Young coaches get sick and tired of us dinosaurs always talking about the Golden Age of women’s gymnastics, the late 1980s Soviet Teams.
One of those dinosaurs, Queen Elisabeth, has started a new blog called Russian gymnastics – risk, originality, virtuosity:
… For the past 17 years, since the break up of the Soviet Union, gymnastics has stagnated somewhat. If you are a fan of British or American gymnastics, or any of the other states who have benefitted hugely from the ‘retirement’ of the Soviet Union from big-time sport …
I agree.
Especially since so many of those Russian gymnasts and coaches migrated around the world. (See a partial list of former Soviets at Rotterdam.)
… I’ll give you a link to a routine that I consider to represent the epitome of ROV….
I’ve chosen beam as an example of the degradation of ROV in the sport because to me it’s where the changes in the sport have become most obvious. The gymnast is Tatiana Groshkova, who rested on the margins of the Soviet team around the late 1980s and early 1990s. …
Click PLAY or watch Tatiana Groshkova Beam on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch Deng LinLin‘s 2009 World’s Gold medal routine on Youtube.
Deng’s form is obviously beautiful, the somersaults are high, the exercise is technically correct. However, where is the ‘routine’? What makes this exercise more than an assemblage of difficulties out of the pages of the Code of Points? …
read more – What is this about? Gymnastics at a turning point?
Agree?
Check that blog for yourself – Russian gymnastics – risk, originality, virtuosity
(via Full Twist)
Groshkova was first to compete double full-in on Floor (VIDEO), in an era when it wasn’t needed to have the maximum 10.0 start.
She was simply trying to earn a spot on the Soviet A team.
Update: Canadian gymnast Anysia Unick does the Groshkova sideways backspring (Tousek). Who else is using it in 2010?
Gymnastics Coaching.com 