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This is part of a Powerpoint presentation I use at coaching courses. There are a number of excellent clips included.

The drills are recommended for boys and girls.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (14min)

Look for the G.S. George article in the May 2011 edition of International Gymnast.

Or try this link.

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who worked so hard to save Men’s Gymnastics at Cal State Berkeley.

… Monday’s announcement delighted coach Tim McNeill and his athletes – who recently finished fourth in the NCAA championships. It also excited a small army of parents, ex-gymnasts and fans who raised $2.6 million to keep the program alive. …

The fundraisers came up short of the $4 million officials said was needed to sustain the program for the next seven to 10 years. As a result, there will be no athletic scholarships to incoming gymnasts until fundraising allows such aid.

This year, the Cal men’s program split 4.7 scholarships among nine gymnasts; the NCAA allows up to 6.3.

At the current funding level, the 2011-12 team – in the program’s 100th season – would have three scholarships to split, because this year’s seniors account for 1.7. The fundraisers, however, are confident they can quickly push the program back to its current scholarship level. …

… philanthropist Doug Goldman recently offered to pledge $160,000 if four other donors pledge an equal amount. “We’re already gotten two of them,” Popovic said. …

SF Gate – Cal men’s gymnastics team will be retained

There’s more on Gymnastike.

Some news from Tom Trapp:

CANADIAN WOMEN SHINE AT CANADA CUP IN MONTREAL

The Canadian Women’s National Diving Team turned in a stellar performance at the 2011 Canada Cup held in Montreal at the 1976 Olympic pool. Leading the team was Roseline Filion with a gold medal in the women’s 10 meter event and a personal best score of 379 points outdistanced the Chinese divers by 9 and 20 points for the silver and bronze medals. The Chinese pair opened the door for Roseline by missing back to back dives in the 4th round ( both divers doing a back 3 & 1/2 tuck). …

While the men had a formidable team, they did not receive any medals this time but did have several finalists in the synchro events. Attending the meet but not competing was Canada’s best male diver, Olympian Alexander Despatie. It is unknown why he did not dive. Could it be he is saving himself for the World Championships? The redeeming result for the rest of the men was several of them making or surpassing the scoring standard to be placed on Canada’s World Championship team …

One of the highlights of the meet was Australian Matthew Mitcham’s gold medal performance on 10 meter. The 2008 Olympic Games gold medalist in this event scored 7 perfect 10’s on his back 3 & 1/2 tuck topping off a great execution with a flawless “rip” entry.He suffered an abdominal strain before the meet and opted to go with lower degree of difficulty dives. This decision was a major factor in his victory as the chinese went for super high D.D. dives but missed their usual splashless entries.

China was the high point team with a medal count of 10 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze, Canada second with 7 total and Australia third with 5 all together.The surprise of the meet was the Japanese men’s team who took the bronze in both the 3 meter and 3 meter synchro events. This is the sleeper group for the 2012 Games next year and should be a force to be reckoned with. …

Svetlana Khorkina, the Goddess, whom many consider the greatest gymnast of all time, has reportedly married Oleg Kochnev.

… or is this tabloid newspaper nonsense?

Google Translate – Khorkina was married to Gen. FSB!

The father of her son Svyatoslav, now age-6, has still not been revealed.

You’ll find variations of this on many club sites:

1. Thou shalt not impose your ambitions on thy child.

2. Thou shalt be supportive no matter what.

3. Thou shalt not coach thy child.

4. Thou shalt only have positive things to say at competitions.

5. Thou shalt acknowledge thy child’s fears.

6. Thou shalt not criticize the judges.

7. Honor thy child’s coach.

8. Thou shalt not jump from club to club.

9. Thou shalt have other goals besides winning.

10. Thou shalt not expect thy child to become an Olympian.

Most recently it was posted by Keeping Balance (with commentary).

Leave a comment if you know where this originated. One site credited Will-Moor School of Gymnastics, New Jersey.

Gymnastics Canada has launched the Respect In Sport Parent Program, making it the first national sport organization (NSO) to offer the innovative online program giving parents an easy way to evaluate their own behaviour as spectators and to ensure a positive sports experience for their children.

The program is a joint effort of Gymnastics Canada and Respect in Sport, Canada’s only online bullying, abuse, harassment and neglect prevention program co-founded by former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy. …

details on Gymnastics Canada

Canadian coaches have been required to do a similar program online for the past few years.

Rosamond and Yeadon at Loughborough University, U.K. created this …

… study was carried out to design, construct and assess a training aid to assist in the learning of a backward handspring. …

Though they consulted many expert coaches, I doubt any of those experts would ever use this machine.

To see how it worked, download that 2009 research study – The biomechanical design of a training aid for a backward handspring in gymnastics (PDF)

WHISTLER GYMNASTICS presents the “High on Gymnastics” Adult competition in beautiful Whistler, British Columbia, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Saturday June 11th, 2011.

details on Rec Gymnastics

I’ll be attending …

•  Men’s Junior Olympic National Championships, May 4-8th, Long Beach

• Level 9 WAG Western Championships (PDF), May 5-8, San Diego

• Women’s Junior Olympic National Championships, May 12-15, Long Beach

• J.O. National Invitational Tournament (PDF), May 14-15, Long Beach

First stop …

… 5 day event will be held in Long Beach California at the Long Beach Arena. The competition is a USA Gymnastics sanctioned event and will feature the top 700 male gymnasts in the country ages 12-18. Most, if not all of the 2016 USA Olympic Team will be competing here at this event …

official website

From the left coast I’ll carry on to the Canadian National Championships in PEI. The start of a really long road trip, actually.

Bruno Grandi is not happy.

As quoted in Gymnastics Examiner:

“Originally created to serve the development of our sport, the Code has mutated into a time bomb that we are wholly unable to contain,” Grandi wrote. “Worse, it is a pitfall to judges and gymnasts alike, and creates situations that are often impossible to navigate. Remember Athens!”

Continue reading on Examiner.com

Grandi remembers Athens.

He remembers the Men’s Judges under Adrian Stoica bringing scandal and dishonour to our sport. More than anything else, the controversies of Athens resulted in our current open-ended Code of Points.

In Artistic Gymnastics, it’s not working. Here’s my Report Card:

The new Codes in each discipline were brought in under Grandi. I admire that he’s willing to admit there are problems. Serious problems.

The TIME BOMB looming (in my opinion) is that gymnasts and coaches are being forced to do more and more difficulty to win. When the inevitable catastrophic injury happens on TV, the general public will be asking why that athlete was doing such a difficult routine.

Almost everyone agrees that the Code has swung too far in rewarding difficulty.

Is it possible to swing back to rewarding excellence and artistry?

I’m not so sure.

But we should all back Bruno Grandi in this cause:

… In a dramatic and almost emotional letter to the gymnastics community at large Sunday, the FIG President evoked Roman law and the Athens Olympics judging scandals and called for “the technicians, judges and leaders in sport, to gather round a single table and revisit the Code; to re-equip our discipline with the structure and spirit originally inherent to it.” …

No major improvements will be made until after London, I’m afraid.