Entries Tagged 'pommel horse' ↓

UPDATE: Barkalov Wins Russian Championship

From The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook:

1. Barkalov 88.300; 2. Gogotov 87.400; 3. Cherkasov 86.550; 4. Olennikov 86.500; 5. Pakhomenko 86.400

Complete results (Russian)

I don’t know much about Barkalov, except that he was picked as one of 20 gymnasts to watch in 2010 by Gymnastics Examiner.

Click PLAY or watch his Floor (2008) on YouTube.

Update: Barkalov’s Pommels.

Detailed advice on hand position from the great Hideo Mizoguchi.

Click PLAY or watch it on Mizo’s GymSmarts blog.

Some Chinese coaches do drills with both hands in undergrip. And many coaches introduce single pommel circles to beginners with both hands in overgrip.

Watch more gymnastic training videos on the Gymnastic Minute Channel.

Follow them on twitter @gymsmarts

video preview – “How to beat China”

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This is a video of the 2007 Jr MAG Tirrenia training camp, hosted by the European Union of Gymnastics held in Italy every year. This DVD was produced specifically for the Swiss Gymnatics Federation, and thus has only partial translation in English. Majority of DVD is in German and some French, with very limited english translations. However a lot of the concepts and ideas are understandable even without a translation. …

DVD CONTENT
PHYSICAL PREPARATION – (3min)
POMMEL HORSE- presented by Valeri Belenki (GER)(Former Olympic and World Champion and member of the German coaching staff) (8min)

PARALLEL BARS – Valeri Belenki (GER) (16min)

HIGH BAR – presented by Rudolph Bouché (FRA) (professor of sport and technical framework at the Training Center of Antibes) (12min)

45min total – DVD costs $25

details – The Gym Press – “How to beat China” 2007 Tirrenia Training Camp

If you haven’t checked it lately, there’s a ton of great stuff in The Gym Press Article Archive and Video Archive.

Thanks Valentin Uzunov, editor, one of the most serious students of our game.

I saw this great photo on a Romanian blog called Gymnastics … and other things

Marius Urzica – Athens 2004 Gala

Check out Gymnastics … and other things translated to English

Cristina, the editor, has a great sense of style.

Gymkata is a 1985 film filmed in Yugoslavia and starring Kurt Thomas as Jonathan Cabot, an Olympic gymnast who combines his gymnastic ability with ninjutsu to enter a deadly competition in a fictional country, Parmistan. It is based on the novel The Terrible Game (1957) by Dan Tyler Moore.

The film has developed a minor cult following as an unintentional comedy for its dubious premise, poor production quality and low budget. Maxim lists the film as the 17th “Worst Movie of All Time”.

Gymkata – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The scene always bemoaned loudest by every coach is the pommel horse battle:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

Gymkata – Amazon

These days Kurt is a successful coach and club owner in Texas.

Thanks Helen.

Gold – ZHANG Hongtao (CHN) – 16.200
Silver – BERKI Krisztian (HUN) – 16.075
Bronze – SELLATHURAI Prashanth. (AUS) – 15.400

4. TOMMASONE Cyril (FRA) – 15.225
5. MCNEILL Timothy (USA) – 15.150
6. KOCZI Flavius (ROU) – 14.975
7. SELIGMAN Robert (CRO) – 14.750
8. SMITH Louis (GBR) – 14.450

Do you need a specific body type to be great on Pommels? Tall? Slim? Long arms?

Check our 3 medalists:

FIG – China back on the podium

I’m particularly happy for Prashanth Sellathurai. That guy has fantastic, unique style.

You might assume the Chinese men will be “weak” at World Championships considering the retirements after the Beijing Olympics.

Andy Thornton has posted analysis on the American Gymnast blog.

… Who’s going to make it? Well, you’d have to think that Zou Kai is probably a lock, given he has established himself as China’s best on two out of the six events. I think they may end up ditching any medal opportunities on vault and focusing on the other five events, but we’ll have to see. The question may be whether they even put any all-arounders on the team or simply go for individual event medals. …

Here are a couple of no names that might not make the team.

