Gymnastics Coaching.com

As part of a 6 day National gymnastics coaching course, we spent the day with Choreographer Julia Spivak. She reviewed leaps, jumps, turns and physical preparation for artistic sports.

Most of the coaches were feeling guilty that we do not do enough Artistic preparation with our gymnasts. Clubs in Canada have two problems:

not enough training time

not enough money

Competent, experienced dance coaches and choreographers are normally more expensive than coaches. When the budget is tight, the dance instructor is often the first to go.

Julia charges around $350 / floor routine including music. It will be original.

Follow-up work is needed periodically or quality of movement will likely decline.

gymnastics clinic with Julia Spivak – original photos – flickr

spivak (at) telus.net

Gymnicestics has a most interesting prediction. Sandra Izbasa could compete a record 6.9 A-score at the Olympics and steal the gold medal away from Shawn Johnson, Cheng Fei, Dasha Joura and the others touted as “favourites”.

Here’s her current routine starting at 6.5.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

See how she can jump to 6.9 on Gymnicestics.

I like the friendly interface on this video database (currently over 800) of conditioning drills.

trunk rotation with medicine ball and feet up

trunk rotation with medicine ball and feet up
(Click on image to view this exercise…)

squat and medicine ball side throw
(Click on image to view this exercise…)

PhysicalFitnet is a free website, for both fitness professionals and fitness buffs, that gives you information and resources only from top professionals.

PhysicalFitnet

(via Straight to the Bar)

It was an honour for me this year to visit the gym at Stanford.

The Women’s team graduated 6 fantastic young women: Tabitha Yim, Liz Tricase, Aimee Precourt, Alex Pintchouk, Stephanie Gentry, and Lauren Elmore.

A very cute, very touching, thank-you was posted by twest10.

Click PLAY or watch the tribute on YouTube.

Stanford finished 3rd at NCAA Championships, tied with its best finish in school history. That was a fantastic performance. Congratulations to Head Coach Kristen Smyth, Mike Lorenzen, Chris Swircek and assistant Hillary Anderson.

(via College Gymnastics Board)

Related: Stanford Men’s Gymnastics Senior Class of 2008 comedy tribute – YouTube
(Eli Alcaraz, Chris Harper, David Sender, Sho Nakamori, and Jason Shen)

===== UPDATE:

2008-09 Stanford Women’s Gymnastics Letters-Of-Intent

Alyssa Brown — Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Catherine Nguyen — Plano, TX
Nicole Pechanec — Phillipsburg, NJ
Lenika De Simone – Madrid, Spain
Jenny Peter – Lincoln, NE
Allie Skoly – Providence, RI

The rumours were true.

Canadian gymnasts Nansy Damianova of Montreal and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of Toronto are bound for Beijing.

The two were deemed the country’s top two female gymnasts at the conclusion of the Canadian championship Saturday and punched their tickets to the 2008 Olympics in August.

The Canadian men’s team of six gymnasts for Beijing has yet to be finalized.

Damianova, 17, and Hopfner-Hibbs, 18, were ranked first and second respectively after Saturday’s event finals.

Points accumulated at both national championships and in their international competitions counted towards qualifying for the Olympics.

“I’m really, really happy because it has been a long year and we’ve travelled a lot this year,” Damianova said. “Nationals was our last meet before the Olympics. I’m glad it finished with a happy ending.”

… Damianova tied for first on the vault and was second on the uneven bars to overtake Hopfner-Hibbs Saturday in the overall rankings.

Hopfner-Hibbs was third on both the bars and beam Saturday, but she’d also won the all-around title Thursday and that helped her nail down the second Olympic berth.

Gymnastics Canada will send Damianova’s coach Katerine Dussault with her to Beijing because Damianova is the country’s top-ranked female gymnast.

Hopfner-Hibbs was disappointed to finish second because she wanted to also secure a trip to Beijing for her coach Carol-Angela Orchard.

“The Olympics, I’m going, and that’s outstanding, but it’s bittersweet,” Hopfner-Hibbs said.

“I know Carol-Angela can come to Beijing, but I don’t know if she’s going to or how many training sessions she can come to. It’s hard because she’s the reason I’m here.” …

CANADIAN PRESS – via Gymbrooke Sports News

I’ve yet to speak to one coach who thinks this is the correct ranking of the Olympians. The points system was flawed.

