Entries from January 2009 ↓

From the Regina Leader Post: by Brian & Roy Boychuk

The Uneven Rings.

Thanks Stu Cram.

Honestly, I was fairly disappointed in UCLA last year.

They had a lot of problems.

But in 2009 they look like the big name team with the best potential for the future. Rookies going 1-2-3 in the All-around against Cal. Amazing.

A trio of freshmen led the way for the Bruins, sweeping the all-around standings with a 1-2-3 finish. Aisha Gerber totaled a career-high 39.55, UCLA’s highest all-around mark so far this season, to capture her first all-around win. Vanessa Zamarripa was not far behind, scoring a career-best 39.5 to place second. In third place was Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who scored 39.45. …

UCLA Breaks 197 Barrier In 197.125-190.575 Win Over California

Two are Canadian. And everyone remembers what Canadians Kate Richardson and Yvonne Tousek did for UCLA in the past.

Only a fool would bet against Georgia in the NCAA Championships 2009. If Courtney Kupets is healthy, they will win.

But for 2010 … my early pick is the UCLA Bruins.

Leave a comment if you have a prediction.

About.com Gymnastics linked to one of their “Cool Skills“.

Click PLAY or watch Rhian Pugh 2005 American Cup Prelims on Beam on YouTube.

Amy Van Deusen called this the “side-side aerial”.

Cute.

Rhian Pugh from the U.K. was Junior European Champion on Bars 2004. She had some interesting skills on that apparatus you can see in this montage.

Coach Wayne is William Wayne Evans:

A veteran coach in the world of Gymnastics, Tumbling and Cheerleading, CoachWayne has taught private lessons, camps and clinics in both the United States and Europe. Among his accolades, Coach Wayne has produced eight instructional videos; the top-selling 7-video set “Better Back Handsprings” and “Basic Handstand Position.” His “Tumbling Tips” articles are read by hundreds of thousands of students and teachers worldwide …

He and his wife, double Olympian from Slovakia, Zuzana Sekerova, have a mobile gymnastics business.

It’s called CoachWayne2go.

Check this news clip on the service.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I predict that, once again, a little known Canadian gymnast will be the man to beat in College All-around. This is Casey’s final year of College gymnastics.

He’s a machine at knocking out routines consistently. This past weekend Casey needed a buzzer beater to pull out the team competition:

Casey Sandy earns his seventh career weekly accolade, tying Minnesota’s Guillermo Alvarez (2002-05) for the most Gymnast of the Week honors in Big Ten history, after claiming top honors in four events while aiding No. 3 Penn State to a 348.900-348.350 victory over conference rival No. 2 Michigan on Saturday.

The defending Big Ten and NCAA All-Around Champion won individual event titles in the vault (15.950), parallel bars (14.700) and high bar (15.450) en route to claiming the all-around crown with a score of 90.000, the highest total in the nation thus far this season. Down to the final competitor of the meet and needing a monumental high bar effort to overtake Michigan, Sandy came through in the clutch for Penn State, posting a career-high score to will the Nittany Lions to victory.

Big Ten

I’m still disappointed Casey did not compete for Canada at the Beijing Olympics. I wish he had been there, at least as an alternate.

Like most gymnastics clubs, we do not have enough storage space for our equipment when not used. It needs to be safely put away, of course, with all the kids we have coming and going throughout the week.

We are looking at this BIG storage rack ($353)

H”: 96 W”: 120 D”: 42 – capacity 4300lbs

Shelving Direct – Pallet Rack

Do you have any advice?

If so, leave a comment.

Great idea.

Kim Zmeskal signed on the 3 famed American Olympians as “coaches” of three all-star gymnastics teams at her 2009 Texas Prime – Legendz Classic competition.

Blogger Anne Phillips is all over this meet.

Her site Gymnastike is crammed with photos, interviews, videos and more. Check out the Legendz Classic page.

.. Russian gymnastics journalist, Natalia Kalugina, got a chance to talk with national head coach Rodionenko about the new season, the new Olympic cycle, and what plans the Russians have for this year.

… I’ll hit upon the key points from this interview that would be of interest to Russian gymnastics followers.

The points:

- Rodionenko isn’t too worried about the global financial crisis, which has recently started to affect Russia. He says that the Russian Gymnastics Federation hasn’t been hit by the crisis like other sports have. They are still continuing to receive sufficient funding to revamp their program (which I can believe since they just got new contracts to bring back Ostapenko and Alexandrov!).

- The Russian agenda this year is quite small. The only important competitions they have in mind for 2009 is the European Championships in Milan, the World Championships in London, and the Russian Championships in Bryansk (hometown of Lozhechko). The Russian Championships will take place the first week of March. All other international competitions this year are up in the air depending on the health of the gymnasts and their preparations.

- Many juniors have been relocated to the national training center to train with the seniors. Rodionenko is already thinking about preparing them for 2012.

- Maxim Devyatovsky continues to be a nuisance. Rodionenko jokes that this boy is a disease to his age!

… read more – Senor Nico – International Gymnast forum

UPDATE: Triple Full posted a translation of the interview: Andrey Rodionenko: “I Would Call This the Year of Renewal”

Back in May I predicted Shawn Johnson would win the Olympics.

Nastia had no chance … I thought.

Why?

Because of her bad form.

… I hate to pick on Nastia, who I LOVE because of her artistry and amplitude, but she more than anyone else will be in the media spotlight leading up to the Olympics. Over and over and over again even the non-gymnastics savvy are going to see those crossed feet. …

bad gymnastics – crossed legs while twisting

But I was wrong.

