Year: 2011

Impressive twister.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (14.750)

Ryohei Kato won the Japanese Jr International Floor final with that routine.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thank George Thomas for the link.

I’ve never been much of a fan of trampoline takeoffs for Vault — they encourage too high preflight — but the older boys at Black Hills Gymnastics told me they LOVE their variation.

As Vaulting more and more approaches double-mini, the more we need landing mats like double-mini.

JAO has the best video tutorials on the internet, in my opinion. All free.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Double back hip circle. And one and a half back hip circle are the critical drills.

more like this on the JAOVideos YouTube channel

Black Hills Gymnastics installed a pull rope.

The team at Bluehost did a lot of work to get it back up and running. I will be on Worlds 24/7 Oct 2nd.

Disappointed that none of the Japanese teams performed at Gymnaestrada 2011, I was extremely happy to see this performance before the awards of the Junior Japan International, September 24th in Yokohama

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Incredible talent, synchronicity and showmanship.

That was the highlight of the day’s competition for me.

Click PLAY or watch the latest from Spanny Tampson on YouTube.

That’s her pre-worlds edit.

Doug Davis is founder and inspirational leader of Tumbl Trak.

He hosted me for 3 days recently. Thanks.

I tried to keep up with Doug while visiting 5 different gym clubs. That helped my stats. (I try to get to 40-50 clubs / year myself. Learning something at each.)

Tumbl Trak is now advertising on this site, so I should be even more complimentary about the company than I have in the past — which is very complimentary.

I love the fact that their goal is to make gymnastics and acrobatic training more fun. And safer. Always innovating.

Here’s Doug climbing on one of his bikes for his daily training. He’s a pretty serious athlete himself, by the way.

Olympic Bronze medalist Louis Smith seems to get more media attention in the UK than (even) Beth Tweddle.

His story is terrific. And Louis is surprisingly candid in interviews.

… His bronze in Beijing was a major breakthrough for British gymnastics. Now, he tells Richard Rae, the pressure is on for 2012

… Given he is that much better prepared, more medals – individual and team – appear to be a genuinely realistic prospect. Even Smith’s coach Paul Hall, admits to being surprised by the progress made by Smith and the rest of the British squad in the last couple of years.

“To be honest I can’t believe how far we’ve come in a relatively short time, and that’s hugely encouraging for Louis and the other gymnasts as individuals and for the future of the sport in the country,” said Hall. …

Louis was brought up by a single Mom in the bad part of town. It’s amazing that he got into gymnastics in the first place. Amazing that he persisted to become one of the best in the world.

… “But I’ve learned that what feels like punishment is how you improve. I originally got good at pommel because Paul [Hall] kept sending me to it as punishment. A lot of gymnasts dislike it because it’s so hard, but I was constantly on it.

“Gymnastics is all about discipline. You don’t argue back, you line up before the start of a session, you arrive at least 10 minutes before the session is due to start, you apologize if you’re late. Gymnastics has taught me valuable life lessons, it’s taught me the importance of discipline, and a lot of kids are lacking that these days.”

It is a theme Smith pursues. “I reckon they should use gymnastics as a boot camp. Seriously. You see those naughty kids on TV and they go to a boot camp, well, get them in a gym. Make them, if you have to. Then they’d learn the life lessons. I reckon there’s a future in that. …

The Independent – Louis Smith: ‘I’m in pain every day but what feels like punishment is how you improve’