Andy Thorntonasks a good question: “… it seems like girls just don’t tumble like they used to. What happened to huge double layouts and full-in dismounts?”
It’s even more true on Vault. That apparatus has seen very little progress over the past 20yrs. Yet Men’s Vault and Floor tumbling are insane in 2010.
Kytra Hunter’s demo Floor at American Cup shows impressive tumbling.
In the past, powerful gymnasts could do 3 apparatus and get away with relatively easy Bars. (i.e. Romania)
Today, in my opinion, coaches must select gymnasts first for Bars and Beam. And try to develop tumbling and vault difficulty later. Nastia would be one prototype.
Taucer started a good thread on the Chalk Bucket forum:
… handsprings (both forward and backward) … are becoming less and less important to the construction of high-level routines. The front handspring seems all but extinct at the top levels of the sport (especially on the men’s side) and even back handsprings are becoming less common.
Front saltos are, more and more, being done from a punch (or connected from a backwards skill with a forward landing).
Backward saltos are, more and more, being done directly out of a roundoff.
Some very good points. Still, I doubt you’ll find many coaches who have stopped training handsprings with developmental gymnasts. Girls need them for beam, certainly.
Olympic Floor Champion Kyle Shewfelt insists that Forward Handspring step-out > Handspring two foot > Flyspring is an essential tumbling pass for those wanting (later) to compete forward salto series. There are many mid-level gymnasts, on the other hand, for whom I’ve given up on forward handspring. And a few … very few … with whom I’ve given up on backward handspring.
Hey, he’s launched a website called Flip For Charlie:
… my most important challenge- making the 2012 Olympic team. Despite the obstacles I may face, I know with your support my Olympic dream can be kept alive. I would like nothing more than to give back to a country that has already given me so much.
Instead of using elite demonstrators, the performances are realistic to the level of the girls appropriate to each drill. (The clips are not so intimidating when you bring your laptop into the gym and show a drill to your kids.)
Bottom line: GymDrills.com is an excellent new resource for WAG coaches. A good investment for club owners:
• Free per 7 Days (Trial)
• 3.99 USD per 1 Month (Monthly Membership)
• 35.00 USD per 1 Year (Year Membership)
Many have been waiting years for this. Former Cuban World Championships medalist Charlie Tamayo competed as a “guest”, scoring 13.100 on Floor (with problems) and 15.8 on vault. Tamayo defected to the U.S. during 2003 Worlds in Anaheim and is seeking U.S. citizenship.
From Don Eckert:
Charlie is coming off an injury and wasn’t able to train like he wanted but his talent is obvious and I would love to see him train the way that other have the privilege in this country because of their college/parent or help from USAG. I really believe he could help the USA team but has to prepare properly to do so.
Alexandra is a junior international elite who trains at Brestyan’s Gymnastics in Massachusetts. Alexandra turned elite in 2009. See an August interview with her on Gymnastike.
Don’t put as much weight on this ranking as you do with the Women’s NCAA list. With so many fewer teams trying to qualify for Championships, there’s not as much pressure on the top Men’s teams to put up high scores in the early season.
This past weekends line-ups were changed, in some cases, to rest some of the top guys for the Winter Cup in Las Vegas.
Michigan's Chris Cameron
Gymnastics Examiner has commentary including a video of Paul Ruggeri competing Tamayo (layout Arabian) on Floor.
Troy Wright has started a great discussion on Coaching Gymnastics in the new Millenium:
… The biggest thing that I would stress about FHS on floor is that I try and do about a gazillion times more front handspring step-outs than front handsprings to two feet. …
Is he not worried about very flexible gymnasts doing too many “fast forward walkover” type handsprings early in the development phase? Flexible kids should be doing mostly tight flysprings, I feel.
It reminds me of another strange routine: Zhu Sang Sang – Floor – 25 turns
If you count up all of the turns, twists, and jumps, she actually does exactly TWENTY-FIVE 360-degree turns in her routine! That HAS to be a world record. That was a quad turn at the beginning …
