
Here are some pics I took at Winter Cup in Vegas. You can find more on
my facebook page. All in all, I was most impressed with a few young talented gymnasts, as well as the polished refined styles of the likes of Jonathan Horton, Joey Haggerty, and a few other veterans. As for College teams, Illinois looked good, yet Stanford looked nearly unstoppable. I left the meet feeling extremely happy that I am retired from gymnastics. Not to say I have any regrets or misgivings, but the level of difficulty that is being performed is much greater than when I was competing, thus much more dangerous! After reading Malcom Gladwell's "Outliers," I can attribute the increase in difficulty primarily to coaching, and the code of points demanding a higher level of difficulty. I noticed quite a few former Russian coaches on the floor this weekend -Vitaly Scherbo, Rustom Sharipov, Ivan Ivankov, Dimitry Bilozerchev, and many more - all Olympic champions and the idols of the kids they coach. I expect to see more of the trend to continue for more difficult gymnastics with better execution until we catch up with the Chinese (hopefully). Enjoy the pics, any thoughts?












