The Sim Gym Queen...I Mean Runner-Up......

Because following my own college gymnastics team and obsessing over every balance check and imperfect landing was not quite enough to feed my addiction, this year I participated in a fantasy gymnastics competition called SimGym. There weren't many of us in our little group, which is probably the best way for a newbie like me to be introduced to the concept.

At the beginning of the season, we all logged on to an instant messaging service and participated in a "draft" of actual college gymnasts from all over the country. We went through 16 rounds, and the only limitation was that you couldn't choose a gymnast if someone else already had her. I chose mostly gymnasts from the SEC, because those are the teams I'm most familiar with. I chose a couple of gems from other teams based on their reputations or how much hype was associated with their choice of college.

Each week we chose line-ups from our rosters of gymnasts, just like a real coach would. Unlike a real coach, however, we had no prior knowledge of who might have tweaked an ankle or just SUCKED in practice that week. We chose six gymnasts and three alternates. Nothing made my stomach churn more than realizing one of my alternates scored higher than some of the ones I put in the line-up, and I couldn't count those scores unless one of my regulars didn't compete. Just like in true competition, we dropped the lowest score, counting five, and submitted our scores to each other at the end of each weekend.

What this meant was that in addition to following my usual team, I had 11 other teams to follow each weekend, just to see how "my" gymnasts did in actual competition. It wasn't unusual for me to have two or three video streams going on with an additional four windows devoted to live scoring. I am comfortable enough in my own skin to reveal these sure signs of insanity to my closest blog readers.

I chose 4 UGA girls for my team, mainly because I knew I would be seeing a lot of them this year and because...how could I NOT? What I didn't realize was that the week UGA was not competing, I would have to scramble to put a complete line-up together. I thought I was going to have to pull virtual fans out of virtual stands to fill in for my virtual gymnasts.

I said all that to say that I may have taken second place. Or maybe third. (One girl hasn't turned in her scores yet. Butthead.) That's not bad for my first year playing the game. Those girls better watch out for next year's draft. I will revert back to my natural cut-throat self.

Gymnastics Weekend Update.....

First of all, I am officially too old to stay out until 1:30 AM. That's what time Katydid and I got back from Auburn after watching the Gym Dogs KICK SOME BUTT at the Regional Championships (more on that in a moment). And my dog can't tell time, so he got in my face at his usual 6:30 AM, apparently unconcerned that five hours is not nearly enough sleep for a 51-YEAR-OLD!!

Second of all, a big shout out to one of my favorite Dawgs, Bubba Watson, for winning the Masters. I'm so glad I picked you on my Masters sheet. If I hadn't picked some other really sucky people, I might have won some money. As it is, however, Hubby picked you too, and it appears at this point that he is tied for first place. There were over 1000 people in the pool, and they (we) each put in $20. Now we just have to wait and see how many people he tied WITH.

Third of all, another big shout out to the folks at Auburn Arena for putting on a fantastic gymnastics competition. I was a little wary of the whole "general admission" seating idea, but when I realized it meant we were free to move around the arena to see the event our gymnasts were on, I fell in love with it. (I think someone should invent a rotating arena just for gymnastics, so you can stay in your seat but the arena will move you to whatever event your team is competing on.) I understand from reading the message board that the live (and free) video streaming was among the best in the country. It can't be easy to cover six teams on four different events, everything going on at one time. It's impossible to make everyone happy, but I have heard only positive comments about Auburn's coverage. Way to go!

The Gym Dogs did a marvelous job at regionals and are headed back to the national championships, to be held in two weeks here in Georgia. The newspaper said this morning that they had won their first post-season meet since 2009, and I thought, "That's a little harsh. And wrong." But then I realized technically it was right. In 2010, our coach's first year as head coach, we VERY unexpectedly got knocked out of national championship contention at the regionals. It was the first time since Moses was a little boy that we didn't advance to nationals, and it was very hard to take. Last year we hosted our regionals, and while we did manage to advance to nationals (the top two teams in each regional advance), we came in second, so technically we didn't "win" that post-season contest.

Bars - Gym Dogs started on the uneven bars, and Katydid and I were sitting so close we could lean over and talk to them. They were relaxed and loose and having fun, and while we didn't get the 10 on bars we felt we were entitled to this season, we did a good job at regionals. Our lowest score was a 9.775, which we were able to drop, and we had a pair of 9.9's, a pair of 9.85's, and a 9.8 from a phenomenal freshman who competed only her second bars routine of the year. In the post-season, no less!

This is how close we were to the uneven bars. In the words of Katydid, "We might be able to see a little TOO much."

Sarah getting reading for bars. This is how close Katydid and I were. See that number on her leg? Officials went with leg tattoos this year instead of the paper numbers pinned to their backs. I'm not sure how I feel about them. But at least the tattoos don't cover up the oh-so-cuteness of the backs of those leotards!

I'd love to tell you I shot this picture and the one below specifically to show you the back of the leotard. In the interest of full disclosure, however, I must admit that I have entire folders of digital photos of gymnasts' butts. It's just the way it is.

