Smooth Skills…Triple Full Punch Front!
I’ve always loved seeing a triple full to punch front. Even to this day, it’s a very rarely done pass on both the men’s and women’s sides. One reason it’s so difficult is because the “set” of the triple full must be slightly forward to avoid overrotating the skill, and combined with the fact that twisting tends to increase the flipping rotation, this is very difficult to do. Another reason it’s difficult is because, of course, all three twists must be completed before reaching the ground; in other words, a “cheated” triple full is not going to be sufficient to punch a front out of it – nor safe for that matter!
I tried to come up with every gymnast I could think of who has done a triple full punch front, but I know that I must be missing some…so please help me out! Interestingly, the ONLY male gymnast that I personally could think of who has done this skill is ironically Liang Xiao – Shawn Johnson’s coach! Although I couldn’t find a video of it, I remember him competing this skill back in 1991 at the Mixed Pairs. I was at the meet to watch my brother Jay compete when he was just 16 years old! Can you think of any other men who have competed this skill? Surely there are some!
There are several women I could think of and find videos for – although not many. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Oksana Omelianchik Floor 1987 Worlds
This is certainly the earliest one I could think of. Was Omelianchik the first gymnast to every perform this pass?
Iveta Polokova Floor 1989 Worlds
She was a great gymnast from the Czech Republic. She had a long international career that spanned from 1985 all the way to the 1992 Olympic Games, where she was about to turn 22. She was still competing this difficult pass in 1991:
Iveta Polokova Floor 1991 Worlds
Here’s another one you may not know:
Andrea Molnar Floor 1993 European Cup
WOW!!! Done as the SECOND pass! This gymnast was highly underrated…I don’t think she was even televised once in the U.S., but this tumbling was phenomenal. Here’s another video of her from 1992:
Andrea Molnar Floor 1992 European Championships
Cool choreography too!
Elise Ray Floor 1998 Pacific Alliance
I believe this is when she first started competing this skill. By 2000, it was much improved:
Elise Ray Floor 2000 U.S. Championships
Here’s one I happened to come across randomly recently:
Zhu Sang Sang Floor 2005 Chinese Nationals
Wow…did you happen to notice how many spins/twists she did in that routine??!! If you count up all of the turns, twists, and jumps, she actually does exactly TWENTY-FIVE 360-degree turns in her routine! That HAS to be a world record. That was a quad turn at the beginning by the way.
Finally, this one’s probably my favorite because it’s the only time I’ve ever seen it done from a whip back:
Ashley Postell Floor 2001 U.S. Classic
Unfortunately she makes the exact same mistake on the double pike dismount at the U.S. Championships the same year:
Ashley Postell Floor 2001 U.S. Championships
She was just a JUNIOR gymnast here. I think Ashley may be the best U.S. gymnast to never make an Olympic team.
We never seem to see this pass anymore, even though it would give connection points on both the men's and women's sides in the current codes. For women, it would give 0.2 in connection because it's an E directly connected with an A, and for men it would give 0.1 in connection because it's a D connected to another salto less than a D value.
Who else am I missing?