Two inspiring floor routines I've seen recently, mostly for twisting but everything else is beautiful as well:
Sandra Izbasa - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXA0wFax3C8 (Embed disabled)
Triple full punch (gorgeous) stag jump. Her legs are so long.
Flavius Koczi
Skip to 3:00 for the nuttiest HB routine you have ever seen. 3 Kovacs skills (backwards salto OVER the bar in pike, tuck, and full twisting) in the same routine, each done with utter precision. Beautiful form, nasty difficulty. I especially love how definitively he squares out of his dismount a whole 180 degrees before landing. Just awesome...
But no, he's not just a high bar specialist, here's a video of him training and then nailing a couple of triple twisting doubles on floor - 1/1 in 2/1 out.
Good lord, there's even video of him working on a DOUBLE Kovacs. Skip to 5:00.
The future of men's gymnastics is scary. I'm glad I got out of that sport!
YouTube user avroraagata1 has uploaded a whole mess of videos of the 22nd World Championships in Acrobatic Gymnastics. I think I'm going to take the time to watch ALL of them, but here are a few gold winners that you should watch, if you're going to watch any of these videos.
Women's Group Gold - Russia
Why don't we start by tossing this child into a 2 1/2 front and catch her in a basket hold? Brilliant!
Mixed Pair Gold - USA
Men's Pair Gold - Great Britain
Edit: The videos keep coming!!! Look at this one!
saltocafe is probably one of my favorite YouTube channels: a constant stream of excellent gymnastics and gymnastic-related clips. This video came out beside a compilation of UB dismounts both from the 2010 JO Nationals. There are some enormous Tkatchevs in there; I bet they could stretch them out into Hechts if they wanted to.
34 wins in my book.
Also from saltocafe, this clip made me laugh pretty hard.He could choreograph women's floor routines with those moves.
A Yurchenko is a gymnastics vault where one does a round off onto the springboard followed by a back handspring onto the vaulting surface. The rest is magic.
That's a pretty Yurchenko full right there, let me tell you. I love the way she's fully extended and fully square coming down for the landing with her hands down by her sides. Even worse, she did it more than once!
So obviously that's not the hardest Yurchenko-style vault; there are lots of places to sneak more twists into the entry and flight, but seldom do you see people adding an extra flip:
He's an intense looking dude, and that's an EXTREMELY intense looking vault (on a horse, no less!). It doesn't even look like there's time for another flip in there but he manages it, sticks it, and then sports a huge grin beneath his Colonel Sanders beard.
...And then he piked it.
Any other sweet Yurchenko vaults I need to see?
-Ryan
I feel like maybe if I write about Damien Walters 2010 it will prevent the inevitable rush of "have you seen this video w/ ninja man?" e-mails from aunts and uncles and casual acquaintances who know I do "that flippy stuff". Not to belittle Damien Walters in the slightest because for four years in a row his reels have been consistently insane, innovative, and fun. But what makes his videos always go viral?
