Back in 2004 the US team was severely lacking some legit floor workers. She had a bunch of gymnasts with lower start values that could not consistently hit their dance moves (think Mohini Bardjwa) and in the end it cost the US any chance at a gold medal.
Well here in 2010 the event bringing the US down big time is the Uneven bars and bringing back Nastia for one event is not going to help the US beat China or Russia who have some amazing up and comers on the uneven bars .
Marta needs to hire an uneven bar coach now. The gymnasts she is counting on for the future are not very good at bars. Kyla Ross, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Sabrina Vega these are the future of the sport and they are not going to help the US on the one event they really need the help.
It’s time for Marta to wake up and fix the situation. She needs to hire an UB coach and take the gymnasts with potential on that event aside and dedicate. A good example of someone she should have done this for last quad was Shawn Johnson. Shawn has great form on bars and she swings the bars very well there is no way she should have gone into the Olympics with a low start value on bars. She was capable of so much more on that event then what she performed.
Right now there is some potential on bars for the future. Macko Caquatto, Cassie Whitcomb, Madison Kocian and McKenzie Wofford come to mind and I am sure there are a lot more. Madison is only 13 so she won’t be ready for 2012 but there is gymnastics beyond the next Olympics. Now is time to prepare for this.
Jordyn and Kyla also have potential on the event but as of right now they are not using it. Kyla is young but Jordyn is going to have to improve on bars to beat Komova or Grishina.
Here is Madison at the recent Woga invite. She needs a lot of work but she is pretty good at hitting her handstands. She needs to be pushed on this event more. Right now she is pretty inconsistent overall.
March 29, 2010 at 3:45 am |
Nastia is not the answer. (I think.) She sucked it up and got a lot done for the Olys. But she is out of condition and…really, I think the judges are going to start wacking her for the froggy legs and the like. Plus the code (while IMO still flawed) is less dramatic in rewarding code whoring now.
March 29, 2010 at 3:47 am |
That said, I think you have a key point here which is that it is still possible to pad some scores with the right tactics and emphasis on UB given the still lax CV possibilities. The Chinese exploited this well at the Olys. And the Russians are exploiting it now. We need to get wise to that as well.
March 29, 2010 at 3:47 am |
I agree. Plus one overscored UB worker will not cut it with what Russia has coming up. The UB has an unfair advantage over the other 3 events especially floor and bars and it is about time they fix this. It just isn’t fair to call a two event gymnast an AA because she takes advantage on one event.
March 29, 2010 at 3:50 am |
In order to exploit this we need some better UB workers. We are quickly becoming Romania.
Marta can’t take Nastia for one event in 2012 because if she does and someone gets injured like last time it could keep the US off the podium. She needs AAers decent on all 4 events.
March 29, 2010 at 4:13 am |
I don’t think it’s really gymnastical, to be honest. It’s a swing event, so CV should not be so emphasized. Flight to flight makes sense. Maybe strange grip to flight (el or one arm). but piro to flight? Nah…. Sure…there are some who can do it and others not. But it’s not appealing to the average fan or even a gymnasitcally educated man. And on UB? It’s not like you’re trying to prevent Johnny Horton from cranking two Chinese tap giants before each release (the bars don’t flex as much and successive giants produce less force because of the intervening bar).
March 29, 2010 at 4:22 am |
I donno. Bringing a single event specialist on UB (or perhaps V with an Amanar) might be a strategy. Maybe require them to be able to capable of chucking a 13 capable routine everywhere, just for a prelims crisis.
Also, really, it seems like she needs to think more about the injury situation. The girls have jus HUGE incentives to do whatever they can to get to the Olys. Even if they contribute nothing like Sam P, still they are Olympians. I’m not sure what the answer is, but if there were some way to better check for injuries?? Also, the damn alternates should be in country. Look at the men, they went with 3 and had them close. And needed two of them. Also, I totally understand that Chelsie on one event was better than Jana (given we could go 4 for 4 on prelims on 3 events). But Marta took a risk. With one more injury, we could not have even done prelims. Something to think about in future situations.
March 29, 2010 at 4:23 am |
Plus…why am I not banned yet?
March 29, 2010 at 8:41 pm |
Why would I ban you TCO? You haven’t sent spam. You have opinions and you believe in them. I have no problem with you at all.
There are only a few IP numbers banned and they are troll IG people that sent crap and harassing mail because I dared to tell the facts about Nastia being a phony and overrated. Even they wouldn’t have been banned if I didn’t get sent a few chat transcripts from some people they think are their friends about how they are going to troll this blog.
If people want to defend Nastia they have every right but I won’t take hypocrites like the IG people that get mad when people troll their board but brag about doing it to this blog. They even bait people at IG to get them banned because they are friends with the moderators.
March 31, 2010 at 11:03 am |
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