Piel said:
5'8'' here
. I noticed this in the Chinese too. The difference in body type, is it due to better (or different) training, better nutrition, genetics, or a combination? Does it effect performance? The Romanians and Americans performed equally well IMO. The difference being the Romanians didn't .01 themselves like the Americans. Is this because of better discipline? Do all of them living together create a better sense of team? Would American gymnasts benefit from this....does anyone know if any improvements in performance came out of Marta's training camp prior to the Olympics?
This is an excellent topic for an RGirl consult. RGal where is your twin?
Sorry it's taken me so long to respond to your terrific questions and observations. I'm honored to be invited to speak on it, though I'll give my medal back if we find out that there was an error in the judging
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1. I noticed this [certain body types] in the Chinese too. The difference in body type, is it due to better (or different) training, better nutrition, genetics, or a combination? Does it effect performance?
Rgirl's Opinion: I would say the biggest factor in the Chinese gymnast body type is selection at a young age based on genetics, Like they used to do in the Soviet Union, their coaches, trainers, and for ballet, the ballet masters and mistresses, roamed the schools and looked for certain physical characteristics in the children. When you've done this for generations, you know what to look for. After the first selection, the child's parents are also evaluated. If both parents are heavy in certain ways or have certain physical characteristics, or lack them, the child may be accepted on a trial basis or not accepted at all, depending on the sport or if it's ballet.
2. The Romanians and Americans performed equally well IMO. The difference being the Romanians didn't .01 themselves like the Americans. Is this because of better discipline? Do all of them living together create a better sense of team? Would American gymnasts benefit from this?
Rgirl's Opinion: I think the Romanians and Americans have pretty much equal discipline individually, but the Romanians have a group discipline that is tough to beat. Yes, I do believe that the system of having the Romanians living and training together creates a cohesiveness that I thing functions all the way down to the quantum level. We know that the periods of women on teams who are together a great deal of the time soon occur on the same cycle. This means their hormones are in sync. If their hormones are in sync, virtually everything else is close to being on the same cycle. Also, there are ways in which team athletes develop a synchronicity that we don't even know about. I know I felt it in my dance company and also felt it when a dancer left and was replaced. It changed the whole energy, for lack of a better word, of the group. And when you saw dancers who had been in the company together for 10-12 years, when unison was required they were in sync down to their pinkies. Even non-unison movement had a sense of totality, that this was not five or six people moving around but rather one "creature" creating a world of its own through movement.
I think Marta's camp helped the Americans a great deal. They had one person who was "the law" so there should not have been any confusion for the gymnasts with different coaches telling them different ways to do something. I think living and training together would help the Americans, but we would have to have a team of about 14 Olympic-ready gymnasts so that right before the Olympics, those who are performing at the highest levels, who don't have injuries, who can come in to do an apparatus specialty, etc. could be chosen. I don't know if girls from the American culture would do well under this system. In Romania, a gymnast in the family means great rewards from the government and high social and financial status. Otherwise, Romanians have very little, both in terms of objects and freedoms. The opposite case is the situation in the US. Would US preteen and teen girls give up four to six years of living in a dorm situation with fellow gymnasts just for the chance of winning Olympic gold. In other words, it's a cultural thing.
3. Does anyone know if any improvements in performance came out of Marta's training camp prior to the Olympics?
Rgirl's Opinion: I think that objectively, that's impossible to say because nobody did any controlled measurements of the gymnasts' performances before Marta's camp, during the camp, and after. My gut feeling is that the camp did help for the reasons I noted above. The more the gymnasts are together training under one head coach, who happens to be a superb one, the more likely they are to make improvements. Of course there are always gymnasts who just don't "fit" with Marta's ways of training and there we probably won't see as much improvements. But there are other coaches at the camp and chances are every gymnast is going to find a coach she can relate to.
I think the Americans buildup of .01 errors had to do with being a new team, having a lot of pressure on them to win the gold, and just not having enough time to train for toughness and consistency. There are ways to train gymnasts to stick their landings no matter what (unless they're flying sideways off the vault), which comes with controlling adrenaline, knowing how to adjust for any problems in the landing without hopping or taking a step. But it's a long process. The Romanians had the time, the Americans didn't.
Finally, I think the Romanians did routines that they had been doing for over a year. They had muscle memory wired into their bodies in ways that are astounding. The Americans had newer routines. When the difference between first and second is .0012 of a point in some cases, that hardwiring can make the difference.
And those are Rgirl's Opinions in response to Piel's kick-a$$ questions. You always come up with such great observations, Piel; the stuff that really matters. I love it
Rgirl
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