Author: Rick Mc

Happy inauguration day.

UPDATE: I forgot about Hajile “Mo” Mitchell, Head Coach of the University of Kentucky.

In 2008 Mitchell’s Cats smashed multiple school records throughout the season and put several team and individual scores in the UK record books. The Wildcats also broke two Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) records and had Kentucky’s longest winning streak of eight meets.

Last season had the Blue and White ranked No. 21 nationally, the third consecutive year Mitchell’s teams have been ranked in the GymInfo Top 25 polls. Kentucky also finished 11th in the country on floor, the team’s best finish in school history. The Cats earned a final ranking of No. 15 on both the vault and balance beam.

UK

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Shout out to the only black Head Coach in Women’s NCAA Gymnastics.

Byron Knox

Knox enters his fifth season as the head coach of the UB women’s gymnastics program. Before his arrival at Bridgeport, he was assistant men’s gymnastics coach at Southern Connecticut State University. Prior to his stint at Southern, Knox was an assistant at Yale University for their women’s gymnastics program. In addition to coaching at the college level, Knox is also the Director and Head Coach at CATS Gymnastics in Cheshire, CT. He has helped pave the way for some 56 gymnasts to receive full scholarships at the collegiate level. Knox is also a former USA Women’s National Team Coach. He has also coached several National team members.

Purple Knights

(via Pogo on College Gymnastics Board)

I’m often defending Artistic Gymnastics, a sport dominated by women, not men. One of the few sports where where the small, light female athlete can excel. Where Asian, Hispanic and Black gymnasts are superstars.

I’d like to think race is no barrier in our sport.

… But I’m embarrassed there’s only one black Head Coach in the Women’s NCAA.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

UK Coach Nick Blanton from the UK is looking forward to a Canada-England-Japan Junior training camp. IIt’s scheduled over Jan. 19-31, 2009 at the fantastic Lilleshall training centre.

Confirmed Canadian athletes and coaches are Jayd Lukenchuk, Jackson Payne, Max Vacca, Robert Watson, Anderson Loran, Jaylan Birl, Kevin Lytwyn, John Hall, Edouard Iarov, Carlo Pacella, Markos Biakas, Liang Cheng, Chris Foo and Masaki Naosaki.

A Japanese Junior team arrives Wednesday.

I hope that our young gymnasts and coaches will take this opportunity to learn and rise to the occasion”, said the British Gymnastic Men’s Technical Director Eddie Van Hoof.

(Eddie is the husband of Canadian WAG coach Carol Orchard, incidentally.)

Leading up to the Beijing Olympics, Canada spent a lot of time in China. I expect the Canucks will do the same in the UK leading up to London 2012.

Certainly England has an exciting up-and-coming young Men’s Artistic Gymnastic team right now.

Canada has good Juniors. But there’s a big gap between them and the strong Senior Team that qualified for Beijing.

Esteemed Canadian coach Masaki Naosaki has signed on to help the Men’s Program by acting as National Team Coordinator, assisting National Coach Edouard Iarov. This should help. Nao is a great influence.

==== related:

The Canadian Men’s National Team Selection Meet has been moved from December to a much-more-reasonable month of the year.

The guys are very happy with the change.

Vancouver, Surrey, BC on February 24-26, 2009.

The best free running scene in a movie I’ve seen is Sébastien Foucan in James Bond – Casino Royale.

But check out the “King of Hollywood” back in the early days:

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in “The Mark of Zorro“. (1920) Fairbanks was the original action star, performing all of his own stunts. (He was an accomplished gymnast) His films (“Zorro”, “Robin Hood”, “The Three Musketeers”, “The Thief of Bagdad”) are still being remade. Fairbanks’ Zorro was also the inspiration for the character Batman. Set to the music of Tchaikovsky.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Coach S.

Rope climbing is one of the very best general conditioning exercises. If you don’t have a rope in your gym, it’s not a good facility.

Unfortunately, every-so-often someone falls from a rope. Or “burns” their hands sliding down.

Alternative?

Click PLAY or watch the Marpo Kinetics Weight-Assist Rope Climber machine on YouTube.

