Gymnastics Coaching.com

… British Olympic gymnastics bronze medalist Louis Smith is the subject of the Observer Sport Monthly’s fashion special. Photographer Levon Bliss captures the Olympic hotness in this spring’s most vibrant styles and colors. …

Louis Smith is killing it in the Gucci suit and Burberry shirt. …

Olympic Gymnast Louis Smith Models Spring Colors and Fashion

(via Gymblog)

Dimitri Bilozerchev, father and coach of Alexi, has been fired from the Ohio State Men’s Gymnastics Team. Miles and Dimitri clashed over coaching styles and the recent dismissal of Alexi only between Miles and Dimitri. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Bilozerchev’s end up at another NCAA school by September.

IG Forum

Sounds like it may be true.

Too bad.

Leave a comment if you know any more.

related post – Alexy Bilozerchev leaves Ohio State

The German Press quoting our International Gymnastic Federation boss on an old issue:

Bruno Grandi has said that there were believable indications that China had cheated with the age of some of their gymnasts at the Beijing Olympics last year.

‘There were strong indications, but I did not handle the investigation. I had to accept the official documents that I was shown at face-value, I am not a policeman or Interpol,’ he told the German gymnastics magazine Leon.

‘If I find out that there was cheating, I can act. I gave everything to the IOC and they investigated the issue. They gave us their findings and we looked at them, but there was nothing.’

He said that if people found forged documents on the internet they would have to have legal proof that they were forged. ‘I have to respect the documents that the Chinese state gives me. What else should I do – declare war on China?’

In Beijing rumours surfaced that Chinese gymnasts He Kexin, Jiang Yuyan and Yang Yilin had not yet obtained the Olympic minimum age of 16 after reports were shown that gave the age of the gymnasts as just 13 in 2007.

But nobody could provide proof that the documents used for Olympic registration had been forged.

The former US gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi said at the time that age-cheating was like doping. ‘Official documents from a totalitarian system are meaningless,’ he said.

Monsters and Critics

Asian Gymnastics Union

So, Grandi thinks they cheated. (As do I.) … But puts the blame on the IOC.

… Could be that some new information is just about to come to light? Grandi covering his butt, in advance.

His blaming IOC is a good ruse. Except that it was Grandi that promised a second investigation into age cheating for Chinese gymnasts Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Olympics.

FIG never followed through on that promise.

I simply cannot believe anything Grandi says on the issue.

He Kexin – Welt Online

For the record, I feel that age cheats discovered after the fact should keep their medals. That the Federation get the penalty. And any adult officials complicit in the cover-up.

Further, that FIG drop the minimum age requirement.

Senior Courtney Kupets is the #1 all-around gymnast in the NCAA.

Online Athens – larger original

Who has a chance to beat her at Championships 2009?

full rankings – March 2, 2009 – GymInfo

I’d love to see Baskett win, tell the truth.

Don’t count out the young talent at UCLA. I could envision one of the Freshmen finishing high in the AA.

Click PLAY or watch Courtney’s Vault, Bars and Beam from last weekend on Gymnastike.

Watch her 10.0 Floor vs Florida.

Thanks PT.

What’s best practice for your gymnasts?

How do we prevent overuse pain later in the career?

Question: Should we use light ankle weights on young gymnasts for conditioning?

Answer:

Adding very light weights to gymnasts while conditioning is an excellent idea. At my gym coaches have made sand-filled bicycle tire tubes that can be wrapped around the waist or body.

Be cautious with using wrist or ankle weights, though. The resistance is greatly increased by being at the end of the lever of the limb. The risk, of course, is possible damage to growth plates. The bike tire tubes are safer.

Question: best methods for improving shoulder / upper back flexibility?

1) Increase passive flexibility.

My favourite passive stretch is bridge with feet elevated, pushing the shoulders away from the wall. Advanced kids are allowed to progress on to walkover drills starting with at least one foot elevated.

The lower back is “rigid” and not in full extension. (The “flatter”, the better.)

2) Increase active flexibility.

Use surgical tube or skipping rope to “bounce” to full range.

Note that measuring shoulder / upper back flexibility is difficult. If you allow the gymnast to use flexibility in the lower back (e.g. bridge test) to get a higher score, they will. Yet that’s not what we want (later) on Yurchenko, Tkachev, swing on Rings, etc.

Question: stretch at the beginning or end of a practice?

This one is easy. Improving flexibility in a muscle is best done when it is fatigued. Therefore, do flexibility improvement at the end of practice.

