This week…
KJ may or may not have been detained by a mall cop
Which might have been for the best
But you never let some jerk OOB lines interfere with the art
Wait…Alabama won SECs?
The trendsetters are doing one-handed Paks
And two-footed Tkatchevs
Meanwhile, the committee put together the regionals draw
And placed #26 NC State in a play-in instead of #29 Kent State
Because it’s fun competing all season to get a ranking…that can be ignored
Also Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, and Iowa State are in the same semifinal
Washington was a beam rotation away from making regionals
And Arizona was like, “I support you in this struggle”
Nebraska thought it had a counting score, but then the OOB was taken
And, this is UCLA’s full vault warmup
Is that a safe spot in the two-footed tkatchev GIF? How would the spotter save the gymnast by standing behind the low bar? Perhaps spotter should be on the side of the apparatus but inside as Josh/GA does? Safety first!
The “spotter” could be there for several reasons…as a visual aid, to help with timing the swing, and/or for comfort for the gymnast. 🙂
I can’t respond to the reply about the heels and that SENT ME. Heels should never be worn on mats in general. They should NEVER be worn by a spotter. And you’re not wrong about their appearance. LoL
They’re standing there to push the athlete away from the low bar if they mistime their swing and go too far back. Hitting one’s back – or worse, one’s neck – against the low bar is a great way to cause a spinal cord injury. Spotters aren’t usually there to catch an athlete if the athlete falls: their goal to help a falling athlete rotate to a safe falling position (like tapping someone who is underrotated to get them to fall to their feet or better yet back instead of falling head first) or to help break the full impact of a fall. If you look at the spotter’s hand on this release, both of her hands are over the low bar, open, palms up, in the position to push someone away from the low bar.
My issue is the spotter‘s heels – seems like a flat shoe with traction would be a lot safer and also those heels are ugly.
That is SO UCLA. Get talented kids who can compete, don’t take anything seriously and hope for the best.
Like when they won the national title in 2018? GTFU
They’ll watch Nationals from home like all of us.
They won Nationals with Miss Val, not whiny Chris Waller.
Chris Waller WAS associate head coach at UCLA before he became head coach so try again dumb ass. Your UCLA hate is obvious.
Stop pleasuring yourself to photos of Chris Waller.
What an ignorant assumption and point of view. **YAWN**
To be fair, that vault rotation did go 49.400 (out of a max of 49.800 given start scores), which was their season high… so probably not too bad!
Wow! So many of you just worship UCLA. It’s so unnatural and weird. Chris Waller is a shitty coach which is why they’re 13th FYI.
Your UCLA hate is SOOOOOOO unnatural. Call a therapist ASAP.
Hate me all you want, but UCLA is still 13th. As in 13th. As in lower than 12th.
UCLA has 1 All-American LOLOLOLOL!! Because they’re so well coached.
Not a big UCLA fan but this is bizarre. The CA schools had tighter restrictions than almost anyone which resulted in starting practice very late. UCLA was also hit hardest by the extended Olympic cycle because they land more Olympic caliber athletes than anyone. The 2016 hopefuls left last year and the ’20/’21 hopefuls won’t show up until the fall. If Dennis is healthy and Flatly back for beam, it’s instantly a better team for regionals.
Eh, Waller doesn’t seem like the greatest coach but the gymnasts all seem happy AND Waller doesn’t do the creepy self-promotion of Val.
Long term they’ll have to do something if they want to get good recruits but UCLA has the advantage of being one of the few truly good schools with an NCAA team.
Who cares about the gymnastics when UCLA has ALL THE FUN ALL THE TIME?!?! Almost every team has genuinely positive and negative reactions during meets, but UCLA’s “WE HAVE FUN AND DANCE ALL THE TIME!” is so cringey and forced. “Look at us – we have fun. We’re having fun, do you see us? Look at us, LOOK AT US!! WE LOVE FUN AND WE HAVE MORE THAN YOU!”
It’s exhausting.
Quite honestly you are the one who is exhausting with your constant UCLA hate.
Must be sad to have NO life whatsoever.
I was like, what kind of committee made those kind of decisions? – Only to learn that one member is a very good friend of mine.
Oooooh, so do you know why the committee came to decide NC State should be a play-in team?
Is it because their coach looks insane?
https://gopack.com/images/2021/1/19/KimLandrus.jpg?width=300
Was KJ supposed to be in quarantine or something? The whole competition she was standing on her own, completely separate from the team and anyone else
Did you watch the whole competition? Sounds like that is a no because if you watched OU’s balance beam rotation you would see her pep talk the ladies and also hug them after their routine.
Did you actually think about your comment before you posted? If she was supposed to quarantine she wouldn’t be anywhere inside the building. LOL
Due to it being a conference meet, athletes were all corralled to one area, including the coaches. Only the 6 athletes competing were allowed to be near the apparatus plus the coach who was assigned to that event.
KJ didn’t stand with her team and was over in that area because she had a better view of the floor exercise. Security was not detaining her, that was Spencer being humorous.
If you look closely you’ll see volunteer coach Ashley Kerr to the right of the GIF with a clipboard before it pans to a closer view of KJ.
OMG this is a good one.
1. Isn’t the SEC gymnast of the year about dominance over the whole season? Because Trinity Thomas deserved it much more than Luisa Blanco. Of course Luisa is amazing, but she is the SEC c-h-a-m-p-i-o-n, why have another award if it just goes to the aa winner of one meet? Trinity was clearly the best gymnast over the year, and as the honor says “gymnast of the YEAR”. I’m so mad rn.
