tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports …

The best drills I’ve ever seen for Tkachev were on the trench pit at Woodward West Gym Camp. Coach Don Eckert.

… Often Don had only a WEEK to teach the entire skill to camp kids.

Check this excellent video put together by Don. Some drills you’ve never seen before.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Love this photo of Fabian Hambuechen (2005) by Adam Pretty / Getty Images.

(via About.com Gymnastics)

One of the weirder drills on tramp, it’s useful for orientation for parallel bar skills (Stutz, Diamodov, etc.) and for release moves like Jaeger.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Don Eckert posted some advanced Kaboom skills by Bob Robbins.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Men’s Floor Exercise
1. Zhang Chenglong (Shandong) 15.075
2. Du Wei (Guizhou) 15.025
3. Zou Kai (Sichuan) 14.775

Pommel Horse
1. Zhang Hongtao (Shaanxi) 16.175
2. Chen Chen (Jiangsu) 15.575
3. Teng Haibin (Beijing) 15.450

Still Rings
1. Chen Yibing (Tianjin) 15.900
1. Yan Mingyong (Shanghai) 15.900
3. Luo Xuan (Hubei) 15.350
3. Liao Junlin (Guangxi) 15.350

Men’s Vault
1. Du Wei (Guizhou) 15.925
2. Zhang Zhongbo (Shanghai) 15.912
3. Lu Bo (Jiangsu) 15.887

Parallel Bars
1. Feng Zhe (Sichuan) 15.500
1. Wang Guanyin (Tianjin) 15.500
3. Dong Zhendong (Shaanxi) 14.850

High Bar
1. Zhang Chenglong (Shandong) 16.125
2. Zou Kai (Sichuan) 15.600
3. Chen Xuezhang (Fujian) 15.550

… On still rings, Olympic champion Chen Yibing tied world champion Yan Mingyong for the title (15.900).

Chen, untouchable on still rings from 2006 to 2008, said he welcomed the competition from his younger teammates.

“The more the merrier,” he said. “I feel more pressure to improve. I like the competition.” …

read commentary on IG

Women’s Vault
1. Zhou Qiaohong (Fujian) 14.237
2. Huang Qiushuang (Guangdong) 13.925
3. Yang Pei (Shaanxi) 13.900

Uneven Bars
1. Huang Qiushuang (Guangdong) 15.550
2. Wu Liufang (Guangdong) 14.675
3. Huang Huidan (Zhejiang) 14.500

Balance Beam
1. Sui Lu (Shanghai) 15.550
2. Jiang Yuyuan (Zhejiang) 14.450
3. Wu Liufang (Guangdong) 14.325

Women’s Floor Exercise
1. Sui Lu (Shanghai) 14.550
2. Huang Qiushuang (Guangdong) 13.825
3. Jiang Yuyuan (Zhejiang) 13.700

IG

Based on these results, Andy Thornton predicts:

… these six will make up China’s world team in Rotterdam:

Sui Lu
Deng Linlin
Jiang Yuyuan
He Kexin
Huang Qiushuang
Wu Liufang

These six can put up a very strong three-woman lineup on all four events. It could be a very exciting battle between China, Russia, and the USA, as all three teams are quite versatile and none stand out as the clear-cut favorite.

American Gymnast

I’m not crunching any numbers. … But I’ll predict, as do many others, that Russia will win World Championships, unimportant aside from bragging rights as all the top teams will qualify through to 2011.

Congrats on the Emmy win.

… The woman who weekly terrorizes the kids of “Glee” as Sue Sylvester took home the statue for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy on Sunday night …

MTV

From the Facebook album: GLEE Season 2 Cast photos by Glee

Our favourite Cheer coach returns with a new season TUE Sept. 21st.

Mike Durante is looking for a very special event. It need not be in the States though it’s a problem competing kids under a different set of rules.

jamaica/ puerto rico/ bahamas/south america?

I’m one of the organizers of my favourite meet, the Great West Gym Fest near Spokane. (Feb. 25-28, 2011)

Courtney Kupets loved it last year …

Leave a comment if you can recommend the best invitational gymnastics meet, anywhere.

Alicia Sacramone now on Twitter! Follow her at @ASacramone3

(via The All Around)

I thought this fad would die.

A personal thanks to Dana Brass, interim Head Coach of Go For It Gymnastics in Vegas, for organizing our clinic / camp last week. It was great.

Shout out to Kyle Shewfelt, inspirational headliner at camp. He made a lot of kids very happy.

From the Facebook album: Wall Photos by Amber

… Many of the girls had attended the UCLA camp with Nastia earlier in the summer. They told me they didn’t see any Olympic medals there. (Likely Nastia has hers locked up in a vault.)

more photos from Go For It

Stacey sends a link to one of the WAG compulsory routines in Great Britain.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I like this drill for fun. But the “scoop to candle” is the essential.

Vanessa Steck, at VISA Championships, had the guts to walk up and talk to some of the top American coaches: Chris Burdette, Mary Lee Tracy, and Miss Val.

It’s an extremely entertaining post:

… My favorite coach out there, hands down, was Miss Val. It took me quite awhile to get up the courage, but finally I went up to her as Zam was waiting for a turn to warm up on bars and asked her if it would be too corny to say I found her coaching style very inspirational. She laughed and said not at all, and then we had a lovely conversation. She is incredibly personable and genuinely kind. She told me she had just been talking to Chris Waller about what a big difference it is to go from NCAA to elite, especially a big event like Visas.

Valorie lights up when she talks about Zam. Before the competition, she called her a “joy to work with” and afterwards informed me that her athlete is a “jewel, a gem…she is just such a sweet, kind individual.” She smiled as she told me that Zam decided to do this in mid-May and they are just getting their feet wet, trying it out. …

Nationals- The Coaches

Liukin with Lizzy LeDuc

That’s from Couch Gymnast magazine #6.

Periodization: theory and methodology of training by Tudor O. Bompa is on Google Books. (2nd edition 2005)

There are some limitations as to how much of the text you can read online. Google Books service is free.

Google Books – Periodization: theory and methodology of training

The dead tree version is available on Amazon. ($15)

Junior U.S. champion Kyla Ross, along with Gabrielle Douglas, Sarah Finnegan, Brenna Dowell, McKayla Maroney and Sabrina Vega will represent the U.S. at the upcoming Pan American Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico Sept. 2-5, USA Gymnastics announced Monday. …

The men’s team for the Pan American Championships, named following the U.S. Championships, is also made up of up and comers. Jake Dalton, Bryan del Castillo, Dylan Akers, Glen Ishino, Alex Buscaglia and Wes Haagensen have all been selected for the team. …

click through to Gymnastics Examiner for commentary – U.S. names six top juniors to Pan American Championships squad