Brant's Buzz
June 13, 2008
from the women …
Q: The women won’t name their team until July 20. Why do you want to do it so much sooner, on July 1?
A: It gives us more time to coordinate the team together, build team unity with our guys. And we’ve just noticed it’s helped a lot in preparation. We can simulate the competitions at the camp we’ll have. We’ll have people start getting the roles they’ll play within the team. It helps us look at line-ups a little sooner.
That initial mental stress part [of making the team] is off their mind and they're really concentrating on the effort the team will bring. That’s the way we’re looking at it.
Q: How competitive is it for these six team spots?
A: I’d say you have to go back to 1984 to compare the depth. You know, 14 of the 15 guys have been on a World or Olympic team and it’s amazing. You look at the results right now and every single guy is in the mix. One or two maybe have an edge, slightly, but if they’re off a little bit, they’re gonna’ be passed up, if somebody else comes on strong.
At this point, you couldn’t even predict. In ’04 you went, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here’s three, four guys who, unless something drastically happens, they’re gonna’ make it.’ Right now, the only person you could have said that about, if he was still competing, is Paul Hamm.
There is nobody else, at this point, that is a complete lock. And all the athletes know that. So, they’re very, sharp right now and focused on their training. They know they can’t take a step back, by any means.
Q: How likely is that you’ll take more than two all-arounders to Beijing?
A: It depends on the mix, but the reality is that, because of the 6-5-4 [team prelims] format, you’ll need at least three all-arounders, typically, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there are three, or four, all-arounders, and then multiple-event guys.
It kind of depends on how good your all-arounders are. Like, if Paul (Hamm) is in the mix, that opens up your events. The strength of your first and second all-arounder is huge in determining who you can put on the rest of the team.
Someone like Paul would be eligible to be in team finals, three-up, three-count, on every event, which is very unusual, but he’s an extremely gifted athlete. Him being in actually increases the opportunities for other [event specialist] guys to make the team, so I guess a lot of people will be rooting for him (laughs).
I mean, that’s if he can compete his routines and the injury is not holding him back.
[NOTE: The Selection Committee will have to name Paul Hamm to the team, if they're going to do so at all, PRIOR to seeing how well Hamm recovers. The men's selection procedures specify that a "training team"--six athletes plus two or three alternates--must be named "within 24 hours" of the conclusion of the men's competition at Trials, with the final six team members and alternates being specified no later than July 1. If all goes perfectly, Hamm won't be released to begin training until June 24, just seven days before the deadline. The petition process also specifies that Hamm's petition is to the TEAM, not an alternate position. See "Selection Breeds Success" and "Paul Hamm's Path to the Games" for more details.]
Q: How will you determine, excepting the top two all-arounders, assuming they fulfill all the requirements, the other Olympic spots? How much will ranking play a factor or is it all about the point system?
A: We’re going to use the results across the board from Nationals and Trials. The Trials automatically give you and advantage because they’re worth more than the Nationals, 30 percent each day, compared to 20 percent each day.
From there—and we used to do this by hand, but we have a computer doing it now; we weren’t that smart, it took us a while to figure out a computer could do it faster—we’ll look at scenarios for the overall team. The computer will comprise who will make up the best team, be it at a weighted score, which is 20-20, 30-30; un-weighted, where it was just straight scores from all the meets; your best scores; your two best scores; your three best scores; on and on.
This will help us really determine, you know, where is the strongest team coming from for 6-5-4 team prelims and a 6-3-3 team final. That will help us a lot. You’re kind of eliminating teams because you’ll have one where you can only put four guys up because there’s no fifth, no backup, for the team prelims, and you don’t want to take that risk. So, you eliminate that team scenario and move on to the next one.
It usually comes down to about two or three team scenarios and then it’s are they separated by a large [margin]? Is it a one-point difference? That’s a lot. Is it a one tenth difference? Then you gotta’ look at the strength of each event, what’s being brought.
It does take a little bit of calculation and thought process to figure out the best one.
Q: What’s your impression of new National Champ David Sender?
A: It was good to see not only [David,] but several other gymnasts, when you start off a long process like this to qualify, the beginning part is not always 100 percent consistency. You’re building towards refinement, and that’s what the guys are doing at home right now, coming into next week. It’s not going to be easy. Mathematically, all 14 guys competing are eligible to make this team. 60 percent of the score is left [to earn] in Philadelphia, so if somebody comes on strong and someone is faltering, they’ll be passed up.
Right now, some guys are in a little bit better position than others, but nobody is in a safe zone right now.
So, it’s going to be quite a battle to maintain that, and of course, that pressure is going to be greater. We’re looking for the athletes that are going to be able to maintain their level, and even bring it up a notch. Those will be the ones, I’m sure, that will move to the top and be on our Olympic Team.
Q: But, specifically, what about Sender?
