Gymnastics Coaching.com

The Balance Beam Situation:

… there are as many as 20 legitimate competitors for the All-Around title. Now, I am not that charitable, so I’m going to eliminate some of those from consideration pretty easily. But I do think there are about 7-10 gymnasts who can reasonably imagine taking the AA title. …

The Frontrunners:

Jaime Pisani (Arkansas) – The top-ranked performer for most of the season, Pisani has to be considered the favorite, as much as we can have one in a competition this tight.

Kytra Hunter (Florida)

Jessie DeZiel (Nebraska)

Sharaya Musser (Penn State)

Sam Peszek (UCLA)

Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA)

Geralen Stack-Eaton (Alabama)

The Nationals Scene: Individual All-Around

CalicoIzzy has Jamie a slight favourite, as well.

I stopped by the Arena tonight. Podium looks awesome. But I’m disappointed by the lack of publicity / signage for the event.

For Katelyn Ohashi.

Valeri Liukin:

… refused to link Ohashi’s name with the 2016 Olympics, saying instead that he prefers to take things one year at a time. …

“Of course Katelyn is a very talented gymnast. She’s not little anymore — next year she’ll be eligible for the World Championships,” Liukin said when asked to evaluate her talent. “Her senior career will start next year, so we’ll be getting ready for Worlds.” …

Examiner – two minute chat with Valeri Liukin

For Nastia, it’s only 100.

Friends who visited WOGA recently tell that Nastia looks in great shape. Still, qualifying for the American team is a long shot. I’d say she’d need to be top 3 Bars and Beam to be selected.

(via USAG on Facebook)

At his recent clinic at GAGE, Al explained his elaborate “trench” pit. This it the 5th version and he’s finally happy with how it works.

Note the free standing elevated chalk box.

Those segments are 8ft long, wide enough to leave a 2ft channel.

The white base spotting box is the minimum height you’d possibly ever want to use. The yellow pieces can be stacked as high as needed for the height of the gymnast. This day it was set so the tallest girl in the gym could swing.

The blue mat in-between is custom made to fit.

Construction is layers of rigid foam, glued together. Then topped with carpet bonded ethafoam from an old roll strip.

Al’s gym makes their own covers having purchased a $1600 industrial sewing machine.

A contractor friend of mine priced out one of the yellow sections at less than $200 including handles and perhaps even a zipper closure. GAGE has dozens. Each is light enough to easily be moved by two small kids.

Al finds this system far superior to the below ground channel pits.

Leave a comment if you’ve an opinion. Or any alternative this useful.

Interesting and entertaining. Check the originality and sequencing of the elements.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That Brazilian audience is pretty rowdy. 🙂

The Defending NCAA Champions, the University of Alabama, are coming into this year’s Championships as the #4.

As always, they are a strong threat for the national title. Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson and senior Ashley Priess give fans a preview of what to watch for from the Tide in Duluth.

Alabama finished 2nd at this year’s SEC Championships to #1 Florida, then cruised to a victory at the Seattle Regional to easily advance to the program’s 30th consecutive National Championships. In addition to being the defending team Champions, senior Geralen Stack-Eaton is the defending NCAA Champion on floor.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/MjU5NjI5MTA1?related=1

Watch more video of 2012 NCAA Championships (Women) on gymnastike.org

I’m in transit to Georgia today.

Sandra Izbasa is working on a new vault. Actually she upgraded her layout Podkopayeva to a round off flic-flac with 1/2 turn on – stretched salto forward with 1/1 turn (6.1 difficulty score). With this vault and with her double twisting Yurchenko, she has a real shot to keep the European title she won last year in Berlin. …

Fangymnastics – Romanian gymnastics blog

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The brochure for our annual gymnastics camp has just been posted. Boys and girls.

July 22-26th, 2012.

Check HPTCamp.com
to see photos, videos and details from previous years.

Cost $450-$600 depending on accommodation, food and extra activities.

Contact Dave Adlard with any questions.

So says Balance Beam Situation:

… I would be willing to bet that our eventual champion will be one of the top two seeds.

Given everything we’ve seen this season, Florida has to be considered the favorite. Even when they weren’t performing that well at mid-season, the Gators were still the top-ranked team in the country, and they have the fewest potential weaknesses and uncertain routines of all the teams at Championships.

… If you’re looking for a strong backup choice, head over UCLA‘s direction. While the Bruins cannot be considered nearly as safe as Florida, the ceiling for this team is higher than any of the other contenders, which makes them most likely to challenge. …

The Nationals Scene: The Favorites

Manual on Handstands has an interesting post ranking the 12 National Qualifiers by apparatus based solely on their scores at Regionals:

VAULT:
1. Florida (49.550)
2. UCLA (49.450)
3. Alabama (49.325)

BARS:
1. Stanford (49.400)
2. Alabama (49.350)
3. Florida/Georgia/Oregon State (49.300)

BEAM:
1. Oklahoma (49.325)
2. Stanford (49.250)
3. Alabama/UCLA (49.225)

FLOOR:
1. UCLA (49.475)
2. Oklahoma (49.450)
3. Georgia (49.400)

… Even though Florida has been impressive on beam this season with their scores and their confidence, I have two concerns.

… Florida has used the same beam lineup all year in the same order, and hasn’t counted a fall. It seems equally impressive and nerve-wracking when I think about whether it’s possible to make it through the whole season with an identical beam lineup and never count a fall. …

Event Rankings from Regionals (and other thoughts)

I was wondering how Steve could have won Floor in China. He’s an amazing tumbler, but poor landings normally drop him down the leader board. (Legendre never seems to get deducted for lack of artistry.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There.

I’ve broken the rules of sponsor branding for that … that big thing happening this summer. You know. With gymnastics.

… Using one of those words with London, medals, sponsors, summer, gold, silver or bronze is another likely breach. The two-word rule is not fixed, however: an event called the “Great Exhibition 2012” was threatened with legal action last year …

Guardian – Olympics 2012: branding ‘police’ to protect sponsors’ exclusive rights

The IOC branding “police” will be busy, busy this year.

JGC mocks the restrictions:

… My blog is in no way associated with the Londinium … Demonstrations of World Class Athletic Ability. But if you do wish to talk about them, may I suggest the official name Londinium MMXII and hash tag #mmxii. And here’s an alternative logo representing the five interlocking benzene rings of benzopyrene:

Here’s a summary of legal ways of using the brand.

Happily the IOC seem to have given up trying to police social media. It’s impossible.