Month: October 2008

International Gymnastics President Bruno Grandi likes the current (unenforceable) minimum age requirement for international gymnasts.

Here’s his “solution” to the problem of some nations falsifying birthdates:

Beginning Jan. 1, all junior and senior gymnasts who represent their countries at most international meets will need a license from the International Gymnastics Federation. The licenses will include gymnasts’ name, sex, country and date of birth, and be their proof of age for their entire career. …

The critical paragraph, however, is this one:

… Although the licenses won’t stop the sport’s problem of age manipulation – licenses will be based on passports submitted by national federations – it will give the FIG proof of an athlete’s age long before he or she shows up at an Olympics or world championships. …

Herald Tribune

Now China, North Korea and other nations need only falsify the documentation once with all up-and-coming young gymnasts. They need not worry about being caught later with evidence of conflicting birth years.

It’s obvious to many that the age requirement should be dropped. Dominique Dawes agrees:

… Honestly, for the sport of gymnastics, there should not be an age limit. …

Former Olympian Dawes speaks on life’s passions – collegiatetimes.com

And Dominique is one of the gymnasts who lost a medal at the 2000 Olympics to a Chinese team that included underage girls. No word yet from FIG on the investigation into the ages of Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Olympics. (FIG has been too busy working on the “license” regulation.)

related posts on age falsification of gymnasts

Gymblog reports that Olympic Gold medalist 2008 Yang Wei married will marry Olympic Bars Bronze medalist 2000, Yang Yun. (The wedding is Nov. 6th, I’m informed in the comments.)

Their children child should be a fantastic talent!

China’s most famous gymnastics couple did a wedding spread with Chinese Cosmo magazine.

more photos

Not to rain on the wedding parade, but Yang Yun is still under investigation by FIG for admitting she was underage at the Sydney Olympics.

There’s been much rumbling online regarding the search by Ivana Hong for a new coach. A new gym.

And much speculation about why the family took her to the controversial coach Al Fong in the first place.

Finally the story has hit the mainstream media: EXCLUSIVE: Hongs Regret Move to Blue Springs – NBC

After all has been said, I think Blythe nailed it:

… Whether it was her foot injury or not, many may say that Hong, a designated Olympic alternate, was simply the seventh-best gymnast in the U.S. this summer. Despite her third-place finish at the 2007 Pan-American Games, Hong’s routines weren’t received with much enthusiasm at the 2007 World Championships. Even in top form, she was still a bubble gymnast, and it can be argued that there was no place for her in the top five on any event. …

Gymblog

Ivana Hong is a fantastic, artistic gymnast. But she was not the right gymnast for the new code of points.

In 2008 start value was far more important than perfect form and line. And that’s a shame.

I would love to have seen Ivana compete in Beijing.

Click PLAY or watch a retrospective montage on YouTube.

Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics posted a new interview with the up-and-coming Canadian superstar.

Like so many others of the good Juniors, she has better A-score than B-scores.

… Peng is already becoming a world wide sensation with her high difficulty of skills. Although sometimes critisized for not competing the skills with the most artistry, she is a daredevil and is improving more and more as each day passes. Currently she is competing one of the hardest beam routines in the world with an A-value of around 7.0. …

Here’s that Beam routine from June 2008 Nationals in Calgary.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

She’s training privately with a personal coach right now (I assume that is Brian McVey) as her old club Seneca cancelled their program.

read the rest – Interview: Peng Peng Lee

When I was a young coach we sent a team from Canada to compete in the Netherlands. The top AA gymnast was 16-year-old Jacques Def from France. An incredible prodigy, now remembered for the skill named after him, the Def, or full twisting Gienger.

Andrew Thornton on Gymnast supposes that Snejana Hristakieva was the first female gymnast to do the skill, in 1992.

And he posted videos of some of the Defs that had been competed since that time.

I first wanted to show you a Korean gymnast (Cha Yong Hwa) from last year’s world championships whom you may not have even heard of. She had an INCREDIBLE bar routine in prelims but unfortunately just missed making the finals with a 15.525 (you’ll see the mistake that kept her out):

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click through to Gymnast to see 5 more Def videos. I left a comment to mention that Canadian Amélie Plante (video) had been missed.

Tom Cruise Spoils Suri: Private Gymnastics Room in Home

That’s the headline of a Post Chronicle article. Celebrity journalism.

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise loves his daughter, Suri Cruise, endlessly – and when you have an endless supply of money, you end up spending it all!

Tom has dropped more than $7,000 on a private play/gymnastics room for daughter Suri – and he’s having it built in their Manhattan apartment.

An insider tells Star Magazine: “Because Suri loved her private gymnastics class at Chelsea Piers in New York so much, Tom hired the facility to build Suri private gymnasium.”

