Practice Report: From Sunday, November 20, 2005

We got a chance to watch the gals practicing again this past Sunday and have some exciting new “tidebits” to report on upgrades already in several routines.  Let’s get right to it…

Courtney Priess (Freshman) has added a toe-on toe-off on the high bar, followed by giant, giant to the Arabian double front dismount.  She threw her full routine several times on this date and was looking very poised and confident throughout.  On the balance beam she is now throwing a flight series of a back handspring to back pike. 

Ashley O'Neal (Freshman) completed her entire beam routine during another intra-squad that was being supervised by Dana Dobransky-Duckworth. She dismounted with the double front and  stood it up consistently.  Ashley is still working on her form and extension on the uneven bars.  The Tkatchev is looking solid but the transition to handstand on the low bar is requiring regular reps to refine her technique. Her dismount of the giant full turn to double tuck looked very solid and she will be upgrading to a double layout. The vault (front pike ½ twist) looked powerful but her form (legs) still tends to be split in the air, so we look for her to continue to refine her technique with the help of the coaches.

Bianca Puello (Freshman) looked much more confident on vault, bars and especially the balance beam on this date.  She completed the beam routine with minor glitches and dismounted with a strong double twist.  On the bars she was practicing the dismount (1/2 in ½ out) and was working a new vault (Yurchenko ½ off front layout) on the soft mats. 

We were happy to note that Cassie Martin (Freshman) was throwing her new vault (Yurchenko ½ on Piked Front off) with confident regularity on the medium hard mat; she showed super impressive form and toe point during the vault reps. Landings were either stuck or had a small step forward only.  On balance beam and bars she was just as confident.  See the Ghosts vs Goblins report for more routine details on these two events.

Ashley Ford was a workhorse on the beam and vault.  She is a perfectionist and did several reps beyond what appeared to be required, with extra effort on the flight series (back handspring layout stepout).  She started to lay out the Tsukahara ½ tuck vault midway and was showing lots of power.

Melanie Banville has added more difficulty on the beam and floor, with an additional trick also being incorporated into her bars routine.  She is now throwing a straddle jump to straddle full combination on beam. Melanie was also practicing a triple turn on floor and refining several dance moves with Duckworth's assistance.  On bars she is throwing the full turn to Tkatchev and is trying to connect a Pak Salto to this as well. 

Amanda Montgomery has possibly the best floor music of the freshmen and some terrific dance moves.  Her progress on bars and beam has been steady and it’s now more about refining the leg extension, toe point elements and cleaning up some form problems here and there.

Terin Humphrey demonstrated her complete bars routine and has now mastered the full turn to Gienger release, which comes shortly after she completes the first release (Markelov).  On balance beam she has added a punch front too.  Lots of confident reps were observed but she was a little nervous during the beam intra-squad (recovered nicely).

Kaitlin White definitely impressed us today on the balance beam, where she has changed her flight series to a back handspring to back pike.  Very nice switch leap to straddle full combination, landed well consistently throughout her reps. Lots of reps on the uneven bars where her only problem seems to be the timing of her giant full turn to double tuck dismount.  

Erin Rightley focused on beam and floor today and was refining some of her new dance moves with Dana’s help.  She continues to look poised for a breakout year and her confidence is great to see.

Rachael Delahoussaye worked on her floor routine timing and the balance beam as well.  Nice wolf full; practice reps of a pike jump as well as the wolf jump to Korbut were observed.

Dana Pierce has added a split full jump on the balance beam and Dana Dobransky-Duckworth had her also practice the wolf full and the tuck full, possibly trying to decide whether to insert one for the other or have her do them in combination like Larissa Stewart did a few years back.  Results were excellent.  Dana’s full beam routine for this impromptu intra-squad was once again very solid.   

Dana Filetti was still nursing a sore ankle but worked out on bars, beam and floor.  She was also working on a triple turn on the floor; Dana Dobransky-Duckworth was very impressed with her full turn to tuck double combination and plans to add this to her floor routine for 2006.   

Ashley Miles added a split leap to tuck full combination on the beam as well as a split full jump.  We saw most of her floor routine (new music once again) and she has some groovy new dance moves to unveil for the fans.  Double layout dismount off the bars was looking very strong.

Mari-Christine Bayer worked mostly on floor, bars and beam.  No new elements shown but she worked on timers for the double layout dismount off bars and also threw the double tuck out of a full turn.