Wednesday, August 26, 2015

5 Current Gymnastics Trends That Need to Go

1. Wolf Turns
Sarah Finnegan put it best:
Unless your wolf turn looks like this, it has to go: 

Brava, Nia Dennis!

2. The Flamingo

The "stand-one-leg-in-the-corner" rule was supposed to prevent a gymnast from standing in the corner and taking a break while huffing and puffing before her next tumbling pass. Instead it has just created an overabundance of flamingo poses.

Aly, we love you, but no. However, I was very happy to see that miss Swaggie Maggie does not flamingo in her routine at all! There is hope!

3. NBC's Dumbed-Down Scoring

Do we look like idiots, NBC? Ok, that's up for debate, but I can tell you that most of us are perfectly mentally capable of understanding the basics of gymnastics scoring.  


Therefore please get rid of this:

and give us back the D & E score breakdowns. No colors. No shapes. Just numbers.


4. More NBC Flaws

We were all spoiled by the excellent USA Gymnastics live web streams during the P&G Champs which made these usual NBC annoyances extra obvious.

4a. Oh, there are more than a handful of competitors at each meet? I wouldn't know, based on what NBC shows us.



4b. Nastia's made-up words. Example: "strengthness". Also how Tim Daggett says "heighth" instead of "height".


4c. The "storylines" aka talking about the past accomplishments or speculations about 2-3 gymnasts 2304982309483 times during a meet. They need to calm down about the Olympics. Unless this is the Olympics or the Olympic Trials, how about we focus on the meet in front of us and talk about ALL the competitors rather than just the previous Olympians/ones who are "destined" to be Olympians? 


5. MESH EVERYWHERE
I'm not one of those mesh-haters who thinks there should never be mesh anywhere, but I do have a mesh tolerance level.

Love the color and the main body of this leo, but if you want to make it look like you're not wearing sleeves, why not just wear a leo without sleeves?

Image source: Christy Ann Linder

There are many more things I could complain about, but that's all for now :) Share your thoughts in the comments below, or via Twitter @Gymtertainment!


2 comments:

  1. I totally agree :)

    1) Wolf Turns: Should be TM of Nia and Simone!

    2) Yes, but I'd rather vote for abolishing the "stand-one-leg-in-the-corner" rule.

    3) and 4) I TOTALLY and ABSOLUTELY and WHAEVERELSE agree. Educate us, NBC! Explain the scoring in the beginning for those who are new to the game and then leave it. And maybe Nastia and Tim could - instead of shouting "veeery difficult skill" over and over again - just add the skill's name and elements. Especially on bars I'd really appreciate that. And, NBC, especially for meets that follow +/- a one-at-a-time strategy: show the ongoing routine instead of the waiting celebrity!!!

    5) Honestly - I'm close to a mesh hater, so my opinion is totally biased. But when a leotard starts to look like underwear - may that's the point where its worth to rethink the design...

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  2. 2) Yes, I agree! The rule is the culprit and definitely needs to go. Until that happens, hopefully people can come up with more creative ways to satisfy that rule. Maggie Nichols does so very well!

    4) Exactly! There was no excuse for them not showing EVERY routine when they are going one at a time.

    5) You're not alone :) People seem to love it or hate it! I'm somewhere in the middle; it can be there, but not so that half the leotard is comprised of it, or that it is immediately noticeable.

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