Gymnast Magazine - June/July 1973

June - July / 1973/ 75¢

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NOTES FROM THE

TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume XV / Number 6-7 June - July, 1973

PUBLISH.: Our publisher, Glenn Sundby, is away covering the World University Games in Moscow for the United States Collegiate Sports Council and GYMNAST magazine. In his absence he has left me to "Mind the Store", and introduce myself.

4 FROM THE PUBLISHER, Rich Kenney 6 ON THE BEAM, Barbara Thatcher 8 VIEWPOINTS, Dick Criley 8 U.S.G.F. REPORT, Frank Cumiskey 10 JAPANESE TOUR 12 CHINESE TOUR, Frank Cumiskey, Barbara Thatcher 17 GUEST EDITORIAL: NEW POWER HORSE?, Ed Gunney 18 WOMENS ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS 24 CENTERFOLD, 26 MENS ELITE CHAMPIONSHIP

My name is Rich Kenney and I am the new art director, photographer, production manager and generally the Number 2 decision man at GYMNAST magazine.

Previously, I had been employed in the product design and development field and also as a coach at Gymnastics Unlimited in Addison, Illinois.

In my spare time from that involvement, I put together a little business providing awards," t" shirts, programs and photography of meets in the Chicago area . The USA vs.

Japan meet and the Mid-West Gymnastic Championships are prime examples.

Prior to that I was captain of the University of Michigan gymnastics team under Newt Loken , and received my Bachelor of Science of Design degree from that University.

Gymnastics was instilled in my blood at Willowbrook High School (in Illinois) the gymnastics dynasty of Vic Lesch.

Having been trained at a great art school, taught by two outstanding coaches and with my professional and business background, I feel confident I will be able to help the magazine improve its quality and serviCe for the ever growing and demanding gymnastics world .

Promoting the sport of gymnastics has been Mr. Sundby' s mission for many years and GYMNAST magazine is the primary product of his energy.

I have discovered in my short time here that the magazine is not the sole result of this promotional effort. There seem to be a half dozen or so projects coming and going through this office const antly, of which Mr. Sundby is a very important part. Because he is only human and there always have been and always will be only 24 hours in every day--he has entrusted to me a great proportion of responsibility for the magazi ne .

I am greatly honored by this assignment and determined to produce a quality magazine ... ON TIME The problems of this magazine's production are real but definitely not impossible to tackle . With the contributions and constructive criticism of the readers, our staff, Mr. Sundby and myself we will make a real team effort to make this the magazine that gymnasts everywhere will depend on and enjoy.

R.K.

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NEWS 'N NOTES, Renee P. Hendershott LETS LIGHT UP THE SUBJECT, Renee P. Hendershott

BY THE BUS LOADS THEY CAME, Renee P. Hendershott DENVER SCHOOL OF GYMNASTICS FOR GIRLS EUROPEAN TOUR, Rod Hill FOR ALL BUT A FEW ... THERE MUST BE MORE TO IT, Renee P. Hendershott

33 34 37

BOOK REVIEW, Dick Criley, Renee Hendershott RESEARCH Diane Splithoorn TECHNICAL BULLETIN, Jackie Fie

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INSTRUCTION: Pommel Horse ,Tadao Watanabe 39 vaulting Drills, Jim Turpin SEQUENCE BY SCHULZ" Dieter Schulz

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Cover: Sakiko Nozawa, competitor for the Nippon Gymnastic Club of Japan who toured the United States during May, 1973.

Publisher: Glenn Sundby, Associate Editors: Dick Criley and Renee P. Hendershott. Art Director: Rich Kenney , Staff Writer: Barbara Thatcher, Contributors: Frank Cumiskey, Jackie Fie, Ed Gunny, Rodney C. Hill , Diane Splithoorn , Jim Turpin . and Tadao Watanabe GYMNAST magazine is published by Sundby Publications. 410 Broadway, Santa Monica, Ca. 90401. Second Class Postage paid at Santa Monica, Ca. Published monthly except bi-monthly June, July. August and September. Price 75¢ a single copy. Subscription correspondence, GYMNAST - P.O. Box 110, Santa Monica, Ca. 90406. Copyright1971C> all rights reserved by SUNDBY PUBLICATIONS. 410 Broadway. Santd Monica. Ca. All pl)otos and manuscripts submitted become the property of GYMNAST unless return request and sufficient postage are included.

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by Barbara Thatcher

Michelle Deluca, is this month's girl "On Th e Beam".

Witty, attractive, and vivacious Michelle is a definite asset to the GYMNAST magazine staff. Her knowledge of gymnastics has helped us out many times and we couldn't work without her.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation ..................

I arrived at Caravan of Camps in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a beautiful June even ing not knowing what to expect. ............ .

Had I expected leisurely tour to five hour a day workouts, I wo uld have been great ly disappointed. (The daily wo rk outs var ied from eight to ten hours and during the " Elite" camp held the second week, the workouts extended somet im es to 11 hours.) Had I expected to learn about volleyba ll , ping-pong, water ski ng or horseback riding I would have been even more disappointed. For except for a talent show and a trip to the mountains, the camp was d evoted to the acquisiti on of knowledge in one area-----gymnastics.

Penny Martin and Jan Merritt are captains of the Gymnastics Unlimited Team of Shreveport, louisiana and two promising gymnasts for the future. p layer and a real nut about o ld rock and r~1I Actually he never tried it o n the high beam but music (actua ll y just a rea l nut). And Bob (Big It does have posSib iliti es. And what a com~dlan, Bird) Childers of Oklahoma because he has got his imitation of a cricket IS fantastic and so to be one of the most creative instructors I've realistic.

•• * ever met. According to Bob anyth in g on bars And how ca n I forget Tom Heineike of can be done w ith a twist (ANYTHIN G? Yes, Wichita, Kansas and his sensationa l game of anything) and the fir st tim e I saw him spot a side dive rolls over paper cups on top of the horse, roll o n beam I almost flipp ed . What a move! I his d etermination to teach everyone in camp a sole circ le l Y, twist catch on bars in less than a was a constant source of amusement to him constant note taking. Every time he would week and his great impersonation of a side expla in so m et hin g on th e bars there I was, pad horse during th e sta ff sk it for talent night. and pencil in hand. And h e wou ld always turn * and ask "D id you get that down? " and I almost Or how ca n I forget Dave Thor and his full always did. I mu st adm it I wa l ked into ca mp twisting hecht off the unevens (yes it really was with one concept of a twi st and walked out with the uneve n s) and his wife's great side horse routine or Rusty Mitchell's tumbling or Deby a zi lli on.

• Anderson's beautiful leotards or Delene Darst's And then there was Cathy McGratlin of the never end in g patience when it came to New Orleans YMCA, and Belly Axelson from teaching and watching compu lsories.

Chicago, w ho showed me endl ess dance . , sequences for the floor and beam . Cathy and I And Wendy Cluff (or Wendella as she was even thought of a move I wou ld li ke to name in sometimes ca ll ed) will always rate a 10.00 III my her honor the ' "McGratlin". It ' s basically a book as a st ill great tumbler, a genuinely nice cartwhee l into a slidin g position on the beam. person and a terrific mountain climber. Oneof It's a littl e tricky but we p erfected it and the best times I had was w hen we started hopefully Cathy wi ll have one of her girl s show pushing each othe r in the creek. But we both it for the first tim e at nex t yea r's YMCA managed to get a lot wetter when BobChilders Nationals. And remember you hea rd about it dumped bu ckets of creek water on us. first in GYMNAST magaz in e.

•

Steve Whitlock of Michigan was also wo rkin g on a very interesting move on the beam, stand in g sideways he would jump up to a handstand , then snap down to a back off.

And so to the staff of CO.C I d ed icate my co lumn (granted that isn 't like dedicating a book but it 's a star t. ) and I wish to m ention a little about them because of their influ ence on me and th eir part in making m y two week vacation enjo yable.

Roberta the giant gymnast came to Santa Fe, To try and learn a glid e kip or a double flyaway.

The sad part of the story, a forward roll she could not do, And even when trying a ca rt whee l she'd always lose her shoe. ((This is the chorus) She m et her first in structor It was tru e love at first sight.

Perhaps the two people who had th e greatest influence on me were Stormy Eaton and Bob Childers. Stormy (1971 NCAA FX champion) beca use of hi s tr eme ndous energy and his amazing und erstanding of the fu ll twist. Th e guy ju st never stopp ed teaching. Three to four hours a day h e wou ld spot tumbling alone and if that wasn ' t enough he wou ld often give up the majority of his lunch tim e to spo t trampolin e. And wow what a sin ger and quitar

6

And last but certain ly not least let me mention Larry and Jan Bilharlz who made the whole camp possible . They are super nice people and really made me feel at home. And so just for them I w ill publish the lYriCS to "Roberta The Giant Gymnast", written for the staff sk it, by the staff, sung originally by Stormy Eaton land chorus with the sta rring role of "Roberta" originally played by Bob (6 feet, 4 inch) Childers: Note:Th is so ng should be sung to the tune " Puff Th e Magic Dragon. "

Gymnastics is meeting new friends.

unde rstanding int ern at io nally), MATT drew rave notices from th ose w ho saw him fir st.

A cco rdin g to scouting rep o rt s, hi s stro ng point is th at he tum b les w ell. Hi s " head first di ve into o pen arm s" du rin g hi s first com p etiti o n was sensa ti o naL ... . " Rea ll y cleve r.

I' m not too grea t w hen it co m es to poetry, but Ruthie Budd o i th e Madison Gymnastics Troupe de finit ely ge ts an " E" fo r exce ll ent fo r th e p oe m she se nt me. A stude nt at Madison College in th e Sh enand oa h Vall ey in Virginia, Ruthie info rm s me th at nex t yea r her sc h ool will h ave a r egular co mp etiti ve tea m . Thi s yea r th e tea m had it 's ve ry fir st m ee t and wo n. With th eir coa ch, Hayes Kruger, th ey hope to w in eve n more meets nex t seaso n and ho pe to also co ntri but e to th e g row th of gy mn asti cs in th eir co mmunit y. Th e p oe m is ca ll ed" Patience".

(An d th at' s on e thin g I co uld d efinitely use m o re of b esid es talent. )

Campers attending the "Elite" camp, a camp designed for advanced gymnasts, enjoy an alternoon in the mountains near Santa Fe. Until sh e go t to va ultin g and squas h ed him in pre-flight.

She fl ew across th e floo r and let o ut w ith a sc ream. . The ins.tru cto r ki cked her in th e --- and se nt he r off to b ea m .

A t th e b alance b ea m, th e in stru ctor was rea ll y mea n.

Rob ert a sa id " Sp o t m e o n a sta ndin g back."

But her we ight sh e (th e in stru cto r) could no t hack.

Off she w ent to tumblin g to lea rn a b as ic tri ck But w h en th e i nstru ctor saw her bo d he suddenl y go t sick.

Chorus.•.•..

(The next part is sung very slow) Then on e ni ght it happened, th e instru cto r cou.ld tak e no m o re.

Whil e castin g fro m th e high bar, he let her hit th e fl o or.

Th e ex pl os io n was terrifi c, it echoed far and wide; And wh en th e smoke and d ebri s had cle ared it look like she had died .

Chorus ..•.•••..• The morale o f th e story is no t to be so FAT (s pecial emph as is o n th at wo rd ) Or nex t ti me yo u try a basic tri ck you ju st might mi ss th e m at. Spl at.

Well th at' s it fo r m y ex peri ence at camp. If you 've lasted thro ugh all of thi s, I' ll move on to o ther item s.

Congratul ation s to John Crosby (You kn o w the NCAA Co ll ege Di vision All-Around winner; Ol ympi an; Ni sse n Award Winn er etc. ... ), Steve Hoit o f. th e Air Force Academy,. and Ray Gura o f th e University of Michigan fo r being am o ng th e 32 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners.

The $1 ,000 grants w ere awa rd ed to athl etes who comp eted in sport s o th er th an footb all and b as k e tb all.

Ch a lk up anoth e r breakthro ugh fo r gy mn as ti cs.

Rem emb er Art Shurlock, f orme ~ Ol ympi an, fo rm er AA U Na ti o n al champi o n and currentl y co ach of th e UCLA (no I' m not spelling th ose initials out) tea m . W ell Mr. Shurl oc k ha s m ad e another Ol ympi c tea m , thi s time th e se ni o r Olympi c t ea m . Th at doesn' t m ea n th at Mr. Shurl oc k is rea d y fo r soc ial sec ruit y of anythin g

becau se th e Se ni or Ol ympi cs has age group co mp etiti o n fro m age 25 on up . He ce rt ainl y has n' t lo st hi s to uch and ca ptured th e All-Around titl e as w ell as a fir st in rin gs, parall el bars, hori zo ntal bar and fl oor exercise in hi s age group . Oth er no tabl e gy mn as ts who also parti cipat ed we re Bill Tom , Anro Lascari, Ed Gunny an d o f co urse m y b oss Glenn Sundby. I ;ea ll y wa nte d to b e in it but as o ld an d d ecrepit as I am , I ju st wasn ' t o ld eno ugh. Oh we ll.

So ho w did yo u spend yo ur Fo urth o f Jul y?

W ell th e Miles (Jack Miles) Gymnastic Club of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida spent it do ing w hat else ... gymn asti cs. Onl y thi s tim e it was befo re 26,000 peopl e in Yankee Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale. Of co urse m an'y o f th e peopl e I'm sure cam e to see th e firework s di spl ay but accordin g to m y so urce o f info rm ation th e crowd ju st loved it and th e 100 o r so gy mn as ts we re reall y in spired by th e w ho le thin g. Ron Gallimore was so p syched up th at he thre w hi s do uble bac k o n th e grass wh en th e moisture o n th e mats made it ve ry diffic ult to tumble. Ah gymna sti cs ........ Wha t a sp o rt.

Jumping fro m ex tr eme to ex trem e, I now ho p, skip , and jump (fve d ecid ed to go out for track) from Fl o rid a to W as hin gto n, hom e o f Washington appl es, and th e we ll known Seattle YMCA gymn asti cs team. It seem s putting on an ex hibition with t he Chinese wa s a'grea t t hrill fo r th em especiall y fo r Debbie Halle wh o acqu ired a new ni ck nam e "cow-pi-q ua" (th at's how it' s pronoun ced no t n ecessa ril y sp elt) whi ch m ea ns " rasca l" o r " funn y" . Bo th tea ms also .l ea rned hoI'\' to SilY good lu ck': fri end " and "see you.tomorro w " in each oth er's lanqu ag e and I quess th ere we re a few tea rs shed w hen it ca m e tim e to say goo d b ye. On e newspaper t erm ed t hi s bond a so rt of ba lance b ea m d iplo macy but it so unds li ke it we nt much deep er th an th at.

N ew s Release o f th e month awa rd has got to go to Bob Peavy, co ac h at Washington State University, fo r hi s se ns ation al announce m ent o f th e birth o f hi s so n, Matthew. I' d 'Iik e to share p art o f it w ith yo u ..'.'. MATT, a future Ol ym p ic prospect, was hi ghl y tout ed beca use of h is no teworth y stati stics. Spo rtin g a 9.0 in hi s b es t co mpetiti o n (th e we ight eve nt), and a sp ectacul ar 53.7 in th e All-Around co m petiti o n \21 !(2 inches; but co nve rt ed to cent im eters fo r b ett er

Patien ce is man' s greatest virtu e, O r so th e say in g goes.

A gymn as t mu st have sa id it, Fo'r a gymn ast surely kn ows, Th at in thi s funn y sport o f o urs Di scouragement run s high, And at times th e ve ry best will find Thi s virtu e's p assed him by.

Wh en hands ar e ripp ed and thro bbing Wh en eve ry mu scl e's sore, (a n a gymn as t still have p ati ence To limp ba ck in for mor e?

Wh en you 've los t old moves yo u used to do And pro gress seems so slow, Ca n you still have faith i n bett er days And not feel sad and low?

Can you admit yo u 're fri ghtened Yet not gi ve into fea rs?

Can you conqu e r pain, fru strati o n, And oft en even tea rs?

Wh en so meone else does so m ethin g Yo u 've tri ed so lo ng to d o, Ca n you feel rea ll y glad fo r her ?

And not just pit y you ?

And wh en success see ms far away, Yo ur effort s all in va in , Ca n yo u to rce yo u rself to wear a smile, And di srega rd th e pain?

If d espit e th e tribul ation s, You can say " I won't gi ve in. " M ayb e so med ay yo u' ll di scover, Th at it' s now your turn to wi n.

