Entries Tagged 'twisting' ↓

What was the greatest gymnast all time like as a child?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He looks a fair typical kid. But already had a great ability to “stick” landings.

Subscribe to the gedatzeni YouTube channel. That’s Gerard Atzeni .

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Next time your kids tell you the Floor is too hard, show them this compilation.

at 1min – standing step in to triple twist … or double?

at 2:25 – ff quad twist … or triple?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Allison Hack for the link.

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Frank Costanza:

“The tradition of Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now, you’re gonna hear about it. …”

Flavius Koczi was named Romanian male gymnast of the year for 2011.

He’s Mr. Twister on Floor.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

D-score: 6.6
E-score: 8.900
15.500 1st – European Champion

Not bad. Certainly one of the best routines in the world today. But watch what Flavius showed at the Gala in Belgium, without the constraints of FIG judges and rules.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Better, I’d say. Note he removed both roll-outs.

Compare Flavius with one of the many young guns out of Japan, Kenzo Shirai.

Click PLAY or watch Kenzo on YouTube.

To me that’s no longer a “Floor Exercise”. Kenzo is doing as many twists as he can and as little else as possible. If that’s what FIG wants, why not simply use the Power Tumbling Rod Floor and name whomever does the most twists in 8 skills the winner?

UPDATE: Gerard in the comments has seen rules for young guys in Japan that ban on Floor:

• any front salto into a roll out (including arabian)
• double front (including arabian)
• double back with a twist

… That helps explain why Kenzo’s routine so overuses twisting for difficulty.

This is a Floor Exercise demonstrating a variety of qualities, not only twisting.

Click PLAY or watch the 1979 World Champion on YouTube.

A routine from over 30yrs ago on a rock hard Floor is ‘better’ than what we are seeing today. The FIG rules are not working, in my opinion.

Thomas was the first to popularize those roll-outs, by the way.

(via Full Twist)

_____ Check the comments. There are a surprising number who prefer modern Floor over the traditional “Floor Exercises” of the past.

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I’m surprised how many Men are using twists to increase start value. They are difficult to land and easy to deduct.

Click PLAY or watch Kenzo on YouTube.

Not as good as Kent Caldwell, but pretty incredible.

… Yet my main reaction watching that routine is to bemoan the lack of artistry. Rush, rush, rush.

Andy Thornton:

… I wish we could start from scratch and make things simpler again; I wish we could shred the hundreds of pages of documents that have turned this sport into something none of us understand anymore and go back to the basics of why we all loved this sport to begin with. …

On the 1st Day of Christmas, Gym Santa Gave To Me… A Brand New Code of Points!

RELATED – Gymnastics Zone – Coverage Roundup of Bruno Grandi’s Letter on Gymnastics Scoring

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Enrique Trabanino who owns Perfection Gymnastics in the Cincinnati area shares a drill to help perfect the body shape and technique of the front layout and front twisting. …

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

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Here’s an embedded version of her “quint“.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Full Twist)

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Valentin Uzunov sends a link. … Japan has a lot of depth. And a lot of good Juniors.

Is Shirai Kenzo from Tsurumi Junior Gymnastics Club a future Uchimura?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He’s quite the amazing twister.

Thanks JMSucart & Eoin Shimizu.

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First ever, so far as I’ve heard.

Watch it on Kazukuni Ohno’s Facebook.

… on to 6.

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Impressive twister.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (14.750)

Ryohei Kato won the Japanese Jr International Floor final with that routine.

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Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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Up-and-coming New Zealand gymnast Brandon Field.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Love the old style accelerating giants and tucked position for the dismount. (I’m still suspicious that this Tong Fei technique for dismount is a fad )

Brandon was their youngest team member on their Commonwealth and Worlds Teams in 2010. (INTERVIEW)

Watch more of Brandon’s training or subscribe to SFieldBrandon’s YouTube Channel.

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by site editor Rick McCharles

I hauled out one of my most popular articles the other day, recommending to coaches of kids who do not yet twist to take care to prevent the dread Barani Confusion.

Confusion about the actual direction of twist on a forward somersault is a real and common problem. Many gymnasts twist in the wrong direction; that is, a gymnast attempting to twist to the left actually twists to the right.

Best practice is to post the linked series of charts on the gym wall near tramp, monitoring your new twisters closely. Especially on forward twisting.

Even better practice would be to ask a trampoline expert to help you evaluate your kids, deciding on direction of twist for each.

Download the article and charts – Preventing “Barani Confusion” (PDF)

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The best quadruple twisting layout I’ve seen on Floor was from Michigan’s Kent Caldwell, who used it to win the Winter Cup new skills challenge in 2007.

Click PLAY or watch a Quad on YouTube.

… Leave a comment if you know of a better one on video.

What’s Kent up to now?

Find out in an exclusive Stick It Media interview

Spoiler – At World Championships can see him in ZED™, a Cirque du Soleil show based in Tokyo.

related – KentCalwell.com (online portfolio of his gymnastics artwork)

related – Getting to Know… Kent Caldwell (VIDEO)

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