Beam - The balance beam was situated all the way across the arena from where we were sitting, and Katydid and I debated about whether to move closer. It's nerve-wracking to watch the balance beam, but ultimately we moved because the host team, Auburn, was on the bars, which were between us and the beam. Plus we were surrounded by a lot of Auburn fans, so we knew it would be hard to see and hear what was going on. Things were a little shakier on beam, as they typically are, but we still did okay. Our high score was a 9.85 from a senior who has trouble with the required full turn on the beam. She can flip and twist and leap, but that full turn gets her every time. We had a trio of 9.825's and a 9.775 from a gymnast who is a tiny sophomore but has been a ROCK the second half of the season. We had to count that one because our resident ... head case ... did a flawless routine and went to her knees on a dismount that I could do. Okay, that's stretching things, but it's a simple dismount and she is a world-class gymnast and she shouldn't be losing five tenths of a point on that dismount. Rant over.

Noel on beam. I loved, loved, loved those leotards with the script "G" on the front. The back is just as cute. 

Kat calms herself before her beam routine. I know what she's saying: "Please, please, please let me get the full turn right this time."

Floor - This is most gymnasts' (and most fans') favorite event, because the nature of the event allows the gymnasts to perform, to show their personalities, to showcase some unique skills. (It's Hubby's LEAST favorite of the events, because in his words, "they're just wallowing around.") I love floor for the most part, but some of our routines this year have been ... uninspiring. Part of that is because our coach's philosophy is that if a girl is struggling with a skill, he takes it out of the routine. If I were the coach, I'd be on her like stink on poop, saying, "Get in that gym and don't come out until you can get it right." But I'm clearly NOT the coach, and it's his program to do what he wants. And how much do I really know anyway? Because our floor scores were three 9.85's (one of which was dropped), a 9.875, a 9.9 (career high from a freshman who has only done floor a few times this season), and a 9.925 from our rock-solid junior who has a captivating shark-themed routine. (The 9.925 may have been generous given the low position of her chest on at least two landings, but I figure that balances out with the 10 we have earned on bars all season but haven't been awarded.)

Vault - Again, our vault scores were not over-the-moon wonderful, but anytime you can drop a 9.825 as the lowest score, you're doing something right. We had another couple 9.825's (one from a sophomore who was a phenom her freshman year but has struggled with back issues this year and competed last night for the very first time this season), a 9.85 from someone the team refers to as "Catapult" and who usually sticks, and a pair of 9.9's.

Our team finished in the fifth rotation and had to sit out on a bye while the competition wrapped up, but it was pretty much a given that we would win. The team that ultimately finished in 2nd place, Oregon State, could have tied us with a 49.6 on the balance beam, but judging by how tight scores had been all night, we knew that was unlikely. One team could have tied us if they had scored five perfect 10's, but the others would have needed some 11's and 12's. Our total score for the night was 197.1, which is pretty good for post-season.

So now we go on to nationals. There will be two sessions of 6 teams, with the top three from each session advancing to the Super Six, where the national champions will be crowned. We know which teams we will have to face - Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon State, and Ohio State - but won't know until tomorrow which session we will be assigned to or which event we will start competition on. Katydid and I are hoping we draw the evening session, because Katydid has to work and I want to do a bike ride that morning. I would go to both sessions, but by the time you go to two sessions on Friday, the team finals on Saturday, and individual event finals on Sunday (they also crown an individual winner on each apparatus), it's sort of a gymnastics overdose. Even for someone as obsessed devoted as I. If we are assigned to the earlier session I will probably attend both, because I'll either know we are in the Super Six and I want to find out which teams we will face, or I'll know we are NOT in the Super Six and I want to see if I can cast a hex on all the other teams. My loyalty runs deep.

Favorite Things Friday....A WIN!!!!!......

I apologize for the second consecutive short post, but it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past my bedtime. I had planned to write something with a little more substance and not resort to posting yet another gymnastics-related bit of drivel, but you know how plans go...

We had a huge win tonight in our next-to-last home meet of the season. (WHERE has this season gone?) We had several career highs, a couple of season highs (I think), and we knocked off the #3 team in the nation. (We are currently ranked #4, so it's not like it was a HUGE upset, and we were the home team. That means a lot in college gymnastics. But still, it was a win. And a win is a win. I just like typing "win.") We beat the same team that put up a ginormous score of 198 last weekend, though, so psychologically it feels good.

(Forgive me for saying "we." It's a terrible habit. Just to be clear, I didn't perform a single vault, I couldn't reach the uneven bars if my life depended upon it, I could probably get ON the balance beam but would only stay for a very brief moment, and floor....well, I just can't tumble. But I can't break the habit of saying "we.")

And I lost my voice. At a gymnastics meet.

I really need to get a life.

Absurdity and Irony.....

Because I like to end my blog posts on a positive note (unless it's one of those blog-post-long rants that can't possibly end on a positive note - and I'm sorry for those), I'll go ahead and get the absurdity out of the way first.

Disclaimer: I would be writing about this incident even if it had happened at our own gym. Or Auburn. Or Alabama. Or Utah. Or Michigan. Or any of the other college gymnastics sites around the country. The fact that it happened at FLORIDA just makes my blood boil as opposed to making me say, "Huh. Didn't see THAT one coming."

