Gymnastics Coaching.com

The Reuter’s selection.

… see them all

Thanks Michael.

Men’s Finals All-Around starts 1:30PM ET, Oct 15th.

Can the young Japanese gymnastics sensation maintain his consistency and win the World Gymnastics Championships today?

I think so.

His strongest rival was Fabian Hambüchen, out with an untimely minor injury.

I’ve learned the hard way not to count out Jonathan Horton, however.

Historically inconsistent, Jon has a way of coming up biggest under the most pressure.

Gymnastics Examiner has a good preview of today’s all-around Final.

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

TV and streaming video coverage over the internet is available worldwide.

related – Japan’s Uchimura shines in qualifying

Aside from the “stars” who qualified for Finals, many gymnasts had good results at the World Championships.

The Couch Gymnast names a few … aside from Aussie great Lauren Mitchell.

Ana Porgras. Just beautiful. Made me feel good about the sport. She was lovely, lyrical, skillful AND interesting. That’s the kind of gymnast i can’t get enough of. She has personality and performance quality. She is my world champion.

Elsa Garcia

Elizabeth Seitz. Mayra Kroonen, Nathalia Sanchez, Koko Tsurumi.

Myzdrikova

Sydney Sawa

Kim Un Hyang

Deng Linlin

click through for the reasons why – HAPPY THOUGHTS

GymBox – more photos of Ana Porgras

It’s refreshing to see some of the top coaches in the world explaining to the mainstream media why the International Gymnastics Federation age rules are a mistake. And unenforceable.

… the governing body (FIG), whose rules state competitors must be at least 16 during an Olympic year to compete at the Games, introduced a system where all gymnasts taking part in any major event will have to apply for a licence.

But German coach Ulla Koch told Reuters the whole process is a waste of time.

“They (FIG) are not really doing any additional checks on the passports or any other documents from before,” Koch said. …

The FIG were told by the International Olympic Committee to examine the ages of the Chinese team — which included He Kexin and Yang Yilin who are competing at the world championships in London — in Beijing and after a two-month investigation ruled the gymnasts had not broken any rules.

But Russian-born American coach Valery Liukin, whose daughter Nastia won the all-around Olympic gold last year, said the FIG did not do itself any favours when it increased the age eligibility from 14 to 16.

“The Olympic champion should be the strongest gymnast on the earth today. Not 16 and over. That’s how I’ve always felt. …

Yahoo Sports – Gymnastics-Age-old problems cannot be wiped out

The only time the media is much interested in this issue is during Olympics and World Championships.

Photo by Grace Chiu.

August 6th, 2009 Dean Potter free climbed the extremely difficult top section of the Eiger in Switzerland. And B.A.S.E. jumped down. That flight, 3min, is the longest recorded to date.

His only “protection” was the 5-6lb B.A.S.E. jumping parachute.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Outside: How do you practice for something like this?

Potter: I practiced different dismounts and stuff, but it’s hard to really prepare for a fall that you don’t know is going to happen. I never really had any of my friends push me off a bridge or something like that. I did practice falling on my back, falling sideways. I felt quite confident that if I did fall, I would right myself. …

read the entire interview – The Eiger, Unroped

He was filmed for an upcoming movie called “The Sharp End“.

Potter more than any other is pushing the limits of what is possible in climbing.

You might know his wife, Steph Davis, one of the best female climbers in the world.

I was surprised and impressed to see a Google ad for a program in my area called The Little Gym®. (Not many gymnastics programs are using Google ads.)

The excellent website tells of 300 locations in 21 countries.

Click through if you might be interested.

In order to open a The Little Gym location, a candidate must have a net worth (assets minus liabilities) of at least $250,000. Additionally, the candidate must have $75,000 in liquid assets in order to be considered. …

Franchise opportunity

Leave a comment if you have experience with any of those gyms.

Click through to the official Longines results page for all results.

Click on (PDF) to see just the Women’s Apparatus Finalists.

Thanks melanie.

I’ve seen thousands of pics over the last 2 days.

But the best of all were the series posted by The Big Picture.

Check out The Big Picture.

… But it’s strange I haven’t seen a single routine video as yet.

Thanks to all the bloggers, twitterers, Facebookers and photographers for the many long hours you spent scrambling between the meet and the internet. It was appreciated by those of us who could not be there.

A special thanks to Inside Gymnastics’ Grace Chui. (I believe I’ve linked to her work more than to any other.)

Sweet as.

Congratulations Australia!

1. Bross USA–57.40
2. Porgras ROM–57.30
3. Mitchell AUS–56.675

4. Deng CHN–56.35, 5. Sloan USA-56.075, 6. Kurbatova RUS-55.95, 7. Tsurumi JPN-55.925 8. Yang CHN–55.5, 9. Kaeslin SUI-55.45, 10. Semenova RUS–54.90

Lauren Mitchell is the current National Champion.