EYOF – German Team

Desirée Baumert, Pia Tolle and Isabell Marquard will compete in three weeks at the 10th European Youth Olympic Summer Festival 2009 in Tampere, FIN (July 18th – 25th).

At a friendly meet between the junior teams (age classes 14 & 15)  from GBR, FRA, ITA and SUI last weekend in Spergau, GER, Isabell Marquard (12th AA) earned the last spot on the team.

The Italian team placed first, GER second, SUI third & FRA fourth. The Italian girls Carlotta Ferlito, Chiara Gandolfi and Andrea Foti placed 1st (55.150) – 2nd (54.350) – 3rd (54.300). Sara Catanzaro (SUI) was on fourth place with 53.900, Desirée Baumert was fifth (53.650) and Pia Tolle sixth (53.600).

Detailed results: inofficial AA; team

Pia Tolle at the German Championships 2009 (1st AA - junior/age class 15)

Desirée Baumert at the German Championships 2009 (1st AA - age class 14)

Isabell Marquard at the German Championships 2009 (3rd AA - age class 14)

A clip for now and then: (18)

Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics – Alexandra Ermakova in 2007

Click play or watch it on YouTube.

Her skills are amazing…

Fly high

Reebok & Cirque du Soleil invented a new gymnastics apparatus in order to bring more fun in workouts – it´s called JURAKI.

Charmaine Gooden made a very good post about the trapeze on zommermag.com:

When I first saw this colourful, energetic advertisement from Reebok I thought it was for a new line of shoes and workout clothing. How cool I thought to use the trapeze as a prop, a backdrop from which the gorgeous models could show off the apparel. I couldn’t have imagined that the trapeze itself was the workout and the clothes the accessories. Turns out this is Reebok’s newest gym workout for women called JUKARI Fit to Fly (www.reebok.com/women), created in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, the world renowned circus entertainment company from Quebec…

It might be very successful – everybody could feel like a real circus artist for an hour or two.

You know you are a gymnast if…

• Gymnastics is life and the rest is just spare time.
• You sit in a straddle when you are watching TV.
  
• You have more blisters on your hands from bar than holes in Swiss cheese!
• Your bed is a trampoline.
• You use chalk more often than soap.
  
• Your friends are at the mall looking at the newest fashions, when you’re looking at leotards.
• Your hands have more blisters than knuckles.
• You come home with more chalk on you than on a chalkboard.
• You point you toes during pull ups for gym class.
• You know most vaults aren’t in the bank.
• Practice makes perfect isn’t just a saying, but a way of life.
• All your friends are eating dinner while you are at practice.
• You do pirouettes while waiting in line.
• You compete calmly before crowds yet suffers anxiety during school tests.
• You have the ability to balance your body on a narrow beam yet cannot bend over to pick up the clothes off of the floor of you room.
• You have bigger muscles than all the boys in school.
  
• You promise to never stop gymnastics…. like an energizer bunny that just keeps going.
• You go to school and take the chalk home from the chalkboard.
• Beam is super fat, and definitely easy!
  

(via Esprit Academy)  

“Make it or break it” on YouTube

For everyone who doesn´t live in the USA:

Click play or watch the first episode of the new ABC Family gymnastics series “Make it or break it” on YouTube.

Hopefully, ABC Family won´t delete the clips…

BG TV – Esprit Academy

British Gymnastics TV visited Esprit Academy, a gymnastics club in Swindon featuring Rhythmic as well as Artistic Gymnastics.

The combination of rhythmic and artistic gymnasts training together & even competing against each other in one gym is quite interesting. The coaches tell us that sometimes, children who do not succeed in artistic gymnastics switch to rhythmic and the other way round.

Esprit Academy on its own blog:

“Esprit has been selected by British Gymnastics to appear on the sports governing body’s own web based TV channel, BG-TV .

Friday 29 May saw the film crew arrive and spend the day filming lessons, talking to coaches and gymnasts about the club and what makes it such a success.”

