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hornime · 3 years

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watch and learn | iwaizumi hajime x f!reader x team japan

there were two things they all had in common: the growing bulges in their pants that they were urgently trying to distract themselves from, and the fact that their full attention was on you.

warnings: 18+, timeskip!everyone, BIG MANGA SPOILERS BASICALLY, exhibitionism, voyeurism, orgasm denial

w/c: 3.1k

a/n: now i don’t know if iwaizumi hajime (27) athletic trainer learned about female orgasms when he was studying sports science at irvine BUT he def knows how to show a girl a good time which is reason enough for me to write this. also, i read this article to prep for this piece and it was super enlightening, so i do recommend giving it a read if you’re interested!

in the middle of his morning run, iwaizumi slowed momentarily to check the repetitive buzzing of this phone, curious as to who was messaging him this early. when he’d left the apartment, you were sleeping, and you had the tendency to still be sleeping by the time he returned, so who else could it be?

he unlocked his phone, quickly finding the source of the notifications: the team japan group chat.

[06:43 AM] miya: hey @iwaizumi—you know stuff abt the human body right?

[06:43 AM] miya: cus like you studied it in college and shit??

iwaizumi rolled his eyes. i spent four years in america to earn my degree, came back home to support my country’s olympic team, and dealt with the biggest idiots of volleyball, only to get treated like this?

[06:44 AM] iwaizumi: yes, miya. i took many courses on the human body. in fact that’s the purpose of my job. to know the human body. because i am a fucking athletic trainer.

[06:44 AM] miya: okay okay i get it. dumb question

[06:44 AM] iwaizumi: why? is something up? you need help or anything?

[06:44 AM] miya: uhhh kinda

[06:44 AM] miya: @hinata i’m not fucking asking this

[06:44 AM] bokuto: bro just do it

[06:44 AM] miya: @hinata @hinata @hinata

iwaizumi cocked an eyebrow. what the hell are they going on about?

[06:45 AM] iwaizumi: so am i needed or...

[06:45 AM] hinata: YES

[06:45 AM] hinata: we had a question

[06:46 AM] sakusa: by “we” he means him, miya, and bokuto

[06:46 AM] suna: yeah don’t bring us into this

[06:46 AM] hinata: don’t listen to them! both suna and sakusa wanna know too

[06:46 AM] iwaizumi: okay. what’s up

[06:47 AM] hinata: we wanted to know how to make a girl cum

he chuckled in disbelief.

[06:47 AM] iwaizumi: you’re telling me that you guys are in your mid-20s, literal olympic athletes, and you don’t know how to make a girl cum

[06:47 AM] iwaizumi: have you never done it before??

[06:47 AM] miya: NO

[06:47 AM] miya: FOR THE RECORD IVE MADE MANY GIRLS CUM

[06:48 AM] bokuto: ME TOO

[06:48 AM] bokuto: i think

he laughed out loud, briefly startling another runner on the sidewalk.

[06:48 AM] iwaizumi: you guys are unbelievable

[06:48 AM] hinata: i mean she says she finished but idk what i did to make that happen

[06:48 AM] bokuto: ^^

[06:48 AM] hinata: so like i wanna know how to actually do it

[06:48 AM] suna: actually im kinda interested in this too

[06:48 AM] aran: i pray for your future girlfriends. this is painful to see. im out

[06:48 AM] kageyama: i’m with aran on this one. you guys are dumb

[06:48 AM] hinata: shut up. you suck.

[06:48 AM] miya: cmon iwaizumi, help a guy out

[06:48 AM] sakusa: it wouldnt hurt for you to give us some pointers at least

iwaizumi sighed.

[06:49 AM] iwaizumi: @miya @hinata @bokuto @suna @sakusa meet in the locker room after practice. ill give you guys a lesson in the art of pleasing a woman

to teach effectively, he needed a volunteer, though he was sure you wouldn’t need much convincing. you’d always loved the attention, and the biceps, of the pro athletes. he spun on his heel and jogged home.

you woke up to the sound of your apartment door opening, your boyfriend creeping inside, forehead damp with sweat.

“hey,” you said quietly, making your way towards him.

“hey, baby. sorry for waking you up, i was trying to be quiet.”

you giggled sleepily. “s’okay, haji. you spoil me too much anyway, always letting me sleep in for hours while you’re off doing god knows what.”

at that, his eyes crinkled in amusement, and as you tried to step into a hug, he shuffled back. “woah there, baby. i gotta shower, ‘m all gross from my run. and then,” he gave you a peculiar look that you couldn’t quite place, “i got a proposition for you.”

after his shower, he waltzed out of the bathroom, steam wafting out from behind the door. his tanned body made you feel things you definitely shouldn’t be barely an hour after the sun’s risen, and you reached out to massage the tension in his shoulders. “so, what’s your proposition?”

“well,” he hesitated. “it’s a bit... unconventional. the team asked me to show them how to make a girl cum,” he took in your intrigued expression. “and it’d be a lot easier to explain if i had someone to do a live demonstration with. so,” his eyes flicked up to you. “that’s where you’d come in.”

“a... live demonstration? like you’re gonna make me cum in front of them?”

“yeah, essentially.” he gave you a devilish grin. “you want that, baby? wanna show those boys how a real man treats a gorgeous woman like you?”

you rubbed your thighs at his words. “yeah,” you purred. “i do. wanna show them how good you are to me.”

and that’s how you found yourself nestled between iwaizumi’s muscled thighs, back pressed against his chest, completely naked, with five of japan’s best volleyball players staring at your body in awe.

practically an expert in his field, iwaizumi knew the human body inside and out. this had many benefits; of course it allowed him to catapult up the ranks and work with the country’s best athletes to keep them at the top of their game, but it also had a unique side effect: an overwhelming vault of knowledge on how to make a woman feel good anywhere.

you’d seen the proof firsthand; he knew exactly where to push, prod, stroke, and tease to have you cumming in seconds, over and over, as many times as you wanted. he was amazing, and you were well-aware just how lucky you were to have such a talented man in the sheets.

“oi,” iwaizumi snapped his fingers, drawing each of the players’ eyes away from your glistening cunt. “pay attention. i know more than anybody that she’s hot as fuck, but you gotta listen to what i’m saying or else there’s no point to this.”

he lightly pressed his lips against your collarbone, slowly tracing them against your jaw, the contact making you squirm. “if you wanna make a girl cum, first thing you gotta do is make her comfortable. if she’s worried about how she looks or sounds or smells she’s gonna be too stressed to let go.” he moved his hands to grope your tits, his calloused fingers brushing over your hardening nipples. “so reassure her, tell her how irresistible she is, how pretty her moans are, how tasty her pussy is. shit like that. the sexier she feels the better it’ll be.”

he leaned into you, whispering into your ear. “feeling good, baby? we can stop whenever.”

you nodded weakly, afraid to open your mouth, barely holding in your whines as his palms worked wonders on your chest and stomach, sending shocks of heat wherever they touched.

you craned your neck up to observe the men before you. atsumu was flushed red, wringing his hands as if he was worried they’d do something embarrassing if he didn’t keep them occupied. hinata was bouncing his leg up and down, wiping his palms on his shorts as he took in the plushness of your thighs. bokuto was basically drooling, greedily tracing your soft curves with his eyes. suna maintained his indifferent expression, but the reddening tips of his ears showed that he was a lot more hot and bothered than he let on. sakusa stood quietly to the side, leaning against the wall, mask tucked under his chin as if he’d just realized how much the temperature had gone up in the room.

there were two things they all had in common: the growing bulges in their pants that they were urgently trying to distract themselves from, and the fact that their full attention was on you.

"make sure to try different things; there’s multiple ways to make a woman cum. only like a quarter of women experience orgasms just from penetration,” someone made a sound of shock. “yes, the number is that small, bokuto.”

his fingertip slowly trailed past your belly button, dipping into the mess between your thighs, causing you to slightly arch your back into the solid chest supporting you. “foreplay with the clit is your best bet; even stupid fucks like you probably wouldn’t screw it up too bad.”

hinata opened his mouth to speak, but iwaizumi anticipated his question and continued.

“i know you’re wondering where the clit is. it’s around here, under this hood of skin,” he slid his digit between your labia. “s’not gonna come with a label so you gotta explore a little bit. i know where hers is like the back of my hand, but for you guys, with your girls, you’re gonna have to move your fingers around. slowly. and pay attention to her expressions.” he began to rub in a circular motion around your clit, causing you to make small whimpers of pleasure and shift your hips to meet his movements.

“if she clenches up or twitches when you feel a certain spot, like this,” your legs flexed as he increased the pressure, “that’s the clit. be kind, it’s not a volleyball. be gentle n’ make small circles, whether it’s with your fingers or your tongue.”

he thought for a second. “speaking of which, oral’s important. very important. most women cum when they’ve been eaten out, so use your mouths for something more useful than just dirty talk. suck on the clit, maybe tongue-fuck her a ‘lil, but your main focus should always be the clit.”

he removed his hands from your sopping pussy, and you made a pathetic noise of frustration. “’m sorry, baby,” he muttered seductively in your ear. “don’t wanna have you finishing too early. lesson’s barely started.”

he turned his attention back to your audience, his lustful tone being replaced by a more instructional one. “there’s other places that’ll help a woman orgasm, too: her nipples, her neck, her ears—”

“her ears?” sakusa questioned. he blushed profusely as everyone turned to look at him, surprised that he’d opened his mouth. “what? we were all thinking it.”

“s’a valid question,” iwaizumi said. “yeah, you can lick ‘em if they’re sensitive. hers are.” as if to prove his statement, he licked a stripe on the shell of you ear, making you wiggle helplessly at the stimulation. “‘n leave kisses everywhere else. feels good for them just like it does for us.” he wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you closer to him and forcing your movements to stop as he traced patterns with his tongue all around your neck.

“something you should know about an orgasm is that it’s something called a positive feedback loop.” he looked up and was met with five blank stares. shouldn’t have expected anything from these dumb jocks, he lamented. “basically that means that, once you start releasing sexual tension, things will feel better and better until you climax.”

“oh!” atsumu chirped. “like how my sets get better and better throughout a game.”

“no, not really,” he quipped. “your sets suck throughout.” atsumu frowned at that.

iwaizumi exhaled exasperatedly. “the general idea is that the body gets more and more sensitive, muscle contractions become more and more frequent, and touches feel more and more stimulating until you cum. all right?”

they all made noises of understanding except for bokuto and hinata, whose eyes had glazed over at the first mention of an academic term. whatever, iwaizumi thought. they’ll get it through example.

"don’t worry about it too much if you don’t get it, that’s just an orgasm on paper. in practice, though, this is the crucial step: listen to her. she knows what feels good. never forget that you’re just an idiot with a cock.” he took a breath, gathering his thoughts before proceeding with his lecture.

“if she tells you to slow down, you slow down. if she tells you to go harder, you go harder. if she tells you to keep doing what you’re doing, you...”

“keep doing what you’re doing”, they all chimed in at staggered times.

“that’s right. don’t go faster or else you’ll mess up the rhythm and she won’t cum. and you wanna make her cum, don’t you?”

they nodded simultaneously.

“so if you keep up the tempo and force that feels good to her, you’ll be fine. questions?”

suna spoke up. “what about,” he choked on the word. “penetration?”

hinata hummed in agreement and bokuto jumped in. “yeah, what if i wanna make her cum on my cock?”

iwaizumi made a weird face. “that’s some pretty advanced stuff, but i guess i can go over it. when you try it, though, you have to be patient. with both of your bodies. s’not rocket science but s’not always easy. also it depends on the woman but sometimes she physically won’t be able to finish from penetration alone. just make sure you’re communicating.”

his swirled two fingers over your hole before shoving them in, your wetness making it easy for him to thrust in and out as your entrance stretched to accommodate him. “f—fuck!” your eyes flew open at the intrusion and you body lurched forward, but you were held back by his strong forearm. “ohmygod, oh my g—ah! feels s’good haji, s’good!”

“i know, baby, i know. you’re taking it so well.” he turned his attention back to the men, each of who were gulping heavily. if that didn’t signal to you that they were evidently affected by your moans, the way they shifted in their workout shorts did.

“boys, focus.” he curled his fingertips, brushing at the spongy spot at the top of your walls, ripping a pleasured wail from your throat and causing tears to prick at your eyelashes. “when you’re fingering her, you’ll feel an area inside that’s a bit soft and squishy. that’s the g-spot.”

you trembled in his arms as he mercilessly struck the same place over and over again with his fingers. “when you’re fucking her, try to keep the pressure building there, but it’ll be harder to make her finish since you can’t see what you’re doing.”

your breath hitched as iwaizumi’s incessant movements brought your body tantalizingly close to your release. he suddenly stopped and you almost sobbed in disappointment, until he plunged his fingers impossibly deeper.

a guttural scream of ecstasy came from within you, and your eyes rolled back as he began playing with another part of you, your body putty in his hands. “hngh, haji, ah! so good, s’good...” you threw your hands back around his neck, nails digging into the skin as you desperately tried to keep yourself grounded. your soft moans filled the air.

“stop clenching,” he hissed. “can barely move my hand.” you tried to relax but failed miserably as the tips of his fingers grazed your cervix.

“holy fuck,” suna muttered. “you’re a god.”

“she sounds so pretty,” atsumu said in amazement.

“i wanna make a girl feel good like that, too!” bokuto sulked.

“you can do it, bokuto!” hinata hit him on the arm. “just listen to iwaizumi. clearly he knows what he’s talking about.”

their eyes refocused on your figure, writhing in pleasure, prompting white hot waves of arousal to pool in their stomachs.

“yeah,” sakusa said. “clearly.”

“stop talking,” iwaizumi ordered. “and listen. beyond the g-spot is the cervix, which is basically the end of the vagina. if you’re long enough,” he briefly scanned each of their faces, “which i’m sure you are, you’ll be able to reach it if you bottom out.”

“haji—hajime, please.” the stimulation was coming absolutely unbearable, and you could tell he was sadistically holding you at the edge, refusing to give you the satisfaction of finishing. “lemme cum, please. please lemme cum, please, please, i can’t—i can’t take it ‘nymore!”

“what was that? you can’t take it anymore? gonna cum?” you helplessly bobbed your head up and down, hoping that he’d give you permission. “well,” he growled, “we can’t have that happening, can we?”

he abruptly halted his thrusts, pulling his fingers out of you with an embarrassing squelch and popping them into his mouth. pearly tears rolled down your cheeks as you grieved the loss of contact and relief.

your viewers looked on in horror, feeling immense sympathy for you; you just looked so dejected from being denied yet another orgasm.

