Gymnastics Coaching.com

I watched the sychro artists in the Cirque du Soleil water show “O” last summer during a training session. The things the girls (and one guy) do acrobatically are much under appreciated.

Here’s another team:

more photos in this series – Freaky Martin

2008 European Championships – April 3, Clermond-Ferrand, France

Team Qualification round:

1. Romania 181.350 … hmmm
2. Russia 176.425
3. Italy 175.450
4. France 174.600
5. Great Britain 174.050
6. Germany 173.650
7. Ukraine 173.375
8. Netherlands 165.425
9. Greece 163.150
10. Czech Republic 159.850

Vault Finalists
1. Oksana Chusovitina (Oksana Tschussowitina) GER 15.000
2. Carlotta Giovannini ITA 14.837
3. Anna Pavlova RUS 14.712
4. Francesca Benolli ITA 14.462
5. Ariella Käslin SUI 14.325
6. Becky Downie GBR 14.275
7. Enikoe Korcsmaros HUN 14.087
8. Anastasia Marachkovskaya BLR 14.075
R1. Verona van de Leur NED 14.050
R2. Marissa King GBR 14.050
R3. Valeria Maksyuta ISR 13.762

Oksana Tschussowitina and coach Shanna Poljakowa: heading foward toward the finals on vault and floor! – GYMmedia

Uneven Bar Finalists
1. Beth Tweddle GBR 15.925
2. Ksenia Semyonova RUS 15.875
3. Anastasia Koval UKR 15.575
4. Becky Downie GBR 15.425
5. Steliana Nistor ROM 15.400
6. Daria Zgoba UKR 15.375
7. Lia Parolari ITA 15.250
8. Karina Myasnikova RUS 15.125
R1. Marie-Sophie Hindermann GER 14.850
R2. Kristina Palesova CZE 14.800
R3. Lichelle Wong NED 14.775

Balance Beam Finalists
1. Sandra Izbasa ROM 15.875
2. Steliana Nistor ROM 15.800
3. Pauline Morel FRA 15.475
4. Marina Proskurina UKR 15.300
5. Vanessa Ferrari ITA 15.225
6. Lenika de Simone ESP 15.200
7. Alina Kozich UKR 15.100
8. Ksenia Semyonova RUS 15.025
R1. Oksana Chusovitina GER 14.975
R2. Laura Jones GBR 14.900
R3. Marta Pihan POL 14.825

Floor Exercise Finalists
1. Sandra Izbasa ROM 15.700
2. Beth Tweddle GBR 15.475
3. Cassy Vericel FRA 15.325
4. Anamaria Tamarjan ROM 15.125
5. Oksana Chusovitina GER 15.000
6. Alina Kozich UKR 14.900
7. Anna Pavlova RUS 14.875
8. Marine Petit FRA 14.875
R1. Vanessa Ferrari ITA 14.850
R2. Lia Parolari ITA 14.750
R3. Suzanne Harmes NED 14.650

Coverage:

Romanians lead European Championships qualification – Amanda Turner – IG

European Championships 2008 (English) – GYMmedia – German

European Championships Qualifications – difficulty plus execution (the most interesting commentary)

Sadly, much of the talk is about the number of injuries. More evidence we need to reduce the number of counting skills from 10 to 8 or 6.

Oddly, there is no all-around competition this year. Why is that?

She’s the favourite.

But I’d have to say the Italian superstar and World Champion 2006 has underachieved too many times since to win my full confidence for the coming weekend.

UPDATE: No all-around competition at the meet this year. What? Why?

April 3-6, 2008 – European Gymnastics Championships in France

original – flickr – Technogym

There’s a new interview on the Guardian from the UK: Gymnast Ferrari gears up for Beijing

More interesting is the video of Ferrari training.

But the cutest bit of news to me about Vanessa I learned on Gymblog, her nickname: Ferrari the cannibal

I’m surprised just how popular are personal edits of video and photos with music. People love to put them together. And far more people love to watch gymnastics montage videos. (Me included.)

Now Corinne (cccam) has organized a contest.

Fans can vote on which of a number of videos they like best by:

… commenting on my page at www.youtube.com/cccam or by leaving a comment at www.youtube.com/charloadams.

Deadline for voting will be Saturday April 19th

The mechanism for voting is not very good. But at least it does bring forward a number of recommended montage videos.

Montage Awards

Click PLAY or watch it on FreeWebs.
http://members6.freewebs.com//player.swf?&r=0.9485190461130106&page=http://www.freewebs.com/montageawards/&pv=1.0&file=23132573

I had a chuckle looking at the “copyright” notices on this preview clip. Most of the content in the nominated gymnastics montages is “lifted” from the actual copyright holder.

