Gymnastics Coaching.com

Five-time Olympians Jordan Jovtchev (Bulgaria) and Oksana Chusovitina (Germany) each finished second all-around at the most recent international competition. (Fabian Hambüchen and Romania’s Sandra Izbasa finished first.)

Oksana – Yahoo Sport

Younger competitors must be wondering when they will finally retire.

Five-time Olympian Jordan Jovtchev (Bulgaria) will compete for one more year before hanging up his grips.

Jovtchev, 35, hopes to end his career on a high note in 2009 by winning medals at the Europeans in Milan and the World Championships in London, said Nikola Prodanov, current president of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation.

Jovtchev has won four Olympic medals — one silver and three bronzes — and 12 world championships medals, including four golds. A botched routine left him in a disappointing eighth on still rings at the Olympics in Beijing.

“Dancho had intentions to retire after the end of the 2008 Olympic Games, but he didn’t want to leave the sport this way — without a medal,” Prodanov said.

Jovtchev finished second Wednesday at the Arthur Gander Memorial in Switzerland, his first competition since Beijing.

Jovtchev still plans to take over the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation as its new president. It is expected he will be confirmed for the position this month. …

International Gymnast

UPDATE: LBLG reports that Oksana Chusovitina was injured: “She may have torn her achilles tendon on her second pass (double tuck) on floor.”

From the Facebook Somersaults Fan page.

Dr. Jeni McNeal (in mountain bike helmet) at the Big Blue Adventure Race Lake Tahoe.

larger original – flickr

Jeni went over the handle bars recently. No doubt all that gymnastics landing training helped her soften the landing.

Quite a few tricks I’ve never seen before.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tim, age-21, from Derby in England trains “Parkour/Free running, bboying, Calithenics, Puma Style”.

(via FlipCatch)

If you like this video, check out handbalancing freak (video).

Nicely edited staff documentary from 2007.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (10min)

Documentary Part 2 – YouTube

disclosure – I love Cirque du Soleil

My Halloween costume is now finished.

Today, I am “16” year old Chinese gymnast and Olympic gold medalist He Kexin and I have the id to prove it.

larger size – flickr – amendz

The Olympic Bars Champion can laugh now. She’s been officially declared of legal age by the International Gymnastics Federation.

This bit of illegal camera phone video is so … mangled that I found it interesting right to the end of the 3min.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Terrible music, though.

🙂

IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The free November calendar is available in PDF format linked from GymnasticsTrainingTips.com

Linked from that same page, Rik Feeney has a NEW offer: The Gymnastics Library – CD PLUS ($297). It’s a digital compilation of the following books:

• 101 Ways to Increase Class Enrollment & Bottom Line Profit ($37.00)
• How to Hire Great Coaches and Instructors ($37.00)
• Employee Guidelines (editable employee manual) ($47.00)
• Welcome to the Team (editable guidelines document) (47.00)
• Fabulous Brochures and Newsletters ($27.00)
• Gymnastics Business Forms ($37.00)
• GymText (editable information) (47.00)
• Create Exciting Lesson Plans ($27.00)

There’s much, much more.

Check it out: GymnasticsTrainingTips.com

Could be a good investment for your club.

One of the great ones is hanging up the grips at age-28.

The veteran Kashima has been one of Japan’s most graceful and successful gymnasts in recent history, with nine world and Olympic medals. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, he helped secure Japan’s victory. In August, he helped Japan win the silver behind China at the Olympics in Beijing. …

Elegant and a great swinger, he’s best remembered as the 2004 Olympic Pommel Champion. But Kashima won the World Championships on Horizontal Bar in 2003, as well.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He plans to become a coach after his final competition, to be held Nov. 15-16 …

International Gymnast

Attention Recreation Program Directors.

I’m impressed with the 2nd Edition of the CANGYM recreation program developed by Gymnastics Alberta. It’s a significant improvement on the original.

The CANGYM National Badge Program is Gymnastics Canada’s National Skill Development and Evaluation program for Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. This program is intended for use with participants of varying abilities aged 6 and older, including beginner level participants through to entry level competitive gymnasts. …

The CANGYM Program binder is bilingual and comes complete with 5 distinct badge description sections outlining the skills in each level, and also includes original Participant Evaluation Forms and Progress Reports, along with Certificates of Participation and Completion that can be given to the participants. In addition, the CANGYM program includes a selection of Sample Coach’s comments and Routines which coaches can utilize near the end of the term. …

Gymnastics Canada

It’s a big binder with supporting documentation available on disk. There is no on-line support, however.

CANGYM is expensive at $110 from Gymnastics Canada. But a club needs purchase only 1 copy. Everything is photocopy ready. In fact, I would say it’s a bargain. I’m not aware of any other badge system as good.

The artwork has been completely redone. I like the new look:

screenshot

The program is not perfect for every club, but it’s a great “starting point” for building your own program.

screenshot

The most controversial part is the CANGYM badge program. Many clubs use it. Others clubs divide each badge level into two parts. Some clubs even produce their own badges rather than use those supplied with CANGYM ($2.50ea).

Overall, I highly recommend the binder as a resource for every recreation program.

details – Gymnastics Canada