GymCastic – Miss Val Part 2

This week we cover the Stuttgart and Glasgow World Cups, the two-per-country rule petition and Gabby’s book takes us into a discussion of life lessons in perseverance. A rare interview with FIG Women’s Technical Committee President, Nelli Kim leads to talk of ugly artistry, Uncle Tim teaches us about the YMCA’s contribution to US gymnastics and we continue our fantasy connection series with beam combos.

In part two of our interview with Miss Val, we discover how she and her former roommate inspired one of the creators of the television show Will and Grace, we find out why so many UCLA athletes have success in elite after college, why Canadians thrive in NCAA, de-programming damaged athletes to build self-esteem and tells us the price of going pro; the actual dollar amount after taxes and experiential cost. Lastly, she tells the story of the amazing wedding gift she gave to a fan.

Listen online. Or subscribe on iTunes.

If you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, get some of the highlights on Examiner – GymCastic teaser: The gymnastics world as seen by UCLA’s Miss Val

coach Olga Mostepanova

The legend featured on Russian children’s TV teaching forward walkover.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

WOGymnastike has a second clip like that, coaching Vault.

Gymnastics Saudi Arabia

FIG Artistic Gymnastics Age Group Programme
Riyadh, December 5 – 9, 2012

… Over the previous two years, the FIG with annual funding assistance from the IOC, has developed an Age Group Programme for Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. It was completed in 2011 …

Twenty-eight participating federations expressed their intention to implement the programme and were offered five-day training and implementation camps within the first year. …

The first country to host one of these five-day camps was Saudi Arabia that hosted the camp in its excellent facility in Riyadh from December 5-9, 2012. The FIG expert for the camp was well-known and enthusiastic gymnastics educator and coaching blogger Rick McCharles of Canada. …

… in Saudi Arabia, seventeen coaches attended but held citizenships from five different countries – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan and China. It was a remarkably high level of attendance for a country not much seen in world level gymnastics.

The FIG Age Group programme includes a testing and monitoring programme for Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics physical abilities and technical skills as well as a complete competition programme with modified optional rules for age-group gymnasts and compulsory exercises for all ages. …

The programme was developed by FIG Director of Education and Academy programmes, Hardy Fink (CAN) for the competition programme, Dieter Hofmann (GER) for the testing programme and Carol-Angela Orchard (CAN) for the dance and choreographic content. …

… read more – FIG Age Group Programme Camps begin in Saudi Arabia

more photos

I’m at Camps #2 and #3 next. Qatar and Yemen.

Middle East weather in December is terrific. 🙂

North Stars Gymnastics

Located in Boonton, New Jersey, North Stars Gymnastics Academy is one of the top gyms in the country. North Stars Alumni includes gymnasts Noel Couch, Ashley Miller, Jaime Pisani and Traci Sommer. …

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/MzE0NjY4OTg5?related=1

Watch more videos on Gymnastike

Good to see Leonard Isaacs.

Qatar – Goal to be sport superpower

You know Doha, Qatar, from the FIG events they have hosted.

FIFA World Cup goes to the Middle East for the first time in 2022. Tiny Qatar will host. (facilities bid VIDEO)

Qatar has bid for the Olympic Games too, but wants to host in October (cooler weather) rather than July or August.

You might think these kind of events are ambitious for a nation of fewer than 2.5 million.

But they have BIG GOALS for sport.

They’ve won 4 Olympic medals so far, and want more.

Following the 2008 Summer Olympics, Qatar was, along with Saudi Arabia and Brunei, one of only three countries to never have sent a female athlete to the Olympic Games. They sent 4 female athletes to London.

Vanessa Ferrari’s coach, Enrico Casella, and I are in Qatar leading a week long age group coaching Camp for FIG. We visited Aspire along with an international group of Trampoline Judges, here for a regional course.

The Aspire Zone, also known as Doha Sports City … was established as an international sports destination in 2003 …

These sporting venues include:

Khalifa International Stadium, a 50,000-capacity stadium primarily used for soccer matches.

Hamad Aquatic Center, an Olympic-size swimming pool.

The Aspire Dome, which is the world’s largest indoor multi-purpose sports hall and contains 13 different playing fields.

Aspire Zone is also home to Doha’s tallest structure, the Aspire Tower (which looks like an Olympic torch), and is adjacent to Villaggio Mall, the most popular mall in Qatar. …

They hosted the 2006 Asian Games here. Very successfully.

Lord Sebastian Coe, Oscar Pistorius, Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis, Johann Koss (Right to Play) and many other sport dignitaries are here for the Doha GOALS Forum.

Topics of discussion include:

Debate: Is the pursuit of money killing sport or can money buy success?

The role of the corporations

How do we encourage more women and girls to participate in sport?

Revealing the Doha goals roadmap

This nation is very much committed to becoming a leader in education and sport training. Enrico and myself have been to most of the best amateur sport facilities around the world. We’ve never seen better than Doha Sports City.

Click PLAY to see some of the facilities on YouTube.

related – Qatari women prepare for Olympic debut (VIDEO)

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics is alive and well here. 🙂

MAG Intercontinental Judges’ Course

Top Men’s Artistic Gymnastics judges from around the world convened in Bratislava, Slovakia for their Intercontinental Judges’ Course for the 2013 – 2016 Cycle on December 4 – 9, 2012. …

A total of 108 participants from 58 different federations participated in this course that is the only opportunity for judges to certify in the highest brevet category …

FIG

End of an era. Steve Butcher takes over from Adrian Stoica as MTC Chair.