2008 Canadian Championships
June 7, Calgary

Senior Women’s Vault
1. Nansy Damianova (Gymnix, QC) 14.050
1. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 14.050
3. Charlotte Mackie (Omega, BC) 14.000

Senior Uneven Bars
1. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 15.600
2. Nansy Damianova (Gymnix, QC) 14.900
3. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Sport Seneca, ON) 14.600

Senior Balance Beam
1. Peng-Peng Lee (Sport Seneca, ON) 15.850
2. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 15.500
3. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Sport Seneca, ON) 14.950

Senior Women’s Floor Exercise
1. Peng-Peng Lee (Sport Seneca, ON) 14.900
2. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 14.800
3. Sydney Sawa (CGC, AB) 14.700

Old timers can recall when the only consistent source of information about gymnastics was International Gymnast magazine.

Each month we’d wait anxiously for it to arrive. Cutting out the pictures and posting them on the gym wall.

In 2008 there are dozens of good sources of information. Other magazines. Online magazines, including International Gymnast online. Discussion forums. And blogs like this.

It’s easy to post your own site and reveal the truth:

xkcd

(via Scobelizer)

When are you going to start your own blog? It’s free and easy with WordPress.

Just dashing off to the post-competition celebrations. But here are the results of finals — which seem to last for about 17hrs today.

(The NCAA coaches in the audience were mortified at how long we were willing to make athletes hang around for a meet.)

WAG_Senior_EvtFinals.pdf

MAG_Senior_EventFinals.pdf

Peng Peng won beam with a 15.85 out of 6.8.

Brandon O’Neil had a 6.8 start on PBars, scoring 15.50 to win. Unfortunately he landed out of bounds on his 6.5 start FX.

It’s an amazing honour to count as one of the few of hundreds who aspired to trial for the Olympics.

Congratulations to these girls and their coaches.

Thirteen women were named to the 2008-09 U.S. Senior National Team. These 13, as well as six additional women, will compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, June 19-22 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. …

2008-09 U.S. Senior National Team

Jana Bieger, Coconut Creek, Fla./Bieger International Gymnastics
Mackenzie Caquatto, Naperville, Ill./Aerials
Olivia Courtney, Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro
Ivana Hong, Blue Springs, Mo./GAGE
Alaina Johnson, Tyler, Texas/Texas East
Shawn Johnson, West Des Moines, Iowa/Chow’s Gymnastics
Mattie Larson, Los Angeles/All Olympia
Nastia Liukin, Parker, Texas/WOGA
Corrie Lothrop, Gaithersburg, Md./Hill’s
Chellsie Memmel, West Allis, Wis./M&M Gymnastics
Samantha Peszek, Indianapolis, Ind./DeVeau’s
Alicia Sacramone, Winchester, Mass./Brestyan’s
Randy Stageberg, Chesapeake, Va./Excalibur

Also invited to the U.S. Olympic Team Trials

Chelsea Davis, Lakeway, Texas/Texas Dreams
Darling Hill, Mt. Laurel, N.J./Will-Moor
Britney Ranzy, Gaithersburg, Md./Excalibur
Amber Trani, Richlandtown, Pa./Parkettes
Bridget Sloan, Pittsboro, Ind./Sharp’s
Shayla Worley, Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro

Gymnast.com

Mackenzie Caquatto – official website

The top three finishers of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, from left, second place, Nastia Liukin, first place Shawn Johnson and third place Chellsie Memmel salute the crowd, Saturday, June 7, 2008, in Boston.

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) – ESPN

Commentary:

Johnson Retains All-Around Title – Gymnast.com

Nationals: Shawn Wins, Chellsie Triumphant – Gymnastics and stuff

Shawn Johnson National Champion 2x Running! – Live.Breath.Love.Gymnastics

Johnson, Wieber win U.S. Championships – Gymblog

“Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy about a second place,” Liukin noted after the meet. “I’m a competitive person at heart, and I get that from my dad 100 percent… but I was really happy with how this whole weekend went besides that first fall on the first day.”

Johnson Defends U.S. Title – IG – results

Ivana Hong had a good meet finishing 5th.

It is not confirmed yet, but a rumor is that Nancy Damianova and Elise Hopfner-Hibbs have been chosen for the Canadian Olympic Team. Kristina Vaculick deserved the spot over Nancy in my opinion.

Live.Breath.Love.Gymnastics

That’s the general consensus, honestly, amongst coaches here at the Canadian Championships.

In reality, Nancy and Kristina are close — even if you disregard the bizarre point system used for selection. Either athlete is a good second choice after Elise. I would rank Kristina slightly ahead of Nancy, but it is a close decision.

The latest rumour is that Nancy’s coach Katerine Dussault has been named coach.

If true, that’s an idiotic decision. Elise’s coach Carol-Angela Orchard has far more international experience and is the obvious choice.