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If you are attending Woodward this Summer, you might just be able to invite someone to join you for FREE.

Do you have a friend who would like to come to Woodward but just can’t make it work? Would you like to help him/her out? The Matador Bring-A-Friend program may be just the answer!

Nominate your friend by telling us why he or she deserves to come to camp but can’t and, if your submission is chosen, Matador Beef Jerky will foot the bill for camp for your friend! Seriously! Ten lucky friends will be chosen from entries; you will be notified via phone so that you can give your friend the good news. …

details

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… This much is true: on April 17, the Fresno Grizzlies hosted the Tacoma Rainiers in an evening contest at Chukchansi Park. And at some point in the ballgame, Tacoma’s Brent Johnson came to the plate against Victor Santos and lofted a deep fly ball down the left-field line.

What didn’t happen (at least not in real life) is the catch itself. The ball girl was a stunt woman, working on behalf of an advertising production agency that was filming a Gatorade ad. However, this particular campaign was scrapped before the commercial could make it to the airwaves. The ad was leaked online instead, where it quickly became a viral video sensation. …

read more on MiLB

World Figure Skating Championships, Moscow.

Patrick Chan blew away the field today in the men’s short programme. The canadian’s score set a new IJS record, beating that of Evgeni Plushenko from the 2010 Europeans. The best of the rest were the Japanese men followed by mini-Plushenko, Artur Gachinski of Russia who hit a clean 4T-3T combination. …

read more on Going For Gold

Aunt Joyce has video.

related: Japanese skating in honour of their homeland

UPDATE from Full Twist:

Ah USA Gymnastics have tweeted that neither are competing 😦 Booooooooooooooooooooo

_____ original post:

Normally I don’t post nominative entries of international meets, especially under the new World Cup system. The names change far too often.

But this is BIG and surprising news.

Rebecca Bross and Alicia Sacramone are scheduled to compete at the Moscow World Cup 2011, May 13-14th.

Mother Russia is still none too happy with what happened at American Cup, Jordyn Wieber added last minute and going on to win the meet. Bross would not walk into the lion’s den if she’s not ready to win the AA.

(via Full Twist)

#stopbullying is trending on twitter today.

This cause is akin to anti-smoking. When enough of the cool kids quit, it will decline.

stopbullying.gov

The Tsukahara vault is easy to do … badly. We’re still seeing too many dangerous landings in competition.

Many gymnasts (especially boys) flip their first ones off a cheese mat into a pit. That’s OK … but if they do too many, most will develop some bad habits.

I put together a quicky tutorial on a better way kids could do their first flips.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Delay the first ‘FLIP’ day until kids are confident and consistent with the Round-off. And then let them only do up to 3 flips in any one work-out, once-in-a-while. It should be a reward for hard work on sprint, hurdle, pre-flight and conditioning.

Ideally, beginners would flip no more than once a week. The other days are dedicated to preparation.

Several of the kids in this video were flipping for the first time. The youngest is age-9. She now has years to stabilize the skill (and work on LANDING) before needing to compete it.

Prerequisites to the first day flipping Tsuk:

• 10 backward saltos in series on tramp
• ‘gainer’ back salto on tramp
• ‘pullover’ on tramp
• double back saltos somewhere safe (ideally tramp with belt or bungie belt)

That’s a short video. Leave a comment if you’ve a favourite drill to add.

Going for Gold has some commentary and links to full results.

Last years champions, Koko Tsurumi & Kohei Uchimura defended their titles in style, cementing their status nationally and making a statement about the readiness of the deep Japanese teams to challenge at the upcoming world championships, hopefully in Tokyo. …

The consistency of high scores in both the male and female results though are perhaps the greatest testament to the resilience and quality of the Japanese gymnasts. …

Going for Gold – Champions defend at Japan Nationals

related commentary – Full Twist

Love this guy’s swing.

Happy that he’s competitive without doing 4 Kovacs variations. But I don’t want to see 4 stoop shoots in a routine either.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

When is FIG going to start deducting overuse of a family of skills?

Second place event finals – Ian Makowske (University of Michigan)

That’s one routine featured on an NCAA Horizontal Bar post by Andy Thornton on American Gymnast.

If you like the Coach Howard articles online, check this out. His best stuff.

You need to BUY NOW though. The sale ends no later than April 27th..

– Level 4, 5 or 6 Package, that’s 3 books normally at $141, now just $67 (you save $74)

– Level 7 or 8 Package, that’s 4 ebooks normally at $178, now just $67 (you save $111)

– The Whole Store Package, that’s 12 products normally at $524, now just $247 (you save $277)

details on Gymnastics Zone

As usual, China dominated the FINA WORLD SERIES FINAL MEET:

China got six out of the eight titles on offer in the fourth and final leg of the FINA/Midea Diving World Series 2011, held in Guanajuato (MEX), on April 22-23. The only non-Chinese victories went to the local divers, with Yahel Castillo/Daniel Islas winning the men’s 3m springboard and Ivan Garcia/German Sanchez triumphing in the men’s 10m platform synchro. …

Tom Trapp, US Diving Coach and judge, sends us a brief report on the rest of the North Americans:

AMERICANS AND CANADIANS BRING HOME 10 MEDALS FROM THE FINA WORLD SERIES FINAL MEET IN MEXICO

Silver was the primary color of the meet for USA Diving and
Canadian National Teams as they collectively won 9 silver and 1
bronze at the FINA World Series of Diving Final held April 22 & 23 in
Guanajuato Mexico. This was the last event of the World Series and
was only open to those countries who faired well at the 2010 World
Cup.

The Canadian National Team was only eligible for women’s events
and entered 4 divers in 4 events.

TEAM CANADA RESULTS:

Women’s 10 meter final: Roseline Filion – 5th.

Women’s 3 meter synchro: Jennifer Abel & Emilie Heymans – 2nd

Women’s 3 meter final: Jennifer Abel – 2nd /Emilie Heymans – 5th

Women’s 10 meter synchro: Meagan Benefito & Roseline Filion – 2nd

The Canadian Women finished 2nd in the women’s team score and 4th
overall with no men!

USA DIVING RESULTS:

Women’s 3 meter synchro: Kassidy Cook & Abby Johnston – 6th

Men’s 3 meter final: Troy Dumais 5th / Kristian Ipsen – 6th

Men’s 10 meter synchro: David Boudia & Thomas Finchum – 2nd

Women’s 3 meter final: Kassidy Cook – 3rd

Men’s 3 meter synchro: Troy Dumais & Kristian Ipsen – 2nd

The USA team finished 2nd in the men’s team results, 5th in women’s
and 3rd overall.

Next up for both countries is the annual Canada Cup held in Montreal
April 28 through May 1. This international meet will feature the best national teams from all FINA* countries and promises to be a great event.

LIVE video of that meet will be streamed via the official event webpage.