Author: Rick Mc

Yesterday Andrew Thornton posted a summary of the International Gymnastics Federation Men’s rules changes through until the 2012 Olympics.

Today he’s posted a summary and plenty of commentary on the DRAFT Women’s Code of Points.

… where to start?

The biggest problems with the last code, in my opinion, were that routines were too long. And that judges could not agree consistently how to deduct pirouettes on Bars.

The Bars assessment in the new code is more confusing and less objective than before.

And there is some doubt as to whether the WAG rules will be successful in making routines shorter and more Artistic.

Seems to me there is no clear vision as to where FIG wants to go with Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. Andrew points out many contradictions and even errors in the new Code.

I expect fewer and fewer gymnasts, from fewer and fewer nations, will be able to stay competitive with the top nations over 4yrs. We will have even more injuries trying to train all-around in a sport that mainly rewards who can do the most E, F and G parts.

Click through to Gymnast to read more – Code of Points Changes…Women

You can download your own copy of the Codes for free from the FIG Rules page.

GymSmarts has a new video clinician.

Tony Retrosi, since 1994, is the owner, Head Coach and Program director of Atlantic Gymnastics Centers. He is a highly respected and popular National and Regional speaker on the technical aspects of gymnastics, safety and risk management.

Five Bar Skills Every Gymnast Needs, covers everything a coach or gymnastic program needs to develop a strong bar program. The skills covered are: the kip, casting to handstand, clear hip to handstand, flyaways and giants. He also includes a tremendous amount of information on pirouettes. Tony explains how to teach these skills, how he integrates them into war-up sequences, floor bar work out and how he creates a year long bar training plan. His explanations are clear and the DVD contains excellent demonstrations from his gymnasts. This is an excellent video for any club or program.

This video and more are linked from the GymSmarts home page. (A Gymsmarts DVD would make a great stocking stuffer Christmas gift for any coach.)

Here we go again.

I could take the F.I.G. Men’s Judging course in January as it’s being offered in my city, Calgary, Canada, Jan. 8-11, 2009.

But I think I’ll stay inactive for another 4yrs.

The current code does not appeal to me. Horizontal Bar is still a disaster. (Four more years of crappy Rybalkos?)

There’s still not enough reward for virtuous performance. Or originality.

Still too much reward for difficulty.

Andrew Thornton posted a summary review of the new draft Men’s Code. Here are just a few tidbits:

Falls are now a 1.0 deduction rather than .8

There are now “G” skills, which are worth .7

Floor – Two “G” skills: triple twisting double back (Ri Jong Song) and a triple back (Liukin)

Rings – can’t do more than four consecutive strength skills

Rings – fwd uprise to “Victorian” = F

P Bars – deduction for having more than 3 pauses is take out (good idea)

H Bar – Angle deductions for turning elements have been decreased (now allowed 30 degrees from handstand for no deduction)

H Bar – Laid-out Tcatchev with half turn to mix grip into back uprise handstand = E

Click through to Gymnast to read more – Code of Points Changes – Men

You can download your own copy of the Codes for free from the FIG Rules page.

Shout out for the Cheer Team that trains out of my gym.

The Pythons finished second at a National Championships in Toronto. Photos like this are still being posted on Facebook.

I did get to see their performance at the Pep Rally rehearsal just before they jetted to T.O.

I’m impressed with how quickly the team improves.

Good coaching.

Still under construction, so far I’m impressed.

GymCan.org

For one thing, it finally has an RSS feed. That’s the most important feature of all.

A promising new generation of young Canadian gymnasts focused on the 2012 London Olympics takes to the floor this weekend at the 2008 Elite Canada meet for women in Gatineau (Aylmer), Que.

Leading the way are top-ranked seniors Charlotte Mackie and Brittany Rogers, both of Coquitlam, B.C., and a host of upcoming competitors looking to make a strong impression. Mackie and Rogers, both just 15, have already established themselves as strong contenders for the next Olympics along with Peng Peng Lee of Toronto, who is injured and will not compete at Elite Canada. Both Mackie and Rogers have won multiple national titles at the novice and junior levels and boast a growing resume of impressive international results, including a bronze medal performance in the team competition at the 2007 Pan American Games.

Other top seniors in the medal hunt include Sydney Sawa of Calgary, Ti Liu of Montreal, and Cynthia Lemieux of St. Hubert, Que. …

read more – Gymnastics Canada

Elite Canada – home page

Elite Canada is the first competition of the year for most of the competitors. It’s likely to be a rough meet.

