Gymnastics Coaching.com

Is Britteny Cox too young to compete in the Vancouver Olympics?

The International Gymnastics Federation would not allow her to be an Olympian, were she a gymnast.

Skyrider 95 points out I got this wrong. Britteny turns 16 in 2010 so she would be old enough under the gymnastics rules.

The rest of the post is still valid, I think.

… Her inclusion in our team to represent Australia at the Vancouver Winter Olympics is testimony to her rapid rise through the ranks …

From eight years of age Britteny has been winning titles at state and national level in her chosen alpine discipline – mogul skiing. …

15 year old falls creek skier to become our youngest winter olympian

I did a quick search of the news reports on her surprise selection. Not a single “concern” that she might be too young to handle the Olympics. Or that her coaches have pushed her too hard.

Why is it that only Gymnastics is convinced that a minimum age of 16 is necessary? Not Diving. And not Skiing.

We look like idiots in the international sporting community for putting that age rule in place. Perhaps Grandi will realize his mistake Feb. 26th.

Alabama coaches have three buses. One is for sale.

You can pick the bus you want from the three, price range from $21,000 to $31,000 . All buses are diesel and have less than 150,000 miles.

Check out biggymbus.com

more photos

Contact – biggymbus AT gmail.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)