Gymnastics Coaching.com

Who will be the first to do a cartwheel at the North Pole?

The South Pole has been done.

Sandwichgirl owns it.

(via Boing Boing)

With more than 700 artists from some 40 countries, Cirque du Soleil is an exciting place to express artistic talent within a challenging environment.

Dancers are not only an essential element of our productions; the nature of our shows means that we need more and more of them! Technical precision, stage presence and versatility are the overall qualities we expect from our dancers.

We are looking for dancers with the following abilities:

* Modern, contemporary and/or jazz dance;
* Classical dance;
* World and ethnic dance;
* Acrobatic rock’n’ roll;
* Acrobatic abilities an asset (trampoline, tumbling, etc.);
* Improvisational skills;
* Unique and diverse styles;
* Sensuality.

Requirements:

* Sex: male or female;
* Age: 18 and over;
* Very good stage presence;
* Multi-talented an asset.

Cirque du Soleil official website – Casting

(via L.A. Daily News)

One of the many great photos by Mynd Ársins.

PICTURE OF THE YEAR 2006 on Flickr

… Picture of the year 2006 in the annual photo contest that the Icelandic Press Photographers Association.

This is Sif Palsdottir, The Nordic champion in artistic gymnastics 2006.

List of all the winners.

FIG adopted the “vault table” — and tens of thousands of the old style vault horses became superfluous. (Jan 1, 2003 the table became mandatory for Levels 5-10 in the USA.)

What did you do with your old horse?

Here’s one idea I saw in Australia.

It’s used for vault drills jumping from tramp, landing in the pit.

Editor of this site, Rick McCharles, will be attending all sessions. Email me if you want to meet up there to talk gymnastics coaching.

2007 NCAA® WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Hosted by the University of Utah
Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, April 26-28

Championships 2007 – University of Utah

Editor of this site, Rick McCharles, will be attending all sessions. Email me if you want to meet up there to talk gymnastics coaching.

2007 NCAA® MEN’S GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Hosted by Penn State
State College, Pennsylvania

The nation’s top collegiate gymnasts will converge on Happy Valley to vie for individual and team glory from Thurs., April 12 through Sat., April 14 in historic Rec Hall.

Penn State Gymnastics

Another great new video from the smart people at GymSmarts.

It’s a 3 disk set on advanced tumbling:

I – Twisting Backwards
II – Multiple Flipping
III – Warm-up & Conditioning

Learn the philosophy and advanced techniques of Tony Gehman of North Stars Gymnastics Academy in New Jersey.

Tony’s developed dozens of elite female gymnasts over the years and is one of America’s premier clinicians.

From GYMSMARTS.com, click on the GYMSMARTS TV CHANNEL (new for 2007) to see a preview of this DVD and much, much more.

There are two main models:

1) private ownership
2) volunteer Board of Directors

It would be difficult to find a professional gymnastics coach who prefers a Board of Directors.

The privately owned club — especially if it is owned by the coaches — is far more stable. More predictable. It is governed by the free market.

Volunteer Board managed clubs are up and down. They have good years and bad.

Most of the club management horror stories I hear come from volunteer Board clubs.

Yet in Canada most clubs are governed by a volunteer Board. This is a legacy of well-meaning federal government legislation. Socialist thinking is that “democratic” governance is better over the long run than the free market.

In fact, it has hobbled the development of gymnastics clubs in Canada. The gyms in the USA without a penny of government assistance are far ahead.

Ultimately the privately owned clubs anywhere will be more efficient. Quicker to react. More decisive.

That opinion stated — my own club is run by a Board of Directors. And (right now) it is an excellent Board. We met this past weekend with an expert consultant in the field of strategic planning for non-profit organizations.

She strongly recommended this book.

The Strategic Board: The Step-by-Step Guide to High-Impact Governance

If you have input on this topic, please leave a comment.

Finally some good news on this blog about Bela and Marta.

Or is it?

Famous former Romanian Gymnastics coaches Martha and Bela Karolyi, the Comaneci’s coaches, were awarded on Monday the “Trainer of Legend” Trophy during a festivity in Bucharest. The ceremony was attended by renown sportsmen and former disciples, including former gymnasts: Nadia Comaneci, Anca Grigoras, Georgeta Milea (from Montreal ’76 team) and Luminita Milea, Marilena Vladarau.

It’s nice to see this happen. Since they defected to the USA in 1981 the relationship with Romania has been rocky. Time to let bygones be bygones and work together towards the betterment of the sport.

But before we get too warm and fuzzy, it’s important to read the rest of the very critical coverage of the event by Romanian-Gymnastics.com:

Martha & Bela Karolyi, Comaneci’s coaches, awarded Trophy

presenter – Mariana Bitang

(via Gymbrooke)

UPDATE: Felipe sent us a link to a routine performed by Danny Rodrigues from France.

The best Victorian I’ve ever seen. Some judges would give it credit.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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original post – March 26, 2007

It’s actually a Front Lever with the body held at the level of the rings. Or, perhaps, an Inverted Maltese Cross. I tried it several times, but failed. Each time I was able to lift my body to ring height while rotating from a hang into a front lever – but I could never hold the position more than half a second.

Mark Williams, Assistant USA Gym Coach, informs me that it was first done perhaps by a Russian, and is called a Victorian Cross. In his 25 years in gymnastics he’s never seen it.

source – John Gill (legendary rock climber)

I’ve never seen it done. For me it’s still a fiction I first read about in International Gymnast magazine.

Here’s an attempt by Stanford’s Peter Derman – at Cal in 2005.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

(Thanks Coach Dag, Florida)