Year: 2010

Last night on T.V. American viewers could watch:

The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice!

and / or

The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular

I watched The Simpsons.

Here’s the first review I read on the Gymnastics:

The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular was boring last year. This time, it was painful. Crimes were committed. CRIMES, I SAY! …

Full In Full Out – Skating and Gymnastics SpecSnoozular

Leave a comment if you feel it was actually worth watching.

I watched Georgia video highlights of what coach Jay Clark called an “ugly win” over Stanford.

McCool looks ready. It was interesting to compare the veteran’s solid Beam against rookie Shayla Worley.

I still think Shayla needs to mature quickly if Georgia is to win again this season. The competition will be tougher in 2010 than last season, it seems to me. It’s not easy replacing Kupets, even with a team of superstars.

I’ve also been looking forward to the retired Georgia coach turning commentator. She’s straight spoken, sometimes outspoken. And very entertaining.

Will she dish on College judges now that she no longer has to fear grudges?

From her blog:

… I’m sure most of my readers will think I’m going to unload on what a poor job they do.

If that’s what you think, you’re absolutely wrong. I think college gymnastics judges are people of tremendous skill and integrity. …

… I believe the judging in college gymnastics today is the most accurate and fairest judging of any sport, college or professional. …

read more – The Ladies and Gentlemen in the Blue Coats

Judging in College Women’s Gymnastics is … weird. But simplistic. They only take “obvious” deductions, carefully defined. And ranking a relative low number of competitors is relatively easy.

At $200 / meet, not a bad part-time job.

Called in the Men’s Code Liukin, one of the many skills first competed by Valeri Liukin.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… WOW! He could TOTALLY connect something out of that, and I bet he’s planning on it. Will Danell be the first gymnast to use the Liukin in a release combination??? …

Andrew Thornton – Valeri Liukin Invitational!

That’s Danell Leyva. He competed it at the Liukin Invite.

Dan now has 5 coaching DVDs with the addition of Learning the Glide Kip. Something tells me this will be his most popular. Kip is one of the most difficult skills to teach.

Dan was the Head Women’s Gymnastic Coach at Bowling Green State University, for 10 years. Dan has been an influential leader in the gymnastic community as an athlete, men’s & woman’s coach, judge and clinician for over 40 years. He is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable gymnastics coaches in the world.

As Head Coach of California Sun Gymnastics Club, Dan Connelly, trained 1976 Olympic team member Tom Beach, 1984 Olympic gold medalist Mitch Gaylord, and 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials champion Charles Lakes.

Lakes had the highest Tkachev and highest Jaeger I’ve ever seen, using totally different technique than anyone else.

Dan Connelly knows swing.

That’s Tom Beach of GymSmarts, by the way.

Click through to GymSmarts for details.

related – Dan Connelly’s GymSmarts blog

UCLA defeated Utah, the first meet of the year.

The WordSmith from Nantucket attended his first UCLA meet in over 15yrs. And enjoyed it:

… The energy in Pauley Pavilion, especially on the floor, during Bruin floor routines, was electric! …

He includes a few videos. A good excuse to post this one …

Click PLAY to watch Anna Li float that Tkachev on YouTube.

related post – Jordan Moore – highest Tkachev?

Gymnastics Examiner has a great recap of the Saturday action in the Women’s NCAA.

NCAA report: UCLA smokes Utah, Georgia scrapes by Stanford

by site editor Rick McCharles

This is my friend Barkat from Bangladesh.

Does he look like a “physically challenged” athlete to you?

He is.

Barkat was a full-time gymnast who had competed internationally in Asian regional competitions. One day he decided to do some circles on pommel horse without any matting in place. He slipped, falling as he had thousands of times before, but this time somehow landed in such a way as to damage his upper spine. A fluke.

He was partially paralyzed.

If that happened to you, how would you respond?

It would either crush your spirit. Or you would get SUPER tough.

Today, with the support of family, friends and his Gymnastics Federation, Barkat is one of the most inspirational athletes I know. Charismatic, enthusiastic, well-spoken in English, he has redirected his talent into studies at Jahangirnagar University outside Dhaka.

Within months he became the University champion at able bodied table tennis, the only sport left he could do with limited lower body mobility.

He and I spoke at length about the future of Paralympic sport in his fast developing country. I believe Barkat will be one of the leaders.

I’m researching Paralympic sport right now, encouraging Barkat to get involved as an organizer now, despite his youth. He’s planning on organizing at the two largest Universities in Bangladesh, as a start. Paralympic Table Tennis, as a start.

If you have any advice or information that might help his cause, please leave a comment.

Everyone in the gymnastics community worldwide needs rally around any of our athletes catastrophically injured.

Senior Courtney McCool posted a clutch 9.925 in Georgia’s final routine to lead the top-ranked Georgia Gym Dogs over No. 7 Stanford by a score of 195.150-195.050 Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 10,224 at Stegeman Coliseum.

“It took the 10,000 people and our entire team to help me do that routine,” said McCool of her meet-clinching floor performance. “I am so proud of my team. …

The tilt with Stanford was the first of three straight meets against top-10 opponents for the Gym Dogs, who will face a total of nine ranked teams in 2010.

“I am happy that the team stayed in there and hung tough,” said Jay Clark, making his debut as head coach of the five-time defending national champions. “We made too many mistakes, there is no question about that. We had an opportunity early in the meet to be up by a good margin halfway through the meet, but we made uncharacteristic mistakes on bars that we really just haven’t ever seen. We all understand that we have to do a better job next weekend. We are glad to get the win, but at the same time, I am not excited about a low 195. I just don’t think that is where this team is and we have to do a better job from here on out.” …

read more on Geogia Dogs – Gym Dogs Defeat Stanford In 2010 Opener

Georgia photos from the meet

Click PLAY or watch a montage by Revaz Gurgenidze on YouTube.

Hilarious.

Featuring Georgia Bonora, Emma Dennis and Shona Morgan.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Lucky those guys are tough.

(via thepianist on IG forum)