Gymnastics Coaching.com

A small statistical analysis from IG forum posted by spezi3. In brackets are the number of mentions of each athlete on that site vis-a-vis each apparatus.

VAULT
1. Cheng Fei (21)
2. Yelena Zamolodchikova (18)
3. Yelena Produnova (17)
4. Mo Huilan (14)
5. Oksana Chusovitina (12)
6. Monica Rosu (12)
7. Alicia Sacramone (10)
8. Simona Amanar (10)
9. Vanessa Atler (9)
10. Shannon Miller (9)

Blythe Lawrence said, “If I had to choose a female gymnast of the decade, Cheng would be it.” I’d agree.

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

BARS
1. Svetlana Khorkhina (18)
2. He Kexin (17)
3. Ma Yanhong (13)
4. Lu Li (13)
5. Nadia Comaneci (12)
6. Kim Gwang Suk (12)
7. Mo Huilan (11)
8. Olga Korbut (9)
9. Beth Tweddle (9)
10. Nastia Luikin (8)

Bars had a very nice mix of gymnasts from different eras. There were gymnasts from the ’70s all the way up to 2009 in the top 10.

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

BEAM
1. Yang Bo (21) – video
2. Tatiana Lysenko (14)
3. Olga Mostepanova (10)
4. Kui Yuanyuan (10)
5. Oksana Omelianchik (10)
6. Shannon Miller (10)
7. Nastia Luikin (10)
8. Aurelia Dobre (9)
9. Li Li (9)
10. Mo Huilan (9)
11. Catalina Ponor (9)

The results show that after 20 years, Yang Bo’s beam work is timeless. There was the biggest difference between the number of votes between 1st and 2nd place on any of the events.

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

FLOOR
1. Oksana Omelianchik (14)
2. Anna Pavlova (13)
3. Daniela Silivas (12)
4. Svetlana Boginskaya (10)
5. Irina Baraksanova (9)
6. Lilia Podkopayeva (9)
7. Cheng Fei (8)
8. Natalia Frolova (7)
9. Shawn Johnson (7)
10. Henrietta Onodi (6)
11. Olga Strazheva (6)
12. Yelena Zamolodchikova (6)
13. Svetlana Khorkhina (6)
14. Andreea Raducan (6)
15. Yelena Produnova (6)

There was a 6-way for 10th place. Floor had a real mix of artistic and power gymnasts.

to read commentary, or to comment, click through to IG forum – Top 10 Per Event Analysis

Ha. Oksana Omelianchik, one of the weakest tumblers ever put on the Floor by the old Soviet Union, is #1 on Floor.

I was there in 1985 when she was co-World Champion with Shushanova. This routine was shocking and revolutionary in many ways at that time. The talk of the competition.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Great idea. Gymnastike is going to post an NCAA routine of the week, each week.

Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of UCLA, … With this routine, Elyse is tied with Courtney McCool for the highest floor routine score in the NCAA after week 1 with a 9.925.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

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

A real crowd pleaser. This is much stronger than McCool’s.

Elyse is a member of the 2008 Canadian Olympic team and placed 16th in the Olympic All-Around. … She was the first Canadian woman ever to win a World Championship medal when she placed third on beam at the 2006 Worlds in Denmark.

Andrew Thornton links to Elyse’s Olympic routine (video) from Beijing as an example of how much less entertaining are the FIG routines these days.

Andy also links to Brittany McCullough’s Floor from that first UCLA meet of the year. Even with watered down tumbling, you can see that Brittany may be the gymnast to beat on this apparatus come Nationals.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Miss Val is feeling the love.

UPDATE: Good comment: “What about Anna Li?”

Compare that Floor routine with her 2 teammates.

If, like me, you couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm to watch the The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular, here’s a short clip linked from UNORTHODOX GYMNASTICS review.

Click PLAY or watch Crank it Up on YouTube.

There’s another profanely negative review on Aunt Joyce.

Actually, the stuff the guys do at these Spectaculars is quite good. Reasonable difficulty with panache and humour. I’d watch an edit of the Men’s gymnastics.

But a backspring on beam in a short skirt? Most 7yr-old gymnasts would be disappointed with that level of “difficulty”.

All 4 four competitors from 2009 Worlds will be at the Elite Session. Bridget Sloan will sign autographs while the other three, Ivana Hong, Kayla Williams and Rebecca Bross, compete.

