sport is missing nowadays by taking a closer look at this remarkable sensation.

Ludivine Furnon Floor 1995 Worlds Event Finals

Ludivine Furnon Floor 1997 Worlds Qualifications

Ludivine Furnon Floor 1998 European Championships

Ludivine Furnon Floor 1999 Worlds Event Finals

Ludivine Furnon Floor 2000 European Championships Event Finals

So which is your favorite routine of hers?  Although I think all of them are fantastic, I think that her best choreographed routines were her 1995 routine and her 2000 routine.   It’s unfortunate that Ludivine’s accolades never quite matched up with her abilities.  She did win a surprise bronze medal on floor at the 1995 Worlds (with the routine shown above), but then missed making the final at the 1996 Olympics.  She proved she was far more than just a floor specialist by making the balance beam finals at the 1997 Worlds, and actually placing 4^th in the final – just one tenth from the gold medal.  She also made the floor final at the 1999 Worlds, but unfortunately the step out of bounds (shown above) resulted in a seemingly harsh 9.612 for 6^th place.  Her brightest moment perhaps came at the 2000 Europeans event finals, where she won the gold medal with that brilliant routine shown above, defeating several of the greatest floor workers in history – Andrea Raducan, Simona Amanar, Elena Produnova, Elena Zamalodchikova, and Viktoria Karpenko.  At  the Olympics later that year in Sydney, she unfortunately competed bars only (I assume due to injury) and thus couldn’t challenge for an Olympic floor medal.

Just to show you how well balanced this gymnast was, let’s look at a few of her other routines:

Ludivine Furnon Vault 1996 Olympics

An awesome Yurchenko double full!  Believe it or not, this scored a mere 9.6 – strangely unappreciated.

Ludivine Furnon Bars 2000 Olympics

Ludivine Furnon Beam 1997 Worlds Event Finals

She was pretty amazing on beam.  That was the routine that landed her 4^th in the world in 1997.  It’s a shame she never factored into any major all-around competitions, because as you can see, she was well capable of it.  Nowadays we’d all LOVE to see a gymnast this well-balanced!

Next…a look at some other French gymnasts who have defined artistry and innovativeness in our sport.

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Cool! I’ve actually never even seen anyone connect a laid-out Tcatchev into a Rybalko – very difficult because of the turnover required in a laid-out position in order to get enough swing out of the release. And then the laid-out Tcatchev with a half turn – very original! That requires a lot of turnover as well to be able to swing a front giant out of it.

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