Tweet A team from Bracknell Gymnastics Club has been invited by British Gymnastics to represent the UK at the Team Gym European Championships in Sweden in October. Unfortunately, as British Gymnastics are not funding their trip to the event, the gymnasts may not be able to travel to compete next month unless they receive extra funding. Between team kits, travel, expenses and accommodation the club estimates that it will need over (at least) £2000 to fund the trip.

Read more on GetBracknell.co.uk

If you or your company are in a position …

Tweet I was so delighted this morning when I opened my reader and saw The Couch Gymnasts latest magazine issue, and was even more so delighted when I read that it featured a section on Irish Gymnastics. I’ve spoken before about the problems that Irish Gymnastics has with funding, I think  Ariel Edesses of Renmore GC has given a fantastic explanation in her interview, as to why you don’t see Irish gymnasts in the Olympics, coach education in Ireland and the levels of fundraising done for clubs and why.
Check …

Tweet Elite Gymnastics Stars linked to and wrote about this video. What do you think? Fantastic that she can still do so many moves! It’s the first time I’ve seen it and it’s been uploaded to YouTube for a few months by now.

Tweet A new blogs (at least, to me!) – Elite Gymnastics Stars and The Split Leap
The “40 Hottest Gymnasts of All Time”
Boris Pilkin – The Man Behind Khorkina
World Gymnastics Championships 2010 – Tickets being dispatched soon!

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British Gymnastics is delighted to be working closely with London 2012 on the delivery of Games, which is now just two years away. The full time position of Artistic Gymnastics Manager, which will be crucial to the success of the Men’s and Women’s competitions at North Greenwich Arena has just been advertised on the London 2012 web site.

More information on the British Gymnastics website and job spec here

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Violetta Ballirano aged 15, a member of the Italian National gymnastics team (rhythmic) has reportedly been hospitalized and classed as in a serious condition since falling out of a sixth floor window whilst in Moscow on Saturday. It seems to be rather unclear how the incident happened, reports says that she entered the building and 3 minutes later she landed on the roof of Nissan Qashqai vehicle parked near the entrance to the building. Ballirano is said to be in a critical condition suffering from closed cranial trauma, brain concussion …

Tweet Youtube user Mariafelicio19 made this video for Nastia.
As I said before, I’m not normally one for montage videos but I think the music and footage go really well together. It was a well thought out video. Very nice.

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GK has reported that Bela Karolyi will make a guest appearance in the ABC show Make It or Break It. Bela will feature in the shows season finale  on August 31st playing the part of Sasha Belov’s father…. interesting!

What’s your take on this?

Tweet Some countries have already named their teams for the upcoming World Artistic Championships in October.

USA Men’s Team
Jonathan Horton, Danell Leyva, Brandon Wynn, Chris Brooks, Steven Legendre and Chris Cameron.

Canadian Women’s Team
Bianca Dancose-Giambattisto, Coralie Leblond-Chartrand, Charlotte Mackie, Dominique Pegg, Jessica Savona and Kristina Vaculik.

Australian Men’s Team
Sam Offord, Prashanth Sellathurai, Thomas Pichler, Josh Jefferis, Luke Wiwatowski, Luke Wadsworth and Philippe Rizzo

New Zealand Women’s Team
Holly Moon, Briana Mitchell and Jordan Rae
Read more on Gymnastics2010.com

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I’m really enjoying the photographs from the YOG Flickr photostream. Check them out for yourself
Gymnastics Day 2
Gymnastics Day 3
Gymnastics Day 4
Image via YOG Flickr Photostream

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Our training season will be starting back soon which means that the Recreational Classes will begin too. This year I’m determined to make class more fun for these kids. They only have one class per week and I want that one class to be as much fun for them as possible.

Each child is different and finds more fun doing one exercise than the child beside them does. For example I have found that boys absolutely love vault and messing around on them beam whereas, I’ve noticed that a lot …

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Tweet Wow, I came back today from being away for a short break and my Reader is flooded with all the going’s on from the US Championships, YOG and GBR V ROM – thanks to all for your great reports!
USA Gymnastics still unhappy about age rules – Marta Karolyi and Steve Penny on the age rules
Australia’s Angela Donald dreaming of 2012

Nastia will head back to the gym and then she’ll decide on London 2012

I’m not a huge fan of the gymnastics montages but I like this one:

Tweet According to Yahoo! News, Shawn Johnson is very serious about her training for London 2012. Shawn appears to be doing less promo work and concentrating more on her training to get in shape for the 2012 Games.
Johnson is coming up on the six-month mark after surgery, and with it the clearance to resume full activities. She’s been working on some gymnastics skills, but won’t push it if she feels any pain. The goal is to be doing the toughest tricks again by the end of the year, then …

Tweet This article appeared today on the Daily Mail UK website. It mainly features pictures of children training in gyms in China and reports on how the children are “contorted into the most uncomfortable positions.” Apparently Chinese officials have insisted that tough new eligibility rules will end the type of ‘age cheat’ scandal which resulted in Dong Fangxiao and the Sydney 2000 Chinese Team being tripped of their bronze medals.

Whilst perhaps the Chinese way of coaching may be tougher, it certainly does get results. If you read the comments below the short …