Cost? Only $4,395.

(via Straight to the Bar)

related post – teaching safe rope climb to beginners

2008 Olympic Silver-Medalist Memmel shows new license plate

© Jeanelle Memmel

USAG

MILITARY BASES, Kuwait – Olympic gold-medalist Shannon Miller, along with Olympic champions Angelo Taylor (track), Joey Cheek (speed skating) and Laura Wilkinson (diving), visited several military bases in Kuwait upon their arrival in the Mideast. They are on a goodwill tour and will stop by bases in Iraq later in the week.

USAG

Laura Wilkinson was an ex-gymnast.

==== Some sad Shannon Miller news.

CN8 (Comcast Network) has gone out of business. The TV channel no longer exists which means Shannon Miller’s gymnastics show is cancelled.

Georgia-197.15 vs Utah -196.725

Courtney Kupets, who is first in the nation in all-around and bars, won three event titles (vault, bars and floor). She shared the floor title with Utah’s Nina Kim. Kupets also won the all-around for the third straight meet — this time with a 39.600.

Courtney Kupets – Tricia Spaulding

With the meet on the line, Georgia’s Courtney Kupets gave her team some guidance.

“Don’t worry about winning. Just do what we know how to do.”

The two-time NCAA all-around champion and former U.S. Olympian eased her teammates’ minds as they went into their last rotation — floor exercise — with the score tied against Utah.

With their highest floor exercise score of the season, the fourth-ranked Gym Dogs defeated the third-ranked Utes 197.150-196.725 on Monday at Stegeman Coliseum.

…

Utah’s Baskett finished second to Kupets in the all-around with a 39.450 and Tolnay was third with a 39.425. …

Gym Dogs take down Utes

I wish I could be there.

On Monday, the day before the inauguration of Barack Obama, Georgia (2-0) will entertain Utah (1-0) in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matchup at Stegeman Coliseum. …

Georgia and Utah are two of the all-time heavyweights in collegiate gymnastics. The Utes were the first program to win nine NCAA titles, and the Gym Dogs matched that standard last season. The Gym Dogs and the Utes have been 1-2 respectively at the last three NCAA Championships.

…

Georgia leads the series 22-20-1 and has won nine of the last 10 meetings. The Gym Dogs fell to Utah in the season opener last year, but then topped Utah in both the preliminaries and finals of the NCAAs in Athens. Georgia is 8-2 against Utah all-time in Athens. The teams have met nine times in the regular season, with Utah holding a 5-4 edge.

Coaches Greg Marsden of Utah (901) and Yoculan of Georgia (806) are the NCAA’s all-time winningest coaches.

Gym Dogs Host Utah In ‘Clash Of The Titans’

Artistic Gymnastics has ended.

Day 2 of Finals was “dominated by China and Great Britain (looking great for 2012!)”.

China, no surprise.

But to see the Men from Great Britain so successful at so many recent Junior competitions is a treat. And the GB Women did surprisingly well, too.

Past & Present Gymnastics – commentary on the meet.

Floor
1. Jie Cui (CHN)
2. Danusia Francis (GBR)
3. Liufang Wu (CHN)

Balance Beam
1. Liufang Wu (CHN)
2. Sixin Tan (CHN)
3. Danusia Francis (GBR)

Vault (M)
1. Zhanteng Liu (CHN)
2. Reiss Beckford (GBR)
3. Luke Wadsworth (AUS)

Parallel Bars (M)
1. Ashley Watson (GBR)
2. Lixiang Fang (CHN
3. Max Whitlock (GBR)

High Bar (M)
1. Xiaodong Zhu (CHN)
2. Michael Mercieca (AUST)
3. Ashley Watson (GRB)

official results

Interesting mount, perhaps first performed by American Michelle Goodwin in 1982. (Front tuck somersaults over the low bar were big back then.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Years later it was done by former Soviet star Olesia Dudnik — without the butt bounce off the low bar. (video on Gymblog)

In the most recent code it’s an E-part. No gymnast’s name is attributed to the skill. Sorry Dude.