Watching the seniors - P&G

[bogwoppit]

But, you just never know....

Nobody is really a lock until they step on the floor at O's are they. This is one tough sport. Definitely not the one to pick if you want your kid to be an Olympian.

 

[GymMom4]

Nobody is really a lock until they step on the floor at O's are they. This is one tough sport. Definitely not the one to pick if you want your kid to be an Olympian.

So true!

Things can change in a second.

 

[vagymmomma]

What great performances last night! Can't wait to see more of the men's tonight as well. Ragan can be an amazing world class gymnast, but I have felt all year that she's not quite there from a maturity perspective (and it has nothing to do with her size or age -- it's something with the performance).

I love Aly, but her leaps/jumps drive me batty. They seemed worse last night than normal.

 

[bogwoppit]

What great performances last night! Can't wait to see more of the men's tonight as well. Ragan can be an amazing world class gymnast, but I have felt all year that she's not quite there from a maturity perspective (and it has nothing to do with her size or age -- it's something with the performance).

I love Aly, but her leaps/jumps drive me batty. They seemed worse last night than normal.

When they talked about Kim Z rewarding her with beads for not crying and good routines I realised that Ragan is just very immature. Maybe in 4 years she will be killing it, but any 15 year old that is motivated not to cry by beads is really not ready for this process.

 

[munchkin3]

The only reason I'm not into Ali, although I know she will go, is that she is a power gymnast and lacks the grace and lines. The US team is such a power team, we need some artistry. If only Eythora could rub off on the US a little.
Lauren has nice lines, Simone is Simone. Gabby was freaking me out with her robot face. I could cry for Ragan- she really brings something new to the table but I agree with the maturity part.

Agree with the beads- my 15 year old gets something very different when behavior is sub par.......

 

[GymMom4]

When they talked about Kim Z rewarding her with beads for not crying and good routines I realised that Ragan is just very immature. Maybe in 4 years she will be killing it, but any 15 year old that is motivated not to cry by beads is really not ready for this process.

Yes, I was a little embarrassed for her when they mentioned that.

 

[l.c.o]

When they talked about Kim Z rewarding her with beads for not crying and good routines I realised that Ragan is just very immature. Maybe in 4 years she will be killing it, but any 15 year old that is motivated not to cry by beads is really not ready for this process.

YES. My 12 year old DD would not be motivated by beads. At all. I'm pretty sure she'd be offended if a coach tried to reward her that way.

My 9 year old... Maybe?

I felt quite embarrassed for Ragan. And it's something that everyone now knows.

 

[bogwoppit]

YES. My 12 year old DD would not be motivated by beads. At all. I'm pretty sure she'd be offended if a coach tried to reward her that way.

My 9 year old... Maybe?

I felt quite embarrassed for Ragan. And it's something that everyone now knows.

They made fun of a couple of juniors earlier too. Probably not the coolest thing to do.

 

[flippingtogether]

What great performances last night! Can't wait to see more of the men's tonight as well. Ragan can be an amazing world class gymnast, but I have felt all year that she's not quite there from a maturity perspective (and it has nothing to do with her size or age -- it's something with the performance).

I love Aly, but her leaps/jumps drive me batty. They seemed worse last night than normal.

I couldn't agree more about Aly - love her love her, but I know the form isn't quite right.....I found this great article that explains more about how the form issues affect her score on beam (plus see how Simone is so clean plus has excellent difficulty/well constructed routines - thus scores so well).
Interesting point in article - US judges are more lenient than international judges with Aly's form - ???

I also needed to understand the code of points better and this article does a great job explaining it.

Link Removed

 

[bogwoppit]

I couldn't agree more about Aly - love her love her, but I know the form isn't quite right.....I found this great article that explains more about how the form issues affect her score on beam (plus see how Simone is so clean plus has excellent difficulty/well constructed routines - thus scores so well).
Interesting point in article - US judges are more lenient than international judges with Aly's form - ???

