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Shocker of the night in the NCAA.

Amanda Castillo, Corey Hartung and Alicia Goodwin all fall on beam.

larger original – flickr – dogan2

No. 1 Florida Gymnastics Team Upset at No. 8 Arkansas 196.375-195.425

Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn:

“We are extremely disappointed in our performance this evening. It was not Florida gymnastics,” …

Gymblog has commentary.

Here’s a surprise.

Oksana Chusovitina has been appointed head coach of the Uzbek national team. The news is somewhat surprising in that Chusovitina recently said in an interview that she didn’t want to coach elite gymnasts as she didn’t like having to be tough on her pupils. Looks like she has changed her mind…

(photo: Marine/Gymnet)

Triple Full – Oksana Chusovitina Appointed Uzbek National Team Coach

I cannot believe this means she will retire.

More likely Oksana will end up competing for Uzbekistan.

UPDATE: Triple Full says Oksana is committed to compete for Germany. Hmmm.

Past & Present Gymnastics recommends gymnastics videos from the UK:

Coverage includes some interesting footage of some of the UKs top clubs, the national training centre and some of the major competitions in the UK (Acro Worlds 09, Glasgow Grand Prix, GB vs FRA, GB vs CZE, WAG, MAG, Trampoline & Rhythmic (Oh Dear) Nationals.

BGtv

Check it out on the British Gymnastics website – BGTV.

Look for interviews with Beth Tweddle, Lisa Mason, and coach Paul Hall. Also, a look at the Lilleshall Training Centre.

I’ve added a link in the right hand navigation under the VIDEO category.

After Shayla Worley, Ivana Hong was my favourite American gymnast of the last quadrennial.

As Amy Van Deusen says, ” … you can’t seem to take a bad picture of Ivana because her form is so good.”

sitesbymorgan – Brian Jones – larger version

more photos of Ivana

World gold medalist Ivana Hong will make the move to Plano, Texas-based WOGA to train under Valeri Liukin as soon as her right ankle heals enough to resume training, she told Inside Gymnastics earlier this week.

In the past few months, Hong, who turned 16 in December, has sampled several clubs across the U.S., but settled on the WOGA, home of the last two Olympic all-around champions, after a successful trial run in early January. …

Inside Gymnastics – Hong Headed to WOGA

Despite endless commentary I read about her problems leading up to the Beijing Olympics, I felt Ivana was extremely well trained by Al Fong and Armine Burutyan over the last quad. For an international gymnast she was an average talent, very well prepared. Her training of Yurchenko Double Twist, for example, was text book perfect. It’s amazing to me she can do that vault.

related posts:

Armine Barutyan – gymnast and coach

Is gymnastics coach Al Fong a changed man?

Courtney Kupets scored 10.0 on Bars and Beam to lead Georgia to victory over their arch rivals Alabama. This was Georgia Head Coach Suzanne Yoculan’s last dual meet vs Alabama Head Coach Sarah Patterson.

Yoculan retires at the end of this season.

In front of a crowd of 9,938 on Friday, the Gym Dogs posted a 197.175-196.275 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Courtney Kupets posted a career-high 39.825 to win the all-around for the fourth meet in a row as the Gym Dogs moved to 4-0 for the season. Kupets’ 39.825 was the fourth highest all-around score in Georgia gymnastics history.

“There is no team in the history of my career that I would rather beat than Alabama,“ Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan said. …

Gym Dogs Top Alabama

Why is Suzanne so irked with ‘Bama?

That’s an interesting story.

It’s a BIG rivalry.

… it all began to heat up when the teams were two of the best in the country.

The Gym Dogs captured their first NCAA Championship in 1987, and Alabama followed suit in 1988. Georgia won in 1989 and Alabama was victorious in 1991. Georgia captured its third title in 1993 and Alabama evened the rivalry in 1996.

“We were going back and forth,” Yoculan said. “We both had great teams and (Patterson) was working so hard to build attendance over there.”

“We had the same kind of challenges. She’s a big promoter.

“And she’d come up with an idea and I’d be like, ‘That’s awesome. I need to come up with a better idea.’ It would go back and forth like a ping-pong match.”

In 1995, when Alabama traveled to Georgia for a meet, a confrontation erupted during warmups when Patterson saw that Georgia did not have the most current uneven bars on the competition floor.

“The new spreader that came out made it better for taller girls,” Yoculan said. “We didn’t have it yet, but we weren’t required to. She just made a decision in her mind that we did it on purpose.”

Alabama had multiple falls on the uneven bars and subsequently suffered a loss to Georgia. Following the meet, the conflict continued.

“She went into the press conference and went on and on about the bars – that we deliberately did it,” Yoculan said. “That we didn’t have the equipment and that it affected the outcome of the meet. … And I would never do something like that. I wouldn’t not put the bars out there to get an edge.”

Yoculan responded with a quote she had read in a motivational book: “Losers make excuses; winners make adjustments,” and was later reprimanded by the school and SEC officials. …

Final flames in fiery feud – Yoculan, Patterson battle in final regular-season meet

Of course some speculate that the feud is “contrived to generate interest”. That’s at least partly true.

Utah Coach Greg Marsden noted that “both will probably be offended to learn that in some ways he thinks they’re similar”.

I expect these young gymnasts in China are doing up to 10min handstands in training. (The coach said they no longer do 30min handstands.)

That’s still far too long. Training muscular endurance of that duration will not help them in Artistic gymnastics. Except — perhaps — in terms of psychological toughness.

Note that the Chinese coaches do the handstands on a bar. That’s much safer on the wrist.

Another award for Michael Phelps: The record-setting swimmer was chosen the U.S. Olympic Committee’s sportsman of the year on Thursday.

All-around gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin and swimmer Natalie Coughlin, who won six medals in Beijing, tied in voting for sportswoman of the year. …

ESPN

larger version – flickr – jodfevic

Liukin said she is back in the gym, training five to six hours a day. She will head to the U.S. team training camp next week. Liukin plans a comeback this year and may defend her Olympic title in 2012.

“People say, ‘Why keep going?’ ” she said. “I love competing and enjoy the sport. That overpowers the questions of putting my title up there. I haven’t made a 100 percent commitment [to return] but I’m making the commitment to myself to get in shape and compete.”

Nastia is the third individual gymnast to win this award, joining Kim Zmeskal (1991) and Carly Patterson (2004).

related – USAG – Liukin named 2008 USOC Co-Sportswoman of the Year

UPDATE: Commenters on the International Gymnast forum speculate that Shawn Johnson will not return to compete internationally for the USA. I’d say Nastia has a better shot than Shawn at qualifying for World’s 2009. It would be “easy” for her to make the team on Beam and Bars.

Unbelievably, it was first done by Maik Belle of East Germany at the 1987 European championships.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

The only other gymnast I’ve seen compete it was Olympic Silver medalist Jon Horton at Blackjack Invitational in Las Vegas. (Or was it at the Winter Cup Skills Competition?)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

You can buy these online. But most gyms — including mine — make their own using a dowel, rope and weight. They valuable for everyone, essential for Men’s Artistic.

The Sports Buddy was designed specifically to strengthen your hands, fingers, wrists, & forearms.

Amazon

related post – video – wrist strengthening device