Pinetown Gymnastics in South Africa has a good idea. You can donate sections of the new Floor. Big spenders should go for one of the 10,000 Rand corners.
new UCLA Head Coach Chris Waller
No surprise.
Chris is a great guy. Great coach. Super experienced.
Congratulations.
Miss Val:
“Chris was born to coach, and I can honestly say that so much of our program’s success since he’s been on this staff has been due to his contributions. He is a true student of the sport of gymnastics and has embraced the psychological side of coaching as much as he has the technical side. I am confident that Chris will sustain the culture and excellence of the program, and I am excited to see the next chapter of UCLA Gymnastics under his guidance.”
49 compete both MAG & WAG at NAIGC
Guest post by Nate Sharp:
The “Gymnastics Decathlon” (competing all the MAG events and all the WAG events in a single competition) was added as an event for the first time at NAIGC Nationals three years ago.
This year at NAIGC Nationals (1498 total competitors at the meet, age 17-61!) we had our biggest year yet, with 49 athletes from 25 different teams competing across the two Decathlon levels (Upper – MAG Modified NCAA and WAG Level 9, Lower – MAG Developmental and WAG Level 8).
30 of the gymnasts chose the MAG events as their “primary discipline” (meaning they could qualify to finals in those events).
The competition has been growing steadily over the last few years since its inception, and I think the addition of the lower level really helped get more people interested (30 of the 49 were in the lower level).
The winners in the Decathlon Lower Level were:
- Sydney Callahan – NAIGC Alumni – 235.000
- Kate Foster – UNC – 229.150 (videos)
- Meghan McClure – UVM – 228.375 (video)
And for the Decathlon Upper Level:
- Julia Sharpe – MIT – 252.925 (video)
- Mason Marek – NAIGC Alumni – 239.275
- Ryan Burgess – UCSD – 233.800 (video of WAG FX)
Some other videos:
Nate Sharpe (myself) – MIT (video)
Andre Holmes – NAIGC Alumni (videos)
(Scoring is 5*WAG AA + MAG AA, lots of thought went into the formula, but it’s trying to balance the two different scoring systems (WAG is JO, MAG is FIG open scoring) as well as the coed competition so that male and female athletes of similar level in their “native” events, training the decathlon for a similar time should score similarly.
With enough people, we’ll probably now start splitting the results by gender and the formula may change.)
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Click PLAY or watch Kate Foster on Instagram. She competed 10 apparatus over 9 hours. Vault twice! With a prosthetic leg.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwQhN9tjnwg/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Editor’s note: At Altadore Gym Club for many years we held an annual ‘Reversal Meet‘ where our guys competed up to 4 WAG apparatus, the girls any 4 of the MAG apparatus. As I recall, the girls won every year! 😀
USA Men’s JO National Championships
Some of the National Champions:
Junior Elite Level 8, 11 year-old champion: Danila Leykin, WOGA
Junior Elite Level 8, 12 year-old champion: Jaden Bottarini, Gymnastics Olympica USA (2018 11-year-old champion)
Junior Elite Level 9, 13 year-old champion: Vahe Petrosyan, Gymnastics Olympica USA (2018 12-year-old champion)
Junior Elite Level 9, 14 year-old champion: Caden Clinton, Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
Junior Elite Level 10, 15 year-old champion: Asher Hong, Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
Junior Elite Level 10, 16 year-old champion: Brandon Nguyen, Elevate Gymnastics Academy
Junior Elite Level 10, 17 year-old champion: Colt Walker, AcroTex Gymnastics
Junior Elite Level 10, 18 year-old champion: Laz Barnhill, Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
The 2019 U.S. Men’s Junior Olympic National Championships in Reno, Nevada was a success.
Stick it Media had the best coverage I’ve seen online.
Svetlana Khorkina mini-documentary
Love her or hate her, triple Olympian Khorkina is one of the greatest gymnasts all time.
By the way, she says you HAVE to love her. No choice. 😀
Svetlana does not lack self-confidence.
Olympic Channel posted a 10 minute documentary. Subtitles.
It features her coach Boris Pilkin.
Click PLAY or watch a teaser on Facebook.
Simone for foster kids
Laurent Landi interview
Simone’s new coach is humble and entertaining. He says he tries to learn from every coach. And every National system.
Laurent’s coach education was through the excellent French system.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (52min)
435 simultaneous standing saltos at NAIGC
Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.
fierce LSU INTRO video
Wow. The Tigers really had a great Nationals to finish second.
These ladies deserve MORE than a billboard.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
acrobats in Kenya
Veronique Sprenger was a Dutch gymnast.
In recent years she’s been working with an acrobatic troupe in Kenya.
Veronique is blogging about that experience on Twisting Thoughts. I’m subscribed.
One recent post describes her experience as a white woman training with Africa men who come from many different tribes. Check it out.
Acrobats defying tribalism in Kenya
