2011 – Page 15 – Gymnastics Coaching.com

Kiteboarding Boracay

After our week long coaching clinic in Manila, I flew down to Boracay for some R&R.

Bulabog Beach is the main windsurfing and kiteboarding area, one of the best in the world.

Kiteboarding (or kitesurfing) has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. …

There were 50 kites out for every Windsurfer today.

Click PLAY or see how it looks from above on YouTube.

A one day introductory course costs about a hundred dollars in Boracay. Know that you can easily drown, tangle, collide or be blown into palm trees in one of those flimsy rigs. I’ll jog the beach instead. 🙂

jobs in gymnastics

That’s the name of a new site that lists opportunities around the world in these categories: Club Developers, Marketing, Coaches, Administrators.

I’ve added a link in the right hand navigation …
JobsInGymnastics.com

It’s a new project by the editor of Full Twist. Looks pretty good, so far.

@Gymnastics_Jobs

@GymnasticsNet is posting jobs to Twitter, as well. Follow both, if interested.

UPDATE: Here’s the official launch announcement.

MAG USA age 10-13

The top all-arounders in each of four age divisions, 10-, 11-, 12-, and 13-year-old, were recognized this weekend at the 2011 Future Stars National Championships at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Evan Ng of Lakeshore Academy, Khalil Jackson of Champion Gymnastics Academy, Maxim Andrioushenko of Lake Shore Academy, and Andrew Herrador of West Coast Olympic, each had the highest all-around totals in their respective divisions. …

read more on USAG – Rising gymnasts take the stage at 2011 Future Stars Championships

Results and photos from that link.

MAG USA looks to be very healthy. There are many great kids in the pipeline for years to come.

no American WAG to Test Event

Marta will send no gymnasts to the Olympic Test Event, London 2012.

The USA will send 2 Men — names yet to be announced.

Everyone I talk to believes it’s a mistake for American National Team members not to compete more internationally. Foregoing this opportunity is a mistake.

Hopefully Marta’s successor, should she actually step down after London, will finally get over the American aversion to competing internationally.

UPDATE: NCAA FAN points out that the USA did sent gymnasts to both the 2004 and 2008 pre-Olympic meets. What’s different in 2012?

via USAG’s Leslie King by email

Malaysia & Switzerland rebuild

Maylaysia:

Apparently the National Gymnastics Teams are to be disbanded by the Malaysian Gymnastics Federation and the current coaching staff also let go in an effort to produce new and improved gymnasts. …

details

Switzerland:

… After neither its men’s or women’s teams qualified to next month’s London Test Event, the country has had a bevy of retirements, including longtime men’s team members Daniel Groves, Niki Boschenstein and Roman Gisi.

Add Jennifer Senn and 2011 World team member Yasmin Zimmerman to the list. The Swiss Gymnastics Federation announced this week that it would not renew the contracts of either after January 2012, effectively ending their elite careers.

“The Swiss Gymnastics Federation has set the goal to rejuvenate the national team athletes and align the planning for the next Olympic cycle …

details

Has this happened in any other nations?

… there will be more to come after the London Test meet in January. Nations will rebuild towards 2016 and 2020.

FIG AA World Cup a flop?

Nora Schuler of THE ALL AROUND:

The All-Around series was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of the new World Cup series. Four stops on three continents – Jacksonville, Glasgow, Stuttgart and Tokyo – were to see the top eight male and female gymnasts from the all-around final at the 2010 World Championships compete for prize money and ranking points.

The series flopped completely. …

… Only a single female gymnast, overall winner Huang Qiushuang, competed in three competitions. Not one female gymnast attended all four.

At the final competition in Tokyo in late November, the FIG wasn’t even able to find eight female gymnasts willing to compete. …

read more – All-Around World Cup Flops, FIG blames coaches

FIG’s Wolfgang Willam is committed to staying the course for the next 2yrs:

… The 2012/2013 World Cup will include six stops. Starting in New York in March 2012, the series will include Tokyo (April 2012), Stuttgart (November 2012), Glasgow (December 2012) before returning to the USA in early 2013 and finishing off in Tokyo in April 2013. …

… On the other hand, Nora points out that the Swiss Cup which offered 85.000 Swiss Francs in prize money and appearance fees this year was a better meet than Stuttgart.

Let’s wait and see. The AA World Cup is not working as badly in MAG. Many of the top guys are willing and able to get to most of the meets.

I still feel that money is the best way to grow international stars who can reach the general public in non-Olympic years.

I’m keen to see what the FIG Competitions and Marketing Commissions recommend in terms of “simplifying the rules” to better appeal to a mass audience.

I’ve got one recommendation for them …