Gymnastics Coaching.com

The February 2011 issue of Inside Gymnastics magazine, featuring Shawn Johnson on the cover, is in the mail to subscribers.

IG2

I’m impressed with Shawn’s commitment to training. While Nastia is still constantly on the road, Shawn’s been in the gym.

Chow cautions fans not get too excited:

… Though Shawn Johnson was added to the U.S. national team, the 2008 Olympic balance beam champion is still protecting the knee she injured during a ski trip in January 2010. Johnson recently had minor surgery to clean out her left knee, but the 19-year-old Iowan is still cautious about pushing too hard, according to her coach, Chow Liang.

“Shawn still has her challenges ahead of her,” Chow told IG. “And I think one of the bigger challenges is … her knee. At this point, we don’t have a clear picture of how much she handle yet.” …

IG

Getting your knee scoped is normally no big deal. But don’t expect to see her compete before August at earliest.

Eileen Langsley has been a sports photographer for 12 Olympics Games, a legend.

Amanda Turner quoting Eileen:

…She writes that she is disillusioned by the state of the profession, and that she was horrified by the unprofessional and even dangerous behavior of amateur photographers given credentials at the 2010 Worlds in Rotterdam.

“I even saw some of these happy snappers poking gymnasts in the back and asking them to turn round and pose for a picture – incredible…” Langsley writes. “…I was pushed and thumped in Rotterdam and I know of another colleague who was hit on the head.” …

IG – Lansgley Sounds Off on ‘Happy Snappers’

Eileen exaggerates regarding Rotterdam. It was hectic, but not dangerous. Almost everyone felt that to be the best World Championships ever for media.

Tokyo and London World Championships will need to be more closely policed, however. Those meets could be dangerous.

Her quote is from the latest magazine of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS):

… My comments come more from a sense of disillusionment and concern than anything else and are written more in sorrow than anger, though I realise that in some ways the profession is past the point of no return and it is not now possible to return to the standards and mores of what was a golden age – a time when it was a challenging and satisfying profession. Having worked at recent major and world class events in a variety of sports I find more and more that professionalism and the standards of skill, behaviour and respect that go along with it are rapidly diminishing. …

read more (PDF)

Search for Langsley on that document.

Eileen’s probably right. It’s time for her to retire.

There’s no going back to the era of only a few paid elite photographers getting access.

I’d love to link to one of Eileen’s photos and her website from this post. But I’m afraid she’d invoice me for using it.

related posts

• in praise of Eileen Langsley
• Eileen Langsley – Rotterdam Worlds
• Eileen Langsley Photography

I’ve been looking at gymnasts nominated in the latest Gymnastics Examiner Discussion – The most underrated female gymnast in the world?

So far the most underrated is a talent I’d never seen before, Amy Regan from Scotland.

She’s as powerful a tumbler in FIG competition as anyone aside from Ali Raisman, I reckon. (Perhaps Kytra Hunter (VIDEO) is stronger.)

Click PLAY or watch Amy’s Floor routine on YouTube.

Amy was not nominated on Gymnastics Examiner. She was recommended by Admiring Gymnasts From Afar:

… This girl is tailor-made for NCCA. …

My Reflections on last year: Part 3

I wonder if any College coaches have her on the radar.

… Kohei Uchimura, the reigning World Champion, won’t compete at the first all-around World Cup in Jacksonville next month!

Lu Bo (CHN) and Sergey Khorokhordin (RUS) won’t follow the invitation either.

Still on the list are Philipp Boy (GER), Jonathan Horton (USA), Mykola Kuksenkov (UKR), Daniel Purvis (GBR), Koji Uematsu (JPN) and the 9th placed Samuel Hunter (GBR) and 12th Kim Soo Myun (KOR) from Worlds 2010. …

GymNiceTic

One downside of pre-selecting competitors months in advance is that many will be unavailable due to injury and / or yearly training plan.

If enough stars cancel, the resulting bad press could be enough to derail the entire revamped World Cup system.

My favourite videos on Gymnastike are the Workout Wednesday series. Those are the most difficult for Anne to acquire and edit.

If you have good footage of training in your gym, consider contacting Gymnastike to see if they want to edit it into a Workout Wednesday. Great promotion for your club.

Here’s the first video for Gymnastike season #5. December 7th, 2010.

http://videoplayer.flocasts.org/player.swf

home page – University of Maryland.

By the way, University of Maryland is one of the 6 schools in the National College Acrobatics and Tumbling Association , the organization trying to take the word “Cheer” out of a sport similar to competitive cheerleading.

…The association’s executive director, John Blake, said the group has taken the athletic aspects of competitive cheer and put them into a different format. They have cut out anything to do with cheering.
Blake said the activity is more like “simultaneous, cooperative gymnastics” . …

People still don’t ‘get it’, unfortunately.

Albert from Barcelona posted the story:

Several former Spanish National Team members have united in a new project to promote the sport in Barcelona and its suburbs. To this date, Barcelona didn’t have a high level gym club, leaving a 2 milion people market orphan.

In a privileged location, just in front the Mediterranean sea, the new Club Gimnàstic La Mina – Gervasio Deferr is a new facility with all the infrastructure to start and develop gymnasts. It is located in the poorest suburbs of the metropolitan area of Barcelona, so it is also an opportunity to open gymnastics to a new demographic section of the population. …

… the club already has recruited two National Team members among their gymnasts: 2006 World finalist on floor Thais Escolar and 2010 World Team member Cristiana Mironescu, both coming back from injuries.

THE ALL AROUND – Spanish stars create a gym club

Good luck.

Deferr is “the most decorated Spanish gymnast in history with 3 Olympic medals (2 golds on vault in Sidney and Athens; and a silver on floor in Beijing 2008).”

LIKE their Facebook page.

Russia seems so strong now it’s already hard to remember that they finished out of the medals in 2008.

Russia 2008: Pick Up the Pieces

They had plenty of problems.

nastia2012:

… The members of the 2008 Russian Olympic Team were Anna Pavlova, Ksenia Semenova, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko, Ludmila Grebenova (Ezhova) and Svetlana Klyukina.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

GymNiceTic linked to this video pointing out that these kids dance better than Artistic gymnasts.

Maes, Ineke and Julie

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That was at Zeestern Trials 2011 in De Panne, Beligium Jan 16th.

The more I watch Acrobatic gymnastics, the more I like it. Super human physical ability, great control, lovely execution … and a far lower injury rate than Artistic.

As if Anne and her team didn’t already produce more gymnastics content than anyone else on the internet …, for the first time they are attempting LIVE streaming of the Stanford v Oregon State v UCLA meet at Chicago Style this Friday. (beginning at 7pm)

Good luck.

That same day the Canada Winter Games start in Halifax. Bell Aliant will deliver over 700 hours of LIVE coverage of all sports. No ‘schedule’ as yet to tell us when Gymnastics will be featured.

The Canadian National Gymnastics Championships 2011 do not have anyone doing LIVE video coverage this year (so far), though we did in 2010.

official home page of the Canadian National Championships

Difficult question.

On The Discussion:

In the midst of the comebacks, new seniors, astonishing 20-somethings and World champions, have we forgotten about someone?

Bloggers from around the world were asked who they thought was the most underrated female gymnast competing today. Everybody had a different opinion. Here’s what they had to say …

Continue reading on Examiner.com: The Discussion: The most underrated female gymnast in the world? – National Gymnastics | Examiner.com

Leave your comments on that post.