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ANOTHER UPDATE

This may clarify the key point of this post. On the photo below, the same gymnast shows her USUAL body position on release for layout flyaway on the left (inferior technique) vs a much better position on release on the right.

Advantages of the position on the right: body is already more rotated, more powerful swing, body is shorter. This technique gives the opportunity for more height. The disadvantage is that hanging on too long, or not “pitching out”, may result in hitting the bar.

The position on the left is the typical weak “whipback” (not layout) from a bar. The only reason kids do this to try to avoid hitting the bar.

==== updated post Apr. 9, 2007

This topic is always controversial.

Justin Slife who moderates the excellent Chalk Bucket forum let me know that the conversation thread has "started quite a conversation".

release position on flyaway – Chalk Bucket

Some feel the illustration below is a bit extreme. It actually was traced from the superb double layout dismount of Olympic Champion Lilia Podkopayeva.

Perhaps the shoulder angle is a bit too much for a simple layout flyaway from giant. It’s still the GOAL position for me, combined with a strong shoulder opening (pitch out) as the hands release.

==== original post Feb. 11, 2007

Very few gymnasts show good position at release on backward flyaway from bars or horizontal bar.

For me, the position shown below is optimal: feet well above the bar, hips (centre of gravity) well below the bar.

The parabolic path of the centre of gravity will take this gymnast away from the bar.

illustration – David Burgess

As an additional safety measure, I like the gymnast to “pitch out” (move the centre of gravity away from the bar) at release. The gymnast opens the shoulders and pushes the feet away just as the hands release.

More articles on flyaway dismounts.

Have a happy handstand!

I’ve been following the entertaining Officially a Mom blog since we mentioned it last October.

Seems busy Moms still have time for handstands.

Amanda

original photo – flickr

Officially a Mom

I never got to Orlando to see Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba until 2006.

It blew me away.

I like best the the Cirque shows with huge acrobatic components. La Nouba, like Mystère in Vegas, is brilliant for a gymnastics fanatic.

Most gymnasts who see La Nouba want to try the trampoline act where artists literally launch through windows and to the top of the roof of a three-dimensional building. It’s nuts!

We did a lot of similar trampoline wall work back in the day at Taiso Gym Club. But nothing like this!

Click PLAY or watch trampoline / wall training on YouTube.

UPDATE: The athlete is Josu Sanchez.

I cannot find a better, more inspiring website.

Dragon Gymnastics is putting Kansas City on the map as the epicenter for elite gymnastics training. With the opening of the new state-of-the-art GAGE Center in March 2006, more athletes will join the Dragon Team tradition of excellence in gymnastics.

The look of the site is gorgeous.

Armine Barutyan-Fong

Al Fong, Head Coach and CEO of Dragon Gymnastics, and owner of the GAGE Center Campus, broke ground on the state-of-the-art facility in March 2004. The facility will provide Dragon Gymnastics with 15,000 square feet of dedicated space, furnished with regulation equipment, to train for the 2008 Olympics and beyond.

Check it out for yourself: DragonGymnastics.com

Leave a comment below if you have another club website to recommend.

Sarah Scheunhage Rules is the name of a short, very well edited promo video for ex-gymnast Sarah Scheunhage who is associated with New Concept Circus Productions.

Sarah trained gym until age-17. Then went into many other sports including hiking, swimming, running and skiing. She studied dance intensively.

Ultimately she competed Ms Fitness Worlds. (Check out the photo on LeanLadies.com)

Click PLAY or watch the video on MetaCafe. http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/477445/sarah_scheunhage_rules.swf
Sarah Scheunhage Rules – For more amazing video clips, click here

More information on the rising descent performance group website.

Cheng Fei rocks!

Click PLAY or watch her nail this amazing vault at Melbourne World Championships 2005 on YouTube.

Jaylan Amor is only two years old, but is already surfing the waves outside of Brisbane, Australia and has secured multiple endorsements from surf shops.

Neatorama » World’s Youngest Surfer?

Beginners have difficulty getting enough distance on vault.

I do a lot of drills to lower the preflight, asking kids to reach for the END of the horse.

Olympic Gymnastics, Perth, Australia

For Intermediate gymnasts who easily get enough distance, this becomes a non-issue.

For ELITE athletes doing somersaulting vaults, contacting the horse as quickly as possible is the priority.

Here’s an extreme example by a College gymnast.

One of the best WAG coaches in my region is Sandy Boisvert at Norfort Gymnastics. That’s all the more impressive since her club is in a small, rural northern town, Ft. McMurray, 435km (270mi) NE of any major city. (Edmonton, Alberta)

Sandy’s given me permission to post excerpts from a coaching video she put together in 2005.

Many coaches, including myself, believe that Yurchenko vaults will be devalued after 2008. That handspring front vaults will be comparatively more valuable.

For that reason, younger gymnasts today should not target exclusively Yurchenko. The more powerful kids, in particular, should also work towards Tsukahara and Handspring approach.

To see some of Sandy’s drills for coaching the handspring front on vault click PLAY, or watch it on YouTube.

By the way, Sandy is soon off on a gymnastics holiday — to European Championships along with coach Valerie Oudin from Champions Gymnastics.

The perfect lead in question on a recent Gymbrooke post:

We have top coaches now when will our organizations learn how to promote the sport?

Gymnastics is a great sport. USA Gymnastics and the NCAA markets it better than anyone else.

Yet our profile is small time compared with skateboarding.

Why?

What can we do better?

Look to Greg Marsden and what he has done at Utah, host of the upcoming NCAA championships.

Greg Marsden, the most successful coach in college gymnastics history, breaks new ground with each victory he earns. The sport’s only 800-win coach has racked up an 848-148-5 record in a 31-year career spent entirely at Utah. …

A consummate marketer of his sport, Marsden has turned Utah gymnastics into a revenue producer. Utah has led the nation in gymnastics home attendance in 22 of the last 25 years, including last season, when the Utes averaged 12,747 fans per meet.

He brought promotions and loud music and cheerleaders and the pep band to the quiet, golf-like world of the sport, and made it OK for fans to cheer. …

To combat the Utes’ isolation from the big TV markets, which give his rivals an advantage, Marsden started a multimedia Web site. After every meet, he personally posts video clips and photos of his team’s performances.

Gymbrooke Sports News » Greg Marsden :: Women’s Gymnastics

There’s more. Read the entire Gymbrooke post and click through to the sources.

Especially this one:

Greg Marsden isn’t merely the most successful coach in college gymnastics. He’s John Wooden, Knute Rockne and Bill Veeck all rolled into one. He didn’t invent gymnastics, but he pretty much invented the college version of it.

Marsden a pioneer for gymnastics – Doug Robinson