Gymnastics Coaching.com

The team to beat at National Championships.

UCLA Gymnastics team won its 15th Pac-10 Conference title and second consecutive, scoring 197.35 to record the highest score amongst all conference championships this weekend. The Bruins hit 24-for-24 routines, with all but the very first routine of the day scoring 9.8 or better.

Bruin sophomore Vanessa Zamarripa won the all-around with a 39.575 and vault with a 9.95 to capture her first career Pac-10 titles. She was also named the Pac-10 Gymnast of the Year. Senior Anna Li recorded her first-ever perfect 10 on uneven bars to win the event, her third Pac-10 event title in her career. Junior Brittani McCullough also won a Pac-10 title, tying for first on floor exercise with a career-best 9.925. …

read more – UCLA Bruins

Russia’s Anastasia Grishina is another good nominee for “best gymnast in the world” scoring 59,450 all-around. With a 15.9 on Bars (9.4 E score).

Junior
1. Anastasia Grishina (RUS)
2. Kyla Ross (USA)
3. Erica Fasana (ITA)
3. Andrea Foti (ITA)

Senior
1. Alexandra Raisman (USA)
2. Ksenia Semyonova (RUS)
3. Vanessa Ferrari (ITA)

full Junior results (PDF)
full Senior results (PDF)

Commentary:

Gymnastics Examiner – Alexandra Raisman, Anastasia Grishina take the titles at Trofeo di Jesolo

Gymtruthteller – Junior Jeselo AA results

Gymtruthteller – Jeselo results for the seniors

At the 2010 SEC Gymnastics Championships in Jacksonville, Florida.

1. Florida 197.050
2. Alabama 196.875
3. Georgia 196.825
4. LSU 49.300
5. Auburn 195.575
6. Arkansas 195.275
7. Kentucky 194.800

Ashley Priess from Alabama won the all-around.

Susan Jackson won Vault and was named SEC Gymnast of the Year.

In winning their first SEC championship since 2007, the Gators never blinked when freshman Liz Green fell off the beam twice after four straight Florida gymnasts had hit their routine. In years past, that’s the kind of mishap that had a devastating ripple effect on Rhonda Faehn’s team, but not this year and not on this night.

The reason?

The Gators knew SEC Freshman of the Year Ashanee Dickerson was next up and Dickerson never blinks.
“She’s been a machine all year long, somebody that we can always say we know she’s going to hit,” said Faehn, the 2010 SEC Coach of the Year. …

read more – Gator Country

Handstand walking is a great drill for future pirouetting, but a drill that is overused by many coaches, I feel.

I don’t allow kids to walk in handstand unless they can keep form and shape. In general, for beginners, I only have them walk backwards and sideways. Not forwards. This is doubly important for boys on parallel bars many of whom “learn” to take steps forward to save balance.

See more great gymnastics photos by DigiNik13 on flickr.

Those athletes are ultra inspiring.

Universal Sports and GE posted some highlight pics.

see more photos from Vancouver

I didn’t post this when I first saw it earlier in the month, yet I’ve come back to it a couple of times since.

There’s no big “story” in athletes trying to explain a bad meet. … I guess I simply like listening to these two charming gymnasts.

University of Georgia Senior Grace Taylor and sophomore Kat Ding after their road loss at Michigan

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

(via Couch Gymnast)

Congratulations Vancouver, athletes and everyone involved.

Sir Philip Craven tonight declared Vancouver 2010 the “best-ever Winter Paralympic Games” as he brought the curtain down on an event that has inspired, enthralled and surprised in equal measure at a Closing Ceremony that was a fitting finale even though the rain did make it something of a test of endurance at times. …

inside world parasport – Winter Paralympics declared best-ever by IPC President

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Russian wheelchair acrobat Maxim sedakov breakdances for Sochi 2014 during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Closing Ceremonies in Whistler, British Columbia, March 21, 2010. UPI/Heinz Ruckemann Photo via Newscom
Content © 2010 Newscom

… not for Division 1 NCAA, but for everyone else.

If you’re close to Colorado Springs this weekend, support the sport meet by attending.

… “USA Gymnastics is proud to sponsor the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships as part of its efforts to support and promote collegiate gymnastics at all levels,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. “Collegiate gymnastics is an important segment of our sport and this event provides additional universities the opportunity to compete for a national title.”

At the men’s USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships, the team competition is divided into two categories, varsity and collegiate. The varsity competition is for Division I, II, or III, four-year institutions with gymnastics as a varsity sport, and the collegiate team category is for two-year or four-year degree-granting schools with gymnastics as a club sport.

The schools in this year’s field are: Varsity — College of William and Mary, Springfield College, U.S. Air Force Academy and U.S. Naval Academy; and Collegiate Club Division — Arizona State University, College of Brockport, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Portland Community College, University of Texas and University of Washington …

USAG

This is a repost, clarifying a mistake …

==== original post:

A bevy of well-known Chinese athletes, including several gymnasts, will take part in in a University of Wisconsin Madison study session, according to The Capital Times. …

The six month program, which begins in June, is a “non-degreed seminar enabling the Chinese student-athletes, currently enrolled in graduate studies at the Beijing University of Sport, to build their English, science, leadership and coaching skills.”

Amongst the 11 expected athletes are gymnasts Jiang Yuyuan, a member of China’s gold-medal-winning women’s team in Beijing, 2001 World medalist Sun Xiaojiao and legendary beam worker Yang Bo.

Inside Gymnastics ticker

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Is Jiang Yuyuan going to train in Madison, WI … … She’s competing in Edmonton next weekend.

====

An update from Inside Gymnastics explains where the error started:

Amongst the 11 expected athletes are 2001 World medalist Sun Xiaojiao and legendary beam worker Yang Bo, as well as rhythmic gymnast Sui Jianshuang, who won a silver medal in Beijing.

UPDATED: The Capital Times updated their story, changing the athlete names to reflect what we have listed above. The original story indicated a member of the 2008 gold-medal women’s team would be among the contingent, not rhythmic medalist Sui.

It was Sui Jianshuang, not current active gymnast Jiang Yuyuan, who’s going to Wisconsin

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge was interviewed in Singapore while there inspecting preparations for the first ever Youth Olympic Games this August.

… he warned the IOC would not tolerate anyone cheating by faking their age to meet entry requirements, as has happened at Olympics in the past.

“It is true that in the past there has been cheating both by pretending that they were older, in sports like gymnastics, or by pretending they were younger than the age category in some team sports,” he said.

“We definitely are going to follow that. We will be relying very much on the National Olympic Committees and the national federations because they are running sport on a day-to-day basis.

“If we suspect any cheats, we will be tough, there’s no doubt about that.”

Jacques Rogge vows tough line on age, drug cheats

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The timing of this statement could not be worse for Gymnastics China.

Recall that the FIG declared Dong Fangxiao guilty of being underage at the 2000 Olympics.

The only defence offered by Luo Chaoyi, director of the Gymnastics Center of the General Administration of Sport in China, was that Fangxiao was not underage. But that after retirement she and her family for some reason contrived to lower her age in all subsequent documentation. I joking called this forging her own passport.

Why and how Dong would do this is so ludicrous a suggestions that I’m sure the IOC must sanction that athlete and her Federation.

Especially now that Jacques Rogge has declared himself tough on age cheats.

There’s almost certain to be age falsification scandals in some sports in Singapore.

I’ve not heard any specific calendar date for an IOC ruling on what to do about the medals won by Dong Fangxiao and her team in Sydney. Leave a comment if you know.