There’s much positive buzz about the return to greatness of Russian gymnastics.
What are they doing right?
grishinagan from Russia has hundreds of routines posted on a YouTube channel.
Senor Nico linked to 3 of them:
Like the US, the lower levels of gymnastics in Russia have compulsory routines. But I just noticed how they go about doing them. …
Basically the actual elements they do (tumbling passes, dance skills) have to be the same. But they can choose whatever music and choreography they like. They can also arrange the skills in any order they wish.
Click PLAY or watch Floor routine 1, Baturina Ekaterina, on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch Floor routine 2, Orlova Aleksandra, on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch Floor routine 3, Yazidzan Aleksandra, on YouTube.
I’ve always liked the concept of “compulsory optionals”.
Read more comments on IG forum – Something interesting the Russians do with compulsories
8 comments ↓
Uhh we do that here in Texas. Or at least we did back when I was a young (not very good) gymnast in the early 2000s.
We do that in the UK. Have a look at Catherine Lyons on Teamsparkle1 channel on youtube. She won the compulsory for 9 year olds this year. It is combined with a ‘voluntary’ competitionlater in the year, but there are still strict rules on what you can and can’t include. Each compulsory routine is marked out of 13.5 and you can see the incredibly high scores that catherine achieved – unprecedented!
[...] is a repost in response to the compulsory optional routines in Russia post. Thanks [...]
These gymnasts are obviously far more advanced than 99% of the beginning optional gymnasts you see in the US. USAG designed the compuslories for the masses-your average gymnast who will train for a short period in their life. The Russian optionals are to train elite athletes…. totally different focuses. I think a better comparison would be to the pre-elite compulsories-rather than the JO Compulsory program.
Wouldn’t all gymnasts in Russia be on the elite path?
US pre-elite compulsory or US JO Compulsory. I don’t think it matters too much because both programs have the gymnasts doing the exact same routine.
Texas has a gymnastics league called the AGA. It’s not USAG. In AGA all the girls do optional routines no matter what their level is. Gymnasts are given skills they can do and sent out to compete. Perhaps that’s the league you competed in, Andrea.
Australia/NZ does something similar as well, I believe.
After having worked in the US and Canada, and having co-designed an excellent developmental program, I am a firm believer that we need to be doing separate programs for Elite potential kids and those in the mainstream of the sport. IMHO
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