First coach Don Eckert. Now I find out famed gymnast Charlie Tamayo is married.
It’s catching !!
CONGRATULATIONS.
Charlie and his wife Nicole are coaching at San Diego All Star Gymnastics.
Chinese gymnasts left home from Worlds?
You might assume the Chinese men will be “weak” at World Championships considering the retirements after the Beijing Olympics.
Andy Thornton has posted analysis on the American Gymnast blog.
… Who’s going to make it? Well, you’d have to think that Zou Kai is probably a lock, given he has established himself as China’s best on two out of the six events. I think they may end up ditching any medal opportunities on vault and focusing on the other five events, but we’ll have to see. The question may be whether they even put any all-arounders on the team or simply go for individual event medals. …
Here are a couple of no names that might not make the team.
Click PLAY or watch Yan Mingyong Rings 2009 Chinese National Games Prelims on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch Huang Yuguo Vault 2009 Chinese National Games AA on YouTube.
Incredible.
What a fight it must be in China to be considered the “best” on one apparatus. (Aside from HBar. They don’t have anyone competitive with the best in the world on that apparatus.)
See more routines – American Gymnast – Some more Chinese male specialists we may see in London…
=== update:
Another Andy’s Angle blog post compares the new kid vs Olympic Pommel Champion Xiao Qin.
Click PLAY or watch Zhang Hongtao PH 2009 Chinese National Games Prelims on YouTube.
16.250 (D-score:6.6)
If you take the Olympic Champion to World Championships, do you leave the second best pommel routine in the world in Beijing?
… A nice problem for the Chinese coaching staff.
yet more videos – A look at some of the specialists in contention for the Chinese men’s world team…
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Joshua Allen and Katee Shean were the Season 4 winners of So You Think You Can Dance.
Week 9 they did a piece to “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” by John Mayer. The choreographer was Aussie Wade Robson.
… Wade Robson … created the original version on his beautiful dancers from his Cirque Du Soleil/Criss Angel BELIEVE show. He then decided to shoot a short film of two of his dancers that really connected with the piece, Ben Susak & Pam Chu. …
Smoking. Sensual.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Thanks to choreographer Anastasia Umeh who linked to this video on Facebook.
knee straping – does it work to reduce pain?
There’s a good thread on this topic on the Chalk Bucket forum.
I’ve coached a few girls that swear by them. The pressure seems to reduce pain below the knee. Not prevent further injury, merely reduce pain during training.
This is the most common kind used. But a couple of commenters recommend the double version as being more durable and staying on better during training.
Leave a comment if you have an opinion on these. I cannot recall seeing them on any other athletes than female Artistic gymnasts.
Updates from the comments:
Kecks tells that … “patella straps are used a lot in track (condition called “jumper’s knee”) and also in Olympic Weightlifting …”
Skyrider95 sees … “a lot of of male and female trampolinists and tumblers” … wearing them
Nica tells that … “figure skaters use them ALOT, we all have jumpers knees, we practically invented that injury haha” …
coach Don Eckert weds
CONGRATULATIONS.
Don just posted the good news on Facebook by iPhone. From his honeymoon, I assume.
🙂
Don was the long time head coach at Woodward West Gymnastics Camp. You’ve often seen his saltocafe videos posted on this site.
USA Gymnastics team to Worlds
The USA Worlds team was just announced and it has not changed from the nominative roster:
Bridget Sloan, Rebecca Bross, Ivana Hong and Kayla Williams.
Alternates are Kytra Hunter and Mackenzie Caquatto.
Update: Sloan – AA Bross – AA Hong – UB, BB Williams – VT, FX
Click PLAY or watch her Yurchenko double twist on YouTube.
Go You Big Red Fire Engine
A campaign organized by Mez of the Australian Gymnastics Blog.
Aussie fans send in photos with a cryptic phrase …
… to support Australia’s men’s and women’s gymnastics teams heading off the 2009 World Championships in London. …
Madrid 28, Rio 26, Tokyo 22, Chicago 18
The first round vote for the 2016 Olympic city was much closer than I expected. Why did so many nations vote for Madrid?
I was sure the “Spanish” vote would be split between Rio and Madrid, letting Chicago get to the final round.
… Shows how much I know about the world of the International Olympic Committee who’s members are now voted into 8yr terms.
Seems the old master, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, had a lot of influence. Born in Barcelona, he brought the 1992 Games to his home city. Samaranch still has clout.
The “winner” was clearly Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. The biggest loser not Chicago, not the Obamas, not Oprah, but the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Someone will write a great book on this vote, I predict.
COPENHAGEN — The map could not have spoken more elegantly. It said the Summer Olympic Games had never been held in South America.
The map was a stroke of genius.
It summarized everything, and without words: The Summer Games had never been held in South America. How could that be? Wasn’t it time to rectify such an obvious injustice? …
Alan Abrahamson – Rio the big winner, USOC the prime loser
By this logic the Games will be awarded to South Africa in the near future.
gymnastics blogs vs forums
Gymnastics blogs are normally one main voice, with one point of view.
Sure they have comments. And contributors. But on this blog, for example, you’ll find some very consistent themes if you assess the many hundreds of posts. If you like those themes, you might return to this site. If you don’t, you’ll be gone.
Forums are entirely different. That’s where people can go to brainstorm. To rant. To share. To flame. To have a conversation on different threads.
If you’ve never lurked or participated, check out one of these:
The Couch Gymnast blog recently shared some love with IG Online:
What I love most about the International Gymnast Online forum- aside from the fact that a lot of these people who frequent the forum seriously know their @#$%-is how frank and funny they are in giving their opinions. Here are some of my favorite funny-slash-brutally-honest moments in recent discussions. …
It’s true there are some amazing people on the IG Forum, Senor Nico, for example. I wish Senor Nico would start up a blog. Unfortunately I cannot subscribe only to Senor Nico comments. (Many of the other forum commenters are not nearly so smart and humorous.)
It’s easy to waste time on a forum. Waiting for the odd comment by Senor Nico.
One more complaint about the IG Forum: It’s got more comment spam than any other right now.
Why can’t they fix that problem?
Logan Dooley – U.S. trampoline record
… A local trampolinist over the weekend has set a new U.S. record for “degree of difficulty” in an official competition and will be one of the U.S. representatives in the Trampoline and Tumbling World Championships in Russia this November.
Over the weekend Logan Dooley, 22, completed a routine that included 10 skills that totaled a degree of difficulty of 17.1 in the Final Selection competition held at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas.
The competition determined which U.S. athletes would go on to the World Championships. …
read more – THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER – O.C. trampolinist makes World Championship team
On YouTube I found his first 17.1 routine in training from about 4 months ago.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 