Year: 2010

The path to mastering the Kip is sometimes paved with pain and failure.

You know when you’ve made it on the internet?

When people put together spoofs on your stuff.

… A parody of a popular, weekly upload of gymnastics coaching/training tips on YouTube, produced by Gym Smarts. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Gymnastics Crossing)

MostepanovaFan. Love is Pink.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Gymtage: The Best in Gymnastics Montages)

“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”

A booster of UCLA Gymnastics, Coach Wooden is dead at age-99.

In 2009, John R. Wooden was named The Sporting News “Greatest Coach of All Time”

Not many would dare argue.

John Wooden was the coaches coach. A purist.

Seven Point Creed

John Wooden’s Seven Point Creed, given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Wooden also authored a lecture and a book about the Pyramid of Success. The Pyramid of Success consists of philosophical building blocks for winning at basketball and at life. In his later years he has been hired by corporations to deliver inspirational lectures and even appeared in commercials for Hartford Insurance and the NCAA. It is generally known that he received lecture fees that exceeded the salaries he was paid as a coach. Wooden proudly claimed that these late in life windfalls allowed him to set up education accounts for all of his grandchildren. In a 2009 interview, John Wooden described himself politically as a “liberal democrat,” who had voted for some republican presidential candidates.”

Among Wooden’s maxims:

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Flexibility is the key to stability.
Be quick, but don’t hurry.

Wikipedia

LA Times – John Wooden’s pyramid stands test of time

Coach Sommer of GymnasticBodies.com (author of Building the Gymnastic Body) clarifies confusion on two recent posts:

Huang Yubin is not exaggerating. This is a very serious problem for China.

For some time now, the Chinese program has focused on the development of event and multi-event specialists. Now with the change in the Olympic Team format from 6 to 5 athletes, the effective possible roles for specialists have been drastically reduced while the importance of strong all arounders as the majority of your competitive team on the floor cannot be overstated. Especially in a 3 up 3 count format. This is a tremendous disadvantage in the team competition as strong Chinese All Arounders are relatively scarce.

The Japanese however are not affected in the least by this Olympic Team format change. While the rest of the world emphasized the development of specialists, the Japanese continued to select their Teams (National, World and Olympic) solely by their all around ranking at the various qualification meets.

Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer

No wonder Rings Olympic Champion Chen Yibing is back training the all-around.

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

Just to ensure I’m banned in China.

No one understands better the importance of symbolic imagery than totalitarian governments. One day this photo will be revered in China. But not in 2010.

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 – Wikipedia

The Unknown Rebel – AP photographer Jeff Widener. A lone protester delayed the tanks for over half an hour.

The new process is still evolving. Many are confused, including me.

Is this correct?

Teams of five gymnasts … UPDATE. Six gymnasts at World’s, but only five at Olympics.

October 2010 – World Championships Rotterdam – top 24 teams advance

2011 – World Championships Tokyo – top 8 teams advance to Olympics & top 3 individuals on each apparatus (if not on one of the teams)

2012 – Olympic Qualifier London – only the teams ranked 9-16 compete with the top 4 of those 8 teams advancing to the Olympics. Or do all teams compete, qualification affecting only the teams ranked 9-16 from Tokyo?

SIIMPLE. … As simple as Facebook Privacy settings.

Here we go again … What unforeseen problems do you foresee?

Worse is the change in the competition calendar for Rotterdam.

Dwight Normile:

… For years, the men’s qualification rounds preceded the women’s (actually, this has varied over the years), but the schedule printed on the official Rotterdam worlds website has the women’s prelims on Oct. 16 and 17, followed by the men’s prelims on Oct. 18 and 19.

The women’s team final is slated for Oct. 20, the men’s on Oct. 21. Then it gets weird.

Both the men’s and women’s all-around finals are scheduled for the same day, Oct. 22, with the men’s at 4 p.m. and the women’s at 7:30 p.m. So much for celebrating your team victory the night before if you are an all-arounder.

I feel for any all-arounder from a top-eight team, such as Japan’s Kohei Uchimura or Germany’s Fabian Hambüchen. These guys will have to gear up for the all-around final less than 24 hours after competing in the emotionally draining team final, where they might have performed on all six events. It will be completely understandable if any of these guys fails to reach his potential in the apparatus finals the following two days.

Why schedule the men after the women for the prelims and team finals, only to reverse them for the all-around finals? With only four events (and eight skills counting) compared with six (10 skills) for men, it is far easier for female gymnasts to compete back-to-back all-around competitions than it is for men. …

International Gymnast – Stretching Out: Olympic Qualification & Guess Who’s Back? (updated)

_____ UPDATE:

A J of The All-Around recommends you download an Excel Spreadsheet with details on how this is supposed to work.

