Author: Rick Mc

Roll Tide!

This score should keep them at the top of the team rankings.

The No. 1 ranked Alabama Gymnastics team posted its second highest score of the season, a 196.600 here Saturday night on the Penn State campus to beat the No. 19 Penn State Nittany Lions (196.025) and No. 23 Minnesota Golden Gophers (192.825) in front of 2,046 fans in Rec Hall. …

“The biggest thing for us tonight was we displayed great teamwork,” Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. “We had some inconsistencies to work through – adjusting to the equipment and people who weren’t 100-percent – and I altered our lineup to ensure our success in the future. I’m very proud that the people we inserted stepped up and performed well. We must have had six different lineups at different points tonight, it was definitely a long working night at the office.”

GymTide.com

Morgan Dennis won the AA with a 39.275.

Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson will be a judge of the 2010 Miss America Pageant. …

The pageant takes place at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 7:00PM CST. You can watch it on TLC.

KCRG

Great honour? … Rush Limbaugh is one of the other judges.

2008 Level 10 Nationals Bar Routine – Katherine Grable from Oshkosh Gymnastics Center.

I’ve never even dreamed of this Bars transition. Very cool though it may be impossible to do without major deduction.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (25sec)

She committed to Arkansas for September 2010.

(via Twistandflip on IG forum)

The annual Men’s “Winter Nationals” meet in Las Vegas looms.

2008 Olympic horizontal bar silver-medalist Jonathan Horton of Houston and his 2008 Olympic team bronze-medalist teammates Alexander Artemev of Lakewood, Colo., and Kevin Tan of Fremont, Calif., are among the 136 male gymnasts currently in the field for the 2010 Winter Cup Challenge, Feb. 4-6, at the Las Vegas (Nev.) Sports Center. Five members of the 2009 World Championships team are also entered, including Tim McNeill of Falls Church, Va., who was seventh in the all-around finals. In addition, 11 members of the senior national team and 13 gymnasts on the junior national squad are in the field.

Performances at the 2010 Winter Cup Challenge will help determine the 15 men who will comprise the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team through the 2010 Visa Championships in Hartford, Conn., Aug. 11-14. Ten will qualify for the team using the National Team Points System, and the remaining five will be selected by the Men’s Program Committee from among the Winter Cup participants and athlete petitions. …

USAG

Hey, Charlie Tamayo (Cuba) is on the competitors list. Cool.

Coaching legend Mas Watanabe has seen it all.

On his GymSmarts coaching blog he reflects on an all too familiar topic:

Why do gymnasts stop improving?

… When I start to give a gymnast the same correction over and over again, but nothing changes, I need to stop and think what is causing this situation. …

Mas identifies typical reasons:

• growth spurt
• lack of good basics
• unwillingness to make changes
• bad habits
• fear

… The next cause of a plateau is the hardest one of all. That is the lack of interest in doing gymnastics, but she is hiding it within herself. Many times, she comes to the practice for a social reason or her parents expect her to go to the gym. …

read the entire article – Some thoughts on the learning plateau

Arkansas scored 196.750 tonight in a win over Kentucky.

No. 3 ranked Utah scored only 195.850 in a win over No. 24 Washington.

Team ranking scores are going to be TIGHT next week.

Blythe Lawrence predicted that scores would go up this weekend. I too thought some teams would put together 24 of 24 hit routine meets. And start separating themselves from the pack.

=== original post:

The third-largest crowd in school history, 9,198 strong, turned out at the O’Connell Center for the fourth annual Link to Pink event and were treated to a season-best performance by the No. 4 Florida Gator gymnastics team Friday night.

The Gators (3-1, 3-0) got individual winning performances in three of the four events and had a scoring advantage in all four as they downed No. 13 LSU 196.725-195.050, setting a season-high team score in the process. …

No. 4 UF gymnastics shines in pink, defeats LSU

Louisiana State had another poor meet. But LSU’s Susan Jackson rocks on, grabbing her fourth-straight all-around title in 4wks.

All-around: 1. Susan Jackson (LSU) 39.525; 2. Ashanee Dickerson (F) 39.450; 3. Marissa King (F) 39.200

Ashanee is ranked #2 nationally in the AA.

… Although she fell short of the all-around victory, finishing .075 points behind Jackson, Dickerson felt good about her performance.

“I did well today,” Dickerson said. “It was a great matchup. You win some, and you lose some.” …

Oregon’s Mandi Rodriguez wins the all-around with a 39.475 and leads her team to a win over Stanford and Seattle Pacific University.

… The Beavers scored 196.225 while the Cardinal tallied 195.775 and Seattle Pacific had 188.100 before a Pink Out crowd of 6,143, the best turnout since the regular season record of 7,583 on Feb. 7, 1997 against Utah. …

OSU gymnastics tops Stanford, Seattle Pacific

photo is Stephanie McGregor

No. 15 Auburn Gymnastics Downs No. 8 Georgia, 195.225-194.00 194.900.

Tigers defeat Gym Dogs for first time in program history

Auburn Tigers

… time to call back Suzanne?

… “We’re not very good,” said Georgia head coach Jay Clark. “We are not a mature team right now and we aren’t competing like it. We’re gaining a reputation for not being able to finish a meet …

Red and Black

That’s the message I get from an article in her local paper in the U.K.

How can that be?

Becky Downie finished 12th AA at the Beijing Olympics and is a national star in the lead-up to Europeans and the Olympics in her own country?

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

Perhaps the story is overblown?

… the gym where she trains, at Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, has suffered from broken heating, outdated equipment and overflowing rubbish bins. …

But training had to be cancelled in December because the gym was unheated.

“It was too cold and dangerous,” said Claire Starkey, head coach at Notts Gymnastics Club. “We’ve complained to the council. …

The gym has been selected as a pre-Games training camp for 2012.

“It’s a joke,” says Claire. “If I brought my colleagues from the US and China here it would be embarrassing. There’s one toilet for 150 kids. Unless the facilities are improved, we won’t be producing any more Olympians.” …

Olympian’s training conditions branded “a joke”

More research on whether Nike has caused all your foot and leg injuries.

A word of caution from Dr. Ross Tucker and Dr. Jonathan Dugas:

… I guarantee that the media are going to be all over this and they are going to tell you that you should be running barefoot or in Vibrams. You will hear how science has proven that being barefoot will prevent injuries, and that those of you who are injured should blame your shoes as you lob them into the garbage bin. …

If you wish to guarantee yourself an injury, then go out for a 2km run barefoot on a hard surface, and you will be asking your calf muscles and Achilles tendons to do work that for perhaps 30 years, they haven’t had to do. …

read more – Science of Sport blog.

That article led me to some cutting edge research …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or compare a runner wearing shoes on YouTube.

More caution:

Disadvantages of Forefoot Striking Barefoot or in Minimal Footwear

* Thick-soled shoes are much more forgiving when running over glass, sharp objects, ice and so on.

* If you have been a heel striker, it takes some time and much work to train your body to forefoot or midfoot strike, especially because you need stronger feet and calf muscles. Runners may be at greater risk of developing Achilles tendonitis when they switch from heel striking to forefoot or midfoot striking …

Running Barefoot, Forefoot Striking & Training Tips

This comes from a new blog by Dr. Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University: Running Barefoot or In Minimal Footwear

That’s likely the best site of all for those who want to research this topic.

(via Full Twist – Running Barefoot – The Debate)