Thomas Bouhail has broken his leg on P Bars and has undergone surgery. It is reported that it will be at least 2 months before it is known whether he will have a chance at the olympics, but given that his best apparatus is vault, this will make it even more difficult to get back to full strength in time.
http://www.nst.com.my/sports/other/gymnastics-bouhail-faces-olympic-ko-1.24591
28 December 2011
06 December 2011
Australian Men Selected For Olympic Test Event
Following a recent trial in Canberra for the London Test Event in January, Thomas Pichler and Sam Offord have been named to the Australian team, with Josh Jefferis as the reserve. In London, Sam and Tom will battle to gain a spot at the 2012 Olympics.
23 November 2011
Lauren Mitchell VISA Ad
You can see the first of Lauren Mitchell's ads for VISA in the lead up to the Olympics below:
07 October 2011
New Skills for Worlds - MAG
FIG has just released the list of new skills that have been submitted for worlds here.
I wish a bigger deal was made of this as I love seeing new skills and I think that gymnasts also need to be encouraged to think up new skills. Anyhow, there are a few interesting new skills here. Gymnastike has a video of Sasaki's P Bars which shows his new skill (straddled front sault to hang).
There is also a video of Hak Seon Yang trying his much anticipated handspring front layout triple twist. Although he really only does a 2 1/2 here.
Here is a very interesting new skill. A Tippelt half turn!
However, the FIG seem to only be rating this a B!! I really hope they fix this rating as this is completely incorrect and should be at least a D.
Finally, there is Jake Dalton doing a gienger style skill from upper arms on P Bars. This is really just a variation of the skill from giant which he also does in the same routine.
Another interesting skill was number 12 - stoop in hop 1 hand and healy to elgrip. Unfortunately the FIG are rating this as 2 separate skills. I think this is a really bad decision, firstly because I think the skill sounds great and secondly because it could hamper gymnasts enthusiasm for creating new skills if the skills are not going to be credited. We also need the code to include more skills so that routines will have greater variety.
I wish a bigger deal was made of this as I love seeing new skills and I think that gymnasts also need to be encouraged to think up new skills. Anyhow, there are a few interesting new skills here. Gymnastike has a video of Sasaki's P Bars which shows his new skill (straddled front sault to hang).
Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org
There is also a video of Hak Seon Yang trying his much anticipated handspring front layout triple twist. Although he really only does a 2 1/2 here.
Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org
Here is a very interesting new skill. A Tippelt half turn!
Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org
However, the FIG seem to only be rating this a B!! I really hope they fix this rating as this is completely incorrect and should be at least a D.
Finally, there is Jake Dalton doing a gienger style skill from upper arms on P Bars. This is really just a variation of the skill from giant which he also does in the same routine.
Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org
Another interesting skill was number 12 - stoop in hop 1 hand and healy to elgrip. Unfortunately the FIG are rating this as 2 separate skills. I think this is a really bad decision, firstly because I think the skill sounds great and secondly because it could hamper gymnasts enthusiasm for creating new skills if the skills are not going to be credited. We also need the code to include more skills so that routines will have greater variety.
27 June 2011
Debunking The Myth: Female Gymnasts Need To Be Tiny
Over the last few years I have noticed that a few female gymnasts have been much taller than I have expected. Indeed, it is a common belief that female gymnasts need to be tiny. However, when Rich McCharles from Gymnastics Coaching stated here (in the comments) that he believes the current code of points is best suited to a gymnast that is 4 foot 9 (144cm), I thought that this number is a bit too short and decided to investigate the heights of some top gymnasts. I have dug up (most) heights for gymnasts who made the all-around final at the 2008 Olympics and also the 2010 world championships to see if indeed gymnasts around a height of 144cm do better (gymnasts are shown in the order that they placed).
Most notable in these figures is the presences a quite a few gymnasts around the 160cm mark (a height that many would consider too tall for elite gymnastics), and also a few that are even taller than this (eg Kaeslin at 165cm and Izbasa at 164cm). In addition, the averages of 153.3cm and 154.7cm are much higher than 144cm. Importantly, there is no correlation between height and placing. The averages of the top 5 and top 10 for 2008 are 154cm, 152.8cm and 153.5cm and 156.13cm for 2010 and both short and tall gymnasts are distributed fairly evenly throughout the placings. Although this is only a small study and is by no means conclusive, it does indicate that perhaps shorter gymnasts are not necessarily advantaged as is commonly thought and that perhaps any gymnast in the range of 140cm - 165cm can equally compete at the highest level.
