Category: Uncategorized

Viktor of Romanian-Gymnastics.com pointed me to this story.

A video montage put together by Heather of ShanFan.com was broadcast into space!

… transmissions will travel approximately 1-3 light years. … trillions of miles beyond the Solar System. …

… we hoped to send examples of the best and the brightest into outer space. Nadia’s accomplishment obviously fits that bill.”

“We can only continue to send messages and hope someone or something sees them and understands we have something valuable to offer the universe,” …

Nadia Comaneci’s Perfect Ten, broadcast into space from Cape Canaveral

Click PLAY or watch the clip on YouTube.

There are many more excellent videos on Heather’s ShanFan video montage page.

Trivia. The music is “Nadia’s Theme” by Barry de Vorzon & Perry Botkin. But I knew it first from the soundtrack to the film Bless the Beasts and Children — originally called “Cotton’s Dream” by The Carpenters.

This is it. World Cup Lake Placid.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

THANKS Trampoline Queen.

While you’re at it, check the new world record DD by Karen Cockburn and Rosannagh MacLennan (CAN) in Synchro.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Acrobatic Sports)

Almost 300 American camps are listed on the USA Gymnastics website. The format of the database has been much improved in recent years.

Gymnastics, Cheer, Trampoline, Tumbling, Action Sports, Rhythmic, Sports Acro and much more is offered.

The SEARCH function works well.

USA Gymnastics summer camp directory – 2007

Interested in the circus?

One option is to try out a circus camp like this one in Vermont:

Choose from 2-day to 2-week residential sessions for ages 6 to 18, with beginning to advanced skillls.

Smirkling Camp
Two-day (one-night) introductory sleepaway camp for kids 6 to 8 years old.

Intro to Circus Camp
4-day introductory circus camp for kids ages 7 to 13 years old.

Smirkus Camp (Sessions I, II & III)
1- and 2-week sleep-away sessions for campers ages 8 to 15 with beginning to developing skill levels.

Intermediate Camp
For ages 10 to 16 who have previously attended Circus Camp for at least two seasons, or have equivalent skills.

Advanced Camp
Campers ages 14 to 18 with advanced circus skills audition for 45 places.

Circus Smirkus Summer Camp!

Unfortunately, almost any beginner can do something that “looks” like a round-off.

Round-off is an easy tumbling skill to do badly.

Soon after — that same beginner will want to connect a back handspring or somersault. This is where coaches get in trouble.

The real problem is not the round-off, but the subsequent skill. Beginners cannot easily get into the correct position to connect.

Rik Feeney knows this problem well. He’s distributing a free .PDF document focused on teaching the round-off. To download it to your computer click here.

The illustrations are excellent.

If you like the free excerpt sample, buy a copy of Rik Feeney’s Back Handsprings – The Secret Techniques. And follow his carefully laid out program.

more Rik Feeney – books and articles

Statue at the Atlanta History Center commemorating the 1996 Olympics.

UPDATE:

Did you hear that Nadia accepted the position of Foreign Minister of Romania? (And that Bela Karoli accepted the position of Head Coach of the Romanian Gymnastics Team?)

Actually, that was an April Fools prank post.

The reality is a bit more domestic.

We are often asked, “What are you guys doing these days?” so, in response to that, we decided to create this site to give you an overview of how we spend our time. We set this up to illustrate, and bring attention to, some of our inspirational speaking engagements and appearances, as well as our current businesses and charity interests.

For those of you interested in more of a “fan” website, our friend, David Berry, operates the unofficial www.NadiaComaneci.com site. He has, for many years, run this site as a courtesy to Nadia, and we appreciate his thorough efforts.

Even though, on June 3, 2006, we welcomed into the world our little angel, Dylan Paul Conner, we continue to travel to make personal appearances and speeches, and accommodate our corporate sponsors, and charities.

BartandNadia.com – Home

Congratulations Jason. We’ve been waiting for your breakout result.

2007 Lake Placid World Cup finals, April 2, 2007

… Jason Burnett (CAN) broke the 20-year-old world record in difficulty with 17.50 pts and won the silver medal. Yuri Nikitin (UKR) took the gold. …

When legendary Igor Gelimbatovsky (USSR) beat the world record of the highest difficulty at the 1986 World Championships in Paris, France, everybody realized the magnitude of the performance. However, nobody envisioned that the world record would still be standing more than 20 years later. …

Jason’s routine in finals:

– Rudy out triffis pike (12 003 <)
– Full in full out layout (8 22 /)
– Half out triffis pike (12 001 <)
– Half in randy out pike (8 15 <)
– Randy out pike (8 05 <)
– Half in rudy out pike (8 15 <)
– Full in rudy out layout (8 23 /)
– Miller layout (8 33 /)
– Rudy out pike (8 03 <)
– Miller plus layout (8 44 /)

17.50 pt NEW WORLD RECORD BY JASON BURNETT in the finals of the Lake Placid World Cup

Leave a comment below if you know where we can link to video of the record breaking routine.

In our ongoing search for the best gymnastics and acrobatics books, KP recommended Soviet Gymnastics Stars by Vladimir Golubev.

It’s long out of print.

You might be able to get a copy at Biblio.com, however.

Five of us from Canada made the pilgrimage to the Santa Monica Gymfest, California in the late 1970s.

What an era!

Remembering Muscle Beach: Where Hard Bodies Began : Photographs and Memories (published 1999) documents how it all got started.

… Harold Zinkin (the first Mr. California as well as inventor of the Universal Gym Machine) tells the story:

He shares not only the stories of Hollywood celebrities who frequented Muscle Beach—including Mae West, Jane Russel, Jayne Mansfield, and Kirk Douglas—but also provides an insider’s account and photographic view of how this small strip of sand became a haven for the health-conscious and bodies beautiful.

Remembering Muscle Beach: Where Hard Bodies Began : Photographs and Memories

There was always a strong gymnastics connection.

In 1935, the City of Santa Monica hired UCLA coach Cecil Hollingsworth to teach gymnastics at Muscle Beach. By the late 1930s, there were 50 or 60 regulars and thousands of spectators came to see them perform on weekends.

Writers and photographers did countless stories and eventually The Beach was known nationally and internationally. To Zinkin and the other regulars, its fame was irrelevant, it was, he writes, “our education, our club, our cause. It was our youth.”

New Book Celebrates Santa Monica Heyday – Peggy Clifford, Santa Monica Mirror Editor