UCLA Meet the Team, 12/2/01

by Olin  (olin@collegegymfans.com)

Okay, well, today I experienced my first-ever UCLA exhibition, and it was really interesting. I was disappointed that the meet was not intrasquad “blue vs. gold” style with full competitive routines, but I did like what Val had to say about not pushing the athletes to do full sets until they were fully prepared.

The John Wooden Center was set up for three events – no vault, and groups of UCLA athletes were warming up on each event as the crowd filed in.

Warmups

Here’s what I saw during warmups:

Beckerman (BB): punch front tuck mount to beat jump, hit solidly; front aerial + front aerial + Korbut, though she didn’t hold her leg up between the first two elements

Desai (BB): really cool mount sequence – straddle press to h.s., lower to planche with one leg bent, straddle down to back shoulder roll-1/2 to Garrison roll to an interesting log roll perpendicular to the beam, then swing leg over to straddle the beam – that’s the best way I can describe it.

Conway (BB): double turn; illusion turn (fell several times)

Willis (UB): Tkatchev + straddle back h.s. + toe-shoot to HB

Maloney (UB): struggled with overshoot to h.s., over on h.s. and falling off the bar

Dantzscher (FX): RO + 1.5 twist + barani, + back-1/1 + layout step-out! Her warm-up for the pass was a really dynamic RO whip, whip, whip to layout step-out that the crowd loved.

Conway (FX): Front-1/1 to pike front

Tousek (UB): Hindorff + Pak Salto!

After warm-ups, Val greeted the audience and spoke a bit about the team and Mohini’s accomplishments. Mo also addressed the crowd talking about what a great competitive year she’s had. She’s really developed into a classy athlete.

Val also took the opportunity to address the guys in the front row who were wearing Utah gymnastics shirts, just as Pete posted earlier.

The format of the evening was neat, it was a tutorial of what to look for in college gymnastics. Obviously it was review for me, but my friend, who had never seen college gymnastics before, thought it was fascinating and very informative.

Bars

Coach Gerlach explained the way routines are constructed on each event and the differences between A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, E’s, and Super E’s. He had Kristen Maloney begin with a kip to regular cast to back-hip circle for a demo of A’s, then cast-handstand to free-hip to handstands for B’s.

The athletes who chalked up for bars were Maloney, Tousek, Thompson, and Willis, and all of them sort of shrugged when Gerlach asked one of them to demonstrate a clear-hip to handstand with a full turn. Finally Thompson volunteered to give the skill a try (none of those athletes train that particular skill), and only made it a ˝ turn. Coach Gerlach informed the audience of the deductions that were present in the attempts, and the UCLA athletes applauded Doni for her efforts.

Onnie demonstrated her straddle back h.s. to toe-hop for an example of C+C elements, and Tousek showed her Hindorff, then her Hindorff to Pak Salto.

Then Maloney and Thompson did their full routines without their dismounts.

Maloney showed a new routine:  Facing LB with back to HB, glide kip cast h.s. + toe-on to h.s. + hop to reverse grip + front sole circle to h.s. + ˝ pirouette + toe-shoot to HB; giant 1/1(?) + giant ˝ (extra swings here) + overshoot to h.s. (good position); giants for dismount, then hopped down.

 Thompson:  Same routine as last year; giant 1/1 to Gienger; Tkatchev to overshoot; giants for dismount, then hopped down.

 As the athletes rotated to beam, Val told the audience of Maloney’s status – the rod has been removed from her leg and it is healing, it is midway through the healing process, and they will see how the leg is doing when it is time to start the season. At that time the decision whether or not she will redshirt will be made.

Thompson apparently injured her foot on bars earlier in the pre-season and just had a walking-cast removed.

Willis apparently has a yearly tradition of waking up with a really painful foot on any given morning. Apparently this yearly tradition happened recently, so she’s also resting the foot. The joke is that she broke her foot while sleeping.

