Redshirt junior Ryan McCarthy can do two things that no one else on the Michigan men's gymnastics team can do — a Kolman on the high bar and a standing backflip without using his hands.

Since Gerry Signorelli in 2006, no Wolverine has competed a Kolman, a double backflip over the bar with a full twist. McCarthy uses the skill as the first of three difficult releases, his signature sequence on high bar.

After three years as an alternate, McCarthy's Kolman, Kovacs and Tkatchev releases have gotten him into the regular lineup. Michigan coach Kurt Golder, who gleefully refers to McCarthy as “Flyin’ Ryan,” compared the sequence’s difficulty to hitting for the cycle in baseball.

“That’s selling it short," Golder said. "To me, it seems like it’s even more than that, and I watch a fair amount of baseball.”

McCarthy's flashy new high-bar set is the result of countless hard hours in the gym. Skills this difficult often take a year or more to learn.

But away from competition, his standing backflip with no hands reflects his cheerful, quirky personality.

“He’s a goofball,” senior Joe Catrambone said. “He knows how to lighten the mood of the gym when things aren’t going too well.”

McCarthy's shining moment was when he called Golder out to watch his trick during his freshman year.

After making sure he had the head coach's attention, McCarthy, hands on his thighs, whipped himself backward — then landed on his face. Golder laughed so hard he cried.

“Only Ryan would think to do something like that,” Golder said, still laughing. "I’ve seen him — he has done it since then and he can do it, and I’m sure he had done it before that, but it’s just like, what do you have to gain by it?"

For three years, McCarthy has maintained his happy-go-lucky aura and a fair measure of anonymity. Due to a broken hand and a dislocated finger, he had to redshirt his freshman year. And because he specializes in pommel horse and parallel bars — two of Michigan’s deepest events — it was difficult for him to crack the starting lineup, even when he was healthy.

After traveling to nearly every meet since his second year but competing in just five, McCarthy attacked practice with renewed intensity this summer.

“I want to act now,” McCarthy said. “You can’t just wait till the next year. … If we’re going to win, I don’t want to rely on other people. I want to be one of the people that makes it happen.”

The Wolverines have seen six quality high-bar men graduate since McCarthy’s freshman season, leaving this year’s squad thin. At the perfect time, McCarthy assembled one of the most difficult high-bar skill sequences in gymnastics.

Instead of going home to Zionsville, Ind., McCarthy remained in Ann Arbor for the summer, adding exciting new skills to his parallel bars and high bar routines.

Golder said he expects McCarthy to make the lineup consistently, and the redshirt junior has also qualified for the Winter Cup for the first time since his junior year of high school.

At the event, held every February in Las Vegas, the best gymnasts in the country compete for spots on the U. S. Senior National Team. Though he qualified in high school, McCarthy has never made it to the Winter Cup. A few months before he was scheduled to go, McCarthy was in a car accident and had to sit out most of his season. Since then, it’s been a personal goal to compete at the Winter Cup.

“The fact that I made it there and got that taken away has always been frustrating for me,” McCarthy said. “It feels good inside to get back to qualifying.”

Senior teammate John Sawicki, McCarthy’s roommate of two years, has watched his friend consistently travel but not compete.

“I just want to see him hit sets, because I know sometimes he has trouble,” Sawicki said. “He works so hard doing probably more routines than anyone else, and he should be consistent. I just hope he can get his head in the game and hit all his routines this year.”

Staying loose and continuing to have fun may be just the thing to help McCarthy hit consistently in competition this year. In the tighter meets, his scores will be crucial.

“I feel that he is a new and improved Ryan, because the old Ryan would tense up and get nervous and end up falling on the event,” Catrambone said. “He’s been working on controlling his emotions better on each event and I really feel that he will be a competitor this year.”