Click PLAY or watch Yan Mingyong Rings 2009 Chinese National Games Prelims on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Huang Yuguo Vault 2009 Chinese National Games AA on YouTube.

Incredible.

What a fight it must be in China to be considered the “best” on one apparatus. (Aside from HBar. They don’t have anyone competitive with the best in the world on that apparatus.)

See more routines – American Gymnast – Some more Chinese male specialists we may see in London…

=== update:

Another Andy’s Angle blog post compares the new kid vs Olympic Pommel Champion Xiao Qin.

Click PLAY or watch Zhang Hongtao PH 2009 Chinese National Games Prelims on YouTube.

16.250 (D-score:6.6)

If you take the Olympic Champion to World Championships, do you leave the second best pommel routine in the world in Beijing?

… A nice problem for the Chinese coaching staff.

yet more videos – A look at some of the specialists in contention for the Chinese men’s world team…

Alberto Braglia (March 23, 1883 in Campogalliano (Modena) – February 5, 1954) was an Italian gymnast. He won gold overall at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, 3 olympic gold medals throughout his career.

Wikipedia

Braglia

Jim Holt requested some video of Alberto. Watch it in Italian on YouTube.

Are you one of those who ignores the international judging rules up until a major competition?

After all, FIG is bound to change them anyway. New interpretations will force the top gymnasts to change their routines.

The first World Championships of the new cycle is nearly upon us. October 13 to 18th in London.

Matt (mgl71594) has a number of videos like this, helping explain what judges are looking for.

Click PLAY or watch Jon Horton’s Floor routine assessment on YouTube.

A detailed projection of scores by Andy Thornton on the American Gymnast blog puts Jon 3rd in the world:

I put together a chart below that shows the highest scores I could find on each event from any competition this year for Uchimura, Hambuchen, and Horton – this included the Japan Cup where Uchimura and Hambuchen competed head-to-head (Uchimura won by 0.65), the American Cup, the national championships for all three gymnasts, and Hambuchen’s recent Champions Trophy competitions. Then I totaled them up to get a theoretical comparison of their all-around potentials:

Uchimura – 94.0
Hambuchen – 92.9
Horton – 91.95

… it’s clearly POMMEL HORSE that is keeping both Hambuchen and Horton away from Uchimura. You’ll notice that Hambuchen’s all-around is about 1 point behind Uchimura, and that’s exactly how far back his pommel horse is as well. Similarly, Horton’s total is 2 points behind Uchimura, and that’s exactly how far his pommel horse is away from Uchimura’s too! So if we look at the other five events combined, these three guys are incredibly evenly matched.

To make it even clearer, here are these three guys’ totals WITHOUT pommel horse:

Uchimura 78.85
Hambuchen 78.80
Horton 78.75

read more – Uchimura vs. Hambuchen vs. Horton…

(via Sho Nakamuri)

Stick It Media linked to this video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Zhang Hongtao

Wow! Single leg work like the 1960s.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

From Andrew Thornton on his new American Gymnast blog column:

… this guy was in the last “individual-only” world championships in 2005, where he competed only pommel horse. He did make the finals, but ended up finishing 6th, (teammate Xiao Qin took the gold). Although Zhang’s amazing swing has been around for several years, he hasn’t been given another shot at a world medal since his 2005 debut. While Xiao Qin dominated the world on this event throughout the entire last quadrennium, there likely wasn’t room on the powerful Chinese team for two pommel horse specialists. Now that Olympic champion Xiao is retired, I have a feeling we will be seeing this guy in London in a couple of months, where he will now be the one to beat. …

Click through to see Olympic Floor Champion Zou Kai’s new routine. Second pass has never been competed before.

Andy’s Angle – Recent Chinese Nationals from Xiantao!

New Zealand gymnast Misha Koudinov plans to compete this skill at the Moscow World Cup at the end of May.

He will submit a request to get it valued in the Code.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships 2009 hosted by University of Minnesota

Click PLAY or watch the winning routine on all 6 apparatus on YouTube.

(via gymNICEstics and Stick It Media)