Gymnastics Coaching.com

Often the official sources of news at major gymnastics events SUCK. They are slooowwww to post, boring, sanitized. … You know what I mean.

But in Rotterdam, as a gymnastics news aggregator, I find myself linking to FIG and USAG just as often as blogs and specialized sites. 

International Gymnast magazine is doing a great job on Facebook, already. (Inside Gymnastics has yet to much get started.)

Grace Chiu just arrived on a red-eye from Rhythmic Commonwealth Games Championships. She’s my favourite gymnastics photographer though they’ll be hundreds more here by tomorrow. We’ll be swamped with pics.

… Still, Gymnastics Examiner and Couch Gymnast have been my best sources at Worlds, so far. Gymnastike for video. … But old media is closing the gap. They’ve finally figured out that readers want real time, interesting news.

Most surprising is the International Gymnastics Federation. As a politically driven natural monopoly, I would have predicted they would be the very worst source of useful information. But check out their news feed. It is truly excellent.

Kudos to Meike Behrensen, Philippe Silacci and their media team. The FIG is an easy punching bag. But it’s stand up to acknowledge, too, when they are doing things right.

So far Twitter has been near useless for Worlds. I’ve been using the hashtag #gymnastics2010. Not much happening there. USAG will use #2010wc and #USA2010wc once the competition starts. Hopefully one of those will catch on.

What should have happened is that meet organizers would announce the hash tag. But the guy updating the official Worlds website has yet to show up at the venue. I was optimistic about gymnastics2010.com at first, but it’s been a disappointment so far, even though they have Brigid contributing.

Leave a comment if I’ve missed mentioning one of your favourite sites. Some of the National Federations have some super keen contributors here. I’ve probably not even seen their posts.

Kent Koven, USAG Director of New Media, put together another great podium highlights reel, this time the American Men.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

They also posted another great interview with Jon Horton:

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

… “Everyone tells me not only that I act differently, my gymnastics are different — I’m a more confident guy when I’m out there,” adding a moment later, “Maybe it’s just being married and having more responsibility and being away from the college scene where you act like an idiot every single day of your life.

“I am much more focused now. All I have to do is focus on one thing. That’s gymnastics. I don’t have a job. I don’t go to school. I wake up, I go to gymnastics, I go to sleep. That’s it.”

Asked about Horton, Kevin Mazeika, the U.S. men’s national team coordinator, said in a phone interview, “He has moved into the leadership role and taken it on quite well. I think coming from 2008 — these past two years, his life has changed a lot. …

read more – Horton leads the way

I’ve always like Jon Horton. Who wouldn’t?

But I’ve never had faith he can HIT when he needs to. Until now.

Note: Ono No Komachi reminds us that the score I linked for Jon earlier today (91.3) is inflated by the USA bonus system. I never intended that people compare those scores. There are at least a dozen guys who could win this meet.

But I wouldn’t count on Jon falling on Pommels, this time.

Cirque du Soleil casting is here at the World Gymnastics Championships. (Conveniently the new show TOTEM is playing in nearby Amsterdam.)

Online, I see all the acrobatic jobs available. And I’ve never seen one like this:

High-level swinging rings specialist;
Good teamwork skills;
Very good physical fitness, ability to perform five shows a week;
No fear of heights;
Some dancing skills a plus;
Some parkour skills a plus.

details

I was going to recommend Frank Snay, of Navy, .. the winner in the last American Collegiate Flying Rings competition. … But that was 1961. Frank has probably hung up his ring grips, by now.

What about one of the veterans from Muscle Beach, California?

Or auditioning one of the Travelling Rings specialists?

With the injury to Chelsea Davis, here’s the plan for prelims.

Tentative USA WAG line-up:

Vault – Bross, Larson, Caquatto, Raisman and Sacramone

Uneven bars – Raisman, Larson, Sloan, Caquatto and Bross

Balance beam – Caquatto, Larson, Raisman, Sacramone and Bross

Floor exercise – Caquatto, Sloan, Bross, Raisman and Larson.

So Caquatto, Bross, Larson and Raisman will compete all-around, with Sacramone pitching in on vault and beam. And Sloan will not do beam or vault, which ends her chances to defend her World title…

Leslie King of USAG gave us this information via Gymnastics Examiner’s LIVE blog.