Nastia did win the Olympics and deserved the win, despite her double front on floor, her terrible Bar dismount, and frequently crossed legs during twisting.

There’s a video montage called Nastia Liukin deserved the wins? Maybe NOT. (I’m not embedding it because I don’t like the editing. It’s too much of a hack job.)

Don’t forget, Nastia Liukin has GOOD FORM too. She’s one of the best gymnasts in history. The composition on Bars is the most varied ever. Her Geinger the best ever. Her beam routine (up until the dismount) is one of the best in history. Her Olympic vault was perhaps the best Yurchenko 3/2 I have ever seen.

All hail the Olympic Champion.

Thanks TCO. Even though you disagree.

==== UPDATE

Rawles in a comment says it much more succinctly than I:

While I understand that Nastia is always going to take more flack due to her prominence, people’s perpetual gross overexaggeration of the form issues she has is just tiresome. And not only that, but they seem to expect the deductions for those form issues to be proportional to how much people harp on them.

Nastia Liukin does not have bad form. As a holistic evaluation, that is false. What she does have is about three persistent form breaks throughout the entirety of her program. And no matter how many silly YouTube videos or misinformed couch judge comments people make, it won’t stop the cowboyed double fronts from only being a single .3 deduction for the routines in question or the crossed ankles from only being a .1 deduction. People’s inability to grasp the fact that she can swallow these deductions because she does everything else so well baffles me. It’s not a particularly complicated concept. …

The Spieth competition Floor at my gym is too hard, in my opinion.

Kyle Shewfelt, 2004 Olympic Floor champion, only rarely tumbled on it during training. He mostly tumbled on our rod floor.

Now Scott Weller has developed a product he calls the “First Significant Improvement to the Spring Floor in 25 Years.”

(Scott was a former all-around gymnast at the University of Michigan and Arizona State University.)

Meets FIG, USAG, NCAA competition specifications.

WOGA, Aspire Kids Sports, Arizona Sunrays are using it!

Bill Sands has looked at it:

“I’m very pleased you’ve really followed through and appear to have a superior product. I’d like to see the test results and study the athlete/apparatus interactions, but congratulations on a job well done.”

Wm A. Sands, PhD, FACSM, C-ARS, NR/WEMT
Performance Services – Recovery Center Leader
U.S. Olympic Committee – 1 Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909-5760

The pitch:

THIS TECHNOLOGY significantly reduces the peak forces transmitted to the athlete and the post-impact vibration in the floor. Lighter athletes can get more rebound while heavier ones will still have the full force.

THE WELLER spring comes up slower than it compresses (recoil). A slower recoil is almost certainly beneficial as tests have shown that spring floors can cause inadvertant knee bends during backward tumbling known as the “double knee bend”.

THE WELLER spring fits into the same caps in the floor now! So it’s easy to retrofit any spring floor. Just pop out old spring and put in the Weller spring!

It’s distributed by King Bars Sports in Arizona.

I’d love to see it in action. Leave a comment if you’ve tried it.

This is an update to a post I originally wrote for Gymnast.com …

I am happy with my decision to have liposuction, and in a way wish I would have done it sooner!

So says 22 year-old Jessica, a cheerleader and gymnast with an athletic build, who found that any extra weight she gained went straight to her thighs.

Jessica is typical of many successful acrobatic athletes. 5’3″ tall with a mesomorphic build.

She was not obese nor even particularly overweight. Only frustrated that her formerly muscular legs got so BIG as a young adult.

more photos

… frustrated with buying size 7-9 jeans that were too loose for her tiny size 3 waist, Jessica started researching the possibility of having a liposuction. …

Jessica’s Experience with Tumescent Liposuction

I know nothing about liposuction. But found the article linked above fascinating.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion. Is this a good option for former acrobatic athletes?

Or should ex-gymnasts simply stay in shape as did 1984 Olympic Champion Mary Lou Retton, still considered a “Celebrity Babe”.

larger original – Mary Lou Retton, 40, and daughter Shayla Rae, 13 – Celebrity Babes blog

If you’ve seen Nadia lately, she looks great too.

Nadia at age-46

Mail Online – I’m a super-fit mum at 46, says former gymnast Nadia who stunned the world with her Olympic perfect 10

GymnastTV is posting a weekly video summary of NCAA gymnastics action.

Cool.

On week 2 of The College Show we go to The Windy City Invitational with the men’s teams from University of Iowa and University of Minnesota. We also have highlights from the Nebraska/OU meet. On the women’s side we have University of Michigan, UCLA, Utah and Georgia.

Watch the 9min “highlights” reel of the past weekend on GymnastTV.

Kupets on Bars at the 6min mark.

I subscribe to the GymnastTV video podcast in iTunes. The videos are downloaded to my computer automatically.

After a disastrous meet, Florida dropped from #1 to #5.

full rankings – Troester

Note also that GymGemz is back posting regularly. It was the best blog last year following NCAA Women’s Gymnastics.

Yet another initiative from the busiest former World Gymnastics Champion, Shannon Miller.

Good looks for a good cause. Nikken TriPhase Technology and Sport Bracelet versatility combine with beautiful 24k gold accents in a design personally selected and approved by seven-time Olympic Medal winner Shannon Miller — the most decorated American gymnast in history. Your purchase of this Special Edition bracelet includes a donation to the Shannon Miller Foundation.

ShannonMillerFoundation.com

Nikken Magnetic Sport Bracelet “Shannon Miller” Edition – $30

Life Magazine – 1992 – Photographer: Ted Thai