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Olympian Gael Mackie looks strong and confident at the Canadian Championships. She had a good competition in preliminaries (except for a fall on beam) and finished 5th.

Gael’s always been great. But has suffered from injuries. Many have questioned whether her training regime in the past has been too demanding.

Injuries nearly derailed Gael’s dreams of competing at the 2004 Olympics but she ultimately won a spot on the team. At the Olympics, Gael competed on uneven bars and helped the team to a 10th place finish.

Since the Olympics Gael has added to her international resume by qualifying for event finals on uneven bars World Cup meets in Ghent, Belgium and Glasgow, Scotland.

Like her teammates, Gael is working hard on new routines as she looks ahead to the 2006 Commonwealth Games, 2007 Pan American Games and 2008 Olympics.

Gymnastics Canada – Gymnastique Canada

Gael’s also looking forward to an NCAA scholarship at Utah after that.

Good luck!

GaelMackie.net – official website

One day we will have great video tutorials on-line.

That day is not here yet. But American-Gymnast.com will launch an amazing service … soon.

This martial arts video tutorial is surprisingly good. Often the wushu coaches will teach it this way into a sand pit — if they do not have mats.

Click PLAY or watch it on MetaCafe. http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/593211/how_to_do_an_xsd_aerial.swf
How To Do An XSD Aerial – Watch today’s top amazing videos here

In a gymnastics gym I normally start the kids off a beat board with spot on to a soft mat. (Ideally a mat on a pit.)

My key teaching point is to get the nose as close to the floor as possible, at first. This makes it easier to get around to the feet.

The video shows only one arm action. I would try the other (underarm sweep upwards) as well and see which works better for each gymnast.

As you know, some kids pick this up in a single work-out. It’s easy. Just about any strong gymnast can learn it. (Unlike aerial walkover which is difficult.)

Leave a comment if you have any other ESSENTIAL drills for aerial cartwheel.

Here’s a very short summary of the evolution of the sport.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

In clarification, Ross Rebagliati, the first Olympic Gold medallist in 1998, had his medal returned after initial disqualification. His was the “second hand smoke” defence.

Today Rebagliati is still a celebrity in Canada with major corporate sponsorship.

UPDATE: Crystal did not compete in preliminaries. Too bad.

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Crystal Gilmore impressed myself and everyone else by arriving at Canadian Gymnastics Championships in good condition. This woman has a great attitude!

Crystal is a 2000 Olympian who initially retired from the national team in 2002.

At the 2005 Canadian Championships, she competed with her Nova Scotia team (where she moved to be with her fiancé at the time, men’s national team member David Kikuchi) in the national open category – her first meet in over three years.

She finished fourth in the all-around and second in the floor exercise in the 16 and over category.

Later that year she re-entered the high performance category with a ninth place finish at Elite Canada. …

At the 2006 Canadian Championships, Gilmore performed very well in the preliminaries, qualifying for the apparatus finals in the vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise events. Several mistakes dropped her to 12th place in the all-around finals, but she recovered well in the apparatus finals, taking bronze on the vault and finishing a close fourth in the floor exercise.

So far in her comeback, Gilmore has shown the ability to perform most of the skills that helped her make the 2000 Olympic team. On the vault she shows a strong Yurchenko-full and a handspring piked front. On the uneven bars she throws a Jaeger and a double layout dismount. On floor exercise is where she shows some of her best work, tumbling an Arabian double front, a 1 ½ twist through to a 2 ½ twist, and a double pike last line.

At the 2006 Commonwealth Games trials, Gilmore indicated that her goal was to make it back to the Olympics in 2008, where her leadership and experience could be very valuable to the Canadian team.

Gymn.ca

Good luck Crystal. You are an inspiration.

This is interesting.

At first glance, I like the idea.

International Gymnastics Federation president Bruno Grandi said Monday he wants to establish a pool of judges who would have no ties or allegiances to their national federations. The pool could
be in place by 2010 or 2011.

ESPN.com – OLY – International gymnastics chief wants to establish independent judges pool

Grandi will be “remembered” as the leader who got rid of “the perfect 10” in Artistic Gymnastics.

Bruno Grandi inducted into International Gymnastics Hall of Fame

Rifs blog has a good photo tutorial on how to do a fast, basic tape job for rips.

This has proven to be a most effective method of taping hands as a preventative to tears or after one has already torn. I used it for years a gymnast and a gymnastics coach …

Rifs Blog: How to tape your hands.

(via Scott Bird’s excellent Straight to the Bar blog.)

Is there any sport that takes more time, money and effort than gymnastics? We’ve been at it for two days preparing for the Canadian Gymnastics Championships.

Gym looks good. Our biggest problem was laying out the Rhythmic floors. They need a flat, smooth base below the carpet. But not concrete. We tried a number of different base layers before deciding on an interlocking plastic grid material.

Keith Russell had a brilliant idea. Instead of using concrete blocks for anchor weight on the apparatus, he suggested we use concrete parking barriers. These are possibly twice as heavy as the typical 800 – 1000lbs normally used. These bars won’t be rocking.

FIG girls begin training tomorrow. I will have regular updates from Regina, Saskatchewan.

I know this sounds like heresy — but are minor injuries part of the learning process of children?

If we keep kids completely cocooned in protective bubbles, will they appreciate greater potential risk?

Do we need to shut down playgrounds?

Consider the athletes you know. Some have had “dumb injuries”. Some have never had a major injury.

Why?

What are the least injured athletes doing right?

Leave a comment if you have an opinion on this.

I especially like how they use a car as a gymnastics apparatus.

Many of the free running / Parkour videos you see are dangerous. YouTube is the “Olympics” for reckless kids.

But check this video featuring some of the best acrobats in the world including Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle.

These guys are as physically prepared and technically trained as any gymnast.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

by Rick McCharles

I am blogging live from Regina, Saskatchewan, host of the 2007 Nationals.

Long ago I worked for organizer Gymnastics Saskatchewan and have always been impressed with how they host major competitions. (i.e. Nationals 1991, 2001)

This time I’m a technical volunteer so I’ll have a good chance to see all athletes in all disciplines and say HI to many coaches.