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The talk of the gymnastics-o- sphere …

The only gymnast ever, I believe, to compete two different 7.2 difficulty vaults. (VIDEO)

Gymnastics Examiner:

The story of the Moscow World Stars meet qualification round: North Korean Ri Se Gwang, a supervaulter who landed a full-twisting Tsukahara double back easier than many land the same vault without the full twist.

Ri’s easy landing on his signature vault, combined with a very nice piked Dragulescu (double front with a half twist) launched him into first place that event, …

Ri first showed the full-twisting Tsuk double last summer at the World University Games, where he landed it on his hands during open training. At the time, some questioned the wisdom of throwing such a complicated vault.

He opted not to perform the vault during event finals at the World Championships after faceplanting the piked Dragulescu on his first attempt.

Ri is also leading the meet on rings, …

read more – Russians, North Koreans in charge at Moscow World Stars

Unfortunately he fell on the full-twisting Tsukahara double tuck in Finals, finishing 3rd.

Full Twist linked to a charming family blog post from a gym Mom:

Caleb has had quite a year of gymnastics, starting his training in New Jersey, taking a month off when we moved overseas, and then getting acclimated to the way they do things in England as well as having a new gym, coach, and team. He’s been a trooper and has stuck with it, even through the emotional times. He’s putting in almost 20 hours a week at the gym and he still loves it. …

You would think gymnastics is gymnastics, but we were surprised to find it’s not so. When we moved to London, Caleb found out there are different names for all the ‘tricks’ he’s learned: back handspring=’flick’, back tuck = ‘tuck back’, front tuck = ‘front tummy’, lay-out = straight-back, straight-front. Also, one of the events isn’t high bar, but ‘loops’ where they wear gloves and ‘loops’ on the high bar. They also have an extra event called ‘PPP’ – Physical Preparation Programme. …

read the rest – Caleb’s 1st British Gymnastics Experience

(via Full Twist)

A Volkswagen experiment.

Swedish designers have made climbing the stairs fun again.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Geoffrey Taucer … who composes original Floor music.

From the excellent Stick It Media site:

Next year, the 2011 Men’s JO Nationals are going to be held in Long Beach, CA. This is a great thing, since JOs haven’t been held west of Oklahoma City since 2004. California is a hotbed for men’s gymnastics, and the fact that Region 1 won five individual event titles, an AA title, a regional team title, and a club team title last weekend in Knoxville proves it outright.

The 2011 JO Nationals represent a great opportunity to generate some more much-needed interest in the sport of men’s gymnastics. ESPN and Fox Sports regularly broadcast high school sporting events like football, basketball, and baseball. Many of you remember the good old days of ABC’s Wide World of Sports and recall the myriad of relatively obscure sporting events they would cover, many involving young athletes. One of those events was the Little League World Series. Now ESPN is broadcasting the Little League regional championship games. It’s a big hit. Why? Because baseball is America’s national pastime and it’s fun to watch 10, 11 and 12-year-olds play their hearts out for an opportunity to earn a week long trip to Williamsport, PA to compete against the best little league teams in the world.

Why not produce a broadcast of JO Nationals? …

read the entire post – Open Letter to the Men’s Gymnastics Community

Seems video, TV and online, is the key to growing popularity.

photo – Sam Mikulak on Gymnastics Examiner

From the qualification round at Moscow World Cup 2010.

He makes two of the most difficult vaults ever seen look easy.

Watch Vault #1 on YouTube.

Watch Vault #2 on YouTube.

Ri Se Gwan is the North Korean gymnast who won a bronze medal on vault at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

What a shame.

He does have time to recover for Olympics 2012.

… likely be out of commission for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL in training, British Gymnastics announced in a press release Thursday evening. The British did not specify what he was doing when the injury occured. …

Gymnastics Examiner

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

(via World Gymnastics)

This post for Canadian coaches only.

Reminder. Last chance to register for NCCP Level 3 Technical or Practical, hosted by Calgary Gymnastics Centre, June 6th – 12th. Clinicians include Kyle Shewfelt, Valerie Oudin-Arsenault and Rick McCharles.

Email gpeake AT abgym.ab.ca

Carol must be 50yrs-old.

Seems impossible to me. Just a few years ago we were kids training together at Altadore Gymnastics Club in Calgary.

That’s the cover of the 1982 book, Carol Johnston: The One-Armed Gymnast.

Like many girls from my club, Carol went on to compete for Cal State Fullerton. She spoke to the team in 2009.

… Born without a right arm below the elbow, Johnston competed four seasons with the Titans from 1977-80 under Head Coach Lynn Rogers and was a two-time All-American on beam and floor exercise in 1978. She was also a conference champion on the balance beam in 1977. She was the subject of a 1980 Disney film for television production called “Lefty,” …

Lefty was some sort of College nickname. Back home she is only called Carol.

Here’s her movie. Inspiring, but heartbreaking. Thanks “Gymnastics Meets”.

Click PLAY or watch Lefty (part 1) on YouTube.

• Lefty (part 2)
• Lefty (part 3)
• Lefty (part 4)
• Lefty (part 5)

related – Whatever Happened to … Carol Johnston

I’ve always spent more time conditioning “form” (feet together, feet stretched, knees tight, legs tight) than most other coaches I’ve worked with. (I learned some great drills from Andre Vallerand.)

My thinking is that I can more easily improve execution score than up difficulty. It’s a strategy.

One example is this kind of conditioning is a drill demonstrated by Mizo

Click PLAY or watch it on Tom’s GymSmart Community blog.

More posts tagged “Mizoguchi”.

Don Eckert noted that Cammi Muhr had a new skill named after her in the USA J.O. code.

Click PLAY or watch the “Muhr” on YouTube.

Smart.

What’s the difficulty value?

She’s from KidzPlex in western Colorado.

related article – Muhr’s moment: KidzPlex gymnast hoping to have dismount named the ‘Muhr’