2011 – Page 23 – Gymnastics Coaching.com

Nastia at Karolyi camp

I’ve been dubious about our Olympic Champion’s comeback.

But she’s lined up in front of Marta with the rest of the Olympic hopefuls. And I’ve heard Nastia’s already looking quite good. Congratulations.

See a larger version of that photo from Polina Shchennikova’s facebook page on Gymnastike.

Here’s a list of camp attendees.

Romanian Gymnastics survey

Mihai (mikeyy) Parvulescu of fangymnastics is conducting an online survey about Romanian Artistic Gymnastics.

… The main objective of this survey is to determine the way Romanian gymnastics is perceived by its fans and supporters. We all know that the Romanian delegation returned home without any medal from this year’s Worlds. Through this survey we want to find out what are the problems of Romanian gymnastics and how can we try to solve them or to bring in some advice.

We would be very grateful if you were willing to fill in and to help us sharing it.

The survey can be found here.

Also, we have a Romanian version.

Gymnastics – month in video

Anastasia Jade launched a series of gymnastics month in review views. Subscribe to her GymnasticsFan1144 YouTube channel.

Click PLAY or watch November 2011 on YouTube.

I saw that linked from the Chinese Gymnastics Blog.

Chinese Nationals wrap-up

Amanda Turner has a nice summary post on the Chinese National Individual Championships, just ended in Hong Kong.

She links some videos from results.

I couldn’t convince this guy to come out of retirement — even though his team needs an all-arounder.

Yang Yilin and Sui Lu made an appearance at finals to support teammates. Multimillionaire Li Ning invited dignitaries out on his boat. China is all about connections.

The Upside of Quitting

I was freaked out by a Freakonomics audiocast recently.

STEPHEN J. DUBNER:

You know the bromide: “a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.”

To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure? Sometimes quitting is strategic, and sometimes it can be your best possible plan.

… To help us understand quitting, we look at a couple of key economic concepts in this episode: sunk cost and opportunity cost.

Sunk cost is about the past – it’s the time or money or sweat equity you’ve put into a job or relationship or a project, and which makes quitting hard.

Opportunity cost is about the future. It means that for every hour or dollar you spend on one thing, you’re giving up the opportunity to spend that hour or dollar on something else – something that might make your life better. …

Athletes — they use baseball players in their research — often stay in the sport too long.

In our context we’ve seen over and over again how much more successful gymnasts are when they move to other acrobatic sports. A friend today told me about his daughter — she quit gym and 3 months later was at the National Diving Championships.

Today she’s on an NCAA diving scholarship.

Here’s the link to that podcast – New Freakonomics Radio Podcast: “The Upside of Quitting”

… Don’t let your kids quit too soon. But equally important, help them transition at the optimum time. Artistic Gymnastics is still a youth sport, especially for women.

Cyrille Humen – juggler

Surprisingly hypnotic to watch.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Cyrille is from Switzerland.

This isn’t juggling, actually. It’s Poi.

Poi refers to both a style of performance art and the equipment used for engaging in poi performance. As a performance art, poi involves swinging tethered weights through a variety of rhythmical and geometric patterns. …

Poi originated with the M?ori people of New Zealand, where it is still practiced today. …

(via insphyre and Valentin-Angelo Uzunov on Facebook)

Tumbling DMT Worlds montage

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There are plenty more good videos from Birmingham on the FIG YouTube channel.

(via Brett MacAulay on Facebook)

Brett and the rest of the Canadians are pretty happy with results, overall.

CHN Men’s Nat medalists

Chinese Individual Championships Apparatus Finals competition Hong Kong.

FX
Fang Hailiang 15.075(6.3)
Zhou Shixiong 14.625(6.1)
Du Wei 14.025(5.7)

PH
Zhang Hongtao 15.975(6.6)
Lu Chenxi 15.45(6.4)
Fu Yu 14.9(6.4)

SR
Luo Xuan 15.5(6.9)
Liu Yang 15.45(6.6)
Jian Lei 15.25(6.8)

Chinese Gymnastics Blog – MAG Event Finals Results – Day 1

V
Zhang Zhongbo 16.575(6.4) /15.975(7.0) – 16.275
Qu Ruiyang 15.725(7.0)/15.975(7.0) – 15.85
Huang Xi 15.85(7.0)/15.50(6.6) – 15.675

PB
Dong Zhendong 15.175(6.7)
Deng Shudi 15.125(6.4)
Wang Peng 14.925(6.2)

HB
1 Zhou Shixiong 15.15(6.6)
2 Deng Shudi 15.0(6.8)
3 Lu Le 14.9(6.7)

Click PLAY or watch Zhang Zhongbo’s Vaults on YouTube.

Chinese Gymnastics Blog – MAG Event Finals Results – Day 2

See more results & routines via those links.

Though the Vault champion did Dragalescu, there weren’t many in the competition. And surprisingly few Yurchenko vaults. (I heard that there had been in the past several of the top gymnasts injured on Yurchenko vault landings. Some coaches don’t like that family.)

Almost every Chinese gymnast in the meet did either Kasamatsu or Handspring vault. Or both if they were trying for Finals. It’s difficult to tell the difference as Chinese coaches teach the vault from “Tinsica” (handspring with 1 hand in advance of the other). … I don’t like it. A vault should be either Tsuk or Handspring — anything in-between should be significantly deducted.

Horizontal Bar was the “weakest” apparatus. Check out the winning routine.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I saw perhaps 90% of the HBar prelim routines, counting only 1 double somersault over the Bar. No Kolman. No Pegan. …

If FIG devalues some of the skills used by Zou Kai and most Chinese, they’ll need scramble to learn new elements. A Chinese official is responsible for Horizontal Bar on the MTC, however. Let’s wait and see what happens with the next Code.

Japan could beat China in a Team Final, 3-up 3-count. But I’d still call China the favourite to win the London Olympics.

Their biggest weakness is lack of a strong AA. Ono suggests that Zhang Chenglong could get on the podium if he improved his Rings. Strategic thinkers, I’ll bet China concedes the AA medals to others, and trys to win Team and as many apparatus medals as possible.

With the smaller team size it’s not likely we’ll see Zou Kai defend his Olympic Floor and H Bar titles … but never say never. He keeps surprising me.

Videos come from Alar’s piibunina YouTube channel and results via GymChina: News on Facebook.

Alar has been flying back and forth between Europe and China following domestic competitions this year.

Deng Linlin FLOOR 13.925

Chinese Individual Championships Apparatus Finals results posted by the Chinese Gymnastics Blog:

Deng Linlin 13.925(5.6)
Lou Nina 13.825(5.4)
Li Shanshan 13.675(5.3)

Click PLAY or watch Deng Linlin on YouTube.