Gymnastics Coaching.com

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

If you like those, here are more soccer celebration dance and acrobatics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

And I thought North American professional sport was bad.

Ohio State coach Miles Avery:

“We’re going to win,” Avery insists. “That’s why we’re going. We want to win. We don’t want to finish third, or second.”

AVERY: U.S. TEAM IS IN IT, TO WIN IT – Inside Gymnastics

Everyone thinks China is going to run away with it, but everyone thought that in ’04 [too]. …

I do think the USA does have an outside chance of winning the Olympics. They certainly will make the Team Final (top 8 of 12 teams). At that point any team that hits 18 of 18 routines has a chance.

We will know better after this weekend’s VISA Championships and first trial in Houston.

source – Getty Images – M. Hamm’s comeback – NBC Olympics

Fans are hopeful Morgan Hamm looks good. The team could really use him in Beijing.

Shannon Miller poses the most important question for Olympic Team selectors:

“Should the men focus on forming a team that will be sure to qualify to the finals or focus on putting together a team that will excel once in the finals?”

These could be two completely different teams.

In the qualifying round it’s a 6-5-4 format. Six men on a team, 5 men compete on each event and 4 scores count. In the final round it’s a 3 up 3 count format. Three athletes compete on each event, all scores count. For the qualifying round you would likely need athletes that can do more events, thus more all-arounders. This would mean the less events you compete (no matter how good), the worse your chances of making the team. However, if you want to focus on the final round and assume you’ll make it there, you would need only 3 men on each event that can throw huge scores. This means a ringman like Kevin Tan or a specialist like Sean Golden may have a much better chance to make the team.

From the Podium

If they are in it to win it, the USA must choose the best team 3 up 3 count for team finals.

That’s a no brainer.

China will do exactly the same thing. Team preliminaries will be low priority.

This is NOT the case for every nation, however. Canada, for example, will likely send their best apparatus specialists as opposed to those who would contribute to the highest possible team score. Canada does not have a chance for a team medal. But could certainly medal on an apparatus as they did in 2004 Athens.

He goes by the flickr name of johnny caboosehead.

At Sport Seneca in Toronto.

more johnny caboosehead photos tagged “gymnastics” – flickr

An inspiring article on the former University of Minnesota great who will be trying out of the US Olympic Team at VISA Championships.

Olympic spotlight: Former Minnesota Gophers gymnast Guillermo Alvarez. Ex-Gophers gymnast eyes Olympic berth to show other Hispanics they can dream big.

Since graduating summa cum laude as a psychology major in 2005, Alvarez has mostly shelved his aspirations of an advanced degree and focused on his longtime Olympic dream.

The nation’s top collegiate senior gymnast in 2005, the former Gopher doesn’t drive a luxury vehicle. He doesn’t live in a tony downtown loft. And, despite training full time the past three years, Alvarez isn’t assured of a spot on the medal-contending U.S. men’s Olympic gymnastics team.
…

“I’ve been lucky to grow up in this country and to actually have the opportunity to train in this sport, because that’s something my father and his family didn’t have.

“The work they did paid off to give me the life that I have now.”

His father, Amando, emigrated with his parents and five siblings from Rio Verde, Mexico, in the 1950s, and they endured potato fields and labor camps in Idaho to fulfill their American dream.

“It’s pretty important just to have the face out here, especially now that immigration is such a big issue and there’s so much negative publicity about it,” Alvarez said of his Mexican roots. “To be able to show that, ‘Hey, I came from that.’ I want to give back, so other kids who don’t grow up in the richest neighborhoods can aspire to similar things.” …

read more …TwinCities.com

Alvarez is actually eligible to compete for Mexico. But would prefer to qualify for the American team.

UPDATE: Talked to him. He’s not eligible to compete for Mexico. Lesson learned: Can’t believe everything I see on the internet.

One of the best of many good things about Australia is that Aussies value sport. That’s how they became one of the most successful sporting nations in the world, per capita.

Down Under you can purchase for your kids …

Personalised Growth Charts
Personalised Birthday Cards
Personalised Special Occasion Cards
Personalised My Heroes Post-e-cards DVD’s
… more

… with an autographed photo of a sports star.

For example:

details – My Heroes

International Aussie gymnasts are available too.

Nice.

(via Australia Gymnastics Blog)

Some of the most original, most interesting photos I’ve seen this year were shot by Kelly Lambert.

This one is from her NCAA 2008 Championships “Practice Set”.

see more – flickr collections – Kelly Lambert

Gymnastics British Columbia has an interesting pilot scheduled. And check the price:

ACRiX Instructor Training Course

ACRiX Program Description:

The new ACRiX Program (Applied Circus: Radically Extreme), falling under the Youth CanMove initiative, aims to get youth more active in the sport of gymnastics.

ACRiX merges Circus Arts and Gymnastics into seasonal programs that can be put into place within schools, community centers, gymnastics clubs and neighbourhood houses. The goal of this program is to provide unique opportunities to disadvantaged youth and to offer sustainability in the program by training the youth in the classes to become ACRiX and gymnastics instructors.

Some of the skills presented within the program include acrobalancing, juggling and object manipulation, with equipment such as balls, rings, clubs, flowersticks and diabolos.

… This one day certification course

Date: Sunday, July 6 , 2008
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Where: Vancouver Phoenix Gymnastics
Conductor: Aaron Johnson and the Vancouver Circus School
Cost: Free !!*

They’ve found a way to make gymnastics training COOL. (add the words “extreme” and “circus”)

More information on the Gymnastics B.C. e-Xtra newsletter.

ACRiX has been added this year to the BC Coaching Intensive workshops:

Related post: great idea – Gymnastics Intensive (2007)

Recall this athlete had been banned from the Olympics by the IAAF.

In a landmark ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, South African athlete Oscar Pistorius – nicknamed ‘Bladerunner’ after the carbon-fibre prosthetics he uses in place of his amputated lower legs – has won the right to compete against able-bodied athletes, and plans to represent his country at either the Beijing Olympics or the later London event. …

Futurismic

In an era where we are demonizing “cheating” by performance enhancing drugs, this is a very interesting development.

Here’s a totally believable movie trailer based on the Cirque du Soleil show Ka’ in Las Vegas.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Twin Brother- Orlando Bloom
Twin Sister- Miranda Otto
Chef Archer’s Daughter- Keira Knightley
Chef Archer- Chow Yun Fat
Counselor’s Son- Tom Hardy Twin Brother’s Guardian- Djimon Hounsou
Forest Prince- Rudy Youngblood

I’d LOVE to see this film. Sadly, it’s only real in the creative mind’s eye of editor masongoliver.

I’ll say that again. There is no movie version of Ka’. This is a fake trailer.

I normally don’t post online Forum rumours. But this one looks to be true.

Shavahn Church is retiring (quelle surprise), Aisha Gerber will be taking her scholarship this autumn at UCLA. …

College Gymnastics Board