Michigan Adapting Well to Vault Modifications, Floor Upgrades

After the Yurchenko was devalued this summer to a 9.95 starting score, Michigan’s gymnasts got to work on upgrading their skills to 10.0s. Instead of taking the simple route of adding an extra half-twist to the FTY, junior Nicole Artz decided to mix things up a bit and try out the front handspring front handspring entry with a front pike off.

Also training upgrades are junior Talia Chiarelli and senior Briley Cassanova who are both working Yurchenko one and a halves while senior Austin Sheppard, who has a career-high of 9.975 for her full on vault, did drills for a Yurchenko half-on during the summer. Sheppard missed the beginning of the 2015 season to recover from an ankle injury suffered at the end of the 2014 season.

@nicoartz @taliachi #BuildingABetterVault #GoBlueForever

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@nicoartz This is coming along nicely #BuildingABetterVaultTeam #GoBlue

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@brileyblueeyes #TheSummerOfBriley #BuildingABetterVaultTeam

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Austin Sheppard #BuildingABetterVault #GoBlue10.0Vaults

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The team has also been hard at work on floor, training harder tumbling passes and perfecting the old ones. From double layouts to piked full-ins, the team will likely have a good amount of variety in a world of double tucks and front handspring rudis.

@nicoartz @emma_mclean #PureMichigan #Team40

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@taliachi @nichelley_belly #FloorRocks #Meeechigan

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@lindsaywilliams21 @brileyblueeyes #OneDayBetter #GoBlue

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@emma_mclean @brileyblueeyes #LeadersAndBest

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