The Couch Gymnast is (literally) a student of reporting.
In a post that made me laugh out loud, she quoted Barabara Matson, paid journalist for old media, the Boston Globe:
… Raisman opened her first senior competition with a splash, posting the top score on the beam, sticking a Yurchenko double full dismount to earn a 15.15. …quoted in Couch Gymnast
Yurchenko double full on beam. Now that is impressive.
I’ve watched old media sports journalists at NCAA and VISA Championships in the States. With a very few exceptions (e.g. Linda Hamilton, Deseret News) they have no idea what they are covering. Gymnastics is a complicated, rapidly evolving sport.
All mainstream journalists want is to know who won. And to grab some quotes from the post-meet press conference. Their articles are at best, boring. At worst, embarrassing.
So what should you read if you want to know what actually happened?
Gymnastics organizations with paid staff put out articles that read like dull promotional press releases. For example, the recent World Cup in Montreal. What would you know about that event if you didn’t attend?
FIG – Canada and Japan call the shots at Gymnix
Gymnastics Canada – Calgary’s Gafuik leads Canadian medal haul at gymnastics World Cup in Montreal
Those articles contain no glaring errors. But the writers are careful not to say a negative word. The real “story” of the Montreal World Cup is that it should be cancelled for lack of participation. And that the entire World Cup Series should be eliminated, or improved.
You’d have to talk to someone who was there. Or read the article on GYMmedia by Eckhard Herholz to hear anything about the issue.
By far the most insightful, interesting and entertaining commentary on gymnastics today is on blogs. Almost anyone can find some they like. (Check our list of BLOGS in the right hand navigation.)
Blogs are not perfect, God knows. They over-report rumour, scandal and problems. But I still spend 90% of my own time online reading blogs and watching video. Old media is so predictable I rarely need to skim more than the headlines.
What’s the future?
Blythe Lawrence was one of the most respected gymnastics bloggers (Gymblog) before transitioning to a new media platform called Gymnastics Examiner. She’s a trained journalist, yet her Examiner articles are closer to blog posts than The New York Times.
Examiner has high enough standards to be linked to by the F.I.G.
Gymnastics Examiner is the future.
23 comments ↓
It’s been a problem for a long time, Rick. I had to walkon and TRY doing gymnastics to understand what the heck it was. (And I still have no clue what the different tricks in pommel horse are!) The sport has intrinsic excitement because of the flips and such. And it even really has an intersting, male appeal in the complicatedness of it.
But it does a LOUSY job of explaining itself. I mean look at the code of points. That thing has three langauges at once. Has no photos. Poor diagrams. Grammatical errors. Just a mess, for a sport that really has the size to be world class. And then, really the Code ought to be the starting point. There should be a “Code for dummies” that is online, that is easy to understand. That people are encouraged to consult during Olympic runs.
Granted, news stories can’t spend time explaining the definition of every trick in a men’s high bar routine. but SOME discussion of tricks is VITAL. And INTERESTING. The who won and what the scores were is butt-unintersting. Instead, let us hear that Shawn Johnson is the only athlete in the ENTIRE GAMES who rocked her dismount with a fullin on beam. If the X games can educate people on what their goofy bmx tricks are than so can gym!!!
She has better connections then a blogger. Plus she spends so much time. If I had all day to come up with things my blog would be a lot better.
I don’t care about a few spelling mistakes because my blog is for fun. If you don’t like it then don’t read it. End of problem.
The Yurchenko double full on beam gives me weird mental images.
Hey Coach Rick, you don’t seem to have The Couch Gymnast in your blog roll on the right. Don’t know why I didn’t notice that before now.
Doh.
I can’t believe I had never entered one of my favourite blogs. It’s been added now. THANKS Quentin.
One good thing about “Old Media” is that for the most part, you know they aren’t intentionally trying to pass off lies as the truth, or rather, pass off their perception of the truth which happens to be at odds with everyone else’s.
Examiner.com might be good as a gymnastics resource but a reader has no assurance that everything on there is up to snuff.
The biggest issue here in the US is a lack of traditional media coverage which leads to a lack of knowledge by the average person which leads to a once every four years interest only in the sport. I love that NBC/Universal is at least trying to increase coverage but their coverage is so poor that it turns fans off so I can only imagine what it does for non-fans who have tuned in. As much as people online seem to pick on the internet broadcast team from Georgia, Kevin Copp and Katie Heenan, they do a better job of covering and explaining the meets they broadcast than Al, Elfi and Tim ever have and NBC should be very embarrassed about that. I’d rather NBC fire those three and hire Kevin and Katie or if NBC were really smart they’d hire the British/Aussie trio that does the commentating for Eurosport as the World Cup internet only feed with them last year was amazing compared to what we got from the NBC team.
There are only three big meets here in the US that gain any media attention, the American Cup, Cover Girl Classic and Championships for the women. Add World Championships to the mix and in the US at least on the elite level there are only four meets a year as perceived by traditional media in the US. It’s hard to gain media interest in a sport that only has “four” meets a year. Moving selections to national training camp has made it harder to cover the sport here in the US for traditional media in my opinion.
There are more elite meets in Europe than this but none of the US girls really go to those meets as a team. You may see one girl go but that isn’t a enough to draw media attention especially if it isn’t one of your big names like Sloan or Bross. That isn’t meant to be a slight against the other members of the team like the Caquatto sisters or Cassie Whitcomb but outside of fans no one knows who they are and as such no one has any real interest in what they do. Which sadly is a shame.
