Tom Forster’s gym, Aerials Gymnastics in Colorado Springs, has these floor bars that Tom made, with octagonal wheels on the ends- 4 sides longer than the other 4.
A common drill for swinging is to have gymnasts practice backward roll to push-up to reinforce the candlestick shape and scooping action that becomes critical for good barwork. With Tom’s floor bar, the gymnast can actually grab a real bar to simulate a baby giant or extend the shoulders open and bring it up to a handstand to simulate the giant swing. The octagonal ends forces the gymnast to work on shifting the wrists ….
” I hate pommel horse and I will hate it forever…my all around was good, just PH sucks…but I´m back in the all around and it feels great…I´ll be back at worlds!!!”
Fab scored a disastrous 12.550 on Horse, still finishing with 88.70 AA, 6th. UPDATE – watch his PB, HB and FX on YouTube
One additional tip: If the girls “toe out” while straddling, they often feel more confident that they won’t hit their toes. It also makes the feet look more stretched from the side, the judge’s angle.
Some criticized USAG for not jumping on the bandwagon in supporting threatened Cal Berkeley Gymnastics.
They now have … guardedly.
USA Gymnastics statement regarding University of California, Berkeley gymnastics
07/01/2010
USA Gymnastics is aware of the challenges intercollegiate athletics in general, and gymnastics specifically, may face at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as some of the initial efforts of support for the gymnastics programs. We are speaking with the athletic director to understand the circumstances and the most effective way to address them. Once we have a better understanding of the matter, we will work with the appropriate entities to develop a full-fledged and targeted effort.
Gymnastics Examiner has a great write up on the results from prelims at the Japan Cup:
The Japanese men and the Russian women led the way on the first day of competition at the Japan Cup, being held this weekend in Tokyo.
The host men posted top team scores on five of six events to defeat second-place Germany by nearly 10 points (276.1-266.9). The U.S., propelled by the second highest team scores on rings and parallel bars, finished only seventh on vault and ended third (265.4), a point and a half behind the Germans.
The competition used the three-up, three-count formula also used at the World Championships and Olympic Games. …
Fabian Hambüchen was pretty psyched that his team, Germany, finished ahead of the USA.
… The U.S.’s Alex Naddour, a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma, posted the highest score on pommel horse (14.75). …
… the day belonged to Afanasyeva, 19, who was left off the A-team European Championships squad earlier this spring and sent as the veteran of the team to the Pacific Rim Championships in Australia. Afanasayeva posted the highest score on floor exercise (14.7) and was second on vault (14.75) and beam (14.55) in this Russian intrasquad …
OKYO (AP) — World champion Kohei Uchimura has led Japan to the title in the men’s team event at the Japan Cup gymnastics competition.
Uchimura, the individual all-around world champion, scored more than 16 points in the vault and high bar disciplines Saturday and had 15.650 points in the floor exercise for defending champion Japan, which won with 276.100 points. Germany was second with 266.900 points. …