2. Can someone explain to me how can Kiya Johnson be the SEC specialist of the year, if she competed in all but a few meets in the all-around and is literally the SEC runner-up in the aa? Also she has 10s on three events, which shows me how balanced she is. She is not a specialist, she is a great all-arounder. It looks to me the SEC just desperately wanted give give some honor to her.
The SEC rarely looks at any circumstances beyond the score (unlike the PAC, which actually seems to think about the awards). I understand the Johnson award because LSU likely submitted her name for the specialist and not the gymnast of the year. She was ranked highest on floor at the end of the year in the SEC.
The AAer award (hate they call it gymnast of the year because it really is just an AA award) is different. Thomas is the highest ranked on RTN narrowly ahead of Blanco. Maybe people didn’t vote for Thomas because of her injury and covid missed meet? The other option is that Florida submitted someone else’s name for GoY (odd approach, but could have happened).
Agreed 100%. Trinity Thomas won 5 AA citations (the max possible). Oh yeah, and she just happens to be the #1 ranked gymnast in AA & UB (and #2 on FX and Top 10 on V & BB). She achieved these rankings without competing the last several weeks (meaning she achieved a higher ranking faster and with fewer opportunities to improve than others.) No hate on the other gymnasts, but Trinity Thomas is quite possibly the best gymnast in the country hands down. She deserved this award unanimously.
These awards are generally arbitrary and stupid.
I’ll note that Johnson doesn’t seem to have an AA NQS. I don’t follow LSU closely so I don’t know whether she competed AA in fewer than four meets or just had the wrong home/away configuration, but my guess is that everyone who lacked a AA NQS was lumped into the specialist group and then they voted on the “best” of that group. Which, yes, is dumb, but that’s pretty par for the course.
Never mind, I found her, she was just ranked WAY lower than I expected. Gymnast of the year tends to be the AA champ, so I suspect it’s as you said and they just wanted to give her something.
I too would like to know why KJ was isolated. Anyone?
From the stream I watched because there were 4 teams competing, athletes were corralled and only one coach was able to be near/at the apparatus at a time. KJ does BB so she was close by for that. I think Lou spots FX so he was nearby.
If you watch the coverage, only the 6 competing got to be near the apparatus and all the teammates were sequestered to the side. KJ likely stood where she was so she could see floor better.
I’m guessing she wanted to get as far away from that train wreck of a floor rotation as possible? She was hugging people after beam- which is so not necessary during a freaking pandemic- so it wasn’t a precautionary thing. Every time they cut to her by those garage doors I started laughing.
Hiding in the dark circles under her eyes???
i’m just mad that they gave jenny rowland coach of the year instead of jordyn wieber
Wieber doesn’t deserve coach of the year. Arkansas was ranked 4th in the SEC and 10th overall. Then they finished LAST at SECs. They have made amazing progress but aren’t there YET. Florida is the best team on paper and is likely to win the National title. They made costly errors at SECs and were with out Thomas in the AA.
Plus they had to make up for the folly of naming AOY as Luisa Blanco instead of Trinity Thomas.
I completely agree. Wieber woudn’t even come close to Coach of the Year. If it was not Jenny Rowland it would have been Dana Duckworth after Alabama were crowned champions (even though that was a stolen from LSU) for the first time since 2015.
Wieber for Coach of the Year. LOL. Someone needs to take their rose colored glasses off!!!
I dunno, Wieber seems like she’s able to do more with less than either Rowland or Duckworth, who have lineups full of ex-elites and yet get repeatedly crushed by KJ’s previously-unknown level 10s.
I know that’s not how this works but it’s how it should work.
Aren’t these awards voted on by the coaches? If so, that’s likely another factor: both due to her age and her newness, Jordyn likely isn’t really “in the club” of SEC coaches yet.
Your account of some “SEC coaches club” with Wieber not apart of it is stupid. You are a member of Qnon and Parler, aren’t you?
What did Wieber do to deserve coach of the year?
Nothing.
10th ranked overall, 4th ranked in the SEC, 7th at championships. Nothing sparks “coach of the year” like finishing dead last.
Rowland has led Florida to #1 in the team rankings, along with Thomas ranked #1 in the AA and UB.
If it was not going to be her, it would have been Duckworth for her team winning the SEC and Blanco winning the AA.
Or Jay Clark for leading LSU to #3 in the nation, with the SEC specialist Kiya Johnson currently ranked #1 on FX, and SEC freshman of the year is Haleigh Bryant.
Why is it when someone’s favorite does not get rewarded/awarded there is some conspiracy theory that is concocted?
Chill. I think they are just referring to the fact that the coaches vote on each other and Jordyn is an unknown quantity for them and hasn’t built up a reputation. They didn’t imply that she didn’t win because of a conspiracy theory.
I agree that the coach of the year shouldn’t necessarily go to the top ranked team. Duckworth and Rowland both need serious performance reviews after the last few seasons. How does Florida keep losing nationals (or not even making it there) with that roster? Every year we’re like „this is Florida’s year“ and then … it’s not.
11:51 is correct about my meaning. I’ve like, BARELY paid attention to the SEC this year and IDGAF who wins any of the awards. But anyone who’s worked in any professional environment knows that it takes time to build the relationships required to have a shot at any peer-voted award, no matter how deserving one may be.
Incorrect.
There have been multiple instances of coaches winning coach of the year in their first or second season.
Justin Howell of Cal
Jay Santos of ASU
Jay Ramirez of Towson
Are three that come to mind immediately without thinking about it.
Also, if you are BARELY paying attention to SEC why are you even commenting then? Clearly you don’t have enough information in order to present a valid and educated opinion.