A few more videos from the recent men’s Toyota Cup…

Joey Hagerty High Bar 2010 Toyota Cup

Joey Hagerty P-Bars 2010 Toyota Cup

Paul Ruggeri Vault 2010 Toyota Cup

Despite missing that Takamoto-half, 2008 Olympian Joey Hagerty does continue to look pretty solid. I’m not sure what his goals are right now, but I do remember him being pretty confident two years ago that he would try for London. What’s unfortunate for him is that his strong high bar routine was needed much more in 2008 than it is now. In 2008 high bar was a clear weakness for the USA, and Joey’s incredibly clean and consistent routine was a huge asset. Now we have Danell Leyva, Chris Brooks, and even Paul Ruggeri…in addition to both Jonathan Horton and a soon-to-be resurrected Paul Hamm all in the mix. The USA just finished first on high bar at the recent world championships (in both prelims and in finals, in fact), making this once weak event now the team’s biggest strength. Joey will have a hard time proving he is needed above all of the aforementioned high bar workers…unless, of course, he is working his butt off on pommel horse and could be used there.  Unfortunately pommel horse has always been his nemesis, just as is the case for nearly our entire national team right now.

That first vault from Ruggeri is dynamite! Very clean, very high, very well landed. I’ve just been very impressed with him internationally this year. Here’s a fun look at an amazing combination he’s done in practice, which I don’t believe I have ever seen competed by anyone before if I’m not mistaken:

Paul Ruggeri Amazing High Bar Sequence

WOW! Would love to see that one in competition, as that would really help his routine stand out above so many others. Although his current routine is outstanding, it does have some of the sequences we see so commonly from many gymnasts (Takamoto full to Yamawaki, Takamoto half to laid-out Tcatchev, etc). Way to go!