Author: Steve

  I got a few things wrong.   There were 36 athletes advancing out of the first round into the finals, not 26 like I said.  It was not a two-way tie for 36th, it was a four-way tie, meaning 40 gymnasts in Alex’s group advanced.  The slate wasn’t wiped clean, the preliminary scores carried forward to Sunday and the results were based on total scores for both days.  That’s what I think I know about that.   In the videos and photos, you’ll see Alex with his coach, Rob.     Normally coaches get pulled every direction at once, because there are so many athletes they are responsible for.  Rob had four gymnasts at Nationals, but Alex was the only one at Level 9, so when Alex was competing there were no other contestants Rob had to watch.  Rob was right there every moment of every event.  That was fun.     Now we’re back on the road and back to state parks.   2018 May Colorado Trip   Foss State Park for one night.     Western Oklahoma.  We watched the afternoon weather evolve.       Tomorrow, Meade State Park in Kansas.  

  We are so proud.   15th on Vault.  14th on Rings, and 2nd in the nation on Floor!   Highlights:   Vault   Rings   Floor   Wow!  

  Another walk on the Riverwalk though.       We were talking to Alex about dismounts and landings.  Some landings you can see coming; some are “blind”; it depends on whether you’re tumbling forwards or backwards.  For a blind landing, you just have to know when to stick your feet out.  We speculated that moves that required blind landings would be tougher.  Alex said no, it didn’t make any difference; he doesn’t need to see the landing coming.  He has his eyes closed until the last moment anyway.  He just knows what to do, where he is in the air, and when it’s time to land.  He said he tried keeping his eyes open while he was spinning around, but it was too confusing.  

    The mission today is to score well enough to make the cut.  For every 10 athletes here at the Nationals, 3 are going to advance to competition on Sunday, and 7 are going home.   Alex’s day of competition started out rough.  He kind of flamed-out on the high bar and ended up stopped in the middle of his routine.  He never left the bar, but that counts as a fall anyway.  He scored a 10.  He came in 89th out of 91.  He usually scores well on the high bar.  That’s a tough hole to dig out of. https://youtu.be/bKw5D9o6PO8   Afterwards, we asked what happened.  He said he still didn’t know.  All of a sudden he just wasn’t where he was supposed to be.   Next up, the floor exercise, and he did great, just like he usually does.  He scored a 13.1 and scored 4th overall.  The videographer tanked though, and there is no floor video.   Pommel.  Another tough one.  He added some difficulty to his routine since Regionals, but with a fall he scored a 10.1 and came in 77th. https://youtu.be/ySufCxrMksQ   Still rings.  11.8 for 16th place.  That’s good. https://youtu.be/3tJcPHWUpOk   Then vault.  Another tough one.  This time he scored well with a 12.3 and came in 15th.  Nice. https://youtu.be/K_6oF32nkhk   Parallel bars.  He scored a 12.2 and came in 38th. https://youtu.be/2d78UcwgBKw   Alex needed to score in the top 26 all-around in his age-group to advance to Sunday.  He tied for 26th place, so 27 advance instead of 26.   So today didn’t go as planned.  But Sunday is a new day; no scores carry-over; every athlete starts with a clean slate.       Go Alex!  

  That OKC had a riverwalk downtown?   Restaurants, live entertainment, pathways, tour boats, and scenery.