The best bars video I saw in 2008 was edited by Michel Arsenault of Champions Gymnastics in Canada.
It’s a DVD with lengthy accompanying notes called:
2006 Gymnastics Study Tour of China
Michel was partly funded to travel to China by Gymnastics Alberta and Alberta Lotteries (Above and Beyond program).
Visiting gyms in Beijing, KunMing and ZhengZhou, Michel wrote a report of what he saw. Here are just a few note I took while reading the document:
unwavering commitment to extreme quality and basics
children are allowed to quit gymnastics at any time
at some schools parents must pay a small fee for training. The governments pay most costs, however.
exacting training begins at a very young age
all gymnasts train twice / day
compulsory routines until age-11. The entire document for coaches and judges is simple and only 11-pages-long! For comparison, here’s just a tiny portion of the over-complicated Gymnastics Canada regulations posted on a gym wall:
(Canadian rules are the most complex, the most frequently revised, and the most poorly understood in the world, so far as I know. It certainly does a disservice to athletes, coaches and judges.)
very few girls wear handguards (none at all at the Beijing Provincial Training Centre)
when a coach speaks to a gymnast they must stand motionless listening to the coach intently. That said, the coaches are quite quiet. Gymnasts work independently from 6 to 8-yrs-old.
very few drills are done with high repetitions
coaches are paid $3000 – $4000 / yr. Average annual salary in Beijing is about $1500 / yr.
training gymnasts did not all have “a perfect body type”
Michel concluded that the good results in China are as much a result of the coaching “system” as talent identification
VIDEO
very specific technique on the descending and ascending swings of free hip
high priority on hitting a balanced handstand – for pirouettes
Available free to Alberta coaches through the library at AGF.
Dave Adlard convinced me that this controversial drill works well. I’d used it for twisting backward flyaways, but was (for some dumb reason) reluctant to use if on Shoot Half.
Anysia Unick, from Stampede City in my home town Calgary, finished 7th in the Jr Pan-Am all-around competition and was the only Canadian member to qualify to all four event finals on Sunday. She won the bronze medal on beam.
A great skill named after a man, French gymnast Jacques Def, on Horizontal Bar is named after Snejana Hristakieva, on Assymetric Bars. She’s woman who competed it first, so far as I know.
Yet I’ve never heard a WAG coach who did not refer to this skill as “Def”. It’s so much shorter and easier to pronounce.
… Her difficulty score of 7.1 is, simply, monstrous, with most routines ranging from 5.9 to 6.2. So when she got through her routine without any major issues, the gold was essentially hers. …
Andy Thornton has relaunched his Smooth Skills video blog on American Gymnast. (He formerly posted on the currently defunct Gymnast.com.)
In Episode 2 he looked at the Mo Salto (Gaylord 1 for Men) on Bars, comparing 4 different Chinese gymnasts who competed it.
One of those was Zhang Yufei, a name I only barely recognize. She was an amazing gymnast but her only big international meet was the 2005 World Championships.
…love the Yaeger to Pak salto! It’s amazing how we NEVER see this combination anymore (except from He Kexin), and I don’t understand why. Everyone in the world is doing these Pak saltos from a cast handstand nowadays, and I’m sick of seeing it! So many Chinese gymnasts in particular are doing these huge Yaegers but for some strange reason don’t do the Pak salto immediately out of it – this reminds us how much better this looks when done connected.
Does anyone know what happened to this amazing gymnast?
Click through to American Gymnast to see her other apparatus. And the 4 Mo saltos, including the one competed by Zhang Yufei.
