gymnasticsreport.net Commentary and Updates Blog

There have been some new additions to the site this year. For one, now that I’m a contributor to Gymnastike, it makes sense that I am able to add a link or two to my coverage over there, and that enhances the coverage I can do here.

Secondly, this year in addition to my usual features I have added a social media tracker and youtube tracker. These pages track what programs are using what social media tools in the hopes of making it easier for fans to find out what they’re looking for as well as to measure just how many programs are using the various types of tools.

Third, there is more of an effort to expand the meet previews with a little more rankings info and notes on accolades. It’s a work in progress but it’s getting there. I’m also tracking more of the USAG rankings now that I have a little better idea what they mean.

Now one of the things that has suffered so far is the routine lists, floor music, and lineup trackers. While I hope to get more of the floor music pages updated, it’s a very time consuming process. I don’t have all the songs named in my head, so sometimes it can take hours of searching to identify just one gymnast’s song. Needless to say the cost vs. benefit ratio does come into play. Lineups also take awhile to update, and I’m happy to it’s just a matter of time usage. Routines lists are also great, though at least now someone can watch the video of a routine as well as read about it.

Each week the priorities is as follows:
1.) Get meet videos identified and uploaded.
2.) Write meet reports
3.) Write meet previews for the next week.
4.) Outreach on social media.
5.) Research
6.) Do whatever can be done with the various features.

Sometimes there just isn’t time to get to later in the list.

Still there’s a lot of season left and a lot of Gymnastics to cover.

It’s been a busy first month of the collegiate gymnastics season. I for one don’t usually follow the top of the rankings intending instead to follow the local teams, and all those who cross paths with them, but it’s still an incredibly interesting situation. I realize there are some who will only watch gymnastics at it’s highest level (olympics/elite/the top few college teams) and I can understand why potentially that would be a preference, but for me all of this gymnastics is great even if it isn’t the world championships.

Meanwhile more and more athletic departments are turning to facebook, youtube and twitter, and more and more gymnastics programs have their own accounts, though there is still more that could join up. On Gymnasticsreport.net I’ve been tracking which programs are doing what and I hope the trend continues.

I recently returned from the longest road trip taken for Gymnastics, a trip to College Park Maryland to see national ranked Denver, West Virginia, Rutgers, and Maryland, a snow storm greeted me, but it was a fun meet. The only sad thing is that likely due to conditions fewer people than expected might have shown up to see the day’s festivities.

This weekend another blizzard rolls in and it may wreak havoc with more athletic events. The Navy and Army men’s gymnastics teams have already canceled their meet and West Virginia has moved the start time for their home meet vs. Michigan.

I really do need to update more, I seem to be much adept at posting little bursts on twitter these days.

Including this one. I am guilty of the number one blogging offense. Lack of regular updates. Still two weeks ago I was up in New Hampshire covering the UNH Intrasquad. I am currently working on finalizing my meet schedule for the winter and hope to make the rounds of all the New England schools as well as some tentative trips scheduled to Rutgers, Penn, Cornell, Ithaca, and Maryland.

Every off season I come away going could more be done to save gymnastics as each year for the past three teams have been cut. I don’t have many answers.

But beyond that, I got a bit more adventurous this year and the amount of special tournaments in the region were vast. That and the snowstorms of early on put me behind, so there’s a lot of catching up to do.

1.) Exploring growing the fandom.
Every year I look into if it’s possible. I have no idea. But it’s worth a shot.

2.) Updating the Floor Music lists.
During the course of the season my usual practice of trying to identifying various floor music pieces fell behind. I actually did a lot of research into the various pieces and had some luck, but it’s always a tough thing to do. Added to that, the acoustics in the arenas can be tough. Nonetheless hopefully within the next few months the lists will be updated.

3.) Lineup lists.
In 07-08 I tracked who was in the lineup from week to week, but was unable to keep up this year. For records purposes I hope to catch up this summer.

4.) Fixing the layout.
The week to week grind of the season sometimes leads to shortcuts on the design standpoint. I’ll be working to clean up reports to make them easier to see.

5.) Photos
There’s a lot of photos that haven’t made them online yet, and even though they’re not the highest quality I’ll still be trying to get them out there.

