Gymnastics Coaching.com

I love the passion in Men’s NCAA gymnastics.

This years Windy City was a close race right to the very last routine.

Michigan came from behind in the last rotation on rings to take the title for the 2nd consecutive year with Illinois and Ohio State tying for second. Here is a look back at the highlights from 2014 Windy City Invite.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NDc1NzMwODE0?related=1&autoplay=false

Watch more video of 2014 Windy City Invite College Session on gymnastike.org

To check up-to-the-minute rankings for both WAG and MAG NCAA, click over to Road to Nationals.

The Chile Gymnastics Federation hosted the first 2014 educational session and training camp for the introduction and understanding of the FIG Age Group Development and Competition Programme.

Over the past two and one-half years, this programme has been introduced to lesser gymnastically developed regions …

Federations in attendance were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. In addition, Mexico sent a coach to participate.

In total, sixty-two coaches attended this Age Group introduction, by far the largest attendance of any previous FIG Age Group Programme event. This brings to 767 the number of different coaches from 76 federations who have attended one of the 33 Age Group coach education events. …

read more on FIG

FIG experts were Hardy Fink and Lilia Ortiz Lòpez of Mexico.

The FIG education programmes will continue with its efforts to assure that the FIG Age Group Development and Competition Programme is correctly understood and implemented. These efforts will be in the form of 2½ day Follow-up and Monitoring Camps … The first such efforts will begin in February in Namibia, Bermuda, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. …

I’m attending South Africa & Mozambique.

Elfi Schlegal interviewing Head Coach Alex Bard, Mary Lee Palmer and many others.

That’s “Australia’s” Stacey Umeh in the YouTube still image.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Around that time I traveled with Alex to Chunichi Cup. Seems a long, long time ago.

(via Craig Smith)

Hilarious.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Miss Val)

um …

Actually it’s Team USA.

Here's the Ralph Lauren Opening Ceremony uniform (USA Today) … pic.twitter.com/E1HyOnZAEw

— Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) January 23, 2014

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via @sbregman87

Click through to Steve’s Facebook to see the larger version.

For … why? 🙂

(via Brett MacAulay)

Popular clinician, Head Coach at Hamline University, was in Africa last year.

Click PLAY or watch some of his shenanigans on YouTube. 🙂

(via Rob Murray)

Easy to confuse. 😦

Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Aug 16-28th, 2014

3,600 athletes, 28 sports including Artistic, Rhythmic and Diving

___

Nanning World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Oct 3-13th, 2014

A = YOG Nanjing, Jiangsu

B = Worlds Nanning, Guangxi

related – Olympics.org – The Year of the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games

Thanks Jeff.

Dwight Normile argues the case:

Men’s NCAA coaches opted for the FIG rules to help the international effort of the U.S. But that decision actually applies to an extremely small percentage of the approximate 300 competitors among the 17 college teams. Throw in the bad public relations of the weaker teams getting clobbered by the fully-funded ones, and it becomes evident that the current NCAA men’s rules are serving less than half of the remaining programs. …

Men’s NCAA gymnastics must redefine itself through inclusivity. Illinois coach Justin Spring tried to just that last season with a match-play dual meet against Minnesota. But he had a hard time convincing many of his coaching colleagues to rally behind it. If match play is not the answer, then a return to the 10.0—and easier routines—would level the playing field. …

Men’s NCAA Gymnastics Needs the 10.0 More Than Ever

Akash Modi went 90.10 last weekend as a Freshman for Stanford … 15.85 P Bars.

Would we have seen more media attention if that routine had been scored a “perfect 10”?

Bottom line:

1. I don’t think the Perfect 10 is making a comeback in MAG NCAA.

2. I’m not sure it would help the men’s survival chances. Much.

The top Universities only have 6.3 scholarships compared with women’s teams that have up to 12 scholarships.

It’s time to start (secretly) drafting a post-NCAA University club competitive structure.

What will survive if the NCAA drops MAG?

Is there any scenario that would result in more teams? More competitors?

(via Stick It Media – Oklahoma, Michigan Prevail; Newburger Sets New Pommel Horse Record)