Author: Rick Mc

Very elegant. Clean tumbling. Nice landings. Surprising amplitude for a slight built Junior.

This is good gymnastics.

Click PLAY or watch her Floor on YouTube.

(via Aunt Joyce and Couch Gymnast)

by site editor Rick McCharles

Mas Watanabe posted some basic drills on The Gymnastics Minute for improving the “alignment” of round-off. (see the video here)

Without question of the tumbling “basics”, round-off is the most problematic.

In reality, mistakes in round-off are taught at a very early stage. These drills (and others) must be introduced and improved by a very sophisticated coach, one with a good eye for detail. This is one reason that the Head Coaches must be closely involved with precomp classes.

My own system is to delay the round-off as long as possible, instead challenging beginners with accelerating cartwheel series. When gymnasts can do cartwheel series both directions fairly well, they won’t have major problems learning round-off.

That said, I’ve seen World Champions at World Championships doing basic round-off drills on the podium. This is one basic you should never stop training.

When it comes to difficult skills like round-off, go slow to go fast.

Anne Phillips of Gymnastike put together a nice preview package.

The University of Utah will be hosting one of this weekend’s 6 NCAA Regional Championships in what is guaranteed to be an intense competition with some of the country’s best teams. The meet will feature 6 teams and only the top 2 finishing teams will advance to the 2010 NCAA National Championships. Take a look at the teams Utah will be hosting this weekend. Get your tickets today and experience it live!

The Salt Lake City Regional meet will take place on April 10th at 6pm MT in the Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah. Click here to buy tickets for the 2010 Salt Lake City Regional. …

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swfif ((navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i))) {$(“#display_video”).html(”);}

I’m hoping to attend the Regional hosted at UCLA, instead. (It will be easier to get a ticket. LOL)

All 6 Regional meets are scheduled at exactly the same time.

Sabrina Gill won Floor and Vault in Junior at Wild Rose.

Click PLAY or watch Sabrina’s Floor on YouTube.

more Wild Rose videos

Her coach, Kelly Manjak, was very impressed with the competition. Especially how coaches got a “receipt” of each score on each apparatus. Also, kids could sign up for an instant “text message” to family at home.

Too bad the scoring formatting is so confusing on the official website.

… starting to appear on YouTube.

Her score was 15.25 with a start value of 5.9. …

Click PLAY or watch Sui Lu’s winning Floor on YouTube.

more videos on dreamgymnast’s YouTube channel.

(via Aunt Joyce)

… Two tragic case studies caution us forever. This video edit I had not seen before.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Christy Henrich: While Henrich was succeeding in gymnastics, her health was beginning to suffer from an eating disorder. In 1989, a judge at an international meet told her she needed to lose weight. Apparently, Henrich took the comment to heart. Her drive to lose a few pounds progressed to unhealthy eating habits and, eventually, full-blown anorexia nervosa. …

Elena Vyacheslavovna Mukhina, born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, was a former Soviet gymnast who won the All-Around title at the 1978 World Championships at Strasbourg, France. …

related posts:

• Gymnastics: Not Always Happy Endings
• Is gymnastics coach Al Fong a changed man?

• Elena Mukhina dead at 46
• video – goodbye Yelena Mukhina
• should roll-out skills be banned on Floor?
• coach Mikhail KLIMENKO dead at 65

Obsessed Elizabeth labeled this routine “perfection”

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This was her routine in event Finals at the 2003 World Championships, often listed one of the greatest of all time.

Coach / Judge Krista Morris:

All other meets need to take a lesson from Wild Rose.. So well organized and enjoyable to attend, from all aspects – a judge, a spectator, an athlete …

Gymn.ca posted some results:

2008 Olympian Deng Linlin (CHN) won the all-around at … (the) Triple Flip Wild Rose. Her teammates Jiang Yuyuan and Siu Lu placed second and third, respectively. The top placing Canadian was Cynthia Lemieux, who placed fourth.

Riley Cholod of Canada won the junior category, with Maegan Chant and Samantha Ward tying for second. …

1. Deng LinLin 58.900
2. Jiang YuYuan 57.550
3. Sui Lu 56.350

Check for more – Gymn.ca

It’s not easy to find the results or news updates on the official meet website. There are some scores on Gymnastics Results.

The only commentary I’ve seen is on Gymnastics Issues. Click through for video of Sui Lu training floor.

Andrew Thornton asks: will Kytra be the first woman to compete double double layout? Her full twisting double layout looks “easy”.

Click PLAY or watch Kytra’s Floor from Jesolo on YouTube.

Read Andy’s commentary alongside more Senior videos from that competition on American Gymnast – Jesolo videos!

Unfortunately Kytra is in a cast right now.

MostepanovaFan:

1969 – Karin Janz (GDR)
1971 – Tamara Lazakovich (USSR)
1973 – Ludmilla Tourischeva (USSR)
1975 – Nadia Comaneci (Romania)
1977 – Elena Mukhina (USSR) and Nadia Comaneci (Romania)
1979 – Elena Mukhina (USSR)
1981 – Maxi Gnauck (GDR)
1983 – Ekaterina Szabo (Romania)
1985 – Maxi Gnauck (GDR) and Elena Shushunova (USSR)
1987 – Daniela Silivas (Romania)
1989 – Henrietta Onodi (Hungary)
1990 – Svetlana Boginskaya (USSR), Mirela Pasca (Romania) and Natalia Kalinina (USSR)
1992 – Tatiana Gutsu (Ukraine)
1994 – Svetlana Khorkina (Russia)
1996 – Simona Amanar (Romania), Svetlana Khorkina (Russia) and Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine)
1998 – Svetlana Khorkina (Russia)
2000 – Svetlana Khorkina (Russia)
2002 – Svetlana Khorkina (Russia)
2004 – Svetlana Khorkina (Russia)
2005 – Emilie LePennec (France)
2006 – Beth Tweddle (Great Britain)
2007 – Daria Zgoba (Ukraine)
2008 – Ksenia Semenova (Russia)
2009 – Beth Tweddle (Great Britain)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Most of the highlight moments for me are … Khorkina. Not surprising since she won over an entire decade.