Category: Uncategorized

Many of the leading contenders for next summer’s Olympics are scheduled to compete at the “Good Luck Beijing” test competition, Nov. 28-Dec. 3 in Beijing.

The artistic gymnastics competition will feature men’s team, women’s all-around, and men’s and women’s individual event finals.

The Chinese roster includes four of the host country’s best females — Cheng Fei, Jiang Yuyan, Pang Panpan and Zhou Zhuoru — but its big stars in men’s gymnastics are absent. None of the six male gymnasts entered were members of China’s gold medal-winning team at the 2007 World Championships in September.

Qualification rounds will take place on Nov. 28, followed by the men’s team final and women’s all-around final on Nov.29.

full list of competitors – International Gymnast

It’s an interesting meet. The winners will have a lot of media attention in the run up to the Games.

Interesting too in that the Men are not awarding an individual all-around. And women are not awarding team. … I assume there are too few men wanting to do all-around. Too few nations that can field a full women’s team at this time in the Olympic cycle. This code of points is too difficult, I think.

The USA is sending Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world all-around gymnastics champion, who can handle the pressure. And young, super talented, up-and-comer Bridget Sloan. Good choices, I think.

They will compete in the National Indoor Stadium. A good chance to see the exact facility that will be used at the Games. Trampoline will soon have a test meet here too.

CRI on Flickr

official Olympics 2008 website

At the Athens Olympics Kyle Shewfelt won Floor. His payment for that victory from Sports Canada? ZERO DOLLARS. (hilarious interview by comedian Rick Mercer)

If Dragalescu from Romania had won gold on Floor in Athens, he would have been awarded US$65,000 by his, one of the poorest governments in Europe.

Now Canada is ponying up some dough — $20,000 for Olympic gold:

The committee believes it has found the right mix of training assistance and cash incentives with its new Athlete Excellence Fund, says COC president Michael Chambers.

“It varies wildly (in other countries, from) huge amounts to lesser amounts than we provide,” said Chambers.

“But in most of those other countries that have large rewards, at the end of the trip if you win a Games, they have very little in the way of development programs leading into the Games,” he said.

“So it’s all or nothing. That’s not where we wanted to go.”

The athlete support and reward program is a way to compensate high-performance athletes for the financial burdens they often face while training for Olympic Games, the COC said in a statement.

While gold medals will garner the highest amount, silver medal winners would be paid $15,000 and bronze medal winners $10,000.

Canadians to be paid for medal performances at Olympics

I was surprised to hear that Paralympic athletes will be eligible, as well. Beijing will be the 13th Paralympics.

by Rick McCharles, editor

A number of readers have requested more posts on … “gymnastics coaching”. (tips, tutorials, drills, etc.)

We’ll try our best to post one of those, minimum, each day.

Here’s the first, an update of one of my old articles. I was reminded of it this past weekend when gymnasts told me this was a favourite.

======

Shaping Skills with Drills

Getting to handstand on bars is a physical, technical & psychological challenge for young girls.

I prefer piked straddled casts, especially for beginners.

My favourite drills include:

handstands and pirouettes on a floor bar

bounce to handstand on low bar from a mini-tramp

jump to handstand from piked straddled stand on a low floor bar

cast to piked, straddled stand on boxes. Then jump to handstand (as shown in the photos below).

photos – Christchurch School of Gymnastics, New Zealand.

Kids love these drills. They require no spotting. They inflict no “rips” on the hands. And they work.

Girls soon learn they can easily get to handstand if they put their hips (centre of gravity) over the bar quickly.

Many times I have seen beginners of average ability achieve handstand using only these drills. Especially girls with good flexibility.

The last progression I call “touch and go” — the same drill as shown but without boxes. The feet jump from the bar instead. This ensures the gymnast makes the skill as easy as possible, by shortening the body on the ascending swing.

All competitors should be able to learn straddle up cast handstand. Very few, straight body cast.

Original article – Rick McCharles — Gymnastics — Shaping Skills with Drills — introducing “cast to handstand”

Fred competed for France in the Olympics. These days he is at Le Rêve, Wynn Las Vegas, one of the hardest working artists in town.

He’s amazing. Watch this training footage:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=381572&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA
Fred Nicolas Aerial Pole.

More like this on the video page of FrederickNicolas.com

Pam White from Pyra sent us a link to their line of high performance cheer apparel.

It looks GREAT.

… focuses directly on the needs of today’s cheerleaders. Grip and Shock technology provides protection and comfort while building confidence and creating a unique, yet stylish appearance. PYRA apparel is committed to the devoted athlete whose passion is the sport of cheerleading. …

Pyra | Performance Cheer Apparel

Leave a comment below if you’ve tried Pyra clothing.

OK, the original Cheerleading movie Bring it On (2000) starring Kirsten Dunst was excellent. I can rewatch it, in fact, for the witty and sassy banter.

Here comes the 4th sequel. Judging from the trailer, they’ve gone to the well far too many times. It’s going directly to DVD.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

In Bring It On: In It to Win It, the dueling teams are the Jets and the Sharks, whose distinctive East Coast/West Coast (respectively) cheer styles leaves them clashing from the start. The drama gets even more intense when Sharks cheerleader Carson (played by soap star Ashley Benson) finds herself crushing on Penn, a cheerleader for the Jets (played by the super cute Michael Copon).

American Cheerleader

Hey, an apology to West Side Story is in order, as well. Jets and Sharks — yeesh.

Thumbs down.

Great news.

The founder of the Christchurch School of Gymnastics in New Zealand is again assigned to judge in Beijing. Avril definitely knows what she is doing.

She’s been one of the highest ranked judges for years.

This new code is complicated. Start score is NOT everything. I’m hoping to see winning routines in future that do not have the highest A-score. The B-score assessment needs be more rigorous.

Recommended upcoming event at Avril’s gym:

MAG & WAG GYMNASTIC CAMP
14th – 18th January 2008 …

Practical Coaching Sessions
… led by former Romanian Head Coach Jozsi Ferencz

Christchurch School of Gymnastics

I understand the Men’s team is moving into a brand new 32,000 sq. foot facility in Frisco.

Nice to see that immigrants to the USA can still achieve the American Dream. Congratulations to founder owners Valeri Liukin and Yevgeny Marchenko. They started the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in 1994. Today it is undoubtedly the most successful private gym in the world.

I was advising young people just this past weekend that “coaching is a lousy career choice” … unless you own the gym.

WOGA has a flashy new website too. Check it out: WOGA.net

This past weekend at a coaching clinic I was surprised to hear that one of demonstrators could not do kip on bars. Well … she had done it a few times in the past.

Yet she could do 7 good chin-ups and hold V-hang on a bar for 15 seconds. That’s more strength than is needed for kip.

Happily she made several good kips in series at the clinic. One of the best days in the career of any gymnast.

Back in the day we had a box of kip t-shirts at the gym. Whenever one of the kids learned kip they got one as a prize.

“gymnastics” Design on Products : CafePress.com – t-shirts

Animation from Drills and Skills.

Follow-up …

Did you see the horrific fall at X Games 13 this past summer?

I deliberately did not link to that video. (Or any crash videos, for that matter. There’s far too much of that on YouTube already.)

Jake Brown actually walked away from a 50ft fall on to a material called “Skatelite”.

I only mention it on this site because I wondered how Jake was doing today.

Final diagnosis: minor concussion, broken wrist, bruised lungs.

Very, very lucky.