Almost two years ago I wrote a blog post about not being allowed to take my camera into a college gymnastics meet. I still didn't understand the stupid rule about not being able to have a camera with interchangeable lenses, but I guess theoretically a really smart terrorist (and they frequent college gymnastics meets ALL. THE. TIME.) could conceal a bomb in the inside of the camera. Sure. Let's go with that.

Last night, after I drove 6 hours to get to Sweet Girl's house, she and I drove another hour to attend the Georgia-Florida gymnastics meet. (Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment and can't resist the temptation to go into ENEMY territory to see my team.) We didn't realize Florida also had a baseball game (thankfully not in the same arena, but on the other hand wouldn't that add a whole new element of difficulty to the gymnastics? and the baseball?), and parking was horrendous. We did manage to get into the parking deck before it got full, and we wound around and around and around and around until we were on the very top. (Some folks weren't so lucky and were still searching for parking after the competition had begun.)

It was only about half an hour before the meet began, and anyone who knows me realizes that to me this was almost like missing the first rotation. If I'm not there an hour early, I consider myself late. As Sweet Girl and I approached the entrance, I had my purse open and ready to be searched, as I knew it would be. The guy looked at me (I SWEAR his gaze lingered too long on my Georgia sweatshirt), looked in my purse, and said, "Is that a tablet?"

He was referring to my iPad, which I had tucked into my purse. I was puzzled, but eventually I nodded.

"Tablets aren't allowed inside," he said. I just stared. "Sorry."

I was tempted to argue, but I knew it was fruitless. So I said, as nicely as I could, "Well that sucks" and stomped off. I was going to tuck it into the waistband of my jeans in the back and then go in a different entrance (they haven't stooped to body searches - yet), but I was afraid it would embarrass Sweet Girl. So I marched up the gazillion stairs of the parking deck and returned it to the car, FUMING the whole way.

If you're curious about why I would be so insistent about taking an iPad into a gymnastics meet, it's so that I can keep up with the scores. I can write them down, but on the iPad I have a spreadsheet with formulas built in that know to drop the lowest score from each event. That way I know at any given moment where our scores stand in relation to the other team, what we need to score a certain number, or whether or not we have a chance to win (we didn't).

Seriously? I can't take an iPad into a gymnastics meet? I have no idea what the rule is behind THAT foolishness. I posted it on the gymnastics message board, and so far everyone else has been as puzzled as I.

Enough of the absurdity. It is Florida, after all.

Now for the irony (and this is the happy part)...

When I finally made it into the arena for the gymnastics meet, naturally I was in a fine temper. The lower section was completely full, so I couldn't sit with the other UGA fans. I looked into the upper level and spotted a lady wearing a red UGA shirt, so I decided to go sit near her. Safety in numbers and all that jazz. My very first words to her were, "Never again!" meaning I will NEVER AGAIN go to that particular venue. I fumed and fussed about having to return the iPad to the car, yada yada yada. She asked where we lived in Georgia, and that's when she began to look familiar.

To make a long story not quite as long as it could be, she and I had a class together on the very first day of my very first semester at UGA. It was a pre-calculus class, and that was the last word the instructor ever said that I understood. (Both the honors program and the pre-med program became hazy, distant memories after that summer.) Not only that, but she went on to marry a guy who was in school with me from third grade all the way through to graduation. Smart, smart folks (but they still let me be their friends).

They live in Florida, about an hour south of where the University of Florida is located. Their daughter does gymnastics, so several of the girls and moms from their gym had come to the meet. Unfortunately, they were pulling for Florida and were slightly embarrassed that Cathy and I were cheering for Georgia.

Reconnecting with a friend from almost 34 (!!) years ago took some of the sting out of the whole iPad issue. Now if we can just get her daughter to stop doing that Gator Chomp.

Oh...and she has a blog: Created for Good Works. So you KNOW she's good people.

Gymnastics Update....

We are over halfway through the college gymnastics season ... how did THAT happen? We have competed in 7 meets with only 4 remaining in the regular season. Then come the SEC Championships (every team in the SEC competes, so that's an automatic berth), then the NCAA Regional Championships (top 36 teams in the nation compete and we are currently ranked #3 in the nation, so that's ALMOST automatic), and after that it gets dicey. There are six regional competitions, and the top two teams from each of those advance to the NCAA National Championships, which this year are being held in Georgia, right up the road from where the Gym Dogs compete regularly. It gets dicey because you don't know which regional you will be assigned to until two weeks prior, and that's when you also learn against whom you will be competing. The seeding could mean that we wind up in a regional assignment with two teams to whom we've already lost this year, and I'm afraid that will get into our girls' heads. The 12 teams who survive the Regional Championships compete in two sessions on Friday, April 20th. The top three teams from each of THOSE sessions go on to the Finals (also called the Super Six) on Saturday, and the national champion is crowned from that session. On Sunday the individual event finals are held, with the top eight scores from each event in Friday's competition (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise) and all ties competing for individual awards. It's a weekend jam-packed with gymnastics competition, and it feels like a gymnastics overdose to even the most devoted (obsessed?) fan like me.

