Entries Tagged 'product warnings' ↓

This week’s episode was the lamest, yet, IMHO. A “dramarama“.

The only redeeming moment was seeing a Ponds twist belt used in a tumbling harness. Nostalgia. The last time I saw that set-up was in the 1970s.

Sasha looks terrified of spotting. He needs the belt. Or to let the gymnasts coach each other on new tricks.

If you’re hooked like me, Episode 16, Save the Last Dance, is online free if you live in the USA at ABCfamily.com. And online here if you live outside the States.

On the Men’s side I really shouldn’t refer to this meet as most bloggers do: The Scam Cup.

It’s a bloody impressive field, assuming all these great gymnasts make it:

Colombia, Jorge Hugo Giraldo Lopez
France, Benoit Caranobe
Germany, Fabian Hambuechen
Great Britain, Daniel Keatings
Japan, Koji Yamamuro
Romania, Flavius Koczi
Russia, Maxim Devyatovskiy
United States, Jonathan Horton
United States, Tim McNeill

I’d happily pay $35 for entry. That’s a bargain.

Reigning Tyson American Cup champion and 2008 Olympic horizontal bar bronze-medalist Fabian Hambuechen of Germany highlights the international list of participants that includes seven 2008 Olympians and four 2009 World medalists for the 2010 Tyson American Cup on March 6 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass. …

USAG

One reason this meet is oft ridiculed, however, is that the number of competitors is so small. It’s near certain that medals will be awarded to gymnasts with falls. And that’s a shame.

Another reason it’s called a “Scam” is that the U.S.A. can enter two gymnasts, all other invited nations only one. The results tend to look good for the host, though that’s far from guaranteed on the Men’s results sheet.

Yet, on the women’s side, there’s one thing I’m really looking forward to … the Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup, a new competition held the day prior to American Cup. It’s intended to be a a competitive opportunity for the country’s top Junior Olympic gymnasts, though some Elites will be in the field too.

That’s going to be a fantastic event.

Women’s American Cup?

As usual, I’m personally disinterested. Everyone knows the American girls are supposed to win. That will boost TV ratings.

No use listing the female competitors either as the list always changes in the weeks and days leading up to the meet.

It is a great experience for a young up-and-coming gymnast. Canadian Dominique Pegg, for example, is a good choice for this event.

Leave a comment if you disagree. Many enjoyed the Scam Cup last year.

Read some less cynical commentary on Gymnastics Examiner – Analysis: 2010 American Cup will be exciting, especially for men’s gymnastics fans

UPDATE: A thread on IG forum discussing ideas to improve the Scam.

If, like me, you couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm to watch the The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular, here’s a short clip linked from UNORTHODOX GYMNASTICS review.

Click PLAY or watch Crank it Up on YouTube.

There’s another profanely negative review on Aunt Joyce.

Actually, the stuff the guys do at these Spectaculars is quite good. Reasonable difficulty with panache and humour. I’d watch an edit of the Men’s gymnastics.

But a backspring on beam in a short skirt? Most 7yr-old gymnasts would be disappointed with that level of “difficulty”.

Last night on T.V. American viewers could watch:

The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice!

and / or

The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular

I watched The Simpsons.

Here’s the first review I read on the Gymnastics:

The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular was boring last year. This time, it was painful. Crimes were committed. CRIMES, I SAY! …

Full In Full Out – Skating and Gymnastics SpecSnoozular

Leave a comment if you feel it was actually worth watching.

by site editor Rick McCharles

Personally I think twitter is a stupid fad.

It’s weak and cryptic compared with Facebook. Not to mention other social networking services.

And inane. Have you ever actually read the garbled nonsense posted by Ashton Kutcher?

Yet twitter does have a few unique advantages, especially for bloggers like me that monitor the internets for interesting “news”.

Many stories break first on twitter.

Here are the most followed gymnastics twits that have signed on with wefollow.com.

Samantha Peszek is #1.

UPDATE: Most are reporting no problems. Seems to be a local problem for me or the free wireless internet I’m using.

=== original post:

I love Universal Sports online coverage.

It’s improved fantastically since the beginning.

But the service is still slow at times. And problematic, at times.

This link’s been “buffering” for the last 20min. The commercial plays, but not the promised content.

screen shot

Leave a comment if you had problems on your computer.

(YouTube is ugly. But at least it works.)

Are these the worst in decades?

