Title IX – reverse discrimination IS discrimination

NY Times reports on Title IX cheats:

At the University of South Florida, more than half of the 71 women on the cross-country roster failed to run a race in 2009. Asked about it, a few laughed and said they did not know they were on the team.

At Marshall University, the women’s tennis coach recently invited three freshmen onto the team even though he knew they were not good enough to practice against his scholarship athletes, let alone compete. They could come to practice whenever they liked, he told them, and would not have to travel with the team.

At Cornell, only when the 34 fencers on the women’s team take off their protective masks at practice does it become clear that 15 of them are men. Texas A&M and Duke are among the elite women’s basketball teams that also take advantage of a federal loophole that allows them to report male practice players as female participants. …

read more – Gender Games: College Teams, Relying on Deception, Undermine Gender Equity

Here’s one lame defensive response to the charges – USF says it complies with Title IX despite NY Times report

I want women to have a fair chance to participate in University Sport. But current Title IX legislation results in many stupid and unethical decisions across the USA.

Everyone wants the excellent Cal Gymnastics Men’s program to survive, but over in Berkeley they are today frantically trying to find 4 more donors to match philanthropist, Doug Goldman‘s pledge of $160,000 ($20,000 per year for 8 years.)

Some blame Title IX for part of the problems at Cal.

Obviously Title IX needs to be ‘fixed’. In the meantime appeals should be allowed on behalf of some Men’s programs, those who have produced Worlds and Olympic team members, as one example.

Like all other reverse discrimination programs, Title IX should have a road map to phase out.

Leave a comment, especially if you disagree.

Atlantic CAN Gymnastics Championships

When: April 29 – April 30 2011

Where: Moncton Coliseum, New Brunswick

The new Brunswick Gymnastics Association is pleased to be hosting …

Over 300 athletes from the Atlantic provinces will be attending the event, showcasing the strength, agility, power, and grace that makes gymnastics the exciting sport that it is.

Western CAN Gymnastics Championships

When: April 27 – April 29 2011

Where: Grande Prairie, Alberta

GOOD LUCK to athletes, coaches and officials who compete this weekend. Competitors come from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, and the North West Territories.

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Okanagan Gymnastics Centre random

A few clips from our long Easter weekend at Okanagan Gymnastics Centre.

The door alarm sounded. Cleaning the pit. Some pirouette work. etc …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Matador Beef Jerky sends kids to Woodward

If you are attending Woodward this Summer, you might just be able to invite someone to join you for FREE.

Do you have a friend who would like to come to Woodward but just can’t make it work? Would you like to help him/her out? The Matador Bring-A-Friend program may be just the answer!

Nominate your friend by telling us why he or she deserves to come to camp but can’t and, if your submission is chosen, Matador Beef Jerky will foot the bill for camp for your friend! Seriously! Ten lucky friends will be chosen from entries; you will be notified via phone so that you can give your friend the good news. …

details

AMAZING catch by Ball Girl

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… This much is true: on April 17, the Fresno Grizzlies hosted the Tacoma Rainiers in an evening contest at Chukchansi Park. And at some point in the ballgame, Tacoma’s Brent Johnson came to the plate against Victor Santos and lofted a deep fly ball down the left-field line.

What didn’t happen (at least not in real life) is the catch itself. The ball girl was a stunt woman, working on behalf of an advertising production agency that was filming a Gatorade ad. However, this particular campaign was scrapped before the commercial could make it to the airwaves. The ad was leaked online instead, where it quickly became a viral video sensation. …

read more on MiLB

figure skating – Chantastic!

World Figure Skating Championships, Moscow.

Patrick Chan blew away the field today in the men’s short programme. The canadian’s score set a new IJS record, beating that of Evgeni Plushenko from the 2010 Europeans. The best of the rest were the Japanese men followed by mini-Plushenko, Artur Gachinski of Russia who hit a clean 4T-3T combination. …

read more on Going For Gold

Aunt Joyce has video.

related: Japanese skating in honour of their homeland

Bross, Sacramone to Moscow NOT

UPDATE from Full Twist:

Ah USA Gymnastics have tweeted that neither are competing 😦 Booooooooooooooooooooo

_____ original post:

Normally I don’t post nominative entries of international meets, especially under the new World Cup system. The names change far too often.

But this is BIG and surprising news.

Rebecca Bross and Alicia Sacramone are scheduled to compete at the Moscow World Cup 2011, May 13-14th.

Mother Russia is still none too happy with what happened at American Cup, Jordyn Wieber added last minute and going on to win the meet. Bross would not walk into the lion’s den if she’s not ready to win the AA.

(via Full Twist)

flipping your first Tsuks

The Tsukahara vault is easy to do … badly. We’re still seeing too many dangerous landings in competition.

Many gymnasts (especially boys) flip their first ones off a cheese mat into a pit. That’s OK … but if they do too many, most will develop some bad habits.

I put together a quicky tutorial on a better way kids could do their first flips.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Delay the first ‘FLIP’ day until kids are confident and consistent with the Round-off. And then let them only do up to 3 flips in any one work-out, once-in-a-while. It should be a reward for hard work on sprint, hurdle, pre-flight and conditioning.

Ideally, beginners would flip no more than once a week. The other days are dedicated to preparation.

Several of the kids in this video were flipping for the first time. The youngest is age-9. She now has years to stabilize the skill (and work on LANDING) before needing to compete it.

Prerequisites to the first day flipping Tsuk:

• 10 backward saltos in series on tramp
• ‘gainer’ back salto on tramp
• ‘pullover’ on tramp
• double back saltos somewhere safe (ideally tramp with belt or bungie belt)

That’s a short video. Leave a comment if you’ve a favourite drill to add.