Category: Uncategorized

Recall this athlete had been banned from the Olympics by the IAAF.

In a landmark ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, South African athlete Oscar Pistorius – nicknamed ‘Bladerunner’ after the carbon-fibre prosthetics he uses in place of his amputated lower legs – has won the right to compete against able-bodied athletes, and plans to represent his country at either the Beijing Olympics or the later London event. …

Futurismic

In an era where we are demonizing “cheating” by performance enhancing drugs, this is a very interesting development.

Here’s a totally believable movie trailer based on the Cirque du Soleil show Ka’ in Las Vegas.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Twin Brother- Orlando Bloom
Twin Sister- Miranda Otto
Chef Archer’s Daughter- Keira Knightley
Chef Archer- Chow Yun Fat
Counselor’s Son- Tom Hardy Twin Brother’s Guardian- Djimon Hounsou
Forest Prince- Rudy Youngblood

I’d LOVE to see this film. Sadly, it’s only real in the creative mind’s eye of editor masongoliver.

I’ll say that again. There is no movie version of Ka’. This is a fake trailer.

I normally don’t post online Forum rumours. But this one looks to be true.

Shavahn Church is retiring (quelle surprise), Aisha Gerber will be taking her scholarship this autumn at UCLA. …

College Gymnastics Board

The girls are even better than I expected. And there are so many talented girls. Hundreds.

I followed “the babies”, the youngest competitors.

Beam
Good tumbling, in general. Backward layout 2 1/2 twists were not uncommon. Most girls stayed on the apparatus.

Vault
Younger Level 10s showed layout Yurchenko or Handspring front, minimum. I was shocked at how many tiny kids were able to do good Yurchenko 1/1. (I wouldn’t believe 50lb kids have enough mass to deflect the beat board.)

Floor
The top gymnasts showed two double somersaults. Most often double pike and double tuck. There were very few double Arabians from the younger girls.

results Level 10 – Junior A
results Level 10 – Senior A

Patrick Carmichael from Island Gymnastics Academy sent in some photo of their new P.Boards. A local woodworker named Paul Bagoloe made them from sturdy Maple. Pat likes them:

“He actually molded the shape of a real PBar out of metal and attached it to a steel plate. They ran around $1000!”

These are an essential training aid. If you’re not sure what P.Boards are used for, check this related post: gymnastics – flat parallel bars

More than 400 elite female gymnasts from across the country will compete in the 2008 Women’s Junior Olympic Level 10 Championships at the Silver Spurs Arena on Saturday and Sunday.

To qualify, gymnasts must first have won state and regional championships …

Gymnasts in the Level 10 Championships are divided into eight age groups and are generally from (10) to 19 years old …

Competitors who place in the top 10 at the Kissimmee event will earn medals and the chance to become National Team members. …

Orlando Sentinel

photography at the meet by Timeless Images

In December 2007, Madison and her sister Morgan, with plenty of help from their father, started a web site like Myspace — but for cheerleaders and dancers.

Over 1600 people have registered, so far.

Check out Wegatta.com

… I had to chuckle at this graphic. My suspicion is that the site is mostly girls chatting about football players at school.

🙂

After many years trying to get myself to Junior Olympic Level 10 National Championships, I’m here.

Watching two sessions of podium training today, the quality of gymnastics is excellent. It’s amazing the depth of gymnastics in the USA. Level 10 is as high as you can go before entering into Elite or NCAA.

All the College coaches are here. First year gymnasts are just getting on to the NCAA radar. in my mind, the sooner you can get to JO Nationals, the better you compete, the better are the chances of landing a good place on a College team.

Vault looked strong. Bars mixed. Some brilliant work but many Level 10s would tell you bars is their weakest apparatus. Surprisingly few Pak saltos. Most are still using shoot 1/2 from high to low with conspicuous deduction.

Tumbling is quite good. Beam is beam, as always.

May 17-18, 2008

Meet Hosts: Orlando Metro Gymnastics
Jeff Wood, Owner

Meet Location: Osceola Heritage Park Silver Spurs Arena

official meet home page

The NCAA wants consistency, precision, perfect form and personality. Difficult skills are far less important.

University coaches I talked to at the College Bound Invitational felt most gymnasts were not showing their “best” routines.

College coaches want to see a routine of excellent quality. Most gymnasts showed too much difficulty. Execution suffered.

It’s a mistake to show a bad Geinger. Better to go “clean” on bars with no release part.

It’s a very bad idea to fall during a performance routine. Leave out double back on Floor if there is any chance you might fall on it.

Here’s one of the best Floor routines I saw at the meet. This is what College coaches are looking for:

Click PLAY or watch Emily Reichert from Orlando Metro on YouTube.

That said, there were a couple of unique skills shown at College Bound:

back layout triple twist dismount off bars

split leap to the end of the beam -> immediate punch front layout 1/1 twist

I’m guessing that this photo — sent to me from my distant past by Greg Kolodziejzyk — was from the 1898 Alberta Winter Games.

What fantastic athletes!

larger version – flickr

Greg these days is an adventurer. His latest insane project is called Pedal the Ocean.