Yesterday's meet was against an SEC opponent, but one from which we didn't expect too much competition. Oddly enough, sometimes when our opponent isn't expected to put up very big scores, we don't either. It's almost as if we think it would be vulgar to outscore them by too much. Or something. This was not the case yesterday, however. We scored our second-highest team score of the season, just .025 off our season high. We had several gymnasts put up career-high scores, and I'm not JUST talking about freshmen. We had three girls compete for the first time this year, one of them a junior who had NEVER competed before yesterday. She turned in decent scores on vault and beam yesterday, and I was happy for her. I will officially stop referring to her as a wasted scholarship and become one of her biggest fans. That sentiment may be based on her balance beam dismount alone, which I loved.

Our senior who has been dying to get into the all-around this year (competing on all four events in a meet) did so for the second consecutive week and matched last week's score, which was good enough to tie her for the top spot in the country. We keep waiting and waiting for her to get a perfect 10 on uneven bars, and I am afraid she may be trying too hard for it. Yesterday she took a couple of steps back on her dismount, which is almost unheard of for her. She is the reigning national champion on uneven bars, and I fully expect her to be right in the mix when the end of this season rolls around.

One of our gymnasts who was billed from the beginning of her freshman year as a future "superstar" has instead become more of a head case. She has a tendency to either dazzle or fizzle, with not much in between. In Alabama she scored a 9.95 on beam, with one judge giving her a 10. Yesterday she scored an 8.7 with two falls. It's the same routine, for crying out loud. See what I mean? On a positive note, she finally landed her bars dismount without crumpling to the ground. They have changed her floor routine drastically, giving her only two tumbling passes because she has a chronic left ankle injury, but she still has issues with it. And I fully believe they are mental. For those of you who are asking, no I DON'T think I could do better myself. I'm just sayin'...

I did experience a pang of guilt during yesterday's competition. The senior doing all-around, the bars champion I referred to earlier, absolutely NAILED her floor routine. She is a joy to watch, and she finally put a complete floor routine together. By the time they flashed her score, a gymnast from the other team was on balance beam (visitors always end up on beam). One judge gave her a 9.95 (may be a little high), and the other a 9.85 for a total score of 9.9. The fans didn't much appreciate the 9.85, so we booed vehemently. And the balance beam girl fell off. Now she's supposed to have better concentration than that, and at the SEC Championships there will be music blaring, fans cheering, and a lot of general chaos, so she'd better get used to it. Still, I felt kind of bad that we may have contributed to her fall. Then two MORE of their girls fell off, and we weren't in any way responsible for those, so it wouldn't have made any difference anyway.

If you're interested enough to watch the highlights from yesterday's meet, you can find them here. And I apologize for the commercial you may be forced to watch beforehand. In case you're wondering about the colors of our team's leotards when everyone KNOWS our team colors are red and black, do not adjust your set. This meet was the annual Pink Out Meet to raise awareness (and money) for breast cancer research. The leos were designed last year by the same girl who is our national bars champion. Is there NOTHING the girl can't do?

Next week's meet is against the team that will reclaim the #1 spot in the nation this week, a team that has put up some obscenely high scores, a team that we LOVE. TO. HATE. And it's only an hour from where Sweet Girl lives, so she and I will be in attendance. I hope I have lots of similarly happy things to report next weekend.

Weekend Gymnastics Report.....

I've mentioned before that college gymnastics has some strange characteristics. Wins and losses don't really matter, you can win and go down in the rankings or lose and move up, and a gymnast who is #1 in the nation on an event can drop to #66 with one bad routine this early in the season.

A couple of weeks ago the UGA Gym Dogs had a win that felt like a loss. We defeated a team by a pretty good margin (.375) who has only beaten us twice in the modern era (but that team is also on the way up under a dynamic new coach), but we only had one score of 9.9 all night long. Our reigning national champ on bars had what was for her a disastrous routine, and one sophomore who had fallen in an earlier floor routine and said that WOULD NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.... fell again on the very same element. So while we walked out with a win, the score was nothing to write home about, and we actually dropped in the rankings, while the team we beat moved UP. Weird.

This weekend the Gym Dogs suffered a loss to the #1 team in the country, but it felt like a win. We had five scores of 9.9 or higher (including a 9.925 on bars that probably should have been a 10, not that I'm biased or anything, and a 9.95 on floor that should have been ... something less), and we posted a HUGE road score of 196.95. Scores posted away from the home arena become important in three weeks, when the national rankings go to a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) instead of a pure average of all scores earned.

If you don't care how an RQS is determined, you can skip this paragraph. They take a team's top six total team scores, three of which must have been scored away from home, drop the lowest one, and average the remaining five. That's why strong away scores become important. By the time RQS starts, we will have just barely had four away meets, and we already have one score we would like to drop. That's why posting a big score last night was a big step in remaining in the top 10 nationally.

