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Does your country have a national magazine for your sport?
Mine doesn’t. And hasn’t since the 1980s.
That might be changing …
Gymnastics Canada is asking Canadians to take an online survey by February 21st. That input will “help shape” a possible Gymnastics in Canada online magazine.
One sample question:
results of the survey so far.
To participate, Canadians need be invited by email. Check with your Provincial Federation to see how to get one of those emails.
European Championships will be hosted by Berlin April 4-10th.
First Hambuchen was injured out with a snapped Achilles.
Now another one of their stars, Matthias Fahrig, will miss the meet in his home country.
… The 25–year-old is joining the German army and will start the compulsory six week basic training on 1 March in order to be able to prepare intensively for the World Championships in October.
Until recently, Fahrig was one of the few members of the German men’s team not to have joined the army, choosing instead to pursue a career in the health and fitness industry. Fahrig’s employer, a clinic for sports rehabilitation, was unable to prolong his contract and he decided to join the army to secure his professional future and sporting career. As a member of a special sports group of the German army, athletes receive a monthly salary and are able to train full time.
… The cost is picked up by the German taxpayer. Fahrig also needs to undergo treatment on his jaw, he already had a number of operations in the run-up to the 2010 World Championships. …
German head coach Andreas Hirsch has stated that the team’s main focus is on the Tokyo World Championships in October where they want to qualify to the Olympics. …
read more on THE ALL AROUND
Fabian Hambüchen, Philipp Boy, Marcel Nguyen, Matthias Fahrig and Evgeny Spiridonov were the team that won Europeans last time round.
NCAA Schedule | CollegeGymFans.com | American Gymnast videos FREE
| Friday NCAA | Sat NCAA | MAG NCAA |
… Contributors wanted for new RecGymnastics blog. Link on the right.
For forward approach vaults the best men in the world (e.g. Dragalescu) peak at over 10m / sec velocity.
But the important velocity is on contact with the board.
Here’s one (predictable) finding from a recently published study …
Mean values of individual step velocity for top class and middle class gymnasts.
Just like my coach told me in the 1970s: “start your run slowly and accelerate as much as possible to the board“.
That study has much more though the sample size is small.
That’s from the most recent Science of Gymnastics journal.
Update – See discussion on this topic on Chalk Bucket.
Lee Ann Gschwind posted a nice profile on Universal Sports:
from Aug 2010
With her fluidity, form, and old school Soviet style, Komova has drawn comparisons to a young Nastia Liukin. And while she’s not yet as polished as Liukin was when she won Olympic all-around gold in Beijing, Komova -with two years to go until London – is already more powerful.
Like Liukin, Komova is the daughter of former Soviet gymnasts. She too was a shoo-in to start the sport: as a toddler, she spent most of her time hanging around the gym. Komova’s mother, Vera Kolesnikova, never had the chance to compete at an Olympics, but scored a big win at the 1986 Goodwill Games, defeating teammates Yelena Shushunova and Oksana Omelianchik, then the reigning co-world champions, for the all-around title. (Shushunova, of course, would go on to win Olympic gold in 1988.) …
read more – Gymnast to Know: Viktoria Komova
The article questions current FIG age restrictions:
… Designed to “protect the athletes,” the rules instead prevent many talented gymnasts from winning major titles. (If they are cutting back their training time, competition schedules or difficulty levels because of the rules, it’s certainly not evident.)
The age restrictions also make 2010 something of a no-man’s land on the gymnastics calendar. Many of the likely stars of the London Games aren’t yet old enough to compete at the World Championships.
At least Komova and Wieber will be eligible to compete at 2011 Worlds; gymnasts born in 1996 won’t even get that chance. A loophole that allowed 15-year-olds to compete at Worlds in a pre-Olympic year – without which Shawn Johnson would not have won the 2007 world title – has been eliminated this quadrennium. …
Leave a comment if you have an opinion on that. I’m hearing about 90% of people in favour of dropping the age restrictions completely. Age can’t be scientifically tested. And the argument that older gymnasts are safer than younger doing high difficulty gymnastics, specious.
(via DEFYING GRAVITY)
… Although the 2011 Winter Cup was marred by scratches and injuries, it still was an enjoyable meet to watch. It’s very confounding as to why this meet does not rate even a simple webcast. The technology is free and there are plenty of knowledgeable personalities to provide commentary. …
On this site I don’t talk nearly as much about injury in MAG vs WAG. The guys are, in general, older and more ready to decide personally on what skills they will put into their routines.
