Gymnastics Coaching.com

A good event coming up in my part of the world:

National Gymnastics Week is an opportunity to increase gymnastics awareness by generating interest and enthusiasm about our sport.

This week-long celebration is held throughout Canada, February 9-17, 2008 and is dedicated to bringing together the thousands of Canadians of all ages and levels who already participate in gymnastics and to encourage all other Canadians to try the sport.

The Alberta Gymnastics Federation (AGF) has organized mall demo opportunities where your participants will act as ambassadors of gymnastics by performing and demonstrating their love of the sport. This event will allow gymnastics to be showcased for the public to see and will generate interest for your club and the sport. …

Gymnastics Alberta

More information complete with documentation on Gymnastics Canada – Gymnastique Canada.

Back in the 1990s I was interim Head Coach for a year of Can-Am Gymnastics. A really great coaching experience.

And I got back to my old gym for the first day of classes in 2008. The real Head Coach Sheralynn Steele and I attended a coaching clinic together in Saskatoon.

Children learn to understand movement through exploration, experimentation and practice. Gymnastics activities improve coordination, flexibility, strength, and endurance like no other sport can. Gymnastics also enhances self-esteem, and encourages a positive self-image. Our coaching staff is nationally certified in gymnastics and has many years of experience working with children of all ages.

Can-Am Gymnastics Club

more photos

This is cool. At a Georgia NCAA demonstration:

… Grace Taylor apparently attempting to set a school record for number of Comanecis in a row on bars.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

(more videos via A sneek peek at Georgia « The Gymblog)

A large crowd is expected for Friday’s gymnastics meet featuring No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Georgia.

Gator Gymnastics News @ GatorZone.com

Gator Gymnastics

Georgia Dogs

Three-time defending national champion Georgia Gym Dogs have set a new season ticket sales record with 6,836 sold to date surpassing the previous record of 6,043 set last year.

How many spectators are you getting out to your competitions? Parking is not a problem in Canada.

This battle is going to be close, I expect. New Mom Rhonda Faehn will be back coaching her team at home.

Rick McCharles

Who will win Olympic medals in the Gymnastics Sports?

Over the coming weeks and months I’ll predict the winner of each event in Beijing. (Or waffle and name two or three gymnasts who will all medal.)

Facebook | Photos from Beijing Olympics 2008 – Facebook

Lets start with the EASY apparatus: Xiao Qin will win Pommel Horse

It’s just for fun. (If your idea of fun is me being proved wrong.)

Leave a comment if you’ve got some advice.

by Rick McCharles

Last year I visited at least 50 training facilities. You can tell within 2 minutes what kind of gym you’re in.

Clean or dirty?

Friendly or business-like?

Competitive or Rec focused?

Organized or casual.

First impressions are telling.

Here’s a gym dedicated to teaching gymnastics — not competing in gymnastics.

It’s a refreshing change:

Teaching gymnastics at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada are Doug Hillis and Keith Russell.

a few more photos on flickr – U of Saskatchewan Gymnastics

Xiao Qin is the World Champion on Pommel Horse leading up to the Olympics in his home country.

But the undisputed King of Swing fell in Athens 2004.

His loss there means big time pressure he’s facing in Beijing. Yet I predict Xiao Qin is destined to win this time.

Click PLAY ore watch his astounding “extension” on YouTube:

We’ve posted this routine before. But it’s worth watching again. And again.

Does China have more young athletes coming up like Xiao Qin?

Click PLAY or watch an age group Chinese gymnast training on the Pommel Buck on YouTube.

This video was first shown to me by Canadian National Coach Edouard Iarov.

Technique in 2008 is to swing as straight as possible when young. Even arched circles I would call a “good error”.

Nadia debuted on Celebrity Apprentice Jan. 3, 2008.

She’s already been fired.

tawdry details – News – Inside Gymnastics Magazine

The international gymnastics community has lost one of its most respected members and an exceptional person.

Karl-Heinz ZSCHOCKE, the former head coach of the GDR artitic gymnastics men’s team and long-standing president of the Technical Committee for Men’s Gymnastics of the International Gymnastics Federation (F.I.G.), who in the last few years was its honorary vice president, died after a short, serious illness in a Berlin hospital on Saturday evening….

His career spanned nine Olympics and 18 World Championships. …

He is survived by his wife Christine, six children and eleven grandchildren. They mourn an exceptional human being, whose kindness and personality will be remembered.

GYMmedia.com

I only met him once when I judged in Australia in the early 1990s. And was quite impressed.

Rest in peace Herr Zschocke.

More great photos by Trent Nelson, Chief Photographer at the Salt Lake Tribune.

From the Utah vs Georgia opening season meet:

Kristina Baskett

If you know Kristina, you know she has “perfect” form on Yurchenko. Yet here the feet are still apart, closing from her takeoff position on the beat board.

… Luckily, the judges can’t see it from their angle.

see the rest – Tribune Blogs — Fly on the Wall