My feeling is that the judging rules for Jr. and Novice High Performance girls in Canada are too demanding. Personally I’m not optimistic that Canada will qualify a full team to the next Olympics. Many of our most talented girls will not survive to reach Olympic trials in 2011.

We certainly need a new National Coach and a new system.

For the first time the Men moved their Elite Canada (National Team Selection Meet) later in the season. A good move.

GM Canada may be in financial trouble, but they are still promoting sport.

The Coaching Association of Canada has the General Motors Making Dreams Possible club coaching grant and high performance coach grant applications online.

… one hundred $2,000 club coaching grants and ten high performance coach grants of $10,000, to community sport clubs and high performance coaches nationwide on an annual basis.

This spring, another 50+ $2,000 grants will be awarded to community sport clubs across the country for coach training and development. Another 10 grants will be awarded to high performance coaches to build on their athlete-coach relationship and help contribute directly to achieving podium performances. The application deadline for both applications is February 15, 2009.

Click here for more information.

Thanks Amber.

The Couch Gymnast has another original post listing some of the most famous “pint-sized” international gymnasts.

Shawn Johnson is very short for her age at 4′ 9″ (1.44m).

But many have been even shorter, over the years, including Australia’s Trudi McIntosh at 4′ 6″ (1.37m) tall.

Being short is a big advantage — biomechanically — in Artistic Gymnastics.

Artistically, however, I prefer relatively taller gymnasts. And those with long limbs. The lines are simply more appealing to me.

Those include: Svetlana Khorkina, Svetlana Boginskaya and Nastia Liukin.

He Kexin and Nastia Liukin at the 2008 Olympics.

Andrew Thornton on Gymnast is seeking out “incredible world class gymnastics (that) never seemed to achieve the world or Olympic recognition they deserved.”

Needless to say, he’s finding many of them in the former USSR in the late 1980s. What an era!

Speaking of ex-Soviet gymnasts who didn’t make Olympic teams…who do you think was the first female to perform a double layout full-out on floor? Before I came across this, I would have guessed Chusovitina in 1991. Wrong again!

Tatiana Tuzhikova FX 1987 Worlds

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… one more ex-Soviet who never made an Olympic or world team…

Svetlana Ivanova FX 1988 Chunichi Cup

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Unbelievable difficulty! A double layout punch front, a whip through to full-in, and a double back punch front! A couple of weeks ago we saw Romanian Camelia Voinea perform a double layout punch front back in 1987. Since this is the same era, I wonder who actually did it first?

Check the original post for more videos like this – Smooth Skills – Part 19

One of my former gymnasts, Marta Erlandson, did post-Grad research on gymnastics.

She debunks some of the negative mythology (i.e. “gymnastics makes you short“) that somehow seems to perpetuate itself in the popular media.

… Gymnastics places tremendous strain on wrists and forearms, and ankle joints take a pounding from hard landings. Many studies show the high impact nature of gymnastics stunts growth, presumably by prematurely closing growth plates at the ends of bones.

But Erlandson’s study took a novel approach, accounting for menarche — or the onset of menstruation — of the girls who took part in the study, not just their age.

“There are all kinds of studies that have looked at gymnasts and shown that at nine to 12 years of age, gymnasts are significantly shorter than other athletes,” she says.

“But then you go back and look at their doctor’s measurement from when they were one to three years old and they were also significantly shorter.”

The study, which compared timing and tempo of maturation in female gymnasts to swimmers and tennis players, showed no significant difference in the pattern of growthand development of the gymnasts with their counterparts.

“Gymnastic training didn’t compromise adult height,” says Erlandson. “It is more likely that gymnasts and other athletes are selected into participating in the sport most suited to their body size, which is related to their maturity.” …

“Gymnastics is actually very good for children’s development,” she says. “For the general population putting children in gymnastics may have beneficial effects for body composition later in life. Children may have decreased obesity, stronger functional strength, better body awareness and increased bone density, which is shown to decrease osteoporosis later in life.”

U of Saskatchewan – Grad Student Flips Popular Belief About Gymnastics

Marta has a number of research projects based on the same research. Her dissertation, published 2007, is posted online: The Effects of a Gymnastics Program on Early Childhood Body Composition Development

The C Score points out that media reports on scientific research like this are often misleading.

.. National Osteoporosis Society … their own study, which shows that girls 8-17 engaged in “high intensity gymnastic training” had bone densities 13-28 percent higher than matched controls. They also didn’t find evidence of stunted growth or that gymnasts were not receiving adequate nutrition. …

Doctors fight back against London Times article about bone growth in gymnasts