“why didn’t you—why didn’t you let her cum?” bokuto asked.

“why do you think?” iwaizumi snapped. “don’t want you guys to see her when she does. that’s for me, and only me.”

“oh, okay,” he responded, disgruntlement clear in his voice.

iwaizumi’s glare could cut glass, it was so sharp. the possessiveness that had enveloped his mind made him hyperfocus on just one thought: being alone with you. “so, any other questions? if not, we’re done here.”

you pouted at that, not wanting the demonstration to be over. “but haji,” you mumbled into his collarbone. “i di’nt get to cum. and i wanna.” you looked up at him, eyes wide with want. “please make me cum.”

iwaizumi sent a harsh glance to the players that nonverbally communicated his message loud and clear: get out. they shuffled awkwardly out of the locker room due to the hardness between their legs that they would most definitely need to deal with soon.

your boyfriend turned his attention back to you. “’m sorry, i know i had to deny you a bunch of times. i just really hated the idea of anyone but me seeing the cute way you look when you cum.”

you made a small noise of acknowledgement and a little whisper of it’s okay, haji. he looked down, sensing the way your poor, desperate cunt was pulsing around nothing, the erotic sight injecting him with the pure need to ravage you.

he shifted his head to kiss you passionately. “why don’t i make it up to you?” he breathed between your parted lips before picking you up by the backs of your thighs, forcing you to lock your ankles around his waist.

he delicately situated you onto one of the recovery beds at the back of the room, before murmuring something that made your pussy throb in anticipation: “i’ll make you cum whichever way you want, however many times you want, all right? all you gotta do is lay back and take it.”

#kinky.inky #haikyū!!#haikyuu smut #hq smut #haikyuu iwaizumi #iwaizumi smut #iwaizumi x reader #atsumu smut #hinata smut #bokuto smut #suna smut #sakusa smut #iwaizumi #sakusa #bokuto #hinata #suna #atsumu

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viktoriakomova · 3 years

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hey, local here! can you elaborate on the simone biles thing?

howdy, local! 🤠 i’m actually very sympathetic to new fans, there’s no shame in not knowing stuff. everyone here started from having no gymnastics knowledge at all. i hope as you learn more about it you’ll enjoy watching it even more and you’ll want to keep up with the sport after the olympics!

okay so the simone “mainstream narrative” thing.

things that DID happen, in reality, on this timeline and in this universe:

simone biles was the first gymnast ever to do a double twisting double back flip beam dismount in 2019. she submitted it as a new skill so it could be given a value for judging. the international gymnastics federation (aka FIG) rated it an H (an A is worth 0.1, B 0.2, C 0.3, and so on. so an H is worth 0.8 points). many people think that was too low and it should have been an I (0.9 points). the skill simone originated is the only H-rated element on the balance beam, and she is the only person to have done it in competition.

the FIG justified their decision saying that they didn’t want to rate it an I because that would incentivize gymnasts attempting it in competition before they can actually do it, just because it’s worth so much. for perspective, a fall is -1.0. Usually when gymnasts fall, there are multiple deductions taken because of how the fall happened. But hypothetically, if a gymnast did the dismount and fell on her face, without incurring any other deductions, she would only lose 0.1 points. that gamble is mathematically worth it if a gymnast can do it maybe 50% of the time, since if she DOESN’T fall, she’ll get a big score boost.

(FWIW I don’t think it was for safety, I think they just didn’t want to jump from G elements being the hardest and skip over H to give the new element an I rating lmao)

in may 2021, simone debuted a CRAZY hard vault, unprecedented in women’s gymnastics. it was assigned a difficulty value of 6.6. for perspective, the Amanar, which was the gold standard for vault difficulty in gymnastics in 2012 and 2016, is worth 5.8 points. so its a big fuckin deal. but some people argue that it should be a 6.8.

there’s no real reasoning for why they gave it a 6.6, other than looking at the progressive increase in vault difficulty for increasingly harder vaults and then just giving it a value that’s however many tenths higher than the value of the hardest vault in the code of points already. but regardless, people insisted that it was unfair to simone individually, specifically, personally.

things that definitely did NOT happen:

a skill simone does getting banned

a skill simone does getting undervalued because it is “unfair to her competitors” how far ahead of the rest of the field her scores would be

a skill being undervalued to “punish her for greatness”

simone getting a zero from doing a skill that is banned (this one is just..??!)

simone getting a zero for doing a skill that is banned for being too hard and sticking it (even more ??! than the last one) (she didn’t stick a single vault at olympic trials iirc)

the “punished for being too good” narrative likely comes from 3 years of US sports media progressively building up this (damn near ficticious) story line about how it’s a grave injustice to humanity that simone’s skill is rated a whole entire tenth too low because the FIG doesn’t want anybody to try what she can do. she will now win gold on beam by a paltry 0.7 margin instead of 0.8 points!

i think twitter morons who dont understand anything (but know that a perceived injustice against a black athlete prepetrated by The Man is going to get a lot of attention) have warped it over time from “its underrated because the FIG is concerned someone else will hurt themselves trying it” to “the FIG is undervaluing it because nobody but simone can do it” to “the FIG is undervaluing it because simone is so far ahead of everyone else” to “the FIG is punishing simone for being too dominant and too successful” to “the FIG is punishing simone for being so dominant and successful by banning her death-defyingly difficult skill.” a perfect recipe for righteous outrage and a flurry of retweets, but completely removed from any version of reality.

i dont have a problem with people who don’t know about gymnastics, i DO have a problem with people watching like 4 clips on the internet, deciding they know what they’re talking about, and getting up on a soapbox to preach against this injustice with a totally unfounded degree of confidence

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emiliaheartfeel · 3 years

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Supergirl

Chapter 5: Soaring

You laugh as you see Atsumu’s post. Only he would be salty about you eating Osamu’s cooking, even though he can’t cook for shit. You are slightly soar from sleeping on the ground apparently with Atsumu, but nothing that some time at the gym can’t fix. You glance at the twins as Osamu starts cleaning up while the blonde stuffs his face. Sighing you get and hug Osamu tightly. You missed them, you missed this. You had no family left after the car accident seven years ago. The twins and their family were all you had basically considering your foster parent didn’t really do much for you. By the time your parents had died you had long since decided that you were going to be an Olympic gymnast. Showing great talent for the sport at a young age you had gained yourself a sponsor. Said sponsor eventually became your foster parent, he was always more focused on your career then on you. He knew this so he let you practically live with the Miya’s while he paid for all of your expenses. Once you become a national ranked athlete he got you an apartment after news reporters stalked the Miya’s to get to you. You still spent the majority of your time with the Miya’s just tried not to sleepover too often. Atsumu comes over and makes it a big group hug as he smooshes you between him and his brother. Giggling as Osamu groans in irritation, you can’t help snuggling into his back. It just makes Atsumu squeeze both of you hard. You start to wheeze from laughing the oxygen slowly being squeezed out of you. Osamu turns around and glares at his twin.

“You squeezing her to tight. Poor girl can barely breathe.”

“Sha up”

“Osamu is right though! You need to let me go Tsum. I can’t breathe!”

“Oh you can’t breathe can you! Huh you can’t breathe!”

He grins down out you as he picks you up from behind swinging you in the air. You can’t help the squeal you release but it’s soon followed by the most joyful laughter. Osamu is watching with amusement. Seeing you so happy and content made him tingly even if it was from being in his brother’s arms. The typical jealously is numbed by the casualness of the situation. This is how you three have always been. The twins are the only people who can’t all of your feelings. Your bitterness, your silliness, your mischievousness, your sadness, your joy. They get it all. They are the ones you call at 2 in the morning before a big meet questioning if your good enough. They were the ones you called after you won your medals. The medal ceremony had barely been over and you were calling them voice thick and tearful. They had watched how you had almost collapsed on the pedestal from being overwhelmed barely being able to hold back to tears. They had been the ones to take to your parents grave as you told them you did it , you were the best gymnast in the world. They were also the ones that held you years prior to that when you were injured to the point it was questionable if you would compete ever again. They were always the ones that were there.

Not too much later the three of you are leaving the house to go to your gym. This was your gym. It’s almost as much your home as the Miya’s house was, your sanctuary. You almost sprint to get changed to. The brothers can’t help but be amused. Somethings never change. You are back out in no time and they watch you go to the vault. You hate the vault. It’s the only event you didn’t medal on, but you know you have to work hard to make yourself a more rounded athlete. No fun and games here on this day. The brothers are in awe like usually watching you push of the vault with such power and grace. You continue on with the vault. Practice with your weak points is you main focus for the first few hours and then you take a small break and check your phone.

You chuckle and go to start you floor routine. There has been some adjustments since the Olympics to make it more difficult so you can get the gold on it next time. Silver wasn’t bad but you want to be better. The brothers find themselves drawn back in after hours of watching you launch yourself off of the same board in the same way. You move gracefully with your soundtrack now playing in the background a mix of some classic American rock and baroque. Not long after you start your routine Suna shows up and gives the twins a lazy wave before sitting down watching you.

“Wow”

“Yeah we know”

“Ha if you boys are impressed with that wait until you see her on the uneven bars”

An old man says with a giant grin on his face. The twins jump a little because the gym had been empty except for them until now. Osamu recognizes the man as the owner he had been there since before you had thought of becoming a gymnast. But it almost like you heard him as you go to the uneven bars your best event and get started.

The boys can’t help but think it is like you are floating through the air. You had told Osamu once that this was how you fell in love with gymnastics. The feeling of flying through the sky. You were soaring and it’s what hooked you. You eventually decide that the boys are probably bored out of their minds and go over to them.

“Suna and I are going out for lunch. You boys should head home.”

“We are?”

“Why can’t we come”

“Cause this is a date”

“It is?!”

Mastelist

AN: I think this is a long one. But a shout out to Kaleidoscopekai, Liferuinedby5idiotsand1genius, syazaihvg, and bebetiny for the comments I always appreciate them and reading through them motivated me to write this chapter faster!

Please comment!

@kaleidoscopekai @liferuinedby5idiotsand1genius @je-suis-argent-miel @poppi144

#atsumu smau #atsumu x reader #haikyuu atsumu #haikyuu osamu #haikyuu smau #miya atsumu #miya osamu #osamu smau #osamu x reader #aran ojiro #suna rinatro #suna x reader #suna smau #haikyuu suna

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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Is it true that gymnasts can't work much when they're 30+ ? Is it like an Olympic gymnast thing or just stuntwork in general? I saw some people concerned over Dick's back causing him problems as he gets older. But then a lot of martial art guys like Donny Yen, Jet Lee are still pretty flexible aren't they?

I see this a lot in fandom too, anon, and as often happens, lol, I myself cater to the ‘fandom’s got it backwards’ take.

Fandom specifically focuses on Dick’s body giving out early on in life compared to the rest, due to acrobatics being ‘his niche’ but in reality - or as close to it as we can come in a universe that tbh really demands suspension of disbelief over the fact that any and all of the Batfam take as much punishment as they endure.....

Thing is, Dick is actually one of the family most likely to have the LONGEST longevity of physical fitness.

This is because fandom keeps correlating Dick’s niche as gymnastics, rather than what it IS - acrobatics.

Yes, gymnastics is typically considered a ‘young person’s game.’

ON AVERAGE.

But, something to keep in mind, is that there are different TYPES of gymnastics. There’s competitive artistic gymnastics, but also rhythmic gymnastics, aerobic gymnastics, and a few others. Olympics gymnasts are primarily competitive artistic gymnastics, but even there, there are specializations so to speak. All Olympic gymnasts are usually cross-trained on the various events/categories, but the teams overall put up their best gymnasts in each category to compete in that category when possible....because for the most part, someone who excels at say, floor routines, is not going to be the most optimal choice to do the high bars or the vault. That’s because floor routines emphasize more rhythmic gymnastics, whereas something like the vault is more in the arena of a power gymnast.

And these different areas of focus put different kinds of strains on the body.

So yes, while its true that a lot of gymnasts retire early and the Olympic teams as a whole tend to see their gymnasts exiting the game by 30 at the latest......the latter is because those gymnasts are expected to be at least capable and at elite levels in ALL events, so they can compete as needed for the overall team....BUT, in the case of the former, the gymnasts that retire early completely.....those are almost universally the power gymnasts, the ones who specialize and emphasize in the hard-hitting events like the vault, the beam, the uneven bars, etc.

I say hard-hitting, because I literally mean hard-hitting.

Because these are the high impact events. The ones that see a gymnast land with the full weight and impact of their body on their feet at the end of a successful (and exponentially force-multiplying) flip, handspring, dismount, etc.

That kind of impact puts TREMENDOUS strain on your joints....and that, specifically, is what leads to a lot of early retirements, and a lot of early wear and tear on the body. That’s the kind of punishment that the body can only withstand at elite levels for so long.

But that’s not the only kind of gymnastics, and its definitely not the thing that Dick’s known for specifically - that’s acrobatics. And while there’s similarities and crossover, that’s another ballgame entirely.

In fact, where the similarities and crossover tend to happen is in the areas of rhythmic gymastics, aerobic gymnastics.....the kind of things that you see in events like floor routines, the rings, the parallel bars, the pommel horse.

Those gymnasts, the ones who specialize primarily in those areas of focus......they tend to retire from the OLYMPICS around the same time as the others, because again, everyone on those teams needs to be on the top of their games and CAPABLE of being pitted against the power gymnasts of other teams on events like the vault if they need to fill in in a pinch.....BUT they don’t often retire at age 30 overall.

You wanna know where a lot of them end up going after that?

Cirque de Soleil.

Dead serious, I shit you not.....a ton of elite level gymnasts after leaving gymnastics end up....essentially running away to the circus, lol. A full third of Cirque de Soleil’s performers ARE former professional gymnasts.

And a lot of them end up....acrobats.

Because after all, there is a lot of crossover in the two, in terms of feats.....but the difference, the thing that lends acrobats more longevity than most power gymnasts and the like.....is the latter endure most of the abuse to their bodies and joints....when their bodies hit the ground at the end of their feats.

Acrobats, in contrast.....are kinda focused on.....not being on the ground.

A lot of the same wear and tear simply doesn’t happen on their bodies, and allows them to perform much further into life....because there’s simply less strain in the types of aerial feats acrobatics focus on, while suspended high up off the ground.

