Gymnastics Christmas Ornaments

unique gymnastics ornaments will look great on your Christmas tree …

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Gymnastics Christmas Ornaments

I like these too:

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Christmas at the Lake

Merry Christmas from Nepal

Prakash lal Shrestha, Gymnastics Chief Coach in Kathmandu, Nepal reads this blog and sends his warmest wishes.

The internet is a great way to share information.

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GemGemz NCAA gymnastics rankings

Yet another pre-season ranking list.

Check out Stanford well up the list at #2. Good call.

And Utah dropping to #5. (The arrival of Canadian Olympian Gael Mackie may keep them in the top 4. We will see.)

1 Georgia

2 Stanford

3 Alabama

4 UCLA

5 Utah

6 Florida

But Florida down #6 ??

They were the best team last season. Something seems wrong there.

… One (to us) surprising artifact of our method was Stanford showing up at number two and Utah showing up at number five. No matter how many variables we added, this relationship between the Utes and the Cardinal remained the same. It seems that, despite Utah’s strong showing at the 2007 Championships in Salt Lake City, their less than stellar 7th place ‘Final RQS Ranking’ hurt their ranking in our poll. At the same time, Stanford not only ended up in 4th place in the RQS standing, but they, like Georgia, return 24 of 24 starting routines from the 2007 Championships. …

GemGemz.com

Alabama has toughest NCAA gymnastics schedule

And Georgia the second toughest Women’s 2008 University schedule.

According to College Gym Fans:

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… Coach Yoculan (Georgia) seems determined to subject her team to the ultimate test in 2008, scheduling number 3, Utah; number 5, Stanford; and number 2, Florida in AWAY MEETS for the first three meets of the season. …

Strength of Schedule Analysis

December 2007 edition of Gym Press available

Valentin Uzunov posted his latest technical newsletter for gymnastics coaches in PDF format. (Easy to print.)

This issue features:

  • Stretching Scientifically – by Valentin-Angelo Uzunov
  • Women’s Artistic Gymnastics: Beijing’s Darkhorses – by Blythe Lawrence (Gymblog)
  • Valentin also reformatted my old article on Understanding and Teaching Gymnastics Skills. It looks great:

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    I’ve subscribed and linked to the new blog: TheGymPress.net which has links to tall the back issues. Highly recommended.

    Or you can download the most recent issue here in PDF file format

    photographs taken at exactly the right angle

    The Art of Juxtaposition: a set of objects, people and/or animals behaving normally independently can take on a new life entirely when properly juxtaposed in a picture. What might seem like very ordinary behavior, from grabbing a magazine to stretching for a job, can take on a new and strange meaning when captured on film from just the right angle.

    A couple of examples from the collection:

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    Sawse – Stir it Up! » Blog Archive » 20 Photographs Taken at the Exact Right Angle

    conditioning over the holidays – stair climb

    Katrina from Westwinds Gymnastics recommends her kids do series of stair runs alternating with specific conditioning:

    It would be a good idea to keep up with some of your conditioning and flexibility over the break (especially the girls attending Trials to AWG). Here is a short easy program you can do at home EVERYDAY to make the first day back a little bit easier:

    – 3x stair runs (up and down is 1)
    – 30 sec Samson/split stretch
    – 3x stair runs
    – 10x sit ups
    – 3x stair runs
    – 10x back extensions (or superman lifts)
    – 3x stair runs
    – 10x squats
    – 3x stair runs
    – 10x modified dips on the edge of your bed
    – 3x stair runs
    – 10x push ups
    – 3x stair runs
    – 10x V-snaps
    – 3x stair runs
    – 10x burpees

    Then… 2 minutes of splits each way. If you are in Group B, take the cushion off your couch and use that for 2 minutes of over split front and back leg.

    Westwind Gymnastics Club Women’s Team: Happy Holidays!

    I’ve been hitting the stairs myself of late, sometimes carrying my bike. Good exercise for those of us who used to be has-beens.

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    Gregory Joujon-Roche – Hit the Stairs to boost your Booty

    I love gymnastics birthday parties

    Having taught many, many over the years — parties at the gymnastics club are some of my favourite classes.

    We get new kids and parents into our club. The birthday child often gets to show off for friends. It’s easy to fill the class with FUN activities. We schedule them during times of the week little used. Birthday parties are a win, win, win.

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    Best, I find, is to have a dedicated “birthday party coach” who teaches or organizes all parties.

    Check the cost of a 90min party at Universal Gymnastics. Seems expensive:

    A birthday party at Universal consists of one full hour of structured activity followed by 30 minutes for refreshments, opening of presents, etc. Invitations, juice, drinking cups and balloons will be provided… anything beyond that is your responsibility. …

    To better insure maximum safety and fun, we require one instructor for the first 8 children and then one instructor per 6 additional children with a maximum party consisting of 20 children. For a parent child party the maximum number of children is 12 with one participating adult per child. …

    $185.00 for the parent child party………………$205

    $185.00 for 8 children………………………………$205

    $265.00 for 9-14 children………………………….$300

    $360.00 for 15-20 children………………………..$400

    There is an additional $20.00 fee for nonmembers

    Universal Gymnastics – Birthday Party

    Looks like the parties at Santa Monica Gymnastics are FUN:

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    original

    more SMGC birthday party photos on flickr