Gymnastics Coaching.com

Sad news report from Australia:

Queensland Workplace Health and Safety says it will investigate the death of a 19-year-old woman in a gymnastics training accident in Townsville in the state’s north. …

Gymnast dies in ‘freak accident’

A great quote from The Couch Gymnast:

… you should treat Mostepanova fan’s montages and code videos as your GYMNASTICS EDUCATION!

… if you want to see some old gymnastics, even just to see how we have arrived at the state the sport is in now (in good and bad ways) Mostepanovafan’s videos show some of the greatest, most innovative, graceful and influential routines in gymnastics history. …

More from… Mostepanova Fan

A good point.

I appreciated the Mostepanova fan videos more than any other montages over the past year or so. You will too if you feel the new code “absolutely murdered the sport of gymnastics“.

Here’s a sample. Kicking it OLD SCHOOL on Bars. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ask any of the best gymnasts in the world today to WRAP the low bar. And do Tkachev in the same routine. … They will laugh you out of the gym.

See more like this on the Mostepanova fan YouTube channel.

by site editor Rick McCharles

Amy Van Deusen on her About.com Gymnastics blog posted an important article.

Important not only because I was quoted in it:

… Kids that start more serious training very young don’t seem to have a leg up on kids that start a bit later — and it may even be to the child’s disadvantage to start early. “The risk of starting advanced gymnastics at a young age is potential burnout as a pre-teen,” says veteran coach Rick McCharles of Altadore Gymnastics Club in Calgary, Canada.

Altadore runs a “Mighty Mites” program in which kids age four to six work on general physical and motor fitness. Then, children progress to a “pre-competitive” training program.

An interesting sidenote: McCharles has noticed a difference between boys and girls. “Girls are on average more psychologically and physically ready for structured training than boys the same age,” he says. …

read the entire article – When should my kid start serious gymnastics training?

Leave a comment on that site if you have an opinion.

Just last week I was in the gym with an AMAZING 7-year-old. She did giants to flyaway at age-6, for example.

But the coaches worry that her gymnastics ability is so far ahead of her mental consistency. It’s easy for a developmentally young 7-year-old to get “lost”.

As always with coaching, we have a balancing act trying to ensure that young gymnasts progress at an optimal rate.

Up-and-coming Sabrina has great potential.

She’s added Eagle Giant into Tkachev and full twisting double layout. Nationals 2009.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Or watch a longer montage with all 4 apparatus from Nationals 2009.

Poor, poor celebrities.

They are harassed by stalkers. And are the butt of jokes by the Onion.

And all they get in exchange is hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships and appearance fees. Certainly Shawn will be a multi-millionaire if she is not already at age-17.

It’s just not fair.

Don’t fret too much for Shawn. She’s getting better and better at being a celebrity. She’s encouraging fans to use photoshop to put together “Vote Shawn” posters. This time for the Teen Choice Awards.

The Nominees for the Female Sports Category:

Nastia Liukin – Gymnastics
Shawn Johnson – Gymnastics
Danica Patrick – Car Racing
Kerri Walsh and Misty May Treanor – Volleyball
Serena Williams – Tennis

Log-in to vote.

Bernardo from Gymblog Brasil (Portuguese) sends us results of ‘Troféu Brasil’ or the first of 3 Brazilian National meets:

All-Around (WAG)
Khiuani Dias (APCEF) 54,933
Janaina Silva (APCEF) 53,967
Priscila Cobello (APCEF) 52,601

All-Around (MAG)
Mosiah Rodrigues 84,700
Sérgio Yoshio Junior 84,466
Victor Rosa 83,866

A clarification on the competition series from pasan:

The Caixa Circuit (Caixa Economica Federal is a bank that is an oficial brazilian team sponsor) has 3 rounds in a year:

I – June 19-21
II – August 21-23 (same weekend as a Brazilian Campionship)
III – December 4-6

Update: Gymblog reports that Diego Hypolito was injured during the meet.

Get ready to hoot the new gymnastics TV drama Make it or Break It. It premieres on ABC Family June 22 at 9 pm PT.

At least it’s providing work for gymnasts. As stunt doubles.

Especially UCLA gymnasts:

… Natalie Padilla (2007-08), Jordan Schwikert (2005-08) and Ariana Berlin (2006-09) are stunt doubles for two of the lead characters, and Tasha Schwikert (2005-08) is cast as a gymnast on the show. Heidi Moneymaker (1997-2000) was a stunt double for one of the leads in the pilot episode, and Karin Silvestri Coye (1995-97) is the gymnastics coordinator for the show.

Make It Or Break It is a drama set in the world of competitive gymnastics. Jordan doubles for actress Ayla Kell, who plays Payson Keeler, the top gymnast at The Rock training facility. Padilla and Berlin have doubled for actress Josie Loren, who plays Kaylie Cruz, another top competitor at the club. Moneymaker doubled in the show’s pilot for actress Chelsea Hobbs, who plays newcomer Emily Kmetko. Tasha can often be seen in the show as a background gymnast.

Other former collegiate gymnasts who are doing stunts on the show include Courtney Kupets (Georgia), Ashley Postell (Utah) and Renae Moneymaker (San Jose State). …

UCLA Gymnasts Participate In TV Show Make It Or Break It

An early review on Slate thinks it may be a HIT, however.

Another early preview review by GymNiceTic is disappointed with the gymnastics.

April 29th, 2009 — Gymnastics Meet Tracker – version 1.0 was officially available on the App Store.

This looks useful. Leave a comment if you’ve tried it.

Only $1.99.

The Gymnastics Meet Tracker application for iPhone and iPod Touch is for those parents sitting in the stands, typically recording their childs scores in a program sold for several dollars and afterwards either stores them in a box filled with other programs you will never look at again – or you just through it away.

Now – with Gymnastics Meet Tracker, you can load up your entire team of gymnasts, enter their scores and award places and see results from the meet instantly.

You can track an entire season of results for your boy or girl or the entire team.

Calculate the team meet score instantly. Showing the initials of the gymnast who’s score counted.

Email the meet results while at the meet.

Graphically see the season’s progress for each event or by all-around score.

Pogo’s Apps

Thanks girls. It was great to coach you again. You are so Artistic.

World’s this year in October in London are considered less important than the full team meet in Netherlands next year.

Both will be HOT tickets, though, I expect.

Put Oct. 12-24, 2010 on your calendar now if you plan to go.

… The qualification for the next Olympic Games starts with the 2010 World Championships. All gymnastics stars and the onrushing talents will do everything to stay in the race for the Olympics. These 2010 championships are a so called ‘major World Championships’. This means that beside individual titles in the all-rounds and event finals gymnasts also compete for world titles in the international match. Rotterdam is going to prepare for eight days of absolute top gymnastics …

From June 21 tickets can be ordered through the button ‘Tickets’ on the website www.gymnastics2010.com.

For ALL SESSIONS, all week, 200 Eu = US$300.