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So says Wolfgang Willam, sports director of the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) on this post via Google Translate:

Despite the reactor disaster in Fukushima find the gymnastics world championships as scheduled on 8 to 16 October in Tokyo. The surprise decision, the Executive Committee of the World Gymnastics Federation FIG in San Jose.

Originally, only the FIG-Council make in the next two days of the decision. “Due to the present facts and scientific expertise, the Executive Committee saw no reason to cancel the award to Tokyo,” said Wolfgang Willam …

I’m surprised too. Germany just some weeks ago pulled out of the Japan Cup. (German)

This is quite the controversial result. The easy way out would have been to move to Moscow.

Leave a comment if you hear otherwise from the meetings in San Jose.

Reporter @nrarmour says FIG will make a decision. @intlgymnast says it’s a done deal. We’re headed for Tokyo.

Personally, I’m happy to see it stay in Japan.

(via The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook)

Lindsay Gallego updates us on 4 meets hosted in Florida:

Dec. 30-31st ~ New Year’s Invite
Jan 27-29th ~ Sun & Surf
Feb 17-19th ~ Presidential Classic
Mar 2-4th ~ Tim Rand Invite

I find kids and parents are pretty excited to go to the beach that time of year.

New Year’s Invite – Dec 30-31 – at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. Disney is beautiful over the holidays. This is one of our smaller meets so is a great meet to “get the kinks out” and ease into the season while spending New Year’s at Disney. Competition will be on Friday and Saturday so families are able to travel on Sunday.

Sun & Surf Meet – Jan 27-29 – This is in Coral Springs, near Fort Lauderdale. 25 minutes from the beach and close to a huge shopping mall and other attractions.

Presidential Classic – Feb 17-19- This is our biggest event with both mens and womens competition. The meet is at the ESPN Sports Complex at Disney. Last year we had 1700 kids at the event.

Tim Rand Invite – March 2-4- This is our fastest growing event. We are having it for the first time this year at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Convention Center. The CC is nearby to the airport and the beach. This event also boasts a high level of competition at the optional levels. Something unique about this event is the athletes earn “twister bucks” at each event (for stuck landings, hit routines, powerful tumbling, etc). At the end of the meet we have shopping tables set up for the kids to spend their money. Also, $5 from each entry is donated to the Tim Rand Memorial Fund.

I want to thank these events for sponsoring GymnasticsCoaching.com. It’s much appreciated.

Yelena Shushunova was one tough trickster.

Here she is at the 1982 Youth Games. The Bars have never been closer together.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There’s more video on Stoi – Baby Shush 1982.

Thank you’s to Alar from The All-Around forum, and 80sgymfan from WWGym for unearthing these hidden treasures.

Will the USA have 3 gymnasts who can score 15.0+ on Pommels at Worlds 2011?

At the 2012 Olympics?

That’s what they’ll need to challenge for a Team medal in London.

Why is Pommels the weak apparatus right now?

Why did very talented boys have so many falls at J.O. Nationals 2011. This lad, for example.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ron Noe of Stick It Media noted that well over 50% of the (young) Level 9 boys fell on Pommels.

The USA, I feel, is still putting boys on the pommeled horse in competition too soon. They’d be far better off keeping them on a lower (safer) horse without pommels, longer. I blame the JO rules for providing too much incentive to go for a hard routine.

Team USA will continue to produce a lot of guys with “piked”, muscled swing if they don’t correct this problem.

Leave a comment if you feel the American pommel problem is improving. Or if you think I’m wrong altogether.

Utah’s Greg Marsden linked to this video of his now co-Head Coach wife, Megan McCunniff, winning the Collegiate championships.

Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube.

He saw that linked by Blythe Lawrence:

Fun fact: Many — actually, most — of the country’s top NCAA coaches were once college gymnasts themselves.
Funner fact: Some of their routines (and even fluff pieces) are available on Youtube. …

Tanya (Service) Chaplin
Dana (Dobransky) Duckworth
Rhonda Faehn
Kristen Smyth
Kristen Maloney
Tabitha Yim

Continue reading on Examiner.com: And now for something completely different…

Update: Greg linked her second win – Getting to Know Megan Marsden – (VIDEO), too.