W ell on ce aga in it 's th at tim e aga in . Time for m e to w rite of f. But befo re I cl ose t wo uld like to introduce a n ew m emb er o f o ur staff, Richard F. Kenney. (Act~all y we ca ll him Rich but Richard F. so und s more pro fessi o nal) Richard is o ur arti st or to b e m o re fo rmal Art Director. H e's very co mp et ent and also easy to ge t along wi th,howeve r h e ca n' t w rit e and I ca n ' t d raw so if yo u h ave any p ictures o r ca rtoon s, sei "d th em to him.(H e liKes to get m ail too .) And se nd an y copy (that 's l e tt ~ r s ) to m e.

Th ank s. I w ill n ow close on littl e kn o wn fa.c t number 36..... ln th e 1932 Ol ympi cs, th e U SA M en 's tea m fini shed second . A mazlllg.

I h ad more to say but I've ba bbl ed o n enough. Besid es o n ce again I have a bad case o f Florid a fever (Th e w ea th er 's been poor he re.) and I can ' t co nce ntrate. So jo te ,d own thi s ad dress, P.O. Box 110, S. M. 90406 and be sure to w ri te........

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7

II~ "'llttiIIts*

*_B DICKC----,RILEY Y

Recen tly I had the p leasure of ta l king w ith Cheryl Wagner (o ur Western Region report er) and her friend joa n Kidder whe n th ey fo rsoo k a Ca liforni a summ er for a few weeks in H awai i.

Now, neith er Chery l nor joan wou ld necessa ril y b e classif ied as a " women 's libbe r," but, let us say, th ey have stron g viewpoint s of th eir own about the rol e of wo men (and men) in gymna st ics.

viewpoint s. If yo u wou ld lik e to shdre th em w ith m e and our redd ers, I'll be hdPp y to turn ove r so m e sp ace for rep li es, Se nd yo ur typew ritt en, doub le spaced , co ncise (no more th an 2 pages) th oug ht s o n m en in wo m en 's gymnasti cs to V IE Wpo int s, ' l3o x 110, Sa nt a Mon ica CA 90406) Cheryl : I d o n't reall y have d goo d dn swer for that.

th e USGF no t to b e in co mp etiti o n ) and th e matt er o f in tern al orga ni za tion with in a state w hereby th e USG F Men \ Tec hni cd l Ch airman re co mm e nd ~ th dt stdt e chdirmdn aid in establi shing ~ta t e o rg,lIliLdtion s dnd that th ey coope rate with ex i ~ tin g o ne s. It WdS no ted th dt a state o rgani za ti o n co uld n Jllle it s own represe ntati ve to th e USG F Men 's Techni cdl Commill ee, Th ere ure four Regiondl Ch airm an.

Me: Of co urse, we've go t probl ems here too, but isn 't wo men 's gymna sti cs a lot of infi ghtin g all across th e co untry?

Cheryl: W ell , yo u know wha t 's behind it all . .. !

Me: " ?"

**

Th e USGF M en 's Tec hnicd l Comm itt ee appa rently ope rates w ith quit e d degree of openess at the Nat io nal leve l. We also have a USGF Wom en 's Technical Committee. Th ere are supposed to be 135 m em b ers o n the comm ittee (con trast w ith 51 on th e M en 's) . An o utlin e of th e comm it tee was published in Dece mb er 72 USGF News and a li st of State Tec hni cal Direc to rs in the Februar y 1973 'USGF News.

I wou ld like to invite a similar statement of purpose from th e USGF Women 's Technical Committ ee tog ether with clarifications co nce rning the structure, duti es, and responsibiliti es of the various levels of th e Committee.

Cheryl (continuing): It's th e m en. Every m eet in g you go to they're tryin g to run things.

Th ey want a vo ice o n pol icy mdking!

Me: D oesn' t it all go back to Mad ame Villanch er (For mer FIG Wom en 's Technical Cha irman ) whowou ldn 't eve n all ow men in th e gym when sh e was lec turin g? I think that is o ne re ason men can 't judge women 's gymnasti cs .

Cheryl: I don 't know about th at, but I o nce hea rd it ex p lain ed that men just didn 't un d e r stand e nough dbout women, p hysio logicall y and psycho log icd ll y, and th at 's why w e d idn 't wa nt them in vo lve d . Th ey ca n judge o n th e local level th o ugh.

Me: Isn't biom echan ics th e red l key to improving our gymnas ti c techniq ue? I m ea n, if gymnasti cs moves are subj ected to ri go ro us biom echan ica l anal ys is as Gerry George want s us to do, then t he technique d evelops from bas ic phy sics and an und ersta ndin g o f wh at a person 's body type permi ts him to do, So men and women o ught to be ab le to ju dge and coach th e same.

Cheryl: I w as at a clinic where j ackie Fi e was exp laining a mo ve- li ke th e swing for th e wrap around o n th e un eve n bars. Some ma n in sisted hi s girl s had th e ri ght techniqu e because th ey were straight - bod ied , b u t in order to achi eve thi s, th ey all had to p ik e. Jack ie had to ex plai n to him t hat girl s are n 't b uilt like boys, thdt th ey ' ve got ' c urves h er e and ' th ere-- part icularl y th e hip region - dnd so th ey sho uldn 't be ex pec ted to trdin for d techniqu e th at suit s th e boys ve ry we ll . He d idn 't say m uc h af ter that.

Joan: At th e la st USGF Congress d bun c h of men were silling in th e back of th e room grum bling and /IGthing wa s gellin g don e. Find ll y o ne man stood up and ils ked them to grumbl e elsewh ere beca use th ey we re embarrass in g him. Th e oth er men coache~ looked at him as if to say, " A re you fo r th e wo m en or so met hing?"

Me: W ell , w hy ~ h ou ld wom en co ntinu e to exe rcise thi ~ obv io usly di scr imin dto ry at titu d e!

(It is hard to d e~cr i be a look - - th e k in d yo u get in rep ly to a ~ ill y qu es tion like th dt. I 'll post Cheryl 's las t word o n th e mdtt er, but I dm sure so m e o f o ur readers w ill hdve th eir ow n

8

Communication is th e nam e of th e ga m e.

Th e Med ium is th e M essage!

To day's society is very mu ch awa re of th e im portance of th e spok en, wr ill en , (a nd tJped) wo rd . Thus, it is w it h grea t pl eJsu re thJt I recognize Mr, Frank Cumiskey of th e USGF for hi s p art in r esto rin g ou r dWJre n ess in th e ex istence of th e USGF. Fran k edit s th e USG F News and mdk es d specia l ellort to Jn swe r JII t he lellers to him . H e is und er stdnd,lbl y upse t whe n the USGF is accused 0 1 not be in g informati ve.

Ma y I tdk e d Cdse in point ?

In 1972 th e USGF fo rm ed d M en 's Technica l Comm ittee, wh ich hdd it's fir st get-togeth er in D enve r and a seco nd one at Eug ene, Orego n.

Eve ry State Chdirmdn WdS pro vid ed d se t o r ob ject ives and d isc uss io n hds bee n pub li shed o n how to redch tbem in t he D f'cf' mb(~ r '72 GYMNAST, I wo uld , however, li ke to n ote th em here: " The duties ot a 1 echnica l Comm ittee Member w ill be: 1, To co nduct o r ca use to be co ndu cted, Ag e Group Division ' Co mp etiti o ns to r l3 eginner leve l , Int erm edi ate Level , dnd Advd n ce d Leve l.

2. To co nduct or ca use to be cond ucted , Nat iona l Leve l Comp etition s for juni or Leve l and Elit e Leve l.

3, To co ndu ct w it h regiond l co unterpart s, d Regiona l Ch ampi onship fo r th e Nd t iondl D ivision , junio r ,Ind Elit e Leve ls.

4. To co nduct Invitdtiond l Comp etiti o ns in all level; .

5, To di~ ~e mindte IniO rllldti o n in th ei rared in both d iv i ~ i o n ~ co nce rnin g rul es, r ul e chd nges, co mp etiti on dat es and othe r perti nent in formatio n.

6. To submi t ndm es, dddre sses dnd dges of all· co mp etitor s to th e Nat ion,1I Offi ce to enabl e u s to ma in tain record~ 0 1 ,III gy mlhl sts dS to th eir progr es~ ion.

7. To sa nctio n dll cO llljJe tition s w it hin th eir ar ea and to mdk e Lelt din thd t th e Rul es o f Compet iti o n ,lIld Eli gib ilit y of the USGF dre fo ll owed.

8. To form a competition co mmittee to assist in bu il ding and ~ t re n g th e nin ggy mnd s t i cs in the' area .

A m o ng cI ,Irifi cd ti on s hdve b ee n th e relat iom hi p w ith th e AA U dnd th eir junior' O lymp ic pro gr,lfn (th ey hdve the ir progrd lll , th e USGF hd ~ th ei rs ,lIld t he two M e decld red by

**

II.S••;.I~. ___.ec•••••et;-.---./ The USGF Co ngress w ill be held at the St. Lou',s-Marrl o tt Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri on November 2,3 and 4,1973. Th e banquet will be held o n Fridd Y, Novemb er 2 dt B p,m . 50 plan to arri ve o n Fridd y. O lylll jJic Co mmitt ee meeting s w ill be held on Friddy. Pl edse mak e yo ur hotel rese rvation s w ith th e Mdr ri ott ho tel and se nd yo ur rese rvdt io n 10 th e USGF Off ice iIi Tu cso n , Ari zond, 130x 4699. Enclo se yo ur check for $15 .00 wh ich in clu d es th e regist rdt ion and ba nqu et. If yo u do n o t intend to dllend th e banq uet j u ~ t sen d $10.00. This promises to be d grea t Congress, pled se ge t yo ur reservdt ions in ea rl y.

A ~ h o rt res um e o f some of th e results 0 1 co mpe titi o ns we se nt gy mnd sts to co mp ete in: W e se nt Kim C hace to the South African Games in March and sh e was lo udl y cheered'by th e crOWL]; .I S she wo n th e A II- A rour; d

competition w ith 37.50 poin ts and th e un eve n bar ~ . o,ild nLe oeam allli flo o r ex ercise, ,III w ith ~L or e~ 01 ') .50. M r ~ . Uel ene Udrst se rved as ~ up e ri or jud ge in the Ch,Hnpio nship s.

The USSR Invitational Championships, Riga , Ru ssia .... April 6-8, 1973 Thi s comp etition w as held .I t th e e nd 0 1 A pril i n 1972 and th e sw itch to th e b eg innin g of A p ril m ade it imposs ible to se nd dn y mal e gymna sts sin ce th e top gy mrl as ts we r e comp et in g at th e NCAA Cha m p ion ships th e s,ime w ee ke nd i n Eugen e , Oreg o n .

Roxann e Pierce and Kim Chace we re se nt along w ith coa c h L.C.Cha ce . Coa ch Ch ace report s thJt the tra ve l Jrrangement s w e re fin e, ex cept th at upon arri vdl in Mosco w t hey had a 14 ho ur train ri d e to Ri gd w hich WdS tirin g.

Ro xa nn e fi ni shed 6th in th e A ll- A round and Kim wa s 10th . Coac h Chace fee ls th at due to th e fact that th e USA g irl; we re up 2nd and 3rd o n fl o or exe rcise alllith eir sco res w e re lo w . A s th e co mp etiti o n pro g ressed th e sco res we re hi gh er fo r a lik e exerc ise.

Ro xanne made th e fin,lI s in two eve nt s and fi ni ~ h e d 4th on ba ldnc e bedm and 5th in vaul tin g. Coac h Chd ce re port s w arm gre etin gs from all Ru " ian officia ls and th e Direc tor of th e USSR Fed e rati o n di sc ussed J p rob ab ilit y of having a tw o ev ent comp e titi o n w ith th e se cond o ne in Ivio sc o w . Thi s w o ul d ent ail stay in g in Ru ss ia for tw o ex tra d ays . Th e att en dan ce w as ve ry li gh t for both m en' s an d w om e n' ~ eve nt s w it h sOlll e in c rease d u rin g th e final s.

FIG Tour of Brazil, May 14-25, 1973 A most int e restin g id ed to p ro vid e a stimulu s for gymna sti cs w as J tt empt ed b y th e Bra zili an Gymna sti cs Federation. Th ey app li ed to th e Int e rn at iona l G ymna sti cs Federation to suppl y gymna sts, th e b es t from ea ch co untr y, to do a se ri es of exhi b iti on s in f ive c iti es . FIG w as happ y to und ertake th is tdsk dnd asked for th e bes t available gy mna sts from th e top cou ntri es i n gymna sti cs.

Wo m en gymna sts such as To uri sch eva, Burd a, Sc haeffe r , Schm eisser, Schorn and ou r own C hace an d Pierce we re in v it ed. The m en in vit ed w ere N Jka yallld , H o nm a, Fujimoto, A ndri ano v, Klim enko, Ko es te and o ur o w n j o hn Crmb y. They ex hibit ed befor e a to tal of 130,000 ~ p e cta t or s .

M r. Max Ban ge rt er, sec.- etM Y of FIG , w as th e C hef d e M iss ion and co ndu c ted a fi ne tour w ith th e Brazilian ho sts. Th e trip not o nl y d emon strat ed th e bes t gymnd sti cs to th e Braz ili an p eop le dnd th eir gymna sts but the 30 gymn asts w ho pdr ti cipa ted we r e db Ie to train and exhi b it tog eth er forming th e fo und ati on for lasting friend ship s. Th e U SGF th ank s FIG and Brazil for allo w ing our gymnd sts to take part. The rad io and te levision co ve rage wa s g reat and o nl y tim e w ill te ll .IS to wh eth e r gymna sti cs wi ll p ro sp er as a res ult of thi s tour.

Second Women's International Championships, Antibes, France. june 16,1 7, 1973 Ern es tin e' W eave r , coac h and judge , took Roxanne Pi e rce and Kim Cha ce to An ti bes to in th e ir seco nd In vitati o nal compe te Champ iomh ip s. O ur g irl s d id a fin e job , wh il e Mrs. Wea ver act ed as judg e. Ro xann e w o n th e A ll- Aro und wi th J sco re of 37.65 and Kim w as 2nd w it h 37.30. Ro xann e also w on the vaultin g and th e un even bar s allli Kim w on th e balan ce beam ,lIld floor exerc ise.

Pre-World Gymna stics Champion ships called th e Golden Sands Invitational. Varna, Bulgaria Jun e 8-10, 1973.

GMy Mora va injured h is sho ul d e r on th e la st d ay o f prac ti ce Jnd could not comp ete and since each cou ntry is lim it ed to tw o gym nas ts, tw o m en and two w om en , we onl y had 'on e mal e gy m nast.

Th e USA gy mn,rsts w ork ed ve ry we ll and fini shed a ~ fo ll ows : Nancy Thies - A ll- A round total- 71. 10; ti e 5th in AA; 3rd o n balan ce b ea m ; 3rd in floor ex ercise; 5th in vaulti ng.

Debbie Hill -10th in th e A ll -A round ; ti e 4th in th e un eve ns; t ie 5th o n floor exe rcise.

Jim "Ivicek-tlth in th e A ll -A round ; 5th on ring s; ti e for 3rd in vaultin g; 3rd on para ll e l ba rs; ti e fo r 7th on high bar.

W e w on a total of four m eda ls w hi ch w as a good sho w in g, h o weve r, the other countr ies loo ked ve ry good and we w ill have to w o r k ve ry hard to do w ell in th e "1974 World G yrnna sti cs Gam es.

The USGF al so ~e "t Mr ~ . G ret e Tre ib e r toge th er w ith janett e A nd e rso n and D e bb ie Fike to th e N H K Cup in j apa n from jun elO-20.

Th e repo rt ha s not ye t b ee n rece ived.

(:JlGA ...... . ... ... .. . ............. .

W e ha ve re ceived m an y lett e rs con ce rni n g th e ar ti c le p e rt aini ng to Olga Korbut , w hich is ve ry int e res ting sin ce it is a d ir ect r es ult of th e acti on s of the Wornen 's I nt ern ati ona l Te chni cal Cornrn it tee rn ee ting , janu ary 21- 30 at St utt gart.

Th e m eet in g start ed off on thi s not e ' Beam: Too m an y ac roba ti cs. The tec hni cian s should finall y come to und e rstand th at acrobati cs sho uld b e rese rved for th e f loor exe rcise.

The exe rcise o n the beam should include a mi nimum of acroba ti cs link ed w ith balan ce positi o ns, turn s, rh ythmi c steps etc.

Extensive ac roba tics on th e bearn are not on ly pr ejudi cia l for the gymna sts b u t the y also mak e th e exec ution rath er je rk y w ith fr eq u e nt pau ses in stead of th e rh ythrni cal cont inui ty that is requir ed.

Thi s statern ent probabl y led to th e ac ti on by th e sev en rn e mbers of the Techn ica l comm itt ee w hi c h pa sse d si x to on e wi th Mrs. D e mindenko vo tin g aga in st th e proposal wh ich w as as follo ws : THE CLOSED SOMERSAULT ON THE BEAM_ In view of th e fac t th at thi s e leme nt is pec uli ar to th e beam , th e Wo m en 's Tec hni cal Comrn itt ee has de cided to pro hibit it. In thi s w ay, it is hoped to avo id dang er fo r th e gy rnna sts, Thi s typ e of e lement can on ly b e p erformed as a di sm o un t.

