So I know that I admitted in an earlier post that Rick over at Gymnastics Coaching has been slowly persuading me that the event specialist is not a bad thing. And while I confess that I am starting to agree with him, I still can’t help advocating for All Arounders.
With Cheng Fei dashing my hopes last month, my thoughts have recently turned to Alicia Sacramone. I’m guessing that she’ll be on the US Olympic Team barring any major injuries or problems. She’s a former World Champion on Floor, multiple World medalist on Vault and she has recently enjoyed a resurgence on the Beam. All that leaves is Bars. And honestly she’s not that bad on the Bars. Check out this youtube video of her from last year’s nationals.
I’m not saying she’s Svetlana Khorkina or anything but she’s got a respectable routine. And since she was still training Bars as of last Spring (2007 season for Brown University), it wouldn’t be that difficult to start up again. It certainly seems like it would be worth a shot.
What do you think? Should Sacramone dust off her grips?
December 20th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Personally, I think Martha should let her train bars and I like her movements rather than Nastia. Yes that’s right I said she’s better than Nastia. That being said, I think Alicia would be an asset to team on bars if she could be consistent.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Honestly, she can’t be any worse than Shawn because when it comes down to it, Shawn is kind of inconsistent on bars and beam for team competitions (she hit only 50% of her BB routines at Worlds and splattered on her landing in prelims on bars. Given the way Chow has let her fling herself off the bars, I’m surprised she hasn’t done that before).
I would much rather prefer Ivana Hong in TF for UB because you can’t get cleaner than her, but unless she gets more amplitude on her release skills and a little more endurance (and upping the A-score probably can’t hurt), there’s just no way.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:34 pm
alicia definitely isn’t as great as nastia on bars… she probably can’t crack 15… for the TF in beijing, i think they should send shayla, chellsie and nastia…
December 25th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
hey just to say Cheng Fei could pretty much do anything on bars and win with her 2 16+ scores on floor beam and vault and hi 15 on floor (A score 6.4 at least). However, i guess she has her reasons, if she became all round champion with a crap bar routine it would be very controversial, many would say she wasn’t really an all- round gymnast.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I think she’s pretty good here. She hits her first handstand on the low bar really well. I wonder if the routine could be choreographed better to play to her strengths and eliminate a few deductions. If she can do that, then she’s definitely an all-arounder. I like her powerful style and amplitude on everything. Right now I would score her A+ on vault, A+ on floor, B- on Beam and C+ on bars. That’s probably not good enough for a medal. Now let’s talk about the return of Courtney Kupets….hmmmm? There’s a gymnast that always makes me smile.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Alicia is one of my top 3 favorite current female American gymnasts, but I just don’t see bars in her future. Aside from the poor (and actually boring) choreography, her handstands are very obviously poor. I do wish that she had been given a chance to compete all-around at the last Nationals, but for international meets, I’d rather she not do the all-around.
March 29th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
yah. she should definitly dust em off. if you pay attention her insides of her ankes are GLUED like you see the gage gymast’s such as ivana, terin and courtney. i think if she does this bar routine the only thing she needs to work on is fully rotating her ginger, she catches the bar while she is still roating.
March 29th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
oh yeah and i dont thin courtney is returing. i think she is to dedicated to her college team. but i am incridebly sad!!!i thought terin humphrey may return but i just read … she was forced to quit because of her back injury and she had a little hope left for ncaa’s this year but it was ruled out by her coach.
i was shocke when i read and literaly didnt beleive it at first.