Category: floor (women)

Jia Fangfang will compete WAG

A world Power Tumbling champ makes it look easy. She plans to compete at the upcoming Chinese Individual Nationals in Artistic.

Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.

introducing sprint and hurdle

I love teaching sprint to very young kids. It’s one of my favourite “skills” to coach, especially age 3-4.

Parents are shocked at the rapid progress their children make.

Al Fong posted an excellent drill for very young kids:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… with the use of warm and fuzzy objects to fit their comfort level, in addition to creating an environment where the young kids can safely learn to overcome fears of running into something hard.

Mr. Wally does a great job of keeping his preschool boys active and busy by getting them to run and jump over mats. They have to figure out how fast to run and how far to jump—from one foam block to another. It’s safe, it’s fun, and it’s challenging. Sometimes they crash and burn, but it’s soft enough they don’t get hurt. Which means they’re more likely to try it again and again. To me, this is where vaulting starts for beginners.The depth and distance perception exercise trained in this fun manner is invaluable later as the gymnasts learn to gauge their run toward the vaulting table.

Ask Al Fong – Dragon Gymnastics – Vaulting starts with the run. Learning to run starts early.

Kids love that activity. They love elephant vaulting even better.

Canadian gymnast Jamie Lister

I’ve been following Jamie’s career at Calgary Gymnastics Centre for years. She’s one of the fitness models in our Canadian Coach Education videos.

Still improving, Jamie is looking to continue to the NCAA. I’m thinking she can make the lineup on many teams.

Click PLAY or watch her L10 Floor on YouTube.

Check Jamie’s YouTube channel.

Contact me if you want more information.

Jr USA Nationals – day 1

Leanne Wong leads.

Click PLAY or watch her Floor on Twitter. GAGE gymnasts always have clean twisting.

It’s International Cat Day

Meow.

GymCastic 316: CATS – European Championship Edition has the best commentary on Celine van Gerner’s historic routine in the Floor final at Europeans.

It includes a phone interview with Celine’s choreographer Daymon Jones. He’s an American dancer turned coach who worked on the CATS show for years.

I agree with their conclusions. It worked for this gymnast at this meet.

Still, FIG WTC should define what is allowed in terms of theatrics. (FIG Acro has already done so.)

What Celine did should be allowed, IMHO. But I’d disallow leotards with lights, for example. No props. Any kind of make-up or hair should be OK.