In jun e in St utt ga rt , th e comm itt ee also d ecid ed to bar an y mo ve rn ent on the un eve n parall el bars th at o ri gin ates from th e fee t, suc h as O lga' s stand in g -on th e hi gh bar and flippin g to th e sa m e bar. Thi s rul e w o ul d also in clud e her di srnount.

Mr. Ga nd e r, accord in g to th e n ew s arti cle , says th at th e re is nothing fin al con ce rnin g th ese d ec ision s as th ey still rnu st be appro ved by th e Fede rat ion' s Asse m bly in Rott e rdam nex t N o ve mb e r.

Th is off ice is rece ivin g man y lett e rs from peop le th at see rn to think th at th e U SG F h Jd some thin g to do w ith thi s ruling. H o w should w e vot e in N o vemb er ? Sho uld li rn it at ion s of mo ve m ent s be p laced o n th e bearn and un eve ns? Wh,ll abou t a p ress to a hand stand on th e b eam-- is thi s p ec uli ar to th e b eam? Cl n thi s be comidered drt isti c gy rnn as ti cs? Is a back hand sprin g less dan ge rou s th an a ba ck

som ers,lU lt ! Th is mo ve m ent is app roach e d in th e Sdm e mann er as a bd ck so m e rsault. If you mi ss your g rip o n a bd ck hand sp rin g, th e inj ur y could b e g rea ter th an rni ss in g yo ur fee t on J ba ck so rn ersdult. Isn 't ,I front ae r ial more dang ero us sin ce you cann o t see the b edm w hil e you can on th e bd ck som ers,lUlt. Sin ce acr o batics is dllo we d o n th e bc dm-- --d o es it m ake se nse to se lect ce rtai n sk ill s and leg islate again st th em.

As O lga says -shouldn 't gy mn as ti cs dictdt e th e style. Th e judg es all gave he r fir st p lace w hil e she w as doi n g these mo ve m ent s. Does n ' t judging to a d eg ree di c tate mo ve m ent s?

W hat w ill happen to th e be am if the y elirni nate all ac robatics and j ust all o w w alkin g ba c k and forth and wav in g th e arm s w hil e W hy not e limin ate sm ilin g ? smilin g?

Prof ess iona ls smil e to th e audi e n ce to e nh an ce th eir act. Shou ld ama teur s be fo rce d to srn il e as on th e bea m and floor ? (a for ced smil e in ma n y cases) WHAT DO YOU THINK?

**

KORBUT MAY RETIRE Moscow (AP) - W ith th e routine s that mad e her th e darlin g of t he 1972 M uni ch O lympics un d e r att ack , d iminuti ve Olga Korbut has w arn ed th at she m ay fo ll o w he r routin es int o retir em ent.

Th e 1tl- ye ar-o ld Ru ss ian star , v o ted Assoc iated Pr ess Fe mal e A thl et e of the Ye a r fo r 1972 reacted stro n g ly to th e recen t pl an b y th e I nt er nation al Gym nasti cs Fed eration to ban from futur e cornp etition s ce rt ain eleme nt s of her prograrn--p arti cul arl y the doub le bac kw ard (DOUB LE BACKWA RD ?) som e r sault on the bala nce bea m. " If th e decision is p ut int o eff ec t,"Ol ga said in an int erview publi sh ed in th e official spo rt s org an So viet sky Sport , " then I sim pl y do not se e an y pl ace fo r m yse lf in gymna sti cs ."

Th e 89-pou nd Ol ga had captured th ree go ld m edal s (i ncludin g the team m eda l) at Mu ni c h and on th e balance beam had ach ieve d a score ju st .10 of a poi nt from being perfect.

Preparation had beg un long ago for new and eve n more comp lex rou tin es for nex t month 's I nt erna ti o nal Un iversit y Games, an eve nt Olga said sh e w ill probabl y now mi ss. " Th e point is no t th at the fact that I w o uld be compe ll ed to rep lace m y cornb in atio ns in two eve nt s," she exp lained , " It 's not simple to do th at, but in th e en d it is possibl e. " But , mor e importa ntl y, I wa s told w ithout rese rvat io ns to radica ll y revise m y po int of v iew toward gymn asti cs . It ha s al w ays b ee n co nsidered gyrn n asti cs ha s th e r ight . to d ete rrnin e it s ow n style. Yes, th e routines are difficult , but our jo int motto has be e n to stri ve for hi g her co mpl ex ity, Olga said ' h e r coa ch in ve nt ed her comp li cated routi ne and th e two ha ve neve r p lanned to mak e such a routin e a " se cret " .

"We sho we d it to th e w ho le wor ld and it wa s accept ed," she said. " Probab ly th ere are othe r wa ys too , but I neve r realized that ou r w ay w as wort h y of co nd emn at io n and should be ba nn ed, W e never impo sed it o n an yo ne and we didn ' t ask fo r pri vil eges. " Th e thr eat of a retire rnent brought sooth in g word s fro m th e Fede ration Pr es id ent A rthu r Gand e r in C hi casso , Sw it zerl and . H e sa id th e ru les, w hi ch w ou ld bar M iss Ko rbut 's mo st appl aud ed feats as too d ang ero us, still rnu st be appro ved by th e Fed e ration 's Asse mbl y in Rotterdam nex t N o ve mb e r.

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NIPPON GYMNA S TICS CLUB TOK Y O

-JAPAN

JAPAN - USA COMPETITION / EXHIBITION TOUR - 1973 Sa nctioned By : United State s Gymnastic Federation and the Japan Gymnastic Association Spon sore d By : GY MNAST Magazine GYMNAST magazin e was pro ud to spo nso r - -_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _- ' th e first A meri ca n to ur of th e N ippo n Gy mn as ti cs Cl u b, th e largest gymn as t ics clu b in Japan.

Du rin g the mo nth of May, t he cl u b p u t o n numero us ex hib iti o ns and pa rt icipa ted in seve ral co m pe t iti o ns across th e U nit ed States.

Clu bs su ch as the SCAT's d f Lo ng Beach, th e AZTECS o f Sa n Di ego and t h e KE N O S gy m tea m o f Texas we re ju st a fe w of th e clubs th at hos ted th e Japa nese tea m d uring th eir visit. Oth er tea m s-- t he Di ab lo Gym Club, th e D enve r Schoo l o f Gym nast ics and th e Pu e bl o Schoo l o f Gy mn as tics also gave th e Japa n ese team an adeq uate idea o f the strength of the c lub program in t he U nit ed Sta tes.

Members of the ippo n Gym Clu b incl uded Ol ymp ian Taka ko Hasegawa, " A ll Japan" champi o n s Ch izu Mo risak i and Junko H yod o plu s p rom isin g yo un g gymna sts Yuki Kawa i, Sa ki ko Nozawa and Satoko and N orik o Ok aza ki.

Th is was a club to ur, not a natio na l tea m to u r an d so was no t n ecessa ril y an indi ca ti o n o f th e ve ry b es t of th e Jap anese co m pe tit o rs.

However, th e N ippo n Gymn as t ics Clu b had so me fin e perfo rm ers man y of w ho m sho ul d becom e in creas in gly we ll kn ow n o n an in tern at iona l leve l. H ope full y th is w ill m erely be th e fir st of ma ny exchanges between cl u bs in th e Un it ed Sta tes and Japan.

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Ta kako Hasegawa

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The Nippon Gymnastic Club .

Takako Hasegawa

by Glenn Sundby

Sakiko Nozawa

'1oriko Okazaki

Satoko Okaza ki

Noriko Okazaki

Photos sub mitted by Jim Gault

The People's Republic of China Exhibition

By Barbara Thatcher There is a say ing among at hl etes from th e Peop le's Rep ublic of China w hi ch trans lated mean s, " Friendship first ; co mpetition seco nd. ", and thi s belief ca m e across ve ry clearly during the Chinese gym nast ic ex hibition at the Lo s Ange les Sports Arena on May 31st.

The warmth of their sm il es, their obvious enjoyment in merely performing routines and their friend liness towards other performers was in distinct contrast to the often serious and businesslike manner of the Russians or Japanese.

Th ere were severa l other differences between this exhibition and the one given by the Russ ian women gymnasts two month~ before . The audience was much smaller and would ha ve perhaps been even smaller had the Americans not performed and not had in parti cul ar,'Ca th y Rigby Mason and Steve Hu g among th em. Both gymnasts ad d ed a ce rt ai n amount of glamor to the evening and o ne of th e hi ghli ght s of the night was Steve Hug 's doub le pommel horse routin e with one of the Chin ese gym nas ts.

Th e Chin ese were good, in l act excell ent in seve ral areas no tabl y vaulting for th e ladi es and para ll el bars fo r th e men. H oweve r overa ll th e ladies did not see m to ha ve th e fin esse that th e Am eri ca n girl s di spla ye d on oth.e r event s and th e Ch in ese m en were as good as th e Ame ri ca n m en but not that much b ett er. Th e Amer ica n men 's tea m had m an y sp eciali sts, Ted Marcy o n pomm el horse , Bob A nd erson o n Fr ee Ex, and St eve Digg le on ring s. A ll executed ni ce ro utin es. H owever, th ese gymna sts are not ye t co nsid ered th e b es t in th eir parti cu lar eve nt and so rea ll y th e on ly o ut standing gym nast for the United State s was Steve Hug. He was also the on ly all -around perform er on th e squad and none of the Chinese m en were sp eciali sts.

Hug had troubles on the paralle l bars and the rest of hi s routin es except for th e floor exe rcise, wer e close to m ediocrit y.

Impressive were the Chinese women at vaulting . The ladies executed some nice twisting va ults, quarter on, quarter off, half on, half off, wh il e the Amer ican girls threw some nice but bland Yamishitas. Equally impressive though were the American gi rl s on balance beam. Kyle Gaynor of the SCATS had an interesting run which included a sp lit leap follow ed by two aerial front wa lkove rs to pose, n eed le sca le and a tu rn in sca le position .

Cathy Rigby Mason 's routin e has been lengthened for ex hibition purposes and inc lu ded a front aeria l, back handspring to chest roll , several whip up to handstands and it was nice to see that since her retirement from competition she has not forgotten how to do gymnastics. Of the Chinese women Wang Ku ei-ping was perhaps the best on b ea m. Her routine included nice dance elements and a ve ry fas t no hand roll as we ll as a ba ck hand sp ring and gainer dismount.

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Double pommel horse ex hibition

Chinese dance routine The uneve n bar rout in es for both groups included the usual twists, hechts, handstands and attempted handstands on th e high bar.

Richard Pascale (the " o ld man " of the American squad) threw two very nice handstand back toss to handstands on the parallel bars and drew mu ch app lause from the audience. Chu Te Jui was possibly the best of the Chinese on parall el bars and hit a very so lid routine which ended with a full twi st dismount.

For both the men and women on each team floor exercise was a strong even t. Tumbling elements for the m en included seve ral doub le full twists, doubl e backs, and side flips are definitely " in " thi s yea r in floor exercise. For the women the tumbling was not that comp li cated and th e hardes t tumbling was round -o ff , ba ck hand sprin g, back flip, and ro un d-off, ba ck h,lIld sprin g, layo ut back. Tin g

Chao-fang did execute a pleasing round-off back handspring full twist however.

The exhib iti on ended on the same happy note with which it began. There were songs played from each co untry and th e genera l spirit which pr eva il ed was one of co mrad it y.

Numerous times this season gymnasncs has brought togeth er people from different nation s who have different philosophies and different lifestyles. Hopefully the apparent harmony that was present between the Chinese and United States gymnasts will extend past the gymnasium and into the larger world . This was the first opportunity the United States has had to see the progress of· the Chinese in the sport of gymnastics and hopefully it will not be the la st. Perhaps even one day American gymnasts wi ll co mp ete against the Chinese gymnasts in • •• the ir ow n country.

Mr. Lu, Chinese Deputy Leader presents Mr. Les Sasvary, with a gill and banner.

pholos b y " ' nk Endo

Mr. Kong, Chinese team leader with frank Bare.

Liao Jun-tien

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Chinese delegates with frank Cumisk ey

Photos by Gl enn Sundby

Gordon Maddox and Jim McKay

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II.S.A. .Madison Square Garden

By Frank Cumiskey

Much has been w ritt en concern in g all th e foreign teams that the USGF had as gu es ts thi s year . The tours by th e Hungarians, Romani ans, Fr e nch ~ Japanese Hi gh Schoo l bo ys, Ru ss ian girls and the Chin ese team s we re unqu alifi ed su ccesses. These team s covered the length and bre adth of ou r land.

The offici al match es we re all fin e match es and the China-USA match at Madiosn Square Garden , wh ich was an un official match, was Tsai-Huan-tsung very interesti ng.

Th e m atch was judged by tw o officials and on ly one sco re was flashed. Jack ie Fie and Sharon Va ll ey jud ged th e wo m en 's match and the Am erican girl s won each event to w in the matc h by 2.50 poi nt s.

The me n's match was also jud ged by two men, Frank Cumiskey and Andre Simard of Canada. Th e match was ve ry excitin g and the team s we re ti ed go in g in to th e la st even t, the horizontal bar.

Gary Morava, th e last man to compete needed a 9. 20 to tie the co mpetition. Gary, man y times ha s scored higher th an 9.20 but as h e stoop e d through to hi s d islocate giants, he got behind on hi s circ le forwa rd and shot ve ry low and suffered a bad break and sco red an 8.60 which cost th e USA team the match.

Naturall y the las t man up has th e sco re th at is looked at for the loss. Howeve r Marshall Avener also broke o n the high bar and received an 8.70 a nd he also is ca p able of a 9.40 and th ere we re other spots.

All in all it was a goo d compet ition and the Chinese m en had some fin e mo ve ments. A wh ipp et on the rin gs w ith a co ntinuing forward ro ll to handstand . From an upper arm hang on Richard Klinge rman imm pirouett . •se • hand __ _ _to _ _Tsai-Huan-tsung _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ th e ediate parall elhop b ars, back eupri stand

RESUL TS OF ALL AROUND COMPETITION PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA vs. U.S.A. AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK, N.Y. MONDAY, MAY 21, 1973 P.R. CHINA 1. Yang Ming-Ming 3. Tsai Huan-Tsung 6. Yai Chu Sheng 8. Yin Hsi Nan China te am score U.S.A. 2. Marshall Avener 3. james Ivicek 7. Gary Morava 7. james Culhan e USA Team Score

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FX 8.80 9.00 9.00 8.90

PH 9.40 9. 20 9.10 8.50

R 9.40 9.20 8.70 8.50

V 8.60 9.40 9.20 9.10

PB 9.30 9.40 860 8.00

HB 9.46 8.30 9. 20 9.30

Tota l 54.90 54.50 53.80 52.30

26.90

27.70

27.30

27.70

27.30

27. 90

164.80

8.70 8.70 9.30 8.60

9.50 8.60 8.50 9.10

9.30 9. 60 8.90 8.80

9.30 9.00 9.20 8.90

9.20 9.30 9.20 9.00

8.70 9.30 8.60 9.30

54.70 54.50 53.70 53.70

26.60

27.20

27.80

27 .50

27.70

27. 30

164.20

. -.,

.

P.R. CHINA 3. Chiang Shao-Yi 5. Ting Chao-Fa ng 6. Liu Chin-Lin 8. Tang Chi-C hich Team Total U.S.A. 1. janelle Anderson 2. Debbie Fike 4. Diane Dunbar 7. Nancy Th ies Team Total

-

--

-

-

V 9.30 9.10 8.50 8.80

UPB 9.25 8.70 9.30 9.05

B 9.30 9.00 9.00 8.70

FX 9.20 9. 20 8.90 8.65

Total 37.05 36.00 35.70 35.20

27.20

27.60

27.30

27. 30

109.40

9.30 9.35 9.60 9.45

9.50 9.40 9.35 8.00

9.40 9.45 8.70 8.80

9.30 9.00 9.10 9. 20

37.50 37.20 36.75 35.45

28.40

28.25

27.65

27.60

111.90

-

- - - _.

Tsai-Huan-tsung

Cathy Rigby Mason

Oebbie Fike

Tang Chi-chieh

Frank Bare and Glenn Sundby, two people who helped make the Chinese Tour possible. The photos on these two pages were taken at the e.hibition in Los Angeles.

