Gymnastics Coaching.com

My favourite gymnastics photographer Grace Chiu already has many great shots up on the WWW. A few …

Ana Claudia Silva

Nansy Damianova

Li Shanshan

There are plenty of American photos too.

Inside Gymnastics – Photo Gallery: Women’s Podium Training

The 2-time world rings champion Chen Yibing is the favourite to win the strong man apparatus in Beijing.

He scored a 17.000 to win the event at a World Cup in Tianjin, China in May.

Click PLAY or watch the routine on YouTube. (starts at 2:25)

Olympic judges are inevitably conflicted in the Final as to which of the superb routines should win. But this year I predict the home town hero will not really be challenged. His unique mount — which I would call “Butterfly to Maltese” — is the edge he needs to separate himself from the field.

See the rest of our Olympic Gold Medal predictions.

Not getting good reviews.

But I like them.

(via Lightbulb Hands)

Of course you can.

You merely need to live in the USA. Own a Windows computer with an expensive version of the Vista operating system. Download an application called Microsoft Silverlight. And have a fast internet connection.

What could be easier?

Last night I got together with friends Derek and Mary. (And not ONLY because they have the right computer.) We watched the U.S. Women’s podium training. It worked. And the quality was EXCELLENT.

I’d love to be able to stream it on my Mac in the USA. But I get variously these two error messages.

screeenshot

screenshot

Leave a comment if you have a way to see the streamed or archived NBC video using a computer that does NOT meet the very stringent NBC requirements.

Mike “made up a U.S. postcode and cable provider” and got it to work on a Windows machine with Home Edition Windows XP.

UPDATE: All kinds of computers including Macs are streaming NBC in the USA. See the comments below.

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P.S.

I thought the U.S. girls looked quite good in podium training. Except for Floor. You don’t want to “win warm-ups”. But a HIT routine should be very, very close. Rawles gives not nearly so generous an analysis.

Doubtless the team meet with China will be close. The best chance for a U.S. victory is consistency under pressure. How will the little Chinese girls feel once that arena is packed and deafeningly loud?

The Americans can easily handle that pressure.

related post: NBC sucks, Microsoft sucks

Morgan Hamm out of Olympics with ankle injury – AP

Sasha calling Dad with the news:

… “Both Alex and David Durante (the USA’s alternates) have done an incredible job of maintaining their readiness and being prepared to step in on a moment’s notice if called upon,” said Dennis McIntyre, director for men’s program at USA Gymnastics. “The role of the alternate athlete is very difficult and both of these athletes have demonstrated their commitment to our Olympic team by staying well prepared. In this situation, we believe Alex is best suited to help the U.S. men’s team pursue a team medal. We appreciate the dedication of both men and the fact they have maintained their competitive readiness.”

“It’s an honor to be on this team, but it’s a shame that it had to happen this way with Morgan getting hurt,” Artemev said. “He’s a tremendous loss to this team. I’m ready to step in because that was my job as an alternate. …

read more on Gymnast.com

If you follow this blog regularly you know I’ve wanted Sasha on the Team all along. He’s by far the most artistic member on the Team. And — if he stays on — has one of the best medal shots for the U.S.A. – Pommel Horse.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

(via Stick It Media)

After seeing Morgan live in Houston at VISA Championships, I’ve not been enthusiastic about his contributions to the team.

Having both Hamm twins withdraw from the Olympics is a sad end to one of the great stories of the Beijing Games.

Good luck to both in future.

Many people only think about Olympic Gymnastics sports every 4yrs.

For once we are seeing articles like this:

… Olympic gymnastics provides the ultimate theater, displays intriguing rivalries, is purely amateur competition, and displays such consummate skill that it’s difficult to believe that some of these moves are humanly possible.

You want toughness boys? These girls participate in the most injury-plagued sport on the planet. It dwarfs things like wrestling and football when it comes to career-ending injuries, and is ahead of extreme sports like skate-boarding and motocross when it comes to fractures.

These girls are tough. And the margin of error is so small. Gymnastics is also one of the most grueling mental competitions, demanding nothing other than absolute focus. All this from mid-teen-year-old girls, on the world’s most intimidating stage.

