Year: 2011

Between the Olympics:

… 66 routines from 2010 team finals, including every routine from Russia, USA, China and Romania.

Some of the routines shown were not previously on youtube. These include

Koko Tsurumi- Vault
Momoko Ozawa- Vault
Gabriela Dragoi- Beam
Jiang Yuyuan- Beam
Lauren Mitchell- Vault
Sandra Izbasa- Vault

video links – Revisiting 2010 Worlds

It was a photographer at Worlds who told me he couldn’t take a ‘BAD’ photo of Kohei.

But I think I can detect a tiny form break on the post flight of his vault. And look at that incomplete twist on landing! (WAG judges would call it a double twist.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There. He is beatable. 🙂

… seriously, guys with GREAT form like him don’t get nearly as much credit as they should under the current code.

That was linked by The All Around on Facebook.

Gymnastics Examiner asks the question:

Is Nastia Liukin training again?

It MIGHT be that she’s in a top secret training facility with Michael Phelps and Apolo Ohno.

… Seems they live on Subway sandwiches at that gym/pool/rink.

See more illustrations. (PDF)

I have tickets for Sept. 7th in Calgary, taking one of my former gymnasts who’s keen to audition. They’ve added a number of additional shows for my home town, so sales are good. There’s not much of a recession in Alberta.

Click PLAY or watch a preview on YouTube.

OVO in Calgary

One concern I had on arrival at World Gymnaestrada 2011 was safety of the participants.

With no competition, no awards on the line, you’d think there would be comparatively few injuries.

Yet I saw many people there in casts. And a few in wheelchairs.

This girl was injured 2 days before travel to Switzerland. (She came with her group, anyway.)

In Switzerland this summer, 154 people (as an example) were treated on Wednesday, July 13th, with 19 people evacuated that day to hospitals for small trauma (sprains, strains, etc.).

Organizers had 82 medical staff on duty each day to care for the 19,000+ on site.

Overall, I felt Gymnaestrada performances were fairly safe. One Acrobatic Gymnast from Portugal had a bad fall on a double back. He was taken out in a stretcher, the worst injury I saw personally.

Next day a Canadian Acrobatic gymnast (who was also showing double back) told me that he was OK.

(via Rec Gymnastics)

Couch Gymnast has been posting predictions on what gymnasts will be sent to Worlds in Tokyo:

• USA
• Romania
• Russia
• China

Team USA is my strong prediction to win. But Romania may be the big happy surprise of World Championships 2011.

For once we’re not hearing endless stories of crisis out of Romania, just before the BIG meet. The small pool of Romanian elite gymnasts seems to be happy, motivated and relatively healthy. So far.

Leave a comment if you’ve a strong prediction on the WAG Team podium. Or, even more important, the top 8 who will qualify directly to the Olympics.

Being healthy and psyched for the BIG meet is critical.

Some coaches are better at bringing kids ready to “bring it” than others.

Some gyms always seem to peak too early in the season. Or their kids are injured at just the wrong time, before the BIG meet.

The final episode of Workout Wednesday before the 2011 Visa Championships in Saint Paul features the team with the most qualifiers (7 Juniors), Texas Dreams. …

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/MTEzNTAzMTg3?related=1

Watch more video of Visa Championships 2011 on gymnastike.org

I like the psychology of their gym.

Is that Tiffany Tolnay training in the background?

Who will be USA Champion 2011?

Jordyn Wieber?

2000 Elise Ray Hill’s Gymnastics 18
2001 Tasha Schwikert GymCats 16
2002 Tasha Schwikert GymCats 17
2003 Courtney Kupets Hill’s Gymnastics 16
2004 Courtney Kupets Hill’s Gymnastics 17
2004 Carly Patterson WOGA 16
2005 Nastia Liukin WOGA 15
2006 Nastia Liukin WOGA 16
2007 Shawn Johnson Chow’s 15
2008 Shawn Johnson Chow’s 16
2009 Bridget Sloan Sharp’s 17
2010 Rebecca Bross WOGA 17

Full Twist has the full list of past champions

On the Men’s side, Matthew Rusk again is posting a detailed preview:

Competition for the AA title has grown into an unexpectedly hot race this year. Few could have conceived Jonathan Horton not making a “three-peat” when he became the first man since Paul Hamm to win a World Championship AA medal back in October. Despite a thumb injury, he would be triumphant once again at the American Cup in Jacksonville, where he took home his third American Cup trophy.

Yet two back-to-back competitions—the Glasgow World Cup and the Japan Cup—have been disastrous for the Olympic silver medalist and call into question his preparation for these Championships.

Much was made of Horton’s rivalry at last year’s Nationals with Danell Leyva, but Leyva, who finished over two points behind Horton, wasn’t at the level to challenge the reigning Champion. This year he is, actually to the point of perhaps being considered the favorite. Vast improvements on floor and vault, decent pommels, commendable parallel bars, and storied high bar work make the 19-year-old Leyva every bit a challenger to even a peaked Horton.

Yet, August 19th could come and go and neither man would be the winner: both athletes could be upstaged by an even younger upstart. John Orozco …

read more on Stick It Media – Preview of 2011 VISA U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Championships – Part 1

I’m not sure why, but I’ve got a feeling Jon will fend off the many rivals, and win yet again.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Certainly if Horton hits (including Pommels 13.50), he wins.

Brigid has an excellent update on super talented Aasha Kimpton from the U.K., who just might be the whole package: flexible, artistic and powerful.

… She has mastered a “sparkwheel” on beam, which is a Gainer aerial cartwheel, a move that has not yet been competed in Britain and had to to be valued by British Gymnastics, where it was rated a ‘D’ skill. …

Click PLAY or watch her Beam training on YouTube. (“sparkwheel” at 1min 10sec)

… I’m not sure I’d call that a ‘gainer’, but rather an aerial cartwheel with an unusual and interesting start position. Still a D-part. I like it.

Check out her Floor routine too linked from Couch Gymnast – Meet Aasha Kimpton

Some very nice sections of choreography for a young gymnast.

Why kids should be doing trampoline at your gym …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Denis Vachon for linking to this on Facebook.