Gymnastics Coaching.com

Rosannagh MacLennan won Canada’s first gold medal of the London Olympics on Saturday, taking top spot in the women’s trampoline at the North Greenwich Arena. …

Shanshan Huang won silver with 56.730 points and Chinese compatriot Wenna He took the bronze with 55.950.

Three-time Olympic medallist Karen Cockburn of Stouffville, Ont., just missed the podium in fourth place with 55.860 points. …

The Star

A video showdown.

Click PLAY or watch Kohei on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Kyle at the Beijing Olympics.

Click PLAY or watch Maroney’s in Team on YouTube.

Super slow-mo.

You can quibble. But I’m happy to award a “perfect 10” to all 3 of those Vaults.

After decades, I finally got to famed International Gymnastics Camp in Pennsylvania.

Camp Director Brent Kraus gave me a personal tour of their massive complex in the Poconos.

Week #7 they had 404 gymnasts. All 5 gyms were busy.

My trip sponsored by Tumbl Trak, I set up some of their newest inflatable equipment. Jesse Silverstein, Brandon Wynn, Sean Townsend, Sean Golden and Andrew Elkind played. Many of the coaching staff tried out the equipment, too.

Coaches at IGC are all required to do 2hrs of “school” 5 days / week. (8-10pm)

That’s part of their Professional Coaching Diploma (PCD) — currently the best coach training program in North America, since the Seneca School of Gymnastics in Toronto cancelled their 2yr degree program.

PCD is ideal for a young coach looking to get experience.

Founder Bruno Kraus was working out himself during “open gym”. Abe Grossfeld, age-78, not so much. Abe has been at IGC since the beginning. This summer he’s in charge of “visiting coaches”.

In fact, I was a visiting coach myself. Two girls I coached last season were enjoying Camp week #7, somewhat overwhelmed with the scale of things.

I was happy to see international elite Jessica Dowling. (Her coach was away at Olympics with Team Canada.)

Unlike Woodward, IGC offers only Artistic Gymnastics. They are serious. Kids are not “thrown” through difficult skills, as they are at most other Camps.

Gymnasts have no contact with parents over the week. No social media. No cameras.

OTHER IGC HIGHLIGHTS:

• 1 to 8 coaching ratio, plus two counselors living in every cabin

• Personal goal setting

• American Turners museum

• zip line over the lake

• laser tag outdoors in the woods

Click PLAY or watch a Camp highlights clip on YouTube.

Every gymnast should go to IGC at least once in their life. 🙂

… by the way, I was (surprisingly) most impressed by the Beam Gym.

Vanessa Ferrari?

Marta Pihan-Kulesza?

Leave a photo link in the comments if there’s one you like better.

When you’re feeling down because your body hurts
When your hands are torn and your muscles ache
When the beam’s so high and you feel you’ll fall
When you feel you can’t and want to stop it all
When the spring floor feels like concrete
When you feel you’re spent and can’t compete
And the bars, they seem so wide apart
And vaulting now is not in your heart
When all of this makes you feel like the pits
It’s time to relax and think a bit
Of the hours and hours of hard work put in
It’s time to collect the dividend
You know why you’re here, what it’s all about
You know there’s no time at all for self-doubt
So get up, with both your body and your mind
And keep it going because you’re going to find…
YOU CAN…you can do it with a little more grit

Get up, breathe deep – and GO FOR IT!!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via sophgymnast on Chalk Bucket)

Gymnasts are super humans. You cannot do almost anything Maddie can do.

Dr. Greg Wells explains how gymnasts are able to have such impeccable balance on a balance beam.

Click on the image to watch it on YouTube. (not available in USA)

(via Sabrina Gill on Facebook)

Chinese world number one Dong Dong broke down in tears as he snatched the Olympic men’s trampoline title.

Dong’s massive score of 62.990 handed him an emphatic victory over Russia’s Dmitry Ushakov (61.769) with the final routine of the day.

Lu Chunlong secured a second medal for China, scoring 61.319 for third. …

BBC – Olympics trampoline: Dong Dong delivers gold for China

Beijing Silver medalist Jason Burnett took a chance, trying the highest degree of difficulty, but was terminated after the second skill. Jason had qualified in 6th.

A comic perspective – Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym – The Adventures of Triffus and Dong Dong

Leigh is in London. Follow the nitty gritty on Trampoline Pundit.

The women’s competition goes Saturday.

Uncle Tim reviews the history of backward double somersault over the Bar. Key gymnasts:

1979 – Péter Kovács

1992 – Alojz Kolman

Actually, Tony Pineda competed Kolman (or something near identical) in the first session of World Championships 1985. Only a few hundred spectators were there that early.

It’s frequently forgotten.

Tony trained it as a Gaylord 2 with a half out.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Aussie comedians Roy & H.G. commentate on Men’s Gymnastics at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

NBC TV coverage of the Olympics is taking a beating. As usual.

#NBCfail

Dvora Meyers is eloquent in her take down – Fake, Jingoistic, And Stupid: Gymnastics Coverage Is The Worst Part Of NBC’s Olympics

For the record, I don’t mind Al Trautwig as the dumb-as-a-stick everyman, relating to the non-gymnastics viewer. Tim Daggett is an active coach who knows what he’s talking about. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have explaining our sport to the general public.

Elfi Schlegel, a lovely person, never seems to add anything to the description. Bland, but not bad.

NBC must like them, though. They’ve been mainstays for many, many years.

Mashable has an outlandish proposal. Have the IOC sell the rights to a tech-savvy startup which would package video for any and all buyers.

Interesting. No NBC monopoly in the USA.

Don’t hold your breath, though. NBC paid $4.38 billion last year for exclusive rights to broadcast the summer and winter Olympics through 2020

(via The Gymnast Life)

No. Not gymnastics age cheats. Not this time. 🙂

… Ye Shiwen is a 16-year-old Chinese swimming prodigy who won two gold medals in London this week, obliterating her competition and setting a world record in the 400 meter individual medley, and people think she cheated. John Leonard, the executive director of U.S. Swimming, labeled Ye’s win “disturbing.”

In addition to setting a world record, her final 50 meters in the 400 medley were faster than Ryan Lochte, who won the gold for the men. As the U.S. director told The Guardian afterward, “The final 100m was impossible. Flat out. To swim three other splits at the rate that she did, which was quite ordinary for elite competition, and then unleash a historic anomaly, it is just not right.”

“We want to be very careful about calling it doping,” he added. “The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, ‘unbelievable’, history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved.” …

China Paranoia: Ye Shiwen, Doping, And The Rush To Be Respectfully Offensive

I’m still not convinced that Lance Armstrong is guilty.

So I’ll praise Ye Shiwen as one of the great Olympians in London … until proven wrong.

Besides, China’s not a nation to cheat. Are they?