Gymnastics Coaching.com

He confirmed it on his blog:

The MRI I took yesterday told me that I tore my ACL after the high bar landing at the Japan Cup. Right now we’re in the process of scheduling a day to get it surgically repaired (hopefully sometime next week). While I’m definitely bummed about getting hurt, I’ve never thought to myself that going through all the injuries is not worth it. Gymnastics is a constant battle between pain and injuries and I do this sport because of that drive I have inside me to one day make the Olympic team.

For some reason, I see this injury as an opportunity in disguise. …

… read more

His club, Stanford University, made history this past season by becoming the first NCAA team to win the national academic team title and the NCAA team championship in the same year.

(both stories via Inside Gymnastics on Facebook)

Andrew from Alamo Gymnastics Center asks us this question:

Every year we search for a fun meet early in the year to take the entire team too. Would you please start a topic of “best meets you’ve gone to, and why” to give us some more ideas of good meets? Here are some of my favs and why:

Hard Rock Invitational – Mesa, Arizona (Team awards is a real Fender electric guitar!!! Individual AA gets Hard Rock Jackets, Live band during the event, after event party)

Mary Lou Invitational – Houston, TX (Individual AA gets IPod, Team money awards, guys and girls sides, Olympians everywhere)

Lady Luck – Las Vegas, NV (Vegas, college meet included, meet site is a casino)

My own favourite meet is the Great West Gym Fest in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It’s the best by far, overall, of any meet I’ve seen anywhere. The awards system is particularly outstanding.

Only once have I attended Chicago Style. But The Largest Women’s Gymnastics Invitational Meet in the World is highly recommended!

Seems to me the early season meet in Cancun, Mexico is hot right now. It’s called the Cajun Classic, hosted in early January.

What are your favourite meets? Especially early season meets?

No need to limit those to the USA. They could be anywhere in the world. Leave a comment.

Videos available include:

Olivia Courtney on bars
Nastia Liukin on beam
Sabrina Vega on floor
Ivana Hong on beam
Kayla Williams on vault
Cassie Whitcomb on bars

I didn’t earlier post that Universal Sports had online coverage of the recent Cover Girl competition.

I didn’t because so often in the past their coverage was “not available in my region“. I live in Canada.

It’s frustrating getting that message. Much love is lost for USA only websites, internationally.

But these routines are available to me currently in Austria. Thanks Universal Sports!

Click through to their Gymnastics Home Page to watch the routines.

Some of the Universal coverage has made it’s way to YouTube, as well.

Check out the MONSTER tumbling from powerhouse Kayla Williams. Triple twist side pass!

(via About.com Gymnastics)

Olivia Courtney of Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro won the all-around title with a score of 57.40 at the CoverGirl Classic at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa. 2008 Olympic Team alternate Ivana Hong of Plano, Texas/WOGA, finished second with a 56.450, and Kaitlyn Clark of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Precision Gymnastics finished third with a 55.050. The CoverGirl Classic was the last opportunity for women to qualify for the 2009 Visa Championships, being held Aug. 12-15 in Dallas, Texas.

Hong led the first three rotations of the competition , but had difficulties on her uneven bar dismount in the final rotation. Courtney hit a double-twisting Yurchenko on vault to pull ahead of Hong and win the title.

Courtney said, “I’m very happy to win the all-around title. I’ve been working hard and I’m happy my hard work paid off.” …

read more and get full results on USAG

Gymblog points out that Jr. Kyla Ross from Gym Max in California actually had the second highest AA score:

… Olivia Courtney, winner of the senior division, scored 57.4. Ross had 57.0 — not bad for your first elite meet. Ivana Hong, second among the seniors, had 56.4. …

Kyla Ross — one to watch

I was much impressed with the Gym Max girls last year at Level 10 JO Nationals. This result is not surprising.

Stick It Media linked to this, another good news story about David.

… David Durante paid a visit to Classic Gymnastics and Cheer Academy.

Durante, 29, was an alternate member of the U.S. men’s gymnastics team in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

Tricia Adamo, one of the owners of Classic Gymnastics, said she and her son, Parker, first met Durante when her son’s gymnastics team went on a trip to the Olympic trials.

Adamo said she exchanged emails with Durante and asked him if he would be able to come to her gym to conduct a clinic for aspiring male gymnasts. In late June, Durante came to Marlboro to host the clinic.

