Michael Scott got it right. What an incredible waste of time.
Now, I remember the days before Youtube. If you wanted to see Morgan White's new move on bars, then you had to wait an hour and download the 30 second clip. And then you kept 700 gymnastics clips on your hard drive, which was only like 512 MB.
Now, before that we used the ancient art of "tape trading" via the GTTC, or the Gymnastics Tape Trading Club. If you wanted to see Omelianchik's floor exercise, then you got online, found someone with a tape of 1985 Worlds, and then waited three weeks for the copy to be sent to you.
I took pride in my massive tape collection. I was wise and gymeducated because I had seen all these routines that the normal people had not. I knew my shit.
Then effing Youtube comes out. Now, anyone who watched one night of the Olympics can get online and search for videos of their "favorite gymnast", watch a few, and then consider themselves gurus of the sport.
Now, I have nothing against couch gymnasts. In fact, The Couch Gymnast is like one of my favorite websites. They can be very knowledgeable, classy and insightful fans. Then... there are the other ones.
These "fans" have never done gym. They've never coached, judged, or even been to a meet. The only thing they've seen is three nights of the Olympics, and of course, NBC tells you what to think anyway. So then they race to the computer, type in "underage chinese gymnast" and then proceed to leave one billion comments on handstands, start values, and age limits. Uh, did you know about ANY of that an hour ago? No? Oh, you learned it all on the internet in fifteen minutes. I see.
Anyway, I blame Youtube for this, a little bit. At the same time, we can all thank the gymnastics gods for the exposure to routines and gymnasts we'd never in a million years be able to see. I can spend hours every single day watching routine after routine after routine.
So this is where I get concerned. Youtube, in all of its techy glory, keeps track of what I watch, and then makes suggestions on what else I might like. Awesome! So if I watch lots of beam videos, then surely they'll suggest even MORE beam videos, right??
Not so much.
Instead, I get referred to the most random, bizarre videos of all time.
Chellsie Memmel = crank. Got it.
So is Lilia Danielle or Goliath? Or Judge Judy.... I can't stand that woman. I really, really can't.
Some might argue this is accurate. Not me though. I like Sui Lu. She wears cute socks.
Um. Ok.
The 1991 World event finals were wild, indeed. Kim Gwang Suk on bars, anyone??
Now, I'm a lady. A classy lady. I have very little urinal experience (when I worked at Circus Pizza, I once mistook one of those urinal cakes for some sort of minty air freshener. I was very wrong.) I'm not sure what the rules of etiquette are regarding peeing in public, but I have a hard time imagining they have much to do with Mariya Livchikova's beam routine.
I have like a billion of these.
So yeah. Crazy, time-wasting Youtube trying to get me to watch videos about sleep walking dogs all because I was interested in the Tkatchev process. Eff me.
'These "fans" have never done gym. They've never coached, judged, or even been to a meet.'
ReplyDeleteSo does this mean I'm not a real fan? I did gymn for about a month as a kid, but at the time didn't have the love for it that I do now. I'm 16, I can't coach or judge. I've never been to a meet (I live in England, it's hard!). Does that really mean I can't be considered a true fan of the sport?!
Like I said, there are definitely some non-gymnasts who know more about gymnastics than me, Bela and Moceanu all put together. There are some people who absolutely know thier stuff, and it doesn't matter whether they've competed, coached, or just watched a bunch of old tapes.
ReplyDeleteI'm referring to that other group of fans. The ones who go bananas on message boards and YT, talking down to other fans because they know what they heard on NBC, and Tim Dagget is never wrong.
I will, however, generally take the advice of someone who has been involved with gym. It's very easy for those of us at home to criticize the girls, bark at them for not having enough difficulty, and suggest that they add three or four Onos to the routine. Someone who has been involved in gymnastics might be a little more realistic in terms of expectation.
Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.
If you love gym, I don't care if you compete or coach or judge. A fan is a fan is a fan