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Rick McCharles

From my USA Gymnastics Region 2 Congress 2007 (R2R) presentation:

DVD (VHS)

digital video clips

The old techology — DVDs — can survive 5 – 10 more years. I posted previously my BEST gymnastics coaching DVDs.

Online video is far more exciting for me.

I want the exact video clip that comes to my mind, any time, anywhere. I want it on my iPhone, my laptop, my MP3 player. Streamed to my TV. Projected up on the wall of my gym.

I want something like YouTube, but far, far better.

YouTube was better 6-months ago than it is now. Every day it gets more cluttered with low quality junk. (Often with the word “blooper” in the title.)

Tom Beach of GymSmarts concurred. The problem is “filtering” the good stuff. Finding what you want.

The best we have now on sites like YouTube are “channels” put up by people you respect. My favourite gymnastics coaching channel so far is “saltocafe“, videos posted by and linked to by Don Eckert of Woodward West. I “subscribed” to that channel and about 20 others.

But the best source of digital coaching video in 2007 is American Gymnast (AmGym.com) which produced hundreds of quality instructional video clips. Their service called Gymnastics On Demand — which launched in September — costs $9.95 per month by subscription.

I’m a subscriber and highly recommend the service. It would be a great investment for a club, far better value than, for example, USECA Video Club.

Gymnastics on Demand – AmGym.com

The easiest way to see how Gymnastics on Demand works is to watch their video introduction — See it in Action.

Personally, I’m not sure the subscription model will be best long-term. Most people do not want to join sites as a “member” nor plug in their credit card number.

But … I’m excited for the future. AmGym has set a very high standard. It will take some serious talent to compete. (GymSmarts is certainly developing an on-line video clip database as well.)

Leave a comment below if you have other sources of on-line gymnastics video.

I thought the old Mississauga gym was one of the best in Canada.

Alex Bard’s face is numb. The upshot from constantly smiling.

When the Gymnastic Mississauga head coach is not overcome by giddiness describing the spacious new facility the club now calls home, the immense promise of his protégés certainly leaves him in a perpetual happy zone. …

“This is the best facility in Canada for sure. In North America for sure,” as his eyes scan one end of the gym to the other and 35 feet up to the ceiling.

“Size, space, equipment, number of equipment. We now have additional equipment for drills.”

Three uneven bars, seven beams, two adjacent full-sized floors, two running vaults, a pit four feet deep full of sponge, a floor so pliable if feels like you’re constantly walking on a diving board, Bard can’t get the words out of his mouth fast enough. There’s also a video and audio unit used for reviewing a gymnast’s performance.

“Now, the boys and girls don’t have to share the floor, an advantage to developing new skills.”

While the registration numbers are only marginally improved from 791 gymnasts at the old centre, to the current number of 846, the introduction of new programs for schools and clubs, should lift the number well into the four digits.

The club has even agreed on a deal with the Erin Mills Soccer Club. With the players working out this winter in the SportsZone’s new indoor soccer facility, many of the elite players have been signed up for an 18-week program to work on their strength, flexibility, balance, plyometrics and acro elements.

Then there’s also rhythmic gymnastics. “We want to keep the facility operating close to 18 hours a day,” said Bard.

Article – The Mississauga News – Mississauga.com

There are some fantastic gyms in the USA that Alex has never seen. Best in Canada, maybe.

We’ve already linked to Perfect 10’s World Championships Reviews Part 1 and Part 2.

Here is the third and final installment.

THE OUTRAGEOUS

• Steliana Nistor winning the silver medal in the All Around
• WCSN’s internet TV coverage
• NBC’s TV coverage

And now a couple things that made me go hmmmm…

• Bart’s contradictions on air
• What’s going on with Beth Tweddle?

perfect 10 » World Championships Review, Part 3

I have nothing to add. Except how happy I was that the Men’s Judging was not ridiculed in the media as it was in Athens. I fully expected a disaster in Stuttgart after the Men’s Tech Committee changed the interpretation of turns on Horizontal Bar after World’s 2006.

I expected Men’s Judging to be on the OUTRAGEOUS list. And it wasn’t.

more photos of Steliana Nistor – GymBox

The first female I recall was Shaposhnikova, perhaps my favourite gymnast of all time.

But Brian Bakalar informs me on his fantastic club website Gymnastics Revolution that it was the great Elena Davydova, 1980 Olympic Champion:

Photography: Philip Morton

And in the late 1970’s, Elena Davydova first performed a skill that has become the basis for today’s optional Uneven Bar routines – the Giant.

Parents – The Giant

To see Elena’s bar routine in 1981, click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

She was, I think, also the first international gymnast to compete Tkachev.

Elena is a coach in Canada today. (I’ll have to ask her about who in the Soviet Union competed those skills first.)

Yelena Davydova – Wikipedia

Now … the much tougher question. Who was the first MAN to compete giant in international competition?

This summer I spoke with defector Charlie Tamayo about the future of gymnastics in Cuba. They have been far less successful internationally since Charlie, a World’s medallist, departed.

