Author: Rick Mc

Modeling a Team USA leo at the “Media Summit”.

College coaches are warmly welcomed to Canadian Championships 2012 in Regina, May 21-26th.

Here’s a partial list of those coming up to the Great White North:

Jeff Thompson Penn State
Scott Sherman Michigan
Bill Ryden Arizona
D-D Breaux LSU
Kathie Klages MSU
Larissa Libby Iowa
Elise Ray Washington
Dawn Cattermole BYU
Chris Waller UCLA
Greg Marsden Utah
Dan Kendig Nebraska
Bryan Raschilla Alabama

NCAA school representatives will be credentialed and can have access to the spectator areas of training gyms. As well as to the VIP spectator area of the competition gym.

Start lists will be available for each session.

Leave a comment if you know of other recruiters making the trip.

Gold: Zou Kai (6.5/15.85)
Silver: Zhang Chenglong (6.5/15.35)
Bronze: Cheng Ran (6.1/14.725)
Bronze: Deng Shudi (6.2/14.725)

Long Zhang won 2nd on Floor at Chinese Nationals with a routine without a double somersault.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I like this tall gymnast. But a set of rules that scores his routine up with the best in the World is fatally flawed. Nobody wants to see a routine composed entirely of twisting and roll-out skills in the Olympic final.

Will the FIG MTC demand a variety of different kinds of skills in the next Olympic cycle?

Stoica and his committee have been a big disappointment 2009-2012.

Our Olympic Champion Zou Kai is a little cleaner than usual winning the recent Chinese National Championships.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He is money in the bank consistent. And a great lander.

Zhang Chenglong had a 7.7 start.

via Cirque Casting Scout Jun Chen.

China is the defending Olympic Team Champion in both Men’s and Women’s Artistic.

Should they adopt a goal of winning as many individual apparatus medals as possible in London? Rather than trying to win Team?

Sun Xiaochen in the China Daily:

China’s national gymnastics teams have already accepted that they won’t repeat the dominant Olympics they enjoyed in Beijing …

The international powerhouse bagged nine gold medals – including the prestigious men’s and women’s team all-around competitions – out of the 14 categories at home four years ago, which comprised a big portion of the nation’s 51-gold haul in Beijing.

However, it is unrealistic to expect an equally exceptional result in London. …

“It will be extremely hard for us to defend the team event title this time,” said Chen Yibing, men’s captain and Beijing Olympics rings gold medalist.

“We lack the all-around talent now, so everybody has to dig deeper and try to make up for each other’s weak event.”

Inspired by Chen, pommel horse Olympic champion Xiao Qin has started to work out on the rings, an event he dropped for 10 years. …

The golden age may be over

The odds of the women defending are far, far worse. With the resurgence of Romania, Team China could easily finish 4th.

China could send He Kexin, for example, abandoning the chance for a team medal.

1. He Kexin 7.100 8.550 15.650
2. Huang Huidan 6.600 7.575 14.175
3. Tan Jiaxin 6.100 7.950 14.050

Click PLAY or watch He Kexin win Bars at Chinese Nationals on YouTube.

The first day of the event finals at the Chinese Nationals saw the girls kicking it old school, with senior citizens Cheng Fei and He Kexin emerging as apparatus champions on their pet events. …

Couch Gymnast – Chinese Nationals: Event Finals

related – IG – Chinese Women Face Uphill Battle for Olympics

Leave a comment if you’ve an opinion.

European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2012 – Event Finals Gold.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Lola Walters.

Talk about inspirational. The best feature I’ve yet seen on this girl.

Lola, from California, is legally blind, suffering from a condition called Nystagmus, which means her eyes move constantly, causing her to see double.

It means she has no depth perception whatsoever and when she’s running up to the bar she cannot see it until she’s just five feet away. …

Lola feels the tag “legally blind” is not accurate. She can see. But not with much precision. She wants to be treated the same as every other athlete.

Click PLAY or watch it on the Daily Mail.

http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_14vere41/uiconf_id/6501142

(via the Tumbl Trak email newsletter)

Has this ever been a problem for you as a coach?

British Gymnastics Policy on Body Piercing and Adornments (PDF)

There are some workarounds. For example, fake magnetic jewelry.

(via Gymnastics Wales on Facebook)

Romania is back. They won 3 gold medals in the apparatus finals. Sandra Isbaza (Vault), Catalina Ponor (Beam) and Larissa Iordache (Floor) dominated the competitions. Russia saved the honour with Victoria Komova (Uneven Bars). …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Andy Thornton – Five takeaways from gymnastics Europeans

(via The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook)

Ron Noe of Stick It Media is often the lone blogger promoting and publicizing age group Men’s Gymnastics in the USA.

He’s frustrated with the just finished Men’s J.O. Championships in Cincinnati:

… I’m going to be perfectly blunt about this. Aside from a nice Facebook page and very minimal print coverage, the promotion of this event during the course of the competition, was virtually non-existent. No active Twitter updates, no videos, no live scoring, no nothing. It’s an Olympic year, for crying out loud. Failure to promote this year’s men’s JO Nationals was unfathomable to me. …

Howard, Kimble & Bock Dominate Event Finals

I’d love to do more to promote the 700+ best age group guys in the USA. But I need news, photos and videos to link. Please leave a comment if you know of good sources online.

Here are the best links I’ve found:

• 2012 US Men’s Jr. Olympic Championships Facebook page

• P&G National Championships home page (poor)

• USAG J.O. Championships Results and Photos

No “news”, but results are posted. And that page does link to a few small photos.

USAgym.org has a teaser photo link right now.

Follow and share Stick It Media posts if you care about MAG J.O.