6.) The kitchen sink.
There’s plenty more to do than that.

So here we are again, another year passes, another program disappears. For three straight years this has happened. This year MIT cut both of its gymnastics program as part of cuts of many teams including Hockey (one of the big four sports). Cal State Fullerton is in the midst of a USAG sponsored pledge drive to keep the program going, and rumors are flying about the status of the Nebraska mens program. It is clear that the sport will continue to be a first choice to be cut at schools as revenues are challenged amidst a tough economy, though many gymnastics programs were cut during good economic times as well.

USAG has gotten involved in Cal State Fullerton though I’m not sure why they were not apparently involved in battles to save others. If they were I apologize, it didn’t seem apparentat the time, but its possible it escaped notice.

Gymnastics costs a lot of money, it involves equipment, and liability. As more programs get cut the distances to travel will increase and thus costs will increase as well. Though it is a credit to many athletic departments that they keep the sport and promote it.

On the message boards debates are raging over what to do. Gymnastics authorities like Greg Marsden are arguing for changes to the championship format, though this will do little for the numerous programs who never see the inside of the NCAA finals. But other proposals are flying over how to better get the sport marketed and its a complicated matter to say the least.

Gymnastics faces numerous challenges:

1.) The fanbase which becomes rabid during olympic years dissipates in between.
2.) The number 1 expected fans of gymnastics, gymnasts, are often busy at their own meets during collegiate meets.
3.) The economy is putting pressure on colleges and athletics departments to cut where they can.
4.) Title IX, is a well meaning measure and has provided opportunities for women to participate in sport, but some athletic departments have been suspected of utilizing it as an excuse to cut both men’s and women’s sports. This has led to some odd results. The powers that be need to cut this out so that Title IX can remain what its meant to be, a way to provide opportunities.
5.) The sport is easy to watch but hard to follow without announcers, scoreboards, and help understanding what is happening.
6.) Gymnastics is an expensive sport.

But it also offers numerous advantages.

1.) It’s popular, even if people take time off from following it, they love it in Olympic years.
2.) It’s acrobatic, and the popularity of Cirque du Soleil, and action movies indicate people like acrobatic feats.
3.) It’s cheap. It’s still relatively cheap to by a ticket to see a meet, sometimes even free.
4.) It doesn’t involve much time commitment. There aren’t that any meets per season to go, so it can easily be scheduled.

But in the meantime, teams and their histories, and their routines are vanishing. Something needs to change.

As is clear from my lack of updates I kind of blew it in the commentary and updates department this season. Admittedly, once I started getting to meets in full, the workload was immense so I wasn’t able to blog more. Next season we’ll see how it goes. Once I got behind in getting first looks at teams it takes a little while to catchup.

The past few weeks have allowed me to get a glimpse at the rest of the teams in New England and gather some video so I can write about their routines (modestly, as some moves still escape me), but that’s the good news. I now have two cameras, including one that can capture action, though unfortunately it’s not the greatest picture quality. Still it’s an upgrade.

I have begun to write up each routine in laymen’s terms, and even though I’m not exactly schooled in the moves, I’m trying to make it so that someone not too familiar with the sport could read about a routine and understand what is happening. I’ve done it with several routines lists but have to do it for the rest.

I have a lot of catching up to do as most of my efforts have been just to getting the routines lists together. Now that that’s done I can speed up my reporting of things, and expand into trying to locate floor music names and the like.

If only the season weren’t so short…

There’s been so much bad weather lately I’ve thought of starting my own weather network…but seriously the forecast looks good this weekend, so there should be some direct reports coming out of the site this weekend.

Thank goodness!

I’m currently waiting on all the info and scores to filter in from this weekend’s action and then I can start writing about the weekend and look forward to the next week.

Well another weekend another snowstorm only where I’m going and only when I’m going. I can drive in snow, have driven in snow, and am not afraid of snow. However, Rhode Island officials are telling people to get off the roadways and accidents are piling up. So it’s unfortunate, but not trip up to Brown. I will watch the video stream though to see what’s happening. It’s two straight weeks of this and admittedly it’s infuriating, but there are certain types of snowfalls that get nutty up in these parts. But eventually, I will set foot into a gymnastics meet this year, law of averages.