I also needed to understand the code of points better and this article is great explaining it.

Link Removed

US judges are very kind to Aly. Her legs are atrocious on her BHS and her vault is really tucked in post flight. But clearly Marta loves her.

Aly looks in amazing shape, she clearly works very hard in the gym. But weak basics really show.

 

[munchkin3]

People forget, these athletes have been way more sheltered, they home school, and their world is much smaller than 'normal' kids. The immaturity is to be expected and they should not have brought it up.
The general public has no idea what these kids are up to. Yes, it sounds weird but I can see this working. (Not with my kids, lol)
I hope Ragan can get through this meet. She is awesome, and she should not have to feel embarrassed about anything.

 

[munchkin3]

What is with gabby? She seems to be emitting some strange vibes.

 

[txgymfan]

I cringed when they referred to the beads as "age appropriate" . My 10 year old would like it, but not the give away part. My 8 year old would laugh but be a good sport, because that's in her nature.

 

[txgymfan]

US judges are very kind to Aly. Her legs are atrocious on her BHS and her vault is really tucked in post flight. But clearly Marta loves her.

Aly looks in amazing shape, she clearly works very hard in the gym. But weak basics really show.

Aly's form bothers me too. An article said he coach wants Martha's job. Please please no! I get that she works hard and doesn't fall but I want to see more than that.

 

[duyetanh]

They made fun of a couple of juniors earlier too. Probably not the coolest thing to do.

While the bead thing is a bit different (my 8 year old said she sure wouldnt want the world knowing it, and would not be into it herself), I don't feel ANY of these girls should be poked fun at on national TV with what they go through to be where they are. I mean, seriously folks. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black in terms of immaturity?
Hmph.

 

[MILgymFAM]

My feeling about the beads is that it was a comment meant to make people say, wow- she's so little. Yes WE all know how old she is, but regular people? Every time she was on screen, from the ranch docu to the comp, my husband said, "what is she? 8?" She looks and sounds much younger than she is and they played it up.
Besides that, age and maturity aside, I think the beads are a harmless team motivation game. A tactile points system. My DD would buy into that just because her coaches asked her to, and anything that can be a cohesive team system can work. I know it sounds babyish, but I doubt she's actually motivated by beads.. It's just a fun little thing.

 

[txgymfan]

I honestly don't think they were trying to make fun of her. Just playing up the young part. If they show her floor, I think she has the Munster's as her music. She could be stunning in 4 years. Hopefully she will stay elite.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

People forget, these athletes have been way more sheltered, they home school, and their world is much smaller than 'normal' kids. The immaturity is to be expected and they should not have brought it up.
The general public has no idea what these kids are up to. Yes, it sounds weird but I can see this working. (Not with my kids, lol)
I hope Ragan can get through this meet. She is awesome, and she should not have to feel embarrassed about anything.

I agree. Ragan also had her only senior teammate pull out this week too and I imagine that's hard. To me it seems that she maybe is a bit immature (and that's normal) but she seems to have not integrated with the other senior girls as well as Laurie has. You see Laurie laughing, joking and having fun with everyone but Ragan seems to be a bit more shy/intimidated around the older girls. And who could blame her? I know your performance technically "shouldn't" be affected by things like that but I think having teammates or close friends to really cheer you on and boost you up on an important competition day makes a huge difference. At least it does for my dd.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

Nobody is really a lock until they step on the floor at O's are they. This is one tough sport. Definitely not the one to pick if you want your kid to be an Olympian.

My 11 year old (Puma Sr?) non-gymmie was very interested in the bobsled in 2014, and I told her that is actually way more of a possibility than gymnastics! We're only a couple hours from Lake Placid, right? Lol

 

[Mrs. Puma]

When they talked about Kim Z rewarding her with beads for not crying and good routines I realised that Ragan is just very immature. Maybe in 4 years she will be killing it, but any 15 year old that is motivated not to cry by beads is really not ready for this process.

I was trying to figure out if they were kidding about that....very odd!