Gymnastics Coaching.com

CollegeGymFans.com Top 10 Recruiting Classes for 2008-2009

… The rankings are based on past performance and skill level, which are no guarantee of success at the collegiate level. …

CollegeGymFans.com

UCLA has added Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, Aisha Gerber, Vanessa Zamarippa, Kaelie Baer and several more. A very exciting new look to the team … that has a number of their top girls out with injury right now.

We just had Oregon State Freshman Stephanie McGregor, home for Christmas, meet with our gymnasts to talk about her NCAA experience. Steph loves The Beavers, even if they didn’t make this top 10 list.

An update from Triple Twist:

… Ukraine doesn’t even have a national training center anymore. The center at Koncha-Zaspa has been closed. No wonder Ostapenko went to Russia …

The Death of Ukrainian Gymnastics: Why Ostapenko Went to Russia Instead

Actually, the gym is still there. But no funding to bring together National Team gymnasts is available.

Adidas 2007 – Impossible is Nothing – Yelena Isinbayeva

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

She is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist (2004 and 2008), was elected Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF in 2004, 2005 and 2008, and World Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus. On July 22, 2005, she became the first female pole vaulter to clear 5.00 metres.

At the age of 26 Isinbayeva is seen as the best female pole vaulter in history. She has already been a 9-time major champion (Olympic, World outdoor and indoor champion and European outdoor and indoor champion).

Isinbayeva’s current world records are 5.05 m outdoors, a record Isinbayeva set at the Summer Olympics Games in Beijing on August 18, 2008, and 4.95 m indoors, a record set at the Donetsk indoor meeting on February 16, 2008. The former was Isinbayeva’s twenty-fourth world record.

Wikipedia

Thanks Angelina.

Many have asked, many a time:

is Russia the next Russia?

Sooner or later, the small nation of Romania will be unable to compete with the much larger superpowers of women’s gymnastics.

Sooner or later, the podium teams should be China, USA, Russia. Simply due to population.

Russia just announced new National Team coaches. Proven veterans.

Now this, as reported by Triple Full:

… Artistic Gymnastics Federation is indeed investing heavily in its competitive program. Not content with bringing experienced coaches back from abroad, the Federation is trying to train its younger coaches by letting them take part in practical training sessions under the leadership of the best coaches at the Round Lake national training center. In addition, the Federation recently completely re-equipped 18 gymnastics schools with state-of-the-art apparatus. All this, it is said, with an eye not just to the future, but to the present. Sounds like the Russians mean business, doesn’t it? We can’t wait to see what will come of this all-out attempt to restore Russian gymnastics to its former glory.

Russian News

Gymnastics Canada, will you completely re-equip our gym?

Many of the top pole vaulters in the world are former gymnasts. Especially female pole vaulters.

Back in the day, at University of Saskatchewan, they came in regularly to our gym for conditioning and gymnastics training.

Gymnastics Training for the Pole Vault provides a detailed review of a series of proven drills and activities that can be performed either in the gymnastics area or with equipment that might be available around the track to improve an athletes pole vault performance. In an easy-to-understand and apply manner, the DVD explains and demonstrates how to perform each drill and activity. Among the topics covered: warm-up tumbling, uneven-bars exercises, high-bar exercises, parallel-bars exercises, ring exercises, trampoline exercises, and static rope climb.

Gymnastics Training for the Pole Vault

We haven’t posted on House Gymnastics in a while.

But one of the header images on the top of this page is a typical gymnast climbing a door frame. (Every mother knows all about House Gymnastics.)

Indoor Parkour. It’s growing.

Harrison&Ford House Gymnastics is a cross breed of yoga, breakdancing, climbing and gymnastics in a domestic setting. House Gymnastics can be performed by anyone, at anytime, anywhere. The greater the height or danger, the better the move. Manoeuvres must be held in position for 3 seconds to be valid.

HouseGymnastics.com

Click PLAY or watch a British documentary on YouTube.

(via Gymnast)

This looks like it might be good.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Nigel Lythgoe:

“We’re bringing class to NBC” …

NBC’s ‘Superstars of Dance’: a global competition

International Gymnast reports:

… Five-time Olympian Jordan Jovtchev was elected president of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation on Thursday in a unanimous vote.

Jovtchev, 36, was elected unanimously by delegates of the federation’s general assembly. …

silver medal on still rings at the World Cup Final 2008, Madrid

… 1996 Olympic high bar silver medalist Krasimir Dunev was elected secretary general of the federation.

IG – Jovtchev New President of Bulgarian Federation

Like so many other foreign gymnasts, Jovtchev and Dunev immigrated to the United States (after the 1996 Olympics). Then later returned home to take up leadership posts.

President Jovtchev plans to compete at least through 2009.

Impressive routine from a young gymnast at the 2008 Voronin Cup.

Junior Women’s All-Around Champion from Russia 61.250.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Komova is the daughter of 1986 Goodwill Games champion Vera Kolesnikova. …

International Gymnast – Komova, Imai Top Voronin Cup

Vladimir Novikov was one outrageous gymnast in his day. Virtuous, dynamic and original on every apparatus. (video evidence)

But this tumbling pass is what I remember best.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He did land that in competition. I have it on an OLD VHS tape … somewhere.

This video was linked in one of the Smooth Skills series on Gymnast. Click through for more astonishingly unique tumbling passes – Smooth Skills – Part 20