… London 2012 organisers said that the 38 official pictograms unveiled today were a key staging post in their attempts to engage the British public with every Olympic sport. …

Guardian – London 2012 organisers unveil 38 pictograms

I somewhat like the weird, original main logo. But the individual sports are neither retro … nor interesting.

Consider me disengaged.

Gymnastics blogs are normally one main voice, with one point of view.

Sure they have comments. And contributors. But on this blog, for example, you’ll find some very consistent themes if you assess the many hundreds of posts. If you like those themes, you might return to this site. If you don’t, you’ll be gone.

Forums are entirely different. That’s where people can go to brainstorm. To rant. To share. To flame. To have a conversation on different threads.

If you’ve never lurked or participated, check out one of these:

The Couch Gymnast blog recently shared some love with IG Online:

What I love most about the International Gymnast Online forum- aside from the fact that a lot of these people who frequent the forum seriously know their @#$%-is how frank and funny they are in giving their opinions. Here are some of my favorite funny-slash-brutally-honest moments in recent discussions. …

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS….

It’s true there are some amazing people on the IG Forum, Senor Nico, for example. I wish Senor Nico would start up a blog. Unfortunately I cannot subscribe only to Senor Nico comments. (Many of the other forum commenters are not nearly so smart and humorous.)

It’s easy to waste time on a forum. Waiting for the odd comment by Senor Nico.

One more complaint about the IG Forum: It’s got more comment spam than any other right now.

Why can’t they fix that problem?

HBC won the contract to supply uniform for Canadian Olympians from 2006 – 2012.

I saw this on Kyle Shewfelt’s (kyleshew) twitter feed.

But they’ve never found a theme anywhere nearly as good as the previous supplier, Roots.

The best the Hudson’s Bay Company has done is copy the Roots Retro formula.

Last Thursday the “look” for the 2010 Olympics hosted in Canada was unveiled.

“Hoser Chic”, it’s been called.

I like it. But certainly we need Roots to win back the contract after 2012. Overall, HBC has been a disappointment.

(Sport BC linked to the announcement on CBC Sports)

Someone is promoting this product on message boards.

Though it might be SPAM, they look interesting.

UPDATE: Svetlana KISSELEVA wrote to assure us the company and product is for real. See her entire email in the comments of this post.

Heels protection is necessary for workout on the beam.

Provides soothing compression to the heel. Easy to put. Do not slide.

Inside gel pads help limit the every day pain of heel and perform the shock absorption. Outside nonskid rubber perform the stability.

Heels Protection

Good idea.

The company is called Skiss Leotards . It purports to be a Russian – French firm making leos in France.

Leave a comment if you can confirm this company is REAL.

==== UPDATE: Quebecker recommends a similar product, Tuli’s Cheetah Heel Protector.

From the Gym Chat Sports Network.

Watch, share, and post your sports videos & audios on Gym Chat TV!

You can slo mo, fast play, reverse play, step by step play, 5 second instant replay, and zoom your sports videos!

Check it out: tv.gymchat.com

Most recent uploads are from the 2009 Cottbus Cup.

There are more special features than any other video site I’ve used. And it’s still being tweaked. Gym Chat is very responsive to feedback by email.

The interface is somewhat cluttered and confusing to me. But the service has potential.

You must have seen the trailer by now. They’re spending a lot of money on TV commercials to hype the thing.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Looks lame. Most of the good laughs are in the promo reel, I suspect.

The only review I’ve seen concurs:

… it’s about a pair of high school football players (played by 31-year-old Eric Christian Olsen and 28-year-old Nicholas D’Agosto) who opt out on their team training in order to tag along with the all-female cheerleading squad to their cheer camp/competition.

… I’m pretty certain that we’re looking at a PG-13 here (yes, they can say ’s–t’ all they want with that rating). Heck, if it were actually R, then this film’s audience would have to ask a parent or legal guardian to come with, and that’s just cruel to consider.

Either way, Fired Up drops down on March 20, 2009. To quote one of the sassy cheerleader foes: B. F. D.

‘Fired Up’ Trailer Leaves Us Anything But

Why do hand grips tear so easily?

Sarah’s grip ripped on a simple glide kip.

It can be dangerous if they rip while the gymnast is on the Bar.

They should be replaced as soon as a small rip starts on the grip.

Coach Mark Van Wyk initiated a tradition at his gym. “Handguard Heaven”. Gymnasts toss broken and torn grips like this up into the rafters at Calgary Gymnastics Centre.