Gymnastics Coaching.com

I really enjoyed Shannon’s Keynote at GymCon 2014.

Amazingly, I had never heard her speech at any time in the past.

 
She spoke very fondly of Steve Nunno. …
 

One of the best Elite gyms in the world.

Trailer for Texas Dreams Beyond the Routine.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

As expected, Louis Smith was selected.

The men’s artistic gymnastics squad includes 2012 Olympic bronze medallists Sam Oldham, Louis Smith MBE, Kristian Thomas and Max Whitlock and five times junior European Champion, 18 year old Nile Wilson completes the line-up.

The women’s artistic team is led by European Champion and double Commonwealth Games medallist Rebecca Downie, who’s joined by three of the 2014 European Silver medal winning team – Claudia Fragapane, Ruby Harrold, and Hannah Whelan with Kelly Simm taking the final position. …

The 20th Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow from the 24th July to 3rd August 2014 with 72 Nations taking part in 261 events over 17 sports. …

British Gymnastics

I predict that England, Scotland and Canada will end up on the Men’s podium. Canada, England and Australia on the WAG podium.

Attendees of GymCon saw Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE last night. Some also took in a back stage tour yesterday afternoon. Very cool.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

My favourite Cirque show, overall. This must be my 15th visit to the LOVE stage. 🙂

I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on one of these new mini-tramp / Vault trainers. It’s a brilliant product.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

details

Basic T-Trainer on sale right now for $764.

Leigh Hennessy Robson:

How many women tumblers have performed a Miller successfully in competition?

Well, the answer is “at least one.”

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Bianca Zoonekynd is from South Africa. That was a fun competition where she competed against (retired) male tumblers.

For Team and the Recreation kids.

Coach Evan Brake put together an excellent edit of the 2014 Saltos Gymnastics kids.

At a men’s coaching camp this week we watched plenty of Lee Wools videos. His are some of the best tutorials on the internet.

Here’s Lee’s most recent. He teaches Diamadov progressions first for confidence in maintaining body position and swinging on 1-arm.

Later the Stutz is learned quickly. It’s more difficult than Diamodov due to the flight phase.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Lee’s method results in a “swinging” Stutz for a beginner. Later many boys change to a “hoppy” Stutz with earlier release.

FIG posted the official write up of our week long MAG Academy Level 1:

For the second time, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) organised a joint Olympic Solidarity-FIG Academy in close collaboration with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic Solidarity Programme (OS). The Gymnastics Federation of Saudi Arabia hosted this event on June 4-11, 2014, in the capital city Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia became the 57th FIG member federation to host an Academy. …

Twenty-one coaches attended the Academy. Twenty were from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen. …

The highest results were shared by Hashem Alhashem of Saudi Arabia and Ebrahim Alabdali of Yemen. The third best result was achieved by Maki Almobireek of Saudi Arabia. …

read more – Saudi Arabia joints list of FIG Academy host countries

The exam in Academy Level 1 is challenging, including detailed anatomy and biomechanics. Half the course is Theory, half Practical.

The National Training Center in Riyadh is an excellent facility. Men’s Artistic Gymnastics only, however.

I was pleased to be asked to assist course leader Chris Evans of Great Britain at this one. He’s done many Academies in many disciplines going all the way back to Academy #2.

In the Kingdom everyone stops 5 times a day for prayer. Conveniently in the Riyadh gym, coaches and gymnasts use the Floor Exercise mat.

a few more photos