Obviously, Men’s Artistic Gymnastics is ALSO a dangerous sport:
… The big disappointments, of course, were Paul Hamm’s recent surgery and Jonathan Horton’s injury that prevented them from competing. Ohio State’s Brandon Wynn was a late scratch and Glen Ishino peeled off high bar during warm-ups and had to be carted out of the arena. Ishino appeared to have aggravated his back, which is reportedly a similar injury that he suffered about this time last year. That was a real shame, since he was contending for the all-around title. Paul Ruggeri landed awkwardly on his first vault (first event for him last night), and was helped out of the arena as well. The Illini star has reportedly dodged a bullet and will probably end up with a sprained ankle. Ruggeri looked great in warm-ups. …
Click though to read about the highlights: Jake Dalton, Danell Leyva, Alex Buscaglia, Daniel Ribeiro, Sho Nakamori, Sam Mikulak, Cale Robinson, Jesse Silverstein and Andrew Elkind –
Notes from the 2011 Winter Cup
Click PLAY or watch Silverstein’s P Bars on YouTube.
The USA has tremendous depth. But comparatively few routines that can contend for medals at Worlds 2011.
With Hamm and Horton healthy, they can compete with Japan and China. Missing one or the other of those stars, they will have to fight it out with Germany and Russia for Bronze.
A book review by site editor Rick McCharles
Excellent.
Pommel Horse Exercises
Methods, Ideas, Curiosities, History (1998)
by Istvan Karacsony and Ivan Cuk
Forward by Hardy Fink.
The history section is fascinating, dating back to Alexander the Great. Of course the “horse” was used for military training.
Jahn was the first to document the difference between a “swinging” horse and a “vaulting” horse.
Emil Hafner (Switzerland) is given credit for the first “circle” (1868). Yu-Lienfeng (CHN) get credit for the first circle on one pommel (1954).
I learned of Julius Stockli (SUI) circa 1886.
Author Karacsony is from Hungary, a nation famous for Zoltan Magyar, Berki and many others. It may be that the Hungarians were first to train the “pig” twice a day.
Canadian Phillippe Delasalle gets credit for the “Flair” (1975). In Russia the skill was long called “Delasalle”.
Kurt Thomas is praised for the “Thomas Flair” (Flair Czech Flair – 1976). We are reminded that in 1980 he may well have been the best all-around gymnast in the world, … but the USA led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
A sad omission, though, are the true inventors of the Flair: Ted Marcy and his teammates from Hinsdale Central High school in Chicago.
Magyar‘s wonderful story is there. He was undefeated for 8yrs in any competition, twice Olympic champion.
Click PLAY or watch his 1976 Olympic Gold routine on YouTube.
9.9 … No deduction back then for “lack of extension”, obviously.
Here’s one Magyar story you’ve not heard. When I was a young man he came to Calgary, Canada to compete in an international invitational. Equipment was supplied (as I recall) by Mike Jacki, AAI.
Magyar warmed up his full routine with Spindle and Travel. No problem. Then the other gymnasts complained that the horse was “wrong”. The holes had been drilled incorrectly so that the horse was not close to symmetrical. Magyar hadn’t even noticed!
Jacki stayed up all night (as I recall) “fixing” that horse.
Bill Roetzheim (USA) was not the best judge in history. But he gets fair credit for the invention of the “flop rule”, greatly simplifying judging.
Another judge getting a shout out is Ron Smith (GBR) who simplified pommel scripting.
About Istvan Karacsony
Ivan Cuk is editor of Science of Gymnastics Journal
These authors, both University educators, have 4 apparatus books for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (FX, PH, R, V) and are working on the other two.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get your hands on them as there’s no world wide distribution, as yet. Ivan tells me they plan to sell them online in the near future.
Disclosure: mine is a review copy given me by the authors.
related post – gymmedia – History of Pommel horse
A $2.5 MILLION war chest has been assembled to help Australian athletes take medals from their British arch-rivals at next year’s London Olympics. …
More funding was announced for these sports: swimming, cycling, rowing, sailing, canoeing, athletics, diving, gymnastics, triathlon and equestrian.
… Australia dropped out of the top five, to sixth, for the first time in a decade at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when it was replaced by Britain, which came fourth.
Australian Olympic Committee secretary-general Craig Phillips said the most effective way for Australia to climb back up the medal table was to take medals from its direct rivals, Britain and fifth placegetter Germany. …
Individual athletes who have British arch-rivals include Olympic champion diver Matthew Mitcham (world champion Tom Daley), world champion gymnast Lauren Mitchell (Beth Tweddle), international sailor of the year Tom Slingsby (Paul Goodison) and track cyclist Anna Meares (Victoria Pendleton). …
Carla Clarke:
Auditions to be held in Montreal on a green screen sound stage for a digital projection production in the near future.
We are looking to create a talent list of acrobats, gymnasts, and contortionists.
Please note whether you have wire work experience.
We invite you to send us your résumé and any available photos or video clips.
Please contact via email: clarkebabe2k AT videotron.ca.
The better of the two.
Click PLAY or watch it on Youku.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 