In 2000, Andreea Raducan was (briefly) the Olympic Champion. I was very excited for her, and was gutted about what happened afterwards. My favourite routine of hers was the floor routine to some music that I liked a lot: Riverdance’s Reel Around the Sun. I liked Khorkina’s bar routine as well. It is still one of my absolute favourites. I was keen to keep involved with high-level gymnastics, but this was not possible.
Those days were the days of painfully slow low volume internet, and I was not able to download videos or any gymnastics routines because it put the internet usage over our quota (I was 16 at the time). There were many other competing things at the time such as school and hobbies. So gymnastics fell by the wayside.
In 2004, I watched the Olympics again. I was cheering for the Romanians. There were many great gymnasts at those Olympics: Ponor, Rosu, Patterson, Pavlova, Kupets, and the indomitable Khorkina. But again, time had to be spent on other things as I was in my final year of university.
The 2008 Olympics drew me into watching the sport. I watched the all around, and was cheering for Liukin as well as Johnson. I still think that both of them are fantastic; to me each epitomises a different reason why I like watching gymnastics: grace and power.
There are so many reasons to be amazed at what gymnasts do. They defy gravity, and basic human instincts in order to perform spectacular tricks which take my breath away. Now, the distance between gymnastics and me has disintegrated into a single mouse click. I can watch past and present routines thanks to Youtube. I can read fantastic commentary thanks to the bloggers.
Another aspect of gymnastics that I have an interest in is the mental component. I watch the faces of the competitors, and marvel at the strength that I see in them. I wonder about what drives them and how they train their brains to pull these routines off. I guess this shows my enthusiasm for psychology as much as my enthusiasm for gymnastics.
For me, watching a beautifully choreographed routine can lift my spirits when I am having a bad day. Watching gymnastics adds to the riches of my life, and inspires me to get up and do something. If Sandra Izbaza can do a triple full, I can go a fitness class. If Shawn Johnson can do a double double, I can do weights, (even if they are small weights).
Some people claim to love ‘power gymnastics’ or ‘artistic gymnastics.’ I believe there are many kinds of gymnastics and reasons why gymnastics can be so entertaining. I plan to detail these on coming blogs.
Showing posts with label Catalina Ponor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catalina Ponor. Show all posts
Monday, November 1, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
A few changes in Romanian Gymnastics
One of my favourite gymnastics bloggers, The Couch Gymnast, has covered the changes in Romanian gymnastics coaching in detail over the last few days. Nicolae Forminte's decision to quit the team has been met with negative remarks from her and the gymnastics coaching blog. This is because, unlike some coaches of old, Mr.F seems to care about his gymnasts and try to shelter them from the less positive aspects of the sport. I say seems because I have never seen a gymnastics competition live, nor do I know what goes on at Deva.
Forminte quit because two former Romanian coaches, Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, have been appointed as consultants to the team because they Romanian gymnastics team has had less than perfect results lately. Forminte believes that this shows little confidence in him, so he has stepped aside. I don't blame him. In my opinion, the problems with Romanian gymnastics cannot be wholly blamed on him.
I think that there are lots of factors that have contributed to the current state of Romanian Gymnastics. This is a list of problems that I can see in Romanian gymnastics along with possible solutions.
1) Lack of resources
The Romanians don't have resources for things like hand grips, and importation of new coaches. They are losing great potential coaches such as Catalina Ponor to other countries because they just can't pay them as much as the likes of the United States.
Maybe Romanian Gymnastics can try to get a corporate sponsor to provide hand grips and/or more money. They have a marketable image. If Nadia got involved, it would be even better. However, we would need to tread carefully here. We don't want corporate sponsors compromising the programme. Gymnasts and gymnastics need to come first.
2) Improvement of other programmes
Look at the UK. Their programme has changed a great deal and now their teams are doing better. The UK won that silver medal just as much as the Romanians lost it. The Russian programme is also experiencing a resurgence. After communism fell in Eastern/Central Europe, the shape of the gymnastics world changed because resources were diverted away from gymnastics and other sports. But the reverse has happened in Australia and the UK because when these countries get better programmes, their governments can afford to give them more money.
The Romanians cannot do anything about this. They need to focus on their own programme.
3) Lack of competition
One of the reasons that the USA system works so well is that there are a number of good gyms and each gym produces different types of gymnasts with different specialisations. For example, Mary Lee Tracy seems to train awesome bars workers while Mihai Brestyan trains excellent floor and vault workers. WOGA seems to train great all rounders, and Chows has trained one too. Anyway, my point is that the national programme does well at training beam workers, but less well at training bars workers, and there is no other gym providing bars training and or great bars workers who can fill the gap.
Also, the fact that many gymnasts can only normally come out of Deva also means that many potential gymnasts may be put off because of having to move away from Mum and Dad. Not every gymnast is hungry for success from childhood. This could be contributing to a shortage of Romanian elites, which means that injuries can devastate the whole team.
