Gymnastics Coaching.com

light and shadow – flickr – douwea

On this weekend.

Snowboard Revolution – Shaun White

We will post highlight videos of any interesting acrobatics.

official website – ESPN

Academy Award-nominated director Sofia Coppola once played a gymnast in the 1997 video for “Elektrobank” by the Chemical Brothers, which was directed by her future husband, Academy Award-nominated Spike Jonze.

One of the weirder Floor routines on YouTube:

Interview with Jones:

What did you have to bribe your girlfriend with to get her to put on a unitard and do gymnastics?

(laughs) I don’t know. She was such a good sport. Not only was she a good sport to let us put her in those clothes and let us tease her hair up, but she also was a good sport, because after half of the first day, she was so sore and tired. We made her rehearse and learn gymnastics with a gymnast, learn dance and a style of ribbonwork. ..

Big Screen Little Screen

(via bobble bee)

Her story seemed tragic. At age 13, talented Bethany Hamilton was set to be the next pro surfer out of Hawaii. Until she lost her entire left arm to a tiger shark while surfing the North Shore of Kauai.

… This week Bethany tied for third in the Roxy Pro Womens WQS Surf Festival on Philip Island in Australia. She made it all the way through to the semi finals and placed equal with her opponent, World No. 8 Jessi Miley-Donte.

…

“[People] can do whatever they want if they just set their heart to it, and just never give up, and just go out there and do it,” she said.

Shark-Attack Surfer Takes Third in Competition – Sierra Blogging Post

Reminds me of “Lefty”, Carol Johnston the gymnast.

Former international gymnast Jennifer Sey works as the Marketing Director for Levi’s Jeans. She also writes and produces short films like this one: The Gymnast

It stars fellow former Parkette, Jennifer Greenhut, a good friend of the director.

Many like this film which explores the potential downside of being an ex-elite gymnast. Personally I found it dull. It did not have anything new to say to me. Perhaps for a non-gymnastics audience there is more appeal.

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

I hope her upcoming book is more enlightening.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There’s never been anyone better.

It was great to see that the new gym, opened 2006, at Arizona State was named after legendary coach John Spini. This is his 27th season as Head Coach of the Sun Devils.

With his wife, Desert Lights Gymnastics owner and coach, Lisa Spini.

canyon pit

Photo Tour of the New John Spini Gymnastics Training Facility

The Utah gymnastics team looked plenty comfortable in its first road meet of the year and took home a 196.700-195.625 win over No. 20 Arizona State.

All week, coach Greg Marsden emphasized the importance of a good meet outside of the Huntsman Center, where Utah is 2-0. His team took note, producing a season-high score …

“I told the team beforehand that this is where it all has to start. Both regionals and nationals will be held in hostile road environments and we need to start preparing now,” said Marsden. “I am very pleased that we continued to make progress and that several different gymnasts stepped in and performed well. If we can stay healthy, I’m going to keep giving different people an opportunity each week – either to count or as exhibition. …

The change of locale certainly didn’t affect Ashley Postell, who won her third all-around title in as many weeks, scoring a 39.475.

Utah Gymnastics

Utah looks better to me than they did finishing second at Championships last season. Ashley Postell is fantastic. Kristina Baskett is one of the most charming and entertaining College gymnasts of all time. (Except after the big wobble on beam. She was seriously unhappy about that.)

With strong individual routines from the rest of the team. And Canadian Olympian Gael Mackie yet to make her debut, no one should count Utah out of the running for the Championship.

My only criticism of the Utes last night was their tumbling. Aside from Postell’s drop-from-the-sky triple twist, It’s not strong. The routines are clean and safe. But to me the Arizona girls were more dynamic and exciting tumblers.

The Sun Devils have plenty to be optimistic about. They have some great potential. Last night they made too many mistakes, some unnecessary. Happily, Nicole Harris was a rock, with a season-best all-around score of 39.35.

The attendance was better than I estimated, 1,911, the third largest attendance in Sun Devil gymnastics history. And most of those, like myself, left happy. NCAA women’s gymnastics is great entertainment, despite the near absurd scoring system. Fans love seeing very high scores.

Note: Utah had their own live blogger on site. Much more informative than this one.

: )

… “free sledding”

Who would think of such a thing?

The evolution of the Mad River Rocket began with renowned architect David Sellers and friends in Warren, Vermont. They set out to find a better way to slide down the hills of Vermont.

Their early ideas began with toboggans sliced in half and pinned together for rapid steering. They were heavy, big and had no control surfaces. They also tried to modify the cheap toy store sleds. They realized that in order to be safe and to see the changing terrain as you glide through the thick forests prevalent in Vermont, they had to develop a new type of sled.

Many of the experimenters with this new sled design were also kayakers and white water canoers. The similarities are strong. In white water you need to be high enough in the water to see ahead and you need to lean and brace for balance. They experimented with sled designs that incorporated the kneeling position, quickly added a knee strap and knew they had a design that would be highly maneuverable in powder snow. …

about

If you know what’s good for you, steer clear of these performance sleds by MAD RIVER ROCKET

Click PLAY or watch What I Kneed Extreme freesledding on YouTube:

(via Wicked Outdoorsy)

A small but enthusiastic crowd at the Wells Fargo Arena at ASU.

I’m sitting beside red clad UTE fans. Loud and proud.

Introductions. Light show starts. On the big screen is a highlights reel of the Arizona girls. VERY COOL.

For a $5 ticket, a great show. This is NCAA Women’s Gymnastics.

Despite the warlike lyrics, I sure do like the American National Anthem.

On with the competition …

First rotation Arizona on Vault. Good, not great. Meanwhile Utah rocked on bars, at least for the first 5 routines. Kristina Baskett 9.925 and Ashley Postell 9.9 … WOW.

I really had my doubts about Utah last year. But they look GREAT on bars this season.

Nicole Harris is a star with Arizona. Super clean bars for 9.875. Stick!

Utah opened vault with a sweet handspring front layout. I think it was former German National Champion Daria Bijak.

Laptop battery running low. I’ll post a summary of the meet later tonight.