Gymnastics Coaching.com

One of the mandates of the International Olympic Committee is to help grow Olympic sport around the world. To this end they budget money to support the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in building sport programs.

One stream is called Olympic Solidarity funding. Cambodia requested assistance in developing their Men’s Artistic Gymnastics team. I was designated by F.I.G. as an “expert” and asked to travel to the capital Phnom Penh to work with coaches and athletes.

CAM Technical coaching course for coaches (MAG)

Details of the course are not final. But I will be there July 7-17th as a volunteer.

I traveled in Cambodia about 10yrs ago and truly enjoyed the people and nation.

My only concern is climate. Typical is a high of 32C (90F) and humid.

Old timers wonder why the sport they love is evolving into the era of the specialist.

It’s completely driven by the rules as decided — haphazardly — by a few men on the F.I.G. Technical Committee who are virtually incommunicado.

Here’s how, for example, the American Men are looking at their own AA performance at Olympic Trials:

Raj – more photos from Olympic Trials – Gymnast.com

“I’m not even concerned with the all-around,” said Raj Bhavsar, who is in third place after last night’s first day of competition. “I don’t think it means as much as hitting your strong events.

“Hitting my strong events is what I did today. I didn’t have any big mistakes. Hopefully, if I have a mistake on Saturday [the final night of competition for the men], it will not be on one of the events that they need me for and I rock on the events that I can contribute to the team. I think that’s what matters the most.”

Bhavsar speaks from experience. In 2004, he finished fourth in the overall competition but was not named to the team that traveled to Athens for the Olympics.

Sitting next to him in the mixed zone was Sean Townsend, who finished third in the trials in 2004 and didn’t get a trip to Athens.

Even the athletes, except for the top 1 or 2, do not care much about their overall score. The score that is invariably reported in headlines by the often befuddled media.

With a specialist such as Penn State’s Kevin Tan having a routine on the rings that is more than half a point better any other American, Tan could be a strategic placement in the quest for a team medal at the Olympics.

“When you’ve got a guy like Kevin Tan who puts up ridiculous ring scores, you can’t count that out,” Spring said. “The word being thrown around is that he is one of the shoo-ins, but he doesn’t do floor.

“We’re not going to go into the preliminaries two short on the floor, so if Kevin is on the team, we can’t have anyone else on the team who doesn’t do floor.”

As a result, Justin Spring competed Floor at Olympic Trials, even though he is rehabilitating from knee surgery.

Because of Kevin Tan.

The sport is much more confusing now than in the past.

details – U.S. men’s gymnastics team likely to be ruled by specialists – Philadelphia Daily News

UPDATE: Steve McCain of Gymnast.com points out that Raj after day 1 IS one of the best AA gymnasts. He can LOCK a spot on the team on day 2 by finishing top 2 AA combined and top 3 on 3 apparatus. That’s his best shot, actually.

Gymnast.com has Men’s photos from day 1.

Kevin Tan

A strong and lively crowd was on hand in Philadelphia to cheer on the 13 gymnasts competing in night one of the men’s Olympic Trials. With a roller coaster of ups and downs, some dreams dashed and others won, there was certainly no shortage of drama in the Wachovia Center tonight. …

commentary – Artemev Leads Dramatic Night One – Gymnast.com

Many doubted the 2004 Olympic Champion on Floor would be able to defend in Beijing.

Kyle Shewfelt hated the idea of embarrassing himself in his first judged gymnastics competition since breaking both of his legs months ago.

Turns out, the charismatic Calgarian need not have worried in the lead-up to an Olympic test event Thursday at Edmonton’s Capital City Gymnastics Club.

Competing in the shadow of West Edmonton Mall, the 26-year-old attacked the vault with no fear and bounced right back into the mix of the Canadian men’s gymnastics team. …

Shewfelt placed first in the vault and second in the floor exercise at the Olympic test event held in conjunction with the national team training camp.

Edmonton native Brandon O’Neill stole the show at his home club, with first-place finishes on the floor and parallel bars and second-place finishes on the vault and the high bar.

The results from this competition — along with numerous other meets held over the last four years — will help coach Edouard Iarov pick the six-man Canadian squad (plus an alternate) for the Summer Olympics.

“I think our team looks awesome,” Shewfelt said. “I’m so happy to be a part of it.” …

daylife – Getty Images

Calgary Herald

At a recent coaching clinic, FIG growth and development expert Keith Russell questioned the high number of hours of training for young children in Artistic Gymnastics.

