The best bars video I saw in 2008 was edited by Michel Arsenault of Champions Gymnastics in Canada.
It’s a DVD with lengthy accompanying notes called:
2006 Gymnastics Study Tour of China
Michel was partly funded to travel to China by Gymnastics Alberta and Alberta Lotteries (Above and Beyond program).
Visiting gyms in Beijing, KunMing and ZhengZhou, Michel wrote a report of what he saw. Here are just a few note I took while reading the document:
unwavering commitment to extreme quality and basics
children are allowed to quit gymnastics at any time
at some schools parents must pay a small fee for training. The governments pay most costs, however.
exacting training begins at a very young age
all gymnasts train twice / day
compulsory routines until age-11. The entire document for coaches and judges is simple and only 11-pages-long! For comparison, here’s just a tiny portion of the over-complicated Gymnastics Canada regulations posted on a gym wall:
(Canadian rules are the most complex, the most frequently revised, and the most poorly understood in the world, so far as I know. It certainly does a disservice to athletes, coaches and judges.)
very few girls wear handguards (none at all at the Beijing Provincial Training Centre)
when a coach speaks to a gymnast they must stand motionless listening to the coach intently. That said, the coaches are quite quiet. Gymnasts work independently from 6 to 8-yrs-old.
very few drills are done with high repetitions
coaches are paid $3000 – $4000 / yr. Average annual salary in Beijing is about $1500 / yr.
training gymnasts did not all have “a perfect body type”
Michel concluded that the good results in China are as much a result of the coaching “system” as talent identification
very specific technique on the descending and ascending swings of free hip
high priority on hitting a balanced handstand – for pirouettes
Available free to Alberta coaches through the library at AGF.
A study from the U.K. says “parenting style more influential than income” for raising kids.
Children brought up according to “tough love” principles are more successful in life, according to a study.
The think tank Demos says a balance of warmth and discipline improved social skills more than an laissez-faire, authoritarian or disengaged upbringing.
It says children aged five with “tough love” parents were twice as likely to show good character capabilities.
Report author Jen Lexmond said: “It is confidence, warmth and consistent discipline that matter most.”
I’m sure my buddy Markos Baikas, Men’s Head Coach of Taiso Gymnastics in Saskatoon, Canada, would agree.
Marcos’ is a great coaching success story, actually. An immigrant to Canada from Greece, he was chosen Jr. National Coach of his adopted country just a few short years after being recruited by Dana Brass. She met him in a Pizza restaurant.
… Yang Le, deeply influenced by Olympic champion uncle Yang Wei, was fascinated with gymnastics. Her passion for the gymnastics led her to this school when she was only 3 years old. …
An inspiring documentary. The values taught by sport.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the small island nation of Jamaica won 11 track and field medals, including 6 golds — the most first-place finishes for any country in the world except the United States and Russia. For a country with a population smaller than the city of Chicago, to accomplish those feats while also breaking three world records had the rest of the world asking, “What makes Jamaicans so fast?” …
I’m leading an Olympic Solidarity course for the International Gymnastics Federation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dec. 1-10.
One of the mandates of the International Olympic Committee is to help grow Olympic sport around the world. To this end they budget money to support the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in building sport programs.
It’s conveniently located close to the train station.
This past summer, on recommendation from Keith Russell, I visited the new digs. And was very impressed with the operation.
Meike Behrensen, F.I.G. Media Operations Coordinator, gave me a tour.
(You’ve probably noticed how well and widely Meike has been getting information out to the world in recent months. I’m getting updates every couple of days from multiple sources. Thanks.)
I felt a bit sheepish entering the lovely historic building after all the less than positive things I’ve had to say about F.I.G. over the years. But you won’t find Bruno Grandi at the FIG offices. Nor
Nellie Kim.
Here the FIG employees work frantically trying to keep all the events and programs worldwide on track.
It’s not easy.
I was impressed with everyone I met: young, enthusiastic, energetic, multi-lingual. To survive working for FIG you must have a lot of good qualities.
On this blog we mostly cover Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. But in Lausanne they administer Trampoline Sports, Rhythmic, Aerobic, Acrobatic, Gymnastics for All, … and much, much more.
Consider this a shout out for the F.I.G. Staff. We really appreciate what you are doing for coaches and athletes.
Nicole Miller is the Recreational Gymnastics Coordinator at Lakewood-Trumbull YMCA in Connecticut.
She’s posting her coaching notes online. Drills and Skills. So few Rec coaches do this that I linked to her site from our right hand navigation under Recreation Gymnastics.
It’s divided into sections based on competitive apparatus. There’s a glossary page and links.
Check it out. Or send the link to your Rec Director.
ONE of Scotland’s top gym coaches has been jailed for three years for a series of sexual offences, committed over a period of more than 20 years, against young girls he was training.
…
The fifty-one year old, a former Performance Director of the Scottish Gymnastics Association, was found guilty last month after a five week trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court of three charges of sexual assault and seven of lewd and libidinous behaviour against girls aged between six and 16.
The girls were all training … between December 1986 and February 2008 – a 22 year period. The offences occurred in the gym; in Lasswade High School; his former home in Loanhead; his car; and a caravan at Seton Sands in East Lothian. …
His victims, some of them now in their late twenties and early thirties, described in their evidence how “Mitch” as he was called, would kiss and cuddle them, have them sit on his knee and make sexual and inappropriate remarks. He would also use inappropriate coaching techniques, touching their breasts and buttocks.
jailed for 3yrs
Dolphin, who denied all the allegations, claimed the girls often came and sat on his lap as part of the “family atmosphere” he was trying to create. He also said that cuddling young gymnasts as an encouragement or reward for a good performance was commonplace throughout the gymnastics world.
Defence agent, Vincent Belmonte, said Dolphin continued to deny culpability for the offences, but the jury’s finding had already caused him considerable financial hardship. “He has lost his home, lost his employment. Lost a career he has been involved in for nearly 30 years at the highest level”. …
I can recall a few male coaches in 1980 who had a lot of physical contact in the gym with female gymnasts. It was a different era. But this statement he made is clearly wrong:
… cuddling young gymnasts as an encouragement or reward for a good performance was commonplace throughout the gymnastics world …
Around 1980 in Canada we entered the era of shaking hands with gymnasts. Or “high fives” at line-up at the end of work-out.
Hugs became rare. Or became the awkward “side hug”.
The Bela Karolyi bear hug in competition was reserved for a particularly wonderful performance. Our coach education clinics all added an Ethics module sometime in the 1980s. We made a point of informing immigrant coaches of ethical expectations in their new country.
Obviously male coaches must minimize physical contact with all gymnasts, male and female. Keep professional distance. Never be alone with a gymnast in the gym or anywhere else.
Meike Behrensen, F.I.G. Media Operations Coordinator, gave me a tour. 
Gymnastics Coaching.com 