Gymnastics Coaching.com

Wright Thompson of ESPN posted a comprehensive, balanced profile of one of the world’s most successful coaches, Al Fong of GAGE Gymnastics in Missouri.

Al and his partner wife Armine Barutyan-Fong coached one of my favourite gymnasts of all time, Courtney McCool, and dozens of other fantastic athletes. Currently they coach the brilliant Ivana Hong.

I would love to travel to GAGE to see how they develop such superb athletes.

On the other hand, for old-timers like myself, the name Al Fong is one of the darkest clouds on our sport.

He reminds us of his gymnast, 15-year-old Julissa Gomez, who was tragically paralyzed at a competition in Japan leading up to the 1988 Olympics. Julissa died three years later. Her mother still blames Fong.

Another of his gymnasts, Christy Henrich, missed making that 1988 team by 1/10th of a point. By 1991, anorexia had whittled her down to 61 pounds. Christy died of multiple organ failure three years later, at age-22.

Was that Al’s fault?

He might not have been guilty, but he was hardly innocent.

The ESPN article intimates Al is a changed man. A more balanced, rational person than he was in the past:

Gymnastics, of course, is notorious for fanatical, overbearing coaches, but the old Fong was the worst. He pushed. He insulted. He started practices at the crack of dawn and late at night. …

Much of the article speaks of the near bankruptcy of GAGE and the Fongs personally after building a wonderful new gym.

I hope Al Fong has things much more in perspective in 2007.

Our community has much to learn from Al. He is dedicated. And a fantastic technical coach.

Do you agree?

Read the entire article for yourself: ESPN – Al Fong’s iron fist – Olympics

Espen Jansen is twice as old as some of his competitors! Congratulations.

Three months shy of his 39th birthday, Norway’s best gymnast competed in his 13th world championships Monday. Though he had mistakes on his first three events – high bar, floor exercise and pommel horse – his overall score of 82.875 was still more than a point better than last year.

…

“I’ve said I’ll do it as long as it’s fun and as long as it’s going the right way,” said Jansen, the oldest gymnast at worlds.

Nearly 39, Norwegian gymnast can still hang with the kids – Yahoo! Canada News

photo – Pravda

Back in the day I had the privilege of coaching Debbie Broderick.

Today she is Debbie Rodriguez, club owner (Byers), Mom, elite coach and Beam guru. I was thrilled to see her gymnast — Katelyn Mohr — hit eight routines for eight at USA Championships 2007.

After the success of Debbie’s introductory beam video — It’s About Stability — the good folks at Gym Smarts quickly released two more:

1. Balance Beam – Back Tumbling Step-out Series

A continuation of Debbie Rodriguez’s It’s About Stability Series. Learn the back handspring to layout-stepout tumbling series on the balance beam

2. Balance Beam – Round-off Dismounts
A continuation of Debbie Rodriguez’s It’s About Stability Series, learn to perform and sucessfully complete round-off Dismounts with confidence.

Debbie Rodriguez

With over 30 years of gymnastics experience as gymnast, Canadian Elite Gymnast, Collegiate Athlete, Coach and Club Owner, Debbie Rodriguez is recognized as a leader in the gymnastics community. She coaches all levels of gymnastics from beginners to elite athletes. Debbie holds a bachelors Degree in Physical Education, Physical Therapy, is a Certified Weight Trainer, Nutritionist and a Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant. Combining over 20 years of coaching and her international competitive experience with her extensive educational background has helped Debbie create some of the most successful gymnasts in the United States today. She was 2006 Region 1 Optional Coach of the Year.

Go to GYMSMARTS.com for details on these DVDs and many more at about US$30 each.

I’m no beam coach, but those I’ve spoken with really like Debbie’s approach to the apparatus.

Good news.

Despite the “epidemic” of overweight youth, more are taking part in school sport in the States.

More than half the nation’s high school students participated in sports last year, and for the first time more than 3 million of them were girls.

The National Federation of State High School Associations released the results of its annual participation survey Wednesday, listing a record 7,342,910 high school athletes in the 2006-07 school year among its member associations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This the 18th straight year the number of participants has increased.

… Tennis, swimming and diving, archery, badminton, cheerleading, crew and gymnastics were among sports in which girls outnumbered boys.

The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA

photo source

Over a year ago Steve McCain of American Gymnast showed me a demo of their on-line coaching videos.

Finally, the new system has launched. And I couldn’t be more impressed. The wait was worth it!

The easiest way to see how Gymnastics on Demand works is to watch their video introduction — See it in Action.

Details:

Gymnastics on Demand is an all-new, online gymnastics video training system offered as a monthly subscription. Gymnastics on Demand features hundreds of gymnastics training videos, complete with narration and descriptions that explain the common technique used to learn gymnastics skills. …

* Skill Technique
* Drills and Suggested Progressions
* Common Mistakes & Solutions
* Spotting Technique

Currently, the system includes 4 events:

* Vault (includes men’s and women’s)
* Bars (includes men’s and women’s)
* Balance Beam
* Floor Exercise (includes men’s and women’s)

Gymnastics on Demand will be continuously updated to include the remaining men’s events, as well as other important topics, such as Strength & Conditioning and Flexibility.

What is it? – American Gymnast

At about US$10 / month for a 1-year introductory subscription, the service is a good investment for Women’s Artistic clubs and Head Coaches. And anyone involved in Coach Education.

The Floor videos are certainly geared towards Cheer, as well.

I’ll be posting frequently about Gymnastics on Demand. This is the future.

At Taiso Gymnastics we did our share, over the years, of acrobatics off a wall. From trampoline and from a run.

But this video includes tricks we never tried nor even imagined (double twist off a tree !!).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Be sure to train these stunts in a club with proper matting, coaching and spotting.

(via Jump Club)

Just noticed the cool new page format for casting gymnasts, tumblers, trampolinists and all other acrobats on the Cirque site.

Casting – Cirque du Soleil

Geoffrey Taucer points out that the Arabian Double pike (stretched) on FX with full twist out is named after Diego Hypolito from Brazil.

Here he is at the 2006 Gymnastics World Cup Final.

Click PLAY or watch Hypolito on YouTube.

Thanks Geoffrey.

Rick McCharles

For the first time I will be presenting at 2007 Fall Congress in Beautiful British Columbia, Oct. 26-28 in Delta, Vancouver.

I’m speaking at the “Gymnastics for All” sessions. My topics include:

Have More FUN at the Gym

Building Better Circuits

Best Gymnastics Games

Rec Drills & Skills (video)

Computers & the Internet for Coaches

This is the recreational / educational stream.

There is much, much more happening that weekend. For example, Carol Angela Orchard, just back from World Championships, will be presenting on Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

Other streams: Business of Gymnastics, Judging, Men’s Artistic Gymnastics, Trampoline sports, etc.

For more information: info @ gymnastics.bc.ca | www.gymnastics.bc.ca

The 28th World Championships in Rhythmic Gymnastics has begun. For coverage in German and English check GYMmedia:

A total of 117 individual gymnasts from 50 countries will participate.

WCh Patras 2007, presented by GYMmedia