Name: Jah’Liyah Bedminster
Club: Georgia Gymnastics Academy
High School Graduation Year: 2020
NCAA Team: LIU
Commitment Announcement: Instagram
Social Handles: Twitter | Instagram
Personal Bests
| Vault | Uneven Bars | Balance Beam | Floor Exercise |
| 9.875 | 9.550 | 9.500 | 9.625 |
Videos
| Vault | Uneven Bars | Balance Beam | Floor Exercise |
| 2020 Alamo Classic | 2020 Alamo Classic | 2017 Southern Charm Classic | 2017 Atlanta’s Paws for a Cause |
About Jah’Liyah
Bedminster is a two-time J.O. national qualifier (2016 and 2018) and a 2016 Nastia Liukin Cup competitor. She is the 2018 Georgia state champion on bars and the 2018 Region 8 silver medallist in the all around. She was previously committed to Georgia.
What She Brings to LIU
Vault
- Skill: Yurchenko full
- Results: first place at the 2020 Daytona Beach Open (career high)
- Margin of Improvement: Bedminster’s vault is beautiful in the air. She achieves great elevation, and her body is as straight as a pencil. She pikes down ever so slightly on landing, but it is a minor deduction. There is an old video of Bedminster training a Yurchenko 1.5 as well. We will not see it next year, but it reveals her potential on this event.
- Impact on the Team: Bedminster was likely recruited for vault. Her Yurchenko full is one of the strongest on the roster and head coach Randy Lane will expect her to contribute to the lineup from the start.
Uneven Bars
- Skills: Ray, bail to handstand, double layout dismount
- Results: first place at the 2018 Georgia state meet
- Margin of Improvement: Bedminster has a ton of potential on bars, but she incurs small form deductions here and there, most notably a leg separation on her bail and short handstands. Her composure on this event is impressive, though, and the amplitude on her Ray is beautiful.
- Impact on the Team: Bedminster could very well make the bars lineup, too, though Lane will want to help her gain that extra-confidence she needs to hit her handstands consistently. If she does, her routine could score into the 9.8s or higher.
Balance Beam
- Skills: BHS + LOSO, switch leap to switch leap ¼, straddle jump ¾, front toss, BHS + BH + double twist dismount
- Results: first place at the Kupets Pink Invitational
- Margin of Improvement: The most recent of Bedminster’s beam videos is three years old. Back then, she was showing great potential. Her lines were excellent and her routine was intricate. Since then, her results have been inconsistent, though. Her lineup debut will depend on the evolution of her beam work in more recent times.
- Impact on the Team: LIU has a lot of strong incoming beam workers, and it may not need Bedminster’s routine. However, given her potential, Lane may award her some exhibition spots to improve her confidence.
Floor Exercise
- Skills: double pike, 1.5 twist to front layout, double twist
- Results: first place at the 2019 Gala
- Margin of Improvement: Bedminster is a dynamic floor worker, presenting elegant lines and impressive height on both her tumbles and her jumps. As with beam, the existing videos are quite old, but her more recent results prove that she is still strong here. In 2019, she was working on a new tumbling pass—1.5 twist to front layout to front pike, and back in 2016 she was also training a double Arabian.
- Impact on the Team: Bedminster will challenge for one of those lineup spots.
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Is there word out why she changed her commitment? My head went to the recent events of Racism revealed at a lot of schools first, but I’m not sure that happened here?
I think you are making a big assumption to be honest.
There could be several reasons for making the change.
Athletes have changed their commitments over the years and had nothing to do with racism.
Perhaps she wants to help start a new program.
Perhaps the appeal of going to school in NYC is exciting.
Perhaps going to LIU will allow her to make many lineups, whereas she would be fighting to make the line ups at UGA.
Perhaps LIU has a better academic program in her desired field of study and now that gymnastics is an option she changed her mind.
There is some kind of phenomenon happening with Randy Lane because he is pulling in transfers as well.
You have Emma Brown from Denver transferring and she is not a person of color- what is her reason for transferring?
Nothing to do with racism.
LIU offered Bedminster a full scholarship for gymnastics.
She was previously a walk-on for UGA and thus not receiving an athletic scholarship.
Switching commitments was a no-brainer.