GYMN-L Digest - 1 Apr 1996
There are 7 messages totalling 272 lines in this issue.
Topics of the
day:
1. gymnasts in showbiz
2. Reese's (uggh)
(long)
3. gymnastics
vs. aerobic
4. Brandy and some
skills (2)
5. UB
6. all
Caps.
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Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 00:07:13
-0500
From: ***@UKY.CAMPUS.MCI.NET
Subject:
Re: gymnasts in showbiz
>Despite the teasing male gymnasts get
about not being macho,
>male gymnasts while
still in competition mode tend to be the
>athletes
in best physical condition of the population.
>
>In commercials, thay are a natural.
Biggest problem is that
>advertisers
want taller models, like close to 6ft.
Tom Cruise is short. Dustin Hoffman is short. They can alter the scene or
have a model alone.
Height is a major factor only for live modeling. Print
ads
don't care as much.
>As the average height of NCAA male
gymnasts gains on 6ft,
>male gymmnasts are becomming more and
more viable.
>
>We should see more. There was a small blast of male gymnasts
going into
showbiz
>right
after 84 LA but they kinda botched their careers and
they fizzled.
???? Say
what?
All the guys on the Olympic team appeared as themselves in one
episode of
the TV show Different Strokes. Bart did a terrible movie about BMX
bikes.
Mitch did a movie about gymnastics, American Anthem, which the
critics
panned, but I thought was pretty
good. (A *LOT* better than
Kurt's
Gymkata!) Mitch also hosted a children's TV show
for awhile, but I don't
know
how that went because I never saw it.
Since then Mitch has made two
other movies,
American Tiger and Sexual Outlaws.
Neither of those were very
good in my opinion.
I'm not saying Mitch wasn't good, but the so-called
plots were pretty weak.
Mitch's older brother, Chuck, did the gym stunts in
Footloose, and
Mitch was Robin's stuntman in the most recent Batman movie.
As far as
fizzled careers, I don't know of any of the guys except Mitch who
ever intended acting to be a career. Was there something I missed?
Chris
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 00:08:17 -0500
From: ***@EROLS.COM
Subject:
Reese's (uggh) (long)
Well, I guess I am
glad there are those who liked it, if that means shows
like
this may increase popularity . . . but I couldn't even watch the whole
thing. There
were some nice points, but (with the exception of some of the
men in comedic roles) I thought the high points were the
ones when the
pretense of showiness was
essentially forsaken. (i.e., when Bogi went ahead
and did some real work on bars). It was nice to see some old faces
again,
but it's hard for me to imagine an appeal
beyond that (except perhaps to the
very young, or
to relatives).
This is not to say that I think there is no role for
professional gymnastics
exhibitions -- but that I
doubt that trying to look like a figure skating
show
is ever going to work. Great
artistry in gymnastics has nothing to do
with
costumes and role playing and fancy lighting -- I think the rhythmic
gymnasts go about as far as you can go with this and still carry
it off. And
few
gymnasts have honed the dramatic and dance skills necessary to carry off
the in-between material (Roethlisberger, despite the blatant
theft from of
all things competitive ballroom
dancing exhibitions (hate to admit it, but
I've been known to channel surf
in strange directions); and also Bogi and
even Phillips, were the best at this, but the latter two had
trouble
combining the athletics and the acting, I
thought). To succeed with this
kind of material in a professional exhibition for general
audiences, the
dance and theatrics has to be
competitive with professional dancing and
acting
(or professional circus performers, or whatever). Figure skaters do
pull
this off (the best ones, that is), and within the context of pure
gymnastics -- which is, after all, what these folks do best
-- so do
gymnasts. But I thought this looked amateurish and
hokey, and that the
announcers went way overboard
trying to plug it as a great advance.
Also,
if you're going to do hard moves, it
is very difficult to stay in
character in the
process; the switches from acting to preparation for
tumbling,
etc., even in the best routines, were therefore often abrupt and
distracting; they called attention to the fact that the
dance, etc. was
tossed on somewhat artificially. You could probably throw these kinds
of
routines in as occasional asides in a program
devoted primarily to straight
gymnastics and get
away with it, but a whole program devoted to this stuff
will
probably never attract those who don't desperately want to see their
favorite gymnasts, no matter what those gymnasts are
doing. (And if they're
going to try, then they have to do something to have the
color of the
equipment and mats not be a
distraction from the dramatic purpose of a
routine.) Also, the skaters get to develop what
they're doing for,
typically, 4-4.5 minutes (long
programs); it's much easier to build a show
around
that than around shorter routines.
What I do think could work: a professional judging regime that
placed more
emphasis than the amateur scoring does
on artistic impression, by which I
mean not
theatrics, but virtuousity, extension, great timing
and swing on
bars -- the sort of performance that
rewards beauty rather than, primarily,
tricks. Mo Huilan's
gorgeous layout on beam is an example of what I have in
mind;
or the best of the old Soviet gymnasts on p-bars (I also really like to
watch Jair Lynch on that event,
but am not following men's closely enough to
throw
out other names). You could also
have some kind of demonstration of
best tricks,
along the lines of the things we used to do as kids, in which
all the gymnasts on the team would run passes, either in
groups, or seriatim,
with each gymnast throwing
off a good hard trick. (This could
be
competitive, too: best double layout or whatever; or a
game in which
gymnast A does one trick and then
gymnast B has to either top it or
(different
contest) one-up it; then B sets the standard on the second trick,
etc. Or A,B,C,D,E; B,C,D,E,A; etc.)
