WOGA celebrates their two Olympic champions with decorative window coverings.
Carly Patterson 2004.
Nastia Liukin 2008.
More clubs should use window wraps. They look great and have high visibility.
January Gymnastics Calendar
High resolution version linked from GymnasticsTrainingTips.
Happy New Year to site editor Rik Feeney.
new website – Kayla Williams
GymDivas posted a new website for the World Vault Champion.
I like the look of it. But those old school templates have no RSS feed. That makes it difficult for me to know when new content is added.
via #Bluemayinchina
Gymnastics Year in Review
Blythe Lawrence on Gymnastics Examiner posted an excellent “look back at the scandals and milestones of 2009.”
The biggest story of last year was Shawn Johnson winning Dancing With the Stars. Sad, but true.
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The most important story of last year to me, however, was the emergence of Kohei Uchimura as perhaps the greatest all-around male gymnast of all-time. I’m thinking that Fabian Hambüchen will be chasing him through to 2012.
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Predictions for 2010?
The biggest story of next year will be the continued rise of Russia as the top women’s gymnastics nation. Back in April 2008 times were tough for gymnastics in Russia. I wrote a post called is Russia the next Russia?
I think so.
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photo – Ksenia Afanasyeva
Lets call it right now. Russia will win the team competition in the Olympics 2012.
The U.S.A. and China must look at a team strategy to try to beat Russia.
The biggest scandal of 2010? That’s easy. China will be found guilty of competing 2 gymnasts who were underage at the 2000 Olympics.
Leave a comment if you have any thoughts on this.
top 10 Adventure stories 2010
by site editor Rick McCharles
On New Year’s Day I’d like to share my favourite top 10 list of the many floating out there on the internet right now.
Outside Magazine’s top 10 Adventure stories of the year.
Here’s #2 – surfer Kelly Slater.
… Kelly Slater put on a performance to remind everyone he’s the greatest competitive surfer ever. He scored a perfect 10 at the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico on the way to winning the event and earning his tenth ASP World Title. He then dedicated the victory to the greatest rival of his career, Andy Irons, who died just days earlier …
Click PLAY or watch an inspiring clip on YouTube.
The story of Andy Irons is #1. Click through to read it and the rest: Outside – Top 10 Adventure Stories of 2010
introducing ‘body tightness’
From THE WORDSMITH FROM NANTUCKET:
… team developmental age 3-4, my co-instructor asked me to do a station for body tightness since all the kids weren’t very squeezy in their gymnasticking.
Keeping the fun-factor in mind, I turned over one of the rainbows in the gym and pretended like we were going to do this big magic trick. …
Click the image to jump to the video on Gymnastics Crossing.
Watch a more advanced body tightness drill on YouTube.
Deng Linlin Montage
Nice edit of some of her key skills. Very clean form on the Beam 1/1.
Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube.
stop BOXING gymnastics scores
by site editor Rick McCharles
My New Year’s day wish …
It’s almost the same as a request by IG Magazine’s Dwight Normile of the FIG Women’s Technical Committee:
E-scores in the 9.0s again.
A good rule of thumb: “If it doesn’t detract from the artistry, it shouldn’t draw a deduction.” Personally, it doesn’t bother me if a pirouette is completed more than 10 degrees past vertical, as long as it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the routine. A better evaluation tool might be to reward gymnasts who happen to finish a pirouette at vertical. But don’t deduct. (That goes for the men, too.)
come back Kathy on the IG Forum posted the highest Execution scores from the last World Championships in London:
9.175 USA Kayla Williams – Vault
8.900 CHN He Kexin – Bars
9.100 USA Rebecca Bross – Beam
8.750 AUS Lauren Mitchell – Floor
This would be no problem, if those same judges were willing to give 3.0s and 4.0s for the worst routines. To create a fair “range” of scores.
They don’t. The scores are “boxed”. There’s a huge incentive for judges not to throw a score too high, nor too low. They try to punch in a “safe” score, not necessarily the most accurate one.
The MAG judges are more confident to throw a score they know will be out-of-range. Canadian judge Chris Grabowecky was the last to award a “perfect 10” in a FIG competition (old code). On Pommel Horse. After discussion with the panel, his score was not changed.
What WAG judge would have the guts to do that?
Women’s judges are far more guilty, too, of taking deductions on skills that all coaches would agree are well done. Double layout on Bars jumps to mind. Many WAG judges deduct for “insufficient height” if it’s not done as high as a full twisting double tuck.
That’s simply wrong. Ask any trampoline coach how high double layout should be relative to a tucked fliffus.
Most WAG judges never trained double layout off Bars. Some don’t understand the biomechanics. WAG judges are getting better, but I still feel they are not nearly as technically up-to-date as the MAG judges.
They are more trained, but less competent.
Why aren’t there more judging blogs to discuss judging issues?
Someone should be launching GymnasticsJudging.com. (I own that domain name. Contact me if you want to go for it.)
Leave a comment if you have ideas how FIG can “fix” the problem of “boxed” Execution scores.
Otherwise the difficulty score will decide the medals in 2012.
related post: best bars double layout ever?
gymnast Anna Li – flies through the air with the greatest of ease
At Woodward Gymnastics Camp, advanced gymnasts regularly try some difficult trapeze stunts, flying from Rings to Horizontal Bar. And back.
UCLA gymnast Anna Li is the best female gymnast I’ve yet seen try it.
Click PLAY or watch Anna on YouTube.
new website – Grabriela Dragoi
Alan Owen doesn’t seem to take holidays.
His latest is the official home page of this Romanian star.
Gabriela won the Olympic Bronze medal with her teammates at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the Team Final! She also won the Gold medal with her team at the 2008 European Championship. Gabriela is also the Bronze medalist at the 2009 European Championship in the Balance Beam Final. …
Gymnastics Coaching.com 