Gymnastics Coaching.com

When old timers complain about ‘lack of artistry’ in modern gymnastics, they harken back to the great Soviet girls.

nastia2012:

Olga did not have a fairy tale career, and is remembered for many things that were out of her control, including age falsification, the 1984 boycott, and the “injuries” that kept her and Irina Baraksanova out of the all around in 1985 …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

She was first (1983) to compete Onodi. Yes, that’s another named gymnastics skill bungled by the FIG WTC.

This song happens to be called “Eighties”

Life without limbs.

From no limbs to no limits.

Next time you or yours start feeling sorry for yourself, think of Nick.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… As a child, he struggled mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, but eventually came to terms with his disability and, at the age of seventeen, started his own non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs. Vujicic presents motivational speeches worldwide, on life with a disability, hope, and finding meaning in life.

I’ll bet Nick inspires this child.

Do you use the compliment sandwich when coaching?

… begin your criticism with a compliment follow up with your criticism/insult and then end with a compliment or something favorable …

There’s a time and a place for that kind of diplomacy.

Best is straight talk / honest feedback between athlete and coach. But only after the athlete is self-confident and trusts the coach.

Ono points out that Paul Hamm, David Sender and Charlie Tamayo are on the list of 91 to compete in the 2012 Winter Cup Challenge, Feb. 2-4, at the Las Vegas (Nev.) Sports Center.

That includes 41 collegiate gymnasts and 14 members of the Jr National team.

Paul’s listed with Swiss Turners Gymnastics Academy, Waukesha, Wisc.

USAG – 2011 World, Pan Am Team members expected to compete in 2012 Winter Cup

I’d rank USA 3rd in the world right now, ahead of Germany, Russia and GBR. Rings and Pommels are the apparatus most needed. They’ll carry one specialist, at most. Likely Rings.

Defending champion China is worried, I think. The red and gold are weak in the AA. The smaller team size hurts. And nothing less than team Gold will do.

Lieven Vercruyssen, founder and chief evangelist of Eurogym / Eurotumble Belgium, explained their Inflatable Pit:

One or both bladders can be inflated to the desired firmness simply by pushing a button on the wall. Wow. From resi-pit to landing “table” in minutes, without moving a thing.

… As a simpler alternative, what about stacking Air Pits like these available from Tumbl Trak or Eurogym?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Having many independent air pits stacked would leave you many future options.

Any air base would have a top mat made of foam, of course.

Leave a comment if you’ve used any kind of ‘air pit’ system.

Air is the future, I’m certain.

I-Gym:

At the London Test Event there was merchandise on sale at the venue – except for the one thing I wanted, the Artistic Gymnastics pin badge (why they never thought to stock these, I have no clue!) so I made a trip to the olympic shop which is inside St Pancras station. What a disappointment that was! They only had the Rythmic badge and very little of anything else!

…

I stopped by the St Pancras store today myself. The stock looked junky to me. 😦

What do you think? Are the official Olympic souvenirs disappointing? … They were a HUGE hit at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Queen Elizabeth suggests checking out John Lewis online. Here are their most popular Olympic items.

Lots of excitement in the NCAA this weekend.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Oklahoma 197.45, Arkansas: 197.225 new school record, record crowd at home (5,537) … Katherine Grable … 39.725

Rank Team Season Average according to GymInfo: 1 Arkansas 196.775 – UCLA 196.775 3 Utah 196.713 4 Nebraska 196.575 5 Oklahoma 196.433 6 Alabama 196.325 7 Georgia 196.275 8 Florida 196.158 9 Penn State 196.000 10 Oregon State 195.675

The men’s rankings are less meaningful, many of the top guys focused on Winter Cup.

Sandra Izbasa is more essential than ever if Romania hopes to challenge for Team podium in London.

Right now I’d rank Romania something like 10th in the world on Bars. And I don’t see wonderful Juniors coming up to improve that apparatus.

Fangymnastics translated an excellent interview:

– So, when did you go back to full capacity training?

– In December I started to follow the normal program again.

– Anything new in your routines? Where are you with the difficulty?

– Everything is new. Adding difficulty and working on the execution is normal if we want to do well in the next competitions. I won´t tell anything else because we want this to be a surprise.

– Have you started training bars as well? Do you see yourself in the all-around?

– My palms hurt, I just moisturize at night and I start again the next day. For the all-around, it all depends on how they will want to approach this.

– How´s beam going?

– I´m training to help the team. I am fighting for every apparatus.

– Why couldn´t Ana Porgras fight through it for 6 more months?

– I don´t know if I should comment on this subject. What I do know is that everyone tried to talk her into staying, we all did.

read the entire interview – Izbasa, looking forward to London: “I cannot wait!” @ GSP

Despite the awful economy, many Gymnastics clubs in Ireland have waiting lists. And they are anticipating an Olympic bump in membership.

Newly announced Olympian Kieran Behan is generating a lot of publicity.

Renmore, Galway

Links and photos from my visits last week on RecGymnastics.com.

The inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are ended.

Like the first Summer YOG, they’ve been called a great success. Here’s the IOC wrap-up post:

… The athletes helped to make Olympic history by participating in a number of events that appeared for the first time on an Olympic programme in Innsbruck ahead of their inclusion in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. These included women’s ski jumping, ski halfpipe and snowboard slopestyle. The Games also featured innovative new formats such as the mixed country doubles competition in curling; the mixed sport event cross-country/biathlon; mixed gender luge and ice hockey skills challenge. …

Another hit at the Games was the innovative, interactive USB key known as the Yogger, which was given to every athlete and official. In addition to providing the athletes with essential information in a paperless format, the Yogger acted as a virtual business card, allowing users to share information such as names and email addresses simply by touching their keys together. Swiping the keys against the various CEP booths allowed the athletes to collect electronic material about the activities. …

The next edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games will be held in Lillehammer, Norway, while the second Summer Youth Olympic Games will take place in Nanjing, China in 2014.

IOC – Innsbruck 2012, the First Ever Winter Youth Olympic Games Exceed Expectations

Innsbruck, Austria – January 12, 2012: Free Style Skiing athlete Beau-James Wells (NZL) at his training session in Kuhtai, Austria, Jan 12, 2012.

Photo by Xu Liang/Xinhua/IOC

related – Rogge Warns Not to Make YOG Too Costly