Watanabe – Preparation for Competition

In North America many of the best gymnasts are trying to ‘peak’ for the BIG meet. Here’s some advice on how to do that.

Mas Watanabe:

… Our level 9 & 10 gymnasts generally have 2 … routines, especially in the beginning of the season. One is a core routine and the other one is the future routine.

The core routine should be the routine, hopefully, with all the requirements for the level and be able to hit it with ease. The future routine should have skills or a sequence in it that she is still working to make or trying to improve on the consistency of it. …

When they compete, how they warm up in the competition is very critical. When a gymnast is competing a Yurchenko full for example, we try to make her warm up in 5 turns. We ask her to do the 1st turn: timer, 2nd & 3rd turns: layout, and 4th & 5th turns: full.

We try to warm up on bars in 3 to 5 turns. Generally we will allow 5 turns in the beginning of the season but make sure to do 1 complete routine within the warm up turns. Hopefully the routine attempt should not be the last turn in case they make a mistake in the routine. If the routine was attempted in the 4th turn, there is still a correction turn available within the time limit.

For Beam and Floor click over to GymSMARTS – Preparation for Competition

Edited by Dan Connelly

Follow Mas on his blog and check out his DVDS.

tumbler Jozef Wadecki goes viral

This clip of Jozef from Poland has exploded online.

He got a lot of attention on Yahoo Sports yesterday, for example.

Click PLAY or watch Jozef on YouTube.

Great exposure for Acrobatic tumbling.

Many posts confused him with Leszek Blanik, the first Polish Artistic Olympic Champion.

Thanks for the link dastrapp.

World Championships 2011 Moscow?

With an escalation in the Japanese Nuclear crisis, I fully expect FIG to move the World Championships, almost certainly to Moscow, .

Perhaps the world will rally around Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Olympics, instead.

Russia successfully hosted the 2010 Rhythmic Worlds. And would love to host Artistic, too.

Russia’s literally throwing money at sport right now – $1.44 billion if Russia wins the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Dagestan, for example.

What can we look forward to IN MOSCOW and at the Olympics?

Blythe on Gymnastics Examiner from Europeans:

… Perhaps no team can benefit more from three up, three down on each event than the German men. They have not had the depth in the past, but with Fabian Hambuechen and Matthias Fahrig back in the mix, they will be very, very dangerous in London.

Skill of the meet: Nguyen’s wonderful full twisting double back off (parallel bars). So hard, so rare, and so well done. …

Souvenirs of Berlin…

I love the 3 up, 3 count sudden victory Team Final. There’s a delicious uncertainty, more drama, when one balked Vault could drop your team to last place.

It helps a team like Germany (with less depth) challenge a team like the USA for a Team medal. Russia, too, could HIT 3 up, 3 count.

The rules change for World’s 2011, Olympics too.

With one fewer gymnast on the “team”, no longer can most afford to carry an athlete who has a chance to medal on just one apparatus. Hungary’s Krisztian Berki, the World #1 on Pommel, is now competing Vault, as one example.

AJ clarifies:

Teams will still be six gymnasts at Worlds this year – it’s five only for the Olympics.

You’re right that the five-member teams will have to be structured differently and a lot of teams won’t be able to afford a one-event specialist.

… in Berki’s case, my guess is he’s doing vault (and high bar) because of qualifying rules for individual event medalists: all medalists whose teams do not qualify to London will qualify, but have to have competed at least two other events (one more for WAG) with a score on the best two additional events that is 85% of the average of all scores on that event.

hmm …

It will be interesting to see the strategy taken by each nation.

Bart Deurloo – Kovacs Cassina

Wow. Bart Deurloo of Netherlands gets amazing swing out of his Kovacs.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thank WS van Wijk for the link.

camping at the London Olympics

If you can’t afford accommodation for the 2012 Olympics, bring a tent.

Athletics Olympic Champion Sally Gunnell will rent you a campsite, cheap.

The Caravan Club Chigwell Temporary Site will cater for around 1,300 outfits per night throughout the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, from 25 July 2012 to 11 September 2012.

You’ll have a port-a-loo. And it’s only 15min to the Tube from your trailer. 🙂

Telegraph – London 2012 Olympics: Sally Gunnell to host thousands of Olympics fans on her family farm

Thanks Tom Trapp, USA Diving Coach, for the tip.

Danell Leyva – Cassina – H Bar

His Dad posted this clip from training today on Facebook. … From last year.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Nice. … Now he’ll need to connect it to Kolman to keep up with Epke who showed the combo at Europeans. This apparatus is getting crazy fast.

should coaches weigh gymnasts?

This was common practice, back in the bad old days. Growing girls lined up, the coach with a clip board.

Back in the 1970s I recall boys at the gym getting a hold of the weight records binder, teasing the girls. … I was one of those boys.

But in 2011 it’s not recommended to weigh female gymnasts. A coach should keep tabs on the growth & weight of each athlete, but it should be done in a positive manner. Confidentially.

Talk about food as fuel.

Female gymnasts are often heavier than they look. Dense bones and a low fat/muscle ratio makes for a deceptive weight.

There’s a thread on this topic on Chalk Bucket.

Weigh in in the comments, if you have an opinion.

Men’s Gymnastics Training

Talking to Nick Blanton about his Professional Coaching Diploma program at International Gymnastics Camp reminded me I had not linked to any of his videos in some time.

Here’s the newest edit.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Check more videos on the amelieblanton YouTube channel.