Gymnastics Coaching.com

This is a spoof news story:

BEIJING—After numerous protests and accusations of foul play from Paralympic athletes, especially those participating in judo, basketball, and tennis, the International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday they would investigate claims that many members of the Chinese female Paralympic team have full sets of functioning arms and legs.

“After reviewing the scores of U.S. volleyball’s 25-0/25-0/25-0 three-set loss to the Chinese women, we were already considering an inquiry. But what confirmed it was how they looked on the podium together, all smiling, waving both hands, and standing on both legs,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told reporters, adding that having arms and legs, especially in the Paralympics, offers a significant competitive advantage. “Unfortunately, because official documentation provided by our Chinese hosts does state that their female Paralympians lack arms and legs, there is very little chance of anything resulting from the investigation.” Thus far the Chinese women have won gold, silver, and bronze in every single event except for swimming, in which American female Paralympian Michelle Phelps has won a record 36 gold medals.

The Onion

Thanks Jennifer Isbister.

Three weeks into the new season, at my gym we’ve been pretty successful at NOT ripping on bars.

original – flickr

Drills including pirouettes on floor bar, safety strap bar and mini-tramp under the low bar all help the kids avoid rips.

I just hope we can keep it up.

Ripping the hands is a significant setback for most gymnasts.

related post: preventing rips on the hands

Gymbrooke posted a good article titled Turning Dreams Into Realities… Developing Athlete Confidence and Positive Self-esteem, by Shawn Byler, Ph.D.

It includes these sections:

# 1 Athletes Deserve Respect Too

# 2 Avoid Comparisons at All Costs

# 3 Coach the Whole Athlete

# 4 Do Not Compare Your Athletes? Worth with their Athletic Performance

# 5 Challenge Your Athletes without Threats

# 6 Be Available, But Watch Your Boundaries

# 7 Communication

# 8 Listen

# 9 Empathy

# 10 Recognition

# 11 Be Extremely Positive

# 12 Turn Athlete Failures Into Stepping Stones To Success

# 13 Praise/Criticize

# 14 Athlete Behaviour

# 15 Model High Self-Esteem

read the entire article as a PDF file linked from USA Gymnastics Technique Magazine.

photo collage – Gymnastics Saskatchewan

Andrew Thornton posted an article on the gymnasts who have competed the very risky triple back on Floor Exercise: Andrei Belousov, Yevgeni Podgorny, Vladimir Gogoladze, and, of course, Valeri Liukin who did it first in 1987.

Andrew likes best the one shown by 1995 World All-around champion Li Xiaoshuang.

Here he is competing it at the 1992 Olympics:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He won the Gold on Floor

By the 1996 Olympics Li Xiaoshuang had taken out the triple, but still finished Silver on Floor with this routine:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Li Xiaoshuang runs a sports clothing company in China as does that other legend of the sport, Li Ning.

Click through to Gymnast.com to see videos of the other triple back athletes.

UPDATE: One commentator says:

Steliana is still undecided. There is a meeting at the Romanian Federation on October 1st 2008. This is the deadline by which Steliana will make her final decision (if she retires or not).

Dragalescu from Romania has retired and made comebacks in the past. Perhaps the Federation can convince Steliana to only “take a break” and come back for World’s 2009.

However, Steliana has confirmed she will retire, making the official announcement on Oct. 1st.

==== original post:

As many expected, the top Romanian gymnast is hanging up her grips after taking home a Team Bronze from the Beijing Olympics. Steliana was the Silver medalist All-around in the 2007 World Championships.

… Stela declared that she will officially retire and in the future she plans to concentrate more on the college, because she is a student in the first year at Sports Academy from Sibiu.

Meantime Steliana is home, at Sibiu, where she began the medical investigations regarding her health problems and she wants to get on her feet, to be healthy and prepared for the college that she will start soon. …

Steliana Nistor is retiring – A Real Champion

Most commentators at the 2008 Olympics were critical of the change to a much more “confusing” system:

That included the most famous “perfect 10” gymnast, Nadia:

Gymnastics-Comaneci laments demise of 10.00 – Yahoo Sports

Nadia

History repeated itself in Beijing when Nadia’s greatest rival — Nellie Kim — now F.I.G. Women’s Technical Chair — was called on to respond:

… Olympic champion turned judge Nellie Kim dismissed accusations by Nadia Comaneci that gymnastics had lost its identity by scrapping the “perfect 10.00” scoring system.

Comaneci created one of the most memorable Olympic moments when she became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10.00 at the 1976 Montreal Games. …

Comaneci dismissed after Olympic great hits out at new scoring – This is London

One of the arguments in favour of the new system is that the “Perfect 10” is still there … in the Execution score.

Or is it?

Dwight Normile is not so sure:

… I’m not sure what mandates were established for judges under the current Code of Points, but I thought some of the execution scores in Beijing were a bit severe. If Nastia Liukin had done the vault she did in the all-around final 20 years earlier, at the Seoul Olympics, she would have scored a 10.0. Or at the very least, 9.95. In Beijing, her execution average was 9.525.

If the FIG is going to promote the concept that the 10.0 is still part of the open-ended scoring system, then it should allow gymnasts to score one occasionally. Or at least get close. I’m not suggesting the 10.0 become as common as it was at Seoul 1988, when 40 were awarded. But as it stands now, who will ever remember what Liukin scored on that beautifully stuck vault? …

… the Phantom 10.0 – International Gymnast

Do you really think the judging will be “better” at the 2012 Olympics than in Beijing?

Leave a comment.

I’m really enjoying a series of video posts by Andrew Thornton on Gymnast.com called “Smooth Skills”.

Here’s a Men’s clip from Part 6:

… newly submitted skills for evaluation at various world championships and Olympics. Here’s the one from the 2003 World Championships …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Smooth Skills – Part 6

Check out the earlier posts in the series:

Smooth Skills – Part 1

Smooth Skills – Part 2

Smooth Skills – Part 3

Smooth Skills – Part 4

Smooth Skills – Part 5

Andrew Thornton posted a video of little known Russian gymnast Oksana Sivovol winning Beam at the 1995 University Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Her mount and the 1/1 twist are, I think, the highest I’ve ever seen.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This video was included in Andrew’s Smooth Skills series on Gymnast.com.

Just as we assumed the International Gymnastics Federation was letting the issue die, the biggest scandal of the 2008 Olympics has jumped back into the headlines.

The FIG has expanded its investigation of the Chinese female gymnasts’ ages to include members of the 2000 Olympic team, it was reported Wednesday.

Secretary General Andre Gueisbuhler said the FIG is looking into reports of falsified ages of 2000 Olympians Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun, members of the bronze-medal winning team in Sydney. …

FIG Investigating Yang, Dong – International Gymnast

Sept. 19, 2000 file photo, Chinese gymnasts Yang Yun, left, and Dong Fangxiao – source – AP

How did this skill get this name?

Nastia Liukin – larger original – flickr

Deng Linlin – larger original – flickr

UPDATE: The Couch Gymnast linked to a real sheep jump:

original