Author: Rick Mc

Svetlana Khorkina had some amazing Bar performances in her long career.

Here’s one of them. From the 2000 Olympics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Effortless. Original. Interesting.

I think Svetlana deserves the rank of best ever (so far) … over He Kexin.

There’s a fascinating video online where Head Coach Valorie Kondos Field explains how she comes up with those unforgettable UCLA Floor routines.

And how she keeps coming up with new ones every year since 1983.

Watch it online.

related – Kyle from Gymnastike interviews Anna Li

Gymnasts must be very strong.

When is the best time during the workout to train strength?

“It depends.”

Exactly the answer you did not want to hear.

Coach Chris has a Masters in Kinesiology. He elaborates:

… I would put the strength/conditioning at the beginning of the workout during the off-season as you should be focused on building strength in order to both enhance and enable skill development. To maximize strength development, it’s important for the gymnasts to not be fatigued.

During the season, I would put it at the end of practice. By this time, your training emphasis will have shifted more to technical preparation and trying to make the routines as good as possible for competition. …

Where To Place Your Strength Training During Practice…

Even better with young developing gymnasts, where competition readiness is far less important than training, is …

• specific strength training at the beginning
• general strength training and flexibility improvement, at the end of workout.

That post is from a great new blog called COACHING GYMNASTICS IN THE NEW MILLENIUM

… dedicated to the discussion of training strategies, development, and growth of the sport of artistic gymnastics.

Yup. It’s high level serious content. Coach Chris and Coach Troy Wright answer questions emailed to them via the About page.

Check it out. COACHING GYMNASTICS IN THE NEW MILLENIUM

(via Full Twist)

We’re often linking to strength videos posted by men’s coach Christopher Sommer from Arizona.

He’s one of the preeminent strength gurus in our sport.

Now you can get all that expertise for $44.00. … UPDATE: Check the shipping charges. A Canadian coach was billed $26 USD shipping. His cost delivered to a remote island in the Atlantic, C$80. In the U.S. shipping is only about $12.15.

… Extremely comprehensive and detailed, with nearly 200 exercises (many of which have never been seen before by the general public) and well over 500 photographs, it is a complete developmental template for building the essential foundation of strength required for all gymnastics success. Whether you are a competitive athlete looking for an edge, a fitness enthusiast or just beginning a healthier lifestyle, Building the Gymnastic Body is the answer …

details

Highly recommended for all acrobatic coaches.

Official website GymnasticBodies.com.

OHG Head Coach Jeff Beal shows a drill he uses to teach his girls the positioning in gienger release moves on bars.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

related posts:

• gymnastics drill – flyaway to land on the bar

• gymnastics progressions – Geinger

Venturelli was the shoe worn by Kyle Shewfelt when he won Gold on Floor in Athens. That company sponsored the Canadian Olympic Team.

I’m hearing that Venturelli is no longer making the Sprung Trampoline Shoe.

(It’s still listed on Bermo Sport, a distributor.)

That’s a problem for the athletes that have grown to depend on the Sprung.

What other shoe would be an alternative? Leave a comment if you have suggestions.

by site editor Rick McCharles

I’m putting together a proposal for a foam cube pit renovation.

So far I’m leaning towards recommending:

8” X 8” X 8” Gymnastic Pit Foam R48 XB Fire Rated 1.5LB Density

Or should we get a combination of 6 and 8 inch cubes?

Is 1.5 pound density the best pick?

What spec lasts the longest before deteriorating?

If you’ve got advice for us, please leave a comment.

A small statistical analysis from IG forum posted by spezi3. In brackets are the number of mentions of each athlete on that site vis-a-vis each apparatus.

VAULT
1. Cheng Fei (21)
2. Yelena Zamolodchikova (18)
3. Yelena Produnova (17)
4. Mo Huilan (14)
5. Oksana Chusovitina (12)
6. Monica Rosu (12)
7. Alicia Sacramone (10)
8. Simona Amanar (10)
9. Vanessa Atler (9)
10. Shannon Miller (9)

Blythe Lawrence said, “If I had to choose a female gymnast of the decade, Cheng would be it.” I’d agree.

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

BARS
1. Svetlana Khorkhina (18)
2. He Kexin (17)
3. Ma Yanhong (13)
4. Lu Li (13)
5. Nadia Comaneci (12)
6. Kim Gwang Suk (12)
7. Mo Huilan (11)
8. Olga Korbut (9)
9. Beth Tweddle (9)
10. Nastia Luikin (8)

Bars had a very nice mix of gymnasts from different eras. There were gymnasts from the ’70s all the way up to 2009 in the top 10.

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

BEAM
1. Yang Bo (21) – video
2. Tatiana Lysenko (14)
3. Olga Mostepanova (10)
4. Kui Yuanyuan (10)
5. Oksana Omelianchik (10)
6. Shannon Miller (10)
7. Nastia Luikin (10)
8. Aurelia Dobre (9)
9. Li Li (9)
10. Mo Huilan (9)
11. Catalina Ponor (9)

The results show that after 20 years, Yang Bo’s beam work is timeless. There was the biggest difference between the number of votes between 1st and 2nd place on any of the events.

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

FLOOR
1. Oksana Omelianchik (14)
2. Anna Pavlova (13)
3. Daniela Silivas (12)
4. Svetlana Boginskaya (10)
5. Irina Baraksanova (9)
6. Lilia Podkopayeva (9)
7. Cheng Fei (8)
8. Natalia Frolova (7)
9. Shawn Johnson (7)
10. Henrietta Onodi (6)
11. Olga Strazheva (6)
12. Yelena Zamolodchikova (6)
13. Svetlana Khorkhina (6)
14. Andreea Raducan (6)
15. Yelena Produnova (6)

There was a 6-way for 10th place. Floor had a real mix of artistic and power gymnasts.

to read commentary, or to comment, click through to IG forum – Top 10 Per Event Analysis

Ha. Oksana Omelianchik, one of the weakest tumblers ever put on the Floor by the old Soviet Union, is #1 on Floor.

I was there in 1985 when she was co-World Champion with Shushanova. This routine was shocking and revolutionary in many ways at that time. The talk of the competition.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Great idea. Gymnastike is going to post an NCAA routine of the week, each week.

Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of UCLA, … With this routine, Elyse is tied with Courtney McCool for the highest floor routine score in the NCAA after week 1 with a 9.925.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

A real crowd pleaser. This is much stronger than McCool’s.

Elyse is a member of the 2008 Canadian Olympic team and placed 16th in the Olympic All-Around. … She was the first Canadian woman ever to win a World Championship medal when she placed third on beam at the 2006 Worlds in Denmark.

Andrew Thornton links to Elyse’s Olympic routine (video) from Beijing as an example of how much less entertaining are the FIG routines these days.

Andy also links to Brittany McCullough’s Floor from that first UCLA meet of the year. Even with watered down tumbling, you can see that Brittany may be the gymnast to beat on this apparatus come Nationals.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Miss Val is feeling the love.

UPDATE: Good comment: “What about Anna Li?”

Compare that Floor routine with her 2 teammates.

If, like me, you couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm to watch the The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular, here’s a short clip linked from UNORTHODOX GYMNASTICS review.

Click PLAY or watch Crank it Up on YouTube.

There’s another profanely negative review on Aunt Joyce.

Actually, the stuff the guys do at these Spectaculars is quite good. Reasonable difficulty with panache and humour. I’d watch an edit of the Men’s gymnastics.

But a backspring on beam in a short skirt? Most 7yr-old gymnasts would be disappointed with that level of “difficulty”.