Crimson Tide Gymnastics

Practice Report from Sunday, September 17, 2006

Erin Rightley

We have lots of Tidebits to share from Bama's "Show and Tell" practice this past weekend, including some amazing tumbling already being thrown by our gymnasts. Let's start with some "housekeeping" notes before we get into the technical skills.

First off, PBAs confirmed on Sunday that sophomore Bianca Puello would not be returning to the team for her second year but would remain in school at the University. Best of luck to the former Level 10/Junior International Elite standout!

Sophomores Melanie Banville and Courtney Priess struggled last season off and on with back pain and on this date were doing only cardio conditioning and targeted rehab exercises. Fortunately, PBAs noted that both are in excellent condition and Priess especially (working double time on the stair step machine). Everyone else was looking healthy and working all events on this date.

And yes, PBAs are pleased to confirm that Bama freshman and 6-time USA National Team Member, Kassi Price, was present and accounted for despite floating rumors that she might be hanging out at the Worlds verification camp in Texas this past weekend. Kassi is officially a Crimson Tider!

Cassie Martin

Celebrity visitors spotted in the crowd during this practice included Ashley Miles and Dana Pierce.

Now for the highlights...

Vault

Noticeable standouts were clearly freshmen Ricki Lebegern and Kassi Price, who both threw very impressive Yurchenko 1.5 vaults on the regular mats. As the coaches noted at the beginning, both of these gymnasts are already "routine ready" on all four events and now just need to maintain their work ethic in the gym throughout the fall pre-season.

Freshman Morgan Dennis wowed former Tide great Dana Pierce when she threw her Yurchenko 2/1 on the soft mats (excellent power and height off the table). She also has a 1/1 and 1.5 in her arsenal.
Sophomore Ashley O'Neal was throwing Yurchenko layout timers and will be training a 1/1 and 1.5 as well as the pike ½ twist for 2007.
Terin Humphrey was working timers for the Podkopayeva vault and showing more explosion off the table. Terin has returned for her junior year in outstanding shape and was also sporting a very nice tan.
Senior Erin Rightley was working a Hristakieva on the soft mats and foam pit while Cassie Martin was throwing timers for the Omeliantchik vault.
Yurchenko 1/1 timers were thrown by junior Kaitlin White, sophomore Brittany Magee and freshman Casey Overton while sophomore Ashley Ford was working Tsuk timers for the ½ on ½ off.
Freshman Jacqueline Shealy appeared to be working a front entry vault, a pike ½ twist, when we focused on her timers.

Uneven Bars

We saw lots of exciting skills being thrown by several Tide gymnasts on the bars during this practice and it was obvious that certain gymnasts have been working hard to refine these during the summer voluntary practices.

We have to start with sophomore Amanda Montgomery, who has returned for her second season in strong shape. She was showing much better form, extension and toe point on all elements and has a new dismount of a double pike out of a full pirouette.
Kaitlin White was refining her dismount technique as well as giants and pirouettes. She also looks stronger and more muscled this year, which hopefully will translate to greater endurance on this event for 2007.
Terin Humphrey was hitting handstand positions like her freshman year and was throwing a hop full and has already mastered a new dismount of a full-twisting double layout. Sheezam!
Jacqueline Shealy showed gorgeous toe point and extension on her giant to handstand to half turn to front giant to another half turn to giant to Tkatchev series.
Ashley O'Neal was working a double front dismount confidently in the foam pit.
Casey Overton threw a nice toe-on toe-off on the low bar followed by a toe-shoot straddle transition to the high bar.
Morgan Dennis was opting for double bonus by throwing a pike Jaeger first and then a kip back to handstand to half turn to Hindorff. Somebody must have shown her Andree's old tapes.
Brittany Magee focused her workout on the dismount (1/2 in ½ out) and also showed excellent handstand positions right on top of the bar.
Kassi Price worked with David Patterson on several elements, including the stalder half turn to Hindorff combination, another stalder to full turn, straddle toe-shoot to the high bar and she also was standing up the full-twisting double layout dismount consistently on the regular mats. She really appears to enjoy practice and has obviously received superb elite skills training from Coaches Jeff Wood and Christi Baraneau at her prep club, Orlando Metro.
Ricki Lebegern also showcased very impressive handstand positions, a straddle Jaeger and a full in dismount. She is very aggressive on this and all other events.

Balance Beam

Pieces of routines were being worked over and over but there were several unique and difficult skills being thrown consistently. Here are just a few:

Side Somi	Ricki and Kassi
Pike Popa (full turn pike position)	Erin (nailed it twice)
Wolf front aerial	Kassi
Front aerial to back pike	Morgan
and BHS to Layout-Layout
Front aerial to side aerial	Amanda
Front punch	Brittany, Morgan, Terin
Full twisting BHS to BHS to LO-SO	Terin
One-hand BHS to wolf full jump	Amanda
¾ BHS to perfect split position	Terin
Triple turn in lunge position	Terin
Switch ring leap	Casey
Switch leap to straddle side	Casey, Jacqueline, Morgan, Kaitlin, Cassie
Switch leap to sheep jump	Jacqueline, Terin
BHS to Layout-Step-out	Casey, Ricki, Kassi, Erin, Kaitlin
Double pike dismount	Kassi
Double front	Ashley O
Double twist dismount	Ricki, Amanda
BHS 1 ½ dismount	Kaitlin
BHS Full twist (off side)	Casey, Jacqueline
Double tuck dismount	Brittany (foam pit), Terin (timers)

Ashley Ford

Floor Exercise

Dana Dobransky-Duckworth was present with her infant son and reports that the Tide will be showcasing new floor music this year for juniors Terin and Kaitlin as well as certain sophomores. The freshmen will be using a combination of fresh new music and some recent favorites that did not get a chance to be showcased often: for example, Dana Filetti's Shakira music will be used by Jacqueline, and Dana Pierce's music from the last two years at Bama will become Ricki's. Both gymnasts went through their choreography on this date and have excellent dance technique that should score well. Now for the tumbling runs, which took place on regular and medium mats:

Double Layout

Ricki	superb technique and landing
Morgan	incredible height
Erin	stood up all with minor spotting from Bryan
Ashley O	amazing control and amplitude, stuck the first one cold, all without spotting

Pike Full In

Morgan	excellent height, a little split in the legs mid-air
Kassi	rotates very quickly, saw a little split in the legs as well

Triple Twist

Kassi	solid, tight twisting technique throughout and landing was very good
Ricki	stuck the first one cold on the regular floor during dance through

Double Front Arabian

Kassi	stuck several but legs split, feet a bit flexed mid-air
Terin	stood up but still working on sticking the landing

Punch front layout to a 1 ½, whip full to whip half, front punch LO to a double full

Kaitlin (nice technique on the last skill)

Punch front layout to a 1 ½ to a layout step-out; double tuck; several whip BHS

Brittany

Double pike (all looked very solid)

Casey

Kassi

Terin

Kaitlin

We'll have more to report around mid-October and the first official intra-squad will take place on October 29^th (Sunday), the annual Ghosts versus Goblins. In the meantime, RTR!