Ting Chao-fang

Ting Chao-fang

15

Photo submitted by Mr. Wang Chia-tung

Ning Hsiao-Lin on floor exercise

16

Chiang Shao-yi on balance beam

ling Chao-fang vaulting

Yang Ming-Mzng on pommel horse

~

NEW POWER HOUSH

By Ed Gunney A quick review of the Sept.-Oct. 1962 edition of the MG (it is in front of you-of course it is) reveals an interesting fact. Red China, in its competitive debut, defeated that strong Italian team with Carminucci and Menichelli to take fourth place. The teams defeating rookie China were Japan, USSR and Czechoslovakia. YuLieh-feng even placed 15th in the alJ-around compared to Carminucci's 18th and Tonry's 21st.

It has taken 11 years to hear again from Chinese gymnasts. According to a theory of mine, the gymnastic scene may be greeting a new powerhouse.

Ting Chao-lang on lIoor exercise

Under the assumption of anatomical geometric similarity between two gymnasts of different heights, certain conclusions can be reached about the suitability of each for gymnastics. First, if each athlete's physiological capacities are identically developed, we should expect each gymnast to be equally strong in proportion to his body. However, this is not so Muscle tissue contracts with a strength directly proportional to the cross-sectional area of the contracting muscle. Thus the difference in size between our two gymnasts would seem to dictate that although our taller gymnast may be heavier, the increment in his linear dimensions (meaning longer levers of the body 's appendages, the origins and insertions of the tendons) should also compensate for the increased weight as his strength increases with the second power of this linear increase (area is related to the second power of linear . dimensions) . WRONG AGAIN. Weight is related to volume which increases to the third ' power of the linear increment.

From this we see that, between two athletes equally trained · and with identical somatotypes (body builds}, the taller would be at q disadvantage by having a smaller strength/body' weight ratio than the shorter gymnast.

Second, the taller gymnast has a center of gravity necessarify higher on the ground than the shorter gymnast. When in a handstand on the rings, the taller gymnast's p~nduhjm vibration will be faster as his center of gravity is closer to the fulcrum. This means the taller gymnast must display a greater amount of preciseness in timing in order to achieve the same results because, for the taller gymnast, the same timing deviation results in a greater number of degrees of being " off" in relation to creating or dampening ring swing.

Third, the tallf'r gymnast requires proportionally greater areas to run in during free exercise. A six foot gymnast needs 20 feet more area than a five foot gymnast (all elsebeing equal) in order to achieve proportional results from a three step run.

The tall gymnast also consumes a greater area of the high bar and parallel bars when he pirouettes, leaving him less room in the direction of the turn with which to further work and be creative in . This disadvantage is further magnified when it is recognized that the taller gymnast must also work with a greater degree of uneven spring from the bar as he is necessarily required to work closer to the uprights.

Fourth, the thickness of the high bar and the rings is uniform. The six foot gymnast weighing 150 Ibs cannot even work out as long as the 100 pound five foot gymnast because though lie weighs 50% more, his hands are not 50% wider and therefore he has a much greater pressure/ square inch on his hands. The taller gymnast is thus more susceptible to blisters.

Often we hear that the taller gymnast looks better than the shorter. This is not necessarily true. If we have stipulated that the tall and short gymnast have identical somatotypes, their linearity and proportionality are the same. The mesomorphic ectomorph (a muscular, slender build) in japan will be as aesthetically pleasing as a talierDave Thor or jack Beckner.

But our gymnast from japan will have a much greater degree of strength per body size and consequently will not need to exercise his timing as precisely as his taller counterpart in order to attain the same results. He also will "look" as tall and aesthetically pleasing-all else being equal.

Couple these principles with laws of statistics and one could predict that japan, a nation where the population is not typically tall, should produce greater numbers of greater gymnasts per million people. However, there is a country with an even greater number of small people. This greater sample predicates that the larger country,China, could be a likely country to defeat the gymnastic dynasty of japan .

--I firmly believe that China, probably soon to be entering international competitions in all sports, will replace Russia as the second place gymnastic power and may eventually overtake japan.

• • •

17

GWomen~

GElite &hampionships

Y l'\ 1Y 1973

---

US Gf ELITE CHAMPIONSHIP

--

~ULT

PRE. IQTAL

1

BAl

~ ~ OO

All-Around 1. Joan Moore Rice 2. Roxanne Pierce 3. Nancy Thies 4. Janette Anderson 5. Debbie Fike 6. Kim Chace 7. Diane Dunbar 8. Pam Simone 9• .Claudia Fizell 10. Kathy Howard

Compo 37.10 37.15 36.30 36.65 36.30 35.95 36.10 35.25 34.95 35.75

The judges for the 1973 Women's Elite Championships.

Vault 9.45 9.50 9.20 9.10 9.25 9.50 9.20 9.25 9.05 9.25

Beam 9.15 B.B5 9.40 9.05 9.15 B.55 9.00 9.20 915 8.90

Bars 9.15 9.40 9.20 9.20 9.20 9.40 9.05 9.00 9.20 B.75

Floor 9.50 9.35 9.40 9.15 9.00 9.30 9.10 9.05 9.05 B.25

Total 7435 74.25 73.50 73.15 72.90 72.70 72.45 71.75 71.40 70.90

1973 WOMEN'S ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS SEATTLE, WASHINGTON MA Y 4-6, 1973 For Joan Moore Rice this competitive season has been a good one. All-around winner at the AAU Senior Nationals held the last weekend in April , she went on to claim another all-around victory the following week at the USGF Women's Elite Championships in Seattle, Washington.

With her on that victory stand were fellow Olympians, Roxanne Pierce, who placed second and Nancy Thies who finished third.

The rest of the top ten list included many lesser known gymnasts but if this meet is any indication of tf)eir potential, several have a promising future on both national and international levels.

To gymnastic followers on the West Coast Janette Anderson's fourth place and Debbie Fike's fifth place finish in the all-around was no surprise. In the last two years both ladies have steadily progressed towards more challenging, high level competition and this year had the opportunity to compete against international teams. Debbie represented the United States against teams from Hungary and Romania and Janette was selected along with Debbie for the Romanian competition. Debbie, a fifteen year old from Lakewood, California, excels in bars and vaulting and secured a place in the finals in these events. A top performer for the Seattle YMCA squad Janette's control and grace on balance beam did not go unnoticed in this meet and she managed to reach the finals on beam and floor exercise.

It was not a good meet for Kim Chace. As experienced and accomplished a competitor as she is her efforts only managed to gain for her a sixth place in the all-around . However she did go on to the finals in vaulting placing third, uneven parallel bars placing second and floor exercise finishing fifth. But for another Florida girl, Claudia Fizell, the Elite Meet was encouraging. Claudia was injured earlier in the season at the Hungarian meetat Penn State, but recovered quickly and in time for this meet.

She was fairly strong in compulsories and powerful enough on bars to keep her up among the top one third.

Absent from the Elites were many of the names of. gymnasts who had qualified for this meet in last year's Olympic trials at Long Beach.

Cathy Rigby and Linda Metheny have retired as well as Cleo Carver and Barbara Fleming. But still very active in gymnastics are SCAT performers Dagmar Hintnaus, Kyle Gaynor, Sandi Gross, Gail Wycoff and Cindy Eastwood.

Of these girls, only Sandi Gross came close to placing in the top ten all-around group with a 12th place finish.

One other notable gymnast was Diane Dunbar, a Northern California girl, who qualified in the second Elite Qualifying Round held in March near San Francisco. She is very strong in vaulting and is an excellent tumbler.

This meet should become increaSingly important in determining this country 's best gymnasts and possible Olympians. Two qualifying rounds were held several months before this competition and a total score of 70.00 points was required in order to go on to the Seattle meet. It's interesting to note that only half of the girls in the meet scored over 70.00

• ••

19

4

~ault Sequence photos of Roxanne Pierce.

photos by Glenn Sundby

~.J "J

.1973 ...

USGr EUTE

CHAMPIIlNSHIPS

Vaulting Finals Roxanne Pierce Joan Rice Kim Chace Diane Dunbar Debbie Fike Kathy Howard

20

Compo 9.45 9.20 8.95 9.20 9.15 9.30

Opt. 9.50 9.45 9.50 9.20 9.25 9.25

Prelim Ave. 9.475 9.325 9.225 9.200 9.200 9.275

Kathy Howard

Finals 9.55 9.55 9.50 9.40 9.40 9.30

19.025 18.725 18.575 18.600 18.600 18.575

1973 USGF' ELITE

----.

6

CHAMPIONSHIPS

Uneven Parallel Bar Finals

Roxanne Pierce Kim Chace Joan Rice Debbie Fike Nancy Thies Janette Anderson

Compo

Opt.

Prelim.

Ave.

9.25 9.25 9.20 9.10 9.00 9.05

9.40 9.40 9. 15 9.20 9.20 9.20

9.325 9.325 9.175 9.150 9.100 9.125

Rice (Moore)

5 Roxanne Pierce Finals

Total

9.60 9.40 9.50 9.40 9.40 9.1 0

18.925 18.725 18.675 18.550 18.500 18. 225

Debbie Fike 21

Debbie Fike

Nancy Thies

Roxanne Pierce

CHAMPIlNSHIiS

Balance Beam Finals Nancy Thies Debbie Fike Joan Rice Janette Anderson Diane Dunbar Roxanne Pierce

Winners in the balance beam competition.

Janette Anderson

22

Compo 9.00 9.15 9.30 9.35 8.85 9.20

Opt. 9.40 9.15 9.15 9.05 9.00 8.85

Prelim.

Ave. 9;200 9.150 9.225 9.200 8.925 9.025

Finals 9:50 9.30 8.95 8.95 9.20 9.10

Total 18.700 18.450 18.175 18.150 18.125 18.125

Joan Rice

Nancy Thies

BAL 81

f

[OTA'=. l!l GOO

Floor Exercise Finals Joan Rice Nancy Thies Roxanne Pierce Janette Anderson Kim Chace Diane Dunbar

Compo 9.40 9.15 9.25 9.20 8.90 9.00

Opt. 9.50 9.40 9.35 9.05 9.30 9.10

Prelim.

Ave. 9.450 9.275 9.300 9.175 9.100 9.050

Finals 9.45 9.45 9.40 9.35 9.30 9.25

Total 18.900 18.725 18.700 18.525 18.400 18.300

~.J

1973 ...~ U5Gf" ELITE

CH AMPIIlNSHIPS Floor Exercise winners

Janelle Anderson

pholo by Rich Kenney

Roxanne Pierce

23

Men's Elite

ChaDlpionships Men's Elite Championships Penn State University Twenty ~ur of the count~~ b~t male~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ gymnasts assembled at Penn State University, May 4-5, for the Championships of the USA, the · masculine equiva lent of the Women 's Elite Championships he ld the same weekend in Seattle , Washington .

The meet served to determine the Elite or top 15 all around men in the nation and was also instrumental in se lecting the men 's team for the University Games to be held in Moscow during August.

The two day meet featured performances by such nationally ranked competitors as 1973 NCAA All Around champion Marshall Avener, Gary Morava (second AA 1973 NCAA 's) and Jim Ivicek (fourth AA 1973 NCAA 's) who placed first , second and third resp ectively in this competition.

Olympians Jim Culhane and John Crosby rounded out the top five in the all around division.

In add ition to indi vidua l competit ion, the gymnasts competed on teams according to their region . With three past Olympians (Avener, Culhane and Crosby), and several other very capable perform ers the team representing the Eastern regi on easily won with 527.90 points and was a full ten points ahead of the team from the Mid East region .

Th e Western region lacked a really outstanding gymnast and probably would have All-Around Winners (L to Rl: John Crosby, Jim Culhane, Gary Morava, Marshall Avener, lim Ivicek, and Jay been much stronger had the team been able to Whelan. acquire the services of the West Coast 's top all around man and two-time Olympian Steve Photos submitted by Still Photography Service Hu g, absent from th e meet because of a schoo l photography assignment. However he was named to the World University Games team Second in va ulting at the NCAA 's this year, determining the top ma le gymnasts in the anyway because of his excellent colleg iate the junior from the Un iversity of N ew M ex ico United States. However Gene Wettstone, meet gymnastic record . just bare ly m ade the finals in this eve nt and director, is co nfident that this wil l change. In Particularly weak in both co mpulsory then on ly scored a mediocre 8:575. Gary th e past th ere were no real qualifying sco res pommel horse and rings the Western region Morava, the winner, executed some fin e vaults necessa ry to enter this meet and it was virtual ly on ly managed to cha lk up 488.85, almost 50 and it was a nice finish to a disappointing open to any gymnast. Thi s year though there season for him in that particul ar eve nt. The were reg ional meets held around th e cou ntry, points behind the top team .

The top six performers in each event NCAA vau ltin g champion in 1972, Morava did and a regional selection co mmittee elected the following compu l sory and optional not even qualify for that event in th e NCAA coach , decided w here the regional tri als would be held and selected th e final team. compet iti on went on to compete in the reg ionals.

To qualify for thi s meet a gymnast must have Another int eresting area was hori zo ntal bar individual finals, wh ich were surprising in a number of ways. where John Crosby was the top man followed obtained a 96.00 co mpul so ry option al tot al in international , national , con ference, Not surprising was John Crosby ' s first p lace by Morava and Joe Sweeney. Crosby 's stronger an win in floor exercise, nor Marshall A ve ner' s events usually tend to be floor exercise and reg io nal or championship me et. Whenever victory on pommel horse but Jim Ivicek 's va ulting. Although he was not in first place poss ibl e, a non co ll egiat e performer who had performanc e on rings definitely was impressive going into the finals the 9.50 ave rage he been unable to qualify in such a meet was given especia ll y since parallel bars and vaulting are secured was hard to beat. It was a good night all th e oppo rtunit y to qua lif y in a special reg ion al meet. considered his bett er events. Hi s 9.45 routine th e way around for Crosby.

Av ener, Mora va, Ivi ce k, Crosby, Hug , Mike put him ahead of Avener and Dave In the past this meet has not ranked in an w ho usually prove to be much im portance with say the NCAA Championships Carter and Jim Stephenson were n am ed to the :er than Ivicek in this event. or even th e AAU Senior Nation als in World University Games team.

•••

\

,

CHAMPIONSHIP OF

....•..............................................................................

THE ELITE 15 FOR 1973

.O.LD:~'7':CWt!S

Th e Elite 15 for 1973 (L to R): Ro b e rt Ro th, Jim Ste ph e n so n , M e l Hill, Dou g Fitzja rre ll, Dave Butzman, Ray Gura, Steve Posner, M a rsh a ll Ave ne r, Jay Whela n , Ted M a rti, Mik e Carte r, Jim C ulhane, Jo hn C rosb y, and Jim Iv icek.

1. Eas te rn Regio n

scores:

2. Mid East Regio n 3. Mid W est Regio n

- - --

4. W estern Regio n

C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0

FX

PH

43.70 45.10 41 .75 44.25 43.35 45.10 42.35 41 .90

42.70 43.35 41 .60 42. 00 35.3 5 41.00 35.50 33.50

R 43.20 44 .35 41.35 43 .75 43. 00 45.35 39. 55 42.65

V

PB

HB

44.50 45.25 43.60 44.50 43.45 44.60 41.70 44. 15

43 .65 44 .95 40.95 44.50 41.15 44.45 38.55 42.85

43.15 44.00 43 .95 45.00 42.00 44.90 43.20 42 .95

TOTAL 260.90 267 .00 253 .20 264.00 248.30 265 .60 240.85 248.00

527.90 51 7.20 513.90 488.85

All-Aro und 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

7.

M ars h a ll Ave n e r Ga ry Morava Jim Ivicek Jim C ulh a n e Jo hn C ros b y Jay Whe la n Te d M a rti Steve Pos n e r

Co mpulsory

Optiona l

Fina l Score

52.15 52.10 52.25 52.30 50.50 51.40 51.30 50.40

54. 95 54.70 54 .20 52 .65 53 .95 51.65 51.40 52.30

107.10 106.80 106.45 104.95 104.45 103.05 102.70 102.70

9.

10.

10.

12.

13.

14.

15.

M ike Ca rte r Da ve Butzma n Ray Gura Do u g Fitzja rre ll M e l Hill Jim Ste phe nson Ro b ert Ro th

Co mpo

Opt.

Final

51.00 48.5 5 50.10 49 .75 50.15 48.00 48. 25

51.50 53.60 52.05 52 .35 51.55 52.45 52 .05

102.50 102.15 102.15 102.10 101.70 100.45 100.30

INDI VIDUAL FINALS Ave. Final Scores 9. 125 8 .B50 B.950 B.900 8 .7 50 B.575

Fin a l To ta l 18.325 18.025 17.925 17.875 17.800 17.525

C &O Ave. 9. 150 B.B75 8.950 8. 625 B. B25 9.300

Av . Fin a l Sc ores 9.300 9.100 8.400 B.650 B. 350 7.BOO

Fina l To tal 18.450 17.975 17.350 17.275 17.175 17.100

C& O Ave. 9.1 25 9. 150 9. 050 8.B75 9.025 B.950

Ave. Fin a l Score s 9.500 9.350 9.050 9 .100 B.900 B.550

Fina l Total 18.625 18.500 18.100 17.975 17.925 17.500

Floor Exercise C& O A.ve.

