Gymnastics Coaching.com

Dancing with the stars – Team Mambo – Shawn Johnson and Chuck Wicks

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Shawn lives on to dance another week. Chuck Wicks was eliminated.

Understand.

We have over 170 gymnasts ranging in age from 18 months – 16 years of age enrolled in our various programs. Our Club is operated by a Board of Directors and supported by qualified coaches and volunteers. Our focus is the continued development of gymnastic skills and performance for our members in a positive and fun-filled environment.

About Corner Brook

Corner Brook is a beautiful city with a population of approximately 22,000. It is supported by excellent amenities including world class alpine skiing facilities at Marble Mountain (just 10 minutes from downtown Corner Brook), cross country skiing facilities, and the beautiful Gros Morne National Park (Just 1 hour north of Corner Brook).

The Head Coach is responsible for a range of duties including the delivery of strong competitive, pre-competitive and recreational programs for men and women. The Head Coach will monitor and evaluate club program and make recommendations for change. The Head Coach will supervise other club coaches, oversee coaching development and assist with the allocation of appropriate staffing resources.

NCCP Level II minimum combined with at least 5+ years of experience coaching competitive athletes. Candidates must also have current first aid certification. Advanced communication and management skills are essential. Other combinations of certification and experience will be considered.

Application deadline – May 22, 2009:
Saltos Gymnastics Club

saltosgymnastics @ gmail.com

by site editor Rick McCharles

Last year I attended mostly Women’s Artistic Gymnastics competitions in the USA. All excellent.

This year I returned to my home club, Altadore, and coached at most of the meets available to our gymnasts in Alberta, Canada.

… not so excellent.

99 of 100 coaches in Canada would agree that the system and rules used in the Junior Olympic program in the States is superior to that we use in Canada. The American system has been bashed and tweaked and argued for decades. It works.

It’s been basically adopted in Australia and New Zealand. It works there.

Yet for some reason in Canada our leadership thinks we can invent a better wheel.

USA stayed with the “perfect 10”. Understood by every grandmother in the bleachers and the media.
Canada models our Provincial stream scoring system on that used for the Olympics. Many are baffled by what score what routine should get at each level.

USA has 10 levels of age group competition. Most kids, most years can “move up”. Feel they are progressing
Canada has 5 levels of age group competition. Half the kids are stuck between levels, undecided whether or not they should “move up”.

The goal of the JO program in the States rules of Level 10 in the J.O. program prepare the best girls for competing at the University level. With over 80 teams, this is a realistic objective for the best kids in many gyms.
The goal of the Canadian program is unclear. Is it to develop the occasional Sr. National Team member? Elite gymnasts should be developed through a separate, parallel stream.

The J.O. rules are rarely changed.
Canadian rules are changed frequently. New “interpretations” come out monthly. Connection requirements on beam (for example) vary meet to meet. Even our top judges are reluctant to be definitive on clarifications as the answer might be different next competition.

The American system is easier. More kids from more gyms can participate. This helps competitive coaches keep working.
Canadian gymnastics is not particularly accessible for new coaches, new gymnasts, new clubs. By glaring comparison, the entry level for boys in Canada could not be more encouraging. We can start 10-yr-olds and they do not feel out of place.

In the USA there are far fewer rules. Judges are very flexible on anything to do with athlete safety. Equipment can be adjusted. Vault horse raised or lowered to any height.
Don’t try that in Canada. Our lowest level competitors are held to rules totally unnecessary to any but Olympians.

At NCAA Championships 2009 gymnasts were allowed to have a coach standing on a spotting box in competition. No deduction. Three people holding landing mats. No deduction.
Don’t try that in Canada.

It seemed every Canadian competition I attended some new rule came to light to limit what coaches can do. One of the top judges, flustered, told me she was “wasting her time” trying to apply the lastest Bars rules interpretation. If she did, the wrong gymnasts came out ahead.

Yeesh.

Solution?

If someone is ever hired as new full-time, long-term National Women’s Coach in Canada — a position vacant since Claude Pelletier stepped down over a year ago — the first thing they should do is adopt the Junior Olympic competitive structure.

Within 4 years we would have a much healthier competitive program AND be producing more Elite gymnasts.

At my gym every single gymnast, coach, parent and judge would be happier tomorrow if we suddenly adopted the American J.O. program.

This is a no-brainer.

But in the top down socialist sports system we have in Canada, reason is unlikely to prevail.

It’s more likely that one Canadian Province or region will entirely adopt the American J.O. program. Ontario already opted out of the Provincial program we use in my region, instead using a 9 level scheme more like the American model. They should do it first.

Leave a comment if you disagree. Or have additional comparisons to add between the Canadian and American programs to add.

Thanks George Novak for inspiring me to finally post this, something many Alberta coaches have been discussing all season.

====

I should note that our MAG program in Canada is just as good or better than the American JO program. And that our Trampoline and Tumbling rules are better. And Canadians have been far more competitive internationally in MAG and T&T than WAG.

