Month: October 2008

I recommend Victory Collegiate Consulting to anyone not sure the best way to put together an NCAA Gymnastics package.

Tom Kovic posted a good article for families looking at the option. Here’s an excerpt:

Initiating phone calls to the coach

I think one of the toughest challenges prospects face in the recruiting process is initiating that first phone call to the college coach and for good reason. They are scared! Somehow, many young athletes envision an unapproachable coach on the other end of the line and view the task of calling the coach with fear. Coaches are former athletes who went through the same process. More importantly, they are educators who “know the stakes” and the importance of the 4 year college experience. Sure, they are competitive and want to attract the best and the brightest, but for the most part, they want prospects in general, to arrive at a comfortable college choice and one that is the right match. They typically see their role as being a “resource,” with a sincere obligation to provide family’s with valuable information and to answers their questions. They want to assist the prospect reach his “comfort level” in an effort to begin developing a collaborative relationship.

I would not encourage a prospect to pick up the phone and make a “cold call” without preparation. …

read the entire article as a .DOC file: Navigating College RecruitingConfidence.doc

Victory Collegiate Consulting – official home page

Beth Gardner is a preschool gymnastics guru. Here’s her take on the back bend:

… bridging in preschoolers. It has been such a controversial issue for a long time, and it is a never ending debate among coaches.

…

The current industry standard for bridging recommends that children do not start bridging until age 5. The industry standard USED to be based on the concept of “developmentally correct” in which the child was allowed to do a bridge if they could place themselves into the bridge position on their own. This, however, is no longer the standard. …

Bridging in Preschoolers – GymSmarts blog

I agree with the general age guideline. However, every gym has kids under age-5 that do back bridges easily and safely.

My own policy for all once a week gymnasts is not to REQUIRE bridges. Offer recreation gymnasts alternative stretches.

I don’t “ban” back bridges, but I also do not “push” back bridges.

In fact, even competitive gymnasts are better off doing bridge with the feet elevated. It results in better technique later on many skills including walkovers. We want gymnasts to use upper back and shoulder flexibility, not the lower back.

Leave a comment if you have a position on this issue.

original bridge photo – Picassa

This transformation seems so unlikely, I can hardly believe it.

April Burkholder is perhaps the greatest gymnast in LSU history. (She’s even got her own own bobblehead doll.)

In 2006 she won the beam title at NCAA Championships. She earned first-team All-America honors on each of the four events and in the all-around.

Two years later she’s a bad girl rapper?

rapper Alazae – MySpace

Video from Utah gymnastics training during the second week of practice 2008-09.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Gymnastike)

Andrew Thornton’s popular Smooth Skills video series is now a regular feature posted every Monday on Gymnast.com:

… I’m sure many of you have recently read that the current investigation of the ages of some of the 2008 Chinese Olympians has now been expanded to include two members of the bronze-medal winning Chinese team from Sydney in 2000 – Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao. This was largely prompted by the recent public acknowledgement by Yang Yun herself that she was only 14 years old in Sydney, where she not only helped lead her team to bronze but also won a bronze on the uneven bars and placed 5th in both the all-around and floor exercise.

Yang Yun’s spectacular performance at the 2000 Olympic Games caught the attention of virtually everyone, especially because she had never competed at a world championships or Olympics before. She arrived in Sydney as the newest member of the Chinese Olympic team, and shocked many by immediately establishing herself as an all-around threat as well as a medal contender on several individual events. Her smile and personality were just as charming as her gymnastics, and she performed as if she had been competing on the world stage for years. Not only were her bars and beam up to the typical Chinese standards, but she was one of the best vaulters in the world (rare for the Chinese at that time) and had a floor routine that was well received by the judges for its beauty and choreography. In fact, had Yang Yun not suffered a rare fall off beam in the all-around finals, she would have been the Olympic all-around champion.

Here’s a look at Yang Yun’s two vaults from the team finals at the 2000 Olympics, which I consider among the best vaults ever done by a female gymnast. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

see more of her routines on Smooth Skills – Part 9

It had to happen.

“Freestyle Gymnastics” is the British Gymnastics catch-all for “Parkour, Free Running, Urban Gymnastics and Martial Arts“.

And coaches can be certified in this “new and rapidly developing activity” starting Nov. 22nd: Introduction to Freestyle Gymnastics

What’s next?

Free-running World Championships?

larger original – flickr – Marco

(via FlipCatch)

Doug Davis of TumblTrak published the results of a coaches poll:

Do you have trouble finding teachers/coaches? If so what do you do?

All of the respondents indicated that they have problems finding qualified coaches/teachers. We did receive some interesting ways gym owners go about looking for and cultivating staff; so we thought we would share some of their ideas with you.