1. Jo h n C ros b y (East) 9.275 2. Doug Fitz ja rre ll (Mid-W) 9. 175 3. Steve Posn e r (West) 9. 050 4. Jay Wh e la n (East) B.975 5. Gary M orava (Mi d- E) B.950 6. Jim Ste phenson (M id -W) 8.B50

Ave. Fin a l Sco re 9.500 9.300 9.200 9.150 9.000 B.B50

Final To ta l 18.775 18.475 18.250 18.125 17.950 17.700

C &O Ave. Va ultin g 9.200 1. Ga ry M o rava (Mi d- E) 9.1 75 2. John C rosb y (East) B.975 3. Mike Ca rt e r (Eas t) B.975 4. M e l Hill (East) 5. Do u g Fitzja rre ll (Mid- W) 9050 B.950 6. Jim Ivice k (Mid-W)

Po mm e l Horse 1. M ars h a ll Ave n e r (East) 2. Jim C ulha n e (East) 3. Gary M orava (Mid-E) 4. Ray Gura (Mid- E) 5. Te d M a rti (Mid- E) 6. M el Hill (East)

C& O Ave. 9.050 B.BOO 8.500 8.775 B.425 B.625

Ave. Fin a l Sco res 9.150 B.350 7.950 7.200 7.300 7. 000

Fin al Tota l 18.200 17.150 16.450 15.970 15.725 15.625

Pa ra lle l Bars 1. M ars ha ll Ave n e r (East) 2. Ga ry M orava (Mid-E) 3. Jim Culha n e (East) 4. Mike Ca rter (Eas t) 5. Jay Whe la n (East) 6. Jim Ivicek (Mid-W)

Rin gs 1. Jim Ivice k (Mid- W ) 2. M arshall Ave n e r (East) 3. Dave Butz m a n (M id - E) 4. Ca rl Walin (Mid -W) 5. Clar k Jo hnson (W est) 6. Ro b e rt Ro th (Mid-W )

C &O Ave .

9.200 9.350 B.925 B.B50 B. B75 B.775

Ave. Fin a l Scores 9.450 9.250 B.950 B. 900 8. B50 8.350

Fina l To ta l 18.650 18.600 17.875 17.750 17.725 17.125

Horizo ntal Ba r 1. Jo hn Crosby (East) 2. Ga ry M o rava (M id-E ) 3. Joe Sween ey (W est) 4. Jim Ivicek (Mid-W) 5. Dave Butz m a n (Mid- E) 6. Bill Ba rnwe ll (W est)

27

a huge gym . In th e background are the audience and m any other things that wou ld appear in the background if the gymnast had been c lose enough for my flash to li ght the background.

Mrs. Renee P. Hendershott 17605 Fries Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 44107

NEWS .

Renee ~endershott_ Women 5 • • • • • •_

'N NOTES

Co.ordinating_ editor .

Editor's Note: This fine article deals with the many aspects of using flash photography.

However it must be emphasized that the majority of flash photography should be done during regular gym workouts, during warm ups at meets or during exhibitions, NOT during competition. The use of flash during competition has often produced disasterous results (gymnasts falling from the equipment or losing their concentration). Therefore be sure to use flash equipment with much care and caution.

LET' S LIGHT UP THE SUBJECT

By Renee P Hendershott If you have exper im en ted for a while with gymnast ic photography, you have probab ly gotte n some great pictu res, gymnastica ll y speak in g, but many have been poorly lighted.

It is difficult to take good pictures, especially in a small gym with li ght walls and a lot of defects and immovable objects in the backgro und .

Below I present you with a problem c lini c cove rin g the li ghting problems you are likely to meet.

Problem No.1: The walls are very light and sk in is light. Pictures show very poor cont rast between skin and background.

Fig. 1 Poor contrast between wall & subject.

Answer No.1: If the gym is very large, you shou ld get the subject as fa r away from the wall as is physically possible and use flash. This will light on ly the gymnast and give a nice dark background . The photo in Figure 2 was taken in

28

Fig. 2 Good contrast achieved by moving subject far from the background and using flash.

Fig. 3 Better contrast obtained by removing flash from camera and lighting from the side.

If the gym is sma ll , and it is not possib le to move the gymnast very far from the wall, turn o ut all the lights in the gym except for a small lamp placed as far from the wall and gymnast as possible. This is for the safety of the gymnast so she can see what she is doing and wi ll a lso be needed by you so you wi ll have enough li ght to be able to focus. (If there are windows, and a lot of day light is coming in ... wait until night to shoot.)

Because he was so close, there was some li ghting of the wall , but not enough to spoil the shot.

Below in Figure 4 note the dramatic effects which can be obta in ed w ith a gymnast as littl e as six feet away from the wall in a dimly lit room.

Now the wa ll s and the gymnast are dark. The id ea is to keep from throwing li ght on the wall, but to li ght the gymnast.

Remove the flash from the camera and attach a 12 foot extension coru between th e camera and the flash gun. (You may not be able to find a cord this long; ju st buy two and put them together.)

You will be moving around a lot. This is bad on the socket in the camera and on the orig in al cord coming from the gun. To avoid expensive repa irs, tape the cord down to the camera where it plugs into the socket and tape the attachment of the extens ion cord with the orig in a l gun cord down to the gun. Now when you move around, or trip on the cord only the masking tape and extension cord itself w ill be disturbed .

Have an assistant to hold the flash gun for you , or tie it on to an extendable photographic flood li ght stand so you can get it up high. Have the gun aiming in the same direction that the photoflood li ght (substitute a 75 watt bulb in the stand) is aim in g. You can move the photoflood stand into different positions and take a GOOD PRELIMINARY LOOK at what effect your flash gun wi ll have when it flashes. The important thing is to put the light at such an ang le that it does not shine directly on the wall behind the gymnast.

An example on beam would be to put the light so that it shines on the suj ect from one end of the beam. It wi ll shine at the wall at the othe r end of the beam , but you will not be photographing that wall. You can move the lamp so that it shines down on the gymnast, or down so that it shines up on her for different effects. Figure 3 is a n examp le of the clear deliniation which can be obtained between gymnast and a perfe ctly chalk white wa ll . This boy was only about two feet from the wa ll .

Fig. 4 Dramatic effects with imaginative lighting.

Using the " preliminary look " technique with the flash on the light stand is really helpful in the beginning, because you can see ahead of time just what the li ghting effects wi ll be. It can be left on while taking the flash pictures, because it is not strong enough to interfere with the light of your flash gun. It is fun to plan different imaginative dramatic li ghting effects.

Problem No.2: Pi ctures show very distracti ng shadows cast from the gymnast 's body onto the wall beh ind . Figure 5 is a good examp le of this.

The shadow is sti ll with in the li mits of the gymnast s body so that it can not be cropped off. Many otherwise excellent pictures are spoi led in this manner.

Fig. 5 Distracting shadows can be avoided.

Whenever yo u shine a li ght on something a shadow wi ll be produce d . It will be especia ll y noticeab le when the subject is close to the wa ll .

The photographer must exper iment and find an ang le at which to place the flash gun, so that the gymnast 's body and apparatus are eith er co mpl etel y separated from the shadow so th e shadow ca n be cropp ed off in printing, or so th at th e shadow is behind th e gymnast and does not sta nd out as a separate en tity. Study Figures 6, 7 , 5, and 9. (C stand fOf ca m era , S for shadow, and L fo r li ght position.)

y

l

s

Answer No.3: Th e less li ght th ere is in th e gym the longer you r cam era shutter must be left open to ex po se th e film sufficiently. If yo ur light meter indi ca tes that you ca n use a speed of 1/ 500th of a seco nd or more (dayl ight condi ti ons) you are al l set. You can shoot from any distance or ang le, and be fairly we ll assured that you can " stop " th e ac tion. In this case you can even experiment w ith " depth of field " You can throw th e background out of focus and get a nice clea r shot of the gymnast by usi ng the larg es t lens open ing possible (as indicated on your li ght m eter ... remember the smaller F numbers on your came ra dial actually mean larger diaphram openings) . If you wa nt the background in focus, use a sma ller lens opening (larger F stop). Figure 10 is an example of lighting cond itions being such that a ve ry wide lens opening had to b e used. The gymnast was " lost in th e crowd " , so to speak. It would have been better in this case to h ave used flash.

C Fig. 6 No shadow

s

,., 1 • ~-.

C Fig. 7 Can' t crop this off without cutting into image of gymnast

s

Fig. 10 Lost in the crowd.

If the lighting cond iti ons are such that you can not use a speed above 125th of a second , you can still get good action shots if you take them using the following techniques: 1. There are m any opportunit ies to get lovel y still shot s when th ere is no movement on the part of th e gymnast. You can take pictures like in Fi gure 11 and often get some lovely lighting effects with ju st th e light available in the gym. I n thiS case the gym was darkened and there were spot li ghts coming from above the group, and the effects were quite dramatic.

lC

/"

Fig. 12 Atthe peak of the action at 1/125th of a second.

Another technique which you should use is to stand farther away from th e subject (16 feet or more). The farther away yo u are from th e action, th e easier it is for the ca mera to STOP the action.

One thing to remembe r is that if yo u are go in g to photograph some thing from a grea t distance such as beyond 25 o r 30 fee t, your flash unit is not going to do yo u any good. It won ' t li ght the subject . . . so you must use availabl e light anyway. Available light should be used when photographing from th e bleachers or when taking pictures of th e v ictory march o r groups way across the gym. For less expensive flash units a distance of 16 feet or less is really b est if the flash is to h ave any effect.

There are some electronic flash units whi ch are effect ive as far as 50 feet. One unit se lls for about $80.00 and the battery for it is about $20.00 (Th is is really cheap because .f9r $20.00 you get 1000 fla shes. It costs about $35.00 to get 1000 fla shes using the small " AA" batteries needed by many smaller fl ash units.). Another . great feature to thi s type of gun is that you can' turn it down to half power when shoot ing clo ser shots and the recharge time is only about Y2 second . This way you can shoot as fast as you want to without those everlastingly long waits for recharging. (The particular one I have seen is made by Braun, model number ~L 515).

Problem No.4: The shutter speed which one uses with electronic flash is quite low ... about 1/ 60th of a second, but the flash goes on and off much faster than this (sometime during that 1/ 60th of a seco nd) . This is why we can get fast act ion shots with a slow shutter speed. The problem is that parts of the body are blurred as if the actio n is NOT being stopped . Why is this?

It doesn ' t always occur.

Answer No.4: Figure 13 is a strik ing example of this very problem . Here we are getting what are called " ghost image s".

Fig. 8 Shadow behind subject. Blends in well (better when subject far from wall.)

l

C Fig. 9 Here you can crop off.the shadow.

Problem No.3: When can one use natural o r available li ght with no flash for act ion shots?

Fig. 11 Still shot with available light.

1. If the subject is moving, the photographer must be more expert: Pla ce you rse lf so that the gymnast is coming toward or away from you .

Less action is seen from thi s ang le. If you wish to take shots from th e side, you sti ll can get good shots if you catch th e subject at the PEAK of the move when there is the LEAST ACTION. This takes a feeling for gymnast ics on your part.

Figure 12 is an examp le of an action shot tak en ,at the peak of th e ac ti on. (shutter speed of 1/ 125th of a second)

Fig. 13 Ghost images.

The ava il able light in the gym (in this case, a ;pot li ght from above the gymnast) is so stro ng that th e film is being exposed during oth er parts of the 1/60t h of a second during which the shutter is open . It is actually a double or triple exposure.

29

This often happens when the lighting conditions read around 1/ 60 of a second Fl.4 and you are more than 16 feet away from the subject. Moving closer to the subject will allow the light from the flash unit to have greater effect than th e available light.

Another solution wou ld be to purchase the . stronger flash unit so that the avai lab le light can not over-power it. just remember, you can tell if this is going to happen by taking a meter reading to see what the diaphragm opening would have to be if you were using available light at 1/ 60th of a second. Then determine how far you will ha ve the flash unit from the subject. This wi ll determine how big the diaphragm opening will be when you take flash pictures. If the opening is the same or sma ll er (larger F stop) for available light this means that you will be getting ghost images. You must be able to use a lens opening at least two notches smaller than your light meter indicates you wou ld use with available light (or two F stops larger) to prevent the ghosts when using flash. If you can not, move in closer until you can use a sma ll enough lens opening with your flash.

Problem No.3: Pictures are clearly defined, but are just too flat, grey, and uninteresting looking.

Answer No.5: Using some of the lighting techniques suggested in the answer to problem No.1 could solve this problem.

Fig. 15 Off the camera flash in darkened room same gymnast.

I hope this will be of some help to you . Now let's see you get busy and take some good pictures at some of these meets for which you have . .. up to now, been submitting only writtf'n results . Help us to make The GYMNAST Magazine the prettiest in print!

30

••••

. Rudy and Janet Bachna

BY THE BUSLOADS THEY CAME This year marked the 10th Anniversary for the Kent State University gymnastic spectacular GYMNASTICS IN MOTION--Held on April 27th and 28th, this event drew crowds of 5,000 both evenings. Engineered by Rudy Bachna and his wife janet, Gymnastics In Motion is an example of gymnastics without competition.

Although there were many pure single performances of routines from the Olympic events tastefully interspersed throughout the entire show, there was much more to be seen.

To start things off right, dozens of little children, both girls and boys gave a short demonstration of what they are learning in the community program run by the University.

As things progressed a great variety of acts such as beautiful mass floor exercises done by the combined men and women's gymnastics teams, circus acts such as performances on the Spanish webs, the human jump rope, exciting moments when many bodies were literally flying through the air with serial vaulting, or flipping on mini tramps, funny times when the clowns tripped over the mats and gave out free ' balloons to all the kids .. . oh yes and that funny routine when two boys were embell ished with balloons inside their leotards got up on the uneven bars and did complete bar routines (men's lib?) . They fell off in unison on their "additions" which promptly popped to clue the slower members of the audience in that their femininity was just temporary. (I heard a little girl telling her mother about those "gi rls ".

When her mothertried to explain, she said "No mom, they were girls. They had bows in their hair. " ) And then there were the serious moments (but never for too long) when awards, good byes to departing seniors, honors

(Kemember Debbie Ban Drosky the gal who arranges and plays all the floor exercise music for the Kent women 's team , being on the team herself? She is graduating magna cum laude with a 3.7 point average) and gifts for janet and Rudy. (Would you believe a garbage can and a AM-FM clock radio???) ... I' m sure there is a story there someplace. All in all there was a great feeling of warmth expressed by members of the teams for each other and for their beloved coaches janet and Rudy Bachna.

Everything ended appropriately when the . men in white, the women in blue and the children in red marched out and all suddenly

lay down to form a striking American flag ...

Kent's contribution for a happy and physically fit American youth .

For those of you who would like to know something about the program at Kent, janet and Rudy Bachna have been a coaching and teaching team for 20 yea rs. Th ey began the gymnastics program at Kent in 1959 and under their supervision, both the men ' s and women 's

eliminated down to the 30 top scores. One month later, we dropped to the top 20 scores.

Th e 1st week in D ece mber, we had our thir d meet and el iminated to the top ten, we had two injury petitions, so 12 girls went into the final trials. Unlike what happened at Long Beach, when the Olympic Team was picked, we had a rule that any girl who did not make the final tri als, o r fail ed to compl ete th e meet. would be eliminated .

The final trials were held on Wednesday night before a packed house at the Denver School of Gymnastics. It was one of the finest meets ever witnessed in Colorado. There were only two falls all night, as girl after girl performed to their highest expectations. When the night was over, we knew we had a very fine team to represent us. Debbie was the high scorer with Trish Reed second and Linda Antonio third .

We left Dullis the next evening. We flew on a 747 to London, where we met with Ray Taylor, the Great Britian Federation Head . We left two hours later and arrived in Stockholm , Sweden about 3 in the afternoon . Here we were met by Rolf E Bjork and parents of the SOL-flickorna GF Gymnastic Club with whom we would' compete the next night. This club turned out to be the number one group in Sweden .

We were taken from the airport into Stockholm and placed in three homes. I must "add here before going any further that the people of Sweden treated us as well as it is humanly possible. They were just tremendous at all times . The following evening we competed against the Swedish team. The stands were overflowing with spectators, and the standing room area behind the stands was full.

Each team competed with seven girls with the top five scores counting. The judges were all from Sweden . The conditions of the meet were good . All the equipment was of the System Ruether type except the floor exercise area. The floor exercise pad was a carpet over a rubber base. It was adjusted without much trouble. .