Four all-arounders.

Wow. It’s already up on USAG – women’s line-up for 2010 World Championships

Not a post title you expected to read here.

Blythe Lawrence:

U.S. women on bars. In a word, awesome. The standout routine to me was Chelsea Davis’s. She stuck her full twisting double back both times I saw it. She’s peaking, right here, right now. Her Tkatchev should be on the list of great Tkatchevs that get bantered about from time to time on message boards. She could make event finals on bars, given everything else we’ve seen here.

But the whole U.S. team looked great on bars. There were a few little tiny things, but mostly overbalanced handstands here and there. Forget podium training — on this event at least, they’re very settled. …

more jots from today’s training gyms and podium on Gymnastics Examiner

Click PLAY or watch some U.S. Bars training on Gymnastike.

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

Not surprisingly, the American girls are getting it together and HITTING routines.

Their selection process may be more rigourous than China and Russia in 2010. The U.S. system rewards girls who are tough and durable, if not necessarily beautiful.

That works under this code.

UPDATE: Brigid tells me that Chelsea had a bad fall on Floor. It looked serious. … But happily she’s back on her feet. Hopefully just a scare.

Note: Young Russian David Belyavskiy apparently showed double full-in, pike-out on Floor. We haven’t seen that nutty skill for a long, long time.

IF the defending World Champion Kohei Uchimura does not compete all-around due to shoulder injury, who will win?

Andrew Thornton speculates on an American Gymnast post: 2010 Mens World All-Around Title Wide Open:

JPN – Koji Yamamuro (91.1), Koji Uematsu (90.15), Kazuhito Tanaka (90.7)

China – Teng Haibin (90.95), Lu Bo, Chen Yibing, Feng Zhe, Zhang Chenglong

USA – Jonathan Horton (91.3), Danell Leyva, Chris Brooks

Russia – Maxim Devyatovsky (90.6), Sergei Khorokhordin, Daivd Belyavsky

Germany – Phillip Boy (91.05)

Korea – Kim Soo Myun (89.85)

Romania – Flavius Koczi (90.1)

Who is he forgetting?

Canada – Nathan Gafuik, …

The winner will be someone who competes the all-around in the qualifying round. Not all those listed above will do so. The TEAM score is higher priority than AA for most nations.

I’ve got a good feeling about Jon Horton. … But the winner will have to hit 6 for 6 in the AA Final.

It really is WIDE OPEN. … Don’t be surprised if Uchimura ends up competing, though. He’s so talented he might just win without training.

The best Women’s Artistic meet in Canada (my opinion) has had to change the dates of their competition. Update your calendar if you are planning to attend. Edmonton, Alberta.

WildRoseGymnastics.com

Strength guru Chris Sommer from Arizona is bringing it to Europe.

His excellent strength seminars are offered Nov. 19-21st in Mallorca, a Mediterranean island paradise.

Details and costs on GymnasticBodies. While you’re there check the blog for a video profile on Jon Horton.

#gymnastics2010

World Championships team, Rotterdam.

Jayd Lukenchuk
Casey Sandy
Ken Ikeda
Nathan Gafuik
Jackson Payne
Hugh Smith

Kevin Lytwyn missing in this photo.

The new look Canadians have a great balance of youth and experience. Podium training went quite well yesterday, the highlight for me being Hugh’s stuck vault.

Check the FIG team profile – Introducing Canada’s Men’s squad

#gymnastics2010

Blythe got an excellent interview with Jon Horton and Chris Brooks after podium training:

Some prime quotes from Horton:

“In terms of gymnastics, everyone’s training well,” he said. As to some of the rougher moments of tonight’s session, “it’s exactly why we do podium,” Horton noted. “I think we did everything we needed to do to be prepared.”

… Thanks to his nutritionist, Horton’s body fat has dropped from 8.3 to 4.8 percent. His diet consists of egg whites, protein, steak, chicken and rice. “I’ll eat nothing but stuff that is clean food for my body,” he said. “I feel like a feather.”

But before every meet, he eats a steak. …

See the full interview and much more on Gymnastics Examiner.

read the official USAG press release with interviews