And we see this reflected in the Batfam and their various styles of fighting and focus, which is why I say despite people focusing on Dick’s body giving out soonest, as the quote unquote athlete of the family -

(Which tbh, I kinda...eh, about, because it feels often like one of those things where people NAME him ‘the athlete of the family’ just to give him his niche without having to acknowledge him as being the equal of any of the ‘brainy ones’ in that regard like Tim or Babs or Bruce, etc.....but honestly, when was the last time you saw any significant focus put on Dick being able to do something physically that the other members of his family COULDN’T do, because they’re not ‘the athlete’? Y’know what I mean? Like, there’s a lot of MENTION of how he’s the most athletic or acrobatic or all of that.....but that never seems to hold any of the others back from doing any of the equivalent physical feats one is inclined to write them doing, or allowing them to be written as sizably less skilled as fighters in any meaningful way. So focusing on Dick as being the most specifically physically minded and oriented of the family feels a bit performative, tbh, and that puts the focus on his body being specifically vulnerable to wear and tear, moreso than the others a bit.....suspect imo. BUT I DIGRESS).

My point is, regardless of that, my take is the focus on Dick’s body giving out soonest is ironically just....completely backwards. Because actually compare his form of physicality to some of the others, and you see what I’m saying:

Bruce and Jason for instance - they’re perfectly capable of high-level gymnastic feats when necessary, but their overall approach to flips and jumps and grappling swinging and the like is to use it as a means to an end. Its always in service to getting them ON THE GROUND as quickly and efficiently as possible....where they can use their brute strength and mass and physicality to its most effectiveness, wading in to brawl hand to hand with combatants anywhere possible (excepting of course when Jason is using guns from a distance, or Bruce his Batarangs, but you get what I mean in terms of overall styles).

But THAT kind of thing....is far more the realm of the power gymnast. The kind of high impact landings and force-multiplying jumps and flips meant to just....cut straight to it. Hone in like a heat-seeking missile. Deliver the full force of them as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In contrast....Dick’s style is entirely different, and hails directly from his origins and his strengths as an acrobat. He’s NOTED for basically spending as much time IN THE AIR during a fight as possible. He soars above when possible, rather than engage up front and hand to hand. He’s more likely to leap over criminals’ heads, kicking out and navigating upwards on his way to ‘tag’ the next one in any manner he can....dodging in and out, using confusion, weaponizing evasive maneuvers, getting his opponents to get tangled up in each other’s way...that’s HIS style.

Dick deliberately keeps himself at a distance as long as possible, not out of fear but out of basic awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses and his instinctive (due to being a born and raised athlete every bit as much as Damian and Cass are born and raised fighters) drive to look after his own body and keep it maintained and honed and efficient for as long as he can - something that I don’t doubt was drilled into him by his acrobats-as-their-livelihood-family from the very first moment they began training him.

The less he HAS to engage hand to hand, the less he HAS to land feet flat on the ground after a flip rather than using the balls of his feet to simply spring off even further and then transition into firing his grappling hook mid-air, the less he HAS to block a strike with the side of his forearm or strike someone fist to face rather than block with an escrima stick and strike with the other.....

The longer Dick’s body stays in strong enough condition to remain his most effective weapon.

And that’s not something everyone in his family can claim, or even point to as a priority of any kind.

Which is why I maintain that focusing on Dick’s body giving out young is not only a bit....eh....given they all perform equivalent levels of physicality in their vigilantism day in and day out.....its also, IMO, focusing on the wrong family members entirely.

(Overall, personally I’d rate Dick, Tim and Cass the ones most likely to retain their physical fitness the longest based on their respective styles and how they’re typically depicted in fight scenes).

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vaulthigh · 3 years

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Written in the stars.

Saturday, I stepped onto the baking 100+ degree University of Oregon track to compete in my second Olympic Trials. The feelings overcoming me were quite different than those I experienced in 2016, which back then were derived from being one of the fresh faces on the scene - one of the youngsters who had “plenty of years” to chase the Olympic dream. There may have been some pressure felt then, but this time around it was incomparable.

The Olympic hype is no doubt a factor in the emotional roller coaster most experience at the U.S. Olympic Trials. I compete 9 months out of the year every year, yet this competition (and the Games themselves, of course) is the only one that really grabs the attention of the public eye outside of the track community. Not even World Championships can compare to the Olympic hype, which I find ironic because that team is just as difficult to make, and you end up competing against the same fierce competitors at Worlds as you do at the Games.

I digress.

The point of that paragraph is to say - the pressure was on for the Trials, and while I preach to interpret it as support and encouragement from outside sources, it’s hard to overlook the feeling of expectation when I repeatedly hear the phrase “oh, you’ll make the team easily. Just go for gold in Tokyo!”

“Make the team easily”… ha. The Trials are a beast, and even the top dogs have to be on their A-game. No bad days allowed, because a dozen other athletes slightly down the totem pole are chomping at the bit, rearing to snag those rare 3 spots on the Team. My bad day is their chance to claim the spot, and rightfully so - but no matter how good you are, you can never go in thinking you have something in the bag. That’s when your bag will be lost, and you’ll never get it back. (Sort of like losing luggage while transferring through Charles de Gaulle airport - it’s just gone 😅. I hope someone who has followed me a while giggles at my reference.)

All this to say, the pressure was surmountable, and the most unfortunate part of my story is my confidence on the runway has been lacking the last month or two. It’s been a culmination of attempting to push my physical boundaries and raise my grip, but also combined with attempting to change technical things this season. I ended up biting off way more than I can chew. Being at the level I am, I will be the first to say “don’t try changing too much at once, that can really mess you up.” Well, I guess my judgement has been clouded by my burning desire to improve, and I ended up going against my own advice without recognizing it - until things came crashing down, that is. And I mean that in a literally way.

In my final competition prior to the trials, I ended up going back down to my shorter series of poles because I have felt my technique suffering. I was putting so much energy into trying to jump on the longer poles that my training sessions lacked focus on the basics of my form, which is what made me a 5 meter pole vaulter in the first place. Grip height never got me there - physical ability did. I cannot lose that because speed and power, and my ability to attack at the takeoff, are what made me great. They are my bread and butter.

While change can be a good thing, there is always going to be an adjustment period. Unfortunately for athletes, we still have to compete during the awkward times, which leaves you trying to compete at your best when you’re in the middle of a metamorphosis. It’s going to look as though you’re suffering, but in reality you’re just in the middle of morphing into a butterfly 🦋, and no butterfly can take flight before it leaves the cocoon.

That’s how I feel right now. I believe big positive changes are on the horizon, but they will only happen with persistence and positivity, and also with understanding given to myself from myself. As elite athletes, we hold ourselves to the highest of expectations at all times. I know the process I am going through, yet still was so infuriated at myself for my performance at the Trials. I don’t want to lose that fury and that fire, because that is what’s going to get me through to my goal, but I do want to work on not being so hard on myself. I know it sounds elementary, but it’s true at all levels. If anyone understands the struggles you’re enduring, it should be you. As humans, we should be allowed to show ourselves compassion just as we do toward others.

In that final competition before Trials that I referred to, I felt just ok on the shorter poles. I mean, no worse and no better than I do on the longer ones. (For reference, I’m talking 4.45m/14’7” poles versus 4.60m/15’1” poles.) I am glad I went back to them because it made me truly recognize my technique was suffering. It had nothing to do with what poles I was jumping on. I needed to “get my jump back”, regardless of poles, and I needed to do it fast because the trials were two weeks away at that time.

A few days later I did another vault session on the short poles, and I think it was probably the worst practice I have had in years. Like, literal years. I mean it. I don’t even know why - my body felt fine, the conditions were fine, etc. For whatever reason I just didn’t have it that day. I would run down the runway feeling good, plant the pole, and completely miss the swing and connection. I chalk that day up to sport. That’s just sport. Your bad days are going to happen and you sometimes can search and scrape for an explanation, and there simply isn’t one. You just didn’t have it that day.

“Well, crap.” I thought, when I ran through my last vault of the session and the pole ripped the skin right off the palm side of my thumb. “I needed that skin” I said, laughing in disbelief and also laughing because my body didn’t know what to do with my panic. Isn’t the human body such a strange thing? I felt panic and my reaction was to laugh - not sure that was an appropriate reaction but hey, I’m weird and I know it.

So now I was one week from the trials, I had just had a poor competition, and even more poor practice session, and ripped off vital skin I needed to heal within six days. A pole vaulters ability to grip is vital.

My emotions went numb at that point. I think I had worried away all of my worries. I decided to focus on getting lots of sleep, nourishment, and healing my hand. I kept it bandaged properly 24/7, and soft with ointments. This turned out to be the perfect approach because day 5 it was nearly perfectly healed and didn’t end up being an issue for my first competition day at prelims.

Prelims were absolutely necessary for me, and ended up being the first step in getting my groove back. Aside from it being hot (which I’m used to, thank you Arkansas…) the conditions in prelims were close to perfect. Throughout the warmup I got my feet under me and felt I successfully shook off the former horrid practice. I made 4.50m on my first jump, and with that single jump I qualified for the final round.

Two days later, the heat dome in Portland roasted the stadium to a whopping 111 degrees F. I wanted to take as few jumps as possible the get myself to the higher bars. In hindsight I know that was the right call because wow, doping control took me two hours because I couldn’t pee 90ml of fluid. (90ml is the absolute minimum required amount for a drug test - and it’s not much!) In warmups my run started to feel like “Sandi” again. I hadn’t felt like that in quite a while. I entered the competition and made 4.50m and 4.60m on my first attempts, but I didn’t expect those to be my only jumps of the day.

The bar went to 4.70m and I felt like I was rolling and ready to go now, shorter poles and all. It didn’t matter. First attempt, huge blow through. Needed a stiffer pole, so I missed. Second attempt, same thing! I landed so deep in the pit I had zero chance of making that bar. “Ok” I thought to myself “the next bigger pole has got to be the one. That’s always been my money pole!” So I went up a pole a third time, and after watching Morgan run down and make 4.70m (congrats Morgan!) I knew I had to respond. At this point I didn’t even know I was already in 3rd place and on the team, in my mind, I had to make this height to qualify. (Thanks ADHD, I’m not so great at processing those things mid competition when the adrenaline is pumping.) I ran down with more confidence than I had had in a few weeks time, jumped and had plenty of height over the bar! But my energy was a bit off center and my arm caught it on the way down. I missed my third attempt. I landed in the pit and was rolling out of the landing, simultaneously throwing my hands to my head in frustration, when I heard the announcer clearly state that I was one of the three on the team.

*Cue sigh of relief*, yet I couldn’t shake my extreme frustration so quickly. I had just had a bad day at the Olympic Trials. Needless to say, I was embarrassed. That’s not the feeling I wanted to have while qualifying for my second Games.

That night I experienced just about every emotion that exists. I went through sadness and disbelief, feelings of being lost and hopeless, then anger and rage at myself. I finally fell asleep at 3 am and woke up a few hours later to the videos of my jumps. My dad had texted them to me. I hadn’t wanted to even look at them after the meet because I was so angry and upset, but after I collected my mess of a brain, I took a solid look.

I found hope.

Seeing the videos helped me realize the reality - that my approach was better than it had been in weeks, and it really comes down to the fact that the poles were just too small. That’s it. I just needed to trust the feeling that my run was good and go up poles even in warm ups, but at the time I didn’t recognize that, and I didn’t go up. I started on my small pole.

So here I am three days later, and I feel like a completely different person than Saturday night. I have had time to process my emotions, endure the roller coaster, then watch my jumps with a technical eye. I am so close to being “myself” again, I just have to stay the course.

I am determined. I am going to pick up where I left off on that third and final attempt at the Olympic Trials. I am going to push forth and forge my own path. I had a bad day at the Olympic Trials, and I was still lucky enough to snag the 3rd spot to Tokyo. That was written in the stars, and I can’t help but feel it happened for a reason. I am meant to compete in Tokyo - even the stars believe it to be so, and I’m not about to waste this chance I was just handed.

Have you ever caught a shooting star? Me either. But I’m going to try. 💫

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inlimahq · 3 years

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CHARACTER INFO:

Birthday: August 23, 1990

Family: Clarington

Gender/Pronouns: Non-binary & they/them or he/him

Sexuality: Demi-pansexual

Occupation: World class gymnast & model

Relation: Full-Sibling

Birth Order: Oldest

Secret: Leo is a virgin. Between the time spent dedicated to gymnastics and their athletics and discovering that they are demi-sexual, Leo has never really gotten to that point where they, or their partner have taken that step physically. When asked about their sexuality, Leo claims unless they’re fucking you, it’s not your business. They are not embarrassed about being demi-sexual, but they know that there are certain expectations people have about them.

SOME THINGS ABOUT LEOPOLD:

Leo was an active child and was enrolled in many sports including gymnastics. They loved running and tumbling as a child, but it was skills such as the rings, the pummel horse, and the high bar that cemented their fate as a world (and Olympic) level gymnast. Leo still loves all sports. They play team and individual sports including baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, and swimming in addition to gymnastics. Currently, Leo is deciding if they are going to actively compete towards the summer Olympics in Paris in 2024. (We’re pretending the Tokyo 2020 games happened in 2020 and they were successful in their disciplines.)

The plan was for Leo to be a solider like the men in their family, however, they already knew they were very different than what their parents expected. First of all, Leo knew they wanted to be an athlete, and they also suspected they were not exactly straight. When Leo approached their parents in high school about becoming a professional gymnast, their parents dismissed the idea. Their father probably would have forbade Leo from continuing with gymnastics, but the high level of competition looked good for the West Point application. Especially when Leo was being considered a contender for the Olympic team for Beijing. Leo was crushed, but cunning. With the help of their coaches, they searched out scholarships and other routes to take other than West Point. While they filled out the application, despite what the Clarington’s though, it was not the only school Leo applied to. Leo was granted a full scholarship to Stanford, and when they announced their decision to pursue that, they were immediately cut off from the family. Leo was hurt but not surprised at this point. Still they persevered. This was when they changed their name from Hugh, to Leopold, having a bit of a crush on Hugh Jackman’s character in Kate and Leopold.

Unsurprisingly, Leo came out as nonbinary and bisexual in college, and it wasn’t until later that they realized they were actually demi-pansexual.

Leo is loyal but it can take them a while to warm up to people because sometimes they have to wonder if people are hanging around because of them, or because of who they are. Leo can be sarcastic, which is a way of protecting themselves sometimes.

Leo likes dad jokes, puns, and cheesy 80s-90s-2000′s rom coms and pop music. They also have a guilty pleasure of country music and country line dancing.

Leo’s favorite drink is Tanqueray over ice, but anything with gin will satisfy.

They don’t drink coffee, opting to start their morning with a smoothie or a caffeinated black tea.

Leo’s favorite color is green. Their favorite animal are bunnies. Their lucky number is 8.

