Six Fantasy Gym Tips!

It's that glorious time of year again. Fantasy gymnastics is here! 

If you haven't already, you can sign up here. Then you're set to get your drafting on!

Drafts are open and the fun has begun. I look forward to this time of year. Finals suck but knowing there's fantasy gym always cheers me up. I've participated for the past 2 years, and I've definitely done my share of learning strategies, as marked by a great average team score increase. So, I figured, why not share my tips. Let's get to it!

                                          

1. Do Your Research

Research, research, research! Know the strengths of each gymnast and plan accordingly.This is where Road To Nationals comes into play as a great resource to use. You'll need 5 slots minimum per event, so make sure you find a decent deal of all arounders and multi-event gymnasts who could contribute to your team. Preferrably, she should be able to consistently reach 9.8 or better, and if she is consistently scoring 9.875+, then that's excellent. And, while you may have heard of a gymnast, she may not be as good as you thought or as good as other girls as well.

2. Branch Out

That being said, branch out. Broaden your horizons. Just because a team is a lower ranked school, chances are there's at least one gymnast on their team that could be more useful to your team than a girl from a top school that doesn't compete. Not only that, but those girls are less likely to be picked by as many people, so you'll have more of a shot at getting her versus a girl who everyone will pick such as Bridget Sloan. Feel free to draft the top girls (the "Bridget Sloans"), but hidden gems will be very important to your success in the regular season.

3. Don’t Draft All of the Same Team

While you may be a fan of a certain team, it's important to selectively choose who to draft from each team, not just your favorite team or the team that’s the reigning national champion. Not everyone on each team will put up a great score or even compete. In addition, if that team happens to be one of the ones that has a bye week, you will be screwed in terms of scores if the majority of your team is composed of girls from a specific team.

4. Be Careful with Freshmen

Reigning Junior Olympic National Champion? Past renowned elite? Another girl in the Junior Olympic program? With varying backgrounds, all freshmen are different. While some freshmen do excel, it's important to note the issues that come with entering college. You never know how long it will take a girl to get acclimated to college and competing in college. You also never know what lineups they'll actually make, especially on teams returning the majority of strong lineups. That's where freshmen previews come in, courtesy of Balance Beam Situation. Pairing these with your own research, draft only the ones you think are likely to make a huge impact.

5. Be Aware of Injuries

Whether it's an injury from last season or a preseason injury, take note of it when you draft your team. You never know how they might respond compared to their previous selves, so be vigilant of this when drafting, but if you're willing to risk it then place as need be. You also don't want to draft a girl and when season comes you get her on your team and find out that she's out for the season with an injury such as a torn ACL. Stay up to date with new season ending or significant injuries and modify your draft as need be.

6. Use All 150 Spots

150 spots are provided for a reason! It can be hard to find enough satisfactory girls to draft, but it is necessary to draft all 150 girls in order to avoid getting a random gymnast on your team who may be no good whatsoever. With the increase in players last year, it became more necessary. My team last year went into the deepest part of my draft, slot 142, than it had gone in my previous year due to the increase in conference size. While they may not be your top choices, they will at least be sufficient to your needs as backups.

With all that said, good luck, and happy fantasy gymming!

World Championships and the World Series

Note: I wrote this a long time ago, actually around the time of these events, and somehow never got around to posting it. Gotta love busy lives, right? Anyways read on to see my thoughts!

This can be considered a grand time, at least for me. The girls (and men) were all in Glasgow for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships this month, with competition running the past 2 weeks. But that's not all! Baseball postseason was also occurring, culminating with the World Series this past week. I'm here to share my thoughts with you.

