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.
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.
