Some are up.
Anderson Loran, Taiso
Still no results posted on the official website – JurassicClassic.com
was gymnastics better in the 1980s?
I’m always saying the best Women’s Artistic Gymnastics was in the late 1980s in the former Soviet Union.
Many agree.
But after watching the latest MostepanovaFan video, I’m not so sure.
Montage of gymnasts from the 80s performing skills, followed by people still performing them today.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
In most cases the modern version is better than the 1980s version.
Of course it’s not a fair comparison. The apparatus is far better now. AND we have so many good Chinese gymnasts now.
More MostepanovaFan video posts.
Note that YouTube has already disabled the audio. I’m getting increasingly irked with YouTube. It will be time to leave for another service soon.
Perhaps GymnastTube.
first year in College gymnastics?
I recall how nervous Stephanie McGregor was about going to Oregon State University on gymnastics scholarship.
Then how excited and happy she was on returning home for her first Christmas.
She made the transition from club to College gymnastics fairly easily.
It doesn’t always go so well. …
The COUCH GYMNAST posted the best overview I’ve seen on what it’s like to be a Freshman gymnast on an NCAA Gymnastics Team.
Amanda Castillo
The emphasis on TEAM. Dealing with new coaches. Living far away from family. Keeping up your grades. Being a “celebrity” athlete at some schools. Competing with the NOISE … sometimes you cannot hear your Floor music. Reduced training hours. Competing 16 times in just a few months. Sometimes 3 times in the same week. Making the “line-up” as a rookie.
It’s a great read.
Jon Horton – Olympic Champion
From a terrific Inside Gymnastics interview:
… I have two ultimate goals. And you may laugh when you hear them, but I don’t care.
The first is to be a leader on the U.S. team for the next four years and do such a good job that we can stand on top of the podium as a team at the next Olympics. Yeah, I’m talking about a team gold medal.
And the second is to be the Olympic all-around champion.
So, you may be laughing right now but, you know what? I tell everyone that if I go to the 2012 Olympics, have the greatest meet of my life and we do everything in our power and don’t win, or don’t even medal, I’ll still love it. I’ll love every minute of it. All the training. All the hard work.
Yeah, I have that ultimate goal, but if I try my best, and have the greatest meet of my life, I’ll have no regrets. None.
larger original – flickr – ammersmif
I’m not laughing.
How many great all-arounders will compete in London 2012?
I can see Jon in the mix.
Russian gymnastics compulsory bars
In Russia they are still competing bar routines on a single rail. Good idea.
Championship in Moscow in October 2007 – Compulsory Bars.
Anastasia Grishina
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
UPDATE: Single rail routines are still part of the girls programs in Australia and the U.K.
Shawn Johnson does the Salsa
Dancing With The Stars WEEK 2, 2009
Season 8 Episode 2 ( March 16 2009)
They were excellent! Much better than Week 1.
After 2wks a score of 47 puts them in third place.
The second week of performances features contestants doing the salsa or the quickstep.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Gymblog has commentary and additional links.
NCGA Gymnastics Championships
Stephanie Harris, Sports Information Director at Hamline University sent us the detailed program of the NCAA Division 3 Women’s Gymnastics Championships this coming weekend.
Download it as a PDF file – 2009 NCGA Nationals Program
Good luck to all competitors, especially the host team. If you can get to Saint Paul, Minnesota, you really should attend. We want Div 3 gymnastics to thrive.
Special shout out to co-captain Ali Clausen.
new Cirque du Soleil videos
Good news.
Cirque is posting official video clips on YouTube. One sample, a preview of the excellent show in Orlando, Florida coached by Matthew Sparks.
Click PLAY or watch La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil – Trailer on YouTube.
They’ve uploaded 45 video clips like this over the past few days.
YouTube – Cirque du Soleil videos
Cirque auditions are being held in Orlando the first weekend in May. Click through to the new casting website — via the flash movie the top of the page — if interested in knowing more.
Midwest Training and Ice Center
Here’s a good news story. A gymnastics entrepreneur.
MIDWEST TRAINING and ICE CENTER
We are the Indiana’s Premier and Largest State-Of-The-Art Professional Gymnastics, Fitness and Ice Center
… For years it sat dark and empty, the proverbial white elephant in the middle of a community that grew and flourished around it.
But with great vision and an abundance of grit and determination, local resident Eileen Butcher took a giant leap of faith and bought the old St. John Ice Arena. Two years later, the lights are on at the now-renamed Midwest Training and Ice Center, and business is booming.
From 5 a.m., when the health club opens, until often past midnight, the center is filled with tots, teens and adults enjoying a myriad of activities, seven days a week.
According to Butcher, the owner and manager, the 77,000-square-foot facility offers gymnastics, cheerleading, trampoline, tumbling, hockey and figure skating for all ages with lessons, leagues, teams, camps and parties. …
Seventeen local schools train their gymnastic and trampoline teams at the gym, and Butcher says the Midwest coaches are second to none.
“People obviously come for the safe environment, but they’re also here for the quality of coaching. We have seven full-time coaches and 11 part-time,” Butcher said.
Midwest teams compete regionally, statewide, nationally and internationally. One of their young women has achieved Olympic-level skills on the trampoline.
“Our Midwest Xplosion senior cheerleading team just came home from a recent competition as national champions,” Butcher bragged.
The road to apparent success hasn’t been easy, Butcher admitted …
Looking to the future, Butcher hopes to open a second ice rink where the gym is currently located and build a new facility, dedicated to gymnastics, on the property.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 