Interview with Louis Smith

There is an interview with Louis Smith on BBC here

Louis Smith to appear on the X Factor

Apparently Louis Smith will appear on the X Factor and may even give up gymnastics if he does well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/5478716/The-X-Factor-lures-Olympic-gymnast.html

Make It Or Break It Update

You can watch the first episode of Make It Or Break It on the ABC website here

Also, on the Make It Or Break It Twitter (http://twitter.com/miobishow) they mention that the show was the 2nd highest rating premier in network history. Wow! I hope that the show inspires at least a few people to get into gymnastics, even if the show does have some things that could reflect badly on the sport (such as the throwing up in the toilet).

Make It Or Break It

Well, there has been a fair bit of talk about the new gymnastics drama Make It or Break It. But for those of us who are not in the US, it doesn't appear to be online yet, so we can't watch it. I had a look on the ABC site, and they do have some free episodes, but Make It or Break It isn't on the list yet. But since it is new there is a chance it may appear there in the future (Although it has the usual stupid blocking of non-US IP addresses, so you will need to use a transparent proxy in order to watch these episodes). However, there is a 10 minute sneak peak here:



The level of gymnastics is pretty low for a senior competition (eg tucked Yurchenko), so we may need to look past this in order to enjoy the show.

Nationals

Well GA has put up the list of competitors for nationals. Interestingly Tsukahara is competing. I'm not sure why though, perhaps he is using it as preparation for Japanese worlds trials. But it will be great to have him here. Perhaps some videos will appear on YouTube. However, there were some notable names missing, a couple of which are Thomas Pichler and Matthew Curtis. I believe Tom is still recovering from an ACL tear that he suffered last year, but I am not sure about Matthew.

On the women's side the list looks pretty short with only 9 names listed. However, we often see the numbers shrink a bit in the year after the Olympics. Also, I believe Georgia Bonora and Emma Dennis are still training, and Dasha is still recovering from here ankle injury. Once we get these girls back, along with Shona Morgan and Lauren Mitchell, we should have a strong team for the next couple of years.

More NHK Cup videos

There are some more NHK Cup videos here - from oga0119.

NHK Cup

Looks like Uchimura won the NHK cup in Japan with a 3 day total of 276.75 (92.25 average), including a huge 16.05 on floor. On the women's side it looks like Tsurumi won with a 3 day total of 172.775 (57.59 average). This comp doubled as a world championships trial. There is a video of Uchimura's floor here:



and Tsurumi on bars:



For more videos see yu1207's profile on youtube:

German Nationals

German nationals were held recently with Hambuchen easily winning the men's competition with 90.9 over Marcel Nguyen (86.8) and Philipp Boy (86.3). The women's compeition was won by Kim Bui with 55.65 over Elisabeth Seitz (54.35) and Anja Brinker (54.1). Rhythmic was won by Annika Rejek, men's tramp by Martin Gromowski and women's tramp by Jessica Simon.

2009 Games of the Small States of Europe

The Games of the Small States of Europe is a multi sport event that is participated in by Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Montenegro. It was held this year in Cyprus. Both team competitions were won by Cyprus. The women's all-around was won by Antonia Georgiou of Cyprus and the men's all-around was won by Dimitris Krasias of Cyprus. The is some footage of the women's competition here:



It is great to see that some of these small countries have gymnastics programs and are able to compete in a competition such as this. A few of these gymnasts have been to worlds before and it would be great to see a few more there in the future.

Prashanth Sellathurai Interview

There is an interesting interview with Proshy here:

Golotsutskov's new vault

IG reported that Anton Golotsutskov was going to perform a new vault in the finals of the World Stars 2009 in Moscow. The vault was supposed to be a handspring rudi in back out. However, the vault he performed vault a kind of 1/4 in 1/4 out.

This is the vault from Moscow:



It actually looks more like he has gone back to his 2003 technique where he almost does a double side sault.

Here is his vault from 2003 worlds:

Anton Golotsutskov - Worlds 2003 Vault
by rockygaz

Compare this to how he did it at the Olympics:



I actually think there may have been an error in translation and there is no rudi-in. That would be an incredible vault and I would have to see it to believe it.

Raj's new move

Well we can finally see Raj's new move, the Tkatchev on P Bars. You can see him doing at the 2009 World Stars in Moscow here:



And also in training here:


When I heard that it was a Tkatchev on P Bars I guessed it would be like a Tippelt, but was wondering whether he would be doing it to upper arms or to hang. As you can see, he indeed does it to hang. Although it is quite similar to a Tippelt, I think it looks pretty cool. I just hope the FIG actually name it after him. In the past I have seen a number of new moves either not being allowed or not being given a name, which is disappointing as I think one of the great things about gymnastics is innovation and the FIG seems to be actively discouraging it :(

Update: I just read that it is going to be given an 'E' value. Well I'm glad that it has been given a value, although I'm a little surprised that it was rated an 'E' and not a 'D' which is the value of a Tippelt.

Chalked up and ready to blog

Well, I have been meaning to write a gymnastics blog for a while, and have now finally gotten around to starting it. The name for the blog comes from what we used to call a Tkatchev when I was young after watching some of the older gymnasts having trouble with the move, which for some reason came back to me when I was thinking about possible names for this blog.

To start with I'll talk about the recent injury to Dasha Joura. For those that haven't heard, she had decided to have surgery on the ankle that she injured at the olympics after trying to let it heal naturally for 9 months. This will put her out of competition for the rest of the year, however, she hopes to be back for in time for the Commonwealth Games next year. I guess it won't be such a big loss for the Aussies at worlds this year given that it is only an individual worlds (which is a big disappointment in itself since the team comp is my favourite comp), although if she can't make it back in time for Commonwealth Games next year that certainly will be a big loss.

I have seen some questions about the decision to let the injury heal naturally, but as a former elite gymnast I can fully understand this decision as I always chose to avoid surgery if possible. Also, since it occured at the olympics and she had a bit of time to let it heal I think it was a valid decision. I know of some gymnasts whose ankle 'never felt right' again after surgery. However, I feel the biggest hurdle for her might be motivation. Given that the injury occured at the olympics that must have been a huge blow, especially given that she was looking so good at competitions in the lead up to the olympics. And then to find out 9 months later that it hasn't healed must be a double blow. It can be hard to get motivated when you have any injury, but this injury will be especially disheartening. I really hope Dasha can come back stronger and better, but it is going to have a tough road ahead. Good luck Dasha!