On the other hand, if you need flexibility during the workout (and you normally do) then you need to stretch at the beginning of the workout too. Or, perhaps better, at each apparatus as you arrive. Many beam coaches have a specific complex for stretching they do on arrival at that event.

Good coaching!

Cuban gymnast Charlie Tamayo might be the most watched male gymnast on the internet.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

What you might not know is that Charlie often hops over the fence into the gym, tightens up his grips, jumps up to do a FULL ring routine.

You can challenge him to the most outlandishly difficult acrobatic feat you can dream up … and he’ll do it first attempt. And add something more difficulty to the sequence.

More videos like this on the Gibson Athletics SaltoCafe YouTube channel.

Charlie was not allowed to try out for the USA Olympic Team 2008. But he’s still hoping to try out for the 2012 Team.

No doubt he’ll be back coaching this summer at Woodward West Camp in California.

UPDATE === linked by apolytongp:

Click PLAY or watch Tumbling up challenge – Charlie vs Daniel on YouTube.

Who is Daniel Bronnenberg?

UPDATE: Daniel is coaching with Charlie. Thanks Don.

Anyone who can tumble with Tamayo is awesome.

So I can finally tell you all about Dancing With The Stars! I have been so excited, nervous, and anxious to tell and share the news and experience. It was so hard to keep the secret. I was given the invitation to be on the show in late November and had to say, “Yes!” immediately! It is a once in a lifetime opportunity that probably wouldn’t have come again, and is one of the best experiences I could ever have.

As of right now, I have been training with my partner for about three weeks and am exhausted. It is one of the hardest things I have ever done …

read more – Inside Gymnastics

The Minnesota state high school meet was held this past Thursday and Friday. That’s one part of the world where school gymnastics is still thriving.

Congratulations to everyone who participated.

Results are here.

Kathryn sent in an interesting personal story:

Alise Post from St Cloud Tech who took second team, fourth AA, third VT, second bars is also a BMX biker and was the 2006 National Champ in that sport. 

She’a a 2-time ABA National No.1 Pro Women title holder and a 2012 U.S. Olympic hopeful on her bike. Who can do a layout Tsukahara!

Gymnastics videos on this website.

related post – Alise Post – Gymnast, BMX Racer

UPDATE: apolytongp calls her the “real life Stick It girl” Hayley, from the movie. But without the “queen bee attitude”.

Today I booked my hotel for the 2009 NCAA Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska.

And I can hardly wait.

In many ways it is the most exciting women’s gymnastics championships in the world.

THE COUCH GYMNAST posted an entertaining, even funny, overview of College Gymnastics from the perspective of a fan Down Under.

This is a good read.

Today, for the first time, I am going to be talking about what is, to an Australian, the whacky and even slightly alarming world of

COLLEGE GYMNASTICS!

… Of course, the team I see most of is the Gymdogs. Not surprising considering they seem to have ALL the money, ALL the fans and therefore ALL the media coverage. I can’t not like them. They look like they are having a great time, which i guess isn’t hard when you have plush dorms, a ridiculously fitted-out gym and one of the best college team records out there. Grace Taylor and the Two Courtney’s routines makes me really happy. …

… But the team that has my college-gymnastics-lovin’ heart has got to be…

The Bruins!

So today’s post is dedicated to reasons why I love that gang from UCLA. …

… click through for the entire article with more photos and video – THE COUCH GYMNAST

Coach and gym owner Valeri Liukin is an Olympic gold medalist (1988), and he’s coached an Olympic gold medalist, daughter Nastia, the recently crowned Olympic all-around champ. But, as the hype of Beijing begins to recede, you can find Liukin right where he was before Nastia’s Olympic glory: coaching in his WOGA gym Texas.

The latest addition to Liukin’s existing stable of Elite gymnasts— Nastia, Rebecca Bross, Grace McLaughlin and Christa Tanella—is 2007 world gold medalist Ivana Hong, who officially made the move to WOGA last week. (Hong had most recently trained under Al and Armine Fong at GAGE in Mo.)

What about Nastia?

… “She’s in the gym again, regular training,” Liukin confirmed. “With the exception [that] she’s very busy traveling. That really kills me. She has to do a lot of appearances, promoting meets, working with sponsors. So, business-wise, she’s very busy. [This past week] she was in Chicago, she was in New York and now she’s in New Orleans. …

As a father, he wants his daughter to succeed in business. But as a coach, Valeri is frustrated.

read more – Inside Gymnastics – WOGA Gears Up for ’09