Author: Rick Mc

Gymnastics Canada used a “point system” based on score on each apparatus to choose two female Olympians.

The Canadian Gymnastics Championships Finals tonight is the last chance to gain points.

Described colourfully as a “cut-throat” competition by an athlete on the male side, the yearlong battle between three of the women is more cut and dry at this point.

With Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs nearly five points ahead of Nansy Damianova and 14 ahead of Kristina Vaculik — according to the unofficial count in the new qualifying system Gymnastics Canada is using to select two women to represent them in the Beijing Games this summer — it would take a perfect performance from Vaculik today at the Olympic Oval, and some below-average efforts from the other two to propel her into an Olympic berth.

Even so, anything can happen, and although Hopfner-Hibbs does a great job hiding her nerves, she’s anything but calm.

“I’m not that calm. I’m trying to be calm,” said the Torontonian who claimed the all-around title at the 2008 Canadian gymnastics championships Thursday night.

“It’s a very stressful process. We’ve never had anything like this before.

“Hopefully next time we qualify a full team so we don’t have to go through this all over again.” …

Toronto Sun

Elyse

From a coaching perspective, the system used turned out to be a big mistake. Those wanting to contend needed to compete as much as possible, traveling frequently to World Cup meets in hopes of adding points.

In fact, they needed to stay in a state of “competition readiness” from January through until today. That’s not ideal for peaking at the Olympics.

It was totally unnecessary too. Better would have been selecting a training squad working together cooperatively. With a final decision made based on competition results and training performance. As is done in the USA. In Russia. In most countries.

Elyse and Aisha Gerber have both signed with UCLA for next season. Coach Chris Waller is here cheering on the two new recruits.

Many are raving about the unique qualities of this American gymnast, second in Junior after day 1 at the VISA Championships in Boston.

What feet! What toe point!

These are older videos …

Click PLAY or watch Beam on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Bars on YouTube.

Coaches Galina Marinova, Fernando Villa, and Arthur Akopyan. Club All Olympia Gymnastics Center (AOGC) in Los Angeles.

(via Rawles)

Samantha Shapiro – Got Chalk

I haven’t read the book by J. D. Hughes, as yet. But the title … I like it!

Keep all students in your physical education program moving, learning, and on their toes—even when you’re teaching very large classes.

This ready-to-use guide is packed with 6 units, 70 games, 15 hints, and 39 special game variations for teaching even the largest of classes.

If you are looking for fresh ways to teach children ages 4 to 11 basic fitness concepts, movement skills, and games that emphasize creative thinking and cooperation, No Standing Around in My Gym is for you. It’s an incredible source of ideas and solutions to help you

• increase the time students are active in class,
• minimize discipline problems,
• develop healthy attitudes that lead to a lifetime of activity,
• save valuable lesson preparation time, and
• keep students motivated and challenged.

The book provides complete descriptions, nearly 200 illustrations, and proven plans to make the units and games easy to teach. It’s the ideal resource for busy teachers with little time in the day to think of new ideas or develop lesson plans from scratch.

Amazon.com: No Standing Around in My Gym: Books: J. D. Hughes

There are very few good books on gymnastics games and activities. This adds to that limited literature.

Does anyone like this?

China’s Olympic Leotards Revealed – Lightbulb Hands

What other bad decisions are being made over there?

The best report I’ve seen on training in Boston was posted by philagym.

– Biggest story of the afternoon was definitely Ivana. She was struggling on her opening low bar sequence and Al Fong was ignoring her, obviously pissed. She did about 20 turns on bars before moving on to beam. Then she skipped floor and vault in favor of massive amounts of conditioning (arms and abs stuff) that was done on the floor mat in front of everyone. It looked like punishment. Then she went back to bars after everyone else was done and was hitting the opening stalders better. Definitely felt sorry for her though. No one was cheering her on or anything and she looked lonely/sad. I wonder if reality is setting in for her re: her Beijing chances. …

photos in the post by flying robin

Live.Breath.Love.Gymnastics

The competition finishes Saturday.

I’m reading several commentators saying Shawn was overscored. I still see no advantage in that for the USA. Only stupid people and the media will believe inflated numbers. It’s not going to result in higher scores in Beijing.

Related post: Is gymnastics coach Al Fong a changed man?

