stolen banners in your gym?

Gymnasts from the College of William & Mary were caught taking banners last weekend during the NCAA Gymnastics Championships. …

W&M gymnasts caught taking NCAA banners

Oops.

Reminds me of the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis where gymnastics enthusiasts were JAILED for stealing outdoor promotional banners. (I wasn’t caught, myself.)

And I certainly don’t have this giant flag.

Georgia

stolen banners in your gym?

Gymnasts from the College of William & Mary were caught taking banners last weekend during the NCAA Gymnastics Championships. …

W&M gymnasts caught taking NCAA banners

Oops.

Reminds me of the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis where gymnastics enthusiasts were JAILED for stealing outdoor promotional banners. (I wasn’t caught, myself.)

And I certainly don’t have this giant flag.

Georgia.jpg

this site was HACKED again

by site editor Rick McCharles

Apologies again.

You may have seen this … again.

account-suspended-Bluehost.jpg

Bluehost suspends all sites they host for any infraction. Yet they are unwilling barely willing to help me fix the problem.

I think it’s time to move to a more secure web host, likely WordPress.com.

I’ll stop posting until it is fixed. Or moved.

gymnastics – learning a kip

Proud parent Mariposa posted this photo of her DD with the club kip trophy:

kip-trophy.jpg

… After months of being close, she finally got her kip tonight! She had to do 10 of them to get to say at team meeting that she had her kip, so she has a rip to go along with the kip! She also got to bring home this huge trophy that says “I got my kip”. She is so proud of herself right now. Funny thing was that on the way to gym, she told me, “I am going to get my kip tonight and bring home that kip trophy.” I said to her to just do her best and maybe to set that kip goal at before she turns 7 (giving her 3 months to keep practicing!).

And to make it even better, once you get your kip, you get to practice jumping to the high bar, so now she is really happy. …

Chalk Bucket – She got her kip!!

The kip in men’s gymnastics is not much more important than a dozen other skills. But for young female gymnasts, it’s often the most frustrating skill of all. Shawn Johnson said that she really struggled to learn a kip.

Kip.jpg

Brian Bakalar has an excellent kip article with photo sequence posted on Gymnastics Revolution.

Like most coaches, I try EVERYTHING when introducing this skill to beginners.

My favourite drills are kip on parallel bars. And backward uprise on safety straps.

Once the beginner finally gets their first kip, a good way to improve them is with kip series on straps.

This week Robin at my gym got her kip after many frustrating months being … close. All our “competitive” girls can now kip. Hoo Hoo!

gymnastics – learning a kip

Proud parent Mariposa posted this photo of her DD with the club kip trophy:

kip-trophy

… After months of being close, she finally got her kip tonight! She had to do 10 of them to get to say at team meeting that she had her kip, so she has a rip to go along with the kip! She also got to bring home this huge trophy that says “I got my kip”. She is so proud of herself right now. Funny thing was that on the way to gym, she told me, “I am going to get my kip tonight and bring home that kip trophy.” I said to her to just do her best and maybe to set that kip goal at before she turns 7 (giving her 3 months to keep practicing!).

And to make it even better, once you get your kip, you get to practice jumping to the high bar, so now she is really happy. …

Chalk Bucket – She got her kip!!

The kip in men’s gymnastics is not much more important than a dozen other skills. But for young female gymnasts, it’s often the most frustrating skill of all. Shawn Johnson said that she really struggled to learn a kip.

Kip

Brian Bakalar has an excellent kip article with photo sequence posted on Gymnastics Revolution.

Like most coaches, I try EVERYTHING when introducing this skill to beginners.

My favourite drill is kip on parallel bars. Next, backward uprise on safety straps.

Once the beginner finally gets their first kip, a good way to improve them is with kip series on straps.

This week Robin at my gym got her kip after many frustrating months being … close. All our “competitive” girls can now kip. Hoo Hoo!

Olympic Champion Yang Wei retires

I saw the story linked from Inside Gymnastics on Twitter.

… The 29-year-old spearheaded China to the men’s team title and collected all-around individual to cap his prolific career. Yang was also a member in China’s win of men’s team in the Sydney Olympics. Before culminating in Beijing, Yang also won seven world titles and two Olympic silvers in an international career spanning13 years. …

Yang refused to reveal his plans for the immediate future. …

Yang married his long-term girlfriend Yang Yun, a bronze medallist in the uneven bars at the Sydney Games, last November in a lavish ceremony that drew some criticism from his compatriots.

China View – Triple Olympic champion gymnast Yang retires

Thanks for the many good years. His win in Beijing was masterful, I thought. Carefully planned. Perfectly executed.

Yang-Wei-wedding.jpg
more wedding photos

His wife is one of the Chinese gymnasts who admitted to being an “age cheat” at the 2000 Olympics.

Utah v Georgia Beam

Is there a judging bias towards the SEC teams in College gymnastics?

Many think so.

JuanGone34 posted a video comparison with deductions overlaid.

comparison of the University of Utah and Georgia at the recent 2009 NCAA gymnastics championships. There was much speculation that the scoring was not equal for all teams, especially on this event, so I put together this video to compare routines side by side. I chose Utah and Georgia because they had the most video available to show the most routines. I wasn’t able to find very many videos of the other teams, but based on this alone I would say Georgia was overscored by at least 5 tenths.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

  • Utah vs. Georgia Beam Comparison (video 2 of 3)
  • Utah vs. Georgia Beam Comparison (video 3 of 3)
  • There’s some commentary on the College Gymnastics Board disagreeing with the “judging bubbles”. (Judging in the NCAA is weird, as you know. Very few errors are deducted. The deductions tiny compared with F.I.G.)

    I watched the meet closely.

    It seemed to me that — in Prelims — Florida got the most generous scores, Stanford the least generous.

    Florida is in the SEC. Stanford is not.

    But I really cannot confirm any bias. The SEC teams are really, really good.

    are gymnasts smarter than average?

    We are all convinced that they are.

    Grad student Lisa Laundry is researching the topic.

    Wanted: Gymnastics research papers on the topic “Participation in gymnastics (athletics) and academic achievement“.

    I am looking for information to assist in my research for a Masters Degree in Education. Please forward any information to Lisa Laundry

    lisalaundry @ sd28.bc.ca

    diving – Galashan Twins

    Tracey Morrison linked this clip on Facebook.

    Helen and Carol Galashan did a talent transfer from gymnastics to diving in 2006. Three years on and they are already European bronze medalists.

    Click PLAY or watch the twins on YouTube.

    Helen and Carol competed in the 2006 Commonwealth Games. As gymnasts on the team from Scotland.

    Now they aspire to compete in the London Olympics.