Gymnastics Coaching.com

ESSENCE is proud to honor extraordinary Black women each month, and in this issue it features its “2012 Women of the Year” — including Gabrielle Douglas, First Lady Michelle Obama, Robin Roberts and more!

When you get top billing over Michelle Obama, you’ve made the BIG TIME. 🙂

Full Twist:

… Many thought Ferrari would retire after the London 2012 Olympic Games, especially losing out on a bronze medal to Aliya Mustafina at the Floor finals due to tie breaking rules. So far Ferrari is scheduled to be competing in the Tournai International Competition in France on November 3rd, the Stuttgart World Cup and the Glasgow World Cup December 8th. This little video cropped up online this week:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube

Vanessa Ferrari … is the 2006 World All Around Champion and competed for her country at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics …

She’s now age-21. And looking fierce.

I resigned from FIG judging in 2006, partly in response to my disappointment in FIG abandoning the “perfect 10” judging system. Partly in disappointment with the FIG Men’s Judging program under your predecessor, Adrian Stoica. Especially how the Men’s judges bungled the 2004 Olympics under Stoica’s watch.

But with your election as new chair of the Men’s Technical Committee, I’m inspired to make a comeback, sending a request to rejoin the ranks of Canadian judges.

I’d advise, Steve, that I’m one judge who applies the rules as written. Attending Worlds in 2010 and 2011, it was obvious that Execution panels were not doing so. Gymnasts like Zou Kai on horizontal bar were not being deducted for poor form and line.

Is this layout?

Those screen grabs I took from Zou Kai’s London Team Qualification routine. (VIDEO)

Yes Zou Kai qualified to the Final, as usual.

If there’s some unwritten Code being used, Steve, I’ll not apply it. Expect me to go out high on Uchimura and low on Zou Kai if ever assigned to judge them.

Enthusiastic for the future, as a judge I’d love to be part of the solution, not the problem.

related – my Report Card on last cycle’s MAG rules.

March 14-17th, 2013.

University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Dave Holland put together a cute promo video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube

Registration is OPEN.

Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival

Couch Gymnast is running a series on up-and-coming Junior talents, age eligible for the 2016 Olympics.

… the 2012 Canadian Junior National Champ, Shallon Olsen. Born in 2000, she is barely age eligible for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Even though she has a great mesh of flexibility, dance, power and quite honestly, an awesome talent, she still needs to work on some of her leaps and jumps and her form on bars. But hey, she still has four more years to go and I’m sure she isn’t at her peak yet! …

read more …

Other Junior Watch Gymnast Profiles are linked from that page:

Kim Janas (GER)
Maria Kharenkova (RUS)
Angel Romaeo (GBR/WALES)
Lara Mori (ITA)
Polina Schennikova (USA)

Shallon’s been an astonishingly good vaulter from a very young age. Despite Gymnastics Canada insisting that girls weighing 50 pounds or less be required to use only designated Spring Boards at the meet, her DTY is effortless.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube (June 2012)

Shallon competes a lot of difficulty. And rarely misses a routine in competition.

What’s going on at the Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs?

How do Olympic and Paralympic athletes blow off steam when they are not in the gym?

By practicing their dance moves — Gangnam Style. Figure Skating, Gymnastics, Judo, Modern Pentathlon, Shooting, Triathlon, Weightlifting, Wrestling….which sport does it best?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube (gymnasts start at 30sec)

via @JoshNDixon

Looking good.

Sooner gymnasts show off their tumbling to the song Fight for your Right.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube

The NCAA announced today that the Alabama Sports Foundation and the University of Alabama will co-host the 2014 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship in Birmingham, Ala. The national championship will be held April 18 – 20, 2014, at the Birmingham – Jefferson Convention Complex .

The University of Alabama women’s gymnastics team is a powerhouse in Division I gymnastics, having won back-to-back national championships in 2011 and 2012 …

Roll Tide

Championships 2013 will be hosted by UCLA.

On October 29th, 2012 Pantene Pro-V and the spokesperson Evgenia Kanaeva donated 5 million rubles to Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation as part of the promo action “Pantene Helps Young Talents of Rhythmic Gymnastics”. …

Zhenya Kanaeva Gymnasium

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube

As a clinician in Canada for the National Coaching Certification Program I was required to complete an online ethics course.

Online Evaluation for Make Ethical Decisions – Competition – Introduction:

• Scenario One
• Scenario Two

… You will fail the evaluation if you cannot:

• establish the facts of the situation

• distinguish between legal and ethical situations

• determine appropriate solutions to the scenario

Coach.ca

The two scenarios were somewhat interesting. Somewhat useful.

But the design of the online course was sterile. Slow to complete. Buttons did not align clearly to text.

Too academic. Too wordy.

Correct “answers” were debatable.

Overall call me DISAPPOINTED. 😦

I did send my feedback to Coaching Association of Canada.

Two of us had trouble logging into The Vault, as well. But my distress email was quickly answered.