And the rest of the gymnastics Olympians.
Click play or watch it on Gymnastike.
gymnast JIANG Yuyuan on Facebook
æ±Ÿéˆºæº JIANG Yuyuan – Facebook
3,644 fans. So far.
… Jiang Yuyuang’s father Jiang Tao is a taxi driver in Liozhou, mother Oh Fengzhen has no steady income. The family survives on the taxi wages. …
Jiang Yuyuan: Mommy You Don’t Have To Beg For Food – Fool’s Mountain: Blogging for China
Those who feel sorry for athletes in China should redirect their pity towards non-athlete children. If you travel to Asia to volunteer to improve the lives of children, you won’t be working with gymnasts.
(via Gymbrooke)
Gymnast.com Olympic Awards
A very nice and already nostalgic retrospective was posted by Andrew Thornton:
All of the official Olympic medals have been handed out, but as we all know, it’s not just the medals that will form our memories of the 2008 Olympic Games. Here’s a look at some of those “other categories†that they may not give medals for, but that help define our Olympic experiences as fans.
original – flickr – star_trooper
check this site: gymnastike.org
Editor Anne Phillips is developing a fantastic new resource for gymnastics coaches.
Here’s the sample post I enjoyed most (so far):
Uneven bars workout with WOGA’s level 10 girls, coached by Carly Patterson’s former coach, Yevgeny Marchenko
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-3-16/mediaplayer.swf
The world’s most successful privately owned gym runs two programs in parallel: Marchenko’s and Valeri Liukin’s. (WOGA – official website)
A most interesting model.
Gymnastike.org is jammed with features: social networking, user content, video interviews, gymnastics news, and much more.
In fact, it’s very video rich. And has a lot of original content.
Congratulations Anne. I am subscribed and have linked to Gymnastike.org from the right hand navigation under Blogs. I’ve also joined as a member and look forward to seeing the site grow.
good Yurchenko 3/2 twist vaults
Surprisingly, I still can’t find video online of Nastia’s amazing Yurchenko one-and-one-half twist vaults in Beijing. (NBC is pretty good at taking those down. I wonder how long they are going to keep removing them from the internet.)
Nastia – original photo – Getty
Gymnastics: It’s an obsession — a new blog — posted video links to a couple of good Yurchenko 3/2 twist vaults:
I’ve linked to Gymnastics: It’s an obsession under Blogs in the right hand navigation. Click through to check it out.
Juston Ziegler – gymnastics drills
I’m keen to post unusual training set-ups on this blog. Here’s a kip drill I’ve never seen before:
… Will give this a try, Juston. (I’m using a mini-tramp below a low bar every workout anyway. )
And one of the strangest tramp drills I’ve ever seen: Kaboom to spotted backward layout:
He is posting more training video clips on the North Dakota USA Gymnastics website.
gymnastics training video on YouTube
CoachKat08 from Alberta created a YouTube channel and is posting some training video of her girls.
Click PLAY or watch a sample post — tumbling backward layout 5/2 twist — on YouTube.
If can be fun for the kids to see themselves on YouTube. Parental permission is advised, of course.
YouTube is the best service for video, I think, as the clips stream even with a weak internet connection. And it’s easy to link to those video edits.
USA National Gymnastics Day
The Olympics have inspired children around the world to sign up for gymnastics.
In the States, Bela Karolyi is 2008 chairman of National Gymnastics Day on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008.
Gymnastics clubs hold open houses, exhibitions at local malls and parks, doing the Tyson Fitness Challenge and raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network and much more.
To find a club in the States call 1-800-345-4719 or visit www2.usa-gymnastics.org/search
National Gymnastics Day – USAG
Canadian vs USA Gymnastics
by site editor Rick McCharles
Since I’m a Canadian, every once in a while I get criticism that the blog is pro-Canada, anti-USA.
Every once in a while I get criticism that this blog is pro-USA, anti-Canada.
For example, this point that I have emphasized many times …
… Let’s not gloss over the fact that the coach education non-system in the States is far inferior to any other developed gymnastics nation. The mandatory safety certification for professional members is not nearly enough.
In sadly Socialist Canada, for example, we have mandatory coach training called the National Coaching Certification Program. It’s not great. But our NCCP is far better than the hodge podge of coach education schemes in America.
original post – USAG rebuts recent gymnastics injury study
… drew this reaction from one commenter on that post:
… If the US is so bad when it comes to gymnastics and safety, why do so many foreign coaches come here to coach? I have seen your comments in the past about how bad our system is but, for God’s sake, enough is enough. You seem so high and mighty on your soapbox. Just give it a rest. No one’s system is perfect (as your site showed us earlier this week about the Canadian athlete that was paralyzed and the Canadian gymnastics federation just acts like she was never a part of their program.) I assume that at least some of the competitions you attend in the US are sanctioned by USAG? If they are as bad as you like to make them out to be, why do you come? I mean, I am sure they don’t mind, but why be so critical of an organization then turn right around and support them? I don’t know what the term is in Canada, but in these parts we call that hypocritical. ….
For the record, I feel that the gymnastics system in the USA overall is far better than the system in Canada. The glaring problem in Canada is the Women’s Artistic competitive structure. It’s not uniform across the country. The rules are overly complex and frequently changed. More coaches, judges and athletes end up frustrated.
The J.O. (Junior Olympic) girls program is excellent. They’ve kept the “perfect 10”. The American competitions are faster, more fun and more consistently judged. And I love the fact that Level 10 J.O. leads directly into NCAA.
The Canadian Trampoline and Tumbling program is better in Canada. Our Men’s Artistic program perhaps equal to the USA.
Last season I attended about 12 American competitions, only 1 in Canada.
I visited about 50 gyms in both countries in 2007. There’s not the slightest doubt that the “average” coach in Canada is more knowledgable and better trained than the “average” coach in the USA.
That’s mainly due to the mandatory Coach Education system in Canada. And the wildly varying modes of coach education in the USA.
In the long run the USA will be far more successful than Canada due to club structure. Almost all gyms in the States are “owned”. Almost all gyms in Canada are run by volunteer parent Boards of Directors, a big competitive disadvantage in my opinion.
Leave a comment below if you have an opinion. Or something to add.
Acrobatic gymnasts killed in fire
A coach and three Russian acrobatic gymnasts perished in a fire that ravaged their hotel the night of Saturday, August 30-31, 2008: Gymnasts Anastasia Golovitnina, Anna Maryina and Olga Gofman and their coach Svetlana Kushu – the foursome was training in Gelendjik (RUS), a coastal town on the Black Sea not far from Socchi and Krasnodar.
Lightning hit the building causing an immediate blaze.
Swiftly moving flames and a caving roof left the victims with no chance of escape…
The gymnasts were training in preparation for the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships set for Glasgow (GBR), October 10 – 12
In a state of shock and grief, FIG President Prof. Bruno Grandi (ITA) expressed his distress and consternation on behalf of the international gymnastics community, addressing his condolences to the bereaved, and to gymnasts of the Russian Federation (FSAR) and Acrobatic throughout the world.
GymMedia.com
This is tragic.
I attended the USA Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships the past 3 years. It’s my favourite of the gymnastics sports.
There are so few Acrobatic gymnasts the world over that this is a big blow to the sport.
related: USA Gymnastics names 2008-09 national team for acrobatic gymnastics
Gymnastics Coaching.com 