Even if you know nothing about Rugby, you’ve got to admire the impassioned posture dances, a pre-match ritual.
Click PLAY or watch two on YouTube.
The louts of Auckland get it on too in this Haka flash mob. (VIDEO)
I’m cheering for the All Blacks.
Year: 2011
spotting belts for Acrobatic Gymnastics?
Jessica is looking to put up a rig.
But she’s not sure if they need a “standard” spotting belt, or something special.
Should they have a twist belt? … Or are standard padded belts good enough?
Leave a comment if you have advice.
NCAA WAG Freshwomen
Gymnastike has the first post I’ve seen on the new College recruits, starting with the top 10 teams from Championships 2011. (We need Stanford too.)
You can click on the gymnast’s name to watch video interviews and routines.
NCAA Preview: Meet the 2011-2012 Freshmen! (Teams 1-10)
Nebraska looks interesting. Two new assistant coaches and Jessie DeZiel.
But all eyes will be on UCLA (as usual). Mattie Larson and Cassie Whitcomb and Zamarippa. Wow.
men 81%, horses 10%, women 9%
… Coverage of women’s sport makes up 9% of all sports coverage in Australian television news and current affairs, while male sport makes up 81%.
Horse racing alone receives more airtime that all women’s sport combined, making up the other 10% of all coverage. …
Damien Johnson – Women deserve fair go in sports pages
(via Australian Gymnastics Blog)
Evidence that women should boycott “old media”. And dominate “new media”.
… A new survey … by the Pew Internet and American Life Project corroborates numerous other studies that show women dominating social media websites. This is particularly the case with Facebook and Twitter usage. …
… the social Web is now ruled by estrogen. Women make up over half of all social media users at fifty-six percent, and they hold sway over emailing, instant messaging, blogging and photo sharing, as well. …
Smedio – Women are taking over the Social web
Females dominate the Gymnastics blogosphere, too.
MAG all-around at Worlds
Blythe Lawrence:
Think the big four — Kohei Uchimura, Philipp Boy, Jonathan Horton and Danell Leyva — are the only ones to watch for in the all-around at the Tokyo Worlds?
While they do seem to be favored to stand on the podium, here are nine others who have the capability to challenge for medals as well:
Russia – Ermin Garibov
Ukraine – Mykola Kuksenkov
Chile – Tomas Gonzalez
Romania – Flavius Koczi
GBR / Scotland – Daniel Keatings & Daniel Purvis
Germany – Marcel Nguyen
China – Lu Bo & Teng Haibin
details on Universal
There are another dozen guys at least who have scored over 90 points all-around. Any one of them could put together a miracle day and end up on the all-around podium.
Men’s Artistic Gymnastics is SUPER competitive.
Montreal should host Gymnastraeda
On my Recreation Gymnastics blog I make the argument that Montreal should be the first North American host of the World Gymnaestrada:
• a bilingual city with easy, inexpensive access for Europeans
• Cirque du Soleil might partner
• Gymnaestrada in Europe is not growing
• the event needs to modernize, North America would help
• Canada has a strong and growing Gymnastraeda base
• Gymnastics Canada strongly supports the event
Click through for the details … especially the part on why it won’t happen any time soon.
RecGymnastics.com – Canada should host World Gymnaestrada
I’m still looking for contributors for RecGymnastics.com.
photo craze – leisure diving
If planking was too idiotic. Batmanning too dangerous, perhaps your goof is leisure diving.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Mail Online – Just hangin’ by the pool: Summer posers caught mid-air in new photography craze
Thanks for the tip, Danielle.
_____
To this day, my most popular “gymnastics video” on YouTube is an embarrassing edit of coaches splashing into a pool.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Leyva, USA in it to WIN it
Gymnastics Examiner:
The U.S. men’s team (Danell Leyva, Jonathan Horton, Jake Dalton, Steven Legendre, John Orozco, Alex Naddour and Chris Brooks, plus National Team Coordinator Kevin Mazeika) did a conference call with the media Wednesday afternoon. Optimism is high for this team, which is being touted as one of the best World teams the U.S. has put together in many years. …
Mazeika: “The goal is to win the team gold medal.”
Q: How good are the chances of that, on a scale of 1-10?
Mazeika: “I think our chances are very good. …
read more – A conversation with the U.S. men’s World team
Washington Post::
… Last month, Leyva won his first U.S. all-around title at the 2011 Visa Championships in St. Paul, Minn., topping two-time champion Jonathan Horton and positioning himself as a medal favorite not only for the Oct. 7-16 world championships in Tokyo, but also for next year’s Olympic Games in London.
When he secured the victory, Leyva grabbed his coach and stepfather, Yin Alvarez, in a joyous bear hug and hoisted him several feet into the air. That moment perfectly captured Leyva’s dogged pursuit of his youthful dream: Every step of the way, his surprising successes have swept his parents right off their feet.
“He’s going to be in the top three in the world championships and watch out — next Olympics, he maybe will win the next Olympics,” Yin Alvarez said. …
Danell Leyva aims to convert skeptics at world gymnastics championships
That’s an inspiring read.
No other nation approaches major competition with such brash confidence. One reason why team USA so often exceeds my predictions.
perfect cast handstand to giants
I can watch Zoe all day. She’s perfect. Judges struggle to find any deductions.
Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube.
Actually, Zoe’s recently moved to Dhahran, Jizan, Saudi Arabia. Her new coach must think Katelyn a genius. 🙂
Update – There’s no gymnastics in their part of the country. And she’s not yet allowed to travel to Bahrain for training due to visa restrictions. Leave a comment if you know of any other gymnastics or acrobatics training there.
G.S. George on “shape”
Gerald S George:
The importance of form (body shape) should be patently obvious to all professionals associated with judged sports.
Yet more often than not, specific interpretations of correct body shape are incomplete, inaccurate, or both. Rarely does this concept go beyond aspects such as locked elbows and knees, pointed toes, legs held together, deep pikes, wide straddles, and the like. Asymmetrical cervical, thoracic, and lumbar curvatures, improper pelvic girdle alignment, and poor arm-trunk or leg-trunk angles are some of the typical body-shape deviations that slip by seemingly undetected. …
Some variations of shape during giant are “techniques”, some are “errors”. … And a small subset are also judging deductions.
If your gymnast can do a giant without taking a deduction, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a good giant.
That excerpt gives you an idea of the kind of content in the G.S. George coaching manual — Championship Gymnastics.
His online Newsletters and Blog are free.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 