Author: Rick Mc

For most young girls, learning kip (upstart) will take longer than any other skill. Many kids will do good giants before they master kip.

The best kip instructional videos online are posted by JAO.

Here are some others, City of Birmingham Gymnastics with coaches Krystie Newton and Jody Kime.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’d try all of those with all kids. You never know what’s going to help them make it click.

My favourite drill of all is kip on the end of parallel bars, significantly easier than any kip on a single rail.

This is another video edit. I certainly thought it was real, first time watching.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Aunt Joyce)

Some 160 Artistic gymnasts from 40 different nations are registered to participate in the Grand Prix Osijek 2012, a FIG Challenge Cup that begins Friday in Croatia’s fourth largest city.

Argentina’s Valeria Pereyra, Australia’s Larrissa Miller, Canada’s Christine Lee, Greece’s Vasiliki Millousi, Poland’s Marta Pihan-Kulesza and Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber stand out on the women’s roster that represents all continents, including entries from Egypt….

On the men’s side, Yann Cucherat (FRA), Eleftherios Kosmidis (GRE), Alexander Shatilov (ISR), Mitja Petkovsek (SLO) and Mykola Kuksenkov (UKR) are among the many World and European championship medallists in the Osijek line-up, which boasts Pan-American star gymnasts Diego Hypolito and Arthur Zanetti (BRA), Tomas Gonzalez (CHI), Daniel Corral (MEX) and Luis Rivera (PUR). …

FIG – Sizzling line-up takes shape for Osijek

Click PLAY or watch a 2010 promo on YouTube.

related – Couch Gymnast interview – Marta Pihan-Kulesza

Congratulations Syque.

… University of Michigan senior men’s gymnast Syque Caesar (Port Saint Lucie, Fla./Lincoln Park Academy) has been selected to represent Bangladesh in artistic gymnastics at the 2012 Olympic Games …

The invitation comes after Caesar made history on Dec. 31, 2011, at the fourth Central South Asian Artistic Gymnastic Championships, where he earned the first gold medal in Bangladesh international history.

Caesar won the parallel bars competition with a score of 14.60 …

Caesar Selected to Represent Bangladesh at 2012 Olympic Games

(via Gymmin’ Miel)

Sports Girls Play:

The much anticipated movie for the American Girl doll of the year, who just happens to be a gymnast, An American Girl: McKenna Shoots for the Stars will be out this summer – specifically July 14 at 8pm on NBC right before the Olympics and then it will be available on DVD in late July. …

And Olympic legend, Cathy Rigby, stars as McKenna’s coach.

http://widgets.nbcuni.com/singleclip/singleclip_v1.swf?CXNID=1000004.10035NXC&WID=494fb4844be13491&clipID=1397035&folderID=1397023

Tribute2the80s:

I tried to find the hardest skills and hardest combinations I’ve seen over the years. When possible, I tried to show the earliest gymnast I could find performing…to show all the young gymnastics fans that the 80’s and early 90’s was where it’s at! …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Amazing stuff. Mostly from the past.

Compare those tumbling lines with the top male gymnasts today.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Brigid Couch Gymnast McCarthy on Facebook)

NCAA fans are in mourning. Div 1 Championships are over.

It was one of the best Super 6 Team Finals ever. Some say the best ever.

Read comments on the College Gymnastics Board forum – Can I just say “wow!”. Positive thoughts!

But of the 6 teams that showed so well, I’d say Stanford had the best competition to finish 4th. Particularly on Vault, traditionally a weak apparatus, where they killed.

How happy were the girls with their performance?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I guarantee I’ll be there next year.

NCAA Championships April 19-21st, 2013
Pauley Pavilion, UCLA

I wasn’t the only one impressed by Ohio State at Championships. There’s was no Cinderella Story. This is a Championships Team.

Click PLAY or watch No Cinderella Story on YouTube.

Here’s another well edited video from pre-Championships training.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Those are from the Ohio State Women’s Gymnastics Team’s YouTube channel. I’m now subscribed.

Congratulations to Carey Fagan, Ohio State women’s gymnastics head coach, named National Coach of the Year. In addition, assistant coaches Bill Lorenz and Meredith Yonushonis earned Co-Assistant Coach of the Year honors.

The awards are the first for the Ohio State women’s gymnastics program.

(via Manual on Handstands, who attended Championships)

One of the best interviews I’ve read.

… Aliya Mustafina won the Russian Championships in Penza, and Komova didn’t compete there. Thus, the battle between our two superstars is once again postponed …

– “We’re saving Komova” explained Alexandrov, ”Vika, as you know, was injured last year, and one cannot force (speed up) the training. The main goal – the Olympics. We’ll take Vika to the Europeans championships. She won’t do all the events

When she was injured last season, Aliya lost her main funding — the “presidential scholarship”. Fortunately, they found money from other sources.

After Anastasia Sidorova injured her elbow falling off a bicycle, National Team gymnasts are banned from riding bikes.

And it’s not only bikes.

… Since Bilozerchev crashed in an accident before the Olympics, it is strictly prohibited to get behind the wheel until they finish their career in gymnastics. …

That’s severe. But recall that World’s Bronze medalist Yury Ryazanov was killed driving a car in 2009.

Perhaps it’s just the women’s team banned from driving.

Well worth a read: Mustafina, Alexandrov and Rodionenko Speak…

Source: sovsport.ru
Translator: Rachael L.

Russia doesn’t have much depth. They need to keep their gymnasts healthy if they’ve any chance to challenge the USA.

Some of the contenders.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Cheng Fei is not there as this edit was posted Dec. 2011.

He Kexin missing, too.