His concerns are valid, of course. It’s refreshing to see more coaches opting to train fewer, higher quality hours. Shawn Johnson trains far fewer hours than most of her competitors, for example.

But some coaches are more worried about what their gymnasts are doing when they are NOT in the gym. Staircase “luge”, for example.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

One of the best gymnastics blogs just got hipper. (And I’m not talking about the latest fresh look of the site.)

Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics now has a new domain address on the web. Update your link: LBLgymnastics.com

Of the many U.S.A. Women’s Olympic Trials previews, the best (perhaps) is from Polish101- Gymnastics.

New to me was this conspiracy theory:

The judges likely want a win for Nastia, so that Shawn won’t have to feel the pressure of being America’s top gymnast and so that the media will continue to hype up this supposed showdown between power and grace.

Hmm.

No doubt the judges would refute that.

Personally I don’t think Nastia has much of a chance to beat Shawn, if they both hit. And — of course — the B-panel judges do justice to the code on Nastia’s execution on Floor and Bars. Nastia is often over-scored on those apparatus in the States. Shawn is not. Or … not nearly as much.

Read the detailed post for yourself: Final Thoughts Prior to the 2008 Olympic Trials

Ivana Hong – USAG

Horton finally hit Horizontal Bar. Artemev finally hit Pommels.

The enigmatic Sasha Artemev seized the halfway lead here at the men’s gymnastics U.S. Olympic Trials …

Excellent. This should get Sasha through to the selection camp.

(AP Photo/Rob Carr) – ESPN

Raj Bhavsar and Justin Spring, who showed consistency across all six events, Spring finishing first or second in four of six, Bhavsar scoring a second, two thirds and, in the pommel, fourth.

NBC Olympics

I don’t mention Kevin Tan because he’s a lock. Give him his ticket to Beijing right now.

Kevin Tan turned in the best score of the night, 16.550 on rings, his specialty, and he leads the weighted total in that discipline by – in gymnastics terms – a mile …

details on all competitors: Live Coverage: Men’s Prelims – Inside Gymnastics

Justin Spring – AP Photo by Julie Jacobson

The gymnasts will tell you that Justin Spring is the “monster” of the field. He does huge difficulty. But I expected him to be knocked out at this stage because of bad execution. His form can be atrocious.

Looks like I’m wrong. Again.

As always, I look to Andrew Thornton to tell me what’s really going on at Trials:

Although the scores alone won’t directly determine the Olympic team, there will be two spots announced immediately at the conclusion of the competition for both the men and the women. In fact, the men’s selection committee might announce the full six-member team just prior to the final women’s competition on Sunday. At the very least, they plan to announce a nine-member Olympic training squad, with the alternates to be determined at a later date. This means that on the men’s side, we will either know the Olympic team by Sunday or have a pretty good idea of the team. On the women’s side, there will undoubtedly be a bit of mystery that remains at the end of the competition, and fans will simply have to wait a few weeks for the announcement of the final team. …

Gymnast.com

=====

I just heard today that Casey Sandy did not attend the Canadian Men’s Olympic Training Camp and Test Meet tonight. But did not hear why. Has he withdrawn from Olympic team selection?

In the lengthy debate about double amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, you knew there would be other “special” cases.

But you probably didn’t guess it would be another South African.

Natalie Du Toit qualified for the Beijing Olympics after she finished fourth in the 10km race in the Open Water World Championships in Seville, Spain.

The 24-year-old, who lost her left leg when she was hit by a car while riding her scooter in 2001, clocked a time of two hours two minutes 7.8 seconds, just 5.1 seconds behind winner Larisa Ilchenko of Russia.

The 10km open water race is making its debut as an Olympic event in Beijing.

Du Toit almost qualified for the Sydney Olympics in three events at the age of 16 but she suffered the accident a year later. …

She missed out on qualification for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but did compete in the Paralympics the same year where she won five gold medals and a silver. …

Reuters

Right now Natalie is in. But Oscar has not yet qualified.

Pistorius, who hopes to run the 400 at Beijing, must run the 400 in less than 45.55 seconds to qualify for the Olympics. His personal-best is 46.56 seconds.

South Africa names du Toit to both Olympic, Paralympic teams – ESPN

natalie du toit – official website

http://www.westphoto.se – Andreas Svensson

Beautiful.

see more here and here

Thanks Leif Danielsson who recommended the pictures from Swedish Championships 2008.