Author: Rick Mc

Rhythmic Gymnastics photos are already very striking.

Here are samples from a gallery where a Thai photographer experimented with Photoshop editing.

Gymnastics 2004 Photo Gallery by chak-k at pbase.com

Guillermo Alvarez edged first-day leader Jonathan Horton by .05 to win the U.S. Men’s Qualifier, which finished Saturday at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Alvarez, .2 behind Horton on Thursday, outscored Horton 88.250-88.00 to take the title. Both Alvarez (13.200) and Horton (13.450) took their lowest score on high bar.

David Durante finished third all-around ahead of Sho Nakamori.

Alvarez won pommel horse and tied Horton for the title on floor exercise. Other titlists were Kevin Tan (still rings), Sean Golden (vault), Justin Spring (parallel bars) and Joseph Hagerty (high bar).

Reigning national champion Sasha Artemev, who finished seventh on Thursday, scratched from today’s competition.

The competition served as a qualifier to the U.S. National Championships, scheduled for Aug. 15-18 in San Jose, Calif.

All-Around
1. Guillermo Alvarez 178.100
2. Jonathan Horton 178.050
3. David Durante 174.900
4. Sho Nakamori 174.300
5. Todd Thornton 172.600
5. Sean Townsend 172.600
7. Bryant Hadden 171.650
8. Tim Gentry 170.850

International GYMNAST Magazine Online

Even with Artemev, the scores drop off a cliff. The US Team may need the Hamms or one of the other veterans.

Guillermo Alvarez – USA Gymnastics bio

IG photo Jeff Spivey

Jonathan Horton hotdogging on High Bar at Winter Cup 2007: Kovacs, direct Kolman, and 1/1-in triple back dismount.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(I won’t post the second attempt where Horton crashed.)

Incidentally, the full twisting double back to regrasp should be called the “Pineda”. I filmed Tony Pineda catch it at the 1985 World Championships in Montreal.

Because he was from Mexico, in an early morning flight, it seem to get ignored.

What year and where did Kolman first compete it?

More craziness. A compilation of street and competition acrobatics.

http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/620940/the_worlds_best_trickers_volume_3.swf
The World’s Best Trickers Volume 3 – Click here for more free videos

If you like it, check out Giulio Calisse’s World’s Best Trickers 2.

Dave poses a good question. And gets some good feedback on the Chalk Bucket forum:

I’m getting ready to purchase new foam for our loose foam pit. This will be the first complete re-fill in years. …

Types & Sizes of Foam: The foam I’m looking at comes in 6″ cubes or 8″ cubes. I’ve gotten a couple conflicting recommendations as to what is best to use.

I’ve heard that larger is better, creating more ’empty space’ between cubes to better absorb the landings.

I’ve also heard that for smaller children, the smaller cubes are better to keep them from getting to the bottom too quickly (slipping through basically).

Our pit (like most I gather) is used by 1 year olds, and full grown competitive gymnasts. I guess it’s not uncommon to have a mix of sizes to best accommodate the variety of shapes, sizes, and weights of the gymnasts. …

From the suppliers I’ve limited it down to, I have available:

CC33145 @ $0.91 (per 6″)
CC44140 @ $1.00 (per 6″)
CC44170 @ $1.19 (per 6″)

… I really appreciate anyone with experience in loose foam building/restocking, sharing their experiences.

Ps. I’m also open to supplier suggestions as well, if you have a recommendation.

The Chalk Bucket Gymnastics Community – Help Please! Loose Foam Pit

Big decisions.

There’s no one correct answer. Most important, to me, is to buy the blocks which deteriorate most slowly.

Once they get this “crumbly”, they cause too much of a mess and become a hazard. Replace them.

original photo – Phil Aaronson – flickr

For you Canucks, in case you missed it, a L3 Technical will be held in Saskatoon, Aug 3-7th, 2007. Deadline June 30th.

The ONLY MAG & WAG Level 3 course offered in Western Canada in 2007. This course will be full – register early to be guaranteed a spot!

details – GymSask

Guillaume, a circus artist, posted this amazing training clip.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Jump Club)

Leave a comment if you know the name of the incredible athlete doing the standing double backs.

(And if you know him personally, advise to do it on to mats in the pit like Charlie Tamayo. Please!)

Every gymnastics gym has super flexible girls (and, once-in-a-while, a boy). They often get steered into Rhythmic Gymnastics.

In some countries those girls may be selected to be contortionists.

A non-acrobatic coach asks this question:

Are there any studies of the contortionist/gymnastics training these children are receiving?

