Gymnastics Coaching.com

Blythe, editor of the terrific new Gymblog, pointed us to this video, a well-edited montage of astonishing release moves and dismounts on Horizontal Bar. Includes triple front and triple back pike.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This is one of over 80 videos posted by theused1786 on YouTube.

Rick McCharles

Just got the schedule of presentations for Spokane. I expect you won’t want to miss my 4 sessions — though there are a few other choices.

Now scheduled is a screening of the best gymnastics movie of all time, White Palms, staring Kyle Shewfelt and “Uldi” Zoltan Miklos Hajdu, the Academy Award nominee from Hungary.

The 2007 Region 2
Coaches and Judges Congress
Spokane, Washington
“Region 2 Rising!”
October 19—21, 2007

For more Information, contact Dave Adlard funnflip @ msn.com
208-664-0135
www.funtastics.org

Related post – partial list of presenters at Congress 2007

I wish I was there, on the glass ceiling atop the CN Tower in Toronto.

Artists from Cirque du Soleil were promoting their new touring show Kooza.

But a National Post reporter was somewhat underwhelmed:

… 1:37 It’s contortion time. Three young girls dressed in full Cirque du Soleil regalia proceed to go through a four-minute routine of bending over backwards, standing on top of one another, and other eye-popping, freaks-me-out-to-watch wonders.

1:40 As far as astounding world records go, it’s all a bit anticlimactic. If one of the circus performers was to do a handstand on the top of the Tower’s needle, that would be breathtakingly awesome. This though? We’re standing on a totally secure floor inside a building. As one unnamed person would later say to me, “If I juggled in an airplane, would that set the record for highest circus act ever performed?”

1:48 I ask the publicist from Guinness what the previous record for world’s highest circus act is. It turns out there is no previous record. This is a new, first of its kind record. Guinness World Record officials will confirm it on October 3. …

National Post

(via Cirque Tribune forum – KOOZA to attempt new Guiness World Record)

Kooza – Cirque du Soleil

Just back from visiting Funtastics in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. At the beginning of the season the competitive TEAM girls memorize their program mission statement:

We exist to provide every athlete in our developmental and competitive team programs with a rewarding and fulfilling experience through the building of character, and ‘heart’ above all. We are working towards this by focusing on respect for themselves and others, time management skills, self discipline, development of competitive abilities, dedication to a team, strong work habits, goal setting ability, a love of exercise and an overall sense of accomplishment in their endeavors. In short, an attitude of “never less than the best we can do”.

We work on and encourage a positive attitude, courage, development of superb physical and mental strengths and abilities and the willingness and ability to put in your best effort at every opportunity … to stick to a task and persevere, overcoming challenges and goals that were ‘impossible’ only a short while before.

In essence, we are striving to develop life skills that will last you long after your competitive days are over.

Learning and discussing the Mission is part of their Sport Psychology program which Head Coach Dave Adlard feels is the most productive training session of the week.

Also, they’ve changed the word “goal” … to “promise”. A much stronger word and one more meaningful to the kids.

Another great video on Don Eckert’s saltocafe channel on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Street acrobatics is getting BIG.

I can tell by the number of hits I get while checking the internet for “acrobatic” posts.

Free running has major buzz right now.

Another cool pic.

In training, the first I’ve ever seen.

From Gymblog’s excellent post on the evolution of Bernd Jaeger’s skill:

And now have a look at the double twisting Jaeger, performed by Jeff Crockett, a member of the University of Washington’s men’s team in 2006.

Awesome, no?

Jeff Crockett’s double twisting Jaeger « WordPress Gymblog

Click PLAY or watch Jeff swing out on YouTube.

History-wise, I recall with greatest admiration Artemev’s Winkler (layout Jaeger-full) and Valeri Liukin’s Layout Tkachev full and Winkler in the same routine. Both did it from el-grip.

Many girls have competed Def? (Geinger 3/2 twist)

Has any female competed layout Jaeger full as yet? (Leave a comment.)

Canadians love the warm weather. Many, over the years, have gone to UCLA. (Yvonne Tousek, Kate Richardson)

Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs and Marci Bernholtz, Canadian National Team members, were planning to defer enrollment with UCLA until 2008-09.

Canada did not qualify a full team to the Beijing Olympics. Will both still train for Olympic qualification? Or start preparing for the NCAA?

… Hopfner-Hibbs, who will defer enrollment at UCLA until the 2008-09 school year, won the bronze medal on balance beam at the 2006 World Championships, becoming the first Canadian woman ever to win a medal at the World Championships. …

Bernholtz, who will be competing in her second consecutive World Championships, is the 2007 Canadian national champion on the uneven bars and the bronze medalist in the all-around and on balance beam. She was also a double bronze-medalist at the 2005 National Championships, placing third in the all-around and on floor exercise, and an alternate at the 2004 Olympic Games.

Two Bruin Signees To Compete For Canada At World Gymnastics Championships – Canada needs Top 12 placement to send full team to 2008 Olympics.

ATHENS, Ga. — The University of Georgia gymnastics team is coming off back-to-back-to-back NCAA Championships and ready to go for its fourth in a row. The Gym Dogs also have the opportunity to defend their three straight titles in their home gym as the 2008 NCAA Gymnastics Championships will be held in Athens at Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum.

