Alicia Sacramone now on Twitter! Follow her at @ASacramone3

(via The All Around)

I thought this fad would die.

From A J at the superb THE ALL AROUND blog and Facebook page:

For women:

- F and G skills are credited as Es;
- C dismounts get full credit, B dismounts get .30; A dismounts are .0 (same in MAG)
- in vault Finals, 2 different vaults from the same family allowed
- No more than 2.5 in CR

Although Fs and Gs are capped at .50 difficulty value, there are no caps on the vault values.

IG’s coverage includes D scores if you want to do your own calculations – Komova Wins Two More Golds at Youth Olympics

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.

British Gymnastics:

The 2008 Olympian and 2010 British Champion Hannah Whelan won the All-around competition of the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Friendly International GB vs. Romania at Pipers Vale Gymnastics Centre with a total of 55.650pts. Second was Daniela Andrei (ROM), 55.600 and third, Raluca Haidu (ROM), 54.900. …

“We have started our preparation for the World Championships in Rotterdam (NED) in June under the new Head coaches Mariana Bitang and Octavian Belu. We have been invited to come here with 7 gymnasts, but arrived with 5, because some of our strong gymnasts are recovering from injuries and others are not ready to compete as yet,” said the Romanian Head of Delegation Mircea Apolzan.

“In fact, the results are not very important for us! What is important at this moment of our preparation for Rotterdam – is the content of the routines; what are the new elements, which our gymnasts have added to their exercise and how consistent they are”. …

Imogen Cairns dominates the Finals in Ipswich

It must have been very friendly. Despite not competing in the Team meet, Imogen was put directly into Finals.

(via Couch Gymnast)

… By the way, I love Amanda Turner’s coverage for International Gymnast. But the criticism I’ve often heard that her reporting is deceptive is true in case of this post – Romanian Women Top British Hosts

At first glance you would assume that she got the Romanian quotes herself. … She didn’t.

The external link takes you to the home page of British Gymnastics, not where she got the quote.

If old media are going to “blog”, they need to follow ethical blogging conventions. Fairly and clearly attributing where they got the information.

chalkbowl.com/sabrina

Thanks Rick.

Even better is her YouTube Channel.

Gymnastics Coaching is a WordPress.org site, hacked once or twice each year I’ve had it on BlueHost. I love it … aside from the terrible security. My host blames me every time something goes wrong.

I’m tempted to move the site to new-on-the-block, Squarespace.

What’s the difference?

WordPress is cheaper. Squarespace more secure.

Price

Squarespace – Squarespace services include both web design tools and hosting. Basic packages start at $8/month. To host your site on your own domain, accounts start at $14/month. Coupon codes can save you around 10%. Squarespace provides an excellent value for their slightly higher monthly price tag.

WordPress – Free-ish – WordPress is completely 100% GPL open source however you still need to pay for hosting and domain name. The price ranges from ~$3/mo (GoDaddy) to $100/mo (Rackspace)

The article is referring to WordPress.org sites, not WordPress.com (free). … Confusing, I know.

Best would be if WordPress.com changed their name. (WordPress.com is the third good option: secure, but no ads allowed.)

Security

Squarespace – Being a completely hosted system means Squarespace is not prone to the same security holes as open source systems like WordPress and Drupal. I’ll never have to pay someone to cleanse my hacked blog because I bought my domain on GoDaddy. Daddy. My site is just plain safe.

WordPress – You need to maintain your own updates and be careful with plugins. Also – a good host helps. Remember in hosting – you get what you pay for. We prefer to host at Rackspace – but you can still have problems if you don’t keep your site updated to the latest version and security fixes. …

big picture web – Squarespace Vs. WordPress: Both Sides of the Story

My advice for a new blogger?

Go to WordPress.com … unless you want to host ads. … In that case, go to Squarespace.com.

Avoid the much advertised and promoted WordPress.org sites like mine. Hosts simply cannot keep up with the hackers.

Note: some are unhappy with Squarespace.

Leave a comment if you’ve any advice on this topic, especially for those considering starting their own blogs.

Examiner.com: Can you tell me a little about your childhood in gymnastics?

Jay Thornton: “I was very fortunate to have several a wonderful coaches from the beginning. I was a pretty good twister. I was a little bit bigger as a kid and I had that going against me. I’m about 5’10″ and competed at about 170 pounds. I was a bit bigger as a kid and wasn’t the most physically gifted, but my first coach, Tim Erwin, started preparing me with sound gymnastics technique from the day one.”

Examiner.com: When did you decide you wanted to go to the Olympics?

J.T.: “When I was 10 years old. It was 1984, the year of the Los Angeles Olympics and I, like every other gymnast at the time, was watching the ’84 U.S. Men’s Olympic team compete. When I saw them win that gold medal, I knew at that point that I wanted to become an Olympic gymnast.” …

Read about the coach who taught him to love gymnastics, Nick Brancheau. His inspirations: Roethlisberger and Bilozertchev. And how he reconnected with the woman who would become his wife.

Gymnastics Examiner – Catching up with American Gymnast’s Jay Thornton

The advantage of buying grips and equipment from American Gymnast is that Jay truly knows the sport inside out. Here’s his reaction to to Sho Nakamori’s post on his Reisport Ring grips tearing after only 2 days.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Jay’s younger brother Andy, who also competed for the University of Iowa, posts an excellent blog, Andy’s Angle, on American Gymnast. I read it religiously.

Note that the coaching video tutorial section has a new address: Gymnastics on Demand

The most visionary blogger, however, I felt, was Aleksas Trotter.

more photos on MySpace

On April 19, 2008 Aleksas Trotter committed suicide.

He was medically depressed.

Blythe Lawrence of Gymblog posted a touching tribute.

His death was a big loss to the blogosphere. This guy was super talented for his age, a pioneering montage maker who inspired many others to start. And to explore the darker side of the sport.

His videos (over 300,000 views) are still up on YouTube – gymkingdiesel channel.

Here’s a sample. Click PLAY or watch Toy Soldier montage on YouTube.

New to me is a video tribute posted by his father on the original Aleksas.com blog, left otherwise as it was the day he died.

Click through to the link above if you’d like to see it.

Rest in peace, Lex.