Maybe Deva coaches could also support gyms in other parts of the country (in terms of equipment and coaching and keep looking at the talent that comes out of them. If an athlete is happy in a gym away from Deva, they could let them keep training there. This could deepen the team. Maybe there could be camps each month like the US and Australia has so that these athletes can bond with Deva members.
4) Lack of coach immigration
Another reason why the USA programme is so great is that it has imported a number of awesome coaches who are attracted by the money, and the prospect of living in the USA. This has been very good for USA gymnastics. Ditto Peggy Liddick for Australia. China has used outside help for chore graphing floor, which has done a lot for floor routines. As far as I know, Romania hasn't done this.
If they could get a great bars coach to come in and teach the other coaches to coach, this could help the Romanians. Otherwise, a Romanian coach could have an internship at a good bars gym in Russia or China. They could then teach the other Romanian coaches how to coach good bars.
5) The Bars and the New Code
The bars is an Achilles heal for the Romanians, and has been for a long time. Bars routines have higher potential scores than other apparatus. This has been the case before. However, under the old code, the impact was tiny. At most lower difficulty meant 0.5 points less. Now it means 2 points less. Bars matters more and with Romania being up against the UK, which has one of the world's best bar workers, it is not surprising that there are problems.
I have already stated a possible solution to this one in (4)
This is just my opinion. I don't know the ins and outs of the Romanian programme. I have just been thinking about this a little over the past few days and I thought that I would put down my opinions.
Forminte quit because two former Romanian coaches, Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, have been appointed as consultants to the team because they Romanian gymnastics team has had less than perfect results lately. Forminte believes that this shows little confidence in him, so he has stepped aside. I don't blame him. In my opinion, the problems with Romanian gymnastics cannot be wholly blamed on him.
I think that there are lots of factors that have contributed to the current state of Romanian Gymnastics. This is a list of problems that I can see in Romanian gymnastics along with possible solutions.
1) Lack of resources
The Romanians don't have resources for things like hand grips, and importation of new coaches. They are losing great potential coaches such as Catalina Ponor to other countries because they just can't pay them as much as the likes of the United States.
Maybe Romanian Gymnastics can try to get a corporate sponsor to provide hand grips and/or more money. They have a marketable image. If Nadia got involved, it would be even better. However, we would need to tread carefully here. We don't want corporate sponsors compromising the programme. Gymnasts and gymnastics need to come first.
2) Improvement of other programmes
Look at the UK. Their programme has changed a great deal and now their teams are doing better. The UK won that silver medal just as much as the Romanians lost it. The Russian programme is also experiencing a resurgence. After communism fell in Eastern/Central Europe, the shape of the gymnastics world changed because resources were diverted away from gymnastics and other sports. But the reverse has happened in Australia and the UK because when these countries get better programmes, their governments can afford to give them more money.
The Romanians cannot do anything about this. They need to focus on their own programme.
3) Lack of competition
One of the reasons that the USA system works so well is that there are a number of good gyms and each gym produces different types of gymnasts with different specialisations. For example, Mary Lee Tracy seems to train awesome bars workers while Mihai Brestyan trains excellent floor and vault workers. WOGA seems to train great all rounders, and Chows has trained one too. Anyway, my point is that the national programme does well at training beam workers, but less well at training bars workers, and there is no other gym providing bars training and or great bars workers who can fill the gap.
Also, the fact that many gymnasts can only normally come out of Deva also means that many potential gymnasts may be put off because of having to move away from Mum and Dad. Not every gymnast is hungry for success from childhood. This could be contributing to a shortage of Romanian elites, which means that injuries can devastate the whole team.
Maybe Deva coaches could also support gyms in other parts of the country (in terms of equipment and coaching and keep looking at the talent that comes out of them. If an athlete is happy in a gym away from Deva, they could let them keep training there. This could deepen the team. Maybe there could be camps each month like the US and Australia has so that these athletes can bond with Deva members.
4) Lack of coach immigration
Another reason why the USA programme is so great is that it has imported a number of awesome coaches who are attracted by the money, and the prospect of living in the USA. This has been very good for USA gymnastics. Ditto Peggy Liddick for Australia. China has used outside help for chore graphing floor, which has done a lot for floor routines. As far as I know, Romania hasn't done this.
If they could get a great bars coach to come in and teach the other coaches to coach, this could help the Romanians. Otherwise, a Romanian coach could have an internship at a good bars gym in Russia or China. They could then teach the other Romanian coaches how to coach good bars.
5) The Bars and the New Code
The bars is an Achilles heal for the Romanians, and has been for a long time. Bars routines have higher potential scores than other apparatus. This has been the case before. However, under the old code, the impact was tiny. At most lower difficulty meant 0.5 points less. Now it means 2 points less. Bars matters more and with Romania being up against the UK, which has one of the world's best bar workers, it is not surprising that there are problems.
I have already stated a possible solution to this one in (4)
This is just my opinion. I don't know the ins and outs of the Romanian programme. I have just been thinking about this a little over the past few days and I thought that I would put down my opinions.
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