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Circuits are essential for gymnastics coaches. For best practice, all circuits:

must be SAFE for the least experienced child in the group

must be FUN

should develop fitness and include target movement patterns

be directed towards the long-term goals of the group

should be fast to organize, easy for kids to understand

frequently changed (adding more difficulty)

be very ACTIVE

At both BC Fall Congress and R2R Congress in 2007, I recommended:

games and activities to organize kids

setting an order for the gymnasts (usually tallest to shortest)

preparing lesson plans in advance

prepping one of the kids in advance to demonstrate the circuit, …. or

starting with the same base circuit each class, and modify soon after

buying as many mat “shapes” as possible

consider purchasing the innovative air inflatable and trampoline equipment available through TumblTrak

quickly removing “bottlenecks” by having kids skip any station where there is a line-up

Best case scenario, the gymnasts build their own circuit. The coach watches the circuit, free to make small adjustments as needed. Stand close to the station which is the most challenging for the kids.

Here is a video of my PowerPoint presentation at Gymnastics for All, BC Fall Congress:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

At Region 2 Rising (R2R) 2007, Spokane I presented a similar PowerPoint presentation but using Vault as an example. I challenged coaches to do one (easy) vault / minute in a vault training session with young competitive gymnasts. For example, 30 circuits in 30 minutes.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

Rick McCharles

Just home from BC Fall Congress in Vancouver, their biggest coach education event of the year.

This week I will be writing up a number of posts on my presentations there. You can get to them by clicking on the BC Congress link in the right hand navigation column.

It was very well organized and quite well attended. Great to catch up with the excellent coaches in British Columbia.

There were some good performances at the World Cup last weekend, especially Daria JOURA from Australia.

But the bigger story was how many top athletes did not show:

For the 25th time, the “DTB-Cup 2007” took place in Stuttgart (Porsche Arena).

Altogether 69 men and 33 women … participated at this event, which took place right in between the world championships in the wake of September and the pre-Olympic Games in Beijing in the end of November.

Beside the three mentioned world champions, there were only 8 of 48 World Championships-finalists participating in Stuttgart…

GYMmedia points out another interesting trend in the Men’s competition:

Out of 69 competitors, not one did all six or rather five apparatuses.

One single gymnast – Samuel Piasecky from Slovakia did four qualification starts: on floor, horse and qualified for parallel bars (3rd) and high bar (7th).

Only eleven gymnasts did a kind of “small all around” competition performing on three apparatuses.

The vast majority (54) cultivated “world cup tourism”, doing only one or two apparatuses…!

GYMmedia.com

Sure the timing is bad for athletes focused on Olympic preparation. In my mind, though, I feel it’s the extreme physical demand of the new code on All-around gymnasts which is convincing so many TOP men to opt out of doing all 6 apparatus.

Jade Barbosa from Brazil performs in … vault at the 25th DTB Cup, a gymnastics World Cup competition, in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007. Barbosa took second place behind Germany’s Oksana Chusovitina.

(AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)

ESPN – Gymnastics Photo Wire

Rafe Kelley informed me that Toronto has one of the most active Parkour communities in North America and the world.

They have a great website: PKTO.ca

On safety:

Parkour demands as much or as little as you want to put into it, you never have to cross the boundaries of risk at all if you feel that is your path. In the 4 years we have been around, there has been very few injuries and we take great pride in knowing that we have been one of the safest Parkour scenes in the world. It is a common misconception as well that Parkour is ‘extreme’ and ‘roof top jumping’, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. 99.9% of our meets take place on ground level, using normal rails and objects.

Realistically speaking, the greatest risk at a normal training meet is getting dehydrated, and if you are VERY unlucky, a sprained ankle is about the worst you will probably ever get.

