gymn Digest Mon, 28 Feb 94 Volume 2 : Issue 80

Today's Topics:
1994 Heart of Texas Invitational
College Scholarships (3 msgs)
Gym News On Other Services
I'm still here!
Moceanu leads Region III qualifiers to Classic (2 msgs)
Move Descriptions for the average TV Viewer
repeat performances
Retries At Routines
UF-Alabama Women's Gymnastics
was away (2 msgs)
was away and internet gymnastics

This is a digest of the gymn@athena.mit.edu mailing list.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 94 16:01:00 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: 1994 Heart of Texas Invitational

A couple of questions have been emailed to me re my reports on the
compulsories of the invite I am attending. Thought it best to answer to all
of Gymn.

1. Explanation of the compulsory beam mount, the thief vault.

This is very difficult to explain as there isn't any other gymnastics move
like it except perhaps some elementary vaults. The best way I can describe
it is that the gymnast looks like a hurdler going over the width of the beam,
except the motion is more vertical than horizontal so that the gymnast
doesn't actually go over, but rather lands on top of the beam on her hands,
in an L-seat.

Really, I never would have been able to picture this from a description -- I
think you have to see it to understand.

2. Omission of Moceanu from the "most polished" section.
While this is not her forte, reading over the other gymnasts that I put down
for that section, she is certainly as good and better than some of the
gymnasts I listed. So, amend that part to include D.M.

Rachele

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 21:36:30 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: College Scholarships

To Lynda and everyone else:
Lynda had asked about what a person does to go about getting a college
scholarship. I thought this might be something that interests more than one
person, so I'm going to go ahead and post this to Gymn for everyone to read.
Getting a college scholarship is getting harder and harder. That's
because more and more girls are entering in club gymnastics and there are
fewer and fewer colleges & universities offering scholarships. Translated,
that means there are tons of girls good enough to compete in college on some
level, but not enough scholarships to go around. This is becoming very
evident lately as even Division II colleges are getting gymnasts ranked in
the Top-20 on various events.
Most of my knowledge on college scholarships is based on my knowledge of
women's recruiting, although much of what I list below can be applied to
men's. Okay, here are my tips, but please don't take my word as final:
**Let me begin by saying that you don't have to have a college gymnastics
scholarship to compete on a team. Virtually every team has what are called
"walk-ons." These are gymnasts who have potential in only one or two events.
Many teams have walk-ons who later in their college career were awarded
scholarships because they got better. (Utah and Florida are two big-names who
have done that.)
**There are 3 different levels of competition: Division I, Division II,
and Division III, with Division I being the largest schools and Division III
being the smallest. I may be wrong, but I believe that Division III offers no
scholarships whatsoever. However, there are less than 10 Division III
schools, if memory serves me correct.
**Want a list of all the colleges & universities offering gymnastics? You
can get it. Simply called the NCAA at 913-339-1906 and ask for the directory
of the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches for Women. (I
suspect there is a similar association directory for men.) The directory
names the schools, names the coaches, gives addresses and tells what division
the school competes.
**Gymnastics coaches cannot recruit a gymnast until she turns a senior in
high school. But that, of course, does not mean the coach isn't intently
watching the gymnast long before that, particularly in their junior year.
**If you want to hedge your bets that your favorite colleges know all
about you, make a tape that features your best routines on each event. Then,
the day you finish 11th grade, mail off copies of those tapes, pronto! (Of
course, don't feature low-level routines or routines you competed a gabillion
years ago.) And don't think that a major college won't look at a Level 9. UF
and Georgia have recruited Level 9s in the past few years.
**Wait a month or so and then make phone calls if you haven't been
contacted. You may find out that while they can't give you a scholarship,
they will take you as a walk-on.
**Make sure to hedge your bets and send your tape to several colleges &
universities. If you're not sure your talent will get you into a big-name
college, then send your tape to lesser-known schools, too.
**Another note. College coaches have short memories. If you were a fairly
good gymnast throughout your sophomore year and then was injured your entire
junior year, the coaches won't remember. Your tapes, however, will remind
them. I can't tell you how many great gymnasts were considered "unknowns" and
weren't recruited because they had injuries in their junior year.
**And, finally, make sure to contact the NCAA to find out about
eligibility. There is a minimum GPA, of course, but some schools are harder
to get into gradewise (like Stanford, UF). Also, DO NOT take money! If you
take money, you are labeled a "professional" and can't compete in the NCAA.
And be careful of other gifts. One gymnast was lent a car by a fan and was
disqualified because of that. Check with the NCAA ahead of time before doing
anything questionable.
And that's it folks. Again, I can't emphasize enough to talk with the
NCAA and with the college recruiters. They'll steer you in the right
direction.
--- Ronald

