Gymnastics Coaching.com

Sparked by a perfect 10.0 from Grace Taylor, the No. 1-ranked Georgia gymnastics team won a decisive meet on Senior Night over the No. 14-ranked Michigan Wolverines Saturday night at Stegeman Coliseum.

In front of a crowd of 10,225 on Saturday, the Gym Dogs posted a 197.400-195.825 victory over the Wolverines.

Courtney Kupets posted a 39.7 to win the all-around for the 10th meet this season as the Gym Dogs moved to 12-0 for the season.

Saturday night’s meet was the final home meet in the 26-year career of head coach Suzanne Yoculan, who has led Georgia to nine NCAA titles and 16 SEC titles to date. …

Gym Dogs Complete Undefeated Regular Season

As Greg Marsden said at Championships last year, “All hail.”

larger version – flickr

tcmony711 said, “This is my favorite sporting event to photograph!”

It’s going to be very difficult for anyone to defeat Georgia at SEC Championships or NCAA Championships.

These girls are too good.

This weekend, at the Jurassic Classic, I spoke with many who attended the World Cup last weekend, the highlight of the International Gymnix 2009 competition.

Everyone was very positive about the event.

Canadian coach Tony Smith said that all agreed the Men’s World Cup should be held again in conjunction with Gymnix next season. Nathan Gafuik, who won two medals, agreed.

Everyone said the Women’s Gymnix meet was excellent, too. As usual.

The only downside was that too few international Senior Women opted to attend the World Cup. I’m still not sure why.

Though there was prize money on the line, only 2 women opted to do Vault (PDF). (One competed a Handspring for second vault!)

This was an excellent routine, however. Click PLAY or watch Mattie Larson winning beam on Gymnastike.

Word Cup Results – Gymnix 2009

Olympic silver medallist Jason Burnett of Toronto won the gold medal in men’s trampoline Saturday to close out the Elite Canada trampoline and tumbling competition in Kelowna, B.C.

Burnett totalled a score of 109.60 points for the win. Charles Thibault of Quebec City was second at 104.10 and Carl-Rom Colthoff of Toronto third at 102.70.

In women’s trampoline, Rosannagh MacLennan of Toronto took the title with 102.70 points.

Kailey McLeod of Toronto was second at 98.55 and Brenna Casey of Ottawa third at 96.40.

Veteran Karen Cockburn of Toronto, who hasn’t competed since winning her third consecutive Olympic medal last summer in Beijing, is skipping the meet and will focus on World Cups and the world championships later this year.

Other winners Saturday include Andrew Egyed of Calgary in men’s tumbling, Ashley Speed of Etobicoke, Ont., in women’s tumbling, Luke Friesen of Kelowna in men’s double mini trampoline and Gillian Bruce of Calgary in women’s double mini trampoline.

In youth competition, Keegan Soehn of Red Deer and Mariah Madigan of Toronto in topped the men’s and women’s trampoline, respectively, while Amiel Clarke of Calgary and Megan Mereniuk of Coquitlam, B.C., were first in men’s and women’s tumbling.

The event was the first of three qualifying meets for the national team.

Canada.com – Burnett captures men’s trampoline gold

Personal shout-out to Andrew Egyed who trains out of my gym, Altadore. We are proud of you!

International Gymnast has a good summary:

2009 Russian Championships
March 13, Bryansk

Women’s Vault
1. Yulia Berger (Moscow) 14.562
2. Kristina Goryunova (Novgorod) 13.650
3. Anna Dementyeva (Samara) 13.475

Uneven Bars
1. Ksenia Semyonova (Tula) 15.800
2. Aliya Mustafina (Moscow) 15.300
3. Ksenia Afanasyeva (Tula) 14.700

Balance Beam
1. Aliya Mustafina (Moscow) 14.950
1. Ksenia Afanasyeva (Tula) 14.950
3. Ksenia Semyonova (Tula) 14.725

Women’s Floor Exercise
1. Ksenia Semyonova (Tula) 14.925
2. Kristina Goryunova (Novgorod) 14.825
3. Aliya Mustafina (Moscow) 14.700

Men’s Floor Exercise
1. Yuri Ryazanov (Vladimir) 14.850
2. Anton Golotsutskov (Seversk) 14.725
3. Anton Neudakin (Vladimir) 14.625

Pommel Horse
1. Andrei Perevoznikov (Central) 15.000
2. Andrei Likhovitsky (South) 14.375
3. Dmitry Stolyarov (Moscow) 13.700

Still Rings
1. Konstantin Pluzhnikov (Siberia) 15.475
2. Yuri Ryazanov (Central) 15.225
3. Ruslan Nigmadzyanov (Central) 14.425

Men’s Vault
1. Denis Ablyazin (Privolzhsky) 15.825
2. Anton Golotsutskov (Siberia) 15.737
3. Anton Lobatshev (Ural) 15.625

Parallel Bars
1. Nikolai Kryukov (Central) 15.475
2. Maxim Devyatovsky (Siberia) 14.800
3. Nikita Ignatyev (Siberia) 14.550

High Bar
1. Sergei Khorokhordin (Central) 15.250
2. Yuri Ryazanov (Central) 15.075
3. Maxim Devyatovsky (Siberia) 14.600

Click through for the details:

… Yulia Berger won vault. Berger will represent Russia along wih Afanasyeva, Semyonova and Kristina Goryunova at the upcoming European Championships. …

International Gymnast – Russian Championships Conclude

Kristina Goryunova

New National Coach Alexander Alexandrov:

… “It was my first competition as head coach of the women’s national team, and as a whole, I am still happy with what I’ve seen,” …

IG – Russia Picks Women’s Squad for Europeans

Perhaps that’s not the best adjective for this blog post heading:

The NCAA gymnastics post-season is beginning to take shape. Conference championships are on tap next weekend, but Monday’s national point standings will reflect the East vs. West dichotomy that defines the elite programs in women’s collegiate gymnastics today.