Gak. It’s much more complicated than I thought. There are going to be many not chosen, irate at F.I.G.

This much complexity was not needed. The main change desired was to get the top 3 on each apparatus at the last World Championships qualified to the Olympics. There are easier ways to make that happen.

Istvan Balyi said something very interesting at a recent coaching course.

He feels that of all the variables of “sustenance”, sleep is the most essential for athletes. More important than nutrition or hydration!

Teenage boys can sleep as many hours as a baby. A teenage boy who trains intensely needs even more recovery sleep than his peers.

Consider interviewing your athletes regarding their sleep patterns.

related:

Psychiatric News – Sleep May Be Athletes’ Best Performance Booster

European Journal of Sport Science – Nutrition, sleep and recovery

Aunt Joyce’s Ice Cream Stand is no more.

But not to worry. He’ll be back

“… I am going to take a brief break in order to get some things taken care of and sorted out, but I will be back.

I also made another formspring for those who read that. I won’t have the same name anymore. I’m now AuntJoyce on formspring.”

He’s one of the most prolific bloggers out there, covering both Artistic Gymnastics and Ice Skating.

International Gymnast has a good write-up:

Sui Lu and Feng Zhe won the all-around titles at China’s spring national championships, which concluded Sunday in Xiantao, Hubei province. …

read more on IG – Sui, Feng Win Chinese Championships

Women’s All-Around Final
1. Sui Lu 56.300
2. Wu Liufang 55.550
3. Huang Huidan 55.350

Women’s Vault Final
1. Jiang Tong 13.987
2. Li Ting 13.912
3. Zhang Linzi 13.412

Uneven Bars Final
1. He Kexin 16.225
2. Huang Huidan 14.750
3. Wu Liufang 14.700

Balance Beam Final
1. Deng Linlin 15.050
2. Sui Lu 14.900
3. Zeng Siqi 14.525

Women’s Floor Exercise Final
1. Sui Lu 14.250
2. Jiang Tong 13.450
3. Huang Huidan 13.400

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

Check these MAG scores in advance of World Championships in October:

Men’s All-Around Final
1. Feng Zhe 89.300
2. Liao Qiuhua 89.050
3. Zhang Chenglong 88.900

Mens’ Floor Exercise Final
1. Huang Yuguo 15.525
2. Zhang Chenglong 15.425
3. Tong Yingjie 15.175

Pommel Horse Final
1. Zhang Hongtao 16.150
2. Yu Fu 15.350
3. Hong Chen 15.225

Still Rings Final
1. Yan Mingyong 15.900
2. Yong Taozhu 15.425
3. Lu Bo 15.400

Men’s Vault Final
1. Huang Yuguo 16.050
2. Du Wei 15.887
3. Zhang Chenglong 15.837

Parallel Bars Final
1. Feng Zhe 15.950
2. Peng Liuzhan 14.925
2. Liang Mingsheng 14.925

High Bar Final
1. Chen Zhang 15.700
2. Zhang Chenglong 15.400
3. Feng Zhe 15.250

Crisis What Crisis?

UPDATE: Coach Sommer explains why those high MAG scores don’t necessarily translate to a winning “team”.

I’d say the Chinese Women are far more at risk of being beaten at World’s than are the Men.

Women’s head coach Lu Shanzhen:

… wrote on his blog that he was thrilled with the performances on bars but dismayed by the competitive level on vault, where the winning score was a low 13.987. …

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

Capital City Gymnastics in Edmonton, Alberta is currently looking for a Women’s Artistic Program High Performance Coach. The successful applicant should possess a minimum Level 3 certification, as well as excellent communication and organizational skills, be a strong motivator as well as a team player. The successful applicant should also be very strong technically on the uneven bars, vault, and floor exercise.

This position will be a full-time salaried position based on 35 – 40 hours per week, benenfit package included. Salary to commensurate with knowledge, experience and education. …

Capital City Gymnastics currently has 3 female high performance gymnasts as well as 12 other female national athletes among our program of 65 National, Provincial and L.E.A.P. athletes. We are also home to National Team Members Brandon O’Neill and Jackson Payne. Capital City is also home to 1000 recreational members.

The successful applicant must also have or be willing to obtain their Risk Management certification and will be subject to a Police check.

Please send all resumes and inquiries in confidence to Kristi Marks …

Email: kristi_l_b {AT} hotmail.com