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Marcela Lopez from Brazil is the reigning World Champion of Aerobic Gymnastics.

The strength and flexibility of these athletes is astonishing. Check her planche in this routine from the 10th Annual World Championships held in Ulm 2008.

Click PLAY or watch Marcela on YouTube.

Here she is at the Gala at that same Worlds.

Marcela started in classical ballet at age-4. Has many years of rhythmic dance and jazz dance training. And Capoeira, of course.

In training at the University of Georgia.

Beam is the toughest event to win in the NCAA. It’s the most competitive apparatus.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-3-16/mediaplayer.swf

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related post: gymnastics workout at Georgia

Helen Colagiuri (Australia) has been selected by the FIG as one of the 8 judges to officiate at the World Cup Final, Dec. 15-16 in Madrid.. Helen will be A2 on Beam and B panel on all other apparatus. Only the top 8 gymnasts on each apparatus are invited.

Recall the name?

Helen Colagiuri was the judge singled out by Valeri Liukin, Tim Daggett and others in the American Camp after Nastia finished Silver behind He Kexin in the Olympic Bar Final.

original – flickr

There are no ties allowed in the Olympics. In Beijing, if a tie occurs, it is first broken by start value…which in this case was identical. Then it’s broken by the deductions taken by the middle four judges…which were also identical. The third tiebreak was the average of the three lowest of the four counting judges’ deductions and this is where the difference was made.

Colagiuri awarded He 9.300 and Liukin 9.000, while none of the other five judges scored He’s execution better than one-10th of a point above Liukin.

I defended Colagiuri and the judging panel at the time, even though I personally wanted Nastia to get the Gold. The pirouette angle deductions are so debatable, that any of the top 3 could have won.

I still believe no “Australian Judging conspiracy” against the USA exists.

Sadly, it became a huge media storyline: Nastia’s score correct, says beleaguered judge

Seems FIG believes Helen Colagiuri is one of the very best judges in the world. Otherwise they would have found a way not to select her for the World Cup Final to appease the Americans.

MostepanovaFan posted an excellent video guide to balance beam mounts using the 2009 Code of Points.

Here’s another. Her guide to dismounts.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Finally, after being premiered Nov. 21st, the audiocast rebroadcast is available.

Hosted by three-time Olympian John Roethlisberger, monthly broadcasts will be streamed live.

IGRN – THE INSIDE GYMNASTICS RADIO NETWORK

It would not play for me in Firefox on a Mac. AND I had to download some software from Microsoft.

But it did then work in Safari on the Mac.

Surprisingly, they’ve not published it in iTunes.

Of course it’s a very interesting and entertaining podcast — 2hrs long — featuring Shannon Miller, Nastia Liukin, Todd Thornton and Shawn Johnson.

Inside Gymnastics has made it so difficult to find, I wonder how many people have listened so far?

related post: Inside Gymnastics bungles again?

The best apparatus in College gymnastics is Beam.

It’s unbelievable how much more solid, and more artisic, are NCAA gymnasts than most international “little girl” gymnasts chucking skill after shaky skill.

College Floor choreography too is far more interesting and entertaining than FIG.

Bars, however, is strange.

The only things that really matter on College Bars is “hitting handstand” and “sticking the dismount”.

This reduces the entertainment value greatly, for me.

Click PLAY or watch the #1 ranked team in College gymnastics on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-3-16/mediaplayer.swf

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Note that most of the girls do straddle cast handstands. There is too much chance of form deduction on straight body cast. And greater risk of being “short” of handstand.

simple low to high transitions are off-putting to me. I’d rather the NCAA require a “real” transition

“line” on bars is not much deducted.

If I could revise the NCAA rule book on Bars, I would. The gymnasts are easily and safely capable of more, even with the restriction of a maximum 21hrs / week training.

Beam is terrific just the way it is. I linked to video of Georgia training Beam last week.

Tyson American Cup at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago is not a meet to which I pay much attention.

But if you want to see it live, seats are available on Ticketmaster.

Sat. Feb 21st, 2009 – 1:30 PM

Locals might get a better deal buying through Spring Hill Gymnastics. They are partnered with USAG on this event.

MostepanovaFan posted an excellent video. It’s 8min long. And the last 2 mounts are the most thrilling.

Guide to balance beam mounts using the 2009 Code of Points.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Chalk Bucket)

related post: interesting balance beam mounts

My gym invited another — Gymtastics — over on a Sunday to train “together”.

We mixed the kids from the two gyms together as best we could.

It was a mini-training camp with all gymnasts getting 7 half hour rotations, each with a different coach.

NOON – WARM-UP = 15min

12:15 – BARS
12:45 – TUMBLING (rod floor)
1:15 – ARTISTIC PREP (dance studio)
1:45 – FLEXIBILITY for Beam (beam area)

BREAK – 15min

2:00 – BEAM
2:30 – VAULT and Yurchenko on Power Track
3:15 – DANCE THROUGH FLOOR ROUTINES
4:00 – MASSAGE

4:30 – CONTESTS
4:45 – STRETCH DOWN

5:00 PM FINISH

Students came in to gain practicum hours in Sports Massage.

At no extra cost to the families, with this training camp we had a “special event” on the calendar. Feedback was good from the gymnasts. (Coaches were challenged to do many rotations on the same apparatus, however.)

Our boys are training at two other clubs in December.

Video camera found in a locker room?

Merde!

This is a real black eye on the otherwise excellent University of Illinois Men’s Gymnastics Program.

Valdez was slated to replace legendary coach Yoshi Hayasaki after this season.

John Valdez, who coached Justin Spring at the Beijing Olympics, was charged Tuesday with one count of unauthorized videotaping, Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz said. The charge is a Class 4 felony and carries a potential sentence of one to three years in prison.

Valdez resigned from the university in October, citing personal issues.

A gymnast training on Sept. 25 with Valdez in the gym used by the men’s gymnastics team noticed a handheld video camera partially hidden under a T-shirt in an open locker, Rietz said.

The 22-year-old gymnast, who is a student, reported the camera to Valdez, but later called campus police and found the incident had never been reported to them, the prosecutor said.

Police who later searched the 40-year-old Valdez’s Urbana home found the camera.

“The images had been deleted, but the technicians were able to restore the deleted images,” Rietz said. She didn’t immediately comment on what was on the tape.

Former Illinois coach charged in videotaping – Daily Herald