Starting off with Worlds. Man, was it a crazy ride, from qualifications to the bars final! Out of qualifications, I don't know what the bigger shock was: the falls and miscues for the United States, or Romania not directly qualifying a team for Rio next year. Team finals brought the same kind of exhilaration. With miscues from Russia, Britain was able to make the podium and place third. Not so shockingly, the US and China went 1-2. All Around finals were predictable in the sense that Simone Biles won (of course). The girl is superhuman, I swear. Gabby Douglas also returned, defending her Olympic title, placing second. We'll never know what would've happened if Maggie Nichols competed AA in qualifications and qualified to finals over Gabby though. Now for the craziness. The bars final resulted in four, I repeat, FOUR gold medalists, including Madison Kocian and Viktoria Komova. Simone placed 3rd on vault that day, behind Maria Paseka and Hong Un Jong. Then came beam finals, seeing Simone again win gold, and the same on floor, where Maggie Nichols also placed 3rd.

So what? The US continued to show dominance despite a poor performance. The return of Aly Raisman (who, sadly, missed any individual finals) and Gabby Douglas to the international stage proved their comebacks. Worlds time is one of the best times of year for a gym fan, and this was no exception. There was a lot of stakes out there, being the year before the Olympics, and that definitely showed in the competition. Oh, and the Netherlands team was pretty boss too, if I say so myself.

On to the World Series. Man, all the postseason came down to this. Mets vs Royals. I gotta say I was pulling for the Astros or the Blue Jays, but hey, whatever. I always seem to pull for the underdog, like I was pulling for the Mets to win. Unfortunately, their defensive errors and general lack of offense couldn't overcome their excellent starting pitching or the Royals exceptional bullpen. Nonetheless, I'm happy for the Royals, but I would've liked to see someone new to the scene win instead of a team in there for the second straight year. It's not that I don't like the Royals either, because I do, it's just my nature to pull for the underdogs and newbies. Why else would I root for the Rockies?

Introductions and Beginnings

Hi, I’m Tara. I’m 16, a junior in high school, and I’m a sports lover. Well, mostly gymnastics and baseball. You could probably ask anyone I know, and they would tell you that exact thing. “Why am I here?” you may be asking. I’ll answer that.  I wanted a way to write about and share my love of gymnastics and baseball.  Who knows where this will go, but it’ll be fun.

I grew up around sports.  My older brother and sister both participated in various sports, namely baseball and softball, and basketball. Safe to say that I spent most of my childhood at games. And,  if neither one of them had a game, chances are there was one on TV that my dad would want to watch depending on the season. That being said, I eventually developed a love for baseball more so than any of the others. Even in a state that goes wild for their football, I favor some good ol’ Rockies baseball, regardless of how they’re doing at the time, or, quite frankly, whatever happens to be on.

My love for gymnastics started at a young age as well. I remember watching one of my favorite shows as a kid, Dragon Tales, and one episode they did cartwheels. I entreated my parents to enroll me in classes so I could learn how to do a cartwheel like the characters I loved at the time.  Needless to say I was hooked from the first cartwheel. My first memory is from 2008. I don't remember much, but I know I was hooked on Shawn Johnson. 2012 came around, and I watched every televised event. What I didn't know at the time was that I would grow to follow the sport closer than ever. From the Olympics, National competitions, and Worlds to NCAA, I've been hooked.

After the 2012 Olympics, I made a Twitter and Instagram page dedicated to gymnastics. The gymternet is quite honestly amazing and I wouldn't have it any other way. I may not have as much time as I used to, but that doesn't chance how much of an outlet it is, especially being able to edit images and post them. The same can be said for baseball Twitter. The Rockies Twitter is really extraordinarily awesome and it's great to be able to chat with them about the game going on or whatever it may be. Twitter in all aspects opens my eyes to what other fans are thinking about other teams (that are likely the team they root for) around the country (this applies to subjects broader than baseball).

My goal with this blog is simply to share my opinions, facts, and ideas with others. Like I previously stated, I have little idea as to how this will shape up, for example the division of subject matter and this percentage breakdown. My love of sports spans many years, and I hope, through this blog, that people can share this love with me and others. This is my journey as much as yours, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.