Author: Rick Mc

Chris suggested we look at this vault for “perfection”.

It’s the best Amanar that’s ever been competed, I suspect, by a woman. World Championship finals 2005. Yurchenko with two and one half twist.

Click PLAY Or watch it on YouTube.

Leave a comment if you’ve seen Cheng Fei or any other female gymnast do it better.

Ashley Postell from Utah has the top average score in the NCAA on Vault.

The Salt Lake Tribune documented Postell’s March 7 vault against Oregon State. She received a 9.95 score, a combination of two judges’ scores – a 9.9 and a perfect 10.0.

Charity Greene, the judge who awarded the 10.0, was asked to analyze the vault frame-by-frame. (Every judge awarding a “perfect” score should be required to do so.)

The most interesting frame to me is this one, the point of contact on landing. Technique is very good.

Unfortunately, NCAA judges want the chest position vertical on landing. The gymnast must stop the rotation of the somersault and come to a stop, somehow. There are many ways to do this biomechanically. But the only acceptable way in College gymnastics rules is like a knife stuck into a plank.

Shannon Miller’s landing on her first vault from the 1992 Olympics is perfect — yet her torso is not vertical. (Was Shannon fantastic, or what? Apologies in advance for the antics of Steve Nunno. His retirement from coaching was a happy day for me.)

Click PLAY or watch Shannon on YouTube.

(via difficulty plus execution)

If you want to see Ashley’s vault analysis for yourself, download the PDF file linked from this article:

Gymnastics: Postell’s vault broken down by a judge

The best Yurchenko fulls I’ve ever seen were done by Chinese men (and probably Kyle Shewfelt) but I do not have the links at my finger tips. Leave a comment if you have a personal favourite. We can use it as a 10 standard when comparing with College women’s vaults.

Gymnastics fans were irked when a 14-year-old qualified to the Olympics in Diving.

“Why can’t a 14-year-old gymnast qualify?”

Is there a double standard? Or is each sport doing what is right for them?

Interview with Thomas Daley:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Now I hear Tom Daley’s mother is worried about getting tickets to the Olympic events.

Obviously the Olympics should block a “family section” at each sporting venue, and allot a given number of tickets / country based on the number of participants. They could even charge a premium for those tickets.

Related post: 14yr-old diver to compete at Olympics

This video is the “making” of the first movie pitting Jet Li against Jackie Chan. It should be good.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Straight to the Bar)

Here’s a related fan video:

Click PLAY or watch the top 10 Jackie Chan stunts on YouTube.

(via Straight to the Bar)

#1 and #2 clips are where Jackie REALLY went too far.

Jackie Chan – Wikipedia

Philippe Rizzo, of Australia, performs a release move on the high bar his during the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Mar. 30, 2008. Philippe Rizzo won the gold medal in the high bar competition.

(AP Photo/Tony Avelar) – ESPN

In Australia last year I was lucky enough to spend time with Philippe’s father, Andre Rizzo. A respected coach, former competitor for France. What a shame Andre won’t get to see his son contend for an Olympic medal.

Philippe is one of the medal contenders not qualified for Beijing.

Shout out to Brandon O’Neill who won Floor with a 15.550.

photo – Grace Chiu

The chalk dust still settling, check the “live” reporting on International Gymnast. Both Men’s and Women’s results are included.

Oklahoma Sooners remain undefeated. Win the Big 12.

TEAM RESULTS

Oklahoma, 195.875
Iowa State, 195.775
Missouri, 195.225
Nebraska, 194.975

more NCAA coverage – Inside Gymnastics

On the women’s side, here’s the current GymInfo ranking list:

full list

Only one competition remains before the 12 qualifying teams are announced.

commentary on Gymgemz

The best Rhythmic photos anywhere are on James Glader’s site:

rhythmicgymnastics1.com

I ask James here and now what’s going on with Rhythmics USA? He and I were at Championships last year. The American girls did not look all that strong. Yet they bested both Canada and Russia at Pacific Rim.

Rhythmic team and all-around final results

Team
1. USA, 236.325
2. Canada, 228.700
3. Russia, 218.300

Senior all-around
1. Alexandra Orlando, Canada, 63.925
2. Lisa Wang, USA/Buffalo Grove, Ill., 62.325
3. Rachel Marmer, USA/Los Angeles, Calif., 59.575
4. Lina Gnirovskaya, Russia, 58.100
5. Demetra Mantcheva, Canada, 56.450
6. Naazmi Johnston, Australia, 56.325

USA Gymnastics

Historically Rhythmic has been one of the worst Olympic sports for the USA. Has it been turned around James?

In any case, check out the work of James Glader for yourself:

rhythmicgymnastics1.com

Cody has always been one of my favourite drills coaching trampoline. I love the psychological challenge of learning it. (Needless to say, I hated it when I competed tramp.)

It’s difficult to rotate backwards, unless your technique and timing are good.

Here are some MASTERS of Cody:

Click PLAY or watch Ronny do triple back Cody on YouTube.

Neil Gulati quad twisting Cody super slow motion. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Josh Dilworth – Cody Quadruple Full on Trampoline. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Leave a comment if you know of other Cody variations of this difficulty or better. What can Jason Burnette do out of Cody, for example?