Leo’s most successful disciplines in gymnastics are the rings and the horizontal high bar. They have also done well on the pummel horse, and enjoys the vault but they often over vault on that event. (Leo’s gymnastics aesthetic is modelled after Sam Mikulak)

Leo’s birthday is August 23rd, technically making them a Virgo (ironically the Virgin), but as a person born on the cusp, there are Leo the Lion characteristics that also fit Leopold.

Leo has a tattoo.

#clarington #leopold clarington #all

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thepapercutpost · 3 years

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Women’s Gymnastics Reminds Me of Marvel's Black Widow. That's Not Okay.

July 2021 saw both the long-awaited release of Black Widow and the return of these young women to the Olympics.

“Scarlett Johansson by Gage Skidmore 2 (cropped)“ by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (left). "Nadia Comaneci #1" by eye2eye is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 (right).

Last summer, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic seemed to put everything on hold. With movie theaters shut down, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the midst of its longest pause in between theatrical releases, experienced the first of three eventual delays to the release of the film Black Widow, which was originally scheduled for May 2020.

Delays also found one of the biggest sporting events in the world. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games had to be postponed. Thousands of athletes who had spent their lives preparing to represent their countries at the Games were forced to put their plans on hold. Among them were several Team USA hopefuls for women’s gymnastics.

July 2021 saw both the long-awaited release of Black Widow and the return of these young women to the Olympics.

In 2016, the Larry Nassar scandal, in which Nassar, a doctor affiliated with USA Gymnastics, was accused and convicted of sexually abusing over 250 women and girls, pulled the curtain back on the realities of elite gymnastics. Soon after Nassar’s abuse came to light, it was revealed that USAG had covered up complaints of sex abuse from hundreds of gymnasts against coaches, gym owners, and staff.

When asked how they thought this behavior was allowed to occur for so long, gymnasts cited the culture of fear and toxicity that permeated the gymnastics community.

From one angle, Nassar was a friendly and trustworthy face in a sea of strict training and harsh discipline. When Béla and Márta Károlyi, husband and wife coaches who defected to the U.S. from Romania in 1981, took over USA Gymnastics, they brought with them a controlling and abusive method of training. In Athlete A, a Netflix documentary centered on the sex abuse scandal, Olympic gymnast Jamie Dantzscher recalls Nassar being “the only nice adult” and that he gave the girls food and candy in secret. Naturally, the gymnasts trusted him and his methods.

And from another angle, the athletes had been conditioned from a young age, in most cases, to doubt their own instincts about their bodies.

You think you’re hungry, you think your ankle hurts, you think that you’re working really hard. But you’re told and you’re screamed at that you’re lazy and you’re fat and there’s nothing wrong with your ankle. So, when a man puts his un-gloved hand into your vagina without asking you, I can only imagine that what you feel is, ‘He’s this great doctor, and I’m lucky to be here, so I’m not going to say anything.’

—Jennifer Sey, USA Gymnastics National Champion, 1986 (Athlete A)

Letting alone the ramifications of coming forward as a gymnast against a well-respected member of the community such as Nassar, many of his victims didn’t speak out because, as a result of being raised in an already abusive system, they were unable to identify his actions as abuse.

In a similar sense, Black Widow depicts a group of women and girls who have undergone rigorous training and have been brainwashed into carrying out the KGB’s missions. The fictional Red Room provides a mirror to the very real world of competitive Gymnastics.

Even before the recent film, Marvel fans were familiar with the Red Room as the program that trained Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and other Russian girls as Black Widows, an elite class of spies and assassins. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, we see a flashback of Natasha’s time as a trainee. One memory is of an intensive ballet lesson, and the scene shows her looking on with her instructor at the studio of young women.

“You’ll break them,” Natasha says to the teacher.

“Only the breakable ones,” is her response.

Other allusions are made to the cruelty of the Widow program. When telling Natasha about the reincarnation of the Red Room, Yelena, her sister (Florence Pugh), says that only about one in twenty girls who Dreykov takes survives the initial stages. To Alexei, the girls’ father (David Harbour), Yelena elaborates on the “involuntary hysterectomy” given to them by the Red Room, a process which removes a woman’s reproductive organs and, as Natasha had mentioned in Age of Ultron, makes her unable to have children.

The brutal training process and forced assault upon women’s bodies, which they were made to believe was normal, should sound familiar.

Johansson said in an interview that the story for Black Widow began to take shape in 2017, when the #MeToo movement was rising to prominence, and is essentially a story about women supporting other women. She wasn’t shy to say the film was inspired by that moment in history, a movement that provided support to and was benefited by the USA Gymnastics scandal.

For Red Room graduates, training is followed by executing missions. The character of Dreykov (Ray Winstone) provides a face to the dark and secretive organization who gives the Widows orders. Although they are highly trained and skilled, they still face danger during these operations.

The same is true of gymnasts at their competitions. Gymnastics is one of the most dangerous sports, especially for girls and young women. Gymnasts experience both acute injuries, which occur after a single landing or other impact, and chronic injuries, which develops over time, usually during the course of frequent practice. They are often expected to compete with their injuries. In the 1996 Olympics, Kerri Strug, part of the American team known as the Magnificent Seven, won the gold for her team in the all-around by landing the final vault on one foot, as she had severely injured the other during her first attempt. The Peacock docuseries Golden: The Journey of USA's Elite Gymnasts reveals that gymnasts continue to compete with injuries today. Team USA’s 2021 all-around women’s gold medalist Suni Lee began the competition season with a broken foot while MyKayla Skinner, silver medalist on vault, began the season still fighting lingering COVID symptoms months after contracting the virus.

Injuries are one of several reasons elite gymnasts today are younger than they were 50 years ago. When Nadia Comaneci from Romania became the first gymnast to earn a perfect score at the Olympics in 1976, she was fourteen years old. From that point on, the standard for Olympic gymnasts became younger and younger. One advantage to training a younger gymnast is that the body is more resilient, and the part of the brain that recognizes the danger in the more difficult moves is not yet fully developed, which results in less of the hesitation that causes some injuries.

But with more malleability comes more potential for abuse. The younger a girl begins to learn gymnastics, the more susceptible she is to mental health issues such as anxiety and eating disorders, both common in athletes across the board, as we are learning during these 2021 Games. There is more opportunity to shape her thinking, and if she is told by coaches that she is not injured or should perform anyway when she is in severe pain, she will be less inclined to get help when something is severely wrong. Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug’s teammate in the 1996 Olympics, told BBC in a recent interview regarding being forced to compete with injuries, “I didn't even care about my well-being, to be honest, because no one cared about it ever.”

In Black Widow, Yelena is taken to the Red Room at only six years old, and it is later revealed that Natasha was identified and taken from her birth parents by a KGB program that measured the genetic potential in infants. Like the Károlyis, the Red Room discovered that getting to the girls at an early age made it easier to exploit and mistreat them without raising questions.

In 2016, when the film is set, Natasha and Yelena kill Dreykov and bring an end to the Black Widow program. Although the real-world events of 2016 in USA Gymnastics, and even the conviction of Larry Nassar, didn’t end with the toxic culture of U.S. gymnastics falling from the sky in flames, things are getting better. The 2021 Olympics are coming to a conclusion in Tokyo today, but if we are to learn and grow from recent horrifying history, we must not forget what these Games and decades of competitive gymnastics have taught us.

Among all the abominable similarities elite gymnastics and the Red Room share, there is one beautiful thing they have in common: sisterhood.

Natasha and Yelena set out to protect the young women and girls who have been captured and free them of Dreykov's mind control, having experienced that trauma themselves. In doing so, they revisit and repair their own relationship as sisters.

By all accounts, gymnasts feel a similar kinship with their peers. They bond over their shared experience: the stress of competing, the aches of injuries, long days and nights spent practicing their sport. They support each other, cheering each other on and celebrating each other's accomplishments. The women who came forward about their abuse did so not for themselves but for the sake of other gymnasts. The vulnerablities women face in this world mean that we are also tasked with the responsibility and the privilege of protecting each other.

#opinion #sports #entertainment

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404fmdtaejin · 3 years

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headcanon & aesthetics / olympics

summary: the olympics happen every four years and kim taejin is a 애국자 (patriot??) aka someone who loves his country very much to the point where he watches the olympics religiously. however, he only watches a subset of sports, and the olympics become the rare time periods where he uses his social media to shout out the athletes for their stride and true dedication representing the country. hc for elaboration. warnings: gun tw, weapon tw wc: 700ish

oddly enough, taejin is one who enjoys the summer olympics more than the winter olympics. though he does love short track skating in the winter — but aside from that his main enjoyment watching comes during the summer time

he’s been exposed to many athletes at a young age? only because he used to be taught one on one lessons by these national representatives — his parents come from money, thus the tutoring came from these people who excelled in their sports. so, from a young age he’s had an appreciation for the sports that south korea has excelled at

his focus on these specific sports come from the broadcasting stations — aka, sbs, kbs and mbc all air the olympics. yet, each time they only air the same sport at the same time. ex) taekwondo only gets broadcasted across all three, and there’s barely any variety lmao

the first sport that he loves watching is judo. judo and taekwondo, mainly because he feels some sense of pride that taekwondo originated in korea and for the past, korea has excelled at it. not to say, this year he’s felt like complete shit over how taekwondo’s happening in tokyo because korea can’t get their shit together. but in past years, he’s enjoyed watching korea do well. the barbaric nature? of body on body combat is fun to watch as a bystander, and taejin appreciates the worth ethic that goes into it.

fencing is more personal? because he did fence at a point in his childhood, and this ultimately made him know how the sports work / how meticulous each movement has to be. when he watches fencing, you can be he’s the type of viewer to yell “nice!” after each good play and maybe cuss when there becomes an evident bad play.

archery is something korea’s always excelled at? and they’re just so spot on all the time — this and shooting. these two with the precision becomes a fun thing to watch because taejin knows he could never do it and they make it look so easy. plus, it just feels really great basically watching knowing korea’s bound to win with how good they are. with tokyo and how judo / taekwondo is going, archery is his saving grace to watch and calm down

men’s artistic gymnastics — he enjoys because there’s an aspect of calisthenics he now recognizes after he’s started work out with. knows there’s a lot of strength that goes into it — plus, the one gold medal they’ve gotten from yang hak seon shows promising future for korea, even if it’s just vault. (taejin only watches the vault finals tbf lmao)

swimming used to be fun because taejin also swam for a bit. plus, he used to work out and use swimming as cardio. however, it must be said that he’s stopped finding enjoyment once park taehwan started plummeting and losing his touch. though he’s still proud and has reached out to park taehwan personally because he’s in awe / respectful of what he’s done for swimming. HOWEVER, that being said, this year taejin’s gotten back into watching swimming because of hwang sun woo — there might be hope for south korea in the swimming races.

soccer is kind of self spoken? taejin’s an avid soccer watcher (chelsea fan for club team) but when it comes to olympics / world cup, he’s always rooting for korea and goes crazy. this is peak taejin in hyper focus, even when the younger generation represents the country. ofc, it’d be nice to see son heungmin play here, but son heungmin doesn’t need the olympics when he’s too busy being center star of tottenham <3 anyways, taejin never has high hopes for korea in the olympics knowing they always get beat, hence why he raises expectations for world cup (but that’s another hc in itself).

basically the takeaway is that he has fun watching soccer > archery > taekwondo > judo > fencing > swimming > men’s vault

also a nice shout out to kim yeon kyeong and the korean women’s volleyball team!! taejin has kept up with that as of late and after that killer defeat against japan, he hopes at the very least they’ll medal.

perhaps in another life he would’ve trained to become an athlete representative with how much fun he has watching these, and how giddy he gets cheering for korea.

total 애국자!!

#gun tw #weapon tw #김태진이 왜 그럴까 → 생각

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musiccomicnerdperson · 3 years

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Gymnast at the Olympics talking about Simone Biles: I think she made the right decision. Mental health should come first in this sport.

Like if I was an Olympic level athlete and was asked about Simone Biles, I would not even try to censor myself. I’d just speak my damn mind!!! But I’m not one so here is a fun little rant/fake interview I gave myself!!!

Interviewer: So what do you think of Simone Biles decision to pull out of the Olympics?

Me: Simone Biles absolutely made the right choice! If anyone disagrees, shut the fuck up, no one is talking to you!! No one asked for your opinion!!! You have lost your right to talk about gymnastics!!!! If you disagree with what Simone Biles did after all she has accomplished in this sport I will fuck you up, like how the USAG fucked over Aly Raisman and Allen Bower, on her behalf, even though she’d be able to take you on herself!!!!!

Interviewer: Okay, maybe we could….

Me: She did not devote her life to this sport and become the world’s greatest athlete just to be called weak by someone who doesn’t know shit about this sport!!!!!! She did not become a survivor of sexual assault for you, someone who hasn’t done a cartwheel, let alone touch a beam, run towards a stationary object and fly over it, or a set of uneven bars in there life, to call her weak!!!!!!! She did not learn how to do this sport, to focus on what she is doing while dealing with ADHD for you to call her weak because it’s hard tumbling when you’re mind is off somewhere else!!!!!!!!!

Interviewer (trying to ask a different question because I already answered): Can we…..

Me (expanding on my point because): Simone Biles is the greatest of all fucking time and I fucking dare you, I FUCKING DARE YOU, to say otherwise, because at the end of the day she will still prove you wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! She will still be able to do a triple twisting double tuck on floor, she’ll still be able to do a yurchenko double pike on vault, and she’ll still be able to kick your ass any day of the week in a 1v1 competition!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a lot of pressure on her right now being the face of gymnastics at the Olympics, and it must be difficult, but what makes it harder is people bashing on her saying that she is weak!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So how about, instead of being a little fucking dick and saying “How dare Simone Biles lose gold for the U.S.! How dare she…” you say “Simone Biles is being a responsible athlete, putting her health before competing and not risking injury! Simone Biles is still the greatest of all time! Simone Biles made a smart decision!” Because she is!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is being a responsible athlete thinking about her mental and physical health in a sport that is 60% mental 40% physical!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is still the greatest athlete of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She made a smart decision!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#gymnastics #anyone dispect simone i will personally destroy your kneecaps #simone biles haters stfu #simone biles #adhd #tokyo 2020 #tokyo games #olympics 2021 #olympics #Simone Biles is the GOAT

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freifraufischer · 2 years

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A Gymnastics Mystery: Was the 1981 World Championship Stolen? Part 1 - An Introduction

In 1981 Maxi Gnauck was the most dominant gymnast in the world when she pulled up short in the middle of her Team Optionals floor routine with an ankle injury. Leaving the floor meant that she was effectively out of the all around competition in a year when she had dominated every competition she entered. A few minutes later she would be seen sprinting down the vault runway in the back of the television shot as she continued to lead her team to medals throughout the rest of that World Championships.

