Gymnastics Coaching.com

Just subscribed to a new blogger who has been known to go by the pseudonym martha károlyi.

(Hmmm. Fake Martha? Good idea. Reminds me of Fake Steve Jobs of Apple.)

Here’s a sample post:

Cheng Fei: New Skill Verified

It has been revealed that the new skill Cheng Fei had been working on in early 2007, was indeed a quadruple full. She had taken it from the pit, onto a resi, and then onto a four incher. Cheng’s coach, Lu Shanzhen, had hoped that she could perhaps unveil the skill at the Olympic next year. Since then, Cheng has been laying off of her “Crazy Tricks”, in order to work on her vaulting consistency, and continue training in the All Around.

It is doubtful that Fei will unveil this massive skill at the Olympics in Beijing, because they don’t want any maybes; and with that skill it is a complete gamble, and perhaps not worth the prestige. However, it has not been stated whether Cheng Fei will or will not compete in the All Around at the Olympic Games.

Gymnastics Dish: Cheng Fei: New Skill Verified

Of course Nastia has attempted that skill in competition already. And Kent Caldwell competes it regularly.

Click PLAY or watch Cheng Fei Floor Exercise 2007 World’s Team Finals on YouTube.

Cheng Fei needs “something” more if she wants to win the Olympics on Floor. But quadruple twist is too deductible. She’s done triple backs into the pit — but that’s far too risky. The winner in Beijing will compete triple twisting double back … that’s my prediction.

Related post:

tumbling – triple and quadruple twist

It’s obvious that there will be far more air-filled equipment in your gym over the coming years. And used in new and innovative ways.

At R2R Congress in Spokane, TumblTrak showed what they call a … Bungee Mat. The name confused me at first since there is no bungee (bunjie, or bungy) visible anywhere.

The bungee is inside, creating a tighter response than air alone.

That set-up shown above was used by John Carney at summer camp in Idaho. The kids could practice free hip circleand Stalder without needing a spotter.

This gymnast had never used the set-up before. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Funtastics HPTCamp.com)

related – John Carney’s Wall of Death – flyaway video

Rick McCharles

At 2007 BC Fall Congress I did a presentation on best videos for recreational gymnastics coaches. Sadly there are far too few available. Most videos are targeted at competitive.

Click PLAY to see the PowerPoint presentation or watch it on YouTube:

Here are the most important links:

YouTube SaltoCafe channel

GymnasticsCoaching YouTube playlist

American Gymnast | Gymnastics on Demand

GymSmarts

Tumbl Trak – new product videos

Charles Minster Productions:

Complete Recreational Gymnastics

Impact (Safe Landings)

Advanced Gymnastics for Boys and Girls with Paul Hall

Related posts:

BEST gymnastics coaching DVDs

BEST gymnastics on-line video

DVD – IMPACT – teaching safe landings

Circuits are essential for gymnastics coaches. For best practice, all circuits:

must be SAFE for the least experienced child in the group

must be FUN

should develop fitness and include target movement patterns

be directed towards the long-term goals of the group

should be fast to organize, easy for kids to understand

frequently changed (adding more difficulty)

be very ACTIVE

At both BC Fall Congress and R2R Congress in 2007, I recommended:

games and activities to organize kids

setting an order for the gymnasts (usually tallest to shortest)

preparing lesson plans in advance

prepping one of the kids in advance to demonstrate the circuit, …. or

starting with the same base circuit each class, and modify soon after

buying as many mat “shapes” as possible

consider purchasing the innovative air inflatable and trampoline equipment available through TumblTrak

quickly removing “bottlenecks” by having kids skip any station where there is a line-up

Best case scenario, the gymnasts build their own circuit. The coach watches the circuit, free to make small adjustments as needed. Stand close to the station which is the most challenging for the kids.

Here is a video of my PowerPoint presentation at Gymnastics for All, BC Fall Congress:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

At Region 2 Rising (R2R) 2007, Spokane I presented a similar PowerPoint presentation but using Vault as an example. I challenged coaches to do one (easy) vault / minute in a vault training session with young competitive gymnasts. For example, 30 circuits in 30 minutes.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

Rick McCharles

Just home from BC Fall Congress in Vancouver, their biggest coach education event of the year.

This week I will be writing up a number of posts on my presentations there. You can get to them by clicking on the BC Congress link in the right hand navigation column.