“[It] will have $7,000 worth of equipment, including two mini trampolines, a balance beam, tumbling mats and a set of bars.” …

Tom has also hired a female instructor to visit and ‘train’ Suri once a week – because the process of bringing Suri to the gym was daunting task. …

Post Chronicle

Suri – Celebrity Babies

Designed to help prevent dorsal hyper-flexion, the Tiger Paw Wrist Support has a replaceable foam pad. To increase the levels of support, extra plastic battens may be inserted in the Velcro pocket.

Tiger Paw Wrist Support – $50 – Gibson Athletic

These have become so popular in North America that they are almost essential equipment for girls over age 12. Yet boys rarely wear them … even though they do much more work on the wrists.

Designed to help prevent wrist pain, the Ezy ProBrace provides strong support in wrist extension and hyperextension but still maintains flexibility. A unique “palmar pad” minimizes the angle to the wrist joint and evenly distributes impact and weight across the palm to cushion high impact forces. Pad is detachable for when the palm of hand needs to be exposed.

Ezy ProBrace by Gibson – $51 – Amazon.com

At my gym over half the older girls wear Tiger Paws. When I quizzed them, they were unanimous:

“If you don’t need them, don’t wear them. But if you do need them, wear them as much as possible. They really reduce wrist pain while training.”

Fad or training essential? Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

==== UPDATE:

From Chris in the comments:

The question that I have is how much are we loading the elbow and shoulder with the use of these? Whenever you bind a joint, the load is going to be transferred up the kinetic chain. Looking at the lower extremity, it’s very common to tape ankles or wear ankle braces in many sports. A lot of coaches see this as a preventative mechanism. But, how much load is being transferred to the knee and hip and what are the repercussions? Joints are built to go through a particular range-of-motion as that allows them to aid in force dissipation and energy absorption when combined with eccentric (lengthening) muscle activity.

The upper extremity is not as well explored in research as the lower extremity because it is structurally more complex than that of the lower extremity. So this is an interesting question yet to be answered.

I have no issues with wearing these if the kids are experiencing pain. Some simply do not have the wrist flexibility for some of the wrist extension/hyperextension positions that they are forced into. I can attest that I feel their pain as I’m currently learning to Olympic lift and catching a clean without good wrist flexibility can take its toll, no doubt.

But, I still have questions about their efficacy and drawbacks.

Aussie Olympian gave a big shout out to her guy:

Matt Burgan is a brilliant sports psychologist at W.A.I.S and I owe my training efforts towards Olympic trials to him. After 2007 I was in a really bad training slump and all hope seemed to be lost. My dream of going to the Olympics was still there but my motivation to train 100% for it was at its lowest. Matt gave me a hard reality check and basically told me to give it my all or go home. He then helped me every step of the way to get back into a correct training pattern. I look back at that moment now and I can see that was the turning point.

Olivia Vivian – W.A.I.S. blog

related post: More From Camp Orange – Australian Gymnastics Blog

When you get the right sport psychologist, GREAT.

But I’ve seen too many situations where someone who does not really understand gymnastics is brought into a gym “looking” for problems. At times they are more trouble than they are worth.

The coach is the main psychologist.

A weird story from the NCAA:

Jon Valdez has resigned after eight years as a University of Illinois men’s gymnastics coach amid a university police investigation into allegations of possible misconduct by Valdez, sources said.

Assistant athletic director Kent Brown confirmed Monday that Valdez had left his job Oct. 17 for “personal reasons,” but Brown would not confirm that Valdez was being investigated.

Responding to a Tribune inquiry, Robin Kaler, the university’s associate chancellor for public affairs, said, “There is an investigation into a camera found in a locker room on campus.”

The school would not confirm whether the investigations were connected.

Valdez, a U.S. Olympic coach in Beijing and personal coach for bronze medalist Justin Spring, had been on the Illini coaching staff since 2000. Neither Valdez nor Spring, who is in his first year as an Illini assistant coach, could be reached for comment.

Ivan Ivankov of Belarus, a two-time world all-around champion, is among those whom the university has interviewed to replace Valdez.

Olympic all-around gold medalist Paul Hamm, whose name has been mentioned as a possible replacement, said Monday via phone, “I heard the job was open and discussed it with Justin, but [seeking the job] is not an option I intend to pursue.”

Chicago Tribune

I’ve seen even worse accusations against Valdez posted on forums.

We’ll wait and see what happens with the investigation.

(via Gymblog)

We posted the new world record after World’s 2007.

Here’s another video from that competition.

Click PLAY or watch Ivanonv on YouTube.

Thanks MissEducated.