With her out of the competition the Soviet Union would sweep the All Around podium at the 1981 World Championships in Moscow, with the gold going to an age falsified 12 year old Olga Bicherova. Bicherova’s true age already taints this world championship but I’d like to walk you my reader through the events of that year and see what you think. Fair warning... I can’t make up my mind if Gnauck was forced to throw the World Championship that year or if it was a true injury.

Because I’m going to show a lot of video this post will be broken up because tumblr limits how many videos you can embed in a single post and I think it’s important to actually see the competition routines.

First... let me tell you about probably the most dominant bar worker of all time... and how she was more than a bar worker.

Maxi Gnauck was born in Berlin in 1964, competing in her first international senior competitions at age 15 in 1979. At her first European championship in Copenhagen in 1979 she would take a bronze medal on the uneven bars. She would never walk away from another competition with less than a gold on bars for the rest of her career retiring in 1985. A six year senior career, still competitive at age 21 in the 1980s is itself a remarkable feat in an age when the sport was progressively being seen as the domain of younger and younger girls. A winning streak lasting that long would be remarkable in any age putting her in the ranks of legends of the sport.

But she wasn’t just a bars worker. She was a true all arounder. To save time going through her medal record to establish that this is the graphic from wikipedia...

We remember her as a bars worker because that’s where her Olympic gold comes from, but she was a one who was challenging the Soviets for all around medals over a five year span coming in behind Kim, Davydova and Mostapenova. But in particular I want you to look at 1981 in that record and you can begin to understand where this mystery starts.

In my next post on this subject I’ll walk you through that 1981 season but for now I want to introduce you to the kind of gymnast Maxi Gnauck was when she stormed onto the scene in 1979. The 1979 World Championships also has a cloud over it involving if the Romanian government sabotaged their own team by faking an infection in Nadia Comăneci’s wrist forcing her to withdraw from the competition (Nadia to this day insists the infection was real). There generally isn’t a suggestion that there was any kind of deal made between the Romanians and the Soviets and the Romanians would win their first team championship in 1979 thanks to a non-hands beam routine from Nadia. Whatever conspiracy there was seems to have been within the Romanian government and national team (read Bela Karolyi).

With Nadia out the All Around was open for Soviet Nellie Kim. It’s worth remembering that during this time Kim had a reputation for being friendly and gracious. Even in the west many considered her world championship not just deserved but satisfying after she had competed in the shadow of Nadia. What no one expected was for the 1979 World Championship AA to be a fight.

Kim won that All Around by .275.

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This is the ABC coverage of the 1979 World Championships AA.

In the years leading up to this Nadia had been considered athletic but doing lower difficulty, clean gymnastics. Nellie Kim was the difficulty chucker unrewarded by a code of points capped at 10. So what is Gnauck. Well, as you can see from her floor she was perhaps one of the greatest tumblers of her time. Start at 9.36 for Gnauck’s floor. And as you watch that remember... that is essentially a dead floor. 20.03 will show you her balance beam where she has a major balance check which like cost her the gold.

Most often the label put on Gnauck at the time was “elfin” and though I don’t think you would reach for balletic terms to describe her gymnastics I do want to show just how good her extension and mastery were.

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Maxi Gnauck (GDR), Compulsory FX, 1980 Olympic Games

Again the controversy in 1980 would surround Romania and Nadia. There is very little argument these days that Romanian judge Maria Simionescu attempted to steal the olympic gold for Nadia after the Romanian gymnastics legend had a less than legendary beam routine. Here is a Sports Illustrated article about the incident (though be warned like most contemporary journalistic pieces dealing with Nadia it’s super weird). But when you say that Nadia was still over scored (even as she didn’t get that AA) you often overlook that she tied for the silver. With Gnauck. Bela Karolyi was too busy throwing a fit to pay attention to the gymnast who now had to share a medal with Nadia that she should have held outright. But Bela’s tantrum would focus on Gnauck a few days later in the bars final.

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Maxi Gnauck (GDR), UB, 1980 Olympic Games EF

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Emilia Eberle (ROM), UB, 1980 Olympic Games EF

Watching old school bars is not my favorite thing, I’ll admit, but I think even a modern viewer can understand why Bela’s screaming (literally) that Eberle should have won gold rings false. Form matters and form was what Gnauck had on bars in spades.

Gnauck’s bars are precise, relentless. She never made a mistake. She could be counted on to hit that set no matter what. And coming out of 1980 into the next season she was maturing and growing more powerful. She could only get better...

Next time: 1981 the nearly perfect year...

#gymnastics #maxi gnauck

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huesofblue · 3 years

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Moving to the Rhythm for a Sweet Victory (Pt. I)

When people come across the sport of gymnastics, the thing that would almost immediately enter their minds are the flips, cartwheels, twists, and turns. Granted that it is correct to some extent, avid gymnastics fans would tell you about the two subtypes of the sport: artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. Where artistic gymnastics pertains to a number of events in a single competition that focus on technicalities – pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, high bar, and floor for the men’s division; and floor exercise, uneven bars, balance beam, and vault for the women’s division – rhythmic gymnastics is only comprised of music-accompanied floor routines that focus mostly on presentation and style, and largely incorporate a variety of apparatuses like hula hoops or ribbons.

And for the last and final blog post of this sport review series, we will be reviewing the Individual Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics Match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil. But before we get right into the juicy portion of this review, i.e., the analysis of the game itself, we will first be flipping into the basic need-to-knows of the sport.

Court Dimensions

According to the MasterClass website (A Guide to Competitive Rhythmic Gymnastics, 2020), the floor area to be used in rhythmic gymnastics has to measure 13 meters by 13 meters in width and length. Moreover, as said by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries of Australia (2019), the height of the hall has to at least be 8 meters, although international halls would have to have a measurement between 10-12 meters.

Equipment

Like any other sport, rhythmic gymnastics also has a set of materials that are essential equipment in carrying out the beauty of the sport. This sport especially has 5 pieces of apparatus that are not only very important but are also basically the main pillar of the game: the rope, hoop, ball, ribbon and club (Gymnastics in Vernon). Starting with the rope, it is a string of the right length and width that is cut fit to the athlete using it; It may be made of hemp or a synthetic material that retains the qualities of lightness and suppleness. Its length, as previously stated, is in proportion to the size of the gymnast. When the middle of the rope is held down by the feet, both ends should reach the gymnasts' armpits. More often than not, electrical tape is placed either at the ends of the rope or in the middle in order to increase its visibility. The ends would also have to be well-taken care of because it may come undone or become frayed, even in the middle of a routine. Next, the hoop is a circular piece of apparatus, similar to a toy hula hoop, that is determined by level and by height. The interior diameter is from 51 to 90 cm and the hoop must weigh a minimum of 300g; it can also be made of plastic or wood, depending on the gymnast’s preference and its ability to retain its shape. When choosing out a hoop, it has to be made sure that the weight is just enough for the athlete to be utilizing it. Moreover, when it is being transported, the hoop should not in any way be bent nor melted (heat, metal and lights may melt it) or else it, obviously, cannot be used anymore.

After the hoop is the ball, and like the hoop, it is also a circular piece of apparatus. Senior and junior gymnasts use a ball that is 18 to 20 cm in diameter and must have a minimum weight of 400g. Starting out with it, the ball would have to be inflated properly before it reaches the hands of the gymnast, and from time to time, it would also have to be reinflated. One way to determine if the air inside is just enough, is to dig in one’s fingers into it and if the ball cannot be squished, then it is too inflated. That, or the gymnast can also bounce the ball and see if it does not bounce to know if it is too deflated. A common rule for the maintenance of the ball is: “not to use anything on your ball that you would not use on your face.”

The fourth apparatus is the clubs, and these are basically a pair of short bat-like equipment that must weigh a minimum of 150 grams per club. Though they are not as high maintenance as the other apparatuses, it should be still be well-taken care of because they can still break. Furthermore, the clubs can also be taped or not taped, depending on whether or not the gymnast needs the balance and grip more user friendly. The ribbon/sis the fifth apparatus of rhythmic gymnastics, and it comes in different lengths according to the different age levels. The ribbon itself must be at least 35 g (1.2 oz), 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4") in width and have a minimum length of 6m (20') for seniors and 5m (16.25') for juniors. The ribbon must be in one piece. The end that is attached to the stick is doubled for a maximum length of 1m (3'). They are basically thin strips of fabric that have to receive extra care because of its fragility – it frays, tears and catches on things easily, so the gymnast has to be extra careful in handling it before an important competition because once it tears, it can no longer be reused. Ribbons should also be ironed every 10-14 days and always before a competition. Accompanying the ribbons are the ribbon sticks, and these are the parts that gymnasts hold in order to twirl the ribbon around.

Aside from the 5 apparatus are minor, yet still important, equipment, that which are: toe socks/toe shoes (needed as appropriate competition footwear), thera bands (supports muscles and joints as rehabilitation), and a gym bad (used to store in the apparatuses safely.) The costume/outfit is also important in rhythmic gymnastics not only because they add to the artistry of the performance but also has to be freeing enough that it does not become a hindrance to movement.

Basic Skills

Stated in a document entitled the Special Olympics Rhythmic Gymnastics Coaching Guide (2008), there are about 4 categories of basic skills that a rhythmic gymnast needs to know in order to fully adopt the sport. Of those 4 categories are: jumps/leaps, pivots/turns, balances, and flexibilities.

JUMPS/LEAPS

This category requires good ankle strength as well as flexibility. Core strength is also necessary when executing one of the skills under this category in order to maintain a stable upper body position during jumps and leap, and have control of the arm position.

Cat leap

Chassé

Hitch kick

Leap

Step hop

Straight jump

PIVOTS/TURNS

Executing one of the skills under this category greatly necessitates good posture and body alignment, as well as core strength and balance.

Chainé turn

Passé pivot

Tiptoe turn

BALANCES

Arabesque (front and back)

Passé

Relevé

FLEXIBILITIES

Back arch on knees

Body waves (front, back and side)

Grand battement

Not only these, but as a fundamental, an upcoming rhythmic gymnast would also have to become familiar with the utilization of a rope (though, this one isn’t as commonly used as the other apparatuses,) a hula hoop, a club, ribbon/s, and/or a ball in their set routine for the floor.

Technical Skills

Because there are about five disciplines under rhythmic gymnastics itself, each discipline has its own set of technical skills. Attached to this post is a table of said skills, as per the international code of points, uploaded by Niki Tasika (2012) on ResearchGate as part of the research conducted by George Dallas et al. (2012):

For a more specific table of skills for each discipline, attached here is the figures presented in the document published by USA Gymnastics (Beginning Rhythmic Skill Lists and Instructor Tips):

Tactical Skills

A competing rhythmic gymnast’s opponents on the floor is only their own self and the judges scoring the routine. So, it is important that, in order to be awarded honors and win competitions, the gymnast must start with their own person in training, improving, and applying tactics on (GKD Gymnastics, 2019).

First, the gymnast has to be committed; they have to really exert their all in attaining a mastery of the sport, to make time for training and for the competitions, and to work hard and not give up when met with obstacles. Next, they have to take care of themselves, and this includes properly stretching the body before training/executing a routine, eating healthily, and also asking for help in some movements if they feel that they can’t do it on their own, lest they’ll injure themselves. And speaking of stretching, it is also recommended for gymnasts to stretch everyday in order to improve their body’s flexibility (Erika, 2020). Not only that but they also have to be positive and supportive to their own self because one of life’s greatest motivators is the self. If the gymnast would be crowded with negativity and refuses to be proud of how much they’ve progressed, then being able to use the sport’s required skills properly to attain a win would be fruitless.

Once the gymnast becomes comfortably in tune with their body and they’ve done the best they could to practice and gain a mastery of their routine, then winning the judges’ favor over the other athletes would be an easier task to do, especially if the routine was planned and choreographed meticulously in a way that would guarantee high points.

Rules of the Game

Rhythmic gymnastics, like every other sport in the world, also has a set of rules that govern the smoothness of the games and make sure that fairness is always observed all throughout each competition. The following rules were taken from the respective sources to be mentioned:

(MasterClass, 2020)

Each rhythmic gymnastics routine must contain events that are ranked as being sufficiently difficult by the FIG. Apparatus manipulation is a key component in receiving a top score, with points deducted for technical faults. In the hoop, ball, and ribbon rhythmic events, one of these difficulties must be performed with the non-dominant hand.

Rhythmic gymnastics choreography must cover the entire floor. The choreography must feature a balanced choice of the groups of elements. This includes jumps, leaps, pivots, balances, and flexibility movements. Body movement should be fluid and musical, even displaying elements of ballet.

Each routine is scored by two panels of judges. The first panel judges the composition of the routine, where the overall array of rhythmic gymnastics events is scrutinized. The second panel judges the execution of these events.

Each individual exercise operates on a base score 9.60 points. Exceptional performances may receive bonus points, which vary between Junior Olympic and and standard Olympic (aka senior) gymnastics circuits. In the senior circuit, bonuses can reach 0.40 points, while in the junior circuit, bonuses can reach up to 0.20 points. Accordingly, senior competitors can max out at 10.00 points while juniors can max out at 9.80 points.

Group exercises have a base score of 19.20. Including potential bonus points, the maximum score for group exercise is 20.00.

(ActiveSG, n.d.)

During the individual programme, an athlete will manipulate only one of these five apparatuses at a time - rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. One apparatus is rotated out of contention every two years, with the gymnast required to compete on the remaining four events.

The group programme consists of five gymnasts competing in two different routines. In one routine, all of the athletes use the same apparatus. In the second routine, the gymnasts use two different pieces of equipment.

All routines must be performed with music, with only short pauses of music allowed. The choreography must centre around a theme that is developed from beginning to end using a variety of body movements and the handling of apparatuses.

The gymnast must keep the ribbon in motion throughout the entire routine.

All leaps and jumps must be of a good height, have a clear shape and good amplitude. All leaps with the back arched must have the head in contact with the leg.

All balances must be performed on the toes or the knee. These must be held clearly and have a good, fixed shape. All pivot combinations must be performed entirely on the toes without heel support.

(Grassie, 2016)

Individual routines are performed to music and last from 75 to 90 seconds.

A penalty of .05 points will be assessed for every second over or under the time allowed. The clock begins as soon as the gymnast begins moving and stops as soon as the gymnast is motionless.

