Gymnastics Coaching.com

NEW – GymnastTube

I had the privilege of watching two training sessions of the Stanford Men’s Gymnastics Team last week in California.

How good are they?

Good. Very good. And deep. With great freshmen. High level difficulty. A great work ethic in the gym.

Two serious contenders for the Olympic Team: David Sender and Sho Nakamori.

Sho – BBC photo

They’ve come a long way since the hugely popular (almost half a million views) YouTube video: Stanford Gymnastics – Strength Comes in the Struggle was posted by Jason Shen in 2006. It documents their struggles up to that point.

Assistant coach J.D. Reive told me everything came together for this team, this season. They couldn’t be more excited to vie for the Championships at home April 17-19th.

Ranked #1 in the preseason coaches poll. Stanford is the team to beat.

training gym

Related post: confirmed – Stanford University

Good idea. Height markers on the rope are goals for gymnasts.

United Athletic

related post: teaching safe rope climb to beginners

Steve McCain and the team at American Gymnast have done it again.

Already producing the best online gymnastics streaming video — Video on Demand — they’ve now announced the best online gymnastics video sharing site: GymnastTube

You already know exactly how to use it. Very much like YouTube.

Brilliant!

Here’s a sample. Note the excellent quality:

Click PLAY or watch it on GymnastTube.

UPDATE: I removed the embedded video as it was “breaking” the site in the Firefox browser. Better to check out the site itself, in any case.

By the way, that’s Thomas Kelly training the “Russian Giant” with the technique now supposedly expected by FIG. (I called it a “looming disaster” when changes to the el-grip interpretations were first announced mid-cycle.)

I plan to upload all my own best gymnastics video clips ASAP. Please do the same. The faster we upload, the faster this site will become better than YouTube for finding quality video.

GymnastTube

(Leave a comment if you are seeing anything strange on this post. There may be a problem with Firefox on the Mac showing the video twice.)

Brazil is bidding for the 2016 Olympics.

Current World FX Champion Hypolito says he cannot retire until after those Games.

Epoca

From the Portuguese, by Google Translate:

With only 21 years old, the gymnast Diego Hypolito already builds a bicampeonato world, the Pan-American title and classification for the Olympics in Beijing. The detail is that all these achievements have been achieved in just one year: 2007. Now, Diego believes in the future and says that his career still must last three more Olympic Games.

— I want to compete until some 34 years. Certainly, if I still have financial support and my own results, disputarei the Olympics of 2016. It is a dream compete in the Games of the River We must fight hard to achieve hosting the competition – said the gymnast on the application of the Brazilian city. …

— I am offended when they say that we are a sport amateur. Treinamos seven hours a day. Our work is professional, the remuneration to win it is amateur. But I believe that people are already with a different look to us.

With problems with Olympic Team preparation in Australia, and France, it’s great to see such enthusiasm coming from the Brazilians.

This post comes from the excellent Gymblog Brazil (Portuguese) which looks influenced by Gymblog edited by Blythe Lawrence.

Here’s Diego’s flawed 2007 World Championships gold medal Floor routine. (Makes me wish stylish Kyle Shewfelt has competed.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Diego Hypólito – Wikipedia

Diego Hypólito – official website

A sell-out crowd of over 15,000 college gymnastics fans look on in Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum as the Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs compete.

GemGemz

More information on the meet – Clash of the Titans

Morgan Dennis won the All-around. Georgia defeated Alabama 196.625 to 196.000.

The most interesting aspect of the Women’s NCAA is how hugely popular the top teams are. How can we extend this to age group gymnastics?

I’ll be attending Chicago Style (4000+ competitors) next weekend. Lets see what kind of audience they draw.

If you are planning on attending one of the major North American camps, register early to get the week you want.

The excellent bilingual camp in Quebec — GymRep — is already full.

Coach Robert Majeau tells me they still have space in Cheerleading, the first year they’ve offered it. But gymnastics is FULL. With a waiting list.

GymRep – English home page

Related posts – Camps Category

If there is such a thing as a “good” serious injury, it’s a complete Achilles tendon tear.

Alexis Greene – University of Arizona

… “She’s phenomenal,” said senior Karin Wurm. “It’s definitely been inspirational for every person on the team, from the seniors looking down at her and for the freshman to see someone who had had such an extreme injury – tearing your Achilles’ – which for many people is career-ending and to come back and to be so strong is awesome. …”

Wildcat Online

Far from being “career-ending”, most gymnasts recover very well.

Adam Wong, Canadian Olympian, is on the comeback trail, as well. And looking good to qualify for Beijing.

Every coach knows someone who has had this injury. It must happen to gymnasts and tumblers more than in any other sport.

I have no data at all. But, seems to me, it is happening less frequently than in the past. Leave a comment if you have any statistics on this.

I still have not seen the “ideal” Yurchenko (video) hand mat.

But this one is quite good:

Utah

At the same competition — Utah vs Arizona in the NCAA — this mat was used:

Arizona

Obviously both worked.

But I prefer the first which gives the gymnast more visual information. And which might, on average, keep them straighter on to the beat board. I like a narrow mat because it encourages the gymnast to do a traditional round-off rather than “over turn” the hands.

Leave a comment if you have used and like another type of hand mat.

The annual fund-raising competition in support of American Collegiate gymnastics is coming up in a month. Registering competitors in this meet helps support an important cause.

2008 MIGS Program
Men’s JO National Invitational
March 1 & 2, 2007

University of Minnesota
Sports Pavilion
Minneapolis, MN
Also, Sat. Evening: UM vs. Temple & Nebraska

In 1969, there were 230 men’s collegiate gymnastics teams in the United States. Today, there are 20 NCAA teams and approximately 15 college club teams. Simply put, this trend needs to be reversed. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the gymnastics community to effect a positive change. That includes parents of current gymnasts, alumni, clubs, vendors, etc.

The MIGS Program was founded in 2002 for the purposes of ensuring continuation of existing men’s collegiate gymnastics programs and bringing additional programs on line.

We are working to:

• Ensure we don’t lose any more programs.
• Re-establish some former programs.
• Establish some new programs.
• Create an endowment fund of $50 million to ensure the continuation of men’s intercollegiate gymnastics.

Since founding the MIGS Program, we have discovered that people all over the country feel this mission is important enough to make a financial contribution. During the first year of operation, we received donations ranging from $5 to $2,000. Contributions came in from individuals, clubs, State Coaches Associations, State Judges Associations and various businesses. A typical contribution from individuals was $120 while the typical donation from clubs was $300. The geographic origin of these contributions was widespread, from all corners of the country and many points in between.

In order to complete this mission, we need your support.

Details on how we can help.

Another MIGS option is the Pacific Coast Classic, Oakland, California Feb. 21-23, 2008.