The third phase of the Kent philosophy is to The first event was vaulting. We started well train skilled men and women gymnasts to their greatest potential whether it be local or with most of our girls scoring in the high eights and low nines. The Swedish team scored mostly International competition . Gymnastics is a highl y respected spo rt at Kent. There is in the sevens and eights. Next we went to the $250,000 worth o f equipment and a bars, where we pulled away from our hosts. trem endou s ph ys ica l pl ant to serve th e need s Each of our girls hit their routines w ith great consistancy. Debbie ended up with the highest of every indi vidu al. Th ere is ample time alloted every day for work outs, and th e administration score of the night with a 9.7. Most of our scores is highly coo perati ve in sch edulin g cl asses for were in the nines. We next went to balance gymnasts in vo lve d in th e co mpetiti ve program . beam . The Swedish team was fairly steady, but lacked the tricks of our girls. Our girls were likewise steady and again we scored in the high eights and low nines to middle nines. The final event arrived and the team score was in no ,DENVER SCHOOL OF GYMNASTICS FOR doubt at this time. Again our girls scored very GIRLS EUROPEAN TOUR well as they hit their routines with few bobbles.

The final team score showed about a 35 poin t

by Rod Hill spread . fhe awards ceremony was unusual for our We left Denver Thursday morning, the 25th girls. Each girl in the mee t rece ived a c rys tal of January and flew non-stop to Dullis Airport finger bowl. For winning the all-around, in Wa shington D.C. W e we re m et at th e airp ort Debbie received a huge crystal bbwl. Trish Reed received a similar bowl fo r finishing

by Ruth McBride and taken to our motel. That second in the all-around. Linda Antonio evening we worked out, and returned to the received a smaller bowl for finishing third. motel. In our party was Debbie Hill, Alicia Johnston, Lori Frasco, Trish Reed, Sharon Debbie then received a small bean pot type trophy of scoring the highest in all four events.

Akiyama, linda Antonio, and Kim Montagriff.

These girls were the final seven who qualified Th e tea m troph y was a twenty foot candle for the trip through a series of meets over the wound around a small stand . Th e girls four previous months. exchanged pin s and patch es.

The next day we were taken on a sight seeing Our first qualifying meet was held the 1st of tour of Stockholm by Lennart Anderson . They October. In this one every girl in the school was took us to lunch, then we were met by the girls allowed to compete if they so desired . We The second phase o f the Kent philosophy is to better prepar e men and women majors in hea lth, ph ys ica l ed uca tio n, recrea tion and athl eti cs to teach an d coac h gy mn as ti cs in their future teaching positio ns. Over 40 young men and women from the Kent program have now graduated and are coa ching in high schools, colleges, V's and recreation departments all ove r th e co unt ry . A num be r o f th em ha ve th eir ow n pri va te clubs and have stud ents whi ch have do ne we ll at th e Na ti o nal level. A se nt imental hi ghli ght is th e fac t th at many o f th ese yo un g men and wo men have met in th e gym, dated and marr ied , an d are now hu sband and w ife coac hi ng tea ms. Rud y and Janet have counted 24 weddi ngs duri ng th eir days at Kent.

activity has increased. They have coached and managed several Pan-American and Olympic tea ms, serve d as judge.s and offi cials at International competitions both in the U.S. and abroad. Both have held FIG International Judge's Certifi cations.

The Kent State women 's team notched up 59 co nsecutive victories in th e reg ular season" competition, 13 of them this year, before finally losing a close battle to Clarion State, which no rm all y fini shes in th e top fi ve nat io nall y.

They finished eighth in Collegiate Nationals last year and moved up to the seventh spot in 1973. The girl's overall record as a team is an astoundi 77-4.

••••

The philosophy for gymnastics at Kent is threefold ; the first phase is to give individuals with little or no previous experience in gymnastics the opportunity to learn skills and gain physical fitness and recreational benefits.

Th ey have skill classes for men and women in edu cation and for other interested persons so that they may learn to do many of the gymnastics skills themselves. They gain valuable teaching experience by working with some 300 children from the community. There is a gymnastic club serving the needs of all interested students. In addition to the many exhibitions presented by the group, competitIOn is provided at the novice, intermediate and advanced levels.

31

of the Swedish team and with our interpreter jean (an exchange student from Ohio), we continued our sight seeing.

The following day, we rented a volkswagon van and left Stockholm. The weather was very good and we drove South. We reached the southern tip of Sweden at 10:45 that night and drove aboard a ship that would take us across the sea to Germany. We slept in cabins on the ship and rested comfortably throughout the 7 hour trip.

We arrived in Germany early in the morning and drove all day until we reached Munich . The girls wanted to see where the Olympics were held. It was cold in Munich, but we arrived in time to do some shopping and sightseeing. I was a little strange for Debbie and I to return t the place where there was so much joy an, sadness. It was physically the same, but far les. crowded.

We stayed in a hotel in Munich and were a little worried about a snowstorm that suddenly came up.

The next morning the snow had cleared, but it was cold. We left Munich and began the drive to Zurich, Switzerland. We drove through the rest of Germany, then the Western edge of Austria and into Switzerland. The land was beautiful and we enjoyed the trip very much.

We arrived in Zurich late in the afternoon and just had time to do some shopping. We got a hotel room and rested that evening and got a good nights sleep.

The next day we started early and drove West toward England. We decided to go into France at the last minute and drove all day, arriving in Paris about eight that evening. We were supposed to be in England late that afternoon, so we were now behind schedule. We decided to forego seeing Paris the next morning and drove to the coast of France where we boarded a ferry for England .

We had wondered what it would be like driving on the wrong side of the street in England, but f"und it easy to adjust to and very natural after a half hour or so . We drove to London where we were met by jeff Quirk and taken to Potters Bar (the hunting grounds of Henry the VIII). Here we were put into homes.

The next day we worked out at a local school before the entire student body. That evening we did a fund raising exhibition for the Potters Bar team; before a turn away crowd . It was a very pleasing experience. We were guests of honor at a reception presided over by the Lord Mayor of Potters Bar. Again in Potters Bar we were treated tremendously. It is hard to put into words how good these people were to us. I will never forget this little town on the edge of London .

The next day we were driven to central England to Lee Green . We were taken to a sports center in the country. We found ourselves in the most beautiful country I had ever seen. The land was as green as you could imagine, and as far as the eyes could see. We were put in small bungalows at 'the sports center. The next afternoon we worked out before a packed sports hall. We were hosted by an old friend, Nick Stewart. We had met Nick at the World Games in 1970 and had been good friends since that time: That evening we put on our official exhibition before another packed house. Again we were treated like royalty.

It was here that we met Avril Lennox, the British National Champion. 'It was announced that she had won the Churchill Grant and awarded a trip to the United States to train for three months. It was also announced that our

32

gym in Denver was the one selected for her training. We felt very good about this.

The ne xt day we drove back to Bletchley, north of London . Here we would compete against the National team of England in the first sports event ever held in a fantastic new sports center. They were still putting the finishing touches on the building when we arrived.

We were housed in a dormitory near the sports center and settled down for a night of rest before the competition. We learned that the National team had been split, with one team traveling to West Germany and the other one would compete against us the following evening.

The next day we did a little shopping, then took the English team back to the dorm for rest.

That evening we competed before another packed house. We soon found the English team to be young like ours. We had more experience and it began to tell on the first event. The ;coring was very low for both teams.

After the competition we were taken to a Country Club for a reception at which Ray Taylor was our host. Ray treated us very well throughout the tour. He worked many hours and talked to me several times long distance arranging stops for us.

Early the next morning we were driven to London for a sightseeing tour, then we boarded a plane for the United States. We arrived in Chicago that afternoon , then flew on to Denver for a big reception in our home town .

Suming up the trip, I can do it in this way. I took the girls to Europe for two reasons, to get International experience and to help relations between our country and the nations we visited. It was a tremendous experience for all concerned. As stated before, we were treated very well every place we went. Our girls not only performed well on the floor, but presented themselves very well off the competitive area. I had made two trips with our U.S. team in the past three years. I saw many , instances, where I thought people from the United States did not leave a good image of our Country. I feel from our club's trip we corrected some of this. Not once did the girls get out of line. Thev conducted themselves as ladies at all times. Each piece of clothing was carefully made and carefully designea so tnat there could be nothing said about the dress of our team, as it had been said about the National team that went overseas two years ago.

I feel that in our small way, we strengthed the relations between our country and any country we visited. I feel the International experience for our girls was worth every penny spent. We exposed future top gymnasts of our Nation to Europe, and opened doors for future trips.

(We plan to visit Europe or the Far East earh year).

The teams we mel were not me strongest In the World, but they were good teams, building to future strengths. It was a beginning for us Internationally, and it was a good be~inning.

•••

FOR ALL BUT A FEW ...

THERE MUST BE MORE TO IT by Renee Hendershott There are 6 young women on our USA team. · . people ... SIX! Do you people realize how many THOUSANDS of young girls are studying gymnastics???!!! Yes ... a great many of them do have an Olympic goal .. and many young coaches would give thei r eye teeth to produce an Olvmpic team . . BUT it takes years and years to do this.

IN THE MEANTIME WHAT ARE YOU ALL GOING TO DO? ARE YOU GOING TO WORK EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK TOWARD THE OL YMPIC GOAL? GO TO MEETS .. . COME . . .

WORK SOME MORE??? KEEP HOPING . . .

KEEP WORKING??? GIVE UP EVERYTHING???

Well .. this will work for a few years until your gymnasts get in their early to middle teens.

When they get closer and closer to national calibre the many dissappointments and sacrifices and pressures will become harder and harder to swallow. Suddenly one day many of them begin wondering why they are doing this. They get lost. They see other girls around them doing all sorts of interesting things that they would like to be doing. The Olympic goaf just becomes too much to handle. At this point many just quit . . . even some with great potential!

Coaches ,and gymnasts alike must learn one very important lesson in life. Yes, we can all aspire to be one of the greatest in the field ... yes . .. we should work hard to achieve this goal · .. BUT ... let us compare ourselves with a very obese person who must lose 100 pounds. This person must not think always in terms of losing 100 pounds. She must set smaller goals too .. .

10 pounds to start with. Keep thinking strongly of losing 10 pounds. When this goal is reached. · . 10 more . . . keep hacking away . .. but a little at a time ... yes .. . there will be little set backs, but it won't be so hard to get back on the road to losing that next 10 pounds. Yes the larger goal is in mind, but at the same time this person is enjoying achieving many smaller ones.

Now, let us look at the SCATS. They are going to travel to Europe this year. They will give many exhibitions. These exhibitions are not just strictly bar routines, floor exercises, vaults, and beam routines. They put on a real show. The do mass demonstrations, a bit of modern rhythmic beam routines. They put on a real show. They do mass demonstrations, a bit of modern rhythmic gymnastics, comedy, costumes. Every member of their team is able to participate in some way " even the littl~ ones who are not so advanced .

Do you realize the cultural experience these gals will be enjoying???!!! How many of us have been across the United States to Germany ... to Czechoslovakia . . . to Italy .. . Greece .. . Israel. · . India .. . Thailand ... Australia ... New Zealand . .. Taiwan .. . japan ... Hawaii and back .. Is this a sacrificial life ... No! Sure they work hard and many want to get to the Olympics . .. some will .. . most won't . .. but in

the meantime, they are enjoying a ve ry full life.

Well , yo u say Bud Marquette can do that. He had a reputation . .. Cathy Rigby made the way for the SCATS .. . we ' re not ready for that ... besides they have an unlimited supp ly of money. HOW DO YOU THINK THESE TEAMS WITH MONEY GET THAT MONEY? THEY HAVE PARENTS CLUBS ... BOOSTERS CLUBS WHO HAVE MATURE PEOPLE IN THEM . THEY DON 'T LOOK ATTHE FINAL GOAL AND JUST GIVE UP . .. THEY TAKE IT TEN POUNDS AT A TIME . .. THEY KEEP HACKI NG AWAY IF THEY FIND A PROJECT LIKE SELLING CHANCES FOR A WIN . . . MAKE A COUPLE HUNDRED DOLLARS THEY DON 'T WAIT TIL NEXT YEAR TO TRY AGAIN . . . THEY DO IT EVERY MONTH! Some parents clubs make 2-400 dollars a month doing some of the things m entioned in a recent iss u e of the Gymnast Magazine . . . spagetti dinners ... potluc ks wh atever. They care about their childre n. You see coaches and ·parents .. maybe it does not pay io stick a child in the gym severa l hours a day to get no return but the pressures of MEET after MEET! Sure . . . they are out of the way . . . peace and quiet in the home for a few hours everyday ... they are staying out of trouble .. . working .. . achi ev ing.

For a long tim e you PARENTS think everything is fine when t hat magic hour arrives and you r teenager is suddenly in deep emot ional trouble . .. lost ... loo k back and see if yo u really did your part ... WELL I hope it won ' t come to this point fo r you.

Coaches, I hope you will inspire your boosters club to do more for their children.

Parents, I hope you w ill get busy, get together, get on the sti c k and show yo ur kids you rea lly do care. They are great! They are the cream cif the crop! You are luc ky to have them! Support them! Do your part so that they will develop into happy and productive hum an beings .. .

NOT MIXED UP EMOTIONAL WRECKS! Yes parent s . . . you too mu st learn that lesson in life . . HOPE ... CARE ... keep hacki ng ... chip away ... work on sma ll goals ... BUT KEEP AT IT ! YOU MUST GIVE YOUR CHILD MORE THAN MONEY FOR LESSONS WORKOUTS MEETS AND SACRIFICES. YOU MUST GIVE HER THE CHANCE TO BE A HUMAN BEING. HATS OFF TO BUD MARQUETTE WHO HAS SHOWN HIS BOOSTERS ... THE WAY · HATS OFF TO ROD HILL WHO IS BEGINNING TO DO MUCH THE SAME WITH HIS TEAM. HATS OFF TO THE PARENTS WHO CARE.

••••

Feminine Gymnastic, Phyllis Cooper, Burgess Publishing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota 250 pg, spiral binding, Price $5.95. 1973 REVIEW

by Renee P Hendershott

Thi s manu al repr esent s iI monumental effort o n th e part of Ph ylli s Coope r and i llu strato r A. Bru ce Fred eri ck. Th ey have film ed hundred so f gy mn asti c skill s and th en drawn th em fr o m th e fi lm s o n paper in se ri es so any beg innin g gymna st or co ach ca n see w hat th e sk ill is and get an id ea o f w hat is happ enin g during each ph ase o f th e skill.

A long w it h the illu strat io ns, M iss Cooper has m eth o di ca ll y exp lain ed performan ce and spottin g techniqu e, co mmon errors m ad e b y be gi nner s, co mm on moveme nt s done af ter th e ski ll, and va ri ation s.

Th e method of illu strati on wo uld ha ve rea ll y be en id ea l if all Ol ympi c ca lib re gymnasts had bee n used in fi lmin g. Som e of th e ski ll s we re performed ve ry we ll , but m any were not. In some cases the author has pointed out mistakes right o n th e figures in th e illu stration s, but no comm ent has b een mad e in many cases w h ere th e subj ect showed poor technique. Perh aps in fut u re ed iti o ns, more co rrection s ca n be added to t he illu stration s.

Th e poores t secti o n in th e book is o n dance te chniqu es. Th ere is ju st not enou gh detai l there to ge t an ythin g from th e cove rage give n.

Th e illustration s are especiall y poor w ith no attempt at correction.

On the o ther hand, a ve ry nice feature is seria l drawing s of routin es and sk ill seque nces which can give th e beginner an id ea of how skill s ca n anrl should b e connected .

At th e b eginnin g of eac h section Mi ss Co op er gives safe ty hint s for th e eve nt which should be ve ry helpfu l in preve nting injuri es.

In th e back she has a good disc ussion on cla ss organ iza tion , and what to loo k for when ord ering equipment. Sh e even gives exa mples of tes ts for eva lu atin g th e progre ss o f th e stud ent.

At th e end , th e re is a chapt er o n how to run a m ee t w ith many examp les of fo rm s to be u sed , duti es for personn el, org ani za tion , equipment set -up etc.

Begi nnin g coaches wi ll find thi s manual o f great help in learnin g spo ttin g techniqu es and leadu p skill s. Beg innin g, intermediat e, and advanced mo ves are cove red . It is sugges ted tha t anyon e usin g th e book sho uld d epend o n the w ritt en mat erial for ex pl anation of co rrect techniqu es rath er than re lyin g e ntirely on th e pi ct ures. Using bot h toge ther, one should be ab le to get a fai rl y goo d start w ith a gymna sti cs progra m .

•••

JUDGING GUIDE AND COURSE. 1973. The United States Gymnastics Federation, POBox 4699, Tucson, Arizona. 85717. 138 pp. $5.00.

Review By Dick Criley Fran k Cumisk ey, w ho prepared thi s book on ju dging men 's gymn as ti cs, deserves a lot 01

credit.

