Gymnastics Coaching.com

Excellent online interview by John Crumlish of International Gymnast with new Oregon recruit Olivia Vivian, Australian national team coach Peggy Liddick and OSU head coach Tanya Chaplin.

I like Olivia already. She’s got spunk:

IG: What about OSU specifically, and U.S. university gymnastics in general, appealed to you?

OV: To be honest, my thoughts on going to college on scholarship increased dramatically when my parents said I would have to pay for my own university fees! But I also thought it would be a great opportunity for me to get an education whilst still doing the sport I love. Australia doesn’t offer any sporting scholarships in university. OSU appealed to me because of its great staff and location. …

A good catch for OSU. Tanya Chaplin flew to Australia on that recruiting trip.

… in Perth, Vivian is coached by Martine George and Nikolai Lapchine at the Western Australian Institute of Sport. She placed 13th on uneven bars at the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne; and 12th on uneven bars and sixth with her team at the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.

I’d posted on Olivia already.

But this was a fun blast from the past:

Under her maiden name of Tanya Service, Chaplin finished 22nd all-around at the 1983 World Championships in Budapest. Her powerful but polished style enabled her to perform skills that are unusual even today. On uneven bars, Service’s mount was a stem rise, immediate Jaeger. On balance beam, she performed a standing front salto (without a hurdle); and dismounted with a double tuck from a cartwheel, instead of the customary round-off.

Chaplin competed collegiately for UCLA, and tied for second place all-around at the 1989 NCAA Championships. Her husband, Michael, is also a former UCLA gymnast and U.S. national team member.

read more – International Gymnast

Before Courtney and Courtney, there were Dominique and Dominique, U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics teammates.

This video raves on fan favourite, triple Olympian, Awesome Dawesome:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Aleksas)

People always ask me, “Dominique, what’s your most memorable moment throughout your entire career?” … it’s amazing how many think they know the answer.

The majority of people say that it has to be the 1996 Olympic win, where me and 6 of the most talented and driven gymnasts made history being the first US gymnastics team to clench gold at an Olympic Games. Now, that was a moment that I will never forget. My most memorable moments continue to happen today!

It’s the time when … read the answer on Dominique’s official website

Two great “Shewfelt” vaults. (Yurchenko 5/2 twists)

Which do you like better?

Click PLAY or watch the Silver and Bronze vault medalists on YouTube.

David Sender finished 2nd with 16.350.

Jimmy Wickham finished 3rd with16.325.

Only one judge of six scored Wickham higher than Sender. (They must have a much different view than we do from high above.)

Here’s Shewfelt winning BRONZE at 2003 World’s with the same vault. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

All three have stuck the vault in the past. Leave a comment if you have a link to a “stuck” video clip.

A Russian newspaper has been forced to shut down after it defied the Kremlin by reporting that President Putin planned to marry a champion Olympic gymnast 31 years his junior.

Stuff – New Zealand

Russian neo-dictator Vladimir Putin denied he will wed Olympic rhythmic champion Alina Kabayeva. And now seems to have taken action against the paper Moskovski Korrespondent.

The report insists that the closure was a “business decision”. As if anyone is going to believe that.

Are there no limits to Putin’s power?

A small but important competition is happening Wednesday, April 23rd in Colorado Springs.

It’s another chance for Senior Men to qualify through to Visa USA Championships in Houston. (Visa Championships counts toward Olympic Team qualification.)

Justin Spring, Morgan Hamm, Blaine Wilson and Tim McNeill are just a few of the gymnasts (full list PDF) who MIGHT get through to the Olympic Team. It will be very interesting to see the results.

Morgan, for example, could contribute much needed high scores on Pommels and Horizontal Bar. Let’s hope he’s healthy.

Hamms with Shawn Johnson – Making the Olympics

2008 Men’s National Qualifier information

The internet is a wonderful tool. But it has a downside too.

George Palmer sent me an important question by email:

I think hearing what you think of instructional videos on you tube would be interesting. Is it promoting dangerous “park gymnastics”. Is it the blind leading the blind? Is it useful? How about for regular gymnasts? Is it useful for them or should they pay attention to coaches? Any value in having home gymnasts watch instructional videotapes (like a coach would)?

George pointed me to this fairly typical example: (UPDATE: Editor Sizzi took this video down after my critique below. Perhaps that’s for the best.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube (8min).

SIzzi does many things right in this tutorial. And he is very good at standing full twist.

Even the dumbest kid on YouTube cannot miss his disclaimer:

*W A R N I N G* …

THIS IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THIS SHOULD ONLY BE USED AS A REFERENCE. DO NOT TRY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE PROPER TRAINING, A GYMNASTICS INSTRUCTOR, AND A PROPER GYMNASTICS GYM. I’M NOT HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES WHILE ATTEMPTING THIS.-

People need to stop “chucking” moves …

… if you just came across this video and have no former training, then you have no business trying this move, so DON’T DO IT! Have some common sense.

