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Who will be USA Champion 2011?

Jordyn Wieber?

2000 Elise Ray Hill’s Gymnastics 18
2001 Tasha Schwikert GymCats 16
2002 Tasha Schwikert GymCats 17
2003 Courtney Kupets Hill’s Gymnastics 16
2004 Courtney Kupets Hill’s Gymnastics 17
2004 Carly Patterson WOGA 16
2005 Nastia Liukin WOGA 15
2006 Nastia Liukin WOGA 16
2007 Shawn Johnson Chow’s 15
2008 Shawn Johnson Chow’s 16
2009 Bridget Sloan Sharp’s 17
2010 Rebecca Bross WOGA 17

Full Twist has the full list of past champions

On the Men’s side, Matthew Rusk again is posting a detailed preview:

Competition for the AA title has grown into an unexpectedly hot race this year. Few could have conceived Jonathan Horton not making a “three-peat” when he became the first man since Paul Hamm to win a World Championship AA medal back in October. Despite a thumb injury, he would be triumphant once again at the American Cup in Jacksonville, where he took home his third American Cup trophy.

Yet two back-to-back competitions—the Glasgow World Cup and the Japan Cup—have been disastrous for the Olympic silver medalist and call into question his preparation for these Championships.

Much was made of Horton’s rivalry at last year’s Nationals with Danell Leyva, but Leyva, who finished over two points behind Horton, wasn’t at the level to challenge the reigning Champion. This year he is, actually to the point of perhaps being considered the favorite. Vast improvements on floor and vault, decent pommels, commendable parallel bars, and storied high bar work make the 19-year-old Leyva every bit a challenger to even a peaked Horton.

Yet, August 19th could come and go and neither man would be the winner: both athletes could be upstaged by an even younger upstart. John Orozco …

read more on Stick It Media – Preview of 2011 VISA U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Championships – Part 1

I’m not sure why, but I’ve got a feeling Jon will fend off the many rivals, and win yet again.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Certainly if Horton hits (including Pommels 13.50), he wins.

Brigid has an excellent update on super talented Aasha Kimpton from the U.K., who just might be the whole package: flexible, artistic and powerful.

… She has mastered a “sparkwheel” on beam, which is a Gainer aerial cartwheel, a move that has not yet been competed in Britain and had to to be valued by British Gymnastics, where it was rated a ‘D’ skill. …

Click PLAY or watch her Beam training on YouTube. (“sparkwheel” at 1min 10sec)

… I’m not sure I’d call that a ‘gainer’, but rather an aerial cartwheel with an unusual and interesting start position. Still a D-part. I like it.

Check out her Floor routine too linked from Couch Gymnast – Meet Aasha Kimpton

Some very nice sections of choreography for a young gymnast.

Why kids should be doing trampoline at your gym …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Denis Vachon for linking to this on Facebook.

» USA VISA Championships Aug 17-21 schedule | home page | Gymnastics Examiner LIVE

US Champion turned coach Kim Zmeskal-Burdette will be coaching a large team of 7 gymnasts at this month’s Visa National Championships.

The 7 members of the Dream Team to compete in Saint Paul are: Kennedy Baker, Kiana Winston, Peyton Ernst, Nica Hults, Dare Maxwell, Bailie Key, and Macy Toronjo. Zmeskal talks about each of the 7 qualifiers and their expectations for Championships.

In total, Texas Dreams qualified 8 athletes to the Visa Championships, but Chelsea Davis is off to start her collegiate career at the University of Georgia.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NzQ0NTAzMDc2?related=1

Watch more video of Visa Championships 2011 on gymnastike.org

The psychology of free climbing is something for all coaches to consider. It’s the ultimate.

Catherine Destivelle (born 24 July 1960) is an Algeria-born French rock climber and mountaineer. In 1992 she became the first woman to complete a solo ascent of the Eiger’s north face. …

Destivelle has been the subject of several documentaries, including French director Rémy Tezier’s, Beyond the Summits (Au-delà des cimes), which won the award for best feature-length mountain film at the 2009 Banff Mountain Film Festival …

She was age-28 (1987) when she free-climbed an overhanging sandstone cliff in Mali.

Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube. (9m 30s)

Sport climbing just might become an Olympic event.

The sports (being considered) are: baseball, karate, roller sports, softball, sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu, one of which could be added to the 2020 sports programme to be voted on by the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires in 2013.

… Catherine eventually slowed down, after one 20m+ fall and becoming a Mom.

A site called Online College Courses posted a provocative overview of the American legislation. Likely you won’t agree with all of these summary points:

Many schools still don’t abide by the Title IX law

No school has ever lost federal funding for violating Title IX

Women are not inherently less interested in playing sports than men

For every new dollar going into college athletics at the Division I and II levels of college athletics, male sports receive 65 cents. Female sports receive 35 cents

Title IX hasn’t radically changed how college athletic programs are managed

Title IX doesn’t only apply to athletics or females

Title IX doesn’t force schools to cut men’s athletic programs

There are fewer female coaches today than there were in 1972

The majority of Americans support Title IX

read more – 9 Title IX Facts Every Athlete Should Know

… I have mixed feelings about Title IX myself. The intent of reducing discrimination (by discriminating) was noble, but I agree it’s not worked particularly well.

On the other hand, what would NCAA sport look like right now if Title IX had not been brought into law?

Better? Worse? … or somewhat the same?

What women’s collegiate sport needs is not more legal protection, but more great builders like Greg Marsden at Utah. His team had had the highest average attendance of any NCAA woman’s sport last year (13,503) and the third highest WAG team GPA in the country. No credit to Title IX.

He’s developed a product that fans want. … And he knows what his athletes want.

Jenn Isbister posted an excellent catch-up interview with one of my favourite gymnasts of all time.

Yvonne is working for Cirque, loving life … and is engaged to be married (to a former French gymnast) May 2012.

I particularly enjoyed Yvonne’s reminiscences of choreographer Antonia Markova.

One of Canada’s most successful gymnasts, Yvonne Tousek was perhaps also its most creative. Known the world over by her avant garde floor routines, she qualified to the floor finals at the 1999 World Championships – one of a small group of Canadians to advance to an individual apparatus final at World or Olympic competition.

The two-time Olympian went on to a stellar NCAA career at UCLA, capturing three team titles and three individual titles at National Championships. Yvonne joined Cirque du Soleil shortly after graduating, and has traveled the world with the show. …

read more on Gymn.ca – Yvonne Tousek interview

Click PLAY or watch a montage on YouTube.

A thread on Chalk Bucket compares rates for different gyms.

$25 a half hour and up to $50 for an hour is fairly standard in the USA.

I’ve got mixed feelings about Privates myself.

They do work for the gymnast, I find. And coaches love them as supplementary income, … sometimes tax free. 🙂

A private with this coach might cost a little more.

(via Gymnast to Coach)

Up-and-coming New Zealand gymnast Brandon Field.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Love the old style accelerating giants and tucked position for the dismount. (I’m still suspicious that this Tong Fei technique for dismount is a fad :))

Brandon was their youngest team member on their Commonwealth and Worlds Teams in 2010. (INTERVIEW)

Watch more of Brandon’s training or subscribe to SFieldBrandon’s YouTube Channel.