Nathan from Ligthouse Gymnastics Academy in Norwalk CA usually trains from within, using older gymnasts to teach.

Brian Smith of GymnastiKids, Inc. in Pasadena CA uses Craigs List and has had luck with that. We did give you three options, A-train from within, B-recruit a parent of a gymnast and train them, or C-advertise locally. Of the three options A seems to be the most common option.

Matt McCann of Club Gym-Action in Gatineau, Quebec has many great ideas on how to find staff. He uses older gymnasts (between the ages of 12-14) from his classes and uses them as assistants in other classes. That way they start to learn how to put a class together. This works great because they can be demonstrators, extra eyes and can help be line watchers or even help take a student to the bathroom. Then when these assistants reach the age of 16 they can be responsible for their own group. This creates a great sense of pride for the “new coach”. Matt insists that the key to success is to do a lot of staff training. He has developed a library of drills for staff, new and old, to access any time. His staff keeps the classes fun and new through the use of a variety of drills. Matt also works with the local colleges and high schools to get additional coaches. He makes sure to work with school schedules and keep the lines of communication open. The staff of Club Gym-Action is expected to keep a good rapport with each other as well as the parents. They are responsible for talking to parents about the class plan; this keeps everyone informed. In order for Matt to keep his coaches current in their education he does fundraising to send his staff to clinics as well as bringing clinics to his gym. …

Encouraging your gymnasts to start training as coaches (and judges) is the way to go.

young coach – Athletes in Motion staff

Check out the all new TumblTrak website.

The TV special airs Oct. 12th in the USA. The event will raise awareness and money to prevent and treat women’s cancers.

Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Paul Hamm and other Olympic gymnasts will join musical stars including Cyndi Lauper, Natasha Bedingfield, Carole King and others.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

official website: FrostedPink.org

(via Sports Girls Play)

As expected, FIG ad IOC “investigated” and found that all members of the 2008 Chinese Olympic Women’s Gymnastics team were old enough to compete.

My feeling is the same as Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics:

… there is no way that He Kexin and Deng Linlin are 16 …

LBLG

He Kexin – Getty Images

Odds are that, one day, the age falsification scandal of 2008 will be revealed in an autobiography of a Chinese gymnast or coach.

Yet the story still has legs:

… The federation said it is still looking into the ages of 2000 Olympians Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao. China won the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, which concluded eight years ago Tuesday.

Yang said in an interview that she was 14 in Sydney, but explained later it was a slip of the tongue.

“The FIG does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory,” the federation said in a statement Wednesday.

FIG Secretary General Andre Gueisbuhler said Dong obtained a credential for the 2008 Olympics using documents that indicate she was only 14 in 2000, according to the AP. Dong worked as line judge in Beijing.

“I would hope that the whole world in sport realizes that the FIG is serious about these rules and the ethics and moral questions,” Gueisbuhler said.

Since an age requirement of 15 was first established in 1981, numerous gymnastics champions have admitted after retirement that they competed using false documents, including Soviets Olga Bicherova and Olga Mostepanova, and Romanians Lavinia Agache, Gina Gogean, Alexandra Marinescu and Daniela Silivas.

The only nation punished to date for age falsification in gymnastics is North Korea, which was banned from the 1993 World Championships after varying birthdates were given for Kim Gwang Suk. Kim was registered as 15 years old at the 1989 World Championships, at the 1991 World Championships and at the 1992 Olympic Game.

The minimum age requirement was changed to 16 beginning in 1997.

International Gymnast

It’s embarrassing for our sport.

Surely the best way out of this PR mess is to eliminate the age requirement completely. Perhaps retroactively.

The new look National Gymsports Championships is underway at Mystery Creek, Hamilton. Early signs are that Canterbury will dominate the junior Artistic Gymnastics events and they have already taken the Level 4 in both Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. Tumbling as proved a spectator hit with New Zealand Indo Pacific athletes, Campbell Main (Counties Manuaku) and Kieran Growcott (Canterbury) thrilling the audience with speed and power.

Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay had an excellent first day in the synchronsized Trampoline events with pairs Scott Tallot/Sam Tallott and Anastasia Smith/Chivaun Broderick taking titles in the 13/14 years.

Rhythmic Gymnastics Level 8, 9 and 10 has started with stiff opposition from the visiting Australian athletes. Otago gymnasts Brooke Hastie and Gabriella Garcia put on an excellent performance in the Ribbon apparatus with 1st and 2nd place.

Monday 29th is the start of the Aerobic event with World Number 3, Angela McMillan performing for the first time this year in New Zealand. …

Canterburys Analise Borkus

some results are linked from the GymSports New Zealand home page.