Blythe does a good job covering the sport but it still feels very much like a blog and not a media outlet. What that means is people won’t trust it as the common perception is that all bloggers have a slant they are trying to promote. The truth is traditional media does the same it’s just accepted from them but not accepted from bloggers.
How or why a network hasn’t capitalized on collegiate gymnastics here in the US is still a bit mind boggling to me. Cliff Kirkpatrick, a sportswriter for the Corvallis Gazette-Times which covers Oregon State University Beavers, said it best in response to a reader’s question about how many people show to the OSU Women’s Gymnastics meets: http://cliffkirkpatrick.mvourtown.com/2010/01/29/cliff-pink-out-vicotry/
If a traditional sportswriter can see the appeal why can’t more be done. There are huge rivalry’s in the sport that are equal in stature to college football or basketball. They do things 99.999% of the people watching cannot, which to be honest is what makes gymnastics interesting to me. The meets are easy to follow score wise with the tradition 10.0 scoring system.
Ok I’ve ranted enough…I should get some work done.
Great rant !!
I just read a blog post attacking me from GymTruthTeller. Needless to say, they’re off my subscription list.
http://gymtruthteller.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/as-the-ig-message-board-turns/
What does GTT calling you out for being a jerk to people on IG have to do with gymnasticscoaching?
You mock Shawn Johnson and call everyone names that don’t agree with you and now you want sympathy.? Please girrl. Youve got to be kidding.
I was banned from IG, long ago.
“What does GTT calling you out for being a jerk to people on IG have to do with gymnasticscoaching?
You mock Shawn Johnson and call everyone names that don’t agree with you and now you want sympathy.? Please girrl. Youve got to be kidding.”
This blog post is about gymnastics blogs, and I’m posting that this particular blog I don’t care for because it contains rude, obnoxious content.
And I don’t see how I’ve been a jerk to anyone in recent time. Maybe a long time ago, but that’s the past, over and done with. What have I done recently that’s been so rude and disrespectful? I only post every now and then, and usually it’s to provide video links.
Did I mock Shawn Johnson? When was this? I hardly ever talk about her. And the only thing I really say about her is I can’t stand her leaps. Is that mocking? And I don’t recall calling anyone names, either…
I love GTT because she/he isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.
Marcus you are a hypocrite. IG message board conspires to ban anyone that doesn’t have positive opinions of Nastia Liukin and you are one of the biggest guilty people in this.
GTT does to you what you do to everyone else and you can’t handle it. Well to bad you are getting what you deserve. If you play with fire you are going to get burned. Maybe next time you are rude to someone you will remember how it felt to have it done to you and you will think before you do it.
The IG message board mods are liars and they lie to Amanda and say things happened that never did and they do it when you and your other gang members don’t like someone.
I hate IG message board. That place is full of hypocrites.
Can I have EXAMPLES, please? You are just saying I was being rude and hypocritical. I’m one that goes on examples, and if you can’t provide any evidence, at least RECENT evidence, what you’re saying holds no value. Yes, I was rude to people before, but it’s called growing up. When was the last time I insulted someone. You probably don’t even notice that I don’t really respond to negative posts regarding Nastia anymore. It’s not worth the drama.
So let me get this straight it’s ok that you were mean, rude and a jerk to people because you haven’t done it in a month?
Why should people have to forget how you acted because you feel you have grown up?
I used to post at IG and I quit because of you , Mandusky, Kittie and countless others and you don’t even care as evident by your comments.
I am going to have to check out this blog. Anyone have a link?
“I don’t really respond to negative posts regarding Nastia anymore. It’s not worth the drama.”
Negative comments according to who? You? Pointing out her bad form and bad attitude did not deserve an attack from all of you.
Forget it. I have moved on (even tho it does not sound like it) but I hope Amanda and IG appreciate the way you acted because they lost a subscriber because of it.
Stop trolling nastiafan. Looking for sympathy much? Take it to your own board.
Go Heather. I hate trolls. WELL SAID
How about clearing out the junk blogs (infrequently updated) from your list, Rick?
Good idea, P.
I did so perhaps 3 months ago. Some I know are updated a couple of times a year. A few I like to leave linked as archive. (i.e. Triple Full)
Will try to get around to it soon.
[...] related – why blogs are better than OLD media [...]
Smart way to bring people back to yourr blog GC.LOL
Great post, Rick! You’re right about Blythe. If more people were interested in gymnastics, she would be snapped up in a minute by lamestream media sources. She would make a great beat writer. Too bad gymnastics doesn’t have spring training or fall camp.
I can’t speak for women’s gymnastics, but things would be a lot better on the men’s side if the sport was better promoted by the powers that be. One thing in particular, the college recruiting process, is especially frustrating. The flow of information should be more like basketball and football. In those sports, fan and media speculation is rampant and there are no secrets about which programs sign which prospects and who is recruiting whom. It’s almost like men’s gymnastics is some sort of secret society. It’s harmful to the sport. If a star football or basketball player gets injured, everybody knows about it. If a star gymnast gets hurt, and unless you know that gymnast personally, the injury is almost treated as a state secret. Club gymnastics is even worse. The men’s gymnastics community needs to open up a lot more.
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