Many stories have been posted the past few days about the resignation of Illinois Assistant Men's Gymnastics Coach Jon Valdez. Most have flirted with potential implications, but so far the story is short on hard facts, other than Valdez' September arrest for drunk driving in Waukesha, WI. A mysterious investigation of a [...more]
The most comprehensive men's gymnastics website in existence is arguably that of USA's Region 5, which encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. The website was created and is maintained by Sonja Rupe, a gym mom from Indiana. Sonja wanted to create a place for other parents to go to find answers to questions that can't typically be found easily anywhere else. The feature that most amazes visitors is the "rankings" page, which shows the scores of almost every gymnast in the region. At any point during the season, [...more]
We believe high profile Olympic sports be given priority at the NCAA Division I level. Many in the field agree with us. Which Olympic sports deserve to be pumped up and prioritized both in the media and at the university level? Well, for starters, how about swimming & diving, men's gymnastics, and wrestling? It's time for a national discussion on a strategy to help prop up high profile Olympic sports. For all the good Title IX has done for women's sports, [...more]
According to USA Gymnastics, Glen Ishino and Danell Leyva have been tapped to compete in the Pan American Gymnastics Union Individual Event Championships November 19-23 at Rosario, Argentina. In essence, Ishino and Leyva are being groomed for the 2012 London Olympics, which confirms what we’ve been thinking for awhile. Ishino won the 2008 J.O. Nationals […] [...more]
U.S. Men's Olympic Gymnastics Team alternate, David Durante, is going back to The Farm . Durante is returning to his alma mater, Stanford, to help coach the 2009 pre-season favorite to win the [...more]
GymInfo has published their pre-season coaches poll that has Stanford ranked number one, followed by Oklahoma, Ohio State, Illinois and Penn State. Oklahoma is the defending national champion. It's interesting to note that seventh-ranked Cal has [...more]
Thanks to Gymblog for responding to our recent post about Title IX reform. Gymblog worries, "But the unfortunate thing is that in most places, Utah, Oklahoma and the Southeast excepted, gymnastics brings little revenue to the universities that have it. Equipment and coaching is expensive. Meet attendance is tiny." Gymblog is correct about the revenue aspect and attendance. However, attendance is robust for many of the bigger meets. Meets held early in the season, such as the Stanford Open, often are standing-room-only, [...more]
Elite gymnasts have the ideal bodies. Not only are they incredibly strong, but they are also extremely flexible. What do all gymnasts have in common? They all do bodyweight exercises. Many of them occasionally dabble with weights, but their training regimens are overwhelmingly dominated by bodyweight exercises. Go to any gym and it would be a very rare sight to find any gymnast working out with weights. In a recent interview posted by Gymnast.com , Jonathan Horton was asked [...more]
Savings Sports blog has an interesting post about Title IX . One quote in particular caught StickItMedia's eyes -- "the NCAA cannot be considered an objective source. The NCAA leadership is on record as being closely aligned with groups fighting all forms of Title IX reform and has attempted to quash any debate about the effect of Title IX on decreasing collegiate participation opportunities in the Olympic sports." So true. [...more]