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 10:38:06 PST
From: <***@cisco.com>
Subject: College Scholarships

Let me begin by saying that you don't have to have a college
gymnastics scholarship to compete on a team. Virtually every team
has what are called "walk-ons."

And of course, there are schools that do not offer atheletic scholarships
at all, or who have a sufficiently low-key gymnastics prrograms that there
is no money for gymnastics recruiting... I'd like to think that even
gymnasts of moderate talent can end up on a team somewhere, scholarship or
not; but I'm not sure this is actually true any more...

Note that even in the Ivy League, with no scholarships, have a coach "want"
you can make the difference between getting in and not getting into the
school. In these cases, coaches have a certain number of "points" that
they can distribute amoung applicants. Each point applied to you sort of
"bumps" your chances of getting in up a notch...

Chops

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 14:47:49 EST
From: <***@MIT.EDU>
Subject: College Scholarships

Ron:
> Let me begin by saying that you don't have to have a college
> gymnastics scholarship to compete on a team. Virtually every team
> has what are called "walk-ons."

Chops:
>And of course, there are schools that do not offer atheletic scholarships
>at all, or who have a sufficiently low-key gymnastics prrograms that there
>is no money for gymnastics recruiting... I'd like to think that even
>gymnasts of moderate talent can end up on a team somewhere, scholarship or
>not; but I'm not sure this is actually true any more...

Sure, go to MIT, or some other Division III school. There are some pretty
good girls on our team, but there are also girls that I would say are only
about L5 or so when they get started here. Of course, gymnastics is not a
factor in admissions here (I assume). (I wish my undergrad school had a
team like this! They didn't have one at all.)

--Robyn

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 21:36:49 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: Gym News On Other Services

To All:
Someone had asked if there is gymnastics news on other services. Well,
the one with which I'm most familiar is the bulletin board on Prodigy.
In fact, as far as I can tell, the Prodigy bulletin board gets more
posts than any other service, anywhere from 100 to 300 posts a week, if not
more. Keep in mind that Prodigy is geared, in part, towards children with all
its graphics. Because of that, Prodigy has lot of gymnasts, young fans, and,
importantly, their parents.
--- Ron

------------------------------

Date: 26 Feb 94 23:24:14 EST
From: <***@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: I'm still here!

I'm still here! I just haven't been able to go downtown for a week or so
to dump more money (it's prepay only) into my Internet account at the
University of Wisconsin, so I'm unable to get at my mailing list account.
Hopefully I'll get down there this week and be back with you guys soon.
See ya...

--Tim

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 01:53:44 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: Moceanu leads Region III qualifiers to Classic

1994 Heart of Texas Invitational
(Region III zone meet)
Feb 25-27, Capital Gymnastics
Austin, TX

Optionals for the 1994 Heart of Texas Invitational elite division were
completed on Saturday night. They counted for 40% of the total score, with
compulsories making up that difference (60%). The optional session showcased
a lot of the potential we have in the upcoming years. In keeping with this
youth theme, the juniors easily outperformed the senior gymnasts.