Photo Credit: Dan Evans
Head Coach Suzanne Yoculan

Gym Dogs ‘Back Four More’ In 2008 – GeorgiaDogs.com—Official Athletic Site of the University of Georgia

Bill’s Letter to the Membership of the United States Elite Coaches Association for Women’s Gymnastics in the Sept. 2007 newsletter.

In an earlier post, I commented on, perhaps even misinterpreted, this letter.

He sent me the original, so you can read it for yourself. Thanks Bill.

29 August 2007

Greetings,

I hope all of you had a terrific time at the USA Gymnastics Congress. It was nice to see some old friends, although there seem to be fewer and fewer each time I go. Wonderful seeing Hal Halvorsen again – been a long time. The competitions were first rate and I very much enjoyed watching the men compete. Their competition was such a transformation from earlier competitions that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I didn’t get to see the women, but reports indicated that they struggled a bit. Shawn Johnson was utterly dominant and there were many other notable performances. I’m sure they’ll be more focused by World Championships time – which is going on right now. Interestingly, this time the men are competing first, for the first time since I can remember. At any rate, we all wish them the very best of luck in the competitions.

I got pretty tired with all the presentations, but I prefer to stay busy and Kathy Feldmann obliged by giving my six opportunities to present. There were two sessions on biomechanics (linear and angular), recovery, training design, flexibility, and a report on our work on comparing the spring floor to the air floor. I also did my annual report, this time concentrating on the athlete-apparatus interaction studies, flexibility through vibration, and one of our completed experiments. My annual report provides additional information gained from this project. I undertook the project at the behest of Steve Rybacki and Kathy Kelly. I hope to be going to the ranch at the end of October to collect the rest of the data I need to finish up the project. Frankly, I don’t think the project will ever be completely finished, there will always be new questions, but I hope to answer Steve’s and Kathy’s concerns shortly. Actually, quite a few of the answers they were looking for were determined in our study of the spring and air floor.

It was interesting for me to observe the Congress activities since I’ve been attending for over 35 years. The demographic has changed from an opportunity for top coaches to get together to discuss the latest techniques and how to beat the commies to something that more resembles an in-service teaching and business education conference. I’m not arguing that one is better than the other, only that the change appears to be complete now and I doubt there is any going back. I’m not sure where debates among the top coaches happen now, where folklore from the best coaches gets passed on, or where young coaches would go to get the best ideas from “those who know.” Of course, to me it was disquieting, but then again I’m a dinosaur.

This brings me to something I hesitate to write about because it may sound like I’m being negative when in fact I’m just trying to make an already good thing better. As I stopped in from lecture to lecture I noted that almost everyone had something to sell. Either they were trying to drum up consulting business or they were trying to sell videos, books, and so forth. Maybe this was the case in the past, but I didn’t notice it as much as I did this year. I find this disquieting because there is a place to sell things which is in the vendors area. I’m troubled by people trying to set themselves up as gurus on some topical area and then provide a website, order blanks, brochures, and so forth to acquire more business clients – as part of an “educational” presentation. One presentation began with 5 or more minutes showing the television commercials (2) that tout the service(s) offered by the speaker’s affiliation. I certainly don’t mind the idea of people making money, but I worry that USA Gymnastics is giving tacit approval and support to these people, services, products, and whatnot by providing them a forum and a captive audience. People often ask me where they can get materials, and I provide them with a variety of sources. I usually include my email address at the end of presentations in case they have further questions. However, almost no one seeks me out after we all go home. This year I’ve had a few and one request for my bio (first time for that). In most cases, I don’t provide handouts because I don’t believe that people ever really use them and I prefer not to annihilate forests. I do provide some things via USECA, Technique, books, and academic peer reviewed articles, but frankly I’m just too darn busy to attempt to provide everything.

In closing, I have one more issue – quality control. I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert in everything, but even with limited knowledge in most areas I knew that some of the information being tossed out as fact was anything but. Sadly, gymnastics is not alone as I get to attend many sport equivalents of our Congress. There seem to be ever more self-appointed gurus who have neither the credentials nor the experience to be offering their ideas as facts. Almost invariably they are enthusiastic to the point of wondering if they need a sedative, they name-drop in nearly every sentence, they tout something that is “highly successful” with absolutely no data to back up the statement, and they like to use scientific words strung together in meaningless sentences. Sadly, at this Congress I had one lecturer rise to second place in my experience in the highest number of scientific words used in the shortest amount of time and saying absolutely nothing.

Again, don’t assume that I’m coming down on USAG because that is not the case. I’m a firm believer in education, for which the National Congress is and should be the shiniest gem in the jewelry box. Congress remains the single best place to see the most gymnastics education and a great competition (where of course learning should happen also). “Caveat emptor” is probably the best advice I can give. Be sure to check credentials of the people who are speaking, ask them where their data or supporting information is (not just who they’ve worked with), and when something seems too good to be true – it probably isn’t.

All the best,

Wm A. Sands, PhD, C-ARS
Chair USECA