Gymnastics Coaching.com

After the chaos in the qualification, the men’s final resumed its normal order, when world champion Ye Shuai of China emerged the winner, followed by world bronze-medalist Ueyama Yasuhiro of Japan and Dmitry Ushakov of Russia.

Roundup: Tournament full of ups and downs but highly successful

Full results, photos and commentary are linked from that, the official site.

FIG president Bruno Grandi no doubt had to deal with a number of problems over the past week. Including FIG being blasted in the press by Canadian coach Dave Ross and others.

read Grandi’s comments – Venue operation not perfect but good enough

Looks like they will be completely ready for the Games in 2008. That’s why they call it a “test meet”. To work out the problems. Trampoline only became an Olympic sport in 2000.

China’s Cheng Fei won the balance beam title, her third gold medal of the tournament, as the “Good Luck Beijing” competition concluded on Monday.

Winning even her “bad” apparatus at the Olympic test meet — she has stopped competing bars — the Chinese Olympic Team captain will be under some pressure leading up to the Games.

Cheng, who had qualified eighth to the final after falling in qualifications, won the gold despite a large wobble on her tucked full and watering down her usual triple-twisting dismount to a 2 1/2.

“I got a gold medal today, but I believe my strong points still lie in floor exercise and vault,” she said. “But through today’s competition, I gained confidence. Although balance beam is not my preferred apparatus, I am always ready to compete for the team.”

Cheng said she doesn’t plan to add more difficulty to her routines, and that her winter training will focus on her psychological stability.

“My biggest pressure comes from the younger athletes,” she said. “They are improving rapidly, and at the same time, there is little room for me to improve. I really feel anxious about it.”

Australia’s Lauren Mitchell finished second, one tenth behind Cheng. …

Top qualifier Chellsie Memmel won the bronze with 15.300.

For videos, photos and more, visit the official event Web site: gymnastics2007.org.cn/ga/en/

International GYMNAST Magazine Online

The meet is finished. Final scores: GymnasticsResults.com

Valentin Uzunov, editor of the excellent Gym Press on-line magazine, has added a blog:

GymPress.net

Update your link to the new URL.

It has an RSS feed, so I can keep track of what’s new in New Zealand between issues.

You can download the newsletter (free) there. Valentin is planning many new features. He’s one of the most active coaches on the net, a video expert.

For a sample post, check out the feature on 16-year-old Misha Koudinov from North Harbour Gymnastics who attempted to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

He is the best prepared male gymnast, for his age and physical maturity, this country has ever seen.

The Gym Press: Happy Birthday Misha

For the 2000 Olympics, New Zealand qualified a “Wild Card”, Kiwi David Phillips, who trained with us at Taiso in Canada. David finished a very respectable 52nd All Around. He had a fantastic career.

That same year, Kyle Shewfelt from Canada qualified last minute, the youngest male competitor in Sydney.

Unfortunately, the even younger Misha did not get through to Beijing. But we’ll be looking for him next quadrennial!

I’ve posted a number of times on the EVILS of fast food.

But athletes need food fast. What should they eat?

Sports Girls Play (a coach and Mom) recommends smoothies:

One of the challenges I face as a parent of an athlete is making sure her body gets the right nutrition through out the week. Add to that she is a very picky eater and lactose intolerant and you can see why it is a challenge. One of her favorite snacks/mini meals is a smoothie. Smoothies are great because they are portable, you can sneak in all sorts of good for you ingredients, and they are fun!

Since my daughter is lactose intolerant I have to be careful what I use as a base for her smoothie. She can handle yogurt in small doses but is not a fan of it. The recipe we use most often is very basic:

* Fill blender half full with frozen strawberries and a fresh (or frozen) banana
* Add a 1/4 cup of calcium fortified orange juice
* Blend until smooth, adding a bit more juice as needed.

Because the strawberries are frozen, you don’t need to add ice.

Our Favorite Quick Snack – Smoothies

That blog had another great post recently: Parenting an Athlete – Pushing the Limits.

A superb resource on the Gymnastics Revolution club website has photo sequences of basic gymnastics skills on the 4 women’s apparatus.

Here’s a sample screenshot from the Wolf Jump on Beam page:

Gymnastics Revolution – Gymnastics Interactive – Wolf Jump

Gymnastics Interactive is a descriptive set of information about many common skills. It is NOT meant to be a teaching or coaching aid, nor does it represent the only accepted methods for performing skills.

Related posts:

The Front Handspring Vault – Brian Bakalar, GymnasticsRevolution.com

avoiding arched giants

My reaction when I read this posted by kat on Gym Chat was, Guinness has got it wrong:

“Octavian Belu in Guinness World Records as World’s most successful coach”

– published in issue 4075 page 10 at 2007-12-03

Surely Leonid Arkaev, past Head Coach at various times of both Mens and Women’s Soviet, United and Russian National Teams has had far, far more champions.

Most Successful Coach-world record set by Octavian Bellu

[Dec 1]

BUCHAREST, Romania–Octavian Bellu, 56, Romanian gymnastics coach, has set the world record as the Most Successful Coach: 16 Olympics Gold Medals and a total of 279 medals at World and European Championships and Olympic Games.

Highly successful, Octavian Bellu led the Romanian gynastics team to five world and two Olympic titles, as well as coaching numerous individual gold medalists – since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, Romania has been the most successful women’s gymnastics power.

…

Octavian Bellu was head of the national team, with interruptions, between 1988 and 2005. He has been the coach of the Romanian Women’s Team since the defection of Bela Karolyi for political reason in 1981.

