Entries from August 2010 ↓

Who?

… You know, the girl who shares the podium with Viktoria Komova and Tan Sexin.

Couch Gymnast:

… look at that whole mount sequence! I mean, it’s great. The way she kicks up into that split handstand and bends the foot down to her head? The way she fluidly shifts back and raises herself to her feet up on her toes? …

WHAT’S CARLOTTA GOT …..?

Click PLAY or watch Carlotta’s beam on YouTube.

The International Gymnastics Federation and others have a commitment to grow Acrobatic Gymnastics.

How’s that going? …

The third FIG Academy for Acrobatic Gymnastics was hosted in Montreal (CAN) during the first week of August at the magnificent facilities of the Cirque du Soleil and the nearby National Circus School, which is located across the street.

This Academy was attended by 15 coaches from three federations: Brazil, USA and Canada – a somewhat disappointing number considering that this was a world-wide invitation. …

In the meantime, the Academy Programme continues with a Spanish language Academy for Rhythmic Gymnastics in Brazil and one for Aerobic Gymnastics in Finland in the coming two weeks and a French language Academy for Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics currently finishing in Senegal.

FIG – Canada hosts third ACRO Academy

Shout out for Hardy Fink, the Director of FIG Education & Academy Programmes. I think he’s doing a great job of building out coach education for all disciplines worldwide.

1. Viktoria Komova RUS 61.250
2. Tan Sexin CHN 58.500
3. Carlotta Ferlito ITA 55.350

Viktoria Komova made simple work of trouncing the competition today to win her first youth olympic title with ease. Komova topped her qualifying score with 61.250.

Silver went to Tan Sexin of China with 58.500 and Bronze to Carlotta Ferlito of Italy (55.350) who narrowly edged Natsumi Sasada of Japan (55.100). Sasada – who wears her heart on her sleeve was smiling and waving to the camera whenever it found her then burst into tears on seeing Ferlito’s final score …

The All Around

Gymnastics Examiner – LIVE blog

THE ALL AROUND commentary:

… One of the highlights of these Youth Olympic Games has been the emergence of the young Guatamalan Ana Sofia Gomez Porras, who scored 54.050 to finish fifth. Coached by Romanians Adrian and Elena Boboc, Porras showed good difficulty and execution throughout the competition, and certainly shows a lot of promise for the future. …

UCLA’s Vanessa Zamarripa qualified for the U.S. National Team.

But Marcus in the comments informs that she’s decided not to try for World’s 2010, instead focusing on the NCAA. I see that confirmed on College Gymnastics Board.

I’d have loved to have seen that Cheng vault (VIDEO) on the international stage.

This is the same decision faced by Canada’s Kristina Vaculik. So far Kristina’s on the Canadian list for World’s. I assume that means she won’t be reporting at Stanford until January.

Who else is deferring until January? Or later? … Mattie Larson, …

… GymSymbol is a training program specifically designed for Women’s Artistic Gymnastics judges and coaches who want to improve their skills in using the standard FIG shorthand symbols. It uses a flash-card like interface to test your memory of all the symbols in the Code of Points. …

No more need to break open a hefty Table of Elements to find that elusive D acro skill on beam. Filter any apparatus and select an element to bring up its matching FIG symbol, description, number and difficulty value and the gymnast to first compete the skill in a qualifying FIG gymnastics competition. …

The SEARCH function interface is a bit confusing. But if you select “Gymnaste” and search for “Mohini” … you will find her skill:

This is a fantastic little program. WAG judges will find it useful, for sure.

Download it for FREE at GymSymbol.com

Available for Mac and Windows. In English, French, Russian, Spanish and Chinese (simplified).

Thanks to The European Gymnastics Institute for developing it!

Another great post by Aussie Wayne Goldsmith on Sport Coaching Brain.

Whilst all great coaches are unique and very special individuals, there are some common factors – some common championship coaching characteristics that they all share:

A commitment to continuous improvement.
A belief that anything is possible.
An understanding of where your sport has been (history of the sport), where it is now and most importantly a vision for where it is going.
The confidence to be yourself – to be unique.
The energy to work hard consistently.
The strength and courage to not compromise.
Outstanding communication abilities.
An understanding of who you are, what you value and what motivates you.
A passion for winning – a desire to be the best.
The capacity to persevere and persist and continue to fight hard no matter what obstacles you face.

each point expanded – Sport Coaching Brain – Great Coaches: How to Be the Best of the Best.

