re: LSU Gymnastics regional thread (ESPN+)

KJ was the highlight of the year for me. Just an unexpected surprise. I'd like to see her bar routine bc she looks like she has the talent to compete for all arounds before too long.

I think chase looked good when I saw her. She looked physically ready if called upon for sure.

Please save the downvotes but what reason did Rhonda Fain get black balled for? I know it had something to do with that dirtbag Dr. but as far as collage coach she was right there with KJ at OK.

I think the problem with Rhonda is that I believe Athlete A reported to her. instead of going to the police, she went to Steve Penny (or USAG). He was her boss, and I guess he'd said he would take care of it or that is something like how the story goes. But I think the original sin of not reporting (I think she was a mandatory reporter, potentially also) is what the gymternet thinks disqualifies her from ever being around gymnastics again. At least that is my recollection.

As for our team this year, I am going to gather my thoughts. I am, truly, heartbroken for them, even the super seniors, though, this largely has rested on their shoulders. But at the end of the day, coaching could have taken them out of lineups and didn't. Jay, obviously, didn't do a great job this year. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but does anyone think there is any possibility that he knew they couldn't do it this year, and so had this strategy of continued over use on the super seniors to save/ease the freshmen into it. Like, the one time Aleah tried to do 3 events, she fell on two of them. Maybe he knew that about her and said, well, its highly unlikely for us to win with the talent around this year, let's make a longer term plan for the next two years and ease these girls into it?

As for my biggest takeways, I think KJ will be a star. I feel bad for Haleigh who didn't have a great season (only measured by last year's season - she is a star for us and I hope she gets to vault at nationals). I think injuries were a problem, but something was off from the second canceled meet, and we could never get back on track? Was it distraction/discontent from the AJ situation? NIL? I don't know. But they have to figure it out and re-center. And they need to address some of the continued form issues, especially on bars - I will give credit to Gnat and Courtney - they made adjustments on beam/floor this year to give us a better chance. Jay just won't. Alyona and probably Livvy, if they can't do a full twisting double tuck, need to do a full pirouette/stalder into a double tuck for bar dismounts. MAybe Elena too as she has consistent problems with her dismount.

I am sure I'll have more thoughts, but man, I love gymnastics, and my heart is broken that they got out so soon. I hope there are some additional upsets, so I feel like we have some company in our misery.

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. Major respect for Haleigh and Kiya. They are both obviously great gymnasts, but they also represent LSU with such class.

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+1. They have been great their whole time here. I know Haleigh got hated on last year for her not being very clutch, but she would at other times be lights out. She had the fall on bars yesterday which was disappointing, but that loss was a team effort. Kiya and Haleigh just seen like really nice girls. Not that I actually speak on that but they come across that way with their attitudes and when they are interviewed.

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Their social media presence wasn’t as out there as some of the other girls, some which were a little questionable

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I don't follow any of them on social media other than Dunne on tik tok and I just do that for the hell of it. Is that who you are referring to or are there other girls who are very active/questionable?

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Finnegan

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I think Aleah is going to be a beast by the time its all said and done with too.

Thanks for the answer. I wonder why she hasn’t been snatched up by a school. She was impressive at Florida even if she was the enemy.

Half assed isn’t gunna get it with the emergence of Auburn and Oklahoma coming in.

Michigan hired her as an assistant a few years back and caught all kinds of shite. They let her go the very next day.

The only upsets yesterday were UCLA scoring higher than Michigan- which is really irrelevant since they have to compete again. And then Stanford beat out Oregon St.

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Jay just won't. Alyona and probably Livvy, if they can't do a full twisting double tuck, need to do a full pirouette/stalder into a double tuck for bar dismounts. MAybe Elena too as she has consistent problems with her dismount. I am sure I'll have more thoughts, but man, I love gymnastics, and my heart is broken that they got out so soon. I hope there are some additional upsets, so I feel like we have some company in our misery.

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Please read this all the way through before you decide to downvote if you do because I had the same thought process as you did for the entire last few seasons, but upon learning this new piece of information, I can now admit that it makes complete sense.

As someone who also loves gymnastics, especially our girls, here is what I will say about this:
Not sure if you all know who Chris Bogantes is but he is an LSU alum, former gymnastics coach at Ball State, TWU, SEMO, and briefly at Arkansas. I mentioned the same thing to him yesterday prior to the meet with regards to lineup choices and he told me the following:
“New dismounts are possibly the hardest thing to teach an athlete Something that’s hard for a non gymnast to understand is how hard it is to go back and do a double tuck once you have been doing another dismount. The tap for a double lay is different than for a double tuck and a lot of times it’s mentally hard for an athlete to go back to a tuck. Tucking to early or too late or tapping too late can cause the gymnast to pull in and hit the bar so it’s just scary for some people. I for example could do a full twisting double lay but could no longer do a tap swing to a tuck flyaway.”. And later said “No question is ever too stupid when it comes to gymnastics technique or strategy. All of your ideas have been good ones that I’m sure they considered at some point.”

After having read that, my guess is Jay, as someone who’s been a coach in the sport for many years, had considered doing some variation of a giant into a double tuck for those girls whether it be a giant full, stalder into a double tuck or something else of the like, however mentally it is probably harder for them to do that dismount than to continue with the one they’ve been training. I hope that for next year, the solution would be to instead have Annie, Ashley, Lilly, Alexis, Aleah, Tori,(maybe KJ), Haleigh, Chase, Kai, and Kiya being the girls we have fighting for our six lineup spots and let Alyona, Elena and Livvy compete on other events where we may need them more, or not at all