Qualifiers to American Classic:

Jr. International: Dominique Moceanu (Karolyi's), Kristy Powell, Doni
Thompson, Theresa Kulikowski (all three CO Aerials), Andree Pickens
(Cypress), Nekia Demery, and Amanda Schuler (both Krafft Academy)

Sr. International: Soni Meduna (Dynamo), Rachel Rochelli, Eileen Diaz
(both Cypress)

Jr. National: Anna Gingrich (Capital), Audra Steinbrook (Krafft Academy),
Kendall Beck (Capital), Britney Kidd (Sunbelt Gymnastics)

Sr. National: Sarah Wentworth (Karolyi's), Autumn Jefferies (Krafft Academy)

-=-=-=-=- Notables -=-=-=-=-

There were *many* head injuries during this meet which resulted in
girls lying on the mat in great pain while the coaches did their thing
to make sure the gymnast was okay. All of them eventually and
amazingly stood up and walked off. These gymnasts included:

Felisa Madrial -- beam pass (didn't see it happen) in meet
-- after
being checked out and a talk with her coach, she got back on the
beam and finished a very respectable routine
Eileen Diaz -- double tuck dismount off beam, landed on neck and head
in warmups
Mina Kim -- hit bar with head on dismount (I think in warmups)
some Capital gymnast (
sorry, don't know who) -- mistimed release
resulted in a landing on her head

* Two most powerful gymnasts of the meet: Dree Pickens and Nekia
Demery; they accordingly got first and second in the vault
* Dawnell Barr of CO Aerials - while she did not impress me particularly in
the compulsory session, I thought that her optionals were significantly
stronger. She had very good focus on beam and floor.
* Amanda Curry of Cypress is a fighter. She saved several skills in her beam
routine that many other gymnasts would have lost, and also dismounted bars
with an outstanding double front after missing a Jaegar.
* Cypress teammate Eileen Diaz is just as tough. She had a very nasty spill
in beam warmups (as noted above) and was kept very still for a long five
minutes before she could be moved to the side so that other girls could
continue their warmups. After another long period, she got up and stretched
out a bit, and the judges (after deliberation) allowed her to compete. She
got up on the beam and cautiously hit her routine, with the result being good
enough to take second on that event. She then went on to floor and vault and
completed those routines to take third overall and qualify to Classics.
Simply amazing. It would have been so easy to quit.
* Audra Steinbrook (Krafft, Jr. National) threw what looked to be (out of the
corner of my eye) a full-twisting double layout off bars
* Kendall Beck of Capital (Jr. National) threw a floor pass of ff, whip,
whip, ff, double twist, front handspring. I've never seen rebound tumbling
into a front handsprong.

Results:
=========

Jr. International
-----------------
All-Around
1. Moceanu 74.42
- very consistent, with lots of amplitude. A bundle of smiles, especially
after she finished all of her routines. Her mother wore a chic leather
jacket. =)
2t. Powell 73.97
- very clean gymnast, with long, elegant lines
2t. Thompson 73.97
- also very clean, very similar to Powell; more on the side of
a powerful gymnast

Vault
1. Pickens 18.91
2. Demery

3. Powell

* Dree Pickens won this event with sheer power. She had an outstanding
compulsory and did a very nice job on her front handspring tucked in
optionals.
* Demery and Powell both hit very strong Yurchenko fulls (layout). Both had
great height.
* Moceanu absolutely STUCK her first tucked Yurchenko-full, but took a step
on her second one.

Bars
1. Thompson 18.94
2. Kulikowski
3. Moceanu

* Excellent front swinging work by Doni Thompson (I believe consecutive
front-fulls) accompanied by a strong and tight double layout
* Kristy Powell had a stalled full-in dismount from bars
* Moceanu didn't seem to have problems with her giant-full as she did last
time I saw her. She handled this with no fuss no m
uss, and dismounted with a tight double layout.

Beam
1. Moceanu 19.00

2. Powell
3. Kulikowski

* Moceanu's beam routine was packed with difficulty: ff, three
layouts; sheep jump; switch leap to straddle; back hand with 1/4 turn;
side somi; double tuck dismount (STUCK)
* Powell's strong beam routine mounted with a Korbut, included a
pretty punch front directly into leap, a strong Rulfova, and
dismounted with a sky-high double tuck-- terrific beam poise
* Kulikowski's routine opened with a front tuck on, was highlighted by a --
ff, full twist (tucked)! -- and a ff, layout layout, and closed with a high
double back
* Mina Kim of Dynamo had a very low and pretty straddled planche mount
on beam
* Doni missed her front onto the beam but recovered quickly with a solid ff,
layout, layout; she had lots of nice leaps, including a punch front to
immediate leap (all the CO Aerials had this skill in their routine, but Doni
had the best connection)
* Kinsey Rowe hit a ff, layout, ff, layout pass. Also, after consistently
crashing her double tuck dismount in warmups, she pulled it around in the
meet for a good landing.

