Gymnastics Coaching.com

In training.

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Jordan Chiles of Naydenov Gymnastics is too young for Rio.

She was 11th AA at Jr P&G Championships 2013, 6th on Vault with DTY.

It was a nice change in Antwerp to hear very little questioning of the age of Chinese gymnasts.

One of the few who brought it up was Marta Karolyi:

Karolyi answered questions regarding the ages of the Chinese gymnasts. Shang Chunsong competed in the same subdivision as Biles and posted the top beam score of the competition so far. Martha said clearly that she believed the Chinese were competing with underage gymnasts here in Antewrp and that she wishes everyone would compete at a level playing field. She stated, “We [the United States] respect the rules and we play by the rules.” She feels that until they lift the age limit, some countries will continue to cheat in this way.

Gymnastike

World Bar Champion 2013 Huang Huidan is listed born 16 May 1996 (age 17). She was age eligible for London. She trained in Zhejiang Province before moving to Beijing.

Marta is hardly the best person to be making allegations.

Lavinia Agache (Romania), Olga Bicherova (Soviet Union), Gina Gogean (Romania), Alexandra Marinescu (Romania), Olga Mostepanova (Soviet Union) and Daniela Silivas (Romania) all later admitted they had competed “underage”.

None were penalized by FIG.

Age rules have been made stricter, over time. Much stricter today than it was in the era of Silivas.

… Currently, as per the 1997 regulation, gymnasts must be at least 16 years of age, or turning 16 within the calendar year, to compete in senior-level events. For the current Olympic cycle, in order to compete in the 2016 Olympics, a gymnast must have a birth date before January 1, 2001. …

Since 2009, gymnasts competing in FIG-sanctioned events at both the senior and junior level have been required to have licenses issued by the Federation. These licenses reportedly verify the competitors’ ages based on their passports. However, the licensing does not include any independent verification of submitted passport information. …

Age falsification is the practice of advancing gymnasts’ ages to make them age-eligible for senior-level competition. …

… there have only been three cases, those of Kim Gwang Suk in 1993 and Dong Fangxiao and Hong Su Jong in 2010, where the FIG has elected to take any action against a gymnastics federation for age falsification.

wikipedia

Kim Gwang Suk (North Korea)
Dong Fangxiao (China)
Hong Su Jong (North Korea)

Because all 3 happen to be Asian, some consider any accusation of age falsification to be “racist”.

… No girls from Japan are ever accused, though some look just as young as He Kexin at the same age.

Nobody believes that Japan would falsify a passport.

MANY believe that North Korea and China are willing and able to falsify passports. They’ve done it before. Why would you think the same government, the same sport regime, the same coaches in some cases … wouldn’t do it again?

If you stole my wallet once, don’t blame me for wondering if you might steal my wallet again.

I suspect any totalitarian State.

FIG “licenses” as they exist today, are not enough.

If science cannot verify age, age requirements should be dropped.

Updates:

• Andrei Rodionenko: the Chinese girls were of “dubious age“. He’s quite wrong about other things in that interview, by the way.

• Gymnast Karissa Chock on Karolyi Gymnastics circa 1996

In the annual GymInfo – Men’s Gymnastics National Coaches Poll … Michigan got every #1 vote.

Michigan Roster 2013-14

Championships for the coming season are being hosted, appropriately, at Ann Arbor, Michigan April 11-12, 2014.

Good news — it doesn’t conflict with WAG this year. Women’s NCAA Championships are being hosted the following weekend in Birmingham, Alabama.

The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities (“nature,” i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences (“nurture,” i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. .…

The 10,000 hour rule started with this study:

The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance (PDF) by K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer (1993)

They found that many of the best of the best in different fields had trained at least 10,000 hours over 10 years.

True.

But correlation is not causation.

… since that landmark 1993 paper, other researchers have been finding exceptions to the rule; some experts were crowned with only 3,000 hours of practice while others still had not reached the mountaintop even though they had doubled the 10,000 hour mark. …

“The evidence is quite clear,” … “that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice.” …

The Sports Gene: What Makes the Perfect Athlete by David Epstein – review by Richard Moore

Epstein quoted:

… for an American man aged between 20 and 40, standing between 6ft and 6ft2in the chances of playing professionally in the NBA are five in a million. If he’s 6ft2in to 6ft4in there is a still-distant 20 in a million chance. But if he’s 6ft10in to 7ft, the odds shorten to 32,000 in a million. And if he stands 7ft, there is a one-in-six chance he will currently be playing in the NBA. …

Height is far more important than number of hours trained in that sport.

related – Why Kenyans Make Such Great Runners: A Story of Genes and Cultures:

.…This medium-size country of 41 million dominates the world in competitive running. Pick any long-distance race. You’ll often find that up to about 70 or 80 percent of its winners since the late 1980s, when East African nutrition and technology started catching up with the West, have been from Kenya. …

Most are from one tribe in Kenya, the Kalenjin.

What about coaching?

Wayne Goldsmith weighs in – 10,000 Hours to make a Sporting Champion? I don’t think so.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

To reach a high level in any discipline you need genetics and good training.

I’ve been a judge most of my life.

Over those years I’ve not not seen many videos promoting judges.

Any?

