Gymnastics Coaching.com

Fan favourite Russian gymnast Anna Pavlova sustained one of the worst possible injuries for a gymnast: Anterior cruciate ligament damage. She injured herself this weekend at the DTB Cup during her dismount (a 2.5 twist) on the balance beam.

Details on The C Score (video).

How sad.

Anna Pavlova Online

Timely is an article posted on Sports Girls Play:

… there is growing research and awareness on female athletes and knee injuries. Some link the number of knee injuries in female athletes to genetics and the difference in bone structure to their counterparts. Others indicate the pressure to start training at a younger age as the cause. Either way, many of the injuries can be prevented through proper training and awareness. …

Female Athletes and Knee Injuries

That post has links to a half dozen excellent articles on knee injury prevention for the female athlete.

Much on my mind is how to avoid this injury at my gym. One of our girls this season sustained a partial tear. (It seems to be healing rapidly.)

From He Kexin = 14.

The Captain of the Olympic gold medal Chinese Gymnastics Team dominated the last competition, winning all three events she trains.

Click PLAY or watch her winning Beam from the DTB Cup on Gymnastike.

Not nearly the prettiest routine you’ve ever seen. But still impressive for the 20-year-old.

I was surprised with this interview:

… Cheng Fei said here on Friday that she has not yet decided whether to participate in the London Olympics in 2012.

“I will continue to train, but I am not sure how long I will be in the gymnasium,” Cheng told Xinhua after she took first places at qualifying round of vault, balance beam and floor exercise at Stuttgart World Cup. …

People’s Daily Online

UPDATE: Her Dad recently started coaching at his daughter’s old club.

Hosting the Olympics in London should greatly help the profile of amateur sport in the United Kingdom.

One new initiative:

… The surveys seek to develop understanding about our coaching workforce in the following areas:

· whether more coaches are needed,
· where coaches are needed (e.g. in what clubs, level, disciplines),
· whether the coaches need further development,
· what kind of development opportunities they need,
· how these development opportunities can be provided by British Gymnastics of the Home Nations

This work will help maximise the effectiveness of the forthcoming UK Wide Vision for the Gymnastics Coaching System to 2016 and will also contribute to sports coach UK’s multi-sport coaching workforce plans which will help to secure government investment in sports coaching.

As an added incentive for completing the survey, one year’s free coaching membership to British Gymnastics will be provided as follows: one free coaching membership each for Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the English Regions, to be allocated randomly from those responding to the coach or club surveys in each respective Home Nation/English Region. …

British Gymnastics

Inspired by the SkyZone post, TCO sent us some links on Slamball.

Click PLAY or watch a Slamball dunk contest on YouTube.

I loved the low budget, made-for-TV Slamball games when they first aired in 2002 – 2003.

The game was reborn with the POWERade SlamBall Challenge on CSTV in 2007. And then SlamBall games returned in August 2008, aired on Versus and CBS.

There are very few Slamball courts in thw world:

larger version

It’s something like a basketball court … but with 8 trampolines added!

larger version

Slamball – Wikipedia

China did not compete.

Women’s Team:

1. Japan
2. South Korea
3. Singapore

It will come as a surprise to no one, but Japan took team gold at the fourth edition of the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held in Doha, Qatar, which is clearly trying to (and doing a good job of) making a name for itself as a gymnastics competition location. …

Koko Tsurumi takes AA at Asian Championships, Japan takes team gold – The C Score

The victorious Japanese team after winning the Women’s Team Finals …

(AP photo/Udayan Nag) – ESPN

Women’s Results

Koji Yamamuro won the Men’s All Around, leading his squad to victory.

Men’s Team:

1. Japan
2. South Korea
3. North Korea

(AP photo/Udayan Nag) – ESPN

Men’s Results

Japanese Dominate in Doha – International Gymnast

In 2008 very few men want to do the all-around. It’s simply too difficult to train long F.I.G. routines on all 6 apparatus.

In fact, the DTB Cup had not held an all-around meet since 1993.

But with Fabian Hambüchen expected to win, this year organizers added a Champions’ Trophy competition, with €50,000 ($62,850) prize money. That kind of money drew a good field.

Unfortunately, the Fabulous one did not win:

1. Maxim Devyatovsky RUS 92.000
2. Hisashi Mizutori JPN 91.700
3. Fabian Hambüchen GER 91.550

Two-time Russian Olympian Maxim Devyatovsky won the Champions Trophy, an all-around tournament Sunday on the heels of the DTB Cup in Stuttgart.

Devyatovsky scored 92.000 to outscore Japanese veteran Hisashi Mizutori (91.700) and Germany’s own Fabian Hambüchen (91.550).

To the disappointment of the 16,000 fans in attendance, Hambüchen lost the title with a missed high bar routine (14.775). He won the event with a score of 16.275 during Saturday’s DTB Cup finals. …

International Gymnast

Russia’s Maxim Deviatovski celebrates on his way to win the Champions Trophy multi-discipline competition of the gymnastics World Cup “DTB Pokal” in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, Nov.16, 2008.

(AP Photo/Daniel Maurer) – ESPN

The best coverage of the meet I’ve seen is on Triple Full.

I like to move it, move it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

So reports Triple Full:

… Well, as far as the German media were concerned, it was all a great Fabian Hambüchen fest (“The Hambüchen festival goes on,” read the headline of the Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany’s largest newspaper). …

(photo: Reuters)

Fabian Hambüchen nailed his 7.1 routine: layout Kovacs, Kolman, Ribalko, Markelov, layout Tkatchev, rock-solid double-double dismount. Wow! Aljaz Pegan tried hard (good Pegan straight into 1.5 turn, triple back dismount) but came up short on a half turn and had to make do with the silver. Phil Rizzo hit his Markelov and Def, but took a step backward on his double-double (bronze).

click through for details on all 6 Men’s Apparatus Finals at the DTB – Men’s Competition

Actually, the Aussies were very happy with their results at DTB.

And China continued their world domination winning 7 gold apparatus medals of 10 available.

You need to click through to flickr to see the larger version of this photo.

Mariel V