Floor
1. Thompson 18.52
2. Powell
3. Demery

* Doni opened with a high tucked full-in and dismounted with a 2.5 twist.
She's terrific fun to watch on floor.
* Powell's routine flowed very well, and also included a high tucked full-in
* Demery had the most distinctive music, and high quality leaps and tumbling
* the charming Moceanu now mounts floor with a double layout, but she took a
large step forward and may have touched her hand down too.

Sr. International
-----------------
All-Around
1. Soni Meduna 74.06
- serious, tight, and polished, and very, very smooth.
2. Rachel Rochelli 73.05
- not as tight and polished as Meduna, but also not as mechanical. Fun to
watch, more maturity on the floor than most of her competitors
3. Eileen Diaz 72.45
- gutsy, gutsy gymnast. Very
strong.

Vault
1. Rochelli 18.88
2. Amanda Curry (Cypress)

3. Diaz

* Rochelli has a very solid layout (down to her toes) Yurchenko full
* Curry hit an excellent hand front with a 1/2 twist
* Sorry, missed Diaz's vault

Bars
1. Meduna 19.20
2. Rochelli
3. Diaz

* Meduna had an excellent bars set which was highlighted by a double
front with 1/2 twist out dismount
* Rochelli threw a sky-high Tkatchev on bars - the best of the meet - and
also had a nice Gienger-shoot with a 1/2 to low.
* Diaz fell on her Gienger, however had a good counter hand; she dismounted
with "only" a double layout (not the full-twisting double layout as we saw
last summer, or the double-twisting double layout that her coaches say she is
capable of)
* Martini had good routine with good f
ront swinging work.

Beam
1. Meduna 18.44
2. Diaz
3. Jamie Martini (Cypress)

* Missed Meduna's beam routine, but I don't remember seeing her do anything
out of the ordinary
* Diaz - detailed above, re head injury
* Jamie Martini hit a ff, layout, ff, layout pass, and also a ff, layout,
back pike to medal despite missing her handspring mount and taking a step on
her double tuck dismount.
* Rochelli had nice presence on beam, hit her mount (front tuck on) and a ff,
layout, layout, and had cool shoulderstand work; however, she lost it twice
on her punch front and her triple full dismount

Floor
1. Marianna Webster (Dynamo) 18.69
2. Rochelli
3. Ashley Kever (Capital)

* I didn't notice Webster's tumbling in particular, but I remember thinking
that both she and Kever had the best presence.
* Rochelli's opening floor pass was a front through to a triple full.

-=-=-=-=-=- Level 10 Notes -=-=-=-=-=-

The gymnasts on Sunday morning competed in three different age groups: 9-11,
12-13, and 14-15. (16+ competed on Saturday.) Cypress won the all-around
title in every age group (on Sundah), plus 2nd and 3rd in the 14-15 (ie 5 of
their 6 L10 gymnasts won an AA medal). In the 14-15 category, they swept 1-3
in the bars awards, all of them hitting very pretty routines. They of
course, obviously, won the team competition. Other gymnasts of note were
Cheryl Lancaster (Karolyi's) and Cami Singer (CO Aerials).

That's all folks,
Rachele

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 12:36:45 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: Moceanu leads Region III qualifiers to Classic

Question asked by two people:

Why wasn't Jennie Thompson there?

Answer: The top four junior internationals in the country are already
qualified to Classics. Jennie is #1, and so she doesn't need to attend any
qualifying meets.

Another possible answer: Traditionally, the top junior in the country has
been invited to compete at the American Cup, which is next weekend. Perhaps
another facter is that she stayed home to train for that.

The next logical question:

Soni Meduna is the #3 junior int'l in the country. Why was she there if
she's already qualified?

