Gymnastics Coaching.com

I last took gymnasts to this big Men’s competition in California in 2004. Highly recommended for those coaches looking for a high profile competition in a beautiful location.

For more information or a meet packet…

Call Maureen Miller (Meet Director)

818 247-8149 or 310 450-0012 ext 23

or email at maurlar@worldnet.att.net

official website – PeterVidmarInvite.org

I’ve been anticipating the decline of the Romanian Women’s Gymnastics team. But they continue to surprise me finishing 3rd at Worlds.

One important reason was the leadership of Cătălina Ponor, triple gold medallist from the 2004 Olympics. Now a veteran, she can still compete with the best.

Ponor’s a beautiful gymnast. Click PLAY or watch a tribute video on YouTube.

More on Ponor and the Romanian team from Gymblog:

Two bright spots on a Romanian team that was otherwise seemed to be lacking in form and spirit at the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart were 20-year-old veteran Catalina Ponor, back in shape after post-Olympic partying and a bout in retirement, and 15-year-old newcomer Cerasela Patrascu. Both displayed a lot of style — in Ponor’s case, there was even passion — for being from a country known for its uninspiring routines.

I admired both Ponor’s floor, somewhat old-school for having only three tumbling passes, as well as Patrascu’s beam, which featured the usual Romanian difficulty but with attractive lines and arm movements — none of this slashing at the air with one’s arms and calling it choreography. Both, particularly Ponor, showed a lot of style, something that seems to be in short supply on the Romanian team.

With Ponor and Patrascu, the Romanians are moving forward « Gymblog

A very well edited video promoting Inspire Athletics in Elkhard, Indiana.

http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/806668/inspire_athletics.swf
Inspire Athletics – MetaCafe

Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko took action, as he promised he would, after problems with the Russian team at Worlds.

Andrei is taking some heat over this decision.

But I’m a great admirer of Rodionenko. I expect this discipline was warranted.

It might not be as bad as a trip to Siberia, but in the tightly controlled world of Russian gymnastics, it’s close.

The Russian gymnastics federation banned Maxim Deviatovski and Julia Lozhecko from its main training camps for the rest of the year for what it said were disciplinary violations at last week’s world championships, according to the Russian Web site All Sport. …

ESPN – Two Russian gymnasts barred from training camps – Gymnastics

JumpClub posted a tribute video to the mixed martial arts group Sideswipe featuring their successful run on the TV show America’s Got Talent.

Great publicity for street acrobatics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Good, if Amerocentric, article published by Sports Illustrated.

Here are the key takeaways from this week’s World Gymnastics championships in Stuttgart.

SI.com – Writers – E.M. Swift: Five things we learned at gymnastics worlds – Sunday September 9, 2007 1:28PM

For example:

Nastia has surpassed her famous father in total number of World Championships medals.

When Kyle Shewfelt was bumped to 4th from the Bronze medal position in the Vault Finals at the 2004 Olympics, he handled the injustice with class and dignity. I wish everyone in our sport had Kyle’s cool under pressure.

The Gymblog put together a good post titled Gymnasts behaving badly, an overview of poor sportsmanship at Worlds.

Athletes named include:

Maxim Deyvatovsky – Russia
Yulia Lozhechko – Russia
Alicia Sacramone – USA
Li Shanshan – China

Even the public statements of Valeri Liukin and National Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi are questioned.

A very interesting and important topic. Check it out:

Gymnasts behaving badly « Gymblog

We’ve added a permanent link to Gymblog under the BLOGS category in the right hand navigation.

I’m not sure what to think of International Gymnastics Federation boss Bruno Grandi.

Is he a great visionary? Or a manipulative madman?

Now that the new code of points has not been the complete disaster many felt it would be — he’s looking at many more radical changes:

STUTTGART, Germany — Gymnastics judging could be going high-tech if the head of the international federation has his way.

Three years after overhauling the sport’s scoring system to provide more impartial judging, Bruno Grandi said he would like to streamline the process further by using computers, much like figure skating does. Instead of recording execution marks by hand, judges would input them into a computer during the routine.

“The computer must calculate the addition, not the judges,” Grandi, president of the International Gymnastics Federation, told The Associated Press during an interview at the world championships.

Grandi overhauled the scoring system after a series of judging errors at the Athens Olympics, most notably the debacle that followed Paul Hamm’s victory in the all-around. Hamm was forced to defend his gold medal all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the FIG announced an error had been made in the bronze medalist’s score.

Now, instead of a single mark based on the 10.0 system, gymnasts get two separate scores. One, the A score, represents the difficulty of the skills in the routine. The second, the B score, is for execution, how well the gymnast did the skills.

As execution judges watch routines, they note by hand the skills done and whether there were any flaws. When the routine is finished, each judge adds up his or her deductions and submits their final tally.

But Grandi said he is concerned that judges can alter their marks during the addition process to either bolster a gymnast in the standings or bump them down. But if judges would use a touch-screen computer as the routine is being done, that removes any possibility for impropriety, he said. …

Grandi conceded he has packed a lot of revolutionary changes into a short time. Fine-tuning needs to be done, and things like computerized judging wouldn’t take effect until after the Beijing Olympics. …

READ MORE – ESPN – Gymnastics judging could be going high tech – Gymnastics

A competent international judge would not be more or less biased with this kind of system, in my opinion. Grandi is wrong there.

But scores would come up faster — so I’m still for it.

Diving scores come up on the big screen before the athlete surfaces using this kind of system.

JPAD – Wireless Judges Scoring System (Judge or Score PAD). For use with Diving Meet Management and Recording Software

The best photos from Worlds were posted by ESPN, I thought.

frizzy front flip on the Gym Chat forum agrees:

Some awesome ones:

Nice splits from Shawn Johnson! There has been a lot of talk about Shawn’s unflexibility and not getting the 180 on her split jumps – this is good though!

"U.S. Shawn Johnson competes on the floor on her way to win the gold medal during the women’s floor final of the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, southern Germany, on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Daniel Maurer)"

High flying is always awesome!!

"German Fabian Hambuechen soars through the air winning the gold medal in the horizontal bar final at the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, southern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)"

That is hard!

"Australia’s Lauren Mitchell is seen in action in the women’s balance beam final at the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, southern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)"

Pretty in pink! What a comeback!

"Anastasia Liukin of the United States is seen in action to win the gold medal in the women’s balance beam final at the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, southern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)"

photos from Worlds – ESPN

I was lucky enough to sit in on a preliminary consultation with business guru Frank Sahlein from Idaho who was meeting with coaches looking to open a new club.

Frank is a “number cruncher” who gives advice on what kind of gymnastics business will succeed in any given city demographic.

Frank also buys and sells gymnastics clubs. Or can broker the deal.

In terms of the “business of gymnastics” the USA is far, far ahead of any other country in the world.

I’m looking forward to seeing Frank again soon at Region 2 Congress in Spokane, Washington where he will be speaking on how gymnastics club owners can actually make a good living at the sport we love.

Frank’s company: 3rdLevelConsulting.com