Durante, who grew up in Garwood, said, “For me to be able to come, especially here in New Jersey where it all started for me and I have such close ties to, it’s always nice for me to come back and contribute.” …

Durante said he will likely retire from competition following recent knee surgery.

Most recently, he worked as an assistant coach for the Stanford University gymnastics team. Durante is a Stanford graduate.

“It nice to go back and be able to help out the program. We won the national championship this year,” Durante said.

Durante will soon be moving to Rome, Italy, after he was voted into the Athlete Advisory Council (AAC). He explained that the AAC is comprised of athlete representatives from every sport and he will be the gymnastics representative. Durante is expected to serve in that position until the 2012 Olympics in London. …

full story – U.S. gymnast offers tips to future stars

Congratulations Dave.

On the International Gymnast Forum numblemon states:

Many of you will disagree with me but I find that vault was at it’s cleanest and most powerful from 1989-1992. I know this is a small window and there were Yurchenko Fulls ad nauseum but I liked it then and I like it now – they were mastered and often stuck …

Click PLAY or watch Shannon Miller – 1992 Olympics AA – Vault 1 … STUCK COLD on YouTube.

Shannon was truly one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. Wow!

There’s been surprisingly little progress on Vault since that time. The introduction of the new table revolutionized Men’s Vault. But little has changed on the Women’s side.

More examples of numblemon’s Golden Age of Vault.

Click through and see what you think.

usa-gymnastics.org

Many have commented that they are surprised not to see a red, white and blue colour scheme.

Others complain that it’s difficult to find content. And that content is not updated quickly or often enough. People expect 24/7 updates in the era of Twitter.

And, in fact, USAG has a twitter account: twitter.com/usa_gymnastics

At first glance it looks a big step forward, to me. Still … no blogs. No RSS feed.

I’ll still not be very often visiting the site.

Check Gymblog for a quick overview of the Cover Girl Classic this weekend.

From Sports Girls Play:

… Fourteen year old Sabrina Vega of New York really impressed me on all four events and she is seriously packed with personality and a million dollar smile. Mark my words, Sabrina Vega is one to watch for in 2012!! She is coached by the famous Teodora Ungureanu – teammate of Nadia Comeneci – and Teodora’s husband Sorin. …

New Stars Emerge at Cover Girl Classic

Gymblog also posted the much anticipated return of Olympic champion Nastia Liukin: her beam routine (video).

Not as strong as I would have expected. But I’m still thinking Nastia will be on the USA Team for World’s on Beam and Bars.

Nastia’s happy simply to be back on the competition floor after a year.

In a related article, Inside Gymnastics posted a good interview with Valeri: WOGA’S PLAN: WORLD DOMINATION

Kyla Ross from Aliso Viejo, Calif. won the Jr. Competition with 57.00. She scored 15.2 on vault.

Sadly, Corrie Lothrop recently suffered a torn Achilles. That injury is far too common.

The gymnastics blogosphere has been cluttered the last few months with ‘favourite Floor” routines.

Here are more.

On the International Gymnast Forum numblemon picked two great eras: 1979-1983 and then 1987 to 1992.

… I picked this based on both innovative tumbling (Groshkova, Strazheva, Priakhina) unique and well-performed dance (Voinea, Silivas, Bogi, Dobre, Mitova) …

Instead of her choices, I’ll post the shocking routine of Oksana Omelianchik at the 1985 World Championships in Montreal.

In the Soviet Union there were dozens of stronger tumblers. But the charm of this routine won over everyone who saw it. Will we never see this kind of originality every again?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Wordsmith feels she was one of the most expressive gymnasts ever on Floor. Check the comments for another routine with more delightful facial expression.

click through for the links to numblemon’s picks – Golden Age of Floor

Russia continued its domination of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere on Thursday by winning both all-around titles.

All-around champion Viktoria Komova (Russia) is flanked by silver medalist Amelia Racea (Romania) and bronze medalist Celine van Gerner (Netherlands).

After leading Russia to team victories earlier this week, Viktoria Komova and David Belyavsky claimed the all-around gold medals Thursday. …

read the entire article on International Gymnast – Komova, Belyavsky Win EYOF All-Around Titles

Thanks gymnasticgirl.