Gymnastics Coaching.com

wanted – June guest gymnastics coach

My club, Altadore Gymnastics in Calgary, is looking for a “guest coach” or two in June, 2009 to help with our summer training program.

You need experience coaching Women’s Artistic Gymnastics up to Level 10 J.O. in the USA or FIG “Open” in Canada.

It’s a fun gym, well equipped.

We’d pay you hourly. Find you a free place to live for a week or more.

A good chance to travel and work in another gym.

If interested, email me at Rick_McCharles@hotmail.com

Altadore also has coaches who would like to do an “exchange” with you in your gym. They would coach your kids, you would coach ours.

Inside LSU Gymnastics

Michael Smith is editor of the Talkin’ 10’s – Inside LSU Gymnastics blog.

It’s the best blog covering any of the NCAA teams, I reckon.

An insider, Michael is the LSU Gymnastics announcer in the Maravich Center for last 13 years, and play-by-play announcer for LSU Gymnastics on LSUSports.net.

His blog has more detailed analysis than most. For example:

National Rankings

LSU was the biggest mover in the country this week (see the blog from earlier this week for an exact explanation how this came to be). The Tigers jumped four spots in the national point standing to check in at 6th. Hereâ€™s how it stacks up in the point standings after 8 weeks of competition along with how many spots each team has moved up or down in the rankings since last week.

1 Georgia 197.015 +1
2 Utah 196.885 -1
3 Stanford 196.590 +1
4 UCLA 196.340 -1
5 Auburn 196.260 0
6 LSU 196.250 +4
7 Florida 196.220 -1
8 Oregon State 196.215 +1
9 Arkansas 196.210 -2
10 Oklahoma 196.105 +1
11 Alabama 196.010 -3
12 Nebraska 195.465 0

The tone is more personal than most other NCAA team sites that seem to cut-and-paste the same old text every weekend.

For example:

… Up until 11:00 p.m. last Friday night, the LSU Tigers held the highest gymnastics team score in Nation at 197.400. Ten times the Tigers set new or matched existing career highs on various events during the meetâ€“ a rare event in collegiate gymnastics. Then, approximately 2,000 miles to the west, Utah put on a clinic of its own â€“ scoring 197.525 in a sold-out home arena. So goes the weekly battle among the nationâ€™s elite programs. …

And it links to videos like this:

Click PLAY or watch an interview with Head Coach D-D Breaux on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

Check it out for yourself – Talkin’ 10’s – Inside LSU Gymnastics – Meet Nine: Arkansas

Georgia gymnast Grace Taylor

The biggest clash in College gymnastics this weekend is Georgia vs Florida. The Gators are hungry.

Reigning NCAA beam champion Grace Taylor from Georgia is ranked #2 on beam this season.

At any College meet she’s one of the most eye-catching, appealing competitors.

A fan favourite.

McCool FX and Taylor Beam – NCAA Champions 2008

There’s a terrific article on Grace that gives background into her upbringing in a fervently Christian family. Fascinating.

So when the Gators come to town Saturday, is there any chance Taylor will take it easy on them, show a little Christian compassion?

Not a chance.

“Florida beat us at SECs my freshman year. And I don’t appreciate them as a school because of that,” she said. “I don’t like to think of myself as someone that holds grudges, but I don’t particularly like the feeling of getting beat by Florida. And within my power I definitely don’t want to lose to them.”

Red and Black – AMAZING GRACE
Gym Dog Georgia’s ‘perfect little ambassador’

Sandy wins Gymnastics Elite Canada

SURREY, B.C. â€“ Casey Sandy of Burlington, Ont., posted the best scores on floor and rings en route to the gold medal in the all around event Thursday at the Elite Canada menâ€™s gymnastics competition …

The meet was the second and final phase in the national team selection. Last seasonâ€™s national championships were the first phase.

The gymnasts did all around competitions both Wednesday and Thursday evening and the combined score from both days determined the final standings. Sandy totalled 175.300 points with Ken Ikeda of Abbotsford, B.C., second at 174.100 and Jared Walls of Edmonton third at 168.000. …

Ikeda was tops on pommel horse and parallel bars and Olympic team member Nathan Gafuik of Calgary earned the best marks on vault and high bar.

In junior competition, Jackson Payne of Edmonton was the all around champ with 165.000 points placing first on parallel bars and high bar. …

The other all around champions were Justin Karstadt of Mississauga in the Argo age group and Tariq Dowers of Mississauga in the Tyro division.

Gymnastics Canada – Casey Sandy wins all around title at Elite Canada

Casey Sandy – photo – International Gymnast

A personal shout out to Colton Tuffs (7th) and Ben Ulmer (9th) Argo in their first Elite Canada.

full results – Gym Score Depot

gymnasts – where is the virtuosity?

Eliminated by the International Gymnastics Federation.

But why?

… the FIG technical committee went in the direction of seeking a more rational and objective way to judge gymnastics. The first target was to eliminate certain articles that may have caused confusion or uncertainty in judging such as eliminating bonus awards for virtuosity and originality….

This from a 2000 article written by Japanese gymnastics coach Harumi Minusa. His article, 9yrs-ago, is called How We Must Develop the Sport of Gymnastics for the Future.

Well Professor. Things are much worse today than in 2000.

Gymblog had a revealing look at the state of international gymnastics – Bad form at the American Cup. It includes photos of some of the best gymnasts in the world.

Most international pommel horse routines are a string of poorly executed difficulty parts. Little girls are forced to throw every BIG skill they’ve ever learned on beam.

Is there no way to bring back virtuosity?

VIRTUOSITY is the highest demonstration of athletic ability. Virtuosity may be given for individual element and connections but also for the total exercise.

Virtuosity … may appear anywhere, regardless of the degree of difficulty, and may be seen in the most simple or the most difficult movement. …

In lower level age-group routines we had a simple definition of the virtuosity bonus. If any skill or routine and any given level made the judge go “Wow”, we could award an extra 0.1 …

The quality of the movement had to be conspicuously superior to similar movements from other competitors at that meet.

original article – Technique – How We Must Develop the Sport of Gymnastics for the Future

courage is … Nastia Liukin

Our Olympic Champion get a surprising amount of criticism.

Fact is, it’s astonishing how much she’s done. And how much adversity she’s overcome.

This video rings true to me.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Congratulations Nastia. You deserve every success you’ve achieved.

Via Brett MacAulay on Facebook.

British gymnast named Director of Sport

1976 British Olympian Barbara Slater has been named BBC Director of Sport, a very important and influential post.

… “Her passion, commitment and skill as a supreme sports producer clinched the role. She will now lead teams who will play a major role in broadcasting the London 2012 Olympics and who already have an exciting roster of sports rights already in the locker â€“ huge events that are at the heart of the BBC’s relationship with its audiences. …

Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC

Guardian – BBC names Barbara Slater first female director of sport

Another good news story for gymnastics in the UK.

Trivia – She played a gymnast in the British TV series Out of Bounds (1977).

book – Flip Outside the Box

Coach Laurie Gallus is promoting an intriguing new book, her first in a series of three.

It’s called Flip Outside the Box

She’s selected and illustrated “unique and creative gymnastics elements … which are not yet included in the JO Code of Points”.

Here’s one sample:

dismount – butterfly with double twist

… Actually, it looks more like 1 3/4 twist.

But I must admit, I’ve never seen or dreamed of this dismount. It is unique.

I’m not yet prepared to order the book for myself. But if you get a copy, please send us a review.

$25.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling – details

(via Perfect 10)

UPDATE: Gail McGann, the judging director for Vermont, has reviewed the book and gives a positive reaction in an article called Off the mats, on to the page.