In addition, my FANTASY gymnastics team finally managed to break the 197 mark. I am participating in a game called SimGym with several other women all over the country. We had a "draft" back in December, in which we went through 16 rounds, drafting actual NCAA gymnasts from teams all over the country to make up our fantasy teams. (It was tempting to choose only UGA gymnasts, since I'm most familiar with them, but other folks beat me to some of them.) If you would like to pause here and tell me "get a life," I don't blame you one bit.

I have 16 members of my fantasy team, and each week I have to decide which gymnasts I'm going to put in on each event, along with 3 alternates. Scores are taken from the actual scores those gymnasts receive, and scoring is done just as in actual meets, taking the top five scores from each event. It's frustrating because I don't have the luxury of knowing exactly who is actually going to compete in any given event in any given meet. It's almost a certainty that if I choose not to put a girl in on my beam line-up, for example, she will go 9.9 or higher, and I can't count her score because she wasn't in my line-up.

Yes, I realize my problems are great. For some of them I am considering professional help.

College gymnastics is just one more reason I'm thankful for the internet. Meets are almost NEVER televised live, but more and more schools are offering live video streaming of meets, and live scoring updates are available from every meet going on across the country at any given time.

That means one could have ten or twelve computer windows open, following four or five video streams and four or five more scoring streams.

Speaking in a purely theoretical manner, of course.

College Gymnastics 101......

**DISCLAIMER**: I am not a professional. I have never competed in, had a daughter in, judged, or coached college gymnastics. The information contained in this blog post is not meant to suggest that I know even a tenth as much as the next person. It's just information I've gleaned from watching and studying the sport, mostly over the last 7-8 years.

UGA had its second home gymnastics meet yesterday, and it was all around a good meet. It was a win, we scored over 197 (good for this time of the season), several girls hit season highs, several freshmen hit career highs, and yet there is still room for improvement.

Last season we were riddled with so many injuries that sometimes we didn't even put a sixth floor routine up if we had five hit routines in the bag. For those of you who don't know about college gymnastics, six girls compete on each of four events (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise), with the highest five scores on each apparatus counting for the team score.

If you've watched gymnastics in the Olympics or any of the other televised events leading up to the Olympics (the Visa Championships, the World Championships, Cover Girl Classic, etc.), don't let their scoring confuse you. I still can't understand it, and if college gymnastics ever adopts that scoring system, I'll have to abandon the sport in favor of ... I don't know ... wrestling. Or curling. In those OTHER gymnastics events, higher difficulty is rewarded, and you can get away with errors as long as you pack a ridiculous number of skills into the routine. No wonder girls who come to college gymnastics from the elite system often arrive broken in body AND spirit.

In the college world, the scoring is simpler. A perfect routine with all the required elements earns a 9.5. A gymnast can add enough bonus to any routine to earn up to a 10.0. She can put MORE than that, but she doesn't get extra credit. Bonus can be earned by connecting skills (two leaps without a pause in between, for example) or by inserting more difficult skills (I believe a double front somersault earns a higher bonus than a double back).

Yesterday our total team score was 197.25, which divided by four events and five scores on each gives an average for each routine of 9.86. That is excellent, but still gives room for growth. Last year I would go back over our scores, trying to determine where we might have gained an extra tenth or two. (Because I like torturing myself, apparently.) Often I couldn't find a single routine where we could have expected a higher score. We just didn't have the depth, and it was almost a miracle that we even made it to the national championships. (More on that format in another post.)

In college gymnastics, two judges assess every routine, and their scores are averaged together for the final score. Their scores must be within a certain range of each other, or they must conference and work out the difference. For example, one of the LSU girls yesterday dragged her feet on her uneven bar routine. One judge gave her a 9.6, the other a 9.15. They had to conference and compare notes; you can't just average two scores that far apart. Perhaps one didn't see the girl drag her feet; maybe one considered it a "fall" and the other didn't. They worked it out, though, and her final score was a 9.3. 

I won't get too technical here, mainly because I don't KNOW ENOUGH to be technical. But here are some of the basics required to get a good score on each apparatus.

VAULT: Judges are looking for a gymnast to have good height and distance from the table (it used to be called a horse, but the vault table was changed sometime around 2003), and perfect form in the air. Legs should be glued together, toes pointed, body straight but hollowed out. The gymnast should land directly in front of the table, and the ultimate goal is the "stick," landing on the mat and not moving the feet. Often gymnasts take a step or a hop backward or forward, depending on the vault, but hopping to the side is a bigger deduction. Landing in a piked position with the chest down is also a deduction. After the landing the gymnast is required to salute the judges, but there must be control demonstrated before the salute. Some gymnasts try to get away with a little shuffle of the feet WHILE they are saluting, but they rarely get away with it. If you are interested enough to search on YouTube for some good vaults from the college world this year, look for Geralen Stack-Eaton (Alabama vs Georgia), Vanessa Zamarippa (UCLA vs California), or Kat Ding (Georgia vs Denver OR Georgia vs LSU).