Now … we need an awards program for ORIGINAL content. I’d vote for Don Eckert’s Salto Cafe. (Not all of the 115+ videos are original, but many are.)

Of course your own favourite montage may not be nominated. Here are some others posted on Chalk Bucket: The Best Montages

Michele suggests Kim Zmeskal had one of the best of all time.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Kim “opens” before landing like Shannon Miller.

Related post: judging breakdown – Yurchenko vault

From a gymnast known as united team girl …

I wait and wait and there I go,
Jump out there but I start out slow.
Picking up speed
Hoping to take lead,
I go higher and higher
Feeling weightless
All eyes on me
Hoping to see
A winning smile,
While my life depends on this.
Nobody knows how I feel,
Making my way through the floor
Will I stick it or land short?
Almost done,
Here it comes
I feel my body sink,
But stand tall.
Smile, salute, wave,
These are the moments I crave

You can comment on the poem on Chalk Bucket

original – flickr – Raphael Goetter

1. Stanford 197.000
2. Oregon State 196.550
3. UCLA 196.200
4. Arizona 195.725
5. California 193.400
6. Washington 193.375
7. Arizona State 191.925

Insightful commentary from Blythe who was there:

… The meet began and ended with injuries to ASU junior Tia Orlando and Stanford redshirt freshman Allyse Ishino. …

… It must have made it especially difficult for Stanford seniors Liz Tricase and Tabitha Yim to concentrate, as both still had to go. But they showed why they’re pros — both executed two especially clean and powerful Yurchenko fulls without seeming to bat an eyelash.

Despite Ishino’s injury, Stanford looked like it was on cruise control the entire meet. It’s six seniors, all All-Americans, are truly impressive. Yim gave a tour de force performance on her way to her second Pac-10 all around title, backed up by Tricase, who captured her third (third!) consecutive Pac-10 bars title. …

… from the stands at the Pac-10 Championships – Gymblog

You have to cheer for Stanford. They have a shot at NCAA Championships THIS year with so much experience on the team. Go for it girls!

Congratulations to Tamitha Yim, PAC 10 Gymnast of the Year:

“Tabitha has been through so much in this sport,” said head coach Kristen Smyth. “She has grown and matured tremendously here at Stanford and has become our team leader. She is one of the most charismatic performers of all time and she definitely deserves the honor. We are so excited for her and for this program, as this is our first Gymnast of the Year honor.”

Tamitha Yim – Stanford profile

The German gymnastics federation has developed a new Web site, http://www.Turn-Team.de, devoted to its current World and Olympic hopefuls, featuring news, athlete blogs and more. …

full story – International Gymnast

In German only: Turn-Team.de

Chris suggested we look at this vault for “perfection”.

It’s the best Amanar that’s ever been competed, I suspect, by a woman. World Championship finals 2005. Yurchenko with two and one half twist.

Click PLAY Or watch it on YouTube.

Leave a comment if you’ve seen Cheng Fei or any other female gymnast do it better.

Ashley Postell from Utah has the top average score in the NCAA on Vault.

The Salt Lake Tribune documented Postell’s March 7 vault against Oregon State. She received a 9.95 score, a combination of two judges’ scores – a 9.9 and a perfect 10.0.

Charity Greene, the judge who awarded the 10.0, was asked to analyze the vault frame-by-frame. (Every judge awarding a “perfect” score should be required to do so.)

The most interesting frame to me is this one, the point of contact on landing. Technique is very good.

Unfortunately, NCAA judges want the chest position vertical on landing. The gymnast must stop the rotation of the somersault and come to a stop, somehow. There are many ways to do this biomechanically. But the only acceptable way in College gymnastics rules is like a knife stuck into a plank.

Shannon Miller’s landing on her first vault from the 1992 Olympics is perfect — yet her torso is not vertical. (Was Shannon fantastic, or what? Apologies in advance for the antics of Steve Nunno. His retirement from coaching was a happy day for me.)

Click PLAY or watch Shannon on YouTube.

(via difficulty plus execution)

If you want to see Ashley’s vault analysis for yourself, download the PDF file linked from this article:

Gymnastics: Postell’s vault broken down by a judge

The best Yurchenko fulls I’ve ever seen were done by Chinese men (and probably Kyle Shewfelt) but I do not have the links at my finger tips. Leave a comment if you have a personal favourite. We can use it as a 10 standard when comparing with College women’s vaults.