Me n ' s jud g ing h as ev o lved , internati o nall y, to su ch a hi gh plan e that th e average prospecti ve jud ge figure s he ca n not poss ibl y m as te r all th e intricac ies o f th e tr ade. " o t so," says Mr. Cu mi skey as he deftl y procee d s to lead o ne step b y step through 87 lessons right on to Less on 88, a th eo reti ca l exa minati o n.

I se t o utl ast fal l to in stru ct a jud gin g class and had to tr y to orga ni ze it on th e basis o f judgin g classes I h ave bee n expo sed to . It was qu ite a cho re, and I w ish thi s guide had bee n ava ilabl e.

Th e co urse is o rg ani zed into 1B Chap te rs w hi ch d ea l first w ith judging co mpul so r y exe rcises and th en w ith optiona l routines. Th e jud ge lea rn s th e relativ ely few ru les for co mpul sories and how to appl y them ; a kno w led ge of difficult y is no t n ecessa ry as the m oves are pre scr ibed in ad va nce. Sections on poor po sition , techni ca l execution, diff icu lt y, and genera l rul es of co mpetition expand the " up to 0. 3" con ce pt , ela borate o n w hat is poo r position , and provide ex amp les o f what is intended by th e terse wo rdin g o f th e FIG Code of Point s. W ith th e di sc uss ion o f each event is a reprodu ct io n of th e A - B-C diagrams, includ in g th e mos t r ece nt Complement.

Th e prese ntation i·s ge nerall y good throug h ou t, but th e USG F pr ess ha s done an inju stice to th e book w ith a va ri ety of different typefaces, faulty pa ste-up, and - in th e co mb- bound copi es- th e ho les go right thro ugh print ed co p y beca use of insufficie nt m argin s. On th e o th er hand , we get se ntences lik e, " Th e gymna st ma y tou ch th e end with hi s hand befo re th e feet pa ss th e end on Kehreing ba ck to th e sa ddl e h e ma y to u ch th e end aft er hi s legs pass th e end and be for e th e Kehre- i n to th e sa ddle. " (p. 27) We also get a repeat of FIG arti cle 54-4 w hi ch still r emains a muddle.

W e also ha ve a lesso n 60 and 60A, but no 60B , or at leas t m y own co py d oes, but the review co p y lacked pages 36-51, wh ich includ ed lesso ns 49-60A .

Th e A -B-C section s of the FIG Code includ e t he descripti on w ithin the sa me bo x as th e dra w in gs, so it is unfortunate that in thi s Gu id e, th e desc ription is pla ce d below a line as if in anothe r sec tion. Thi s led to th e loss of de scripti on for the doulble front sa ito (VII-15) in floor exerci se and a few other mi x-up s which can be co rr ected if on e knows th e FIG Code. Th e new ring part, felg e to support and full twi sting di smount was pas ted in upsid e down. All the new stockli part s cou ld have bee n entered in to th e appropriate part of the pommel horse A-B-C's as th ere is nothing to pro hibit such a logical arrangement. It wo uld also have been poss ibl e to have enlarged so m e of the drawin gs, especiall y in th e pomm el ho rse, to mak e th em eas ier to stud y.

Th ere are a numb er of section s wh ich are repea ted w ith each lesson o n th e different ap paratu s. Non ethel ess, repe tition is a use ful teachin g too l and th e beg inni ng judge w ill apprecia te th e remind ers. H oweve r, it does see m strange to inclu de Artic le 37 - 10, wh ic h perta in s to pr ope r bod y positi o n in holds, i n a pomm el horse lesson.

Continued on page 42

33

RESEfftU~H L" ~ ;~~ .. :

/'

) L ................. .......... . '

...

w e shall give a bri ef desc ri p ti o n of th e method s w h ich we re used, W e w ill also try to se lect tho se resul ts whi ch have a pract ica l va lu.e for th e gymnasttc coac h, ANAL YS.JS OF THE FIELD OF STUDY The scie ntif ic pan of t he stud y w as a fi lm analy sis of six ba sic fl o or exercises, (fi g, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6) , To app roach t h e subj ect obj ecti ve ly w e ma,d e a stu dy of all t h e known fo rm s of fl oor exercises,

DR. H.J. 81ESTERFELDT, j.R.

I............ .............................. .. ~

..

,

Editor's Note: The fo ll owin g study of two fundamen tall y d iff.e rent tec h niques fo r tak eoff on forwar,d hand springs an d sa llos seem s toO me to be im por tant at leas t in pa rt beca use t here is reaso n to beli eve th at th e strength req uirem e nt s for the two approach es are essen tiall y di fferenL W e w o ul d be inter es ted in a fo rce p latfmm stud y of t he tw o techni q ues to verify th is conj ectu re, Cert ain ly th e techniq u e we tea ch to a give n gy mnas t shou ld be m ad e wit h considerati o n o f t he gymn asts st rength and flexib ilit y, The rebo und approach appears to dem and the greater amo·u n t of stren gth , but I am unab le to guess abou t any physical p rob lems likely to b e ass o c iated wit h eith er app roa ch, ' Cert ai'n ly similar com idera{ i'O ns appl y t o the rebo u nd / pu sh-off !-ro m th.e hands also, Th e o nl y such slud y in m y han d s is to o f ra,gme n tary to be pub lished, AI·I corr espond en ce con ce rning th is sect ion sho ul d be add resse d as fo Ho ws: Or. H.J. gf~te d;eldt, Jr. " Gymnast" Resea¥ch Editor Athletics Oep3i'.tme~t -Stli SIU Arena Carbondide, IrJif.l'Qis, 629f>1 , USA

Fig: 1 HANDSPRING

Fig: 2 HANDSPRING (preceded by a floating period)

Fig: 3 fORWARD SOMERSAULT

TIit: SfNCU FOOl TAKE-OFF fOR TUMBtiNG EXEItCtSES(* ) Comparat i.ve study af the run, ski p-step ane HutSe! tlf basic tlilmil\i.ng e ",e~dses wit h s-ingle foot take-o U. Diane !iplithoorn Laoorat();fY of M'o v e ~e n! Analysis, Unwer5i ty af Bru sse ls, Paul HegerlaiiA 28

fig: 4 CARTWHUL

8 - lOliG 8;~u!i!iets.

(*) Su mm ary o,f a th esi·s sup erv>tsed by DR, ,_ BORMS pro mot·or : ProL DR , M , HEBBELI NCK

INTROOUCT10N Whefl cons hdeTtng t he take-o,fl fGf tumb linlg exercises, we c a'll dist inguish b.etweeR tw.Q defini te gr oup s :w~tll d o ubLe take-o ff and w ith si ngle tak e-o fI. hn t he seco nd group t h e int roductory pa:rt cons ist s o f a run , the sk ip- s{ep and th e co m men cem ent (o u tset) , Th ese three pans were t he su bj ect o f t h is scien tific and comparat ive stud y, b eca u se it had be en es tabl·ished that th e su ccess of a move is largely dete rm ine d by the fntro ducto ry part.

Th e existence of different t-ec h niques for th e run , skip -step and ou tse t, ha s give n rise to th e fo llowing q u es-t ion: " Haw man,' f-or,ms are u see fa r the outset, and oow shoilld the run and skip-step be exe,cute ti to obtain aM ideal take~f fur a certain tumMi n g mG\'e~" In th is articl e

34

ROTATION FORWARD: Hands Placed Immediately: Handsp ring

!

~

" GYMNAST" R£SEARCH EDITOR Athletics Departmenl- Sl U Arena Carbondale, Illinois 62901 "USA

Th is pr eparati ve stud y enab led us to claSS ify all vaul ts in to two gro ups: tum b li ng m oves executed fo rward s and tumb li ng m oves ex ecu ted sidewa ys, By con sid ering th e p lace ment of the hand s, w e ca n d istingui sh anot h er th ree go u ps in each cl ass; t h is lead s to th e fo ll owin g tabl e:

Fig: 5 CARTWHEEL (preceded by a floaling period)

~y~

FiJI' LATERAl SOMERSAULT

ROTATION SIDEWAYS: Cartwhe el Arab Sp ring

Hands Placed After a Floating Period: Runn ing Roll (*) Cartwheel (* ) Hand spring (*) Hands Not Placed: Fo rwa rd So me rsa ul t Latera l Somersa ul t Be nt Latera l Somersau lt TABLE 1.

METHODS In th e b ib liograp hica l stu d y w e could t race specific tech n iq ues d esc rib ed fo r specified tu mbli ng moves, A mo re or less compl ete, systematic and comparat ive stud y cou ld no t b e fo un d , To de termi ne th e mos t rece nt tec hniq u es, w e hav e se nt q ues ti o n naires to 30 ex pe rt s in fl-oor exercise, twe nt y of th e co nsul ted ex pert s w ere fo un d w illi n g to an sw er th e 236 qu es ti o ns o n th e p r eparati o n of n in e ba sic fl oor exercise s, (1) Bone n kamp, M , (Til burg); Borm s, j, (Bru ss els); Delsi ng, j , (Antwe rp) ; Desch rijve r, j , (Wi lrij k) ; D ufour, W , (B rus se ls) ; Duquet, W , (Bru sse ls); Fa maey-Lamon , A, (Bru ssels); G agn ier, E, (Iowa); Gi all o m bardo , j , (W ilm ett e); Gova ert sG rymonprez, V, (Deurn e); M ill man, D, (Sta nfo rd ); M us, L (lepe r); Peek, R, (Sacramento) ; Sand ers, 0, (Am sterdam ); Sa mpso n, 0 , (USAF) ; Spaa s, M, (Hasse lt ); To nry, D, (Ya le); Van Ak eh, (Hasse lt) ; Van A ss che , L (Leuven ); Van der Ma rli ere, G, (A n twerp ), (More in fo rm atio n ca n be obta ined upon requ es t), The q ues tions co nce rn ed p art icu lars o f th e preparat ion of n in e m oves, Th e qu es ti on n air e also gav e us an ex cell ent me th od to no te eve ry detai l. Th e sam e method w as used to cl assify the bi b li ograp hic in fo rma ti o n an d to tr ans late th e pi ct ure sof th e ci nem atographi c i nfo rmation into word s, The mo st recent fil s o f World and O lympi c C hampi o nships w er e analysed, CINEMATOGRAPHIC STUDY Th e fil m wa s mad e in the sporth all of th e Higher Insti,tu te of Ph ysical Edu ca tio n of th e Free U n iversity of Bru sse ls, The vau·lts we r e een, b o th Belgian champions and stu den ts at ~h e V,U,B, Thwug h th e sy nt hesis it becam e clear th at basic floor exercises can be classified as follows: 1( direct m_ es: hand s are p lace d befo re t he ta ke-oU foot leave s t h-e flooL (Ca rt w heel and hand sprin g,) 2) Moves with a floating period: th e gym nast is co mp letely free from th e floo r be fo r e t he had s are p laced , (Handsring and ca rtw hee l w it h a flo ati ng period ,) 3) somersaults: here th e gymn ast perform s a comp let e ro tatio n w ith o ut usin g th e hand s, (F o rwa rd so mersa u lt and lateral so mersaul L) The arab spri ng, th e runnin g ro ll wi th a floati ng p eriod and th e b ent lateral somersa u lt belong resp ecti ve ly to th e fi rst, second and th ird fro u p, but beca use o f t he sp ecial charac teristics o f th ese fo rms, w e t ho u ght it bett er not to app ly th e ge ne ral co n clusio ns to these th ree tumb lin g m oves, (* )= preceded by a floating period. Table 1.

To make th e desc ri pt io n of the move ment s as cl ea r as po ss ible, we propo se to accep t thi s termin o logy: (f ig. 7) 1 = pu shin g leg 2 = swing ing leg 3 = arm o n th e side of the sw in gin g leg 4 = arm o n t he side of t he p ush in g leg

ÂŤ ~ [ai "

b

a

c

I

-U

- _,

d

~ -.

e

Fig: 8 HANDSPRING Fig: 7 Terminology RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS I DIRECT MOVES (f ig. Ba, b, c, d, e, f.) (fi g. 9a, b, c, d, e, f. ) Th ere are th ree impo rtant req uirem ent s for a goo d o ut se t: - th e for wa rd spee d sho uld be maint ain ed - th e transfer o f th e b o d y we ight upon th e hand s sh oul d be gradual - en o ugh rotation energy sho ul d be ga th ered.

1. Th e run and the skip-step Durin g th e two steps preced ing th e skipstep, th e gy mn as t swin gs th e arm s sli ghtl y sidewa rd s. Durin g th e upwa rd ph ase of th e skip- step, th e arm s co me fo rwa rd s- upwa rd s, but th e sw in gi n g takes pl ace in fr o nt o f th e bod y so as no t to i mpede th e fo rwa rd sp eed o r to leave th e ge neral p la ne o f th e move ment.

Th e fo rwa rd in cli nati o n of t he bo d y, durin g th e skip-step, (fi g. Ba, 9a) is ve ry impo rt ant fo r maint ainin g th e fo rw ard speed.

2. Placement of the pu shing foot In thi s p hase th e gy mn as t p repa res th e gradu al w ight transfer o f th e body upon th e hand s: -th e tr u nk is inclin ed fo rwa rd to enabl e th e p lacem ent o f th e hand s on th e floo r w hil e th e pu shin g leg is ex tend ed .

-du e to th e lo ng fo rwa rd step, th e center o f gra vit y co mes as low as poss ib le, so as no t to ove rt ax th e we ight o n th e arm s w hen th e hands are pl aced.

It is ve ry imp o rt ant to keep th e str etched arm s and trunk in th e sa m e li ne to assure th e supportin g fun cti o n. Fro m thi s ph ase o n we noti ce a di fference be twee n th e h andspring and th e cartwheel. Fo r th e ca rtw heel th e t runk and shou lders turn to al low th e move ment in th e lateral p lane.

3. Action of th e swinging and pushing leg.

Th ese acti o ns go toge th er w ith th e p lace m ent o f th e hand s. Beca use th ere is no intro du cto ry floa tin g pe ri od fo r d irect vau lts, th e stretc hin g o f th e pu shin g leg is aim ed parti cu larl y to make th e gy mn as t ro tate. To o btain a sm oo th b ody- we ight trans fer o n th e hands, a su bstan tia l di stance betwee n th e pu shin g foo t and th e hand (s) is necessa ry.

Co nce rnin g th e pl acem ent o f th e h and s we d istin gui sh th e fo llowin g tec hniqu es: fo r th e ca rtw heel th e body neve r leaves the fl oo r co mp letely. Th e seco nd han d is pl ace d afte r th e pu shing foo t has lef t th e floo r. Thi s techn iqu e ass ures a good we ight tran sfer and enou g h ro tati o n ve loc it y. Fo r th e handspring : The bod y leaves th e floor completely at th e moment the hands leave the ground because

b

a

c

d

e

Fig: 9 CARTWHEEL

a

b

c

Fig: 10 HANDSPRING

f d Fig: 11 CARTWHEEL preceded by a floating period a

b

g d e preceded by a floating period

c

h

g

h 15

the forward speed is translated in height. This 路 rebound effect is possible through a correct attitude of arms and hands, and can be improved by turning the fingers slightly outwards because this locks the joints of the elbow.

II TUMBLING WITH A FLOATING PERIOD It was cl ea r f ro m t h e co ntradi cto ry answe rs of th e va ri o u s expe rt s, that som e of th e answe rs o n th e qu es ti o nn aire w ere base d o n o n e techniqu e, and so m e of a to tally different technique for ob taining el evati o n duri ng th e fli ght f ro m fee t to hand s. What we shall ca ll th e " jumped pu sh-o ff " in vo lves a dow n and th en an u p mo ti on , be nding at th e knee. Th e " re bo un d pu sh-off" invol ves a nea rl y rig id pu shing leg, th e take-off som ew ha t rese mbl i ng th e rebou nd of a sti ck throw n onto its end o n th e groun d.

Th e r'un and u pward phase o f th e skip-step is th e sa m e as fo r th e m oves with o ut fl oa tin g p eri o d .

In th e second half of th e skip- step fo r th e jumped push-off, th e arm s move d ownwa rd thro ugh fo rwa'rd (Fi g. 10c, ll c) . Thi s fo rwa rd m o ti o n lifts up th e trunk--th ere is no co ntact w ith th e fl oor un til later. Th e kn ee of th e sw in gin g leg bends as we ight co m es o n it. Th e ce nter of gravit y is no t so far fo rward as in a direct va ult , and th e kn ee o f th e pu sh ing leg is bent co nside rably, then st rai g htened to ga in elevzt io n. Th e arm ac tio n is q uit e impo rt ant, (Fig. 10e, ll e), fo r w itho ut it th e body w ill be in ve rt ed too路 qui ck ly, at th e cos t o f bo t h eleva ti o n and ove rturn ed po sition w hen th e hand s reac h th e f loo r. In summary, we have a lo ng step--a smaller fo rw ard inclinati o n--and arm s mov in g d o wnward . (Fig. 10d , lld ) To tall y d ifferent is th e rebound push-off.