Answer: She has moved up to the Sr. Int'l division, and so needs to qualify
for that level of competition.

-Rachele

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 09:18:19 GMT
From: ***@axion.bt.co.uk
Subject: Move Descriptions for the average TV Viewer

>Well, I haven't ever seen a gymnast be able to repeat, and I
>have seen grips break and so forth. However, I guess it would
>depend on the judges and the level of competition. Skating judges
>are notorious for inconsistency, so maybe it wasn't the norm for
>skating, either.

Yep they sure are inconsistent just ask T & D, :)


You know a few weeks ago there was a discussion on how to let the
average viewer understand the moves and the competition and some
people felt that maybe if the moves were explained then there would be
more interest in the sport.

Well the BBC have been trying out this kind of thing for their recent
coverage of the Winter Olympics they have been showing what they
called the Grandstand Guide, its about 5-7 minutes of easy to
understand description of every aspect of the sport they are going to
show next.

For example for the skating they covered how to recognise the
individual moves the best way to count turns and also how the judging
is done for the compulsories.

Now if they can do it for the Winter Olympics I can't see why they
can't do it for every sport they cover and more importantly why can't
every TV station do it.

I must add that you would be surprised at the amount of difference it
makes to actually watching the sport, rather than blindly watching it
you actually sit there and try and recognise the moves, it was
brilliant and it made the sports more enjoyable to watch.

Clive.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 19:17:29 -0500 (EST)
From: <***@dorsai.dorsai.org>
Subject: repeat performances

>
> Anil asked: are there circumstances when a
> gymnast can repeat an incomplete performance?
>
> Well, I haven't ever seen a gymnast be able to repeat, and I have seen grips
> break and so forth. However, I guess it would depend on the judges and the
> level of competition. Skating judges are notorious for inconsistency, so
> maybe it wasn't the norm for skating, either.
>
In NCAA rules for men, the gynmnast may repeat a performance if his handguard
has ripped (all the way through), at the discretion of the chief judge. This
happens occasionally and I have not seen a judge refuse the gymnast the
opportunity to repeat under such circiumstances.

Also, at the USA championships a couple of years ago, Trent Dimas was
allowed to repeat his vault when he was thrown off due to an errant flash from
a camera.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 94 21:14:51 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: Retries At Routines

In gymnastics if a gymnasts own equipment fails causing you to stop
your routine (ie - broken grip, bad taping job, ripped leo, etc.) you
may not repeat the performance. If the apparatus fails or there is
some outside distaction (ie - camera flash) then the judges may let
you repeat your routine. The only execption I've ever seen is where a
judge let a gymnast perform her FX again after her music tape broke --
I think they decided that it could be the fault of the equipment it
was played on. Usually if gymnasts are unsure of the rules they will
continue (like the girl in Indy who's leg came unwrapped on floor and
by the end of the routine had a ribbion of about 10 feet playing
around behind her) but in Barcelona we saw an opposite reaction where
Li Yifang (I think it was her) recognized that the compo music playing
was not her tape and stopped. They did correct the mistake and she was
allowed to start over.

Susan

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 21:42:33 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: UF-Alabama Women's Gymnastics