The gymnast is required to be in contact with her apparatus before beginning her routine. She also is obliged to finish her exercise either holding her apparatus or having any part of her body in contact with it.

For small faults, .10 points are subtracted from a competitor's score.

For medium faults, .20 points are deducted.

For major faults, the penalty is .30 or greater.

COMMON PENALTIES:

If a gymnast drops the apparatus, she is penalized .30 points if she can retrieve it without any traveling, .50 points if the apparatus is retrieved after traveling 1-2 steps, .70 points if the apparatus is retrieved after more than 3 steps or outside the floor area.

If a gymnast crosses the boundary of the floor during an exercise, she is assessed a .30-point penalty.

If the apparatus breaks or is lost by a gymnast during an exercise, the gymnast is not permitted to restart the exercise. She may continue with a replacement apparatus, but will incur a 0.70-point penalty.

When performing jumping and balancing maneuvers, gymnasts can be penalized points for a lack of amplitude, a heavy landing or a lack of fixed or well-defined shape.

Who officiates the sport? And how do they do it?

In order to retain order and fairness through and within the sport, there are several people who are appointed as the officiating officials, in charge of upholding the rules of rhythmic gymnastics and of doing justice to the deserving winner of each competition. In total, there are about 3 kinds of officials for the sport.

The first kind of official is the referee, and according to the manual written by Rene Niccollai (1989), whoever is appointed to the position would bear the responsibility of checking the athletes’ apparatuses and making sure they fit the requirements and the regulations; enforcing the rules and regulations; penalizing any athlete or coach who will act in misconduct; and seeing through the smooth order of the match. The second kind of official are the timers, and they will operate the stopwatches to keep track of time for each routine, as well as enforce the time limitation, i.e., determining if the routine was under or over the required time.

Lastly, the third kind of official are the judges. As stated in Julie Grassie’s article (2016), “there are two juries; one with four judges and one with five. The jury with four judges determines the difficulty (D) score. They evaluate the routine's technical value, including body difficulty (jumps, leaps, balances), apparatus mastery and originality, dynamic elements (throws and rotations of apparatus) and dance steps combinations. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the middle two scores are averaged. The maximum D score is 10.0 points. On the other hand, the jury with five judges determines the execution (E) score. They evaluate the artistic components of the routine, the unity of composition, use of space, body movements, correlation between the music and movement, even use of right and left hands and any technical vaults. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the middle three scores are averaged. The maximum E score is 10.0 points.”

Please head on to the second part of this blog to find the actual review. Thank you, and I'll see you there!

References

ActiveSG. (n.d.). Rhythmic gymnastics apparatuses and rules. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from ActiveSG: https://www.myactivesg.com/Sports/Gymnastics/How-To-Play/Gymnastics-for-Beginners/Rhythmic-gymnastics-apparatuses-and-rules#:~:text=The%20gymnast%20must%20keep%20the%20ribbon%20in%20motion%20throughout%20the%20entire%20routine.&text=All%20leaps%20and%20ju

Dallas, G., Tasika, N., Tsopani, D., & Tinto, A. (2012, January). The effect of different teaching systems in learning rhythmic gymnastics apparatus motor skills. Science of Gymnastics Journal, 4(1), 55-62. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259463453_The_effect_of_different_teaching_systems_in_learning_rhythmic_gymnastics_apparatus_motor_skills

Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Government of Western Australia. (2019, July 12). Gymnastics. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries: https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/sport-and-recreation/sports-dimensions-guide/gymnastics

Erika. (2020, July). 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS AT HOME. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from Balance Academy: http://www.balanceacademy.asia/education/5-ways-to-improve-rhythmic-gymnastics-at-home/

GKD Gymnastics. (2019, March 13). Want to be a great gymnast? Follow these tips.... Retrieved April 13, 2021, from GKD Gymnastics web site: https://www.gkdgymnastics.com/blog/want-to-be-a-great-gymnast-follow-these-tips/

Grassie, J. (2016, March 2). Rhythmic gymnastics 101: Scoring. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from NBC Universal Pyeongchang Olympics web site: http://archivepyc.nbcolympics.com/news/rhythmic-gymnastics-101-scoring

Gymnastics in Vernon. (n.d.). Okanagan Rhythmic Gymnastics Competitive Parent Handbook. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from http://www.gymnasticsinvernon.com/wp-content/uploads/Apparatus-and-Equipment.pdf

MasterClass. (2020, November 8). A Guide to Competitive Rhythmic Gymnastics. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from MasterClass Articles: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-guide-to-competitive-rhythmic-gymnastics#what-is-rhythmic-gymnastics

Niccollai, R. (1989, May). Gymnastics. Selected Coaching Articles. Officiating. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from Eric Institute of Education Sciences: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED312217.pdf

Special Olympics. (2008, August). Special Olympics Rhythmic Gymnastics Coaching Guide. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from http://media.specialolympics.org/soi/files/sports/Gymnastics_Rhythmic/eyxkoe5y/Teaching.pdf

USA Gymnastics. (n.d.). Beginning Rhythmic Skill Lists and Instructor Tips. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://usagym.org/PDFs/Rhythmic/resources/beginningskilllists.pdf

Wikipedia. (2021, February 22). Rhythmic Gymnastics. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythmic_gymnastics

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yhella18 · 3 years

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Women’s Individual Rhythmic Gymnastics from Rio 2016 || A Sports Analysis

Rhythmic gymnastics, the performance of systematic physical exercise with the aid of such hand apparatuses as ropes, hoops, balls, clubs, and ribbons. It is closely related to women's artistic gymnastics—a sport performed on the vaulting horse, uneven parallel bars, balance beam, and floor—and, like synchronized swimming, is allied with dance (Bhutia, 2018).

Today's blog will focus on a given video, specifically, Full Individual Women's Rhythmic Gymnastics Replay from Rio 2016 | Throwback Thursday. This analysis will also consist of the court dimensions, equipment, basic skills, technical and tactical skills of each team, rules of the sport, officials of the sport, and the overall performance.

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Court Dimensions

The FIG is an international organization based in Switzerland, so the measurements follow the metric system. An Olympic floor exercise mat must be 12 meters by 12 meters, which equals 39.37 feet by 39.37 feet. The standard distance from one corner to the opposite corner is 1,697 cm or 55.68 feet. Allowances are made for competitions in case the floor exercise measurements are not precise. For the length and width, the 12 meters has a 3 cm margin of error. The floor has to be within 5 cm of the standard measurement for the size from corner to corner.

The 12 meters by 12 meters measurement covers the performance area. As you may have noticed when watching Olympic gymnastics competitions, there is a thick border around the floor, often marked by white athletic tape. This is called a delimitation strip, and it measures 5 cm or just under 2 inches. A gymnast is permitted to step on the delimitation strip during competition without penalty, but if she moves beyond the border, a deduction will be made. Many floor exercise platforms are raised slightly to accommodate springs and foam padding. The slope leading from the floor to the floor exercise mat must not exceed a measurement of 25 percent (Oleskewicz, n.d.).

Equipment

Costume

Gymnasts usually use leotards or singlets. Leotards can be short-sleeved or long-sleeved and cut at the groin area much like a bikini so that there will be no hindrance to an athlete's flexibility or movement.

Hairnet

Female gymnastics commonly have their hair tied back. No bangs or loose hair is allowed in the front. Its primary purposes are to prevent hair from getting in the way of a gymnast, provide a uniform and elegant look, and maintain focus on the athlete.

Toe shoes

Toe shoes are specially designed professional shoes for rhythmic gymnastics. They cover toes while the heels remain open. Silicone elastic band fixes the toe of the shoes around the heel.

Apparatuses:

Hoop

Made of plastic and wood, it is a circular apparatus with a diameter ranging from 51 to 90 centimeters. Gymnasts will be able to rotate it with either their hands or their body.

Ball

The ball is made of rubber or synthetic has a diameter of 18 to 20 centimeters, and its minimum weight is 4000 grams. When using the ball, it should rest in the gymnast's hand and should not be grasped or rest on the wrist. Gymnasts perform throws, as well as tricks such as bouncing and rolling the ball.

Clubs

Resembling bowling pins, the clubs are of equal length, typically about 0.4 to 0.5metres long. They are made from wood or synthetic material. Gymnasts use the clubs to do tricks like circles -in which the clubs swing parallel to each other, mills - the clubs swing opposite each other, and throws and catches.

Ribbon

The ribbon is a single strip usually made of satin, attached to a stick made of wood or synthetic material. Gymnasts create all sorts of patterns with the ribbon, including spirals, circles and snakes. The gymnast must keep the ribbon in motion throughout the entire routine.

Basic Skills

Locomotor Skills:

Walking- Both feet move alternately, with one foot always touching the ground or floor; when one foot goes down, the other foot comes up and moves forward.

Running- Running is a fast pace motion where both feet briefly leave the ground. Running is performed with the body leaning slightly forward, knees are flexed and lifted, and arms rotate back and forth from the shoulders with a bend at the elbows.

Leaping- Leaping is an elongated step used to cover more considerable distances or move over low obstacles.

Jumping- Jumping involves taking off and landing on both feet. The arms move forward with an upswing motion, and the body movement combined with the force of the feet helps lift the body's weight.

Hopping- Hopping involves propelling the body up and down on one foot.

Galloping- When galloping, the body faces forward and one-foot leads and the other moves rapidly forward to it.

Sliding- Sliding is similar to gallop. However, the body moves sideways in a 1-count movement. The leading footsteps to the side and the other foot follows quickly.

Skipping- Skipping is a series of step-hops done with alternate feet.

Non – Locomotor Skills:

Bending- bending is a movement at a joint

Swaying- is a slower controlled movement that occurs when the center of gravity shifts fluidly from side to side.

Swinging- involves moving body parts like a swinging rope or pendulum. (Arms and Legs)

Turning- is rotating around the long axis of the body.

Twisting- is rotating a selected body part around its long axis.

Stretching- moves body parts away from the body's center, or moving a joint through a range of motion. Stretching is necessary for increasing and maintaining flexibility.

Apparatuses Skills:

> Hoop

Swinging Movements- requires good alignment between the body and the hula-hoop. Hoops can be swung by the athletes in a frontal, sagittal, or horizontal plane.

Spinning Movements- Turning the hoop with both hands or one.

Circling Movements- Hoops can be twirled by hand, wrist, arm, leg, or entire body.

Tossing and Catching Movements- Toss the hoop in the air with one or both hands, then catch it with one hand between the thumb and index finger.

Rolling Movements- Roll the hoop on the floor in either a forward or backward direction. Or move it on the body in different ways.

> Ball

Handling the ball: the fingers should be closed and slightly bent with the ball.

Resting in the palm.

Throwing the ball: the ball can roll from the fingertips.

Catching the ball: the ball returns immediately to the palm.

> Club

Performances with clubs are fast and slick, showcasing the gymnast’s agility and accuracy, using their hands and wrists.

Core moves include circles when the clubs swing in the same direction and mills when the clubs swing in opposite directions.

As is the case with every piece of apparatus, throws require the most skill. The difference with this apparatus is that you can perform throws with one or both clubs.

> Ribbon

Swinging Movements- involves large swinging motions that require whole-body coordination.

Circling Movements- Large circles involve the strength and movement of the whole arm; smaller circles involve the wrist movement.

Zigzag Movements- Zigzags can be made in the air or on the floor. Use the movement of the wrist.

Spiral Movements- Make spirals either from left to right or right to left.

Technical and Tactical Skills of Each Team

Margarita Mamun from Russia

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Mamun used the apparatus like it's attached to her body and made sure that the hoop works well at all the parts of her body, which made her a lot of smooth transitions. Every step that she had made were all pointed toes. In addition, illusion turns were her signature skills in this rotation and the way she moved the hoop were precise. She ended this rotation with the ring high up in the air and then caught it with a jump followed by a pose on the circle in her body. It was indeed a beautiful performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Mamun used passion and being expressive in her performance for the second rotations. The ball is said to be an extension of the body, and she used the apparatus quite well and made it connected to her. She also added complexity to her spins, leaps and jumps. The ways she ended her performance was lovely.

Rotation 3 (Club): Mamun chose her music to be the song "We Will Rock You by Queen". It was high beat music, and she used the apparatus like she was drumming. She was tricky enough in handling clubs and showing expertise. She also performed maximum extension of the jump, offering her flexibility to the audience, and then end the performance with a peace sign. It was kind of a different way to end the show.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Mamun's use of the ribbon was flawlessly and had a fast movement. She also threw the apparatus so high and still manage to catch it. She made it look like it was easy to perform around, even though we all know that it was challenging to do. Moreover, she had a clean and beautiful balance showing stability in her dance and consistency in using the ribbon skills.

Marina Durunda from Azerbaijan

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Durunda's performance was choosing a piece of beautiful music and matching it with her choreography. She was swift with the apparatus and catching it with extra movement. She also used three turning leaps and had perfect timing on her show showing exact direction and speed.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Durunda showed a strong personality in dribbling and throwing the ball high up in the air. Her hand movements were exaggerated and used excellent styles like having the ball contact her chest and rebound it. It was new to the eyes of the audience and found some originality in it.

Rotation 3 (Club): Durunda had the same type of music as the other athletes in which they had in-beat music. She has shown artistic expression in her performance, gaining additional points to her scoring. She also did flawlessly doing the routine and not had a hard time, and just enjoyed and did her best.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Durunda decided to match the ribbon with her costume. She has shown plenty of energy throughout her performance which made her used multiple skills underneath the spins and the jumps, a fantastic series of spins, and full extension of the leaps. She tended to throw the ribbon so high up in the air, and she quickly caught it without a sweat on it.

Yana Kudryavtseva from Russia

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Kudryavtseva started with ultimate control of the hoop with her body. She chose a slow and smooth song that synchronized with her movements in which she moved around the floor so lightly that she looks like she's floating in the air. In addition, she worked with the apparatus well, causing the apparatus and the body to all work in one piece. Moreover, she tended to roll in the back of the hoop and made medium illusion turns, which is considered difficult. She used complex movements like having a big throw on the apparatus and caught it with her leg. Then she slowly ended it with backspin and posed her last stance, which significantly impacted the audience.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Unlike other athletes, Kudryavtseva chose slow music that rhymes with her choreography. She has shown mastery of the elements that she has performed. What truly gained the audience's attention is when she spins the ball with her thumb while she did the side scale balance element. Moreover, the movement and the body are so smooth, and every transition along with the body is seamless and neverending. She has shown a flawless and beautiful performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Kudryavtseva had control of the positions she has used, and the change of rhythm of her performance was seen clearly. She has shown good balance and unique use of the apparatus, causing her to demonstrate mastery. However, in the last stunt, she didn't catch the ball, causing her points to be deducted, and her rank have become second place.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Kudryavtseva has shown an elegant kind of performance. She used soft music and a lot of twirl in the apparatus. She did her best despite having a mistake in the third rotation. By this, she did her best on the last part, and she has formed beautiful body shapes in her performance. It is like the routine that she has shown is dancing and flowing around in the air.