Dutch Championships

IG reported about the womens Dutch Championships – Lichelle Wong (55.35) won the senior competition, Céline van Gerner (56.80) placed first in the junior competition.

Dutchfan33 already posted a lot of videos on YouTube.

Here´s Lichelle´s clean beam routine – 13.65…

as well as Sanne Wever´s beam – 13.90 -  (she fell on floor and placed third – her sister Lieke and Suzanne Harmes didn´t compete)…

and Naoual Ouazzani Chahdi´s (junior – second place, 55.30) floor – 13.45:

TV show: Make it or break it – thoughts

I´m sure, you´ve already heard of the new tv show “Make it or break it” which premiers June 22nd on ABC Family in the US (perhaps on GymnasticsCoaching ?).

Well, I just watched the 10 minute online exclusive preview and now I don´t know where to start. It would be so easy to make this show more realistic in order to show how the world of gymnastics really works – and it´s not only, that the actresses do not look like gymnasts.

A few points, I have to complain about:

1. Why do the gymnasts stand directly next to the apparatus during the competition watching the other girls competing? Nobody prepares the bars or does others things normal gymnasts would do. Plus there is no chalk – neither on the mats nor on the leotards.

2. Heidi Moneymaker, the stunt double for the character Emily (the girl with the “old” dark red leotard), has some more muscles on her body than the skinny actress. When you see her on floor exercise, the “skinny” Emily is suddenly very “muscular”.

3. The “mean” girl in the orange leotard falls on beam in such a ridicules way. Nearly every elite gymnast would have safed it instead of shaking the hip & falling on the knees. Come on, why can´t she do a realistic fall?

4. Do these gymnasts want to freeze or why aren´t they wearing their tracksuits? Oh yes, I know, the producers surely thought it´s nicer to see them in leotards.

5. Finally: Why is the competition arena so underexposed? It reminds me of the movie “Little girls in pretty boxes” where a spotlight is thrown on the performing gymnast.

Leotards – always a question of taste?

What do you think of the very individual leotards of this German gymnast?

2008

2008

2007

2005

Obviously she likes transparent fabrics ! While No. 2-4 are acceptable, I really dislike the first one – it´s too much or rather too little.

(photos via gymfan)

Ana Porgras shines on beam

Inspired by Nadia is not only inspired by Nadia Comaneci, but also by the new generation of Romanian gymnasts.

All the videos, photos and reports of the Romanian Internationals (June, 5-7) are worth seeing and reading.

Ana Porgras´ balance beam routine is outstanding. She doesn´t have super difficult elements, but her performance is amazingly clean, confident and with really good choreography (on beam!!)!

Click play or watch her routine on YouTube.

With this routine she won the gold medal together with Gabriela Dragoi – both scored 15.400. I searched for the execution score, but couldn´t find it – please leave a comment, if you know it.

Her uneven bars routine isn´t bad either (YouTube):

Amelia Racea is another gymnast to look out for. She won the all-around competition (58.150). And she´s definitly very self-confident as you can read in an interview with Prosport. (full interview on Inspired by Nadia / Fangymnastics / Viola Roadkill)

“Amelia, how was the competition today?

It wasn’t very difficult. Besides, a competition is easier then a workout, where you train each routine dozens of times. I was a little tense, more on beam and bars I guess, bot I got over it.

What goals do you have for this year?

Go to EYOF, win AA and EF, take a gold medal on each apparatus if possible.

What are your expectations for tomorrow, in Event Finals?

To win each final and to perform as good as I can.”

When I saw her next to Youna Dufournet at the American Cup this year, I saw two totally different gymnasts. In contrast to Youna, Amelia was very self-confident. Even after her fall at the uneven bars (Jaeger-salto), she finished her routine without any struggling and stuck her landing. But also in other competitions, she seems to be very calm, concentrated and very sure about what she is doing. That´s just what makes a good gymnast!