Gymnastics Coaching.com

The Couch Gymnast is (literally) a student of reporting.

In a post that made me laugh out loud, she quoted Barabara Matson, paid journalist for old media, the Boston Globe:

… Raisman opened her first senior competition with a splash, posting the top score on the beam, sticking a Yurchenko double full dismount to earn a 15.15. …

quoted in Couch Gymnast

Yurchenko double full on beam. Now that is impressive.

I’ve watched old media sports journalists at NCAA and VISA Championships in the States. With a very few exceptions (e.g. Linda Hamilton, Deseret News) they have no idea what they are covering. Gymnastics is a complicated, rapidly evolving sport.

All mainstream journalists want is to know who won. And to grab some quotes from the post-meet press conference. Their articles are at best, boring. At worst, embarrassing.

So what should you read if you want to know what actually happened?

Gymnastics organizations with paid staff put out articles that read like dull promotional press releases. For example, the recent World Cup in Montreal. What would you know about that event if you didn’t attend?

FIG – Canada and Japan call the shots at Gymnix

Gymnastics Canada – Calgary’s Gafuik leads Canadian medal haul at gymnastics World Cup in Montreal

Those articles contain no glaring errors. But the writers are careful not to say a negative word. The real “story” of the Montreal World Cup is that it should be cancelled for lack of participation. And that the entire World Cup Series should be eliminated, or improved.

You’d have to talk to someone who was there. Or read the article on GYMmedia by Eckhard Herholz to hear anything about the issue.

By far the most insightful, interesting and entertaining commentary on gymnastics today is on blogs. Almost anyone can find some they like. (Check our list of BLOGS in the right hand navigation.)

Blogs are not perfect, God knows. They over-report rumour, scandal and problems. But I still spend 90% of my own time online reading blogs and watching video. Old media is so predictable I rarely need to skim more than the headlines.

What’s the future?

Blythe Lawrence was one of the most respected gymnastics bloggers (Gymblog) before transitioning to a new media platform called Gymnastics Examiner. She’s a trained journalist, yet her Examiner articles are closer to blog posts than The New York Times.

Examiner has high enough standards to be linked to by the F.I.G.

Gymnastics Examiner is the future.

Content is more important that stlye.

Timelyness more important than qwality control.

… That’s how we bloggers defend our shoddy work against the grammar Nazis. The Couch Gymnast was peeved on this point, lately.

I could put up a link like this:

What do you thick?

=== UPDATE:

One spelling Nazi (Dana) insisted on a correction link. You’ll now find it cluttering the right hand navigation.

I like this clip posted by British Gymnastics TV. Those guys are fantastic at gymnastics video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

April 21st – May 2nd, Birmingham, England

competition home page

A fan favourite, for sure.

Henrietta is one of five “Gymnastics Legends to be honored by the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame“.

• Cathy Rigby (USA) -1970 World Championships, Silver medal on Balance Beam
• Henrietta Onodi (HUN) – 1992 Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist
• Yuri Korolev (RUS) – 1981 and 1985 World All-Around Champion
• Mikhail Voronin (RUS) – Winner of 9 Olympic medals in 1968 and 1972 (deceased)

• Eileen Langsley (GBR) will be awarded the International Order of Merit for her contributions as the most prolific photographer of major gymnastics competitions for nearly 30 years.

FIG

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks, yet again, to MunchTheSilivasFan.

Fantastic Yuri Korolev being included. He’s one of my favourite gymnasts of all time.

… Should Cathy Rigby be on that list? How many other World Championships single apparatus Silver medalists have been inducted?

I loved Cathy too, … but is this some sort of pro-American bias on the part of selectors?

The schedule has just been adjusted:

• Saturday, 16th October: Women’s qualifying competition
• Sunday, 17th October: Women’s qualifying competition
• Monday, 18th October: Men’s qualifying competition
• Tuesday, 19th October: Men’s qualifying competition
• Wednesday, 20th October: Women’s team final
• Thursday, 21st October: Men’s team final
• Friday, 22nd October: Men’s and women’s all-round finals
• Saturday, 23rd October: Women’s event finals (vault, bars); men’s event finals (floor, pommel horse, rings)
• Sunday, 24th October: Women’s event finals (beam, floor); men’s event finals (vault, bars, high bar)

… Tickets will go on sale again in the second half of March. …

FIG – Two more days of competition for 2010 Artistic Worlds!

I’m hoping to attend this time around, the 42nd annual.

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

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

The weekly Gymnastics Examiner post is packed with links:

Zhang Nan, Longines, Dynamics Unlimited Gymnastics, Wu Jiani and Li Xuejiu, Fu Bo, Kristina Goryunova, Nastia Liukin & Jared the Subway guy, Grace Taylor, Hollie Vise, Sarah Shire, Dominic Morris, Viktoria Komova, Marissa King, Cameron Rogers, Beth Tweddle, Danusia Francis, … and many more.

Click through for details – The gymnastics week in review

I don’t know about you … but I’m ready for the “playoffs”.

This Women’s College gymnastics season has been the most exciting in years, but hurry up with the Conference, Regional and National Championships.

Manual on Handstands thinks that one of these 5 teams will win the Team Championships 2010:

Alabama: Not Invincible …
Oklahoma: Can they stay undefeated? …
UCLA: Finding consistency …
Florida: Don’t count them out …
Georgia: Needs a road win …

The winning team at Championships must hit 24 for 24.

UCLA I’d call the favourite. But can they hit 24 routines under pressure?

If you believe in momentum, pick Oklahoma. It seems to be their year.

I think Alabama has a good chance to hit 24 routines. If they do, it will be tough to beat the Tide.

Who do you predict to win? Leave a comment.

Gymnastike has up-to-date team rankings with video links, if you want to compare.

AshleyakaFlipper is a drama queen. But she’s got a superb touch editing gymnastics video.

This is reportedly her last montage ever.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Her computer hard drive crashed, many thousands of video clips lost. I left a comment recommending she sign up for Carbonite or Mozy, the two leading online back-up solutions.

… Is your computer backed-up?

ACTOR. CHOREOGRAPHER. DANCER. FREERUNNER. INSTRUCTOR. MARTIAL ARTIST. STUNTMAN.

This traceur has a serious career. He’s one of The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (LXD), for one.

Click PLAY or watch Travis on YouTube.

Travis-Wong.com

(via FlipCatch)

Kudos to Full Twist for turning up an excellent resource for coaches, interpretations on the International Code.

This document called Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Help Desk has the intention to clarify and give examples of the different rules of the FIG WAG Code of Points.

The goal of WTC is to reduce different interpretations of the rules, therefore provide a more objective work of the judges. …

WAG Help Desk

It’s a supplement to the code. Here are samples of the kind of “Help” included:

This document would be useful for any Artistic WAG coach. Download a copy to your computer: WAG Help Desk (PDF)

As a PDF document online, it will be inexpensive and easy to update.

Congratulations to the by FIG WTC for putting this together. Good work.