This Week in Training: Can't Stop, Won't Stop
Erika Fasana and Aliya Mustafina on Fasana's instagram
This week has probably been the most exciting in terms of upgrades. We have eleven athletes featured today and, while 3 are juniors, the remaining 8 are all seniors that were chosen as part of their countries World Championships delegation. Despite the fact that Worlds was less than a month ago, these athletes are back in the gym working hard towards the next World Championships in Glasgow.
The upgrade I'm probably most excited about is Erika Fasana's full twisting double layout (FTDLO). She does it as a beautiful full in and I think she keeps the stretched body position really well without piking in the second half (which I hate) and without overarching for those that hate that. Bravissima, Eri!
Ragan Smith (senior in 2016, USA) was recently added to the National Team. Here she is training a nice Patterson dismount. If you check the comments, Carly Patterson praised Smith's dismount.
Nia Dennis (senior in 2015, USA) showed her Amanar at the recent camp. She is also working hard on upgrades showing a FTDLO.
Lisa Top (NED) included this with the caption "Playtime" so I have no idea if we'll ever actually see it. Nevertheless, here she is showing around off to 1.5 twist punch double front. It's insane. IG: lisa_top.
Roxana Popa (ESP) has a few meets lined up for the winter season but that hasn't stopped her from working new skills in the gym. She's working a new low bar sequence on uneven bars. Most exciting, for me anyway, is her new double double. Roxi already has a very exciting FX with whips through to full in. This will only make her FX tumbling that much more exciting.
Jordyn Pedersen was the Canadian alternate at World Championships. She has verbally committed to the University of Georgia but plans to defer to after Rio 2016. Here she is showing a Maloney (toe-on shaposhnikova) to pak to Maloney. We talk a lot now about the need for a Shaposhnikova variation in routines and Pedersen has them.
Ana Lago competed in the 2014 World Championships for Mexico, her first meet after an ACL tear, where she competed vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. Here she is training a full in dismount on BB. If I'm not mistaken, Biles is the only gymnast competing it at the moment and it's the hardest dismount being competed.
Laurie Hernandez (senior in 2016, USA) had missed out on the last competition due to a wrist injury then knee injury. Her coach tells us not to worry as Laurie has recently been cleared! Here are some of the skills she's been working on. At the end, she shows a Downie (stalder piked Tkatchev) and Ricna (stalder straddled Tkatchev).
Post by MG Elite Girls.
In most surprising upgrades, that goes to Tatiana Nabieva who shows a super high round off layout full on the low beam.
Not to be outdone, teammate Aliya Mustafina again shows a double layout. She first showed one probably 6 or so months ago. Just keep in mind Aliya has managed a 6.2 difficulty on floor with just 3 passes. Oh, the possibilities! IG: musaliya135.
This week in bloopers, we have Celine van Gerner who works whips to a tucked full in. She has some trouble on the first one but gets it right for the second one! Van Gerner continues to surprise me as she was selected as the sole 2012 Olympian for the Netherlands and continues to show upgrades even after injury and time off.
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