Here’s is how the Top 10 RQS should look when officially released on Monday morning. Two teams compete on either Saturday or Sunday, but the outcomes won’t necessarily change the makeup of the Top 10, only perhaps the order. Should UCLA reach its max potential RQS, the Bruins could climb to 6th in the rankings. Georgia should remain first after the Gym Dogs home meet on today with Michigan.

LSU is the nation’s hottest team – rising 7 spots in the rankings in the past two weeks. The last time the Tigers were ranked 4th or higher was on March 26, 2007. The past two weeks, LSU has replaced lower home and away scores with stronger 197.150 and 196.650, respectively.

1) UGA 197.210 – meet on Saturday (max possible RQS 197.415), 0
2) Utah 197.03, 0
3) Stanford 196.825, 0
4) LSU 196.760, +2
5) Bama 196.720, -1
6) Florida 196.565, -1
7) Oklahoma 196.464, +3
8) Arkansas 196.440, +3
9) UCLA 196.430 – meet on Sunday (max possible RQS 196.580), +/- TBD
10) Oregon State 196.4, -1

Talkin’ 10’s

A TV commercial for the Nokia N96 Bruce Lee limited edition phone.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s not real. But, very impressive, none the less.

The handset has Bruce Lee’s face and signature on the back case, and it’s packed with rare photos of the legendary actor. The phone further comes bundled with several accessories and a Bruce Lee doll, made by a company called Enterbay.

You can pick up a Bruce Lee phone in Hong Kong for about US$1,286.

Shout out to the Demonstration Gymnastics girls from my club that traveled to Cranbrook, BC for the 2009 Key City Invitational.

larger version

Sounds like it was a terrific road trip.

Wish I had been able to be there.

The #1 Oklahoma Men’s Gymnastics team will face #6 Ohio State on Saturday, March 14th at 7:00 p.m. at McCasland Field House.

Former OU Gymnast and 2008 Olympic Silver and Bronze Medalist Jonathan Horton will be honored at the meet and will perform an exhibition routine on the high bar following the competition. Horton’s heroics in the 2008 Beijing Olympics led team USA to a Bronze Medal in the team competition. Horton won his Silver Medal with an amazing high-bar routine in the individual finals …

International Gymnast forum – jhorfan24

Inside Gymnastics has a long, personal article on the Beijing hero. A good read.

Horton, a native of Houston, will return to his hometown after he graduates from the University of Oklahoma with a business degree this May. He and fiancée Haley DeProspero, also an OU gymnast and Texas native (her family hails from the Dallas area), will make their home in Houston after their June wedding. There, Haley will attend the University of Texas medical school, while Horton plans to return to his roots and work with junior coach Tom Meadows at Cypress Academy.

Meadows and Horton have remained close. Meadows, who was an NCAA gymnast at Oklahoma under Mark Williams, Horton’s current personal coach, was on hand to watch Horton at the Olympic Trials and celebrated with Horton’s friends and family when his protégé made the 2008 team. Meadows even traveled to Beijing …

read more on Inside Gymnastics – HORTON HEADS HOME, PART 1

I had a good talk with Shawn Chapell of Northern Athletics, the Canadian American Athletic (AAI) representative.

He brought in the equipment for the Jurassic Classic.

Shawn’s happy with the growing market share of sales his American company is seeing in Canada.

For decades, Spieth Anderson (now branded SA Sport) has had a near monopoly. Manufactured in Orillia, Ontario, Spieth has supplied the equipment for National Championships since forever. Clubs bought Spieth so their top gymnasts would be best prepared for the highest level meets.

Times have changed.

The 4 biggest meets my club in Alberta is attending this season are supplied by AAI – Great West Gym Fest, Jurassic Classic, Wild Rose and Alberta Provincial Championships.

In Quebec, GYMNOVA equipment from France has made great inroads. Their representative is respected coach and all around good guy Robert Majeau.

In the west, Chinese equipment companies are beginning to look to the Canadian market. I have Gaofei products in my own gym.

Coaches agree that more choices are a good thing. Competition will benefit the consumer.

Now … I’ve got to get back to Shawn. My girls were instantly smitten with the AAI neoprene beam pad. It’s kept snug with Velcro.

AAI

And I’ve always loved the AAI sting mat. The best I’ve ever seen.

AAI

Leave a comment if you have other pieces of AAI equipment to recommend.

Another great video from Don Eckert of Salto Cafe.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Coach Sed Basset at Woodward West Gymnastics Camp.

This is a favourite challenge of the top athletes at Woodward.

See more videos like this on the Gibson Saltocafe YouTube page. Subscribe. Comment. And link to those videos.

(via Straight to the Bar)