Dear Al Twautwig, Please do a fluff piece on Bross for your next broadcast!
Like I said earlier, she's different from Nastia, yet she's the clear heir apparent (despite her mistakes). I wonder how many of her mistakes were because of injury v. nerves?
I like that in a world of glamor and girlie leos, Bross comes in with plain hair, no make up, all business, with only her teeny little stud earrings. I like that she invokes the seriousness of the "gool 'ole Iron Curtain" days. I like her intensity. I like that she's a power house.
I really, really like her FX music. I think it suits her personality: intense. But what I don't like is that she starts with two tumbling passes, back-to-back, then does a whole lot of dance until the final pass. And it's not stellar dance at that (she's not Amanar but she's not Nastia either). It makes for an imbalanced routine. Additionally, look how solid her tumbling was here in 2007:
She mounts with a full-in (correct me if that's a half-in, half-out or a full-out) (check the landing!). Then: back 1.5 to Rudi; FHS, bounder, double twisting front; back 2.5 to layout punch front with half.
Look at the control in all her landings and check the height of the double twisting front, her third pass. And look how the choreography flows better with the fourth pass added.
Let's move to bars. Someone on the IG message bourd commented about her legs/ankles.Yup, she's got the Ksenia Semenova legs. That being said, who cares? It doesn't bother me. I am all about her quick pirouettes on top of the bar, and the height on her Tchatchev (Hong needs to study that w/ Bross) and her kick-butt Jaeger. Wow, talk about torque, as her arm rips off the bar.
I like that's she's a power athlete with the ability to score exceedingly well on bars. (Ha, note "ability." It's not her forte). I love the way she kind of "kicks" her legs into a really tight pike position when doing an inside stalder. Anyone else notice this? ha, or just me? And love the legs together on the full-in dismount.
Beam. Phew girl, she makes me nervous here! Like I said before, you never know how hard a dismount, or any skill for that matter, is until someone misses it. Was it just me, or was she taking off not close enough to the edge of the beam? I felt like she was too close to the beam and in danger of hitting her head. That, and the locked knees on the landing on night 1, and her being off to the side on night 2. Perhaps Valeri will change the dismount. I noticed that when several of Nastia's skills caused problems again and again, they did away with them (her old beam combo that included and back pike, and her scrapping the triple twisting dismount for a 2.5 off beam, and her Randi on floor). I think she clearly let the nerves get to her on night 2, with the little bobble she had on a simple dance move. I TOTALLY thought she was going to fall on her side flip. Nice save.
Vault. I think the ability's totally there, which was evident in night 2. What I don't know is how much of a factor injury and lack of repetition played. I'd love to see her do an Amanar though.
OK but moreover, I want to know about her as a person. Here's what I've been able to find.
She was born on July 11, 1993 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I'm taking a guess her parents are divorced (last names Bross and Brugge). She is 5 feet tall. Her favorite apparatus is beam and her favorite subject is math; she's home-schooled. She likes Chinese food and R & B music.
I can't wait to see more of her. I feel like she's a shoe-in for the World team. And if I had to pick to all-arounders for the U.S., as of now I'd go with Bross & Sloan.
Thoughts?
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If you go on her website, http://www.rebecca-bross.com, click the "Media Zone" title, and click "In the Media", you'll find pictures of magazine interviews she's done, and if you zoom in close enough in your browser, you can actually read the words :). I read them, and I found out that her dad's a toy train maker (which explains why she's a fun person off the mat), and her mom's a physical therapist (she wants to be one too). None of them said anything about her parents being divorced, but her dad stayed in Michigan for his job when she moved to WOGA in 2002. Also, she has an older brother named Ben, (20), who is currently a college student (don't know where), and her nickname is Becca,(that's what her teammates call her in competitions when they're cheering her on and in interviews, so I'm guessing she uses Rebecca as more of a formal name, just like Nastia used Anastasia) her favorite music artist is Taylor Swift, her favorite color is yellow, and she likes lemonade and hot chocolate. I also read in an interview somewhere that she skipped a grade (at least that's what her coach, Valeri Liukin said), so she has to pretty smart :). Her favorite hobby is crafts, but she likes to hang out with her friends too and is working on getting her driver's license. I'm really happy she won the 2010 Nationals All Around title, because with all the risky stuff she does, and all the guts she has, she deserved it.
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