Canada’s largest Parkour community serving Toronto and Southern Ontario – FAQs

PKTO.ca – more photos

One of the best ways a gymnast can use straps for training bar swings. (I am not a big fan of PVC pipe systems except for absolute beginners.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Excerpted from a 2 DVD set by coach Paul Hall called Advanced Gymnastics for Boys and Girls. It’s available from CharlesMinsterProductions.com in Australia and British Gymnastics.

related post – best gymnastics coaching DVDs

I really enjoyed one of Blythe’s posts on Gymblog. She’s recommended special awards for gymnasts at World Championships 2007 Stuttgart inspired by Longines:

Longines Award for Vaulting Without Actually Running: Beth Tweddle

Longines Award for Reputation Salvation: Nastia Liukin

Longines Award for Falling: Yang Wei (horizontal bar)

Longines Award for Longevity: Jana Komrskova

Longines Award for Most Consistently Overscored Routine: Steliana Nistor (beam)

Longines Award for Amazing Save: Vanessa Ferrari (bars)

Longines Award for Most Overused Word by American Commentators: “gassed”

Longines Award for Most Impressive Yang Wei Performance: Yang Wei (rings)

Longines Award for Coolest New Trend: double front dismounts from rings

Longines Award for Endurance: Yang Tae-Young

Longines Award for Best Split Jump Ever: Koko Tsurumi

Detailed descriptions and video examples on The Worlds Awards « WordPress Gymblog

Blythe on the Gymblog links to this amazing clip and links to several more.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… it’s hard not to be impressed by what could be called the Andrade, a one-and-a-half twisting Kovacs.

This training video, from former Stanford standout Rico Andrade, is from 2003. A video of Andrade trying (and unfortunately missing) a double twisting Kovacs is also available.

The Andrade, a 1.5 twisting Kovacs « WordPress Gymblog

By the way, I still call Kolman (full twisting Kovacs) the “Pineda”. With my own eyes I watched Tony Pineda from Mexico do it — OK, more of a Gaylord 2 with a half out — at the 1985 Worlds.

Tony was coached by Hideo Mizoguchi in Oregon.

One of those most influential on my coaching career was Hideo Mizoguchi .

I spent much of the past weekend at R2R with “Mizo” and we had a chance to catch up on old times.

Mizo was an up-and-coming talent when Japan ruled the world of Men’s gymnastics. An injury cut short his competitive aspirations and, as a result, he moved to Oregon for University.

There he quickly rose to prominence as a coach, especially for his part in the development of 1984 Olympians Traci Talavera and Julianne McNamara, two of my favourite, innovative gymnasts of all time.

In those days Canadian clubs, including my own, sent kids to Mizo’s gym for summer camp.

When Mizo was named USA Gymnastics Technical Director for the Junior Olympic National Program, a post he held for 10yrs, Mizo continued to invite Canadians to participate at National Team events in Colorado Springs, a huge boost to our development at that time.

What is he doing now?

Mizo and his wife Kellie are running Champions Gymnastics in Katy, Texas. His gym was custom built as part of a shopping centre, a most unique model and one that is working very well. They host the Ricky Deci Invitational each year.

I recommend his Strength Development for Men’s Gymnastics video available from GymSmarts. (Click Men’s Gymnastics to get to it.)

Video sample.

Champion Gymnastics in Houston, Texas hosts the Ricky Deci Invitational, Jan 5-6, 2008 for boys and girls.

Rick was an inspirational 13-year-old National Team gymnast who died Oct. 11th, 2001 while training Pommel Horse at USOTC in Colorado Springs. Originally reported to be an inexplicable heart attack, I’m not sure the autopsy ever conclusively determined the cause.

Head Coach Hideo Mizoguchi named the competition in Ricky’s memory.

7th Annual Ricky Deci Invitational
Jan. 5-6, 2008
Men’s Levels 4 – Elite / Women’s Levels 2-10
The Merrell Center, Katy, TX

7th Annual Ricky Deci Invitational

Proceeds go towards the Ricky Deci Memorial Foundation.

Flying today to Vancouver for 2007 British Columbia Fall Congress. All day Sunday I will be leading sessions in the Recreational Stream — Gymnastics for All. It’s going to be FUN.

at gymnastics class – Hi Dad

much larger version – Hi Dad! – Flickr

The bad news is that coach Carol Angela Orchard had to cancel and will not be presenting in the competitive Artistic stream.