UNEVEN BARS: The emphasis on uneven bars is on body lines, particularly in the handstand position. Gymnasts should achieve a perfect vertical line on EVERY handstand, with up to a tenth of a point deducted each time vertical isn't achieved. Release moves are required, as is transitioning between the high bar and the low bar. Often the coach will stand near the bars and even hold out his hand (it drives me CRAZY, and I can't imagine it doesn't drive the gymnasts crazy too, but I guess they're used to it) in case of a fall. I don't know why they do that, since if they inadvertently touch a gymnast, it's an automatic one-tenth deduction. It's not like holding his hand out there is going to save her from falling. But whatever. As mentioned above, athletes can earn bonus by connecting or combining skills. The most common dismount is a double back somersault in the layout position, and as always the judges are looking for a stuck landing. Kat Ding of Georgia is the reigning national champion on uneven bars, and you don't need to look any further than Kat for a perfect routine. She hasn't yet earned the perfect 10, but it's coming. Her first routine this season she earned a 9.975. That means one judge gave her a 9.95, the other a 10. And as sad as it is true, it could have simply been that the judge who gave her a 9.95 gave it because it was the first meet of the season. You can't really blame them, I guess. If you give a 10 right out of the gate, where do you go from there for the rest of the season?


BALANCE BEAM: Obviously the most crucial part of a balance beam routine is simply staying on it. It's four inches wide, and gymnasts are required to perform both backward and forward tumbling in addition to leaps and a full turn on one foot. (You'd be amazed at how many girls complete a tumbling series without a wobble but then nearly fall off just doing a full turn.) The tumbling series (or acro series, as some call it) must be at least two elements connected, but some gymnasts choose to do three. Gymnasts are also required to get down on the beam at some point, lying down or sitting down (which I have never understood, and I'm guessing everyone has forgotten why THAT rule is in place). Georgia has had several gymnasts from the past turn in perfect balance beam routines: Grace Taylor, Courtney McCool, and Courtney Kupets. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of UCLA has also earned a 10 on balance beam in the past. Bonus comes not only from connecting elements on the balance beam, but also with added difficulty on the dismount. And of course only a stuck landing will earn a perfect 10.

FLOOR EXERCISE: This is Hubby's least favorite of all the women's events. He says "all they're doing out there is wallering (wallowing) around on the floor." Routines are choreographed to music, often a compilation of two or more songs, but the music cannot have words. Only recently have the rules been amended to allow "human sounds" (I don't want to think about what mental images THAT creates), as long as there are no words. Routines are about a minute and a half in length, and most girls have three tumbling passes in their floor exercises. We have one gymnast this year who only has two passes, because she has battled chronic back issues. She puts enough into her two passes to earn her a 10.0 start value, though, and that's all that matters. Dance moves are judged in addition to the tumbling and leaps, and just like beam, gymnasts are required to "waller" on the floor. Oddly enough, it's much harder to get a 10 on floor exercise, because the routines vary so widely and judging the dance part is so subjective. Georgia's Courtney Kupets earned a 10 on floor exercise in 2009. Courtney McCool and Shayla Worley of Georgia have also come very close.

I was so proud of our team yesterday, but probably the best news of all is that there is still room to grow. I think our girls could easily earn an additional .5-.75 (although scores of 198 are almost unheard of) before the season is finished with a few more stuck landings on vault and some cleaned-up floor routines. Yesterday's score was our highest in two years, and it should move us into fourth place in the country when rankings come out tomorrow. If we keep improving little by little, we will definitely be in the conversation when the post-season arrives. And I hope we speak very, very loudly.

Go Gym Dogs!

It's the Little Things That Make Me Happy........

I'm not just a fan of college gymnastics; I'm a student of the sport. By that I mean I like to learn about its inner workings, the technical jargon, the political aspects of it, and even the gossip.  I'm no expert by any means, but I enjoy learning about the sport. Few days go by that I don't learn something new, whether I meant to or not.

Because I like hearing what others have to say about college gymnastics (and what I hear most is that most of them hate UGA, hate the Gym Dogs, and won't ever change their minds about that, and yet I continue to read), I routinely visit a message board devoted to college gymnastics. I post sometimes, but very infrequently. Usually my posts are questions about scoring, or policies, or things I'm confused about. I rarely offer up opinions because I'm afraid I'll get my feelings hurt.

Just like in the general population, some people on the board are polite and knowledgeable, and some are stupid and not ashamed for everyone to know it. The following posts were copied and pasted from the site; I did not edit them in any way. You will be able to tell which comment is mine, because I use the same name I use on this blog.

Gymfan04: I know everyone that reads this board is a college gym fanatic & more than likely has a favorite team, myself included. That said, must we bash the gymnasts? They have worked so hard to get where they are & should be commended for it. Yes, there is questionable scoring at times-there always has been & there always will be, that's the nature of the sport. It's not the gymnasts fault that one gymnast scored higher than another gymnast that should have scored the same. Why not enjoy the season & take it for it is, tremendous athletes competing in a sport we all love :)

Year of the Hog: You must have a very liberal definition of bashing.

The fact that fans are interested and passionate enough to discuss and question things on this board and in other forums is a good thing for our sport. No debate=no one watching or caring.  

