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The most interesting competition this weekend. Georgia without Courtney Kupets will try to fend off unexpectedly strong UM.

The Michigan women’s gymnastics team has never won a national championship in its 32 years as a varsity program.

Georgia has won eight titles in the last 21 years. …

But tonight, it’ll be a surprise if the Wolverines lose by more than a slim margin.

The fourth-ranked Wolverines (5-0 Big Ten, 14-0 overall) come into the showdown with something that’s been missing in recent years – confidence.

Michigan coach Bev Plocki said this is the first time in six years that Michigan feels confident it can compete with the nation’s top-ranked team. …

Even after recently posting a season-high 197.125 score against N.C. State on Feb. 22, Curtis said the team still hasn’t strung together its best performances on every event in the same meet. The Wolverines need to put everything together, because Georgia averages 197.075 a meet. …

Wolverines up to the task against No. 1 Bulldogs – Michigan Daily

Lindsey Bruck – wallpaper

UPDATE: OK, perhaps I’d rather be at Stanford v Nebraska v Alabama. What a show!

Georgia might “rest” some of their top competitors in Michigan. I get the feeling UM will win.

=== UPDATE – Predictable, you might say:

Michigan Wolverines a season high 197.600 – 196.950 upset win over #1 ranked University of Georgia.

Boys have no choice.

We put them into expensive horizontal bar and ring grips at quite a young age. Certainly before they start doing giants on horizontal bar.

But we’ve seen women win World and Olympic championships without grips.

Every coach must make the decision if and when to put grips on their competitive artistic gymnasts.

original – flickr – Sarah_Hawkins

original – flickr – Sarah_Hawkins

If coaches are patient and persistent, most girls can learn to use them. I typically ask the kids only to put them on near the end of the workout when first getting used to them.

For comparison, here are some advanced gymnasts swinging without grips. Including Tkachev. (She misses in the video but caught in the last competition.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related: Picking the Best Grips for You – About.com Gymnastics

There are many well-respected brands of grips. Some of the most popular are:

Ten. 0 Grips: Well-known for their durability, Ten. 0 grips are sometimes a little harder to “break in.” They last and last though, and many gymnasts are very loyal to this brand.

Bailie Grips: Similar in many ways to Ten. 0 grips, these are often characterized as long-lasting and heavier.

Reisport Grips: These grips are in the middle — they are usually softer and easier to “break in,” but don’t last as long.

U.S. Glove Grips: These grips are generally the lightest and easiest to “break in.”

i’ve raved about Beth Gardner in the past. She’s one of the preschool experts with the Gymnastics Educational Workshops team.

Beth Gardner, owner of Heart of Texas Gymnastics located in Temple, Texas has an extensive background specializing in preschool gymnastics. In addition to experience as a Preschool Director, coach and gym owner, she is a co-author and director for the Instructor Training Program (ITP) for the Gymnastics Association of Texas (GAT) and serves as a GAT board member. ..

Beth was extremely honored to received the 2003 and 2007 Distinguished Service Awards from Gymnastics Association of Texas and one of the 2005 Remarkable Woman Awards from ABC Television “The View” for her dedication and contributions to the development of the sport of gymnastics.

read the rest of Beth’s impressive bio – GymSmarts

Due to popular demand, GymSmarts has produced a BIG collection of her presentations:

Check the sample warm-up video linked from the GymSmarts home page.

Well known coach / clinician Neil Resnick is now co-Head Coach with Tina Bird in Boise, Idaho.

Several different coaches told me they were very impressed with the improvement in the Bronco Gymnastics team, now ranked in the top 25 in the NCAA.

Coming from an Elite / Club background, Neil told us at the Great West Gym Fest he was surprised how hard the girls train in College gymnastics. A “full ride” scholarship is no “free ride”.

… Neil Resnick was named co-head coach of the Boise State University gymnastics team, June 19, 2007.

Resnick comes to Boise State with a lifetime of experience and knowledge, as well as a significant amount of respect from his peers at all levels of gymnastics.