A: He’s a very hard worker and it’s starting to show in the consistency he brings. His mental attitude in competition has improved greatly in the past two years. His strongest events for us are floor, rings and vault. That’s [where] he brings the most to the table in a team finals format.
I think just that consistency has paid off. His work ethic in training, centers around that goal and now seeing it is nice to see. These guys are still considered the younger athletes. They’re not even near their prime yet for men’s gymnastics, which is really 25 to 27. So, this young group coming up, it’s nice to see the physical strength overall, as a team, and Dave, individually, starting to appear more and more consistent in his abilities.
Q: Sean Golden is a local gymnast for the Philadelphia Trials. As an event specialist, can he make this team?
A: Sean has three events: floor, rings and vault and the good thing, for him, is that they’re all three really strong. He knows coming in that not doing all six he has to be competitive in all three of those to improve his chances of being selected. I know his goals are probably to be in the top three on all three.
You can only use so many multiple event gymnasts in our structure.
[NOTE: Going into Trials, Golden is ranked eighth on floor, third on rings and second on vault.]
Q: What can you tell us about the current status of Paul Hamm?
A: Well, I’ve been in touch with his coach pretty much every couple of days. We’re staying in contact because I’m helping them in the conditioning level, and adding some things into what Paul is doing in his preparation. Everything so far, has been very good.
The surgery went great. The doctors have even gone into the training gym and watched him, what he’s doing. The most we’re going to know is right after the Trials. That will be the four-week window. They’ll x-ray it again and if the bone has calcified to a point that the outside structure is strong enough, he’ll get full release. That’s the perfect scenario: that Tuesday after Trials he’ll be released, and start going again. If that’s the case that would give him three weeks to prepare for the training camp and, should his petition be approved, ...then at the camp he will show readiness and hold his spot on the team.
His coach has already submitted the petition, so now the committee will have to act on it when they meet again at Trials. Until it’s official, I guess there’s not much to say, until everyone meets and discusses, because there are five people on the selection group.
His petition will be reviewed at the Trials and if the committee determines that, based on what he’s done, they [want to] put him on, he would be on the team, right then. And then he would come to the camp. He just has to show physical readiness.
If he’s not physically ready to go, knowing the type of person and athlete Paul is, if he’s not ready to go, he’s not really interested in going and getting a warm-up jacket. He would probably remove himself, I’m sure, if he’s not physically ready.
The way we do it, when we get the committee together, his petition will be there. He could easily be put on the team immediately and then come to the camp and show that he’s ready to go.
Q: What are Justin Spring’s prospects looking like, with all the injuries he’s endured?
A: It’s real difficult, with the knee injury and ankle injury combined, I think he’s trying to, but I don’t know if he will actually compete floor at Trials. It may just be too much, because you start compensating a lot. I know they’re trying to make that final decision.
It’s been tough for him, unfortunately, a super-talent that has a hard time staying physically healthy. The sport is very demanding and Justin has such an incredible talent that his skill level can be very high and, of course, he puts the most risk out on the floor sometimes. So, yeah, he’s trying to find that equal balance, with body strength that will keep him healthy.
Floor? It always helps, the more events you do, especially if you’re strong on that event, and that is one of his stronger events. The other four events he would compete would still keep him in the running but it just ups the ante then. You have to be ready to make sure you’re finishing in the top three on just about all of those events to show you can bring in enough points to help the team.
[NOTE: If he can’t do floor, one of Spring’s four events is rings, where he finished 14th, with a high of 14.8 at USAs. On the other events, Spring is currently ranked 6th on vault, 1st on p-bars and 12th on high bar.]
Q: How can someone like Guillermo Alvarez contribute to the team? Is floor the key for him?
A: Guillermo was consistent at Visas, but didn’t score quite as high as he has in the past. On floor, we have quite a few good tumblers, so there’s a different mix of people we can use.
Definitely, on that event, Guillermo is a great tumbler, obviously. He was a World finalist. If he can just get a little bit more consistent, and cleaner on his landings, his score will come up quite a bit at Trials. That could be the difference right there. I can imagine that’s what he’s concentrating on now.
Q: How is Morgan Hamm progressing?
A: Of course he’s gone through some struggles to get back too, but the good news is that, I was talking to his coach, and [Morgan] is constantly improving. He’s getting back into it and he continuously improves. We’re looking forward to him being able to do much more.
I thought that. Once you’re out for a while it takes a while to get back. You watch the Open and even Tiger Woods double-bogeyed his first hole. When you’re a great athlete, you can’t jump right back in completely. Give him a little bit of time though and I’m anticipating at Trials he’s going to look even sharper. Which is good for us.
Related Articles
- Sender Unlikely to Compete (June 19, 2008)
David Sender's ankle sprain likely to keep him from competing at Trials. - Hamm Resumes Hard Training (July 04, 2008)
Paul Hamm is released to resume full training.
