Gymnastics Coaching.com

Couch Gymnast Awards: Part 1

After a lengthy survey mostly on Facebook, Brigid has posted the first round of winners and runners up. No big controversies here:

Junior of the Year: Viktoriya Komova

Rookie of the Year: Alexandra Raisman

Older Gymnast of the Year: Alicia Sacramone

Reserve of the Year: Chelsea Davis

Coach of the Year: Alexander Alexandrov

Most Improved Gymnast of the Year: Lauren Mitchell

Most Improved National Team: Russia

International Gymnast - Alexandrov and Mustifina

click through for details – The Couch Gymnast Awards: Part 1

Florida, Stanford, UCLA

It was a rough opening weekend for women’s Collegiate gymnastics overall, I thought.

The top team scores so far:

196.925 – Florida
196.625 – Stanford (report)
195.925 – UCLA

Since UCLA had 2 meets this weekend, the GymInfo ranking by average score looks like this:

Florida
Stanford
Utah and Michigan
UCLA
Georgia
Oklahoma
Oregon State
Alabama
Arkansas

see the Top 25

Don’t get too excited for Florida. They have a history of starting with a bang, and peaking too soon. I’m hoping they’ve learned that lesson and will use a smarter strategy this season.

You should get excited about Stanford. That team is a real contender this season to win it all.

Li Ning hurting

One of the greatest gymnasts of all time, Li Ning, was literally on top of the world when he ran through the air to light the Olympic torch in Beijing.

But since that day in 2008, his company has been troubled.

In 2009 Anta Sports replaced Li Ning Co. and Adidas to became the official partner for sportswear for the Chinese Olympics Committee and the Chinese Sports Delegations.

Now this …

… Li’s company had announced on Dec. 17 its product order information for the second season of 2011. Orders for clothes and shoes dropped 7 percent and 8 percent respectively. On Dec. 20, the first trading day after the announcement, the company’s stock price dropped 15.86 percent, the largest plunge in a single day since the company went public in 2004. …

Businesses lose hundreds of millions of dollars in value

China’s ‘Prince of Gymnastics’ Takes Tumble After Beijing Olympics

They’ve denied shutting down 600 outlets, a rumoured panic reaction.

Here’s the strategy in bringing the brand to America to compete head on with Nike and Adidas:

With Li-Ning, a big part of the allure is the performance heritage and the Chinese cultural component. From Li Ning’s epic performances to the glory of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Li-Ning has been the flagship Chinese sports brand. We believe today’s young US consumer thinks more globally than any generation that came before, and – as opposed to assuming US athletes are not interested in the brand’s backstory – we prefer to embrace the “Chineseness” of Li-Ning as a breakthrough selling point.

I dunno. There’s plenty of anti-Chinese sentiment in the USA.

Seems to me that TV commercials like this are not going to work. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via China Smack)

I like Li Ning and the Li Ning brand. But it looks like they will need to downsize drastically to return to profitability.

NEW senior gymnasts 2011

Between The Olympics posted a terrific list of girls with potential to be big names over the coming 2yrs of this Olympic cycle

Viktoria Komova
Jordyn Wieber
Tan Sixin
Gabrielle Douglas
Diana Bulimar
Natsumi Sasada
Carlotta Ferlito
Ana Sofia Gomez Porras
McKayla Maroney
McKenzie Wofford
Yoshino Taniguchi
Asuka Teramoto
Yao Jinnan
Maria Livchikova
Yulia Belokobilskaya
Maria Paseka
Madalina Neagu
Laura Mitchell
Tess Moonen
Mikaela Gerber
Madeline Gardiner
Angela Donald

click through for details, photos and links to videos – New Seniors For 2011

gymnasts with BAD feet

We have a lot of them.

Couch Gymnast argues that “sickle foot” might even be worse than “flexed feet”.

… Not often.

The top image is flexed. The bottom “sickled” (extended but with toes curled inward).

Those photos come from DanceClass.com.

I’ve even asked kids to deliberately sickle foot. For example, when trying to correct flexed feet on giants swinging past the low bar. Some girls find it less scary. And sickle foot looks not nearly as bad.

In the old days, Russian male gymnasts did pancake splits with feet sickled. I always liked that style, asking my boys to emulate it.

Comments?

Katrina sends a better photo example of flexed feet (and “dish” knee).

related – Dance Nerds – Learn More About Winging and Sickling

choreographer Toby Towson

Pat Warren posted this pic. It brings back memories.

Queen City Gymnastics – Toby Towson and Jamie Kelsch

Late 1980s.

hand to hand acrobatics

Nathan Price posted some training video of hand to hand training, progressions and spotting.

They use spotting belts at the circus space in London in some interesting ways.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

apply to coach Summer Gym camp

It’s already time to think about summer camps in North America.

Woodward West in California, for example, takes applications online.

The pay is low at most of the big camps, be warned. But the benefits of working in that kind of environment, rich.

If you want to know more, click through to an interview with Woodward West Gymnastics Director Andy Timm from 2009.

Woodward has 3 camps for Artistic Gymnasts:

• Woodward West (California)
• Camp Woodward (Pennsylvania)
• Woodward Lake Owen (Wisconsin)

Another terrific option is International Gymnastics Camp in Pennsylvania.

Canada Winter Games Teams

Gymnastics Saskatchewan hosted 3 of the 4 Men’s Teams from Western Canada this weekend in Regina. Full results of that meet (PDF) on Gym Score Depot.

Kal Nemier from B.C. won the all-around.