Beam

Val discussed the basic requirements of a beam routine (mount, 1/1 turn, flight series, leaps) while Velasco demonstrated them. She did a nice ff-layout for the flight series, as well as a beautiful side somi which she landed perfectly.

Jamie Williams did her leap series on the beam – switch leap to 2 straddle jumps, and Val commented that Jamie could get nearly all of her bonus (.4) with that one leap pass.

Conway did two flairs on the end of the beam, and Val commented that 3 flairs has to be done for the mount to be considered “the Homma”. Val pointed out that Leah Homma (former Bruin and Canadian star) was in the audience, and Homma stood and waved. She looks great!

Conway successfully completed the Homma mount, then absolutely nailed the next three skills as Val explained what they were – double turn (apparently called “spin doubles” in Canada), illusion turn (perfect), and a tour jete-1/2 which was nailed as well. She looks awesome.

Christy Tedmon did a switch leap to straddle jump to straddle ľ and a ff-layout. She also did a wolf-3/4.

Desai did her beam mount and rolled off the side of the beam. She repeated it and was shaky, but it’s still a great sequence.

Then it was Beckerman’s turn, and Val informed the audience that despite all of the rumors, Alyssa Beckerman is not retiring, she’s having fun in the gym, and she’s a joy to work with. Beckerman is still rehabbing her wrist, and Val took the audience through the elements of Alyssa’s routine, showing how she doesn’t use her hands except for a Korbut. Alyssa showed two new elements – a Korbut connected to her two front aerials, and a really nice full-turn with her leg in a Y-scale, but held with the opposite arm (a la former Utah star, Missy Marlowe).

Tedmon and Beckerman showed full routines without dismounts:

Tedmon: swing leg over the beam to mount, switch leap to straddle to straddle-3/4 (fall), ff-layout, wolf-3/4, RO back tuck dismount (is planning a double).

Val addressed the young gymnasts in the audience, complimenting Tedmon on how strong the rest of the routine was after the initial fall.

Beckerman: punch front tuck mount to beat jump; full turn with leg horizontal to wolf jump (very smooth); front aerial (big break) + front aerial (small break) + Korbut; ring leap + ring leap; fell on the 1/1 turn in Y-scale; cartwheel and jumped off the side (will probably be a cartwheel gainer 1/1 or maybe a 2/1).

Val indicated that she and the team are happy with the new rule that there is no time limit on beam routines, citing Doni Thompson’s costly time deduction at Pac-10’s as the main reason.

Floor

Val had loud music play and the athletes warmed-up passes.

Conway: front-1/1 + front pike; did a front-1/1 + front-1/1 and sat.

Dantzscher: her layouts are huge, and she did a double layout, double tuck, and her RO + back 1.5 + barani + back 1/1 + layout step-out

Beckerman: RO ff layout; RO + whip-1/2 + front layout

Lots of layouts and fulls from Parker, Jones, Desai, Patel, Erickson, Velasco, Tedmon…I forget who else.

The UCLA athletes got their new routines about a week ago. Val indicated she got a lot of requests for the athletes to show full routines, but she reinforced that it was too soon for that, but some of the athletes would tumble layouts as they danced through their floor routines.

Velasco has the same routine she’s had the past couple of years, but she looked much more confident and expressive than she did at Michigan State last year.

Parker has techno music that blends into a techno-Celtic melody. It’s much more dramatic than last year and looks really good on her. Sort of reminds me of Crystal Gilmore’s FX from ’00 in terms of the style and the movements. She turned after her first layout pass, so I’m guessing she will open with an Arabian double front.

Jones also has a dramatic routine to very strong music, looks like she might be shooting for a double layout, whip to double pike, and bounder + Rudi for her passes. Just a guess.

Dantzscher’s routine is very eclectic, reminds me of Heidi Moneymaker’s past routines. Very strong music, almost heavy metalish? She does the worm in the middle of the routine, and really connected with the crowd. Excellent performer.

Val thanked everyone for attending, and that was about it.