Our current code of points for Artistic Gymnastics is really, really tough.
Especially for men. Fewer and fewer of the best gymnasts in the world want to do the all-around. It’s too hard on the body to train those demanding routines on 6 apparatus.
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NCAA on TV – Ohio State Buckeyes
Great publicity for our sport in the USA.
In the upcoming 2008 season, fans of Ohio State gymnastics will have the chance to watch their Buckeyes in regular-season action across the country on national television for the first time in program history as both the men’s and women’s teams will have two meets aired on the Big Ten Network.
Adidas sponsors Chinese Olympic Team
Chinese sport’s brand Li Ning was outbid by Adidas to sponsor the Chinese team. Li Ning then decided to clothe every presenter on China television’s CCTV5; the network that will broadcast the Summer Games across China.
Fun facts about China and the Olympic games » Beijing Olympic Games 2008
Even the judges at the recent Olympic test meet were gifted some Li Ning clothing.
This reminds me when popular Canadian sports clothing company Roots lost the Canadian Olympic Team sponsorship bid. (Roots still outfits the US Olympic Team.)
doing gymnastics at home
Many kids end up at gymnastics because parents feared they would hurt themselves trying to learn to flip on the furniture.
This one is obviously very good already.
They are from a photo set by excellent photographer weimin liu.
Ukraine tramp coach Gorzhyy Volodymyr at 70
Happy birthday.
On December 18, Ukraine will celebrate the 70th anniversary of well-known coach of Trampoline and Acrobatic Gorzhyy Volodymyr.
He is coaching for 48 years! During this time, his personal athletes, his « children », as he says, took more than 200 medals in international competitions. …
From 1991 to 2005, Volodymyr became the Ukrainian National Coach for Trampoline. His athletes Oksana Tsyguleva and Olena Movchan won together 3 world titles in 1996, 1999 and 2001.
His highest and most beautiful achievment is the Olympic Gold medal of Yuri Nikitin at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and the Olympic Silver medal of Oksana Tsyguleva at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Volodymir achieved as a coach a total of 2 Olympic medals, 7 World games medals, 39 at
world championships, 24 at European championships and about 100 in totalThis outstanding coach and nice person is now preparing the 2008 Olympic Games. Olena Movchan and Yuri Nikitin are two among the most serious pretenders for the Olympic titles.
What about two medals, Volodymyr?
I think they are more “contenders” than “pretenders”.
There’s hope for me yet, too. He’s 70-years-old and still coaching at the highest level in the world. Here with Olena Movchan after she won the Olympic test meet:
I saw this mentioned some time ago on GYMmedia.com.
Leave a comment if you know other coaches on the Floor at international competition past age 70.
gymnasts behind the scenes at White Palms
I’m at a coaching course with Frank Szabo, Men’s Head Coach at Richmond Gymnastics in Vancouver, British Columbia.
When I mentioned the Hungarian gymnastics film White Palms, I learned that Frank did not appreciate the movie. It was filmed at his childhood gym and reflected badly on Hungarian gymnastics. Frank was clear that the fictional version of training there in no way represented his experience growing up.
I related in a way. The movie showed my home gym, Altadore, as dark and foreboding. Just the opposite of how it is in reality.
Here’s a candid shot of the kids with one of their coaches, star “Uldi†Zoltan Miklos Hajdu, goofing around between “takes” at Altadore.
Uldi on Flickr
photo credit – Stephen Neal
Andrew Vetter (in the white t-shirt) is the gymnast who gets “hit” in the film.
Related posts:
which gymnasts will go to the Olympics for Canada?
Though I’ve often complained about International Gymnast magazine in the past, this time they’ve had the best and fastest on-line coverage of the National Team selection meet.
That’s thanks to reporter Blythe Lawrence who drove up from Washington State for the American publication. She appreciated having full access to speak with Canadian coaches and athletes.
In Canada we’ve only done a very average job of publicizing our sport. This was a step forward.
Canadian world team members Kristina Vaculik and Elyse-Hopfner-Hibbs each won one event and tied for another as Elite Canada concluded Sunday in Abbotsford, B.C. …
These are the two athletes best positioned to qualify for the two available spots for the Beijing Olympics.
… On balance beam, Hopfner-Hibbs turned in a solid routine that included a McCool (front handspring) mount to immediate back tuck and a side aerial to two layout stepouts to edge Vaculik, 15.300 to 14.95-. Vaculik also performed a McCool mount but wobbled on her switch leap, back tuck combination.
Hopfner-Hibbs, who won the bronze on beam at the 2006 World Championships, said she is focusing on uneven bars and balance beam leading up to the Olympic Games.
