Gymnastics Coaching.com

Instructional video for hollow and tight arch position strength. Subscribe to more gymnastics training videos at Gymnastics on Demand.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnast.com.
http://gymnast.com/flashplayer/FlashPlayer.swf?v=http://www.gymnast.com/media/gymnast//upload/Videos/TTs/MidSection/800-01.flv&eb=1&ap=1&av=sportnet.gy.videos&pv=video&szv=320×240&apv=doubleclick

This may yet be taken down. Watch it now.

Click PLAY or watch all 4 apparatus on YouTube.

What are her B-score deductions on that vault?

She scored 9.525.

A slightly higher resolution version here.

The rich get richer.

The four time defending National Champions have signed (?) a gymnast that will EXCEL at that level of competition. Shayla’s style and form is perfect for College gymnastics. She may well turn out to be the successor to Courtney Kupets as leader of that team.

… 2007 World Championship gold medalist Shayla Worley has made her commitment to the University of Georgia following what she calls a tough decision between the choice to be a Bruin or a Gym Dog. In the end, it came down to the school closest to home in Orlando, Florida. “I look forward to contributing further to Georgia success! Go Dawgs!” …

GymnastTV

I don’t see the news on the Georgia website … yet.

Shayla Worley – official website

It was quite a bad quadrennial for international gymnastics on Floor Exercise. The least interesting apparatus, in my opinion, under the new code of points. (How many double twist side passes was I forced to watch?)

The C Score posted the best of the best.

Their #1 routine was Sandra Izbasa, 2008 Olympic Champion. Watch her gold medal winning routine from European’s 2007 on YouTube.

The rest of the best:

8. Ekaterina Kramarenko, 2007 World Championships team final (Stuttgart, GER):

7. Steliana Nistor, 2007 World Championship all-around final (Stuttgart, GER):

6. Anna Pavlova, 2008 Europeans event final (Clermont-Ferrand, FRA):

5. Cheng Fei, 2006 World Championships event finals (Aarhus, DEN):

4. Jiang Yuyuan, 2008 Olympics team final (Beijing, CHN):

3. Jade Barbosa, 2008 World Cup (Cottbus, GER):

2. Shawn Johnson, 2007 Worlds all-around (Stuttgart, GER):

Click through to The C Score to see details on their picks and video links.

Not one of these routines compares with the greats of all time in my opinion. A good NCAA routine is more entertaining for the general public than any of them.

I have my fingers crossed that changes in the code for 2012 will make this event fun for me again.

The first I’ve heard of this statistic. It sounds definitive.

Go to his blog on ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury and ask a question you might have on your mind. Dr. Marshall will get back to you with an answer. A special thanks to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for helping us educate our viewing audience on medical issues impacting our young athletes.

Click PLAY or watch an interview with Dr. David L. Marshall on Clubhouse Gas.

The ACL injury is one of the worst for gymnasts. It can usually be repaired, but often an entire competitive season is lost.

We need do everything we can to prevent it.

related post: overuse injuries in gymnastics

International Gymnastics President Bruno Grandi likes the current (unenforceable) minimum age requirement for international gymnasts.

Here’s his “solution” to the problem of some nations falsifying birthdates:

Beginning Jan. 1, all junior and senior gymnasts who represent their countries at most international meets will need a license from the International Gymnastics Federation. The licenses will include gymnasts’ name, sex, country and date of birth, and be their proof of age for their entire career. …

The critical paragraph, however, is this one:

… Although the licenses won’t stop the sport’s problem of age manipulation – licenses will be based on passports submitted by national federations – it will give the FIG proof of an athlete’s age long before he or she shows up at an Olympics or world championships. …

Herald Tribune

Now China, North Korea and other nations need only falsify the documentation once with all up-and-coming young gymnasts. They need not worry about being caught later with evidence of conflicting birth years.

It’s obvious to many that the age requirement should be dropped. Dominique Dawes agrees:

… Honestly, for the sport of gymnastics, there should not be an age limit. …

Former Olympian Dawes speaks on life’s passions – collegiatetimes.com

And Dominique is one of the gymnasts who lost a medal at the 2000 Olympics to a Chinese team that included underage girls. No word yet from FIG on the investigation into the ages of Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Olympics. (FIG has been too busy working on the “license” regulation.)

related posts on age falsification of gymnasts

Gymblog reports that Olympic Gold medalist 2008 Yang Wei married will marry Olympic Bars Bronze medalist 2000, Yang Yun. (The wedding is Nov. 6th, I’m informed in the comments.)

Their children child should be a fantastic talent!

China’s most famous gymnastics couple did a wedding spread with Chinese Cosmo magazine.

more photos

Not to rain on the wedding parade, but Yang Yun is still under investigation by FIG for admitting she was underage at the Sydney Olympics.

There’s been much rumbling online regarding the search by Ivana Hong for a new coach. A new gym.

And much speculation about why the family took her to the controversial coach Al Fong in the first place.

Finally the story has hit the mainstream media: EXCLUSIVE: Hongs Regret Move to Blue Springs – NBC

After all has been said, I think Blythe nailed it:

… Whether it was her foot injury or not, many may say that Hong, a designated Olympic alternate, was simply the seventh-best gymnast in the U.S. this summer. Despite her third-place finish at the 2007 Pan-American Games, Hong’s routines weren’t received with much enthusiasm at the 2007 World Championships. Even in top form, she was still a bubble gymnast, and it can be argued that there was no place for her in the top five on any event. …

Gymblog

Ivana Hong is a fantastic, artistic gymnast. But she was not the right gymnast for the new code of points.

In 2008 start value was far more important than perfect form and line. And that’s a shame.

I would love to have seen Ivana compete in Beijing.

Click PLAY or watch a retrospective montage on YouTube.

Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics posted a new interview with the up-and-coming Canadian superstar.

Like so many others of the good Juniors, she has better A-score than B-scores.

… Peng is already becoming a world wide sensation with her high difficulty of skills. Although sometimes critisized for not competing the skills with the most artistry, she is a daredevil and is improving more and more as each day passes. Currently she is competing one of the hardest beam routines in the world with an A-value of around 7.0. …

Here’s that Beam routine from June 2008 Nationals in Calgary.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

She’s training privately with a personal coach right now (I assume that is Brian McVey) as her old club Seneca cancelled their program.

read the rest – Interview: Peng Peng Lee

When I was a young coach we sent a team from Canada to compete in the Netherlands. The top AA gymnast was 16-year-old Jacques Def from France. An incredible prodigy, now remembered for the skill named after him, the Def, or full twisting Gienger.

Andrew Thornton on Gymnast supposes that Snejana Hristakieva was the first female gymnast to do the skill, in 1992.

And he posted videos of some of the Defs that had been competed since that time.

I first wanted to show you a Korean gymnast (Cha Yong Hwa) from last year’s world championships whom you may not have even heard of. She had an INCREDIBLE bar routine in prelims but unfortunately just missed making the finals with a 15.525 (you’ll see the mistake that kept her out):

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click through to Gymnast to see 5 more Def videos. I left a comment to mention that Canadian Amélie Plante (video) had been missed.