Andy Thornton on USA not sending any WAG to the Olympic Test Event:
… The Russian women’s delegation has summoned two “Anastasias” to this competition for these very reasons. First-year senior Olympic hopefuls Anastasia Grishina and Anastasia Sidorova are both expected to challenge for spots on this summer’s Russian Olympic team, but both will do so without any world championship experience because they just became eligible for senior competition on January 1st. The solution? Throw them into January’s Olympic Test Event in the very city in which the Olympic Games will be held, on a podium, alongside numerous Olympic-caliber gymnasts fighting for Olympic berths, and in front of international judges – and see how they handle it. Worse case scenario: they flounder a bit but gain tremendous experience. Best case scenario: they win medals at the competition and boost their reputations and confidence prior to the Olympic season. …
… I was quite surprised to see Marta not take advantage of this huge opportunity for gymnasts like Kyla Ross and Sarah Finnegan. Ross in particular is fully capable of representing the USA in London this summer and will no doubt be right in the Olympic mix. There’s no question, though, that her lack of experience and the risk that comes with throwing a first year senior into the Olympic Games will become a part of the discussion. …
Marta normally wants assurance that new National Team members will “score well” with international judges.
I couldn’t agree more. It was a big mistake for USA to opt out of the meet this time around.
After 19 years, The U.S. Department of Agriculture threw away its ubiquitous—and perplexing—food pyramid. In its place, the department unveiled MyPlate, a colorful diagram that the department hopes with show Americans how to apportion their meals with enough fruits and vegetables.
The plate’s design evolved as part of Michelle Obama’s campaign against obesity. A few nutritionists applauded its emphasize on fruits and vegetables, but the $2 million revamp still met its fair share of resistance. …
Watch this director’s cut of the NBC Sports Network Warm Up spots – NHL, Cycling, Olympics, and more – just for you, our loyal sports viewers. Hope you enjoy.
Versus is a sports-oriented cable television channel in the United States. … Versus will be re-launched as the NBC Sports Network on January 2, 2012. …
In a related story, many U.S. viewers will be losing TV access to Universal Sports. Hopefully they’ll still be able to get it online.
Gymnastics Coaching is an aggregator . We try to link to the best of the best published online in English. The most interesting ideas, photos and videos.
Artistic Gymnastics – best of 2011 categories:
INDEPENDENT SITES (blogs, coaches, etc.)
OFFICIAL SITES (magazines, organizations, FIG, NOCs, etc.)
PHOTO & VIDEO SITES
Artistic Gymnastics, especially WAG, dominates the Gymternet over all other acrobatic disciplines. That’s OK since we want every child to start with Artistic & Trampoline before specializing. 🙂
Artistic Gymnastics is the Foundation.
_____ INDEPENDENT SITES:
The very best have not changed much since a year ago:
Those sites post prolifically. Each is quite unique. Please subscribe, follow and/or like those as well as others listed here that don’t post quite so often. (A much longer list of sites we follow is listed in the right hand navigation of every page on this site.)
The excellent Gymnastics Minute videos were Tony’s idea, originally. Sadly we’ve seen few new videos from publisher GymSmarts, long the #1 production house for coaching videos.
• Jennifer Isbister’s Gymn.ca (Canada) … perhaps the original dedicated National site
Recent Couch Gymnast graphic
_____ OFFICIAL SITES:
I link a lot to IG. Dwight Normile, Amanda Turner, John Crumlish & team – International Gymnast magazine online News | Facebook | @intlgymnast
Last year and again this year I was astonished at the quality of communications out of USA Gymnastics and FIG. Those organizations have media people equal the best bloggers. In the past information from both was whitewashed — no bad news. But both have gotten increasingly open, over time.
I’ve long criticized Inside Gymnastics magazine. But the IG2 posts were better this year, I thought. Especially during LIVE events. And especially on Facebook.
Universal SportsTumble Mumble is an interesting kind of page. Interspersed between news articles from Reuters and AP are blog posts from Blythe Lawrence, Andy Thornton and others.
The best thing that ever happened for gymnastics coaches is YouTube. Thank Google for buying that company and letting us share with the world for free. In 2011 I still link to YouTube over Vimeo and others as YouTube streams quickest over a weak WiFi signal.
Some of my favourites this past year:
• American Gymnast Gymnastics on Demand videos on the JoeLangley YouTube channel (1150+ coaching tutorials)
Inside Gymnastics has the photographer I link to most. That’s the terrific Grace Chiu. She uses Facebook perfectly, posting a few of her best shots in order to promote sales from GraceClick.ca.
There are a number of equally wonderful photographers around the world. But many are over-protective. Almost nobody sees their work. Foremost of those is the great Eileen Langsley.
Did I MISS one of your favourite sites? … or links to their content?
… Leave a comment and I’ll update this list in a week or so. I could name many more.
Ben Breedlove was an Austin teenager who had a popular YouTube channel (“OurAdvice4You“) where he gave dating advice to viewers. He also had a life-threatening heart condition he fought every day growing up.
The brave 18-year-old lost his life on Christmas night from a heart attack. The week before, he recorded the below videos where he shared his feelings about death, after “cheating” it three times. …
One stunning fact: in several studies published in peer-reviewed journals of 150+ people, about 40% of participants in each study who could be reached at 6 months said they were still being successful with their resolutions.
The Bottom line: You CAN make change your life and plenty of people succeed in setting New Year’s Resolutions
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