This site suggests that the average height for US women is 162cm, and this Wikipedia article shows the average heights for a number of different countries which shows many countries have a similar average height and a few even have average heights below 160cm. This would suggest that many female gymnasts can even be an average height or even slightly taller than average. So instead of saying that gymnasts need to be tiny, maybe we should instead say that female gymnasts should just not be overly tall. In addition, for those who are looking at competing at a low level or doing gymnastics recreationally, height should not be considered as a factor in whether to take up gymnastics.
| 2008 Olympics | |
| Gymnast | Height (cm) |
| Liukin | 160 |
| Johnson | 145 |
| Yang | 161 |
| Semenova | 154 |
| Nistor | 150 |
| Jiang | 148 |
| Pavlova | 142 |
| Izbasa | 164 |
| Chusovitina | 153 |
| Barbosa | 151 |
| Ferrari | 145 |
| Downie | 156 |
| Bonora | 163 |
| Parolari | n/a |
| Morgan | 158 |
| Hopfner-Hibbs | 149 |
| Tsurumi | 141 |
| Kaeslin | 165 |
| Petit | 158 |
| Oshima | 149 |
| Palesova | 158 |
| Silva | 159 |
| Dugain | 152 |
| Mys | 145 |
| Average | 153.3 |
| 2010 Worlds | |
| Mustafina | 160 |
| Jiang | 148 |
| Bross | 152 |
| Huang | 154 |
| Porgras | n/a |
| Mitchell | 157 |
| Nabieva | 160 |
| Kaeslin | 165 |
| Haidu | n/a |
| Lopez | 153 |
| Ferrari | 145 |
| Seitz | 158 |
| Raisman | 155 |
| Bonora | 163 |
| Barbosa | 151 |
| Whelan | 150 |
| Tanaka | 156 |
| Hypolito | 147 |
| Van Gerner | 155 |
| Pihan-Kulesza | 162 |
| Tsurumi | 141 |
| Hibbert | 160 |
| Malaussena | n/a |
| Preziosa | 155 |
| Average | 154.7 |
Most notable in these figures is the presences a quite a few gymnasts around the 160cm mark (a height that many would consider too tall for elite gymnastics), and also a few that are even taller than this (eg Kaeslin at 165cm and Izbasa at 164cm). In addition, the averages of 153.3cm and 154.7cm are much higher than 144cm. Importantly, there is no correlation between height and placing. The averages of the top 5 and top 10 for 2008 are 154cm, 152.8cm and 153.5cm and 156.13cm for 2010 and both short and tall gymnasts are distributed fairly evenly throughout the placings. Although this is only a small study and is by no means conclusive, it does indicate that perhaps shorter gymnasts are not necessarily advantaged as is commonly thought and that perhaps any gymnast in the range of 140cm - 165cm can equally compete at the highest level.
This site suggests that the average height for US women is 162cm, and this Wikipedia article shows the average heights for a number of different countries which shows many countries have a similar average height and a few even have average heights below 160cm. This would suggest that many female gymnasts can even be an average height or even slightly taller than average. So instead of saying that gymnasts need to be tiny, maybe we should instead say that female gymnasts should just not be overly tall. In addition, for those who are looking at competing at a low level or doing gymnastics recreationally, height should not be considered as a factor in whether to take up gymnastics.
19 May 2011
Adult Gymnastics
In my opinion adult gymnastics is one of the most untapped markets for gymnastics. It offers great health benefits and is also great fun. Dominique Dawes did a segment for Yahoo Weekend Edition that shows an adult class at her old club. Hopefully the gymnastics world can start to present gymnastics in a wider range classes and not just the competitive aspects that many gyms focus on.
29 April 2011
Sang Lan sues, but for how much?
News stories are starting to emerge that Sang Lan, the gymnast who broke her neck performing a timer on vault at the 1998 Goodwill Games, is suing Time Warner for not providing care for her after the accident. However, different sources are reporting vastly different amounts. Some sources put the figures at US$100 million (http://www.strait2taiwan.tw/content/ex-gymnast-sang-lan-sue-us100-million), while others are reporting the figure to be a whopping US$1.8 billion. Yes, that's right billion (http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/42811725/ns/sports/).
To me, the $100 million figure sounds more likely. This could also have ramifications for competition regulations as she reports that she was distracted by another coach moving a mat.
To me, the $100 million figure sounds more likely. This could also have ramifications for competition regulations as she reports that she was distracted by another coach moving a mat.
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