Are there any local or international monitoring agencies? Are there health agencies involved to evaluate the stresses of the training? Is there any oversight at all for the training and pre-training of potential future athletes?

thomasfortenberry.net » Blog Archive » Contorting Future Gymnasts

I have no answer for him.

Astonishingly, some people are born with a range of motion far beyond the norm. The most flexible girl I ever coached seemed to have no limits in hip mobility. It was not from training. She could do extreme oversplit in every direction without pain the first day she walked into the gym.

But is it possible to injury such an athlete?

Certainly. The stretching I’ve seen done by contortionist coaches has been too severe, in my opinion. I particularly worry about the lower spine and knees.

However, the bigger story is just how uninjured are contortionists compared with the normal population. Perhaps there are some advantages in having such lax joints.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion. Or if you’ve seen any research into contortionist injury.

Red Panda Acrobats

I think so.

The new FIG code of points is making routines long. Too long, it seems to me, especially for Junior athletes trying to compete FIG.

Difficulty-wise, it’s impossible to stop the best in the world from pushing the limits of what’s possible.

They banned Olga’s back tuck on beam. Now some would suggest we ban Kovacs on the girls bars.

Adam Wong performing a Kovacs on High Bar at the 2006 Canadian National Gymnastics Championships in Quebec City.

If you are a member of Facebook, you can see the larger original – Facebook | Trip Lewis’ Photos – Gymnastics Pictures

Some girl, somewhere, is already catching Kovacs. You can’t stop her.

So … routines getting longer. Difficulty increasing, long-term.

What are we to do?

Two things:

Promote the concept of specialists. That’s a done deal in Men’s Gymnastics already. Fewer and fewer of the best in the world want to do the AA.

It’s even more necessary in Women’s gymnastics. And can’t happen fast enough for me. The all-arounder in Artistic Gymnastics should be like the Decathlete in Athletics.

I want to see what the best vault specialists can do. The best beam specialists.

Specialists will need less training hours. Have fewer overuse injuries.

Secondly, we need to devise more sensible developmental regulations for age group gymnasts.

The goal should be a healthy, safe set of rules where most of the kids in any division can get through the routine, scores are fairly high, and the “winners” are those who stick landings, have slightly better rhythm and “perfect” execution.

It happens now-and-again already in some lower levels of competition. I love those meets — where one wobble drops you 10 placing on the apparatus.

Kids really focus. They learn.

That’s an exciting competition!

Oh — and they should do the All-Around for as long as possible.

Leave a comment if you have other ideas, not on how to make gymnastics EASIER, but how to make it BETTER for gymnasts and coaches.

by Rick McCharles

I’ve been avoiding weighing in on a rekindled controversy buzzing on the internet right now.

But the time has come to put things in perspective. I’ve heard too many alarmist and wrong statements.

Parkettes in Pennsylvania, one of the top elite women’s gymnastics programs in the world, invited CNN into the gym a number of years ago to do a documentary.

Now … CNN editors could have done a piece showing how strong, dedicated, determined and fantastic are elite gymnasts — but that would not get good ratings.

An expose sells far better.

If you did not see the original documentary, it’s on YouTube:

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5

CNN PRESENTS: Achieving The Perfect 10 – transcript

What got things abuzz again was a new edit montage including clips from the documentary. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s much better in every way than her original montage.

Aside from trying to generate ad revenue for CNN, a secondary purpose of the documentary was to bring some facts to light:

All true. I commend CNN for that. The general public needs to be better educated.

I advise athletes and parents of athletes NOT to accept invitation into an elite program unless you understand the risks.

Any coach who steps “over the line” should be disciplined and reprimanded. Even jailed.

Elite gyms should have an open door policy, parents welcomed to bring cameras and camcorders any time.

Girls who are unhappy with their elite training in Artistic have many other options: diving, cheer, circus, dance, fitness, etc. (I know a half dozen girls who switched to pole vaulting and were nationally ranked within a year.)

Here are the facts waiting to be highlighted by a future CNN documentary: (Don’t hold your breath.)

Gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling are still, in my opinion, the best sports available for girls. From that starting point they can do anything.

I go to many multi-sport coaching conferences. Each and every time I come away thinking that gymnastics coaches are the most impressive and dedicated of all. Our sport is the most difficult — and it develops the best coaches and athletes. Period.

Leave a comment below if you have something to add.

The bad reputation of Elite Women’s Artistic Gymnastics, especially within the medical community, is one of the biggest issues faced by all gymnastics coaches.

And I’m expecting a flood of bad press surrounding the selection of the American Team to the 2008 Olympics. There are many good candidates — but only a few can qualify.

The stories of those who do not make THE TEAM is are stories the media can sell.