Your Bars are Uneven
December 18, 2007 by northernriver
The USA has a gaping dearth in uneven bars, even though Nastia is one of the best bars workers in the world. Uneven bars was one of the events the USA could pack all the points in, and it still is, given the more generous scoring (as it appears to me).
Your Potential Uneven Bars People are:
Nastia (2007 Worlds, Stuttgart)
Lots of yelling in the background. Enough said.
Shawn (2007 Worlds, Stuttgart)
(Is her dismount really that much harder than Amy Chow’s double twisting double back?) Shawn is at best decent, but she’s not UB event finals material. (Yet. Knowing her, she’ll probably go for broke.)
Shayla (2007 Worlds, Stuttgart)
Shayla’s best UB score came in team finals: 15.575. She would have just barely made it into event finals had she done that in qualifications. She really needs to work on that shaky dismount of hers (she always seems to be taking big steps and/or falling).
Ideally, that’s all we have. (Do we have anyone else eligible? I assume some juniors will be cropping up, in the style of McCool, but I don’t know any juniors, except for Rebecca Bross, who’s too young.)
Internationally, Bridget, Ivana, and Sam Peszek couldn’t break 15, Jana’s all but fallen off the radar, and Martha K. won’t let Alicia train bars, even though she might have improved (only very little).
But anyway, for your consideration:
Bridget (2007 Test Event, Beijing)
Um, I really like the leotard? Other than that, it looked like she was kind of falling out of her handstands.
Ivana (2007 Worlds, Stuttgart)
It’s kind of painful to watch this, not because it is bad (quite the contrary, I thought it looked very clean), but because Ivana looks really tired, and she gets a 14.800 for her pains.
I can’t find a good video of Sam P. on bars (and as much as I love Sac, her bars routine hurts my eyes after I’ve seen the likes of Nastia) so…well, there you have it.
And as for the former world champion Chellsie Memmel…I can’t find a video of Chellsie on uneven bars at the Test Event (or any time recent), but suffice to say that she is a huge question mark at this point. (That is, she didn’t do well.) Now people are doubting that she’ll ever be the same on UB again. I don’t want to doubt Chellsie’s grit, but…
I know Shantessa Pama has been…well, who knows where for awhile, but I think she really has the potential to contribute on bars. I know she’s inconsistent, but there’s talent there for sure.
here is a link to chellsie’s uneven bars at the test event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNkoMm4W6w
it’s still nowhere what it was at the 2005 worlds. but she still has time to work on it.
another bar worker who is good, but probably came out to late is darlene hill. also, i think sloan is pretty good at bars, her toe on tkatchev is sky high!!!
Not as bad as you might think!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNkoMm4W6w
Maybe I’m just werid but I think Bridget, Ivana, and Shalya are all much better bar workers than Nastia.. I just don’t like Nastia’s style. Maybe it was just at Stuggartt but Bridget’s handstnads and form looked so much better than Nastias. *shrug* that’s my personal opinion
Check out this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFumRuwLLpc&eurl=http://gymblog.wordpress.com/
I would not be surprised to see Shawn contend on UB and Chelsie to never be on them again.
how’s Jana?
hahaha you guys obviously were never gymnasts and have no idea what you are talking about.