Click PLAY or watch a good one from Quebec on YouTube. (2012)

Quebec hosted an FIG Continental Men’s Judging course January 2013. (PDF). It looked to me that the Province has a terrific group of young MAG judges coming up.

Gymnastike posted a summary report including the official apology (?) of the Italian Federation:

… President Richard Agabio take this opportunity to strongly condemn and distance themselves from all forms of racism and discrimination …

Reactions to Italian Gymnast Carlotta Ferlito’s Stunning Statements

I’m happy they didn’t “suspend” Carlotta.

The main unhappy takeaway from her stupid remarks:

… what’s even sadder about the story is that it took a scandal like this to get gymnastics in The New York Times, USA Today, ESPN and other mainstream publications. If you search “Simone Biles” in google news right now, the top articles are not about Simone’s stunning performance in Antwerp, winning the elusive World All Around title and becoming the only American to advance to every World final since gymnastics legend Shannon Miller did so back in 1991. Instead, they are all about her being “subjected to a racist remark”.

As with Gabby Douglas’, the general media is more interested in racism than Gymnastics.

related – the response from Simone’s parents

Dvora Meyers weighs in with the most nuanced analysis of the media blowup after one stupid remark by Carlotta Ferlito — Unorthodox Gymnastics – Racism in Gymnastics: Simone Biles Edition

There is some racism in Artistic Gymnastics. Much less than in the real world, but some.

Pretty much every coach, however, is interested to train athletes of different genetic heritage.

It was Hideo Mizoguchi who first pointed out to me that the USA is the greatest melting pot of the races. Sooner or later, that mixing will result in some of the best athletes that ever lived.

___UPDATE:

Jason got me to research my assumption. Check this map of the world’s most ethnically diverse nations. Canada is more diverse than the USA, for example.

That may not matter, in any case. Stephanie notes that the entire concept of “race” is being challenged in recent years. And that the greatest genetic variation is between individuals of the same local ethnicity.

My melting pot theory might be complete hogwash.
___

Kyla Ross, for example, is of is of African American, Japanese, Filipino and Puerto Rican descent.

Tiger Woods refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian).

There is racism in Gymnastics. But it’s not nearly one of our biggest problems.

… Asked about Biles’ success, Ferlito replied, “I told Vanny (teammate Vanessa Ferrari) that next time we should also paint our skin black, so then we could win too.”

Ferrari was sixth and Ferlito 11th in the all-around. …

If you follow Carlotta’s twitter feed, you know she’s outspoken and controversial on many topics.

I don’t believe she’s any kind of racist, but rather young (age-18), brash and inconsiderate.

Her participation in the reality TV series Ginnaste – Vite Parallele on MTV Italy probably hasn’t helped.

Hopefully she’ll learn from this humiliating bad joke.

She’s been apologizing on twitter. I’m not sure that’s going to be enough. The story has hit the mainstream media all over the world.

I actually feel worse about this guy, David Ciaralli, supposedly a responsible adult speaking on behalf of the Federation:

In a Facebook comment posted under the name “Italian Gymnastics Federation,” which links to the federation’s Facebook page, federation spokesperson David Ciaralli (first) defended Ferlito …

… “Carlotta was referring to a trend in gymnastics at this moment, which is going towards a technique that opens up new chances to athletes of color (well-known for power)” while penalizing the more artistic Eastern European style that allowed Russians and Romanians to dominate the sport for years. …

Those quotes come from a Chicago Tribune article – Italian gymnast, federation spokesman apologize for racial remarks

“USA Gymnastics is disappointed by the recent comments made by Carlotta Ferlito and apparently by the Italian Gymnastics Federation,” Penny said in a statement. “Gymnastics is a global and inclusive sport with talented athletes, and there is no place for racial insensitivity. We are contacting the Italian federation for clarification on its comments.

ESPN

UPDATE. Full Twist has been following this story. Italy has responded officially, in Italian.

related – Arabian Punch Front is sad that Carlotta blurted out such an inappropriate joke.

(via GymCastic)

Ben Winkel (@bwinkel25) put together this edit.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

0:00 – Kohei Uchimura (JPN)
0:16 – Diego Hypolito (BRA)
0:27 – Makoto Okiguchi (JPN)
0:40 – Flavius Koczi (ROM)
0:52 – Steven Legendre (USA)
0:59 – Kohei Uchimura (JPN)
1:17 – Ioannis Melissanidis (GRE)
1:30 – Dimitri Karbanenko (FRA)
1:39 – Shirai Kenzo (JPN)
1:47 – Florent Maree (FRA)
2:00 – Kohei Uchimura (JPN)
2:11 – Sean Doolan (USA)
2:22 – Huang Yuguo (CHN)
2:33 – Kyle Shewfelt (CAN)
2:48 – Stacie Ervin (USA)
2:58 – Gervasio Deferr (SPA)
3:10 – Diego Hypolito (BRA)
3:24 – Anton Golotsutskov (RUS)
3:37 – Denis Ablyazin (RUS)

Kyle was injured in podium training at Worlds 2007. That’s a shame. We never got to see this on the biggest stage.

Click PLAY or watch a training routine on YouTube.

The Arabian double pike mount he upgraded to Tamayo for Worlds. That was the skill he was injured on in Stuttgart. 😦