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Tom Trapp, by the way, is the new Diving Examiner:

USA Diving announced today the coaching staff for the 2011 FINA World Diving Championships to be held this July in Shanghai, China. Leading the team as Head Coach will be Drew Johansen, Coach at Duke University. His position was earned based on his divers Nick McCrory and Abby Johnston making the team in 3 events. …

World Championship Team Coaches Selected

Tom was inspired by Blythe Lawrence, Gymnastics Examiner.

Gym Mom Linda Robertus from Brisbane, Australia, is a quilter.

Here’s another work yet to be named:

For details, and to see more of her work, check out LindaRobertus.com.

Originally from Netherlands, their family are big fans of World Cup Horizontal Bar Champion Epke Zonderland. Her son’s favourite apparatus is H Bar, too. 🙂

Leave a comment if you know of more Gymnastics Quilt Art.

by site editor Rick McCharles

I’ll be making my first trip to the Emerald Isle.

Workshops at Renmore Gymnastics in Galway, June 18-22, 2011.

You may recall the interview with American coach Ariel Edesses on Couch Gymnast last year.

Our camps are independent of the National Coach Education program mentioned below …
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Katie has been keeping us updated on the state of Artistic Gymnastics in Ireland:

… Those who are familiar with Irish Gymnastics will agree that the governing body has undergone a huge amount of developmental change in the last few years. Notably that the long awaited newly developed coaching courses have been rolled out over the last three years thus increasing the coaches knowledge significantly which in turn has a major impact on the gymnasts talent.

… full time gymnastics facilities has increased … in the last few years, something that most clubs could only dream of for years.

With approximately 2,000 newly qualified coaches within the last two years and the talent is gradually rising to meet other European standards. …

Full Twist – Funding & Irish Gymnastics on the rise

Charlottetown, PEI, May 23-28th.

#CdnGymChamps

That’s the official twitter hash tag for the 2011 Canadian Gymnastics Championships. By searching for that unique tag, you can see what everyone is saying about the event in real time.

Home Page | Blog | Facebook | Twitter @GymCanNats2011

You can sign up on the Blog to get email updates.

The GYMNASTICS at the 2011 U.S. Women’s Junior Olympic National Championships was excellent.

The EQUIPMENT, supplied by Whitey Anson of AAI, was perfect.

The coaches are there for the competition. I heard no complaints.

…. But here’s where I found the meet lacking:

• scant media coverage
• no LIVE blog (only one gym Mom was tweeting)
• no LIVE scoring
• no dedicated home page for the competition
• Mr. Video Online was not there. So no videos of the meet are available.

Coach Jason MacDonald did post some routines on Gymnastike. Thanks.

The City of Long Beach is wonderful destination. The arena superb. But I wasn’t impressed with the set-up.

Please leave a comment if you agree or disagree. I’ve not been to JOs in 3 or 4 years, so I’m not sure how this one compared.

The set-up for the Men’s JO Championships in the same venue, a week earlier, was much more impressive, IMHO.

… I’m responsible for Social Media at the next big meet in North America. We’ll try to do better.

It was great to meet Ron Noe in his home town, Long Beach. He’s the guy behind Stick It Media, by far the best blog on Men’s Gymnastics. @StickItMedia

He was first to report this story, significant in that the Fighting Illini are suddenly looking like a serious threat to win the NCAA Team competition.

… Illinois signed CJ Maestas to a gymnastics scholarship. The signing has raised a lot of eyebrows in the men’s community, as Maestas will definitely provide a significant boost to the Illini program. Next season, they will have four gymnasts capable of hitting 90.00 in the all around (Maestas, Ruggeri, Mizoguchi & Mori). The former three are all current members of the Senior National Team, and have legitimate shots at spots on the 2012 Olympic Team. …

Random Thoughts on Men’s Gymnastics – 05/15/11

CJ Maestas – Still Rings – 2011 Winter Cup Challenge Finals. Score: 15.550

Click PLAY or watch his Rings on YouTube.

Though CJ is young, any all-arounder with good Rings and/or Pommels will be given strong consideration for National Team meets.

CJ is really young. He just graduated High School. USAG posted a Prom photo. (see more National Team Prom photos from that link.)