For the 23-year-old Wong, the all-around couldn’t help but be a huge confidence booster. He proved to be a model of consistency Thursday. Besides winning the two events, he finished no lower than fifth in any of the other four disciplines.

“Sure, it’s nice to win this,” he conceded. “But the goal coming in was come out and do my routines well, no matter where I finished. I’ve been training hard and working on a lot of components in my routines. To compete well is always No. 1. Then everything pretty much falls into place.” …

And the aspirations for Beijing?

Coach Bin Fan“:

“No. 1 for Adam,” he replied, “would helping the team get to the final. That would be a big accomplishment for Canada. But it is very possible with the team they do have. It is very strong, very deep.

“In individual events, the competition is very tough to get to finals.” …

Calgary Herald – Now, it’s Wong’s world

Adam is one of the Olympic Training squad from which the eventual team will be selected. No one is guaranteed a spot. But expect Adam to be in Beijing, his second Olympics.

Note: The bigger drama in Adam’s evening was when his elderly Grandmother fainted in the audience. There was flurry of commotion as Adam’s father rushed to get the in-gym medical staff to see to her quickly. Happily, there was no harm done. The family all could not be prouder of Adam.

photo by Grace Chiu – Gymnastics Canada

I have to make that prediction after Chellsie scored 16.0 on bars out of 16.80. This narrows the gap in start score between the USA and China on that apparatus.

Shawn, Nastia, Alicia AND Chellsie are locks for the team now, barring injury.

The USA would have a huge advantage in maturity and experience in high level international competition, as well, over Team China.

Chellsie Memmel is congratulated by her coach, Andrew Memmel, after competing on the uneven bars at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Thursday, June 5, 2008, in Boston.

(AP Photo/Mary Schwalm) – ESPN

… Chellsie Memmel won the evening to me. She right now sits in 3rd place. Her 6.8 bar set rocked a 16.000, beam of a 6.9 got a 16.150, and floor of 6.1 got a 15.100. She started with vault and at first I was scared as she ended up doing only a Yurchenko full. But wow. Chellsie did more than just perform to the best of the ‘bars club’ tonight; she beat out both Shawn Johnson and Alicia Sacramone’s beam scores!!! Chellsie keeps doing this, there’s no way they can’t put her on the team. There’s just no way. Wow am I excited for her. …

Gymnastics and stuff

The first time I’ve heard this news was today:

The International Olympic Committee has announced that new rules would make it impossible for doping offenders caught at the Beijing Olympics to participate in future games.

The rules which were ratified during an IOC executive board meeting in Athens will see athletes who are sanctioned for six months or more for a doping offence being banned from taking part in the next Olympics.

The rule goes into effect on the first of July.

First time offenders of doping and steroid use normally earn a two-year suspension.

Olympic Games blog

Last night Shawn won Floor with a new routine. A new record high score final score under the new code of points.

16.05 from 6.6

Click PLAY or watch Shawn on YouTube.

I like it. The routine to beat in the Olympics.

(via Addicted to Gym)

AA rank … so far

1. Shawn Johnson
2. Nastia Liukin
3. Chellsie Memmel
4. Samantha Peszek
5. Jana Bieger
6. Ivana Hong

Alicia Sacramone did 3 events and is looking fantastic. Bridget Sloan competed bars and beam — the most important events for the USA — and added a full-twisting double layout on bars.

All-in-all, not many surprises. Shayla Worley petitioned to Olympic Trials. But most think she still has a shot at making the team.

Defending U.S. all-around champion Shawn Johnson of West Des Moines, Iowa/Chow’s Gymnastics, leads the senior women’s all-around at the 2008 Visa Championships at Agganis Arena at Boston University after the first of two days of competition. The 2008 Visa Championships is the women’s qualifying event for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, scheduled for June 19-22 in Philadelphia. …

“I had a great routine on beam but when I got to my dismount, I cut it short a little bit,” Johnson said. “It’s a mistake and I can fix it. It’s something that I can work on tomorrow (during training) for Saturday. I definitely think there are quite a few things I can improve on.”

read more … USA Gymnastics

Gymnast.com was impressed:

Overall, the competition was a superb start for the Olympic Team selection process. With some obvious front-runners like Johnson, Liukin, Sacramone and Memmel showing impressive performances tonight …

read the commentary – Gymnast.com