“I’m trying to use all the competitions I get to go to as preparations for Beijing,” she said. “For me it’s just practice.” …
Of the other contenders, most interesting to me is a comeback story — Aisha Gerber who was third at the 2006 American Cup:
Gerber, who formerly trained with Elvira Saadi at Cambridge Kips, took off five months between October 2006 and March 2007. She is now training with Kelly and Sue Manjak at Oakville Gymnastics in Ontario and said she is attempting to make the Olympic team.
“We are thinking Olympic Games,” Gerber said. “That is my goal and we are building step by step toward that goal.”
Read the entire article with links to full results – International GYMNAST Magazine Online
Aisha looked happy and relaxed, enjoying gymnastics more than ever before. Coach Kelly Manjak said he feels she is back to about 70% of her potential.
photo Grace Chiu – GraceClick.ca
Catastrophic Injuries in High School and College Sports
Dr Cantu was chief of the Neurosurgery Service at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts. Statistics in his report — The Physician and Sportsmedicine: Fatalities and Catastrophic Injuries in High School and College Sports, 1982-1997 — are sobering.
We can quibble with this survey. But not with the bottom line. Competitive Artistic Gymnastics competition in schools and Universities is dangerous. And Cheer far more dangerous.
With Cheer booming, and the lack of any real coach education program in the USA, I suspect the statistics are even worse in the States from 1998 – 2007.
What to do?
Many state high school associations have responded to these changes and the increase in injuries by banning stunts such as pyramid building and the tossing of cheerleaders. Others have designated cheerleading as a sport. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors implemented a Safety Certification Program, which has certified over 500 coaches and been adopted by some states and some college conferences.
Safety initiatives have resulted in a number of recommendations, including the following:
* Coaches should supervise all practices and be safety certified;
* Cheerleaders should have a preparticipation exam, be trained in gymnastics, spotting, and conditioning, and participate only in stunts that they have mastered;
* Stunts should be limited; eg, pyramids should be limited to two levels and performed on mats;
* Emergency procedures should be written and available; and
* Cheerleaders who have signs of head trauma should receive immediate medical attention and return to cheerleading only with permission from a physician.
I’d like to get more Cheer competitors and their coaches into gym clubs that have proper matting, trampoline and tumbling equipment, pits and expert spotters.
I’ve met many superb cheer coaches, just as skilled as top Artistic coaches. But there are very many more volunteer beginner coaches who need training and experience in a safe facility.
fun trampoline photos
see more – Trampoline – a photoset on Flickr
Nathan Gafuik wins Elite Canada
The Canadians who competed in Beijing were exempted from this meet. But it was still entertaining. We’ve been waiting for this super-talented and exciting gymnast to win it all for some time. He’s a crowd pleaser.
From Gymblog’s Blythe Lawrence on IG:
After a year-long absence, Nathan Gafuik made a strong return to national competition by winning the senior men’s all-around at Elite Canada, held Saturday night in Abbotsford, B.C.
Although he competed at the 2007 World Championships and the recent Olympic test event in Beijing, Gafuik spent most of the past year recovering from injury. He missed both the 2007 Canadian Championships and the 2006 Elite Canada competition.
Gafuik, who totaled 89.900 to Ikeda’s 88.250, placed no lower than third on any event during the second night of competition. The 22-year-old from the University of Calgary turned in the highest scores of the meet Saturday night on vault (16.100), high bar (14.900) and floor exercise (15.550), and placed first on parallel bars with a combined score of 29.700.
Ken Ikeda, an Abbotsford native, placed second all-around, first on pommel horse and second on parallel bars and high bar.
Gafuik, the alternate to the 2004 Olympic team, is optimistic about the team’s chances in 2008 — if the gymnasts are healthy. At the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, veterans Kyle Shewfelt and Adam Wong missed the competition because of injuries.
“For me and a lot of other team members it’s about getting healthy,” Gafuik said. “We’re hoping for big things, and I can only hope we compete well.”
The Canadian men placed 11th in Stuttgart to qualify a full team to the 2008 Olympics. Ikeda said that while the team was pleased with the result, it hopes to qualify for team finals in Beijing, as it did at the 2006 World Championships.
“We didn’t do as well as we were hoping we’d do [at the 2007 Worlds], but I think it works out better that way,” Ikeda said. “Hopefully by Beijing we’ll have everyone back in top form and surprise everyone again.” …
Senior Men’s All-Around
1. Nathan Gafuik (Univ. of Calgary, AB) 89.900
2. Ken Ikeda (Twisters, BC) 88.250
3. Hugh Smith (H. Alta, NS) 84.400
4. Patrick McElroy (Univ. of Calgary, AB) 83.400
5. Matt Albrecht (Oakville, ON) 81.240
6. Matthew Beller (Univ. of Calgary, AB) 80.450read the rest of this article … International GYMNAST Magazine Online
Photos of the competition by Grace Chiu & Patricia Sayer are posted on GraceClick.ca
Gymnastics Coaching.com 