Katsiaryna Halkina from Belarus

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Halkina started with a sitting position with pointed toes. She executed nice combinations of rotations and used lovely control of her series of spins. Then she ends it with the same position at the beginning of her performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Halkina used suspense Music and have shown tremendous leg strength, making the ball so high up in the hair. Thus, causing her to have reasonable control of the ball. All in all, she has done a well-executed performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Unlike other athletes, Halkina’s song was not upbeat. Instead, it was slow and quite sad, which made her had expressive at the same time beautiful turns and jumps. She also had tremendous balance and executed high flying leaps. Moreover, she is good at using the apparatus in which she had a different movement of the clubs showcasing asymmetrical.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Halkina used her feet to handle the ribbon at the beginning. Her music was in a groovy kind of way then turned into upbeat. She had excellent control of the apparatus and matched it with some dance steps. She also has shown plenty of energy, and the ways she ends her performance portray a circle pattern with a lot of twirls on her spin.

Kseniya Moustafaeva from France

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Moustafaeva made her opening with a lovely high and showcasing emotions right away to match her selected music. She made her balance smoothly and cleanly and have shown total concentration in her performance. She also used leaps that are fixed in shape and are high enough to get that shape acquired. All in all, she has shown outstanding performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Moustafaeva start was a serious face matching with the dynamic and robust music they have shown. She had good alleviation and had a somewhat abstract choreography. Simultaneously, she also had strong legs, which emphasizes her excellent control of the ball. However, in the middle part, she was losing the power that she had but still able to end it with a good performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Moustafaeva decided to be lively and have shown by swaying her hips that rhymes with the music. As a dynamic gymnast, she has chosen the music which suited her style. The way she used the apparatus are sometimes symmetrical and asymmetrical and showcasing succession of the throws, which are astounding,

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Moustafaeva’s expression was used in the ribbon to convey the song much well. She was very consistent with her performance but still sometimes showed a hard time controlling the ribbon. Despite that, she showcased a dazzling and dramatic performance.

Melitina Staniouta from Belarus

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Staniouta's intense music matched with her choreography, and she has shown excellent performance. The techniques she has shown were all astounding in which one of them was rebounding the hoop with her legs. Then she ended her performance by catching the hoop while lying down.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Staniouta has shown a fantastic performance. The way she moved and balanced herself on dramatic music. She used the ball and rolled them around her arms which was excellent to see. She also has shown beautiful spins and jumps on her routine. All in all, she combined sports and arts on her show.

Rotation 3 (Club): Staniouta decided to have piano phased for her performance. She has showcased to the audience her spins and jumps that are well-executed. She also attached expressions making her dance more expressive enough, so she had a breathtaking effect on the audience.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Staniouta used the apparatus as she was enjoying the routine and performed her very best. She has used her signature turns and had succeeding movements. She also threw the ribbon across the court, causing it almost to exceed the court's line. However, she was able to catch it and still able to continue her dance well.

Carolina Rodriguez from Spain

Rotation I (Hoop): Rodriguez decided to be suspenseful and had a definite style selling to the audience and the judges. She made large throws of the apparatus and executed back illusion multiple times. It was quite a sassy performance, and she showed a model of consistency and expressiveness. To end it, she looked at the judges and gave a breathtaking smile to them, showing that she had fun throughout her performance.

Rotation 2 (Ball): It was a dramatic dance for Rodriguez and has shown expression. It was considered a mature performance since she indeed brought her personality and expressed what she wanted to convey. She was also an expert at illusion turns and executed a series of them as to why her performance was consistent.

Rotation 3 (Clubs): Rodriguez has shown lively and fast movements in her performance, and her expression was severe and sometimes fierce throughout the show. She had the consistency of turns and executed massive throws of the clubs. At the same time, she was showcasing synchronization with the apparatus. Thus, it leads to thinking that clubs may be her most substantial apparatus to use.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Expressions were found at the beginning. The turns or twirls of the ribbon were synchronized with the selected music. Rodriguez shone all the techniques used for the apparatus and have performed complicated back illusions turns which she matched to tune well.

Son Yeon Jae from Korea

Rotation 1(Hoop): Yeon Jae’s flowery costume was catchy and making her look fresh looking. It made her performance to looked smooth and put some moves on the classic lines that she has selected for her music. Moreover, she had exhibited immense control over her movements. Incredibly, her throws shone through her routine. All in all, she had managed to utilize the apparatus well.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Clean and Elegance was Yeon Jae’s main asset in her performance with the ball apparatus. She has shown precise body movements, and the placement of her feet and arms were stunning to look at, especially if she will emphasize them.

Rotation 3 (Club): Yeon Jae’s started with an exquisite turn and flawless control of the club. She has showcased an excellent performance with opening strong pivots and circles behind it. She has shown a bewildering performance.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Yeon Jae’s float made the leaps execution to be around and perplexing. She made her movements with the changing phase of the music, which matched it well to her performance. She tended to throw the apparatus with her foot and still catching with ease. Overall, she showcased an astounding performance.

Ganna Rizatdinova from Ukraine

Rotation 1 (Hoop): The shape and the pointing of the toes are what really seen in Rizatdinova's performance. It was intense, and the flexibility that she performed was way beyond. She also had executed complicated yet magnificent movements, which all lead to a great ending.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Rizatdinova's had an excellent technique in which she trapped the ball around her back and legs. She also started to sway her hips and shoulders like she's dancing around. The way she shaped her legs and made them move was excellent, and she had her eyes concentrated on the ball whenever she moved. She has shown astonishing performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): Rizatdinova's start was impressive. It was technically beautiful on the speed of her movements and the club's balancing in one foot. It was great done, especially the control of the apparatus's balance and even with all of her events. She also showed symmetrical throws of the ball and ended it with a passion and drama performance.

Round 4 (Ribbon): It was a precise start for Rizatdinova. She appeared to have good balance and her throws of the ribbon are high and still able to catch it quickly and flawlessly. The movement of the ribbon was well exaggerated and robust. Also, she danced when the time is almost in one minute and proven to the audience she had excellent execution.

Nevianna Vladinova from Bulgaria

Rotation 1 (Hoop): Vladinova made her apparatus turn in the leg and made series of turns on it. She also tended to squeeze the hoop around her body and showcased that her choreography was capitalized or defined to the audience.

Rotation 2 (Ball): Starting with fast and upbeat music made Vladinova had a lovely catch of the ball. At the same time, she used her expressions to match with music and her movements. Her movements were energetic, and has executed her routine without fail. She has also shown her flexibility and skills in her performance.

Rotation 3 (Club): In the beginning, Vladinova showed how flexible she is and fast with her movements. The change of pace of the gestures was there even though the music and the rhythm were still rapid. It was a clever use of the music since it enhanced more of her performance. Furthermore, she has used skills or techniques on her execution, like rebounding the club on her knee, which was quite different from other players. Overall, she has shown a dynamic performance.

Rotation 4 (Ribbon): Vladinova was the end performer for the Olympic for Rhythmic Gymnastics and still showed how calm she is and without being nervous at all. Her fast movements and choreography match the music very well. She simply did her best and made a lively and energetic performance that is good to end the Olympics.

Rules of the Sport

Rhythmic gymnastics combines ballet, dance and acrobatics with expressive movement and manipulating apparatuses such as the ball, clubs, hoop, and ribbon.

This sport is ideal for developing flexibility, strength, as well as body coordination. It stems from various dance styles and exercise regimes that share the common idea of expressive movement as an exercise tool.

> Individual programme

> Music and Choreography

All routines must be performed with music, with only short pauses of music allowed. The choreography must centre around a theme developed from beginning to end using a variety of body movements and the handling of apparatuses.

> Movement Rules:

o Leaps and jumps

All leaps and jumps must be of a good height, have a precise shape and good amplitude.

All leaps with the back arched must have the head in contact with the leg.

o Balances

All balances must be performed on the toes or the knee. These must be held clearly and have a good, fixed shape.

o Pivots

All pivot combinations must be performed entirely on the toes without heel support.

> Basic Rule:

Each gymnast must perform choreographed routines using each of the following four pieces of apparatus:

Ball

Hoop

Clubs

Ribbon

> Scoring

Performances in rhythmic gymnastics are given a maximum of 20, comprising difficulty (D) and execution (E) scores.

The D score is based on each performance element, including leaps, jumps and use of apparatus. These D scores are averaged to give a score out of 10.

The E score is based on how well the routine was executed either by the individual or the group. The final number is an average of the middle three scores awarded by the judges.

The D and E scores are combined at this stage, giving a mark out of 20. Then, any deductions are taken away. The list of instant deductions is incredibly long and complex in rhythmic gymnastics. Competitors can be penalized for anything from breaking the apparatus to landing heavily on their feet.

> Judging

o Good Form and Execution: In elements such as leaps and jumps, a gymnast's toes should be pointed. Her legs should be straight. She should maintain tightness in her body and each skill should look planned.

o Control of the Apparatus: The gymnast should keep her equipment moving and look as if she has complete control. Dropping the apparatus is a deduction. If the equipment rolls away or off the floor, more penalties are incurred.

o Flexibility: Rhythmic gymnasts should achieve a minimum of a 180-degree split on split leaps and jumps, and often they go much further. A great rhythmic gymnast will exhibit flexibility in her back, legs, and shoulders.

o Choreography: The intricacies of movement are essential in rhythmic gymnastics. Each routine should be a performance, and the gymnast's music should be a necessary part of the routine, not simply used as background music.

o The Uniqueness of the Routine: A great gymnast will perform a routine that looks different from the rest. It will have something special about it, risky throws and catches, complicated choreography, extreme flexibility, or simply unique skills from others performed in the competition.

Officials of the Sport

Meet Referee

Conducts the judge’s education meeting prior to the event,

Makes the panel assignments or conducts a draw,

Has ultimate control over technical decisions,

Judges every routine within human possibility,

Can question a panel score, even if the judges are in range, if she feels it is not appropriate,

Can call a conference of either judging panel, can make the decision to go to base score,

Keeps track (with the help of an assigned volunteer secretary) of all scores and rankings,

Determines the number of sessions in association with the meet director,

Makes sure the timers and line judges are knowledgeable about the rules and their function,

Serves as the spokesperson for the judging panels to the organizing host and the participants,

Makes sure the Head Judges review the official score sheets before signing them,

Mediates all professional disagreements, and has the final response,

Is responsible for any media involvement concerning the judges,

Respond to any written inquires before a session has ended.

Head Judge

Attends pre-competition education session,

Makes sure judges scores are within the proper range,

Requests the MR to call a conference if there is a disagreement,

Keeps track of rank order for assigned events.

Acting Panel Judge

Attends pre-competition education session,

Judges each routine assigned with undivided attention.

Line Judge

A Line Judge determines if the athlete and the apparatus are within the boundaries of the field of play. There are two line judges for each individual routine, and you will be responsible for the two lines that are in your “corner”of the carpet. Each judge is responsible for the line to their right. The red line denotes the warning area, and if the athlete or their apparatus touches the line they are still in bounds. If any part of the athlete’s body and / or apparatus touches the floor outside of the red line, then she is out-of-bounds and the judge immediately hold up one flag high in the air for a few seconds. If both the apparatus and gymnast touches the floor outside of the red line, then immediately hold up both flags high in the air for a couple of seconds.

Timers

Each timer requires a stop watch that indicates the minutes, seconds and milliseconds, a rotation order, timer judge chits and a pen.

Procedure to follow as a Timer Judge:

Have a Rotation List available.

Check off each gymnast as they are announced so that you know which gymnast is on the floor.

Start the timer when the gymnast starts moving (or first gymnast in group), and stop the timer when the gymnast stops moving (or the last gymnast in group). Record the time to the millisecond on the rotation order. For example, 1:30:05. If the routine is over or less than the required time (times to be provided by the Meet Director), then also complete the Timer Judge Chit.

Give the timer judge slip to a runner to take to the head judge for inclusion in the scoring papers.

Judge Administrator

The primary responsibilities of the Judge Administrator are to act as the GCG representative at EC and CC, to ensure that all Judge Rules and Technical Rules are followed, and to ensure that all score ranges are within FIG requirements. The JA does not act as a reference judge and does not score the routines.

Apparatus Judge

Every apparatus will be checked during the Warm-Up prior to the start of the competition rotation. If there is a fault with the apparatus measurement, the apparatus judge will show the coach, so the athlete has time to change apparatus. If a coach/athlete refuses to change apparatus, the Apparatus Judge will retain the piece of apparatus, complete the judge chit and send it to the JA immediately. The JA will come to verify the concern as soon as is possible, but it may not be until a break in the competition. The apparatus must be retained until the JA has completed the verification.

Overall Performance

All in all, all the athletes have shown their determination and passion in doing Rhythmic Gymnastics. They were different techniques and tactics with their stunts, leaps, jumps, and spins using the four various apparatuses: hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon. With all their performance, the audience has been amazed and enjoyed the execution of ten different athletes. However, there is always one winner in the competition, and Margarita Mamun from Russia was the one who claims the gold medal for Rio Olympics 2016 in Rhythmic Gymnastics. The sweat, the never-ending stunts and no-fault steps or movements were what made the audience amazed by her performance, leading her to be the right one to gain the first place. She gave the audience an outstanding performance.

#sportsanalysis #rhythmic gymnastics #blog

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miniaturetacopuppy · 3 years

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Full Women’s Figure Skating Short Program | PyeongChang 2018

Court Dimension:

The 2018 Winter Olympics' ladies' single figure skating competition was held at Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, South Korea, with an Olympic-sized figure skating rink measuring 30m x 60m (98.4ft x 197ft).

Equipment:

The basic equipment you require for figure skating is boots, blades, and comfortable appropriate clothes.