Still, I wish Sizzi would take the video off the net.

Any trampoline coach would criticize:

using a crappy backyard trampoline …

with insufficient padding and no throw mat

teaching beginners “early” twisting

no progressions for twisting are shown

progressions shown on hard floor rather than on a mat or on grass (that’s just dumb)

What Sizzi should do instead is show his COOL SKILLZ. Then tell young kids to go join a gymnastics or trampoline club. To find a good coach.

His other videos are better.

I DO find Sizzi partly responsible for kids hurt trying the progressions he “taught” them in an 8min video.

Honestly, Sizzi, how many of the people who tried your drills do you believe can learn a standing full using your methods? Two? Three?

I think you are misleading everyone else who does not have your strength to weight ratio and acrobatic background.

… End of rant. Leave a comment if you have an opinion, especially if you know of some good online tutorials. For example: Gymnastics Warm Ups on Expert Village

Another example I like better is this tutorial on backward handspring by Chelsie Memmel.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s inspiring for kids to be “coached” by a “star”. (Chelsie, by the way, was an advanced but awful tumbler as a young child. Doug Davis of TumblTrak has videos of her back to when she was 3ft tall.)

USA Gymnastics is proud to launch a new, more user-friendly version of usa-gymnastics.org. The revamped site has a new look and information has been reorganized, with the goal of making it easier for fans and members alike to find the information they are seeking. The home page is now dedicated to highlighting what is happening in the sport, as well as coverage from papers across the country. …

We really hope you enjoy the new usa-gymnastics.org. Please feel free to send us your thoughts to feedback@usa-gymnastics.org. Thank you!

USAG

Looks much prettier. Time will tell if it is really more user-friendly.

This user wants an RSS feed. The new site has none.

But let’s give them some time to work out the bugs. USAG is a HUGE site. It’s not easy to move it all over to a new home.

usa-gymnastics.org

(via JBS on Chalk Bucket)

The rookie from WOGA is the next big superstar from NCAA powerhouse Oklahoma.

Click PLAY or watch Steven’s gold medal routine on YouTube.

I asked Steven why he lands so many skills facing forwards. (He won vault with Handspring double front.) And assumed that he was trying to maximize his start scores. Actually, he has inflexible ankles. He said he has always preferred landing forward because landing “short” from backwards rotation is painful.

Newly crowned national team champs Oklahoma added three event titles to their ever-growing collection as the 2008 NCAA National Championships concluded Saturday in Stanford, Calif., proving their team title upset was no fluke.

Freshman Steven Legendre easily secured the floor win with a whopping 6.5 “A” (difficulty) score that netted him a 16.1. …

read more on the Finals – OKLAHOMA WINNING STREAK CONTINUES – Inside Gymnastics

California Berkeley gymnastics is celebrating.

Senior Tim McNeill won NCAA individual championships on pommel horse and parallel bars Saturday evening at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion. The titles are McNeill’s third on pommel horse and second on parallel bars in four years at California, bringing his career total to five — the most in Cal school history. …

… California head coach Barry Weiner said. “Tim won by 0.650 on pommel and 0.700 on parallel bars, those score differentials are unheard of. He just dominated.” …

CalBears

Click PLAY or watch both of Tim’s gold routines on YouTube.

Tim McNeill – bio

Incidentally, I spoke with Barry Weiner — an astute gymnastics mind — after the meet. He projects that the USA will win a team medal at the Olympics. With Paul Hamm as an AA anchor, that the States can finish ahead of Korea. And, perhaps, Japan.

Barring disaster, China should win gold as a team. But Barry feels Paul Hamm has a chance to defeat Yang Wei for the AA title, despite having a lower start score.

My own feeling is that the strongest quality the USA can bring to Beijing is consistency. In a competition where all 18 routines count, the USA can “hit” 18 routines. The Chinese competitors are not nearly as well battle tested under pressure.

No harm done, it seems. But clicking on a gymnastics movie sent to you in an email may result in an unexpected anti-China message.

RaceForTibet.exe, shows a cartoon with a very skilled Chinese gymnast performing some amazingly convoluted exercise on a “vaulting Bbox” for which the jury immediately scored her a shocking 0! Whilst the gymnast’s performance is “re-wound,” a number of fairly stark photographs of real events, taking place throughout China and Tibet, are shown as a flashback. …

… we can also continue to see an increase in attacks carried out by people taking advantage of the media hype and interest raised across the globe over these dramatic circumstances.

Will you watch the Olympic games? Best not if they claim to appear via e-mail as a Flash executable movie!

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(via Shergymrag)

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