… “The gross motor development skills, that’s what we do,” said Ben Fox of Bart Conner, who, along with Ann Goff, gym teacher at Lincoln, originated the idea to offer these free classes to Norman Public Schools’ students who are identified on the autism spectrum.
“It’s great for motor and language skills, and they’re having fun while learning. That’s what kids like to do … run … jump,” Fox said, motioning toward one of the students, Isaac, as he jumped in circles on the trampoline …
Online I’m seeing a lot more Women’s Collegiate gymnastics content, especially videos from training. Interest is picking up in advance of the season start in January.
Andy Thorton has been holding fire to the feet of FIG judges better than anyone else.
He’s just posted some disturbing statistics on Execution score trends at the the international level. Here are a few of the highlight quotes from his analysis:
scores seem to be “trapped” between an 8.5 and a 9.0 regardless of the performance …
With the exception of men’s vault, it would appear from the numbers that gymnasts in general are anywhere from three to seven tenths sloppier today than they were in 2006. Is this a fact, or a function of something else going on? …
Judging in general has become much more harsh, much more unreasonable …
Men’s high bar judging has perhaps become the most outrageous and unpredictable; sometimes the cleanest routine receives an 8.7 and sometimes the sloppiest routine receives an 8.9, but the rule is no one gets above a 9.0. I miss the days even four years ago when 9.5’s and 9.6’s were given to clean routines …
As we strive for a resurgence of artistry, stricter rules are not the solution; in fact, they’re part of the problem. Today’s execution standards have not created less subjectivity in our sport; they’ve created MORE subjectivity …
I miss the days when judges felt free to throw out a 9.8, a 9.9, or even a 10.0 when a gymnast was magnificent …
He doesn’t mention this time, but has in the past, that one of the main causes of “boxed scores” (lowest Execution score too close to highest) is that judges fear being out-of-range.
It used to be that Women’s Gymnastics was far more guilty. (They’ve always listed many subjective deductions that are near impossible to evaluate consistently.) But what’s going on in Men’s Gymnastics? … Andy’s stats show the MAG execution scores dropping even more precipitously than WAG.
I have no confidence that either FIG Technical Committee has the leadership to fix boxed scores. That means, in most cases, the highest difficulty score will continue to win. There’s no incentive to try to improve execution.
Next? … I’d love to see Andy or THE ALL AROUND do a more detailed statistical analysis on this trend.
It’s a nice summary, MAG and WAG Junior Olympics as well as mention of the easier WAG PREP-OP divisions in his region.
In the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic program, there are set rules throughout the country for each level.
For the lower levels (2-6 for girls and 4-7 for boys), there are specific routines set by USAG, so every kid in the country will be doing the same routines at these levels (though the boys program allows certain bonus skills to be performed in some of the compulsory routines for a couple extra tenths).
For the upper levels (7-10 girls, 8-10 for boys), gymnasts have their own individual routines. For girls, these levels still have very specific requirements, while the boys’ upper-levels are much more open-ended. …
But it can cause problems at the gym. Especially if both kids are competitive gymnasts.
Do you have a policy on that? … If so, leave a comment.
Coach Sasha on Make it or Break It will kick the girls out of the club for dating. At Altadore, years ago, I recall we once had a rule where all boys had to stay physically on one side of the long pit. The girls on the other side. … Like that worked.
With the teenage girls I sometimes invite the boyfriend to come to workout. Once. Then give him so much volunteer work to do while he’s there … that he never comes back.
Some awesome routines you might have missed from Rotterdam…:
Sanne Wevers Beam
Yana Demyanchuk Bars
Yana Demyanchuk Beam
Mattie Larson Vault
Mattie Larson Bars
Mackenzie Caquatto Bars
And this one, Elisabeth Seitz (GER) Bars, in prelims.
We all saw her fall in the final, but did you ever catch her routine from prelims? A Def done out of a cool combination, a Church, a Yaeger, and a couple of other valuable sequences…very well put together routine.
… Caroline Phillips from WOGA on uneven bars. She went above and beyond on her cast handstands and hit a smooth, clean set to score a 9.85, the highest bar score of the entire meet. This routine earned her the gold medal on bars and she also won the State All Around title for the jr A2 division.
Kyle Shewfelt won the Gold medal on Floor at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the first ever by a Canadian in his sport.
Today Kyle launched the official website for his first annual “Festival”.
Why is this a Festival, and not just the old Jurassic Classic competition with a name change?
Kyle wants to host an event that’s faster, more fun and more memorable than the typically boring Canadian meets. He was inspired by the Great West Gym Fest to add a BIG SHOW FINALS where the goal is to entertain as much as to win.
When I first heard of this personal project, I instantly volunteered to help. It’s been scaled back a little since the original announcement. Only Artistic Men / Women and Gymnastrada will be full disciplines in the first year. (draft schedule)
Other gymnastics disciplines will be doing major demos.
A percentage of the profits goes to charity:
Right To Play uses sport and play as a way to teach children about teamwork, fair play, conflict resolution, self-esteem, communication, commitment, respect, and integrity. Right To Play is committed to improving the lives of children and to strengthening their communities by translating the best practices of sport and play into opportunities to promote development, health and peace.
After competing around the world forever, Kyle’s learned to appreciate how much work goes into a big event like this. The biggest glitch he faced so far was when Wild Rose was forced to change their dates to the same weekend.
… On the one hand, it’s a shame coaches cannot register for both (unless they’re crazy). On the other, this will make for a bit more modest inaugural ShewfeltFest. And that might turn out to be a good thing. For Kyle.
