Author: Rick Mc

Proud parent Mariposa posted this photo of her DD with the club kip trophy:

… After months of being close, she finally got her kip tonight! She had to do 10 of them to get to say at team meeting that she had her kip, so she has a rip to go along with the kip! She also got to bring home this huge trophy that says “I got my kip”. She is so proud of herself right now. Funny thing was that on the way to gym, she told me, “I am going to get my kip tonight and bring home that kip trophy.” I said to her to just do her best and maybe to set that kip goal at before she turns 7 (giving her 3 months to keep practicing!).

And to make it even better, once you get your kip, you get to practice jumping to the high bar, so now she is really happy. …

Chalk Bucket – She got her kip!!

The kip in men’s gymnastics is not much more important than a dozen other skills. But for young female gymnasts, it’s often the most frustrating skill of all. Shawn Johnson said that she really struggled to learn a kip.

Brian Bakalar has an excellent kip article with photo sequence posted on Gymnastics Revolution.

Like most coaches, I try EVERYTHING when introducing this skill to beginners.

My favourite drills are kip on parallel bars. And backward uprise on safety straps.

Once the beginner finally gets their first kip, a good way to improve them is with kip series on straps.

This week Robin at my gym got her kip after many frustrating months being … close. All our “competitive” girls can now kip. Hoo Hoo!

Proud parent Mariposa posted this photo of her DD with the club kip trophy:

… After months of being close, she finally got her kip tonight! She had to do 10 of them to get to say at team meeting that she had her kip, so she has a rip to go along with the kip! She also got to bring home this huge trophy that says “I got my kip”. She is so proud of herself right now. Funny thing was that on the way to gym, she told me, “I am going to get my kip tonight and bring home that kip trophy.” I said to her to just do her best and maybe to set that kip goal at before she turns 7 (giving her 3 months to keep practicing!).

And to make it even better, once you get your kip, you get to practice jumping to the high bar, so now she is really happy. …

Chalk Bucket – She got her kip!!

The kip in men’s gymnastics is not much more important than a dozen other skills. But for young female gymnasts, it’s often the most frustrating skill of all. Shawn Johnson said that she really struggled to learn a kip.

Brian Bakalar has an excellent kip article with photo sequence posted on Gymnastics Revolution.

Like most coaches, I try EVERYTHING when introducing this skill to beginners.

My favourite drill is kip on parallel bars. Next, backward uprise on safety straps.

Once the beginner finally gets their first kip, a good way to improve them is with kip series on straps.

This week Robin at my gym got her kip after many frustrating months being … close. All our “competitive” girls can now kip. Hoo Hoo!

I saw the story linked from Inside Gymnastics on Twitter.

… The 29-year-old spearheaded China to the men’s team title and collected all-around individual to cap his prolific career. Yang was also a member in China’s win of men’s team in the Sydney Olympics. Before culminating in Beijing, Yang also won seven world titles and two Olympic silvers in an international career spanning13 years. …

Yang refused to reveal his plans for the immediate future. …

Yang married his long-term girlfriend Yang Yun, a bronze medallist in the uneven bars at the Sydney Games, last November in a lavish ceremony that drew some criticism from his compatriots.

China View – Triple Olympic champion gymnast Yang retires

Thanks for the many good years. His win in Beijing was masterful, I thought. Carefully planned. Perfectly executed.

more wedding photos

His wife is one of the Chinese gymnasts who admitted to being an “age cheat” at the 2000 Olympics.

Is there a judging bias towards the SEC teams in College gymnastics?

Many think so.

JuanGone34 posted a video comparison with deductions overlaid.

… comparison of the University of Utah and Georgia at the recent 2009 NCAA gymnastics championships. There was much speculation that the scoring was not equal for all teams, especially on this event, so I put together this video to compare routines side by side. I chose Utah and Georgia because they had the most video available to show the most routines. I wasn’t able to find very many videos of the other teams, but based on this alone I would say Georgia was overscored by at least 5 tenths. …

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

There’s some commentary on the College Gymnastics Board disagreeing with the “judging bubbles”. (Judging in the NCAA is weird, as you know. Very few errors are deducted. The deductions tiny compared with F.I.G.)

I watched the meet closely.

It seemed to me that — in Prelims — Florida got the most generous scores, Stanford the least generous.

Florida is in the SEC. Stanford is not.

But I really cannot confirm any bias. The SEC teams are really, really good.

We are all convinced that they are.

Grad student Lisa Laundry is researching the topic.

Wanted: Gymnastics research papers on the topic “Participation in gymnastics (athletics) and academic achievement“.

I am looking for information to assist in my research for a Masters Degree in Education. Please forward any information to Lisa Laundry

lisalaundry @ sd28.bc.ca

Tracey Morrison linked this clip on Facebook.

Helen and Carol Galashan did a talent transfer from gymnastics to diving in 2006. Three years on and they are already European bronze medalists.

Click PLAY or watch the twins on YouTube.

Helen and Carol competed in the 2006 Commonwealth Games. As gymnasts on the team from Scotland.

Now they aspire to compete in the London Olympics.

New Zealand gymnast Misha Koudinov plans to compete this skill at the Moscow World Cup at the end of May.

He will submit a request to get it valued in the Code.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

Inside Gymnastics has the best interview with the Olympic Champion I can recall.

INSIDE: Have you considered transitioning to being a specialist on, say, bars and beam? The events that seem to come more easily for you.

LIUKIN: Possibly this year, just because I haven’t had the proper time, because of the traveling and everything. I’m not gonna say that’s what I’d want to do, though.

Before the Olympics, a lot of people, with my ankle and stuff, thought maybe I should just do two events. I wanted to prove to people that I was still an all-around gymnast and (laughs) I think I did that at the Olympics. I think, this year, I’m not trying to put any expectations on it, because I’m still traveling a lot. I will say that, down the road, I don’t want to back off and just do two events. I feel like the all-around is one of those things in gymnastics that is, to me, very important.

I think bars are one of the hardest events to get back into routine-shape. So, I feel like if I did bars then vault and floor would come pretty easy. We’ll see. I’m not trying to set any expectations quite yet. …

Her new routines. (A new skill on Bars and Beam.)

Her pet dogs.

Her favourite celebrity. (Maria Sharapova)

Where she’ll be in 10 years.

And when she’ll “move out” of her family home.

… I know I’ve already achieved the biggest goal—the biggest dream—I ever had. Now, it’s just about really enjoying it. To go for as long as I can. As long as I’m having fun. …

read more – THE INSIDE INTERVIEW: NASTIA LIUKIN

Brazilian gymnastics star, triple Olympian, Daniele Hypólito, now age-24, is reported to be getting surgery for weight reduction.

(photo: Julie Jacobson/AP Photo) – Triple Full

Sad she feels the need to resort to liposuction.

I would think hard training would be enough to maintain competition weight, even at her age.

Brazil has long been known as a destination for cosmetic surgery. I imagine procedures like this are common practice in her nation.

related post – ex-gymnast on thigh liposuction

Oops. The original flickr photo was Naomi Ruiz

Apologies for the hours this blog was down May 6th.

You may have seen this …

Bluehost suspends all sites they host for any infraction.

I think it’s time to move to a more secure web host, likely WordPress.com.