Comic-Capoeira in San Sebastian, Spain.
original Рflickr Рmike (el madrile̱o)
BETA International Gymnast online – awesome
by Rick McCharles
Finally, a web 2.0 online gymnastics magazine.
At first glance, the revamped IG looks GREAT. Far more functional than their nearest competitor, Inside Gymnastics online. The next best online magazine content-wise, GYMmedia.com from Europe, is positively hideous in comparison.
… We have been working hard to bring you a brand-new Web site for the Olympic year, and we’re proud to unveil it in conjunction with the Pacific Rim Championships in San Jose, Calif. We will be offering live coverage of every artistic gymnastics session in San Jose.
International Gymnast Magazine and International Gymnast Magazine Online continue to be the leader in global gymnastics news, features and photos, but we are eager to hear from you! We invite you to register with our site so you may comment on all our articles, and you may even submit your own article or news tip for our consideration!
We are still working on improving our new site. We will be adding many more features in addition to including the past eight years of content into the online archives. Please let us know how we’re doing or if you experience any technical glitches or notice any problems. Please comment below or e-mail us at sitefeedback (AT) intlgymnast.com.
Congratulations to whomever is responsible for this huge upgrade. I’ll be far more actively engaged at the new site now that you have an RSS feed.
As editor of GymnasticsCoaching.com, I spend all day long looking at gymnastics websites. Even on launch, IG 2.0 is one of the best.
Check it out right now: IntlGymnast.com
scandals of Romanian gymnastics past
A year after we first posted the award winning tell all exposé Secrets of a Gymnast by Andrei Nourescu, I’m embarrassed to say I still have not read it.
There seems to be several different covers. With at least two different titles in English:
Buy a copy for yourself, $20 at Cafe Press.
Books like this turn me off. I am suspicious of those who make money by “revealing” the “scandals” of the past. But, in the case of Romania, many of these scandals have been well documented already. For example: Romanian gymnasts faked age to compete (BBC, 2002).
I could believe almost anything possible.
That’s Alexandra Marinescu on the cover, one of the girls who’s age was faked.
Leave a comment if you’ve read the book and can recommend it. Or not.
Thanks northernriver of difficulty plus execution for the reminder.
movie – Never Back Down
Hollywood does Mixed Martial Arts. It’s been getting bad reviews since opening March 14th.
Richard Roeper, host of At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, gave the film a marginal “thumbs up” saying “I laughed so much at the litany of clichés that I finally had to admit I was entertained from start to finish by this cheesy knock-off.” …
Never Back Down – Wikipedia
See for yourself.
Click PLAY or watch the movie trailer on YouTube.
(via Straight to the Bar)
Platt Brothers – big, white, funny rappers
The Platt Brothers from San Diego are super popular coaches at Woodward West Gymnastics Camp. And very funny guys. They’ve coached thousands of kids over the years.
Their comedy troupe is up for KIIS FM’s “best unsigned artist and music video” based on internet votes. The wnners get $10,000 and perform LIVE at Wango Tango in LA.
Here’s their video for this contest. It includes tumbling and acrobatics:
If you like it, click through to vote for The Platt Brothers.
advanced chin-up variations: double pull-ups
As a response to the clap chin-ups post, Katrina from CrossFit Lethbridge in Canada linked to this challenge.
Click PLAY or watch Chad “Action” Brandt on YouTube.
There must be many more variations we could share, all leading up to the type of challenges done in the Ninja Warrior TV show. Those defeated even Paul Hamm and Jordan Jovtchev.
Leave a comment if you have seen other challenging pull-up variations.
Gymnastics March Madness
GymGemz has links to the NCAA Conference Championships for Women’s Gymnastics. And predictions on who will win.
The meet not only determines bragging rights. Scores “can count towards a team’s RQS (Regional Qualifying Score), so look for teams to pull out all the stops to maximize their scores, no matter where they end up in the conference.”
Conference Championships Links and Picks – GymGemz
Romanian gymnastics – crisis what crisis?
You’ve probably seen the recent eye-catching headline:
While making great press, it makes no sense. No thinking person would believe for a second that little girls in Romania do NOT dream of becoming the next Nadia.
National coach Nicolae Forminte has said similar things in the past. He seems to like downplaying expectations for the Romanian team. I’m not sure why.
Octavian Belu before him did something of the same thing.
difficulty and execution calls this “typical Romanian drama-mongering”. That’s exactly right.