Gymfan04: I'm not saying everyone on here does so, there are a few that go overboard in my opinion. My point was we shouldn't direct our distaste for scoring towards individual gymnasts, rather the way the scoring system is set up.

lsugymfan: totally agree its not the gymnast fault about the scoring of course i love LSU but I love gymnastics what would we do without. Its Olympic year and the college season has started some people on this board should realize that instead of demeaning these gymnast because of toe point form and scoring. Just be grateful and some opinions should be kept hidden regardless if this is a discussion board or forum. 

AreYouJoking: So in other words, pretend everything is perfect, give everyone a 10 and eliminate the postseason. Everyone gets a trophy! No opinions for anyone!

lsugymfan: Its people like you Areyoujoking that we can do without most of your post are always condescending or degrading. Your very disrespectful with some of the teams on your post yeah everyone should get a 10 thats not the world of gymnastics since u have so much to say and comment on get your ass out there and compete you take subjective to the top get a life

Bragger: On a positive note, AreYouJoking, I appreciate your use of punctuation in your posts.

louanne: :) Coffee just almost shot out of my nose.  [Accompanied by a smiley face emoticon rolling from side to side]

EliteAthlete10: Same here! Although it was green tea. ;-)

When I read the two responses to my post, I went all Sally-Field-like, thinking, "They like me! They really like me!"

Then I realized they have no idea who I am, and I came back to the real world.

But I went back and read them three more times.

Gymnast has a Brain Fart......

I don't even like the word "fart" (it's almost as bad as that other "f" word to me), but I can think of no better description for this. Every time I watch this video (and I have watched it over and over, believe me), it gets funnier.

I'm going to preface this by saying I admit right up front that it's mean-spirited of me to post this. If this were one of our gymnasts....... it would still be funny. The fact that this team went on to kick our arses at the SEC Championships gives me enough justification to post this video.

Fast forward to the 7:23 mark for the beginning of this girl's routine. The funny part occurs right after her first tumbling pass.



Katydid and I saw this happen live and in person, and we looked at each other like, "WTH?" It was very uncomfortable. You wanted to scream at her, "Honey, DO SOMETHING!" Then you just wanted to scream with laughter.

Believe it or not, she got a decent score, a 9.75. Apparently once her muscle memory kicked in (because clearly her brain memory was shot), she included all the required elements. I'm guessing she got docked a little for her "dance" between those two segments, though.

I'll try to get back to normal tomorrow night, directing my sarcasm mostly at myself.

It Really Is a Small World......

One more thing about the SEC Championship meet yesterday, and then I'll put it to rest for another year. Notice that I did NOT say I won't ramble on and on about the Regional Championships in two weeks, or nationals (oh please oh please oh please oh please) two weeks after that.

I had three tickets to the SEC's, one each for Katydid, Frogger Blogger, and me. Frogger mentioned she might have to take her granddaughter, so I ordered another one. Then Frogger said she couldn't go at all, which left me with two extra tickets. This event isn't typically sold out, so I didn't want to take the chance of selling them the day of the competition. I advertised on a national college gymnastics discussion board that I had two extras and wanted to sell them. I wasn't looking to make a profit; I just didn't want them to go to waste.

Within 27 minutes I had a reply from someone in Atlanta who wanted to buy the tickets. We exchanged addresses, he mailed me a check, and I mailed him the tickets. When he showed up at the meet, he was with a guy I presumed was his boyfriend/partner. Forgive me for making assumptions, but two guys together at a women's college gymnastics meet? I'm not judging, just stating.

They introduced themselves, we both acted a little sheepish about being on that stupid message board in the first place, though we didn't actually come out and say it. (The message board is full of people more interested knowledgeable involved obsessed than I.) The guy with him looked familiar, then he said he grew up in the town where I live.

He was a student when I taught at one of our local high schools, back when we only HAD one. Fuzzy details started coming to me as we talked. I said, "You were in the band."

"Yes."

"You were the drum major."

He seemed surprised that I knew that. He was the drum major when Sweet Girl was in the band either 9th or 10th grade.

I guess it's not a HUGE coincidence, since we DO live in Georgia and we were there to see the GEORGIA gymnastics team. But still..... Out of all the people on that message board, all the people who would drive three and a half hours to see the SEC's, for one of them to have a local connection..... Weird.

Tune in tomorrow for a (sort of) book review about a book recommended by one of my blogger pals. Have a wonderful week.

Whew........Close Call.......

And I'm not even talking about the SEC Gymnastics Championships. We came in 3rd again this year, but we aren't terribly disappointed. We had a good, solid meet with only one fall, and our girls placed in every event. One of ours won the all-around, a senior who has been rock solid all year, and I coolant be prouder of her. We didn't win, but neither did Florida, and that feels like a victory in itself.

No, the close call came AFTER the meet. Katydid and I were in the car, trying to navigate the streets of Birmingham in search of something to eat, when I realized it might be a moot point. Because I had left my camera bag in the arena, underneath my seat. Not only did it have my precious digital Canon EOS Rebel in it, but also my driver's license and every credit card I have.

To make a long story short, we went back, it wasn't under the seat where I had been, but it had been turned in and everything was retrieved. Whew. I don't know when I've felt so stupid. My faith in the good people of Alabama has been restored. Now I'm even happier that they won the meet.

