1. McKayla Maroney's Amanar
McKayla truly performs this vault better than anyone I have ever seen. She gets so much block, and her form is almost perfect. Look how much height she gets from her block!Sorry for the bad quality, my screen capping skills aren't the greatest!
Click to enlarge
2. Jordyn Wieber's Bars
Bars are not Jordyn's strongest event, and I think it will be interesting to see it she can hit under the pressure she will be under at Trials. Everyone is expecting great things from Jordy, myself included, and if she can't hit bars at trials, it will be interesting to see if she can at the games, where as many gymnasts documented, is way more pressure than at trials. I hope she can pull it together at nationals, because when she hits, it is a great routine to watch.
3. Gabby Douglas on Beam
I love Gabby, I don't think I could be anymore straight forward. She is one of the best gymnasts in the US right now, and watching her gymnastics is a treat for me. However, beam is the one little clink in her armor. Here's an analogy for you guys, Jordyn Wieber is to bars and Gabby Douglas is to beam. (Incase you couldn't tell, I LOVE Jordyn Wieber also). Anyway, she has come such a far way from where she was klast year on this event. Must I remind you? Anyway, if she can hit here, I think it will solidify her case even more than she already has, maybe even have a shot at the title.
4. Bridget Sloan's Bars
She is a true dark horse. Not many people see her on this Olympic team, and think she could possibly punch her ticket because of her experience (2009 World AA Champ) and this routine. She's had a string of injuries, but this event looked great at nationals, but she showed some room to improve, which hopefully she will showcase that improvement at trials.
5. Lastly, Nastia's Bars
Disclaimer, this is not a full routine, just her #dismount, in the words of Spanny Tampson. (You can read her expectations for Nastia here, along with her hilarious reaction to various parts of Nastia's comeback.) If Nastia wants to even think about London, she needs to go four-for-four, which might not even be enough. She needs to do her full routine, #dismount included.
So, this is just a few little things I think will be routines to look for tomorrow and Sunday in San Jose. Feel free to comment about what you want to see. Look for another post like this one on Saturday, where I'll look through routines from night one and name the top 5 important story lines for Sunday, which of course will be my opinions. Good luck at trial for the men, which begin in an hour on NBC, and the women tomorrow night!
I moreso want to see McKayla's floor and Bridget's floor. McKayla's vaults will be incredible as always and while they are how she will get on the team, it is her floor that can shake things up a bit if she can land that third pass in bounds. I do enjoy Gabby but I want to see McKayla do floor ahead of her in TF, but only of course if the third pass is not a nail-biting Bross-Patterson moment.
ReplyDeleteBridget's bars will I'm pretty sure be clean and good. It's her floor that makes her a great alternate. It was sloppy before, but was quite clean according to quick hits. I'm excited to see what she can do.
Also, Gabby's bars. WILL she upgrade? Even if she hit beam she shouldn't be let near it in TF, too risky though it is so well done when she is on..her standing full twist is so unrelated to Shawn's. It's just like Priakhina's.
Sarah Finnegan's beam and floor. I want to see her do both perfectly and be alternate. I prefer her over Ross because Ross has kinda boring gymnastics, but I get that we need Ross' bars.
I am looking forward to seeing good amanars from all, McKayla and Jordyn are of course the only certainties there. I do NOT want to see an amanar from Kyla if she keeps proving herself to be not the master of the situation, it is injury waiting to happen. Likewise Gabby often sits hers, her block is too flat. Both can be good and it would be great to see them, but not at the expense of their knees. It would also be nice to see Aly cleaning hers up and straightening her legs. It is not Nabieva-like territory but it's not too far off.
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I agree about McKayla's floor, i like this one more than last year, and that 3rd pass scares me everytime. I like her routine more than Gabby's, its much more elegant and less robotic, but she always scores lower. I want to see Bridet's floor to, it was wierd to see her not sticking passes, which was something she was very good at in 09. I'm not sure if Gabby will upgrade, but if she does, then she'll just make her bid for a bars medal even stronger. If i were coaching her, however, I'd focus less on upgrading bars and working on beam. I think her's and Shawn's full twist are different due to the fact they had different primary training. I love Sarah also, she's born in the wrong year. I would love to see her as an alternate. I would've posted a video of anything from her, but nothing was on youtube, so I had to work around what I had. I prefer her to Ross to, I can't put my finger on it, it might because watching her at Pacific Rim and she bored me, and her floor just bores me as well. Her amanar scares me to the point of a cannonbross (Another Spanny word, Thanks Spanny!) You need to stay on the landing pad when you vault! When Gabby is on on that event, it's great, but she gets inconsistent, which is so frustrating to watch because you know what she's capable of! Thanks for the kind words, what's your blog??
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I liked McKayla's floor last year too, this one just has more developed expression maybe. This one suits her even more. I enjoy Gabby's tumbling and her leaps out of passes can be spectacular but I hate everything else about that routine. McKayla could easily outscore it in London in prelims but never in the US when Gabby is so overscored. Gabby is rumoured to have a 6.9 routine. Komova and Mustafina have cleaner lines and of course Tweddle's routine is much more exciting, it's hard to call if Gabby can medal when the comp for it is so fierce..will be the best EF I think.
DeleteI think it's because Sarah's gymnastics are even cleaner, but she takes risks and has greater expression..and more creative skills. Yep vault wil be very interesting. Unfortunately I can't view Trials webcast, it is region blocked to US only...hopefully it will be up on youtube very fast because I cannot wait for Trials!
Mine is beautifulgymmnastics.blogspot.com
ke too, I can't wait to see the bars final, I think it will be very close! I have people coming over tonight, so won't be able to watch it until 11/11:30ish.
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