Author: Rick Mc

Personal shout out to Lexi and coach Brett MacAuley from Calgary. She won her division (13-14) at Age Group Worlds in France.

From the Facebook album: 2010 World Age Group T&T Competition by Grace Chiu GraceClick

This was the 5th Canadian women’s double mini medal in a week. Great work, ladies!

Kurbatova, Liufang, Mitchell and Mitchell lead on the 4 apparatus.

Click through to Full Twist for preliminaries results.

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

There are LIVE photos going up on the British Gymnastics Facebook page.

MAG prelim results are up too. Full Twist is testing a cool new theme. That’s been one of the best and busiest blogs over recent months.

Rebecca just had surgery:

… Initially diagnosed as a stress reaction prior to worlds, the hot spot on Bross’ ankle developed into a stress fracture. On Tuesday, Bross underwent surgery, in which doctors inserted two screws into the bone to ensure the fracture heals properly. …

Nastia’s training layout Jaeger from elgrip.

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

Will Rebeca duplicate Nastia’s recovery-from-injury-to-peak-for-the-Olympics?

… Grace McLaughlin, a senior next year, threw a beautiful Jaeger-half on uneven bars, while Katelyn Ohashi, a senior in 2013, tumbled a 2 1/2, Rudi combination on floor. …

Ivana Hong looks fit.

This all from a visit to WOGA this week by International Gymnast

Elizabeth Long:

The Toyota Cup announced its roster, with World All Around champions Kohei Uchimura (JPN) and Aliya Mustafina (RUS) headlining the list. The two-day events-only competition will be held 11-12 December in Toyota City, Japan. …

THE ALL AROUND – Toyota Cup announces roster

Who says Kolman is always “ugly”?

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

Sounds great: Feng Zhe, Yan Mingyong, and Zhang Chenglong. Daniel Purvis and Louis Smith. My man Prashanth Sellathurai. Thomas Bouhail (FRA), Yang Hak Seon (KOR). A strong MAG line-up.

Anna Dementieva and Ekaterina Kurbatova. Jiang Yuyuan, Sui Lu, Deng Linlin. Two competing almost every meet since Worlds: Lauren Mitchell, Rie Tanaka. Many more of the world’s best gymnasts

Koko Tsurumi, the all around bronze medalist at the 2009 World Championships, has struggled in 2010, but did add the Asian Games uneven bars bronze medal to her collection this week. The women’s team is rounded out by Asian Games floor silver-medalist Mai Yamagishi; Asian Games vault bronze medalist Momoko Ozawa, and Yu Minobe.

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

… In the meantime, the final FIG World Cup in Glasgow has begun. LIVE scoring.

One of the best boys coaches I know, Miguel from Calgary Gymnastics Centre, has started uploading clips to his new YouTube page called Olympic Gymnastics Channel.

Click PLAY or watch a sample conditioning drill on YouTube.

Miguel has a lot of good kids coming up. Good physical preparation. Good basics technique.

Click PLAY or watch a splits drill on YouTube.

All MAG coaches need subscribe, like and share. Miguel has over 45 short clips posted, so far.

Gracias.

J.D. Reive was one of the most talented gymnasts I’ve ever seen in person. The kind of kid who learned giants on Rings before dislocates.

He was coached by former Cal Berkeley boss, Barry Weiner.

After 7yrs assistant at Stanford, J.D.’s a Head Coach for the first time. How’s it going?

J.D. Reive was hired at Iowa over the summer after long-time Head Coach Tom Dunn retired. Reive talks about coming in to the program, implementing his training program, and hopes for the future of Hawkeye gymnastics.

Click PLAY or watch an interview with J.D. on Gymnastike.

http://videoplayer.flocasts.org/player.swf

From a figure skating coach, Xan Nelson:

What, exactly, makes a parent “pushy?” And why do we always use the term as though it’s a bad thing? I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many 11 year olds who will get up at 5 a.m. every day to go freeze and fall on their butts over and over without a little whining. Or who then have the energy to finish their homework before an early bedtime, and then do it all again tomorrow.

You gotta push a little. In fact, you gotta push a lot. You’ve got to push a 10 year old to have the mindset of a 20-year-old, and a 15 year-old to approach their skating as though they’re 25 year-old grad students, with that level of commitment, sacrifice and maturity.

So what’s the difference between a pushy parent who’s effective, and one who’s just pushy? …

read more – Why figure skating needs pushy parents

‘Pushy’ is the wrong adjective. We want parents supportive, consistent, dedicated and ambitious.

That’s the reaction of others, too, on an Chalk Bucket forum thread. And in the comments on that post.

You might be interested in this:

A Parent’s Questionnaire
Dr. Alan Goldberg
Competitive Advantage

It’s for parent education. The higher the score, the more potential damage that they are doing to their child.

We now know that this hand sign used by the Chinese gymnasts represents the sports manufacturer Li Ning.

Problem is … Li Ning was not an “official sponsor” of the Asian Games hosted in China.

Right now the gymnasts are being “investigated” by the Olympic Council of Asia:

… Men’s all-around gold medallist Teng Haibin may have landed his team in hot water after he wasn’t exactly discreet about the gesture following his victory on Monday.

“This is a gesture that’s required as part of the deal with our sponsor,” he said, explaining that it was meant to resemble Li Ning’s “L” shaped logo.

But Chen Yibing and He Kexin have tried to pour cold water on the situation, insisting the gesture has been completely misunderstood.

“The gesture looks like the letter ‘l’, the first letter of the English word love, so it means love,” Olympic rings champion Chen said.

He added: “We decided to do that together before the competition as a celebration gesture, nothing (about) business, just for fun.”

Nice try but those hand gestures look like smoking guns to me.

That from the excellent More Than The Games

Gymtruthteller called these the first two the best routines done by any gymnasts this year. Certainly the first, Sui Lu, is SOLID. One step on landing.

Click PLAY or watch the first 2 Beam routines on YouTube.

Sui Lu
Deng Linlin 1:42
Mai Yamagishi 3:41
Moon Eunmee 5:29
Luiza Galiulina 7:14

It doesn’t matter how good your beam routine is in 2010. The judges still won’t score you higher than 9.0.

1 305 SUI Lu 6.500 8.925 15.425
2 301 DENG Linlin 6.600 8.600 15.200

Could somebody list me the 1.0 in deductions for Sui Lu?

I’ve seen a lot of good work from the young girls at Tolworth, London. Nice artistry and flexibility. Very mature for their ages.

Click PLAY or watch Catherine‘s beam training on YouTube.

To see more go to the teamsparkle1 YouTube channel. Or watch Aasha goofing … and showing some nice Beam and Bars training.

Of course there are other young talents coming up, including Ellie Downie, Becky Downie’s younger sister:

… At 11 years old she is the British U12 champion. Ellie’s coach Claire Starkey at Notts Gym Club thinks that Ellie is just as talented as her older sister …

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