Not Sure What Kind of Fan I'm Becoming......

***Warning (or apology?) - This is the first of what I fear will be many gymnastics-related blogs between now and April 17th.***

***And I'm not sure it will even be coherent. Gymnastics doesn't lend itself well to a stream-of-consciousness approach***

***Full disclosure here***

***Not at all sure what's up with all the asterisks***

Since I began this topic, I had to go finish cooking dinner, and I think I have recognized what the problem is. It's not really what kind of fan I'm becoming, it's where I'm getting my information.

I am down in the dumps about our upcoming season in collegiate gymnastics. AND THE SEASON HASN'T EVEN STARTED YET. What's up with THAT?

I'm the one in our family who, while watching a football game, fervently believes that our team can win, even if we are down 49-0 with two minutes to go in the game. I don't get down in the dumps easily.

I have become concerned that I'm turning into a fair-weather fan. Our gymnastics team has won 10 national championships, 5 of them in a row (unprecedented in women's college gymnastics), from 2005-2009. Then last year we didn't even qualify for the national championships for the first time in 27 years. Couldn't defend our title because we couldn't even go.

We've graduated four super-superstar gymnasts in the past two years, and we've graduated some pretty good ones in addition to those. Recruiting hasn't been what it used to be, and even the top recruits we DID land haven't lived up to expectations.

This year's freshman class can't touch those at other schools, and then last week we lost the best of our freshmen, a powerhouse who was supposed to contribute on all four events. She ruptured her Achilles during practice, and she's out for the season. If there is a positive, it's that it happened before competition has begun, and she can redshirt this season, maintaining four years of eligibility. She had surgery yesterday, so she couldn't even be at the Meet the Team event.

We only have two seniors. And they're both in great shape, with awesome gymnastics. That's a relief.

Our top two juniors are both injured, both of them vital to the bars and vault line-ups. One of them got a near-perfect 9.975 on both bars AND vault last year (bars twice). The third junior has really come along this year, after only performing two vaults last year. On one of those she landed on her rear-end. She wasn't put back in the line-up again after that. Apparently she has made great strides (or we're running out of healthy folks), because last night we saw her practice on both floor and vault. We didn't get to see bars or beam practice, so I don't know where we stand on those apparatuses. Apparati. Whatever.

What we did get to see last night looked pretty good. I don't have that good an eye, especially on vaults, and I don't think I can judge objectively. I have a pretty hard time not taking a deduction when one of our gymnasts falls flat on her face. Maybe it's a good thing I gave up on becoming a gymnastics judge.

I have pinpointed the source of my negativity, though. I have been following a message board devoted to college gymnastics, along with one blog (that I'm NOT going to link to here because I don't want him to get any more hits), that are scathing in their criticism. Some of it is unbiased judgment, as far as I can tell, and some of it I can tell is of the "nah-nah-na-boo-boo" variety, the writers taking great pleasure in how far the mighty have fallen. A lot of it is based on the snippets of video that our coach has posted, and I have to admit that the snippets are a lot of "fluff" and not a whole lot of gymnastics. Other schools post entire intrasquad videos with complete routines for every gymnast.

Part of me is hoping that our coach hasn't posted videos because he doesn't want the other schools to see what their competition is. He's holding his cards close to the vest (is that a mixed metaphor, or is it correct?) and he's going to use the negativism to inspire his girls. There is a little voice in my head, though, that wonders, along with some of the most vocal nay-sayers online, if he isn't showing any good gymnastics because ....... there AREN'T any good gymnastics to show. I don't like that little voice. It's making me angry at myself for harboring those negative thoughts.

Is it reading the negative posts and comments that's making me down in the dumps about my team? Does that mean I only like my team when they're doing well? I don't think so, but I'm wondering if I just need to stop reading those things altogether. Easier said than done.... they're like CRACK (or what I guess crack must be like, since I have no personal knowledge).

I realize dynasties fall, records are broken, streaks eventually die. Perhaps this is just the second year in what will become an extended period of rebuilding. Perhaps it's just someone else's turn to be at the top. Rest assured, though, that I'm going to continue to pull for my team even if we lose every single meet this season. But damn I hope that doesn't happen.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled, non-gymnastics obsessed life.

Call Me Juvenile, I'm Still Gonna Laugh.....

This post may give you the idea that I have too much time on my hands, and I won't be able to deny it. It will also prove to any lingering doubters that I am immature far beyond my years.

Today at school I was reading a message board devoted to college gymnastics. It's a great place to pick up gossip as it relates to the gymnastics world, but (so far) it isn't very snarky, even when the topic (like this one) could easily lend itself to snarkiness.

Apparently two Ball State University gymnasts were arrested for underage drinking, one of them additionally charged with driving under the influence. Apparently she was driving very, very slowly, but blowing the horn on her car very, very constantly. Umm.... I'm sure no one noticed THAT.

Of course there was a response from the school's athletic director.

Whose name is Tom Collins.

Lest you think I'm immature AND a liar, check out the whole story here.