==== UPDATE:

Gymnastics Canada is conducting an online survey:

With the 2009 FIG Code of points coming in effect next year, the Canadian Provincial Program will need to be updated.

The 2009-2010 Draft Version of the CPP Program is available on the Gymnastics BC Website.

However, before the program is finalized, the CPP Working Group is requesting your feedback. Please take a few minutes to review the draft version of the 2009-2010 season and answer this survey. Your opinion is important!

You can always provide additional comments in writing to Andree Montreuil at amontreuil @ gymnastics.bc.ca

To see it, click here.

They seem sincerely interested in the opinion of coaches and judges.

One Georgia gymnast won beam. The other finished second.

But which Courtney should have won the 2009 NCAA Beam Title?

Click PLAY or watch McCool on YouTube.

Compare with Kupets very last routine as a Georgia gymnast.

Leave a comment if you can decide.

I like McCool.

Reported on the Denver site.

(via gymnerd on College Gymnastics Board)

Fear Fainne Gruaige – flickr – larger original

Kupets, Baskett, Clare-Kearney, and López were nominated.

Dancing with the Stars 2009 – WEEK 8 – DWTS Season 8, Episode 14 ( April 27 2009 )

Click PLAY or watch the Samba on YouTube.

They also danced the mambo with two other couples in “team” and received a 25, giving them a total of 52.

Japanese Olympians Kohei Uchimura and Koko Tsurumi successfully defended their all-around titles Sunday at the 63rd Japanese National Championships in Tokyo.

Uchimura, the 2008 Olympic all-around silver medalist, became national all-around champion again following last year’s win, while Tsurumi took her fourth consecutive title. …

International Gymnast – full results and commentary

Day Life – Kazuhito Tanaka

Our controversial Olympic Champion on Bars is growing up.

Looks like she has taken out the Tkachev, instead connecting layout Jaeger to Pak. The new FIG rules count only the 8 most difficult skills rather than 10.

Click PLAY or watch the short News clip on YouTube.

Her kip on the high rail looks less laboured than in the Olympics. Likely because she’s taller and catches higher on the transfer from low.

(via mandusky on IG forum)

UPDATE: I hear she’s back trying to compete all-around.

The best gymnastics competition scoring software available in Canada is FREE.

Updated frequently by my personal hero and all around good guy Stu Cram. Donations (instead of cheap praise) accepted.

Customized versions are available at a small charge.

The basic GymScoreLite programs for MAG and WAG were updated today.

New options include …

• Results Page and Audience List page:
– bigger area for meet/club logos
– buttons to hide the gymnasts’ cities or age columns if they are not used.

• Audience List page:
– buttons to import gymnast ID #s from either the Gymnast Info sheet or the OOP sheet

• Printing large numbers page
– changed font and font size

• Judging Score Sheets (WAG)
– combined into one page for all events, similar to the MAG version
– buttons added to print all sheets automatically

• Several small changes to make MAG and WAG versions more alike.

Both can be downloaded from my Gym-Score-Depot.ca web site in its software section.

Advanced versions for 2-day meets or team scores are also available.

Free Gymnastics Results Software
from Gym-Score-Depot.ca & Old Guy Software Solutions

Works on both Mac and Windows systems.

details on the GymScoreLite ’09 page

Sofia (BUL) hosted the second stopover of the current FIG Trampoline and Tumbling World Cup series on April 24 – 24, 2009. The large majority of the world’s elite trampolinists and tumblers competed at Sofia’s Winter Palace of Sports, exhibiting remarkable form so early in the season. …

FIG

RESULTS

TRA Individual Men
1. ITO Masaki (JPN) 40.40
2. NIKITIN Yuri (UKR) 40.20
3. JENSEN Peter (DEN) 39.50

TRA Individual Women
1. KHILKO Ekaterina (UZB) 38.20
2. JIANG Yigi (CHN) 37.90
3. PETRENIA Tatsiana (BLR) 36.80

TRA Synchronised Men
1. ITO Masaki / NAGASAKI Shunsuke (JPN) 50.60
2. PENNES Gregoire / MARTINY Sebastien (FRA) 49.80
3. LUXON Dennis / GROMOWSKI Martin (GER) 46.50

TRA Synchronised Women
1. JIANG Yigi / GU Qingwen (CHN) 48.50
2. DOMCHEVSKA Yulia / MOVCHAN Olena (UKR) 46.70
3. YAMASHITA Natsumi / TERADA Mina (JPN) 44.80

Tumbling Men
1. WANG Jiexu (CHN) 77.40
2. YANG Song (CHN) 74.80
3. ZUNUKOV Evgeny (RUS) 74.00

Tumbling Women
1. KOROBEYNIKOVA Anna (RUS) 70.90
2. CHABANENKO Olena (UKR) 66.60 … mother of two!
3. SPEED Ashley (CAN) 62.60