The risk, I suppose,
would be the difficulty in making these types of
exhibitions
or competitions stay interesting if gymnasts don't want to, or
can't, continue to do moves that are exciting in and of
themselves. But for
competitions, you could certainly let people specialize; and
variations on
costumes and lighting, and the use
of music, could help. But I do
think that
the only reason the Reese's Cup (ouch,
what a name) stayed interesting -- to
the extent
that it did -- was that there *was* a lot of plain old, good
gymnastics being done (and that we haven't seen Kristie
Phillips in a long,
long time).
I do
think the idea of a place to watch while the gymnast waits for the
scores, even though also a blatant steal from skating
practices, worked well:
chance to get a quick
sense of personality, addition of a little dramatic
tension
while we wait with him or her, etc.
Well, sorry to go on and on. Maybe this just means that I'm not quite
the
fan that I was at 12 or so -- but then again,
I think most people who watch
gymnastics are
probably more casual in their fandom than I am now. I don't
doubt
that there were those who really enjoyed this, but I'm skeptical that
the appeal of this type of format will ever be broad. (I couldn't watch the
Bart and Nadia
stuff, either, for the same reasons.)
So perhaps all these reviews
will help those of you who missed it decide
which
camp you might fall into -- those who would have loved it, or those who
would have turned it off even if it had been showing in your
town.
--Ann
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 00:17:15
-0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject:
gymnastics vs. aerobic
I am a coach and I have a
level 9 gymnast that runs between 3-5 miles per
day. I know that
gymnastics is an anaerobic sport but if a gymnast has a
high
level of endurance in aerobic activity could it have an impact on her
anaerobic workout (gymnastics). Can a person function at a high level
of
aerobic activity and then turn around and
function at a high level of
anerobic
activity?
I
think she runs too much for a gymnast but I am researching this before
I
render a decision. She makes it
through her routines easily but I am
wondering if
she could improve her gymnastics better and faster if she cut
down on the distance of her running.
I am not for making her quit running
altogether because she enjoys it too
much. On the other hand if the long distances
of running have a big effect
on her workouts I
would like to have hard facts to show and explain this to
her. If anyone
has information or has seen or has access to this type of
information please let me know.
gymnastically,
DOUBLETUCK.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 00:31:49
-0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject:
Brandy and some skills
>Also, I noticed when they showed Brandy
Johnson that herbio said she lives
in >Tallahasse! Does she really live here? I thoughtshe
lived in Orlando.
I believe that she now lives in the Orlando area and
does stunt work.Brandy
lived here in Tallahassee until the mid 80's.She attempted a
comeback early
last year but could not continue
due to injury.
> I know
>that she
first started here at Galimore's but was pretty sure
she still
She never trained at Galimore's.Most (if not all) of her early training was
at Tallahassee Tumbling Tots.She
moved to Brown's in Altamonte (and
eventually to Bela Karolyi) to train for the
'88 olympics.
> The latest issue of IG
says Chow's added "a mind-blowing new uneven bars>
mount >which she debuted in January." What is this skill?
I believe
it is a stalder shaposhnikova
with a half twist.Wow!
>The
only mount I> can think of that was mind-blowing was by a Russian in
'89
event> >finals (memory fading, so please
bear with me if this description> is
not
accurate) who >did something like a roundoff, arabian flip> over the low,
catch
the high bar. > For the >record, the skill wasdone
at least as early as
about 1982 (an American by
the >name >ofBrumbaugh--I forget her first
name
[Julianne, maybe?
Michelle Goodwin did a round off arabian to sit on the low bar back
at the
'82 Budapest Invitational.Olyesa(sp?) Dudnik
did a round off arabian over
the
low bar and catch the high bar in '89.Are these skills named after
the
gymnasts?Adriana?
Does
anyone know whatever became of Julianne Brumbaugh?She had loads of
talent
and then disappeared.
Billy
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 00:39:54
-0500
From: ***@YALE.EDU
Subject:
Re: Brandy and some skills
On Mon, 1 Apr 1996, Billy wrote:
>
Michelle Goodwin did a round off arabian
to sit on the low bar back at the
> '82 Budapest Invitational.Olyesa(sp?) Dudnik did a round off arabian over the
> low bar and catch the high bar in '89.Are these skills named after
the
> gymnasts?Adriana?
The
Code doesn't list names for either.
:)
Adriana
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 00:42:25
-0500
From: ***@YALE.EDU
Subject:
UB
On Sun, 31 Mar 1996, Alex wrote:
> >>The only
mount I
> >>can think of that was
mind-blowing was by a Russian in '89 event
> >>finals
(memory fading, so please bear with me if this description
> >>is not accurate) who did something like a roundoff, arabian flip
>
>>over the low, catch the high bar. Or maybe I just imagined it.:)
>
>
> >I believe that this would be Natalia Laschenova. I think that it was her
>
who
> >beat
Christie Henrich with a 9.975 to a 9.95. I have a pretty good memory,
>
>but this could be a mistake.
You're
thinking of Olga Strazheva. But as Billy mentioned, Dudnik was
the one with the arabian. I
thought Strazheva used a straight front
flip (w/ hands) over low to high? Don't remember...
:)
Adriana
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 00:46:46
-0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject:
Re: all Caps.
In a message dated 96-03-29 06:02:50 EST, you
write:
Dear Chris,
Could you please refrain from writing in all capital
letters. THat is
equivalent to shouting on the net. It is also very difficult
to read.
Thanks
Shelley(Not flaming just
letting you in on a little netique)
>
>I
DOUBT THERE HAS EVER BEEN A FEMALE GYMNAST WHO DOES A DOUBLE FRONT LAYOUT.
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End
of GYMN-L Digest - 1 Apr 1996
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