Basic Skills:

Basic 1

Sit on ice and stand up

March forward across the ice

Forward two-foot glide

Dip

Forward swizzles (6-8 in a row)

Backward wiggles (6-8 in a row)

Snowplow stop

The rocking horse (2–3)

Two-foot hop in place (optional)

Basic 2

Forward one-foot glides (R and L)

Backward two-foot glide

Backward swizzles (6–8 in a row)

Two-foot turn from forward to backward in place

Moving snowplow stop

Forward alternating half swizzle pumps, in a straight line (slalom-like pattern)

Basic 3

Forward stroking, showing correct use of blade

Forward half swizzle pumps on a circle (6–8 consecutive clockwise and counterclockwise)

Moving forward to backward two-foot turn (clockwise and counterclockwise)

Backward one-foot glides (R and L)

Forward slalom

Two-foot spin (up to two revolutions)

Basic 4

Forward outside edge on a circle (R and L)

Forward inside edge on a circle (R and L)

Forward crossovers, clockwise and counterclockwise

Forward outside three-turn, R and L from a stand-still position

Backward half swizzle pumps on a circle, clockwise and counterclockwise

Backward stroking

Backward snowplow stop (R and L)

Basic 5

Backward outside edge on a circle (R and L)

Backward inside edge on a circle (R and L)

Backward crossovers, clockwise and counterclockwise

Beginning one-foot spin (up to three revs, optional entry and free-foot position)

Hockey stop

Side toe hop (both directions)

Basic 6

Forward inside three-turn (R and L from a standstill position)

Moving backward to forward two-foot turn on a circle, clockwise and counterclockwise

T-stop (R or L)

Bunny hop

Forward spiral on a straight line (R or L)

Forward lunge (R or L)

Technical and Tactical Skills:

There are six common jumps, which can be split into two basic categories: toe jumps (toe loop, flip, and Lutz) and edge jumps (Salchow, loop, and the axel). As the types imply, with toe jumps, a skater uses the pointy toe of the skate, called the “toe pick”, during takeoff. With edge jumps, they use the edge of the skate (inside or outside).

Toe jumps:

Toe loops —This jump takes off going backward on the right outside edge. As the skater leaps into the air he would twist left, crossing his left leg over the right, make 1,2, or 3 revolutions, and land on the right outside edge. Then swing his left leg behind to follow through.

Flips — The skater moves forward on the left leg and makes a 3-turn to get into the backward position. Skating backward on the left foot, back inside edge, the skater would then use the toe pick of her right leg to vault her into the air. After making 1,2 or 3 revolutions the skater would then land backward on the right foot, outside edge.

Lutz’s — It’s very difficult to stay balanced when launching into a full, mid-air revolution from the outside edge of the skate. While skating backward on the left foot, back outside edge, the skater uses the toe pick to vault into the air. After making 1,2 or 3 rotations the skater would then land on his right foot, outside edge.

Edge jumps:

Salchows — The salchow jump sees the performer launch into the air by pushing on the inside edge of their strongest foot. After performing a half-revolution in mid-air, the skater then lands smoothly onto the outside edge of their weaker foot, before continuing to skate their way across the ice.

Loop jumps — When attempting a loop jump, the figure skater takes off from the outside edge of their strongest foot before spinning a full-revolution in the air. The performer then lands back onto the same foot and either carry on skating across the ice or prepares to launch into another spin.

Axels — The axel takes off from a forward position on the left outside edge. The skater must then rotate 1 1/2, 2 ½, or 3 1/2 times before landing on the right back outside edge. The triple axel is the biggest challenge for women.

There are three common spins: the camel, the sit, and the upright.

The camel spin — is a one-footed spin in which the free leg is extended straight back above hip level, with both the leg and chest parallel to the ice.

The sit spin — is pretty self-explanatory. It’s done in a sitting position with the skating leg at least parallel to the ice.

The upright spin — is any spin with the skating leg extended, or almost extended, that’s not a camel spin.

Rules of the Game:

Individual events consist of a short program and a free skate. The former is seen as the technical test for skaters, where requirements are stricter and mistakes more costly. Of the 30 initial skaters, 24 make it to the free skate portion. For both men and women, the short program is 2:50 long (+/- 10 seconds). The women’s free skate is 4 minutes (+/- 10 seconds). The men’s is 4:30 (+/- 10 seconds). The scores from the short program and the free skate are combined to determine a winner.

Officiating the Sport:

As I observe there is one referee who oversees the ice conditions, ensures that all rules applicable to an assessment or competition are followed. Nine judges officiate at all levels of competitions and are responsible for assessing the quality with which a skater performs. One Technical Specialist and TechnicalControllers who are former athletes, coaches, Skate judges, or referees recruited for the correct identification of elements and levels. One Data Specialists are the individuals responsible for calculating the marks awarded by the judges and tabulating the final result.

Analysis:

USA 🇺🇸 — is the 1st performer in the single figure skating program. She did an explicit performance having the cleanest spin with a lovely line and extension for ribs changing position as layback spin to catch the foot, the footwork step in a sequence, the toe loop is clear. However, in the opening jump, she misses the triple combination that causes a one-point deduction in the overall score performance further than that team USA did a wholesome show.

BRA 🇧🇷— is the 2nd performer in the single figure skating program. She completed the required element for the program and did well and the safe landing on the double toe as well the loop is nicely executed. However, she is not that flexible makes her layback spin with the catch loop will be only level 2 even so she stimulates the music very well which makes her performance admirable because she's showing expression while performing.

UKR 🇺🇦— is the 3rd performer in the single figure skating program. Her performance is quite a pity since she got a two-point deduction for her performance. The opening first triple toe in the combination was quite good, however, she does not have enough speed to carry through the second jump that she missed went through the same thing that happens in the triple loop. She executes well on the double axel, her performance is more on footwork, and gestures tropical ended her show with a layback to catch-foot.

LAT 🇱🇻— is the 4th performer in the single figure skating program. She has exceptional choreography as she did the triple toe, triple loop, double axel, back entry to the combination spin to side waist-length leaning turn to the layback to the catch-foot are well played. However, she lacked step-on footwork and did not complete the three basic spin but did a classy performance.

KOR 🇰🇷— is the 5th performer in the single figure skating program. She's a strong competitor for 17 years old and her performance is lovely because of the right speed and choreography completed the triple toe, triple loops, double axel, startling footwork, jump in spin to the outside edge changing the position to the layback with speed to catch-foot. Overall her performance is surpassing, although she is unsatisfied with the score she got.

SWE 🇸🇪— is the 6th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a good speed and great flow on footwork and did a jump sit to a broken leg position that is very low and centered, did triple axel and the triple toe to triple toe, but on the second triple toe spin, she almost lost her balance, finishing her performance to a layback spin with a catch-foot. She's disappointed after finishing the presentation since made a big mistake at the top because she did a single jump which is not a valid element in the program.

CHN 🇨🇳— is the 7th performer in the single figure skating program. She has good quality on the combination spin with all quality position to camel spin proceeding to the footwork, good work on the triple toe-triple loop, double axel is outright low but very well done. She's completing all the position and movement to classic layback position to side waist to catch-foot. However, she missed the opening jump which was the opening triple flip that was supposed to be the combination. Moreover, she got full marks on the triple toe-triple loop jump combination.

SUI 🇨🇭— is the 8th performer in the single figure skating program. A 16 years old girl with no missed in the seven elements and did an excellent performance. She has done an outstanding job on the triple toe-triple toe together at a quality speed and footwork, the footwork doesn't cover much at the ice as it quite complex and it's not flowy, footwork to transition up to double axel, the side waist spin is unusual, back entry back camel spin and some illusion to change-foot and finish her performance with the flexibility and a smile.

KAZ 🇰🇿— is the 9th performer in the single figure skating program. She performs a piece of exotic music with exotic performance having an opening combination which is the triple axel-double toe it is a low-level combination jump but well successfully succeed, footwork is step sequence, she did pretty well delivering on the short progress although there is some problem.

FIN 🇫🇮— is the 10th performer in the single figure skating program. She wondrous performs lots of speed and high-quality jump on the triple toe-triple toe surprisingly clean, then executes a good transition on a high-quality double axel movement to marvelous lift even to the layer backspin to body movement and step sequence. However, she missed the triple loop because she does not have enough strength to land causes a one-point deduction to her score.

CAN 🇨🇦— is the 11th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a good speed as she did the opening combination triple salchow-triple toe but she sadly missed the landing on the triple toe for the reason of a one-point deduction, doing well on footwork, did the double axel that was a bit shaking as she lands on the ice, overall her performance is well-made.

FRA 🇫🇷— is the 12th performer in the single figure skating program. Her performance on the opening jump combination as she flips almost lost her balance that makes her hand touch to the ground proceeding to the double toe did the back camel to an upright position to sit position, done right on the triple loop, and the step sequence is slow, however, the crowd is enjoying it.

AUS 🇦🇺— is the 13th performer in the single figure skating program. She is a beautiful skater were emphasizes her performance with a charming expression that fascinates the crowd. She did a triple flip on the opening, has a great spin starting with a toner, step sequence using edge and loop, spectacular move on a double axel, excellent speed, and layback spin is nicely done. Overall, her performance is clean for having a green light on every element since she has a sense of expression and music.

HUN 🇭🇺— is the 14th performer in the single figure skating program. She chooses bright and rock music as she has delivered a fun performance. She did an excellent job on the triple toe-triple toe alternating the foot combination offset with the sit-to-back camel to an upright position means that she completed the three basic positions. Also, did well on a triple loop, has a good step sequence, and did a rush and split into a double axel to tropical entry to the layback.

ITA 🇮🇹— is the 15th performer in the single figure skating program. She has an interesting transition on the music among expression and composition with the triple flip, double axel, and good speed. Her performance was different where we want to figure out what it meant but it doesn't matter because it was well delivered. She may fail to complete the triple then combo where she misses on her next jump or both jump elements because of too much stress, however, she was please with her wonderful performance.

BEL 🇧🇪— is the 16th performer in the single figure skating program. She did a terrifically athletic performance, to have great movement and strength a good flow of footwork across the ice to a strong edge opening with a triple loop-triple toe, a big to sit spin to a nice irregular camel spin to change position to sit, and the upright, step transition to double axel, more footwork and did a single flip which is an invalid element, continue with a tropical entry into the layback to catch-foot with a good speed. She was unhappy with her performance since she doesn't have a point in one element because it's an invalid element.

GER 🇩🇪— is the 17th performer in the single figure skating program. She's a skater filled with confidence when she jumps and lands where you don't need to feel like you wonder if that's going to land or not because she can make the crowd feel comfortable. Her jumps are not that high but over well-executed, she did a neat triple flip for the opening also did triple toe-triple toe has a good series of turns and step sequences where curves are visible in and out.

SVK 🇸🇰— is the 18th performer in the single figure skating program. A clean performance for her for a good transition on the layback spin change position and speed to camel spin to sit spin to eight ball spin to upright spin. All the element step she plays was level 4 for every single element has received a positive grade for execution.

JPN 🇯🇵— is the 19th performer in the single figure skating program. She performs a centered layback spin, synchronizes footwork, expended execution on flying camel spin, completes the triple flip-triple toe and the triple loop, the jumps and spin are of dignified quality for a brilliant performance having the green light to a positive grade on every element. Her achievement is very pleasing to have a great flow and the jump looks effortless same as the spin for her to be called an astounding performer.

USA 🇺🇸— is the 20th performer in the single figure skating program. She looks tense since she's was next to perform to Japan who currently tops for all performers in the single figure skating program. She completed all the position and movement to layback position to side waist to catch-foot, did naturally execute the triple flip-triple toe. She also did a safe landing on the triple loop, however, miss the chance to do the figure for the triple axel causing a one-point deduction to her grade. Overall the gesture and transition are well done.

CAN 🇨🇦— is the 21st performer in the single figure skating program. She has incredible speed, the jump was high but quite majestic, footwork straight to the triple loop which was even better since she misses the double combination on the opening program causing a one-point deduction, but she did splendid execution on the other element. Overall, her performance is entertaining because her interpretation of the music is compliant.

USA 🇺🇸— is the 22nd performer in the single figure skating program. Her first jump attempt was a little bit of tilt where she almost lost balance but thankfully didn't get the fall yet there's a deduction to the points. She completed the footwork into the triple loop-double toe for the combination, pulling up a lovely spiral which is barely seen to the other performers to double axel. Overall, her performance tells a story as the symbolism of her hand gesture from beginning to end.

KAZ 🇰🇿— is the 23rd performer in the single figure skating program. She did a magnificent combination spin, a triple salchow-triple toe for the combination jump, double axel to butterfly into the flying camel to the inside edge, the transition was fast and neat which she has air good position and did a great job executing her show.

KOR 🇰🇷— is the 24th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a beautiful performance for she can bring emotion into it for a clean short program. She executes well on the triple loop-triple toe, back entry to the camel spin to sit and upright all in one foot then move to the triple flip, footwork is simple but elegant. Overall the performance was stunning and green light all the way.

RUS 🇷🇺— is the 25th performer in the single figure skating program. She has an enchanting performance, what I like most about her is the emotional feeling she brings as she skates into the ice where the breath and heartbeat have to do with her soul, choreography was very mature as truly she is a strong competitor. She did the camel start the triple flip-triple toe, a beautiful landing on the triple loop and triple axel, another beautiful combination spin, polished a beautiful shapes layback with ending great expression.

JPN 🇯🇵— is the 26th performer in the single figure skating program. She did the triple loop combination jump, a light entry into the fine camel turn, back to footwork to a secured triple loop, wonderful composition, and transition an excellent sigh to the double axel, very flexible as she does the layback to catch-foot. Overall, she is one of the best performers in the program and her movement does have meaning on it.

CAN 🇨🇦— is the 27th performer in the single figure skating program. She did a brilliant clear transition on the combination where the high is equal, footwork change feet to the triple loops to double axel. Her vibe makes you feel like in the European coffee in the late 1950s, her jumps were quite fast and high but sometimes a jump can be risky, so when there's a risk there should be a reward making her jump attempt worth it and superior.

RUS 🇷🇺— is the 28th performer in the single figure skating program. She nailed it a marvelous performance for 15 years old from Russia. She did complete the seven-element with a high average score for the green light all the way, starting with the different composition of spins, step sequence on footwork, the triple loop-triple loop, triple toe, double axel makes her all in all performance almost perfect.

ITA 🇮🇹— is the 29th performer in the single figure skating program. She has a good speed and great flow on footwork and did a jump sit to a broken leg position that is very low and centered. Also did triple flip-triple toe just the right leg edge coming out a little slow and the triple loop she almost lost her balance which an error in the step on the triple loop where she touches down with a hand causing for a deduction to her score, and finish her performance with a spin.

RUS 🇷🇺— is the last performer in the single figure skating program. She completed the required element for the program and did well and the safe landing on the double toe combination as well the axel is nicely executed. She has a lack of confidence but gracefully delivered well her performance however she wasn't able to control the landing on the triple loop causing a one-point deduction for that.

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