Romania will be a contender at the 2008 Olympics.
The country does not have a large base of athletes. Yet the Romanian economy has improved since it joined the European Union in 2007. The day of crisis is not here yet. And there’s hope for the future.
100,000 euros ($157,394) and a car for each gold medal in Beijing will inspire the current team and coaches. Even if Nadia doesn’t.
Pacific Rim begins – Where is Korea?
Lots of buzz on the internet right now about this competition. (There is much more interest than in the American Cup, for example.) Results are important for those athletes wanting to qualify for their respective Olympic Teams.
For example, the Canadians have only two berths for Beijing. Who will get them?
Canadian women’s artistic team at San Jose City Hall for opening ceremonies on March 26. From left: Christine/Peng Peng Lee, Kristin Vaculik, Charlotte Mackie, Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, Nansy Damianova, Brittany Rogers.
posted on Facebook – 2008 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships – by Grace Chiu – GraceClick
Related post: Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships – NBC TV
Former coach, now Gymnastics Canada boss, Jean-Paul Caron, president of the Pacific Alliance Gymnastics Federations, was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle. JP is always the diplomatic gentleman:
Missing is South Korea. Caron denied that the Koreans are skipping the Pacific Rim Championships to protest the presence of Paul Hamm on the U.S. team.
“They almost always participate,” Caron said. “I don’t know why they’re not here. They’ve always been here.”
At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Hamm became the first American male gymnast to win the gold medal in all-around, but almost as soon as the medal was around his neck a scoring controversy erupted.
It was discovered that the bronze medalist, Yang Tae Young of South Korea, had been given an incorrect score in the parallel bars. He should have received a credit of 0.100 for a move at the start of his bars routine. Because Hamm won the closest competition in Olympic gymnastics history – 0.012 – that was the difference between first and third for the South Korean.
The International gymnastics federation said in a letter to Hamm that it would be an “ultimate demonstration of fair play” if he would give his gold to Young. An outraged U.S. Olympic Committee refused to even pass the letter on to Hamm.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ultimately ruled Hamm could keep his gold. …
(via mandmsjello on Gym Chat)
Americans are always surprised to hear me speak truth about Paul Hamm. But the fact is that many individuals and nations (not just Korea) are still ticked off about how he “won” the Olympics in 2004.
The best answer to those critics would be for Paul to do his best to win Olympics 2008.
UPDATE: As Coach Sommer says in the comments, the primary error was made by the Korean coaches. That’s true. But the nations of the world did not hire nor elect the South Korean coaches. We did elect Adrian Stoica from Romania as Chairman of the Men’s Technical Committee. It was on Stoica’s watch that the blunders in Men’s Judging occurred in Athens.
Why did so many judging mistakes happen at the 2004 Olympics Mr. Stoica?
Related posts:
coach Newt Loken – 60yrs perfect attendance
Here’s a record that will never be broken:
Could there possibly have been more going on at Senior Night for the Michigan men’s gymnastics team? I tend to doubt it.
Before the meet, the team honored former coach Newt Loken for 60 years of perfect attendance at home meets. Coach Loken was completely surprised–although everyone else had known about it for weeks. His wife, Dottie (who he calls “a gemâ€) came with him, along with his usual companion, Bob Willoughby. Willoughby, a gymnast on one of Loken’s first teams, regularly drives the coach to and from the meets. In front of both the Michigan and Ohio State lineups, Willoughby presented Loken with a plaque honoring him as the “ultimate superfan.†All the Michigan gymnasts bowed as if they were being knighted, down on one knee with a hand over the heart. Even Ohio State head coach Miles Avery came over to shake Loken’s hand. And the entire crowd gave him a standing ovation. …
Loken was NCAA all-around gymnastics champion in 1942. That’s so long ago that he was also NCAA champion on the now defunct apparatus called Flying Rings.
He coached University of Michigan gymnastics team for 36 years from 1948-1983. Loken’s gymnasts won the NCAA championships in 1963 and 1970, as well as 12 Big Ten championships. His record as Michigan’s gymnastics coach was 250-72-1. Loken also coached the Michigan trampolining team to NCAA championships in 1969 and 1970.
He was also an All American Cheerleader and on the diving team.
Newt Loken Gymnastics Training Center – more photos
He published a number of books (now out of print) including:
Congratulations Newt. You are an inspiration to all us “young” coaches.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 