I just watched the archived version of a gymnastics coaching presentation by sensai Mas Watanabe. It was streamed live June 23, 2009.
Technical Refinement – Yurchenko Vault (1hr 5min)
As expected, Mas feels the contact position on the horse is critical.
Mas also spent a good deal of time looking at exact body position on the spring board.
Which of the 4 gymnast do you think had the strongest Yurchenko?
I learned a lot about the importance of of the arms action and hands position during the round-off. Mas really understands this confusing phase.
This is the most detailed and sophisticated analysis of the Yurchenko I’ve yet seen. It’s a great jumping off point for discussion on variations in technique for different body types.
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How do you watch it?
This was week 4 of Project 2012
official website
… highlighting the essential techniques for gymnastics success in the next quadrennium. This 12-week event, brings the best coaches in the United States to your computer screen doing LIVE lectures and demonstrations on the most important cutting-edge information in our sport.
Session One begins Tuesday June 2 at 6pm PST-9pm EST and once a week until July 7th. (US$199)
Session Two runs from July 14 through August 18th.
Sessions normally are 45 minutes of presentation and 15 minutes of question and answer, using live lecture, video, power point, and of course your questions, all on your computer.
Project 2012 has nothing to do with the USA Gymnastics Congress events. Yet I still find myself thinking of it as the “poor man’s Gymnastics Congress”.
If your club has cut costs this year, declining to send coaches to Congress. This is a GREAT alternative.
Running every Tuesday night, here are the 4 presenters posted so far:
June 2 – Mary Lee Tracy: “Creating an Efficient Conditioning Program”
June 9 – Tom Forster: “In-bar Elements – Determining The Best For Each Gymnast”
June 16 – Chris Burdette: “Shootovers and Pacs: Drills and Spotting Techniques”
June 23 – Mas Watanabe: “Yurchenko vault – technical refinement”
(Chris Burdette had some technical problems with video. He will be rescheduled for sometime in future.)
Coming up:
June 30 Russell Warfield: “Raising the Barre: Understanding the importance of Dance for Gymnastics”
July 7 Tammy Biggs: “Leap or Die: the key to scoring on beam and floor in the next quadrennium”
Term Two: 6 weeks beginning July 14th – August 18th
July 14 – Tom Forster: “Releases – Selecting And Training The Ones To Fit Your Gymnast”
July 21 – Mary Lee Tracy: “Training Beam to HIT”
July 28 – Kim Zmeskal Burdette: “Coaching with a Judging Eye”
Aug 4 – Mas Watanabe: “Development of the combination tumbling sequences – utilizing the tumble track”
Aug 11 – Tammy Biggs: “Skills that should be done on beam”
Aug 18 – Russell Warfield: “So you think they can’t dance? Creative ways to incorporate Dance into your Gymnastics Program.”
You can watch streamed presentations archived online. But cannot download them to watch offline. (Actually, once the presentation is buffered in the Network Recording Player software, you can watch it and rewatch it offline. But not transfer it to an iPod, for example.)
Distance learning is the future. No doubt.
Project 2012 is just the beginning. Congratulations.
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The project is associated with GymSmarts. And Alison Arnold’s sport psychology site Head Games.
… “We have already received notification from FIG and we will communicate with them actively,” Lu Shanzhen, head coach of China’s women’s gymnastics team and vice-director of China’s Gymnastics Administrative Center, was quoted by sports.cn on Wednesday.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 