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.
It’s conveniently located close to the train station.
This past summer, on recommendation from Keith Russell, I visited the new digs. And was very impressed with the operation.
Meike Behrensen, F.I.G. Media Operations Coordinator, gave me a tour.
(You’ve probably noticed how well and widely Meike has been getting information out to the world in recent months. I’m getting updates every couple of days from multiple sources. Thanks.)
I felt a bit sheepish entering the lovely historic building after all the less than positive things I’ve had to say about F.I.G. over the years. But you won’t find Bruno Grandi at the FIG offices. Nor
Nellie Kim.
Here the FIG employees work frantically trying to keep all the events and programs worldwide on track.
It’s not easy.
I was impressed with everyone I met: young, enthusiastic, energetic, multi-lingual. To survive working for FIG you must have a lot of good qualities.
On this blog we mostly cover Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. But in Lausanne they administer Trampoline Sports, Rhythmic, Aerobic, Acrobatic, Gymnastics for All, … and much, much more.
Consider this a shout out for the F.I.G. Staff. We really appreciate what you are doing for coaches and athletes.
We were very, very close to seeing a World Gymnastics All-around Champion … who fell on her last tumbling pass.
But she had some “bad luck”.
Rebecca Bross of USA falls as she competes in the floor exercise during the Women’s All Round Final on the fourth day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2009 at the O2 Arena on October 16, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
1 SLOAN Bridget USA 57.825
2 BROSS Rebecca USA 57.775
The worst medal despite a fall I can recall was Cheng Fei at the 2008 Olympics.
Whatever rules we use in our sport, most coaches feel that a full fall on a routine is a failed routine. It should not be awarded a medal, despite any insanely high start value.
That said, I remember Nastia winning Beam at a VISA Championships with a fall. Yet it truly was the “best” routine of the Final.
… “We want to be at the top,” he said in preparation for Friday’s Grand Prix opening of the Trophée Eric Bompard event in Paris. “We think we are the best ice dance team in the world.” …
Andy Thornton did an analysis of Kyla Ross vis-a-vis past U.S. Jr. National Champions. He compared Kyla against Carly Patterson, Shawn Johnson, Kim Zmeskal and all the rest.
A couple of interesting points jumped out at me:
… for American female gymnasts, the average time lapse between winning a first junior national title and reaching peak competitive form is about 2.3 years. So we can expect Rebecca Bross to be in peak form this year, Jordyn Wieber to reach her peak in 2010, and Kyla Ross to reach her peak in 2011. …
Critically important:
… The average peak age … has been 15.7. Hmmm…. that’s younger than the required age of 16 to compete at world or Olympic competition. Great! The gymnasts can go to their first world championships or Olympic Games while they’re on the way down from their peak. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? …
I know many elite coaches who project their gymnasts to peak at age-16.
Andy also posted all 4 of Kyla’s routines if you want to see how she compares as a Jr. against the past greats.
I’m suspicious. The American team was very strong. …
Historically South American teams have been overscored in South America.
… Brazil won the men’s team competition at the Junior Pan American Games, defeating the United States and Columbia, according to The Canadian Press. Canada finished fourth. All four countries qualified teams to next year’s Youth Olympics, which will be held in Singapore….
A montage showing some named skills from the Code of Points that were actually performed by other people earlier. Generally this happens when people never get to go to a world championships but occasionally the FIG like to remind us how dumb they can be and just name the skill after the wrong Romanian. Smooth.
This is opening up a HUG discussion. (Hugging the athlete not credited.) And a HUGE discussion. Check the comments.
Fact is the “naming” of gymnastics skills has always been inconsistent and political. It often depended on who was on the Women’s Technical Committee at the time.
And why are some skills named after a male gymnast?
… blantonnick points out the only skill in the Men’s code named for a woman is Yurchenko.
… the Code of Points does not help Romania develop and retain many gymnasts.
“Now the scoring is open(-ended), so everyone tries to do many difficult combinations that take a lot out of the body,” he said. “It’s not easy to make many routines. There are two notes, Difficulty and Execution. To have good execution you have to do it many times, and when the difficulty is higher, it is not easy to do many times.” …
Some 2009 World Championships clips including the fall by Rebecca Bross on FX.
It’s interesting to look at a large number of falls closely to see why they happen – often very bad technique and form – and to speculate on why the coach left the skill in the routine.
Seems to me there’s too much incentive to do “difficulty” in our rules.
And that many of these athletes have not done enough landings on competition mats prior to the meet.
… Why is it that men’s gymnastics is thriving, while women’s appears to be on a downward spiral? Some people here (myself included) noted that the men’s competition at Worlds was far more exciting than the women’s. Was this an isolated incident or is it the beginning of a trend? Even going back every single event after the olympics, the men have given us better execution, more difficulty, and a lot more to cheer for.
In my honest opinion, WAG has been stagnant for awhile now, and recently has reached an all time low. Girls are doing the same skills they did 20 years ago, most of them with far worse execution. …
medstudent24 is basically right. The Men have handled the demands of the open ended code much better than have the young women.
The code of points is most to blame if you feel as I do that the depth and quality of the best gymnasts in the world is in decline. The only good news is that World’s were much less horrendous and dangerous than I feared.
…
The women’s scoring in particular was the most unpredictable and undecipherable I’ve ever seen. I was confused, lost, and actually ostracized as a knowledgeable fan. I can’t imagine how lost the fans were who haven’t followed the sport for 20 years like I have.
Execution scores on the women’s side are ridiculous beyond explanation. They give every gymnast a mid-8 regardless of the performance. High 8’s and rarely a 9 are only possible on vault. What a bunch of nonsense! …
INTERNATIONAL GYMNAST Editor Dwight Normile part way through the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships:
… While scanning the hundreds of scores from the women’s qualifications here in London, I realized something odd. The results sheets included zero scores above 9.0 for the E-score (execution). And how many scores of 9.0 appeared? Two: one each for American Kayla Williams and North Korean Hong Un Jong on vault.
What shocks me most is that I saw some very good routines that would have scored 9.5 and above under the old 10.0 system. …
The men’s scores were more realistic, with numerous gymnasts cracking the 9.0 barrier, and well into the mid-9.0s.
It’s a pity that men’s and women’s gymnastics is judged so differently right now. This new Code was supposed to restore artistry by emphasizing execution over difficulty. The best way to do that is to lower the value of the D-score as severely as the E-score is being evaluated. …
Meike Behrensen, F.I.G. Media Operations Coordinator, gave me a tour. 
