In a post that made me laugh out loud, she quoted Barabara Matson, paid journalist for old media, the Boston Globe:

… Raisman opened her first senior competition with a splash, posting the top score on the beam, sticking a Yurchenko double full dismount to earn a 15.15. …

quoted in Couch Gymnast

Yurchenko double full on beam. Now that is impressive.

I’ve watched old media sports journalists at NCAA and VISA Championships in the States. With a very few exceptions (e.g. Linda Hamilton, Deseret News) they have no idea what they are covering. Gymnastics is a complicated, rapidly evolving sport.

All mainstream journalists want is to know who won. And to grab some quotes from the post-meet press conference. Their articles are at best, boring. At worst, embarrassing.

So what should you read if you want to know what actually happened?

Gymnastics organizations with paid staff put out articles that read like dull promotional press releases. For example, the recent World Cup in Montreal. What would you know about that event if you didn’t attend?

FIG – Canada and Japan call the shots at Gymnix

Gymnastics Canada – Calgary’s Gafuik leads Canadian medal haul at gymnastics World Cup in Montreal

Those articles contain no glaring errors. But the writers are careful not to say a negative word. The real “story” of the Montreal World Cup is that it should be cancelled for lack of participation. And that the entire World Cup Series should be eliminated, or improved.

You’d have to talk to someone who was there. Or read the article on GYMmedia by Eckhard Herholz to hear anything about the issue.

By far the most insightful, interesting and entertaining commentary on gymnastics today is on blogs. Almost anyone can find some they like. (Check our list of BLOGS in the right hand navigation.)

Blogs are not perfect, God knows. They over-report rumour, scandal and problems. But I still spend 90% of my own time online reading blogs and watching video. Old media is so predictable I rarely need to skim more than the headlines.

What’s the future?

Blythe Lawrence was one of the most respected gymnastics bloggers (Gymblog) before transitioning to a new media platform called Gymnastics Examiner. She’s a trained journalist, yet her Examiner articles are closer to blog posts than The New York Times.

Examiner has high enough standards to be linked to by the F.I.G.

Gymnastics Examiner is the future.

For a trial 3 month period, Peter’s put up an ad in our right hand navigation. Thanks for the support!

Driven to improving the lives of developmentally challenged children, UCS’ Soft Play line was born. Through continued research, one product quickly became a complete line featuring mats to modular play environments. UCS’ primary concern when designing gymnastics , cheerleading and soft play equipment is for the child or gymnast’s ability to develop skills in a safe environment.

UCS Gymnastics and Soft Play Featured Products

The All Around is dedicated to bringing the latest news from the world of gymnastics, with coverage of national and international events in all disciplines, profiles of athletes, and technical articles geared to professionals in coaching and judging.

If you are on Facebook and want to get frequent and up-to-date links to all disciplines around the world, even those in languages other than English, I highly recommend you search Facebook for …

The All Around Gymnastics News

They have a blog as well, The-All-Around.com, but I see most of the links sooner on Facebook. One interesting post is a massive database of WAG Scores 2010 from all over the world.

• German gymnastics talent Maike Roll
• Italy’s rising star Serena Licchetta
• Reconstructing Russia
• Lost talents of Romania (1990s)
• Form vs Execution
• Russia Rising – Juniors
• Why we love YouTube
• gymnastics photographer Iris Van Den Broek
• gymnastics cross stitch
• Aussie gymnast Nicola Cairns persists
• Amy’s Gym diary (ouch)
• International Gymnastics Quiz

Don’t forget, if you are interested in contributing to the mag- just go to the CONTRIBUTE tab and read the relevant information.

Check it out – Couch Gymnast magazine – issue #2

That’s the only gymnastics site I know using the Squarespace hosting platform. Nice.

It’s the first thing most new customers see when checking you out. First impressions are critical.

Direct Works Media sells website packages to clubs. Check out a few of their sites:

• Twister Gymnastics, Florida
• Gym-Nest, New York
• Black Diamond Gymnastics, Utah

Disclosure: Direct Works Media has signed on as an advertiser for this site on a 3 month trial basis. Please click through and, if you like what you see, recommend Direct Works to your club management.