Charlie told me Cuba is down, but not to count them out. They still have many talented coaches.

Dieter HOFMANN, assisted by former Cuban star Erik LOPEZ.

At the beginning of October a ten day’s course of studies for coaches of women’s artistics gymnastics ended at the national training center of CUBA GYMNASTICS FEDERATION in Havana.

The course was part of the F.I.G. program “Olympic Solidarity” .

At this course 2007 “Olympic Solidarity” took part 36 coaches from four Cuban districts but also all the Cuban coaches from the national gymnastics center, here in Havana.

Also guests from some different countries participated, representing Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala and also two coaches from Indonesia.

The F.I.G. was giving the authorization again to the teacher Dieter HOFMANN (SUI), who led 21lessons and 43 hours of theory and practice to such contents like long term development of gymnastics achievement, components and methodology of modern training and competition systems of young female and male gymnasts.

…

GYMmedia.com

Hofmann, of course, was Head Coach of Men and Women for East Germany, one of the most successful coaches of all time. And he’s an excellent clinician.

I caught up with Doug Davis of TumblTrak this past weekend at Region 2 Rising (R2R). And it’s not easy keeping up with Doug. Every time I turn around TumblTrak is introducing new products.

Air is the future of gymnastics apparatus innovation. Why didn’t I see this coming?

AIR BEAM

Get more LIFT with the new Air Beam! The Air Beam is a beam pad with a 2-inch “Air Floor-type” filler.

The spring from the Air Beam gives students a better air sense on beam, more confidence to learn new skills and less stress on the body. It is designed to strap firmly to the beam to cover either half of it (8-feet) or the entire beam (16-feet).

As with the Air Floor, the tightness can be adjusted by deflating or inflating the Bladder. Included with the Air Beam is a 1-3/8″ Foam Filler to stabilize it for use on the floor. The Foam Filler can be used by itself on the floor, on the beam for extra drills or in place of the Air Floor-type Bladder for a great transition to the beam itself.

TumblTrak – New Product: Air Beam

Watch a clip of the Air Beam in action on TumblTrak’s new product video page.

This girl is good.

Be patient during the first few seconds of the video. It’s worth it. She’s waiting for her music.

(You can remove the annoying advertisement overlay by clicking on the X.)

Click PLAY or watch it on glumbert. http://www.glumbert.com/embed/koreanfreestyle

Thanks George.

ImpactAlpha Gymsports in Christchurch, New Zealand is looking for coaches.

One position, primarily recreational, is available Feb-Nov 2008, for example.

This position would be ideal for an ex-gymnast wanting a working holiday. Click through their website if interested.

After the Hungarian gymnastics movie White Palms, next get the even more critically acclaimed, even more controversial film called The Gymnast.

There is not a lot of gymnastics in a movie called The Gymnast. It’s a lesbian love story of two circus aerialists.

Instead of the movie trailer, I post a background piece with interviews of the two stars:

gymnast Dreya Weber

dancer Addie Yungmee

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

THE GYMNAST – official website

The Gymnast – Amazon

I haven’t seen The Gymnast yet myself. Will post a review after I do.

UPDATE: The official MySpace page has more photos. It also makes clear that the film is only available in Canada and the USA, so far.

After some consideration, Dave Adlard decided to screen the critically acclaimed, Academy Award nominated film White Palms at Region 2 (R2R) Congress in Spokane. None of us had seen the movie before the Saturday night social.

Reviews were … mixed.

Friends of mine said, “I don’t like the movie. It’s too dark. Too harsh. It has no ending.”

There is a fair bit of profanity making it unsuitable for children. Fact is, profanity was common in Hungarian gyms and may still be today. (Using a fencing foil for discipline was not common, I hasten to add.)

Other coaches, myself included, liked the movie very much.

It’s a film produced on a low budget starring a friend of mine “Uldi” Zoltan Miklos Hajdu and features Canadian gymnasts Orion Radies, Silas Radies and Olympic Floor Champion Kyle Shewfelt.

The disclaimer is that the movie was “inspired by real events”. Dongo (Uldi) did not actually qualify for Worlds. Did not compete against Kyle in the finals on Vault at World Championships. (I did like the fact that Kyle finished ahead of Dragalescu on Vault, correcting the mistake made by judges in Athens 2004 Vault finals.)

The film deliberately made my home gym, Altadore Gymnastics, look bad. And my city, Calgary, look bleak.

I guess that’s cinéma-vérité. The hand-held camera work is unsettling.

So far as I know, there were no professional actors in the movie. I particularly liked Jerry Gibbons who played a parallel role to actual Altadore Head Coach at the time, Kelly Manjak.

Though the film is about gymnasts, there is surprisingly little gymnastics in it.

This movie trailer is in Hungarian, though the film itself is Hungarian and English with English subtitles. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Details on purchasing the DVD – $28.

Related:

KyleShewfelt.com

Kyle’s personal blog

Gymblog profile on Kyle