Author: Rick Mc

EDMONTON — Gymnastics coach Perry Nile Larsen embraced his wife in the hallway outside an Edmonton courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, after being found not guilty of sexual assault and sexual interference for an alleged incident involving a 12-year-old gymnast. …

Larsen, 40, was charged in 2008, after a then-12-year-old gymnast told her mother that he pulled her sweatpants and underwear down three times while she was in a back-bend position during a drop-in practice at the Capital City Gymnastics Club.

After listening to several days of testimony — as well as a full day of closing arguments on Wednesday — Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Mel Binder said there was not sufficient evidence to find Larsen guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

“I’m not at all sure that the incident occurred,” he said.

Binder noted that there were more than 50 people in the gym at the time of the alleged incident, but no one — not even the complainant — actually saw what happened, The judge also rejected the girl’s testimony about where exactly the alleged incident occurred.

… Larsen previously faced charges in relation to two other girls, but Engel said those charges were withdrawn by the Crown in the spring. …

Edmonton Journal

Of course the reputation of a coach is ruined even with this kind of allegation.

Larsen has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Edmonton police chief, officers alleging broad police misconduct in the case.

______
Update:

Help Support Friends of Perry by donating to:

Bank of Montreal
Account 2633-8994-802

Links:

http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=6366f141-f758-41c6-873d-c3623f37c199
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/12/02/16404216.html

More can be found:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101202/edomont-coach-sues-101202/
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/12/02/16404216.html
http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101202/edm_trial_101202/20101202/?hub=EdmontonHome
http://www.leaderpost.com/health/Edmonton+court+hears+final+arguments+against+gymnastics+coach/3913242/story.html
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/sign+sexual+touching+club+workers+testify/3885848/story.html

Former French star Ludivine Furnon and acrobatic partner Nicolas Besrnard have advanced to the finals of La France a un Incroyable Talent.

The pair, calling themselves Duo MainTenanT, will face off against three other candidates in the final …

… will be broadcast in France on Wednesday, 22 December. The winner will receive 100,000 euros and will have a place at Le Festival Juste pour Rire in Montréal.

THE ALL AROUND

That post has links to some of their TV performances.

When’s the last time your saw double layout punch front? … aside from Mohini in Athens.

Click PLAY or watch her Floor from 2000 on YouTube.

She won finals with this routine over Produnova, Amânar and Raducan.

Mike Wilson on the Truckee River doing 60 foot double and triple backs.

Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.

Thanks Terry, for that link.

What kind of Photoshop trickery is this?
🙂

there has been no digital manipulation involved. …

Mighty Optical Illusions

(via Flip Catch)

Tom Forster.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
http://videoplayer.flocasts.org/player.swf

Artimex Sport is a Romanian company with a gymnastics apparatus division.

They sell a number of different kinds of wall bars out of the U.K.

Prices look very competitive.

Artimex Sport U.K. – Gymnastics

Gymnastike:

Here are 2011 Gyminfo Preseason rankings:
Rank/Team/Points/1st Place Votes

1 UCLA 1035 32
2 Alabama 950 3
3 Florida 948 3
4 Oklahoma 881 2
5 Utah 853 1
6 Stanford 818 1

Those come from Troester.com. Click through to see the full list.

… I’m still predicting a UCLA v Florida show down at Championships.

#Jeju #JejuOlle

I was recently in Korea, much impressed with the quality of the outdoor fitness equipment on Jeju Island.

The best I’ve seen anywhere. Only problem … I never saw anyone using it. Not even children.

Here’s Brittany Crowe working out in Canada.

A book review by site editor Rick McCharles

Excellent.

Floor Exercises
Methods, Ideas, Curiosities, History (2005)

by Istvan Karacsony and Ivan Cuk
Forward by Arkaev

This is an advanced text including tumbling skills like double front and triple back. (It assumes you have background knowledge of basics, biomechanics and sport science.)

I enjoyed the informative and entertaining history of Men’s Floor Exercise, learning a lot about the evolution of Pommel work on Floor, for example.

The computer generated illustrations are quite well done. And accurate.

Spotting and progressions are good. Biomechanics is included, but not in any comprehensive way.

If I have any criticism at all, it’s the sports science context. Scientific language and wordy detail might confuse and obfuscate the content for coaches. Sport scientists do not state opinion, only FACT.

The book details, for example, 3 common “tuck” positions:

True. But a non sport scientist coach like myself might opine that #2 is the worst of the three. In fact, an error. I’d require that gymnast to “fix” the hand position, … or change to the piked position.

Once my gymnasts can consistently get a good grip on the shins, we’d vary the amount of tuck depending on the skill, and the phase of the skill. All this preparation work would be done on tramp.

The two main reasons so many gymnasts end up grabbing behind the thighs:

1) poor set
2) moving to the apparatus from tramp too soon

I digress. That’s only once example of where a scientific text is reluctant to weigh in with opinions not yet verifiable by research.

This book has some interesting statistics on knee pain coming out of a 1991 study by Karacsony (138 gymnasts from 16 nations). About a third reported lower patellar pain in a year. Boys are most vulnerable age 14-15. Taller kids more vulnerable than shorter.

It discusses Scheuermann’s disease and the much more common Osgood–Schlatter’s syndrome.

A career plan for training tumbling is included. Also a good deal of content on physical preparation.

The best section of all is the chapter on connecting salto skills (Tempo Jumps). In fact, that’s the most complete coverage on the topic I’ve seen anywhere.

Finally, the authors are very critical of modern choreography on this apparatus. Three gymnasts are mentioned as conspicuous good exceptions: Milissandis, Nemov, Shewfelt. That’s the reason I posted their Floor routines last week.

Karacsony is on the Men’s Technical Committee. He’s a super coach and a very intelligent man. It makes me wonder why that group doesn’t legislate more artistry in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics?

About Istvan Karacsony

About Ivan Cuk
editor of Science of Gymnastics Journal

These authors, both University educators, have 4 apparatus books for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (FX, PH, R, V) and are working on the other two.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get your hands on them as there’s no world wide distribution, as yet. Leave a comment if you know where to get them.

OK, … it’s a fairly short highlight reel.

Bars has been the weakest apparatus for Romania since … Nadia. And I’ve never heard of any national team effort to improve. Why don’t they bring in a Bars specialist coach?

Or put younger kids in proper grips?

Porgras was third on Bars at Worlds 2009. And made Finals again this year.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Bea posted more medal winning routines at Worlds and Olympics on Gymnastics – No Ceiling – Best Romanians on Uneven Bars