Thanks Brett.

National Novice - Canadian Gymnastics Championships

From the Facebook album: CC10-Fri AM-Nat’l Novice Women Finals by Stu Cram

That’s coach Jessica Fritshaw from Regina.

Linked by Greg from Oakville Gymnastics.

The double Olympian is an “ambassador” in Singapore.

… the former gymnast, 32, who competed at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.

‘If I had an opportunity to compete before the Barcelona Games, I would have been that much more prepared and successful in those Games.’

Strug won a team bronze at the 1992 Olympics. She was 14 then, and the youngest member of the American team. …

Straits Times – Strug voices YOG regret

(via USA Gymnastics on Facebook)

AA Finals

1. Kamoto (JPN) 86.350
2. Stepko (UKR) 85.350
3. Zhu (CHN) 85.000
4. Muntean (ROU) 84.950
5. Oldham (GBR) 84.650
6. Kazachkov (RUS) 84.000

Japan’s Yuya Kamoto captured the first gymnastics gold of the Youth Olympic Games on Wednesday in Singapore, winning the men’s all-around title at Bisham Sports Hall.

Kamoto’s score of 86.35 was lower than his first-place 87.20 in Monday’s qualification, but still a full point above silver medalist Oleg Stepko (Ukraine). …

read more on International Gymnast

Men’s Artistic judges and coaches will appreciate this helpful program by gymnast/judge Mike Wilner:

DScore is a program, designed for Gymnastics coaches, athletes, and enthusiasts, that assists in the creation of Men’s Gymnastics routines and calculates start value.

Various rule sets are supported, including USA Gymnastics J.O. program levels 10, 9, and 8, the NCAA, and International Senior Elite (F.I.G.). DScore is available for Mac OS X and Windows, and also supports live updates to the Code of Points. …

Dscore is currently in Beta. Mike is still making updates and would appreciate feedback.

It works. Here’s my first routine analysis:

sample pommel routine - click for larger version

Here’s the resulting start value for F.I.G.:

Update: Oops. Seems I made a mistake in this example. Jeff says: 5 elements from group 4. Better replace that DSB with a 2/3 travel before the Sivado.

DScore is $14.99. But there’s a Free Trial available.

MLW Software – DScore

The members of the U.S. Men’s Team are:

Dylan Akers of Kingwood, Texas/Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
Alex Buscaglia of Cary, Ill./Stanford University
Jake Dalton of Sparks, Nev./University of Oklahoma
Bryan Del Castillo of Laguna Niguel, Calif./University of California, Berkeley
Wesley Haagensen of Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Olympic Training Center
Glen Ishino of Santa Ana, Calif./University of California, Berkeley

USAG

I haven’t heard much about these two international meets, as yet:

Pan American Championships, Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 2010, Guadalajara, Mexico qualifies to Pan American Games, 2011, also in Guadalajara.

She won prelims with these perhaps slightly inflated scores:

UB : 15.55
BB : 15.25
FX : 14.55
VT : 15.7

Click PLAY or watch her Amanar on YouTube.

Somewhat scary landing. But it’s amazing such a skinny kid can do this.

Click through to Aunt Joyce to watch her other apparatus.

Update: becca reminds us that they are using the modified JUNIOR F.I.G. code at this meet. It reduced her potential start value AA.

Wow. She just dominated the prelims. All hail.

Top score on V, Bars, Floor. Second on Beam to Tan Sixin.

ALL-AROUND preliminaries

Viktoria Komova (RUS) – 61.000
Sixin Tan (CHN) – 58.100
Carlotta Ferlito (ITA) – 55.750
Diana Bulimar (ROU) – 54.700
Tess Moonen (NED) – 54.250
Gomez Porras (GUA) – 54.050
Angela Donald (AUS) – 54.050
Madeline Gardiner (CAN) – 53.850
Jonna Adlerteg (SWE) – 53.600
Natsumi Sasada (JPN) – 53.550

full results

photo – Viktoria’s signature inside Stalder to Shaposhnikova-half

How about Carlotta Ferlito from Italy in 3rd!

Read Amanda Turner’s commentary on IG – Komova Dominates Youth Olympics Qualification