All season long, the Gators have been fighting against the odds.
With just 7 scholarship gymnasts left, the combination of injuries,
sickness and a simple lack of depth has left the team in positions
where it often has had to fight and scratch for every tenth it could
get. But through what the team is calling mental toughness, they have
pulled it off.
That was particularly evident in a single, life-threatening moment
during the University of Florida's meet at Alabama. Gator Nicole
Stocker was attempting a reverse-hecht, but the back of her knees
landed squarely on the high bar, causing her knees to rebound and hit
her in the face. She fell backwards off the high bar and landed
vertically on her head.
The crowd fell silent as the coaches raced to Stocker's limp body.
It looked bad. Immediately, people began wondering out loud if she
would ever walk again. But Stocker, amazingly, began to move. And then
she did something that dumbfounded the crowd.
She laughed.
As she rubbed her forehead, the first words out of her mouth were:
"My knees hit me in the face, and boy, my knees really hurt."
She walked away under her own power, and her fellow teammates
immediately formed a huddle. The team needed a good road score, and
each gymnast knew it. "Look you guys," Gator Head Coach Judi Avener
told her club in the huddle. "This obviously is going to be a tough
meet. Let's go out of here with a fight."
And fight they did. The Gators went on a tear, scoring season highs
on vault, beam and floor. But a stunning Alabama team, stocked with
powerful routines, overcame the Gators, 194.125-192.725. Having to
count a fall on bars, as well as numerous little errors, the Crimson
Tide was a better team than their score reflects. But Head Coach Sarah
Patterson was smiling afterwards, saying that the return of Kara Stilp
to the lineup (back from a dislocated fibula) and the returning health
of other players has given her a powerful arsenal from which to pull.
"We took this week to back up a little bit, to get well,"
Patterson said of the team's performance. "But what a feeling to have
more bodies to choose from. It's wonderful."
The most dominating gymnast of the night was Alabama's Kim Kelly,
who won the all-around with a 39.35. Her routines included a
handspring-front (piked) on vault, a back-tuck over the low bar for a
mount on bars, a double-back as a last pass on floor and an amazing
beam connection of back-handspring to back-layout to back-chest roll.
Kelly won bars (9.85) and floor (9.9), and her teammates won vault
(Chasity Junkin with a 9.85) and beam (Stephanie Woods with a 9.8).
Interesting elements of the night included: a floor pass by the Tide's
Marna Neubauer of front-handspring to front-flyspring to Rudi; a
double-full to immediate punch-front by Kelly and the Tide's Sheryl
Dundas; a German-giant on bars by the Tide's Stephanie Woods; a
Healy-twirl to a Yeager by Gator Amy Myerson; a reverse-hecht to a
Gienger by the Tide's Kim Bonaventura and a reverse-hecht to an in-bar
Yeager by Gator Lisa Panzironi.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 11:47:02 -0800
From: <***@pollux.usc.edu>
Subject: was away

Hello Gymn,
I was away for three weeks visiting people and places in the US and
was not (unfortunately) able to keep up with my gymn mail. I see I
have 213 gymn messages - what a delight! I apologize to anyone asking
for the intros file, the gymnastics publications info etc. I will go
thru' all my mail in time and will respond to all requests.

Sorry for bringing skating up but I wonder what people thought about
the judges giving Tonya Harding a second opportunity after her lace
broke. Is that fair? If your equipment fails, isn't it your
responsibility? It wasn't like the ice was faulty; it was *your*
equipment. I don't know of equivalents in gymnastics (maybe someone's
wrist strap breaks or something) but are there circumstances when a
gymnast can repeat an incomplete performance?

Anil.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 94 19:46:59 EST
From: ***@sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov
Subject: was away

Anil,

To answer your question, unlike in gymnastics where the athlete is
responsible for his/her equipment and thus its failure, in figure
skating there is a stipulation that allows for the athlete to confir
with the head judge. I believe you can either (a) pick up from where
you left off or (b) start over if there is a failure.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 94 16:01:41 EST
From: ***@aol.com
Subject: was away and internet gymnastics

Anil asked: are there circumstances when a
gymnast can repeat an incomplete performance?

Well, I haven't ever seen a gymnast be able to repeat, and I have seen
grips break and so forth. However, I guess it would depend on the
judges and the level of competition. Skating judges are notorious for
inconsistency, so maybe it wasn't the norm for skating, either.

Regarding David's question about other electronic gymnastics stuff:
*P* (Prodigy) has a gymnastics bulletin board that generates 200-300
msgs a week. From what I understand, it's very collegiate-orientated,
and about 99+% women's gymnastics. The average age of the poster on
*P* is much younger than here on Gymn.

AOL also has a gymnastics bulletin board, but it's quite meager... not
reason enough to subscribe to AOL.

And then there is Gymn and also the USA G's BBS, which I think most
people on Gymn know a lot about.

There is also Gymn's ftp site, which has some interesting goodies. You
can ftp or gopher to ftp.cac.psu.edu and look around, if you like.

Rachele

------------------------------

End of gymn Digest
******************************