The 2009 Junior Pan American men's gymnastics competition concluded yesterday in Aracaju, Brazil. The U.S. contingent performed admirably as they brought home a total of seven medals. Gold Cup's CJ Maestas won gold on rings and silver in the all-around, pommel horse and parallel bars. SCATS' Sam Mikulak took silver on floor and bronze on vault. The team, consisting of Maestas, Mikulak, Orlando Metro's Jake Martin and SCATS' Jesse Glenn, won the [...more]
The 2009 World Gymnastics Championships have come and gone. The all-around finals did not excite much except for Kohei Uchimura. Although Tim McNeill and Jonathan Horton qualified, neither seriously challenged for the top spot. In fact, Horton's session was disastrous, given his falls on floor, pommel horse and high bar. His bad luck continued on high bar in the event final where he once again tumbled doing a Kolman. Knowing Horton, he will be highly motivated to make 2010 a season to remember, with a lot fewer distractions. McNeill had a solid 7th-place finish and is now poised for another [...more]
The Chicago area is a hotbed for men's gymnastics, and one of the top gyms in the country is Buffalo Grove Gymnastics. Former home of 2008 USA National Champion and Stanford All-American David Sender, Buffalo Grove is now home to one of the top men's club teams in the country. Head Coach Don Osborn is grooming an impressive crop of Level 10 (16-18) gymnasts that includes Wasef Burbar, Danny Berardini and Jacoby Rubin. Another important member of that team is Craig Hernandez. We have a soft spot in our heart for Hernandez because he happens to be [...more]
In the aftermath of last week's vote in Copenhagen, what is now apparent is a lot of hand-wringing and finger pointing. Chicago got knocked out in the first round, obtaining only 18 votes, which was one fewer than New York City received four years ago in their bid to host the 2012 Olympics. USOC is getting most of the blame in the wake of controversial management changes at the top. Another issue is the amount of money [...more]
NCAA head honcho, Myles Brand, sadly succumbed to that cruel killer, pancreatic cancer. Brand was probably most famous for firing Bobby Knight back in 2000 when he was the president of Indiana University. He established most of his legacy at Indiana, where he helped transform the university with his leadership and fundraising skills. His tenure as president of the NCAA was productive as he [...more]
Over the past several months, StickItMedia has really enjoyed interviewing many of the nation's top men's gymnasts. The fun part about it has been to get to know many of the athletes' parents and coaches, and to learn what makes these guys tick. Whether it's a funny story about how a gymnast got into the sport, or the inspiring tales about how a gymnast has battled through injuries, these young men deserve to have [...more]
Max Mayr is known at Universal Gymnastics in Miami, FL as the "Training Machine." According to his coach, Yin Alvarez, "Max walked into the gym at the age of five and showed that he was a very mature boy. Believe it or not, at that age, Max knew what he wanted in the sport of gymnastics. He was like a little old man paying attention to everything I said and following instructions better than any of my older gymnasts. He is a very, very hard worker. He always wants to do everything perfectly. He is a perfectionist. He never gives up and gets upset when he doesn't do the skills how he wants to."
Up until the 2009 JO Nationals, injuries had limited Mayr to only one
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It's that time of year again, and the 2009 Little League World Series is in full swing. As usual, the event is receiving huge amounts of television coverage from ABC/ESPN. All-Star teams from all over the world faced overwhelming odds to make the annual pilgrimmage to Williamsport, PA. Most of these kids are eleven and twelve years old, and are the best baseball players representing various regions of the world. The LLWS enjoys a large viewing audience, [...more]
Six-time Olympic gold medalist, Vitaly Scherbo, opened his successful Las Vegas gym a little over ten years ago. Scherbo and compulsory head coach, Radi Shopski, have been very busy mentoring a tremendous pipeline of future optional gymnasts. The level 7 boys work out six days/week for a total of 18 hours, and the level 5-6 boys work out six days/week for a total of 15.5 hours. This schedule is above average for the typical gym, but it is paying off with handsome dividends.
The Vitaly Scherbo School of Gymnastics (VSSG) is proud to have produced [...more]
What a great two days of gymnastics last week in Dallas! The 2009 U.S. Championships had unprecedented media coverage, led by a deluge of Twitter updates, topped off with a live Friday night webcast by Universal Sports and NBC's one-hour recap of the men's action on Saturday. @gymnastike and @Michigan_MGym provided great timely tweets and [...more]