First, they have a wonderful space with Lake Coeur d’Alene as a backdrop. It’s beautifully lit and decorated. Seating for parents is comfortable.

It’s easy to set an impressive stage in the beautiful Coeur d’Alene Resort, one of the advantages of hosting a meet in a hotel.

When kids finish competing they move immediately to the Awards room. On arrival a video of their competition is already playing. A roving cameraman was careful to get some footage of every competitor.

The video keeps kids and parents entertained until everyone arrives. Scores are ready by that time too, done correctly and promptly. (Scoring is the biggest potential disaster in other meets.)

The video is stopped. An Olympian introduced by a skilled M.C., this year and last it was Scott Crouse from Texas. Scott’s short inspirational speech is very much geared towards the parents.

Next, the Olympian takes over. Here’s 2004 Olympic Floor Champ Kyle Shewfelt telling kids stories about his days as an age group gymnast. Certainly Kyle was one of the best of the 40 Olympians to take on this role over the past 9yrs.

The Olympian next gives a plaque and personally shakes hands with every single athlete.

Organizers divide huge age groups into age divisions of about 10 kids each. (born March, 1999, for example) Gymnasts all get an award on every apparatus.

Placements are acknowledged by sticky tags that are added to the individual plaques. For example, if you finish 3rd on Beam in your small age group category, you get a 3rd place sticky. Announcing results and distributing those tags is fast and efficient. And done in a fun and encouraging way.

When all awards have been handed out, there is an additional set of different (bigger) trophies given for OVERALL COMBINED. We might have 6 different age divisions of Level 6 girls, for example, combining those to find out who had the highest vault score from all ages of Level 6.

This takes time, but is worth it, I feel. It rewards the very best kids in the meet.

Finally, the Bears. The Great West Gym Fest is famous for hand carved bear and moose statues given out only for Team Competition.

You’ll find these bear statues in gyms all over the U.S.A. and Canada.

Olympians enjoy this meet. They are not overworked. Raj Bhavsar has been an Olympic celebrity at events in 8 nations since Beijing. He felt this was his most enjoyable event yet.

Kids have plenty of opportunity to meet and get photographs with their favourite Olympians. This year the Olympians Ice Cream Social was held out on a boat on the lake. Nice.

Trust me, this is only a brief overview of the elaborate awards system put in place by meet organizer Dave Adlard. There’s much, much more. Too much to cover here. But leave a comment if you have any questions.

Thanks David Hill of ECLIPSE GYMNASTICS in Australia.

Youth Gymnastics Hub – Your place for everything Gymnastics

Looks good though I’m not sure how well the content is networked. See for yourself.

About 4000 “members“. (many with cartoon avatars)

Over 300 “Gymnastics Groups“.

Something called “blogs“. (Though no page without an RSS feed can be a blog, in my opinion.)

Hundreds of photos and videos:

Roanoke Academy of Gymnastics

WePlay.com – Gymnastics

I find him strident. And not all that amusing.

But I’m thrilled he won the prestigious TED prize for 2010.

At the heart of Oliver’s work is an assault on the obesity epidemic: The CDC states that one in four Americans are considered obese. It is estimated that 43 percent of Americans, or 103 million people, will be obese by 2018. The cost of this epidemic is anticipated to reach $344 billion per year. It currently accounts for almost 10 percent of the yearly US health care costs, and that rate will rise to 21 percent by 2018. WHO’s latest projections indicate that, globally in 2005, approximately 1.6 billion adults were overweight and projects that by 2015, that figure will rise to 2.3 billion.” …

2010 TED Prize goes to Jamie Oliver

God knows he’s passionate. If interested, click over to TED to watch his scary 18min presentation.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Watching X Country skiing at the Olympics. Brutal tough.

To their moms, Team USA athletes will always be their kids.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

THANKS Sports Girls Play. What a beautiful message.

And thanks Proctor and Gamble.