Gymnastics Coaching.com

At who?

Her agent?

If you can muster any enthusiasm at all for this, click over to the U.S. Olympic contest site.

Level 10 gymnastics Keeley Kmieciak of Phenom Gymnastics in Illinois scores a perfect 10 on vault at the 2010 Bravo Classic Meet.

In 2009 she was the Level 10 JO National Champion on Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor, & All Around in her division.

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

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

For such an unusual judging system, there are remarkably few complaints about scores in Women’s College Gymnastics.

Until now …

Even though Utah’s gymnastics team beat Georgia 196.55-196.5 Friday, many in the crowd of 15,522 at the Huntsman Center were unhappy with the judging on floor and let the judges know it by booing several of Utah’s floor scores.

The No. 3 Utes scored a 49.125 on the floor with Gael Mackie recording a team-low of 9.575, and Kyndal Robarts and Jamie Deetscreek also earning low scores of 9.725 and 9.75, respectively.

While the marks might have surprised some in the crowd, they didn’t bother the Utes, who acknowledge they and the judges still are adjusting to some new judging codes and qualifications for deductions this year.

For example, on the floor judges previously could take up to a tenth of a point deduction when a gymnast crossed her legs on a twist. Now the code says the deduction is a tenth or nothing at all.

Robarts said her first pass “wasn’t very good,” and Utah coach Greg Marsden said he expects scores to be unpredictable for a bit longer.

“Everyone is still trying to get a handle on how to judge things and what deductions to take,” he said.

read more – New judging codes bring down scores

It’s time to start rewarding gymnasts who can keep their feet together on twists. Courtney McCool, for one.

Judges have been far too lenient on this deduction in both NCAA and FIG.

I’ve recently reviewed a book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

Excellent.

Man became the dominant species on this planet because we could run long distances efficiently, barefoot.

Yet companies like Nike over the past 3 decades have convinced us that we need buy $150 shoes to run. And convinced us to completely change running technique in those shoes.

There’s a growing body of research indicating that expensive running shoes are causing more injury than they are preventing. Other researchers are concluding that bare foot running is more efficient.

If interested, click through to this post – are running shoes ruining your feet? – and follow the links.

Or see the technique difference explained in videos:

• BBC – Shoes may have changed how we run

• Scientific American – Running barefoot is better, researchers find (video)

If this new research eventually proves that barefoot running prevents injury, it may turn out that gymnasts have been doing the right thing all along by working out barefoot.

I hope so.

Aunt Joyce’s Ice Cream Stand is a controversial blog, often profane and over critical.

But you can’t deny that the editor knows his stuff. He calls himself an “insider“. An insider who has a journalism degree.

He’s posted interesting updates on Georgia’s problems, Alabama’s early success, and UCLA’s inconsistency. I recommend this particular post:

Aunt Joyce’s Ice Cream Stand – NCAA Update

It’s much more interesting than the official (carefully massaged and messaged) press releases we get from the NCAA or the Teams themselves.

High resolution version linked from GymnasticsTrainingTips.

Click over to Gymnastics Examiner for highlights from the last week, including:

Do you like the new sticking rule for women’s floor?

Nowadays elite gymnasts are deducted for lunging backwards out of their tumbling passes. Amy Van Deusen at About.com Gymnastics would like to hear your thoughts about this. …

Ana Claudia Silva changes gyms

The 2008 Brazilian Olympian, 17, has signed a contract to compete for Rio de Janeiro’s Flamengo Club this season, as has 2009 World team member Khiuani Dias. Other Flamengos include Diego and Daniele Hypolito and Jade Barbosa. …

Spotlight-ready

Stanford freshman Ashley Morgan is the daughter of baseball’s two-time National League MVP Joe Morgan … Says her Hall of Famer dad, “I’m more proud of her than I am of anything I ever did as an athlete.” …

Why Paul Hamm deserved to win the 2004 Olympic all-around gold, once and for all

Andrew Thornton dissects Yang Tae-Yung’s high bar performance from the 2004 Olympic all-around final. … Yang’s start value on high bar was incorrectly tabulated…

details and links – The gymnastics week in review

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

I’m not completely convinced by Andy’s conclusion in the Hamm scandal in Athens. But he’s right that Yang Tae-Yung was over-scored by 0.1 in the start score on Horizontal Bar. Yet another blunder for the Men’s judges in that meet that went unnoticed until now.

Thanks Andy.

Flavius Koczi, 2009 Romanian International, Foor Exercise (note the second pass — a back 3.5 to immediate Rudi — extraordinary!)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (starts at 30sec)

I actually don’t like this routine. A classic example of overuse of one kind of skill.

Still, Koczi was named one of 20 Gymnasts to Watch in 2010

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It reminds me of another strange routine: Zhu Sang Sang – Floor – 25 turns

If you count up all of the turns, twists, and jumps, she actually does exactly TWENTY-FIVE 360-degree turns in her routine! That HAS to be a world record. That was a quad turn at the beginning …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This was linked by Andy Thornton in a post dedicated to every gymnast who has ever competed backward layout with 3/1 twist … to punch front.

related posts:

• quadruple twist FX – Kent Caldwell

• tumbling – triple and quadruple twist (Artemev)

A great interview with Barb Gibson of UW-La Crosse, an NCAA Division III program:

Gibson’s Eagles have won 13 NCGA national titles, including the last two, 17 WIAC titles, including a sweep of the 2000s, and can count 26 individual national champions and 155 All-Americans. …

Gibson was determined to keep family first when she took over the La Crosse program in 1984. She essentially made year-to-year contracts with herself.

“I was a young mother, I wasn’t sure how I could continue to be a mom, a wife and a coach all together,” Gibson said. “So my approach when I first started was, I’m going to take one year at a time, see how my children are doing, how we’re enduring the long hours of an athletic career.”

Gibson said she’s had two NCAA Division I job offers – she declines to reveal the schools but said they were in the Midwest – over the years but turned them down because of the roots she and her family put down in La Crosse.

“I really think my family was always my priority,” she said. “I knew going to that next level was going to mean giving up a lot of time in the summers for recruiting. I was always trying to find that work-life balance.”

What keeps Gibson going?

“The kids,” she said. “These are very committed athletes, they’re very passionate about their sport, they’re just great students, great kids. I still love my sport, I love to teach, I love to coach.” …

read more – College gymnastics: Despite successes, UW-L’s Gibson wants more

One of the main reasons I like the Perfect 10 scoring system in the Women’s Collegiate program is that it’s much easier for the media and general public to understand.

Early season dual meets can actually draw fans at some schools.

From ugadawg8 on College Gymnastics Board …

Over 163,000 people have attended NCAA gymnastics meets through three weeks.

Georgia has sold out all their home meets.

see more – Interesting Attendance Figures

Some schools average less than 100 spectators. Growing the fan base at more schools is one of the highest priorities for the NCAA. They’re hoping that live TV coverage of the Super 4 Team Finals will help do that.

… Whatever happened to that proposal? Is CBS TV going to do it?