Author: Rick Mc

Timing is critical when applying for any new job.

Cirque du Soleil is looking for male gymnasts for a new show directed by a world-renowned director. The show-performed under a big top-will begin in spring 2010 and will afterwards set off on tour.

Selected gymnasts for this role must show excellent skills on the high bar, floor and trampoline. They must also be open artistically (i.e. for acting and dancing)

Now is the time to add your name to their computer database.

Click through to the Work at Cirque link at the top of any page on this site.

On the GK Elite blog:

Olympic Gold Medalists Nastia Liukin, Nadia Commaneci and Bart Connor took a side trip in Denmark to Hermes Gymnastics Academy. Hermes is the home of the Danish Champion Team, who competed at the most recent European Championships. …

see more photos

via Nastia on twitter

How can any IOC member vote against Chicago after being asked by Nadia?

UPDATE: Streamed video at abola.pt/directos/

==== original post:

Shani Isseroff reminds us that European Championships is in progress right now in Portugal.

24th European Championships for Seniors and 8th European Championships for Juniors and 4th European Age Group Games in Acrobatic Gymnastics take place from 25th September to 4th October in Vila do Conde (POR).

Russia and Great Britain dominated the Age Group competition (11-16).

GymNiceTic

Shani points out that it’s not getting much coverage on either old media or the internet. Perhaps Senior finals will be interesting enough to generate some press.

Fact is, Acrobatic Gymnastics is my favourite gymnastics discipline. And there are no athletes more sought after for Circus jobs.

GymNiceTic covers Acrobatic Gymnastics.

FIG does a good job of providing an overview, but not much commentary:

… Some 422 gymnasts from 18 national federations will compete at the Acrobatic Gymnastics European Championships end of September and beginning of October in Vila Do Conde (POR) in the categories Women’s Pairs, Men’s Pairs, Mixed Pairs, Women’s Trios and Men’s Groups. …

FIG – Europe’s ACRO elite meet in Portugal

Videos are being streamed from France. (Click on the pulldown menu to choose what to watch.)

The British Acrobatic Gymnastics blog is good.

More links have been compiled here.

But Shani is correct. There are not nearly enough Acrobatic Gymnastics websites on the net. Leave a comment if you have more to recommend.

related link – The quadruple back has now been banned in FIG competition, I understand.

Day 1 of the two day Apparatus Finals are complete.

… France was the most successful nation, with Cyril Tomassone winning pommel horse and Pinheiro-Rodrigues earning the gold on still rings.

Competition concludes Wednesday with the remaining five apparatus finals. The Doha World Cup is the final major international competition before the 2009 World Championships, Oct. 13-18 in London.

IG – details and scores

Dannny Rodrigues (France) attempts a Victorian hold (horizontal iron cross) on still rings at the 2009 European Championships in Milan.

This was the Sept. 27th Photo of the Day for International Gymnast.

related post – rings – ever seen Victorian Cross? (video)

Viktoria (Viktoriya) Komova scored 59.80 points (results PDF) All-around at the Junior competition in Japan, establishing herself as one of the very best gymnasts in the world. She won’t be age eligible for senior competition until 2011.

Is Komova for real?

See for yourself.

Click PLAY or watch her Bars on YouTube.

GymNiceTic posted all 4 apparatus from that competition.

Komova is for real. Put her on your list of possible AA medalists at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Ashley Quinton, a Sr. High Performance athlete from Stampede City Gymnastics in Calgary, committed to EMU (Eastern Michigan University Gymnastics).

Congrats!

His old rival from the 2004 Olympics, Marian Dragulescu, is back in contention for medals at Worlds.

Kyle is in Vancouver, Canada.

I’ve done a ton of speaking gigs and events and the most recent one is happening right now in Surrey. I’m here to do a week and a half of school visits for one of my favourite Charities, Right To Play. …

details and more photos on Kyle’s blog

We saw a glimpse of this excellent series of drills in the Aerial Athletics training video.

Coach Ryan Snider of Aerial Athletics shows off the gienger progression he uses on uneven bars. He breaks down the skill into 2 quarter turns. This produces beautiful, high giengers with potential to even upgrade into a def later on …

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

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

I’ve never thought of it as 1/4, 1/4 … but there might be some advantage in adding those steps.

We could also have the gymnast do flyaway to stand on the bar, immediately jump forward with half turn … and regrasp on their own, without spot.

Leave a comment if you have additional drills for Geinger. There are some good orientation drills on tramp.

Special Army soldiers flip simultaneously as they demonstrate their martial arts skills during a rehearsal for the 61st anniversary of Armed Forces Day at the Gyeryong military headquarters, South Korea. South Korea will celebrate the 61st Armed Forces Day on Oct. 1.

BBC

Thanks Tim.

The best gymnast on Floor and Vault of the last decade is 28yr-old Marian Dragulescu from Romania.

… world titles on floor (2001, 2002, 2006) and vault (2001, 2005, 2006) …

Andy Thornton:

He’s still got it! Although we’ve seen him do a more difficult first pass (he used to do a punch front 1 ¼ out of that), he looks as controlled and powerful as ever. He made those passes look WAY too easy, and yet every single one of them is extremely difficult. How about that second pass of front full to front full 1 ¾? And he’s still doing a double-double as the SIXTH tumbling pass – unbelievable! He should definitely be in the gold medal mix on floor at worlds next month. …

American Gymnast – A look at the Romanian men’s team…

Click PLAY or watch his Floor from 2009 Romanian Championships on YouTube.

I’m not convinced. Marian has never had good form tumbling. And he does not look close to peak form here.

Recall that he was badly injured on a roll out skill in the past. Yet he’s still relying on those dangerous tricks … as is everyone else in contention for medals.

I wish the Men would ban roll out skills as the Women did long ago.

Marian is the favourite on vault, as Andy explains his blog post.