Michigasling

September 24th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^

when the Michigan cheerleaders were all male gymnasts.  In Bo's early years, when the team just walked back and forth across the field to make touchdowns, the real excitement from the student section was watching the cheerleaders, whose tradition was to do back handsprings off the wall for each point.  With some of the high-scoring games against the cupcakes, the (10?) of them had to keep climbing back up fast enough to get in place for their next point-honoring back flip.

But Michigan's always had a great tradition in gymnastics.  And we're lucky to have Mikulak continuing that tradition.  Glad the "Mikulak" is now official.  They'd already been calling it that at the Olympic trials. 

As for macho, give the men a watch sometime.  Skip floor if you think that's too girly (even though it's not), but watch someone really good on rings for power, and the high bar for flight.

 

profitgoblue

September 24th, 2012 at 5:05 PM ^

I remember those back flips for points scored too.  Pretty crazy when you really think about it - I never understood how difficult it really was when I was watching as a kid.

And you're right about men on the rings - their f-ing arms are absolutely jacked and the muscle control they have to perform an iron cross is amazing.  That said, I'm not a very big fan of gymnastics other than the feats of strength.

Jon06

September 24th, 2012 at 4:56 PM ^

it'd be cool to see a video of this thing, since the written explanation is a little complicated for the non-enthusiast. i'm too lazy to find the relevant performance and look for it. anybody?

Michigasling

September 24th, 2012 at 6:03 PM ^

Hard to get an idea of the difficulty of pommel horse (it was the principal cause of the US team's not making the podium in the Olympics after having placed first in the qualifying round, with the two top guys with uncharacteristic major misses).  Here's his full routine to put the skill in context. 

Couldn't embed for some reason, but fun to see the relevant comments, including "What is the name and value of that travel scissor skill at the beginning? Very cool."  Not surprisingly, no one knew the answer. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_P0fVFrZ0Y&feature=endscreen&NR=1

M Fanfare

September 24th, 2012 at 5:24 PM ^

Pretty cool honor to have a move named after Mikulak.

If you ever want to get your mind blown, look at a video of the now-illegal Korbut Flip, as perfected by Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut in the 1970s.

Michigasling

September 24th, 2012 at 5:58 PM ^

It's too late for me to correct my earlier post, but I think it was actually a parallel bars skill that I'd heard called The Mikulak.  Obviously that was unofficial.  But because one of his most memorable moments was on pommel horse at the national championships, here's Sam, starting his P-bar routine only to realize the p-bars hadn't been tightened.  I don't think the distinctive move is included here, but you get a nice view of his cool under fire, the Michigan coaches, and Sam's personality after he lives through his routine.  [Plus shocked commentary from former Olympians.]