Bridget Snapp: Yesterday, I hung out with Olympic gymnast Alina Prescone(ph) and her girls at the NorthWind Gymnastic Center, where I learned that my height just might keep me from being the next Olympic gymnast. That and my fear of squeezing into one of those leotards. Thankfully the girls there were much braver than me and did some fabulous routine.
Last night I sat down the high school gymnastics coach Kara Williamson to review the footage and see what judges are looking for when they watch Olympians compete on the uneven bars involved.
Bridget Snapp: And now we have got Mr. Carolina first.
Caroline Carter: My name is Caroline Carter. I am eight years old and I am going to do a free hip giants.
Kara Williamson: Here Caroline starts with the glide kip. She is on cast -- straddle handstand with a half pirouette into a kip. Now she is going into a long-hand kip again casting into a straddle, free hip circle, giant swing. Again, we are looking for a good handstand at the top of each swing and she has landed with a layout flyaway. And now we have got Ms. Ashley.
Ashley Smith: My name is Ashley Smith, I am nine and I am going to do half pirouette and front giant.
Bridget Snapp: Ashley is saluting the judge. Do you do that in --
Kara Williamson: You start every routine with the salute to the judge and finish. She has done a kip, cast to a handstand, half pirouette kip. Long hand kip, cast her handstand, she has done a free hip circle and just under-rotated a little bit and had to come off. So here is a competition you would have between 30 seconds and a minute to start the routine up again.
Bridget Snapp: And how is that going to be judged?
Kara Williamson: You will typically get half of the point deducted and depending on where you fell, again if you have completed the skill enough you might get credit for it, but if you didn't get enough through it then the skill wouldn't count, you would probably want to try it again.
Bridget Snapp: Well, Ms. Ashley decides to try it again.
Kara Williamson: She is going to start back right over she left off, casting to a squat on the low bar and now she is going long hand kip, cast straddle, free hip circle, she has done one giant swing, there is the second and a layout flyaway. Beautiful --
Bridget Snapp: Absolutely. Okay, here we have got Rilee.
Rilee Racine: My name is Riley Racine, I am 11 and I am going to do a pirouette free hip giant and a double back.
Bridget Snapp: They deduct points if you don't salute the judges or is that --
Kara Williamson: They do. Typically, you will get a tenth of a point off for not saluting either at the beginning or the end of your routine.
She is doing a kip cast handstand half pirouette kip. Now she is doing a cast squat to the low bar. Long hand kip, again cast to a straddle, free hip circle to a handstand, very well done. Giant, this is her second giant here. She is ending with a double-back somersault, very beautiful and it's definitely a great job Rilee.
Caroline Thomas: I am Caroline Thomas, I am 15 years old and I am going to do a front handspring one-and-a-half.
Kara Williamson: You are going to be doing a front handspring actually on to the table and then is going to block off the table and then do one-and-a-half twist before she lands. She has got great form, little bit over rotated and didn't get around to one-and-a-half but still really pretty in the air.
Bridget Snapp: Up next we have got Ms. Sarah.
Sarah: I am 12 years old and I am going to do a soup and I just love vault.
Kara Williamson: She is going to be going front entry into the horse but before she actually hits the vault and table she is going to be doing a half twist and then a back tuck off.
Bridget Snapp: And Sugahara what kind of a word is that?
Kara Williamson: Sugahara is actually named after a gymnast. If memory serves me right he was a Japanese gymnast. That's way she does the half twist on the back tuck off, a bit of a step but good distance from the table.
Bridget Snapp: So these girls obviously did a great job on the uneven bars and the vault routines.
Kara Williamson: Beautiful routines, yes definitely.
Bridget Snapp: And what will be looking for in the Olympics from the judges' point of view as they move up?
Kara Williamson: As they get to the Olympic level their vaults are obviously going to involve a lot more twists, a lot of flips. As you saw Sarah's vault she did a Sugahara with one tuck after leaving the table but we are going to see double-tucks and we are going to see multiple twists and some really, really beautiful high level vaults.
As far as the uneven bars you are going to see a lot of release moves. We are going to see the gymnasts as they are swinging around the bar, and what we call a giant. They are actually going to release their hands from the bar usually in a straddle position. Sometimes in a pike they are going to actually flip over the high bar and re-grasp and then move into some different other elements. There is going to be a lot more pirouettes on the bar which is turning on your hands, usually full turns, sometimes one and a half turns.
There is going to be some really amazing dismounts. So double-backs but with full twists rolled in and it's' going to be some really exciting gymnastics.
Bridget Snapp: We certainly do thank the girls from NorthWind. We thank you for joining us.
Kara Williamson: Thank you.
Bridget Snapp: And we cannot wait to be tuned in for the Olympics. And we thank you very much for watching this edition on Clubhouse Gas.
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