It was very well organized and quite well attended. Great to catch up with the excellent coaches in British Columbia.

There were some good performances at the World Cup last weekend, especially Daria JOURA from Australia.

But the bigger story was how many top athletes did not show:

For the 25th time, the “DTB-Cup 2007” took place in Stuttgart (Porsche Arena).

Altogether 69 men and 33 women … participated at this event, which took place right in between the world championships in the wake of September and the pre-Olympic Games in Beijing in the end of November.

Beside the three mentioned world champions, there were only 8 of 48 World Championships-finalists participating in Stuttgart…

GYMmedia points out another interesting trend in the Men’s competition:

Out of 69 competitors, not one did all six or rather five apparatuses.

One single gymnast – Samuel Piasecky from Slovakia did four qualification starts: on floor, horse and qualified for parallel bars (3rd) and high bar (7th).

Only eleven gymnasts did a kind of “small all around” competition performing on three apparatuses.

The vast majority (54) cultivated “world cup tourism”, doing only one or two apparatuses…!

GYMmedia.com

Sure the timing is bad for athletes focused on Olympic preparation. In my mind, though, I feel it’s the extreme physical demand of the new code on All-around gymnasts which is convincing so many TOP men to opt out of doing all 6 apparatus.

Jade Barbosa from Brazil performs in … vault at the 25th DTB Cup, a gymnastics World Cup competition, in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007. Barbosa took second place behind Germany’s Oksana Chusovitina.

(AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)

ESPN – Gymnastics Photo Wire

Rafe Kelley informed me that Toronto has one of the most active Parkour communities in North America and the world.

They have a great website: PKTO.ca

On safety:

Parkour demands as much or as little as you want to put into it, you never have to cross the boundaries of risk at all if you feel that is your path. In the 4 years we have been around, there has been very few injuries and we take great pride in knowing that we have been one of the safest Parkour scenes in the world. It is a common misconception as well that Parkour is ‘extreme’ and ‘roof top jumping’, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. 99.9% of our meets take place on ground level, using normal rails and objects.

Realistically speaking, the greatest risk at a normal training meet is getting dehydrated, and if you are VERY unlucky, a sprained ankle is about the worst you will probably ever get.

Canada’s largest Parkour community serving Toronto and Southern Ontario – FAQs

PKTO.ca – more photos

One of the best ways a gymnast can use straps for training bar swings. (I am not a big fan of PVC pipe systems except for absolute beginners.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Excerpted from a 2 DVD set by coach Paul Hall called Advanced Gymnastics for Boys and Girls. It’s available from CharlesMinsterProductions.com in Australia and British Gymnastics.

related post – best gymnastics coaching DVDs

I really enjoyed one of Blythe’s posts on Gymblog. She’s recommended special awards for gymnasts at World Championships 2007 Stuttgart inspired by Longines:

Longines Award for Vaulting Without Actually Running: Beth Tweddle

Longines Award for Reputation Salvation: Nastia Liukin

Longines Award for Falling: Yang Wei (horizontal bar)

Longines Award for Longevity: Jana Komrskova

Longines Award for Most Consistently Overscored Routine: Steliana Nistor (beam)

Longines Award for Amazing Save: Vanessa Ferrari (bars)

Longines Award for Most Overused Word by American Commentators: “gassed”

Longines Award for Most Impressive Yang Wei Performance: Yang Wei (rings)

Longines Award for Coolest New Trend: double front dismounts from rings

Longines Award for Endurance: Yang Tae-Young

Longines Award for Best Split Jump Ever: Koko Tsurumi

Detailed descriptions and video examples on The Worlds Awards « WordPress Gymblog

Blythe on the Gymblog links to this amazing clip and links to several more.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… it’s hard not to be impressed by what could be called the Andrade, a one-and-a-half twisting Kovacs.

This training video, from former Stanford standout Rico Andrade, is from 2003. A video of Andrade trying (and unfortunately missing) a double twisting Kovacs is also available.

The Andrade, a 1.5 twisting Kovacs « WordPress Gymblog

By the way, I still call Kolman (full twisting Kovacs) the “Pineda”. With my own eyes I watched Tony Pineda from Mexico do it — OK, more of a Gaylord 2 with a half out — at the 1985 Worlds.

Tony was coached by Hideo Mizoguchi in Oregon.