Upgrades Vs. Consistancy

The way I see it, these two are POLAR opposites. One has great form, one has crap form. One has a ton of difficulty, the other does not. One focuses on the technical aspect of the sport before chucking skills, the other chucks and chucks and chucks.

So what is better? To chalk your routine full of difficulty even if you're sacrificing form and technique? Or is it better to compete at a rather low difficulty, risk coming up short, and trying for more refined skills.

Personally, I think Ross's approach is a lot better in the long run and for the sport. Skinner has been upgrading on nearly every event since Worlds and it has me scratching my head. She did not beat Ross out in the AA and she came up short on floor. Her difficulty was MUCH higher than both Ross and Mustafina respectively but her technical issues put her behind them.

If I were MyKayla, I would have gone home and worked on my form and technique because clearly there are problems there. Instead, she's adding more difficulty to try and overrule the form deductions. Why oh why?? I would have a lot of respect for her if she kept her routines and worked on cleaning them up.

Meanwhile, Kyla is always working on cleaning up, I mean always. And it has done her a lot of good. She has been super consistent and it has paid off. Now that she has worked on her form, technique etc., she can focus on upgrading which she plans to do this year. I would have said that Kyla waited way too long to upgrade but after her success at Worlds, I'd say she did the right thing.

It's hard to say what will pay off in the end. Will Skinner's skills push her past Kyla's consistency and refinment? What do you think??

January Camp

Well it's the first camp of the year and I for one am excited!! Videos are expected and fun speculation will ensue :).

Picture from usagym's instagram

The lineup from left to right: Kyla Ross, Maggie Nichols, Ashton Locklear, Sabrina Vega, Madison Desch, Megan Skaggs, Polina Shchennikova, Aly Raisman, Bailie Key, Felicia Hano, McKenna Kelley, Ashley Foss, Margzetta Frazier, MyKayla Skinner, Alyssa Baumann, Nia Dennis, Jazmyn Foberg, Grace Quinn, Emily Gaskins, Laurie Hernandez, Deanne Soza, Emily Schild, Lauren Navarro, Christina Desidero, Olivia Trautman, Norah Flatley, Simone Biles, Alexis Vasquez, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, Laney Madsen, Victoria Nguyen, Ragan Smith

So it's pretty much the expected crew. Madison Kocian, Rachel Gowey and Gabby Douglas aren't there. No word on why Rachel and Madison didn't come but Gabby is apparently sick. I'm going to repress my skepticism because it is the time of year when everyone seems to be getting hit by the flu. I really hope Gowey isn't injured again though because I was rooting for her this season. Nichols is back though, which is good and I'll be interested to see how she's coming along, I think she added some upgrades.

Nia Dennis, Bailie Key and Alexis Vasquez are all making their debuts as seniors. I'm pretty excited to see what they'll do this year. Key obviously has quite a reputation that precedes her but I also see Nia being a big asset to the team. I'm not counting Alexis out either!

I was also glad to see Deanne Soza back in action after her medical problems this fall, yay for her for getting back in the gym and working hard.

Maddie Desch being there surprised me for some reason, I sort of thought she might go away after worlds but here she is. I have to say, though all of her inconsistencies, I have this weird soft spot for her. I think I've mentioned this before but she was such a promising gymnast as a junior that I can't seem to write her off.

Vega is back at camp too and I'd really like to see some videos of her training. I think it's great that she's attempting this comeback because her 2011 gymnastics were really quite lovely.

Still injured and home are Lexie Priessman (recovering first from a broken ankle and now shoulder surgery), Nica Hults (recovering form hand surgery) and Mckayla Maroney (first recovering from knee surgery, now from an unknown medical problem).

I've got a couple posts planned for this week, stay tuned!

My Gymnastics Hopes for 2015

These types of posts are all over the gymternet right now so I thought I would write my own. Here they are!

• I want Larissa to stay a strong force and win a gold medal at the next worlds, beam or floor is probably her best bet.
• Simone to stay healthy but have some competition both in and outside of the US. I'd love to see upgrades on a few of her events. 
• Kyla, your strategy of constancy (with low difficulty) really worked this year but now it's time to upgrade. I want to see more on bars and beam and put that whip to arabian back in floor. 
• Someone to surprise us all and come out of retirement. 
• Aly to crush it at her first competition and continue to improve.
• Norah Flatley to not headcase and make a habit of falling off beam. 
• Bailie Key to live up to the hype as a Junior and not go all Krystal Uzalec on us. 
• Deeper fields everywhere
• China to get it together on floor. 
• Mykayla Skinner to either work on her form/execution or start getting more seriously deducted. 
• Mckayla Maroney to comeback stronger than ever or quietly retire. I love you Mack but don't hurt yourself if it's a losing battle. 
• I want Viktoria Komova to reappear and actually stay healthy for more than a day. 
• Give Aliya some time off but have her be at Worlds again. 
• I want to know exactly whats going on with Ernst and Finnegan, are they done?
• Rachel Gowey, Maggie Nichols and Lexie Preissmen to get some redemption and stay healthy. Specifically, I want some international success for Gowey. 

That's all I've got for now and I know it's a long list. We will see!