Prior to coming to Boise State, Resnick was the owner, director and head coach of Flips USA Gymnastics in Sparks, Nev., where he coached numerous high caliber competitors including various international, national, regional and state champions. Among his athletes were many Elite Level qualifiers and 27 NCAA scholarship recipients. …

He has served as both an auxiliary and a full time member of the USA Gymnastics national coaching staff, training and consulting the nation’s top gymnasts. He was also a national staff member attending the World Championships in 2003.

As a master clinician and skill evaluator for the USAG National TOPS program, Resnick tested, trained and developed the nation’s most talented young gymnasts and their coaches in the early stages of their careers. Resnick has also authored training curriculums used by both USAG coaches and the Gymnastics Association of Texas.

Neil Resnick – bio

Boise State Gymnastics

The competition is finished, the second day of Finals complete.

Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs from Canada took home 2 medals. (Bronze on Bars, Silver on Beam). I would say Elyse will be getting one of the two available spots for Canadians in Beijing.

Women’s results

Men’s results

China was the dominant nation, clearly.

I’m still waiting on commentary from the usual sources.

Matt Brinker, coach from a brand new club, Southern Ohio Gymnastics Academy (S.O.G.A.), sent us some inspiring photos.

Here’s one with this explanation:

… the little girl fell off of the beam, rolled backward and hit her head quite hard. A few tears were shed and ice was placed on the bump. And then, with little or no hesitation and no pushing from any coach, she got up and walked over to the white board where I write the list of strength and conditioning down, read what she had to do next, and the went to the floor and started working.

What good life lesson is this teaching?

A gymnastics gym is a great place for girls to grow up.

In fact, this was only the 3rd practice ever at S.O.G.A. and there was no way this gymnast was going to sit out.

Gymnasts Rebecca Bross and Canada’s Peng Peng Lee are too young to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

But Tom Daley, even younger, will be there.

… Daley will be 14 years and 81 days when the Beijing Olympic games begin in August. …

Tom Daley not the youngest British Olympic athlete

It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Figure skating has concerns too. Some of the top American skaters are not eligible due to age:

… Mirai Nagasu, 14, of Arcadia, and Rachael Flatt, 15, of Del Mar. They, along with fourth-place Caroline Zhang, 14, of Brea, cannot advance to the senior worlds because of the age limit. …

Age-limit rule doesn’t add up for U.S. skating

In a perfect world we would have no age restrictions. But, if we do have one, I wish it was consistent for all Olympic sports.

Just one photo from an excellent gallery posted on About.com Gymnastics.

Ivana Hong (USA) performing an overshoot from the high bar to the low bar

© Jeff Gross / Getty

larger original available

From this angle you can see that Ivana has released with one hand before the other to help the twist.

related: video – most frequent SPOT in gymnastics

Since the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, security has been very tight at the Games.

One advantage of going to Beijing is the low risk of terrorism. Right?

Aussie tour group held hostage in China

… surprised to see this story on the Sydney Morning Herald: Ten Australians freed as hijacker shot dead.

Fortunately no-one was injured. The hijacker who was armed with explosives was shot dead by a sniper.

The ordeal lasted for two hours in the popular tourist city of Xian, famous for its terracotta warriors.

Beijing Olympic Games blog

Terrorism in China is not unknown, though most of the identified “rebels” are in the eastern part of the country. There are millions of Muslims in China, suppressed in many ways, for example, that have no voice. Not to mention the Tibetans:

Tibetan Women’s Association

Shannon Miller, Men’s Olympic Team Head Coach Kevin Mazeika and over 1300 others have signed a petition to protest the closing of an award-winning gymnastics program.

To see the petition for yourself, click this link.

If you sign, it will help them reach the goal of 4000 signatures.

For the sake of our sport, it’s important that administrators not cancel programs without good cause. Explaining their reasoning to 4000 critics will help clarify the decision to the girls in the program. Or, even better, reverse the decision.