…

Octavian Bellu was appointed as the new president of Romania’s sports governing body

World Records Academy

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Bellu though, obviously, I admire the results of Romania, a sports mad, but small and impoverished nation. It’s astonishing what they have accomplished.

Leave a comment if you know anything else — or have statistics — comparing Bellu and Arkaev.

UPDATE: Kat did some further research, confirming that Arkaev won about 400 Olympic, World Championships, and European Championships medals, about 150 of those gold. As far as the team medals are concerned, every single medal isn’t counted, but rather one per team. link – Gym Chat

Certainly far more than Bellu.

If we compare only medals won by the women’s teams, it would be closer.

Octavian Bellu bio – Romanian-Gymnastics.com

Note: Bellu is a more correct spelling than Belu, though both are used.

Tough to beat this: Handspring front 2.5 twist STICK. Tsuk double pike.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

I ask again, why are the women so much weaker on vault than men?

If you thought pommel horse terminology was complicated, how about air flare breakdance lingo:

Power Moves …

* Flare: A widely recognized power move that involves swinging the legs around in a circular motion while balancing on the hands.

o King Flares/Hopping Flare: A flare that is done while hopping from hand to hand.

o Virgin Flare: A flare that is done with closed legs.

* Swipe: A widely recognized power move in which the breaker twists their upper body in the air followed by their legs.

o Baby Swipe: A footwork move that employs an airborne twist of the hips reminiscent of a swipe; not considered a power move.

* Windmill/Mill: A widely recognized power move in which the breaker rotates on the upper body while swinging their legs.

o Halo/Track: A variant of the windmill that involves balancing on the head.

o Superman: A variant of the windmill where the arms are stiff at the dancers side in a cocky manner.

Floats

* Cricket: A float that involves hopping around in a circular motion while in the hanglide position.

o Jackhammer: Crickets on one hand.

* Turtle: A float that involves balancing on both hands and walking in a circular motion.

o Pumping Turtle/Darkhammer: A hopping float.

o UFO/Air Turtle: An un-stabbed spinning float.

Spins

* 1990/90: A spinning one-handed handstand.

o Lunar Eclipse: A hopping 1990.

* 2000: A 1990 with the spare hand on top of your supporting hand.

* Elbow Spin: A spin on the forearm.

* Back Spin: A spin on the back.

* Butt Spin: A spin on the butt.

* Handglide/Handspin: A type of spin performed while balanced in a one-handed float position.

* Headspin: A spin on the head.
o Drill: A variant of the headspin.

List of breakdance moves – Wikipedia

This is not standardized. Most bboys don’t like the word “breakdance”.

Here are two of the best in the world, recommended by Glenn:

Click PLAY or watch Bboy Punisher of Alliance Crew in France on YouTube:

Click PLAY or watch Bboy Kim Yun Soo of Gambler’s Crew on YouTube:

A surprise winner.

(Beijing, December 2)

The women’s final of the “Good Luck Beijing” 2007 Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament concluded at the National Indoor Stadium this evening, with Olena Movchan of Ukraine emerging victorious, followed by Rosannagh Maclennan of Canada and He Wenna of China.

Ukrainian dark horse O. Movchan wins women’s final – 2007 Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament

No one expects this is a preview of the podium final at the Olympics.

Some of the top competitors missed. Some watered down routines. Many had problems adapting to the trampoline, though Rosie said it did not bother her.

Everyone liked the huge Olympic venue.

Beijing will be the biggest trampoline competition in history bringing a much higher media profile to the sport.

Day 2 results, following the Olympic format.

Lu Bin wins 3 events at Olympic Gymnastics test meet. Plus the team gold.

This was his first competition after coming back from an injury.

After winning on pommel horse yesterday LU, Bin was the best competitor on rings (SV 17.2), too, with a final score of 16.000, beating his teammate YAN, Minghong on second place despite his highest start value of 17.4 (15.900). …

* Results, Rings
1. LU, Bin (CHN) – (17.2) = 16.000
2. YAN, Minghong (CHN) – (17.4) = 15.900
3. RODRIGUES, Pinheiro (FRA) – (17.3) = 15,700

… LU, Bin used maximal and won his third gold medal at this event, the fifth for the Chinese hosts and before the last two men’s finals hue is the most successful atlet of thes pre-Olympics. He was the only one gymnast who presents two 17.0 difficulties and got 16,525 points at the end. …

* Results, Vault
1. LU, Bin (CHN)
1. (17.0) – 16,600;
2. (17.0) – 16,450 = 16,525

2. KOCZI, Flavius (ROU)
1. (17.0) – 16.450;
2. (16.6) – 15.925; = 16,187

3. OKIGUCHI, m. (JPN)
1. (17.0) – 9,350;
2. (16.6) – 15,825 = 16.087

The women competed only Bars. Surprisingly, China did not win this one.

… Although the Chinese all-around winner JIANG, Yuyuan reached the highest start value (17.1) she won the silver medal, because Zgoba absolutely exhibited the technical best performance and best execution of her routine (0,5 points in B-score). …

* Results, Uneven bars
1. ZGOBA, Daria (UKR) – (16.9) = 15,725
2. JIANG, Yuyuan (CHN) – (17.1) = 15,525
3. JOURA, Daria (AUS) – (16.3) = 15,250

GYMmedia.com
* Finals, 2nd Day (Sonntag)

photos – official website

Daria Zgoba – GymBox