Bridget is on some sort of “break” from gymnastics.

competition home page

ELITES from AUSTRALIA – USA – CANADA – RUSSIA – UKRAINE – JAPAN – NEW ZEALAND – MEXICO – TURKEY – ISRAEL

Over 100 Level 10’s from CA, CO, FL, GA, KS, LA, MA, MO, MS, NJ, NM, NV, OK, PA, TX, WI, WV,

Australia, Japan, Turkey, Israel, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico

Nastia Liukin Cup Qualifier – College Recruiters

In fact, 5 Canadian teams are attending the 2010 WOGA CLASSIC this year, a record! A good contingent from my home Province, Alberta, are looking forward to a break from the cold, snowy winter we’ve been suffering.

Thanks Barb Durfee for the update.

It will be interesting to look for the Rio Olympic cycle gymnasts coming up at WOGA. That includes Jr. National Team member Madison Kocian, not age eligible for Senior until 2013.

related – 4 More Reasons to Love WOGA (photos)

I’ve been checking out the many drills posted by Coach Bart of gymnastics-skills.com on his broskoski YouTube channel. Several are dedicated to teaching Tkachev (Reverse Hecht).

If you have a bar fixed over a trampoline, … Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Be sure to slide an additional mat over the exposed bar during the learning phase. It’s no fun to land on the bar!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Good stuff.

I’m linking to a few here, but there are more Tkachev and Jaeger videos on that channel. Start at Bart’s main site, gymnastics-skills.com.

Is anyone using that acronym?

Make It or Break It?

Marty is in as “National Coach”, Sasha is out.

Episode 12 is online free if you live in the USA at ABCfamily.com.

And online here if you live outside the States.

Not much gymnastics in this one.

These days my favourite blog post is Gymnastics Examiner’s The gymnastics week in review.

And this week’s edition by Blythe Lawrence is the best yet.

Some highlights and lowlights:

… $1.5 million settlement for gymnastics abuse case: A Chicago-area gymnastics club’s insurance company has agreed to pay $1.5 million in a civil suit against former gymnastics instructor Michael Cardamone, who was first arrested in 2002 …

Gymnastics on skis: Aerial ski coach Peter Judge calls China’s aerialists “unbelievable classic overtrainers.” “I found it astounding — and they were wondering why all their athletes were getting injured and blown up,” ….

… China’s aerial skiiers are poised to win medals next month in Vancouver. One reason is a 19-year-old former gymnast named Xu Mengtao, who Chinese aerial ski coach Dustin Wilson said “will change the sport.” …

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

Mary Lou Retton interview: The U.S.’s first Olympic gymnastics champion speaks out about the pressure on young athletes to win today, as well as being born with hip dysplasia, a condition that has led her to have hip replacement surgery before the age of 42.

click through for links to these stories and many, many more.

Gymnastics Examiner – The gymnastics week in review

On the invitation of Katy Younger, I made the short drive from Calgary to Airdrie, Alberta to check out a new facility.

Awesome.

Coach Jamie Atkin custom ordered a custom built “Super Tramp”. It’s HUGE.

Edge is one of the top Trampoline and Tumbling clubs in Canada.

But it’s also got a terrific facility now for WAG.

more photos

This new state-of-the-art facility is four times larger than our previous home and will provide participants with an incredible gymnastics experience. …

official website

Congratulations to everyone out in Airdrie, population about 30,000. You’ve got a world class gym.

Watch a video of the gym under construction on YouTube.

Drop-in $12 / class:

Teen drop-in (13-19): Wed @ 8-9 and Sat @ 5-6

Adult drop-in (18+): Tues @ 8-9 and Sat @ 5-6

Airdrie Edge is close to the monster new Cross Iron Mills shopping mall.

Fishbulb linked to a cool skill on the IG Forum.

This is Illinois gymnast Allison Buckley competing, I think, in a High School meet some years ago.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

We recently linked to a video of Charlie Tamayo doing a similar skill, what I called Stalder Tkachev Front in training on Horizontal Bar.

Men might call it Stalder Xiao Ruizhi as the same skill from giant is named after that Chinese gymnast in the Men’s Code.

On the Women’s side it’s often referred to as the “Counter Kim” after 1991 Bars Champion Kim Gwang Suk. Other’s call it “Marinich” after Vitaly Marinich, one of the first Men to compete it.

In fact, Allison calls it Marinich on her Player Bio.

There is a new blog by the same editor that does Gymnastics In Europe – Moves to America!.

It’s posted by a gymnastics coach and sport psychologist in training, focused on “issues” in the sport. Great idea.

The first two issues are Artistry and Difficulty. Click through to check them out.

Ana Porgras is mentioned as one example that there is still some Artistry in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

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