Gymnastics Coaching.com

Andrew Thornton on Chinese gymnast Zhang Hongtao:

Is he the next Xiao Qin? His swing might be about the closest I’ve seen to Xiao Qin’s, and he appears to be quite young. Keep in mind that the highest A-score shown on pommel horse at this year’s Olympics was Louis Smith’s 6.7, and even Olympic champion Xiao Qin only showed a 6.4 With Zhang Hongtao’s 6.8 A-score and impeccable execution, he may very well be the world’s best on pommel horse right now, although I’m not sure what Xiao Qin’s status is at the moment. Look for this guy to contend for the world pommel horse title next year for sure! …

Click PLAY or watch his routine from Doha on YouTube.

Fantastic single leg work!

Andrew posted this routine and several others:

Tomislav Markovic FX (only 1 bwd handspring)

Samuel Piasecky PB

Samuel Piasecky HB

Gymnast.com – Men’s Grand Prix Ostrava

… Former Soviet women’s head coach Alexander Alexandrov heads home to Russia this month after 15 years in the United States. …

IG

Salaries are rising in Russia, China and many other nations. Flat in North America.

Alexandrov was recently interviewed by Gymnastike during training at Houston Gymnastics Club:

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-3-16/mediaplayer.swf

Visit Gymnastike For More Videos

related post: congratulations Andrei Rodionenko (Canadian National Coach returns to Russia)

This is article #3000 on this site. That’s quite a long tail of information.

Certainly the most frequent comment from readers is that they appreciate how often Gymnastics Coaching is updated.

All non-motorized acrobatics are included, sooner or later. Gymnastics and trampoline are prerequisite to other sports.

If you have a specific area of interest, the best strategy is to browse one of the CATEGORIES in the right hand navigation:

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Blogging is all about links to other places on the internet. All the BEST sites are linked too from the navigation column.

Leave a comment if you have requests for the next 3000 posts.

Thanks for reading.

Like many other coaches, I am rushing right now to get my gymnasts into the best available competitions that fit our annual calendar.

Many premiere events — like this one — fill quickly.

In 2008 I missed visiting this excellent Men’s Gymnastics competition by one day. They had over 700 competitors from 50 different clubs.

Registration is already closed for 2009.

University of Nebraska and Cal have both committed to attend the 2009 meet. …

Saturday evening’s session is unique in that it features NCAA, Elite and Level 10 gymnasts. Friday evening’s qualifying Level 10 gymnasts compete as a high school All-Star team against the collegiate teams in an NCAA format meet. The big raucous crowd and high level of competition make for a unique experience and great entertainment.

Stanford Open

Stick It Media is petitioning to have the meet televised.

Is scandal too harsh a word?

I don’t think so.

Many of the top female gymnasts have complained in the media about the Brazilian Gymnastics Federation. Most of the complaints have to do with medical mistreatment. Gymnasts being forced to train despite injury.

The Brazilian Gymnastics Federation’s physician, Dr. Mário Namba, refutes these charges.

Eliane Martins, the team coordinator, is taking a lot of heat, too. Here is her response to the scandal:

“It’s strange to see that a while ago, everyone thought the Federation was doing a great job. Now people are changing their minds, and all of a sudden we’re doing everything wrong. Interesting to note that these people never started complaining until now. Pure opportunism,” Eliane Martins told reporters.

The contract for Martins and her team expires in December. And they will not return.

Interestingly enough, it seems that no one is blaming Oleg Ostapenko, the Ukrainian coach who was in charge of the Brazilian women’s team from 2001 to August 2008, for the current crisis.

Globo

Ostapenko turned in the keys to his house and returned to the Ukraine after Beijing. But some in Brazil are hoping he will return.

read the latest episode in the sorry story on Triple Full – The Brazilian Scandal: Part 2

What a shame. Brazil had been one of the biggest success stories in our sport.

This is the first video I’ve seen of Sanne, who is coached by her father.

On beam (6.4 start) she competes 2 double turns.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This weekend’s Glasgow Grand Prix wasn’t particularly well attended on the women’s side. One of the relatively unknown gymnasts who managed to stand out in a positive way was Holland’s Sanne Wevers, who won both the UB and BB finals. …

read more on Triple Full – Spotlight: Sanne Wevers

The Wild Rose competition is BACK for 2009. I highly recommend it.

Old-timers like myself are excited by this because the competition has only been held in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 … and 2009.

It’s a HUGE job for the meet organizers. (And not nearly profitable enough to justify all that work.)

Champions Head Coach Michel Arsenault gets most of the credit for putting together such a good event.

Click on this link to download a brief history of the meet in PDF format.

Like last season, Todd Gardiner’s famous competition will include an NCAA Session featuring Michigan State University, Boise State University, University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign and University of Illinois – Chicago.

“Chicago Style” 2009

The Largest Women’s Gymnastics Invitational Meet in the World!

February 6, 2009 – February 8, 2009

Chicago Style – home page

(via Gymnastics Meet Reviews and Tips)

Wendy AKA Bogwoppit from Chalkbucket sent us a good photo.

From our annual Canadian Thanksgiving hike up Blueberry Hill near Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

Did Dave join the Army?

Nope. David was one of a group of Olympic athletes sent to Guantanmo Bay, Cuba as part of a USO tour.

Inside Gymnastics posted an excellent and lengthy piece on one of the classiest gymnasts I’ve ever met.

After Beijing David has had knee surgery. Joined the coaching staff at Stanford. Sold some of his art work for charity.

Lets us know what’s on his iPod. And why he’d like to see the “perfect 10.0” come back to our sport.

Oh … and he plans to move to Italy soon.

A good read.

Inside Interview: David Durante