You want athleticism? These girls can actually do the things that movie folks need wires, and mirrors, and special effects to produce. They can balance on a four inch beam, while twisting, and flipping, and tumbling. The can swing like spider man on a couple of flexible bars, and can land double twisting double flips on the floor. White girls CAN jump. …

Do you appreciate dedication? These girls have basically given up their childhoods to pursue the mastery of a sport that will never make them any money. Sure, maybe one athlete every couple of Olympics captures the imagination enough to get some good endorsements, but that fame is most often fleeting, and is quickly forgotten. Most of these athletes simply hope for a College scholarship, though unfortunately, their sport is not funded by the majority of NCAA schools.

We like these girls because they are more like us. They are not multi-millionaires talking about “feeding their families,” while pocketing tens of millions of dollars, and they aren’t unrepentant liars, claiming their innocence in the wake of lock-tight doping allegations. …

A Shout out to the Shorties. Gymnastics Is The Best Olympic Game. – Daniel Muth – Bleacher Report

Only every 4yrs is Women’s Artistic Gymnastics one of the highest profile sports in North America.

All coaches want to take advantage of the Olympic “boom”.

USA Gymnastics is doing something interesting. On Aug. 15th they will put an ad insert in USA Today that communicates the essence of gymnastics and makes it easy for parents to find a USA Gymnastics member club in their area.

The new website is up already:

screenshot from Begin Here, Go Anywhere

It seems to work well. Here’s a screenshot from a search in Idaho:

details – USA Gymnastics launches National Marketing Initiative for grassroots growth – USAG

(via Shergymrag)

How much of a membership “bump” will your club get from the Olympics?

… David Holcomb, owner of Buckeye Gymnastics in Westerville, Ohio, says … attendance at his gym shot up by double digits after U.S. gymnasts won medals in 1996 and 2004. In contrast, lackluster performance of the team in 2000 — the men and women’s team failed to win a single medal — didn’t move the needle at all for his gym that year. “The gymnastic community, those young girls and boys, weren’t excited,” he remembers. “So we saw nothing.” …

Gymnastics Campaign Vaults Over Stars – Wall Street Journal

Good news.

Canadian gymnast Brandon O’Neill was back training during official podium training. He injured his ankle Monday. And spent most of his waking hours since doing rehab / recovery to get ready for Saturday.

He has very high pain tolerance. Sounds like Brandon will be in the line-up for Team prelims.

Rumour is that France had two big injuries the week before they left for Beijing, one cruciate ligament and one broken thumb. That almost every Men’s Olympic team lost a key athlete leading up to the Olympics. (i.e. Paul Hamm)

With Brandon, Canada still has their original lineup.

2000 Olympian, Steve McCain is blogging LIVE from the Olympics:

…Today was the podium training for Men’s Gymnastics. Podium training is the first and only time the gymnasts get to touch the equipment before the competitions begin. The podium training also serves as a dry run for the event staff. Overall the U.S. Men look really solid on Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and High Bar. However, they showed real signs of weakness on Floor and Pommel Horse.

The biggest problem the U.S. men face is competing in the first round of 3 competitions. Historically, scores escalate after each round of competition. So, the same performance will score higher in the 3rd round of competition compared to the 2nd round. And, the 2nd round performance will score higher than the 1st round. There is nothing the U.S. men can do about it. It’s the luck of the draw.

NBC Olympics showed the Podium Training LIVE on their website. Here are my notes from the training if you did not catch the LIVE version.

read more including interviews with each of the guys on Gymnast.com

Steve is fairly upbeat in the post. But, to me, things do not sound good. Many of the other teams are doing FULL routines. Working fine details. Practicing sticking landings on the competition mats.

This team REALLY needed Paul.

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed Saturday.

Katrina posted more details on the U.S. podium training
.

The favourite on Horizontal Bar will be one of the most exciting gymnasts to watch in Beijing. He’s yet another international star coached by a parent.

coach Wolfgang Hambuechen

more Hambuechen photos on the NBC Olympics site

Click through for details: The Perfect 10 blog:

the return of the aerial cartwheel on Beam

Mattie Larson

Cheng Fei

NCAA gymnastics

Russia’s recent resurgence.

Big and more diverse tumbling on the Woman’s side

Raj Bhavsar

Fabian Hambuechen

Beth Tweddle’s rocking bar set

Oksana Chusovitina & Jordan Jotchev

Ten Things I Like Right Now… – Perfect 10

Mattie Larson Online – fan site