Here w e see a sho rt step--an an kle, kn ee and hip joi nt s nea rl y fi xed--arm s r emain ing inlin e w ith th e trunk . Th ere is an almos ts imultan eou s acti o n of b ot h legs. A s so o n as th e sw in gin g leg leaves th e floo r t h e pu shing leg stretch es. Th e arm s re main ex tend ed since th e ro bo und is too bri e f to all ow anythin g. Th e swin gin g leg is th e o nl y elem ent th at gives rotati o n. Th e arm p os iti o n ca uses a slower ro tati o n during th e floatin g p erio d. Th e fo rceful m ove ment o f th e swin gin g leg and th e high flight m ake th e in ve rsio n p oss ible before the han ds to uch th e fl oor.

For bo th techni qu es th e arm s mu st be in th e ex tensio n o f th e bo d y at th e m o m ent th at th e hand s to uc h th e fl oor. Fo r th e cartwheel with a a floating period, th e ro tati o n of th e trunk and th e sho ulders is start ed w hen th e body- we ight is transfe red to th e pu shin g leg.

III THE SOMERSAULTS (fig. 13, 14) In so me rsa ul ts and tumb l in g moves wi th a fl o atin g peri o d , th e bod y leaves th e fl oo r compl et ely afte r th e out se t. But du e to th e fac t th at fo r so m ersa ults th e compl ete ro tati o n mu st be perfo rm ed with o ut th e u se of th e hand s, th e outse t is mainl y co nce rn ed with pro du cin g rot zti o n .

The skip-step. During th e skip- step th e gymn ast sw in gs th e arm s more fo rce full y upward s. Thi s w ill give him th e oppo rtunit y to use th e arms to th eir best advantage . Th e fo rward incli nati on, du e to t he speed, is no t lesse n ed , b ut it ca uses a hype rextensio n in th e hip s and th e sho u ld ers. Thi s str etched pos itio n all o w s bo th th e arm s to be pull ed down q uicker and t h e hi p s to b e flexed mo re fo rcef ull y. Fo r th e forward somersault th e arms are be nt dur in g th e ir dow nwa rd pull to in crease th e ro tati o n. Fo r th e lateral somersault a good gymn ast o ft en c hoose s th e m o re aes th eti c fo rm with th e arms str etched .

36

I

(

V

,, ; !

'\1_ a c Fig: 12 HANDSPRING

_ _

e preceded by a floating rebound push-off

a b c d Fig: 13 FORWARD SOMERSAULT

a b Fig: 14 LATERAL

g

period

with

g

e

g

e

c d SOMERSAULT

1/

- -_ _-__ ..

Fig: 15

..

-

--

a) push-off for vaults preceded by a floating period

The push-off. Th e pu shing leg, th e sw in g in g leg and th e arm s are eleme nt s to ga in height and rot ation in moves w ith a floa tin g p eriod and in so m ersa ults. Wh en w e o bse rve th e pos iti o n at th e mo ment th e p ushin g foo t leaves

---~ --

b) push-off for somersaults

th e fl oo r th ere is, h oweve r an impo rt ant difference betwe en bo th gro ups (fi g. 15). In th e out se t o f va ults w ith a flo atin g p eri o d , th e ex tensio n o f th e p ushing leg is in th e first p lace a f.ac to r givin g height , w hil e t he arm s

acce ntuate th e rotation. For so mersa ults (fig.

15b), th e ce nt er of grav ity ha s alr ea d y passed th e pu shing foot , so th at th e ex tensio n of th e pu shi ng leg, and th e mo ve me n t of th e swi ngin g leg act so lely in fav or of th e ro tat io n. Th e arm s are in th e exac t posi tion to accentuate height.

When w e compare the flight of somersaults with th e fli ght of moves with a floating period (fi g. 16), the cyclogram shows a rem arkable difference in height of the hip s. Th e somersault is not as hi gh because here the outset is aimed more at increasin g the rotation (fig. 17) .

Position of th e gymnast during the floating period.

We h ave to mak e th e followin g distinctio n: Tumb lin g moves w ith an introducto ry high flight : th e bod y, during th e first in ve rsion (till th e hand s to uch the f loor), is co mpletely free from th e gro und ; examp les: handspring w ith a floating p eriod , ca rt w h ep l wi th a float in g peri od.

Tumb li ng moves with a seco nd high fli ght: here th e body is free from th e gro und during th e seco nd invers ion (from th e in ve rsed positi o n til l the feet r eac h the floo r); exa mp le : handspring.

I n some rsa ults the gymnas t tri es to acce ntu ate the second flight to fa cilitate th e " li fting up " . Th erefo re the so mersa u lts be lo n g to th e secu nd grou p.

To o btain enough rotation , th e gymnast pulls th e arm s forcefull y downward s and brings his trunk in a nea rl y in ve rted position dur in g the move m ent of the swing in g leg (F ig. 13f, 14f) EPILOGUE A compa rati ve stu dy is ind eed not easy to rea d , it demands the read er 's constan t co nce ntrati o n.

Th e int erest show n in th e subj ect and the spont an eo us co-operatio n o f th e ex pert s, gave us th e ass urance that the probl em is rea l and th at th e res u lts ca n be use d in th e dail y practice ' of gymnast ics.

By Jackie U Fie, Technica l Chairman

TKHNICAL BULLETIN ON MEDIUM AND SUPERIOR DIFFICULTIES Page r eferences refer to the Wom en's F. I. G. Code of Points.

1. UNEVEN BARS A. Mounts 1. Squ at va ult over LB catch HB (p . 24 M 6 without y, turn) -Medium -(See p. 22 M edium ) 2. Jump over low bar w ith Y1 turn ca tch hi gh bar and kip up to the high bar witho ut th e body resti ng o n th e LB at any t ime:-:(p. 23 Medium No . 3) - Superior co mbin at ion .

3. Glide kip no difficu lty unl ess in a comb in ation with anoth er movement such as squat throu gh, back hip circ le, etc.

4. G lid e sin gle leg ove rshoot - no difficulty

_ _ _\ .....

...

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."

...

..

.'

/

'.

.

;,

L ,. ~-_ ",

'"

; ,

-::' -- .

.......

'

-...... ...

\.

\

. . . . .../

Fig.: 16 CARTWHEEL preceded by a floating period Cyclogram

-· ~ · --.... · . . . fi ''' ., -- --...... ." .......... ...... ..... .....

.. ..... /. (

..

"'-."'- . .... ...........

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"

.

....... .

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'

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:'..................... ...... .

Fig.: 17 LATERAL SOMERSAULT Cyclogram

un less in to an immed iate split/ circle ca tch , or simi lar movement 5: G li de double leg overs hoot - Med ium 6. Glid e kip catc h hi gh bar as a mount (p. 25M No. 10 p. 26 M No.1) - Medium.

7. Ju mp to back so le :circle (stoop or straddle) o n low ba r to undersw in g catch on high barMedium . H owever, the jump to a strad dle is not suited to bars as a mount unl esS" preceded by a horizonta l cas t.

8. Why is a ba ck kip supe ri o r o nl y as a mo unt and not in a ·routin e? - Th ere is no logica l techni cal ex pl anation and this in co nsi sten cy should be co rrec ted by th e FIG .

9. Fa ci n g the hi gh bar,jumpto hang ,in a p ike position , y, tu rn over th e low barto beat o n low -bar (un dersw in g y, turn to sto mach w hip) Med ium .

10. Jum p from th e board to a fre e back hip circle on low bar to gl ide - Superior.

11. Jum p from board to free ba ck h ip circle to handstand on low bar ~ Sup erior.

12. Stradd le over low bar Y1 turn to eag le catch o n high b ar - Sup erior - Stradd le o ver low bar Y1 turn to m ixe d grip on high bar Med iu m.

13. Gl ide kip Y1 turn ca tch hi gh bar - Medium.

14. Jump with Y1 turn and back strad dle over low bar catc h low bar - M edium.

15. From a runnin g approac h, jump f ull twist ca tch low bar glide kip - Superi or.

16. Fa cing hi gh bar, jump to hi gh bar kip wit h leg stradd led o r closed to free front support o n high bar - Medium.

•••

CSt N\"'a~"t~c. 5

.

l~ .

.

W\ (\ f\ \ 1\ ~ d \I"I\O~"t

fi

oS 37

Instruction: POMMEL HORSE

By Tadao Watanabe Translated by Yoshi Hayasaki

Side

stand fro'ntway-Drehflanke turn)-immediate Kreiskere to Croup

Here I observed the combination mo ve of the compulsory side horse mount. (side stand frontways-Orehflanke (Y2 turn)-Kreiskere) whfch was used for the 1972 Olympic Games. The move has a ded u ctible va lue of 1.10 points according to the FIG rule which was forwarded in July, 1971.

Some of th e apparent faults in performing thi s move are 1) too much pike at Drehflank e Y2 turn, and 2) Ext ra hand touch on Kreiskere. It was not an easy job for me to form the ideal picture of the movement, after watching many faulty performances, since it was our first competition of the compu lsory exe rcise.

However, I can say that at least three factors must be comb ined for the creation of a qua lit y performance. These are: 1) Horizontal movement, 2) a large range of movem ent, and 3) steadiness of performance.

My main interests in this observation were simpl y to find out how far our gymnasts have progressed in the ski ll at this early stage, and also what needs to be done to further improve performance.

It seems that in the Drehflanke, turning and transfer of the body are initiated at the moment

A

B

c 38

of take off. Of cou rse, there must be the assist of an effective push off of one arm , st rong support of the other arm , and stron g shoulder rotation to make the moveme nt successf ul. The Drehflanke is done wit h th e front part of the body facing the surface of the horse, but the Kreiskere is perform ed with th e front sid e up.

The hips must be turn ed sharp ly to make a smooth transition and give proper support for the Kreiskere. The trunk mu st ad here closely to the supporting arm to stabili ze the axis of rotation . The head must be turned sharpl y toward the direction of movement, and the body must be kept at a set angle larger than 90 deg rees, to maint ai n th e speed of movement.

These are some of th e important things I took into consideration b efore the me et, and keep in g these cons iderations in mind, I observer! the gymnasts at the NHK Championsh ip.

to up . H e also ha s a problem in stab ili zi ng th e turning axis, because of the slowe r attempt to bring the lower ri ght sid e of the hip to the ax is arm . (Characteristic- in co n siste n cy of perform ance)

Gymnast B: Push off w ith the ri ght arm is not strong enough to car ry through th e horizontal move ment. Hi s extension of th e left elbow is too slow, the body forms too much pike, and the feet are low throughout. Thus the execut ion of the movement in the hori zontal plan e is very difficu lt. There is little attempt in turning the body and stab ili zin g th e ax is. The head and the right shoulder are not playing their major rol e of leading the body toward the outward direction. There is no attempt to compensate balan ce of left and right. It looks as if his left should er was mo ving over hi s ri ght.

Gymn-ast C:

Has some problem in perform in g both the Drehflanke and the Kreiskere.

Like gymnast A h e start s with an' effect ive push off, but gym na st C lacks th e range of motion. H e should ha ve more vigorou s leg swing, otherwise hi s over all execution is well done. He has attempted early grasping of the pommel and a good action of turning the hips.

The stabili zation of th e ax is arm is done early, and th e body is moved with a good lead of shoulder and h ead . The form is well balanced by the should ers while the left grip is stead il y attached to behind the lo wer left hip.

(Characterist ics: co nsistent, but lack of sca le.)

OBSERVATION:

SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS: (General)

Gymnast A:

1. Creation of larger range of movem ent is needed by aggressive leg swing. There is incon sistency of the movement on the hor izonta l p lan e.

2. Attempt to grasp the pommel is too slow.

3. Th ere is a la ck of hip turn .

4. Axis arm should be stab ili zed.

5. Pl ace ment of th e su pporting grip should b e lower and in back of the hips. • •

REMARKS:

Gymnast A: Has good horizontal movement and a large range of motion, parti cularl y in the Drehflanke, but a minor problem rem ain s in the Kreiskere.

Gymnast B: Has major problem s in perform in g both the Drehflanke and the Kreiskere .

Gymnast

c:

Has effective push off with the right hand in the Drehflanke and an ea rl y extension of the left elbow, making a good beginning, and also sw in ging we ll. He maintains a large trunk angle, thus car rying the movement smoo thl y in the horizontal plane. Howeve r, th ere is a sli ght delay in grasping th e right pommel. This creates a slow body turn from front side down

Instruction: VAULTING DRILLS

by Jim Turpin Head Coach Almaden Villley Gymnastics Club 1971 All American Vaulter Photos by.

Keith Reynolds DIVE ROLLS

Objectives:

1

2

3

4

1. To develop a correct take-off procedures. ~. To deve lop bod y control while in the air.

Execution: The gymnast run s from about fort y to fifty feet and executes a dive forward roll onto a crash pad.

The spotter stands sideways between the board and crash pad. His hands should be up (picture No.1) to force the gymnast to go up. As the gimnast arrives at the board the spotter's inside hand is placed on the gymnast' s thighs and the second hand is placed at the upper abdomen. The spo tter now guides the gymnast to the crash pad (Pictures 3 and 4).

The gymnast should tighten up as she leaves the board and remain so during the entire flight of the drill. Keep this in mind-the upper bod y should be directed up and the lower bod y should come up and over the upper body.

Spotting hints: 1. If the gymnast tends to lean too far forward place your inside hand about face high and lean towards the gymnast. This will keep her from leaning forward with her upper body but still allow her to reach forward with her feet, thus putting her in a blocking position.

2. If the gymnast does not turn over enough the spotter should apply pressure with the inside hand which is on the upper thigh and slightly drop the second hand which is on the upper abdomen. This will force her to turn over.

3. If the gymnast turns over too much the spotter should apply pressure with the second hand which is placed on the upper abdomen.

4. If the gymnast does the drill correctly the spotter will merely guide her through the air.

~----------------

Look for these Mistakes: 1. Gymnast leaning off the board. The 5potter will feel much pressure. See Hints No.1.

2. Gymnast over-spinning and landing on her back. This is usually caused from poor upper body di.rection.

3. Gymnast not tight in the air. This wi 1-1 make it quite difficult for the spotter to help direct the gymnast in the air.

• ••

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ M _ _ ~~ _ _ _ _ _

~__

_

L... ..

O~~

39

SEQUENCES BYSCHULZ Photos by Dieter Schulz

Top: O lym p ic seq ue nces of Ka rin Ja n z d o in g a fr o nt som ie betwee n th e ba rs.

Upper right: Ol ga Ko rbut do in g he r hi g h layo ut back ha nd sprin g to c hest ro ll dow n stradd le sea t.

Lower right: Ol ga Ko rb ut executes a tu ck bac k so mersau lt.

Bollom: Layo ut bac k ha ndsp rin g to chest roll dow n d e mo nstrated by Ol ga Ko rbu t.

40

Co ntin ued fro m page 33.

LOUISVILLE GYMAND SWIM SUPPLY CO.

I wo u ld lik e to hdve seen d refere n ce to th e proper dim ensio ns of dPPdrdtUS, run ways, mats, and the like although these ofte n change fr om o ne level of compe titi o n to the nex t. A lso, while th e res t of th e worl d m eas ures metrically, we do not, and th e inclu sion of Eng lish equi va lent s wou ld give u s a chance to co mm ence th e menta l changeover (fo r instance, is 20 m e ters- th e length of th e long hor se runway-closer to 60 ft, 65 ft, o r 67 ft?)

This book remind s me of th e Judgin g Correspondence Course w hi ch H elen Sjursen put o ut so me yea rs bdck . In fact, it may ha ve had it s genesi s in her Men 's Correspondence Judg ing Course as Mr. Cumiskey h elped edit it.

Now we need an up - da ted treatm ent of this same type for wo m en 's gy mnd sti cs.

It will probably see m stran ge to readers of th e GYMNAST fo r me to crit icize the proof-rea ding and typog raphi ca l error s of th is book when each of o ur issues spo rt s so m an y of its own , but that is o ne of th e jobs of a rev iewer.

Th ese thing s do no t diminish in an yway th e import ance or va lu e of th e book , but it does make yo u wonder if so meth in g more ma jor might ha ve gon e un - notice d.

In hi s preface, Mr. Cumiskey writes, " It is m y opinion that anyone who follows thi s co urse w ill be abl e to jud ge accurate ly." and further, " In order to be a good judge, it is necessa ry to first lea rn the ru les and th en imp lem ent th em w ith li ve gymnasts perfo rmi ng. Th e most important factor is practice. Don ' t th ink yo u are above practi ce . Th e most u ifficu lt point to get across is to impress people w ith th e fact that they do not know it all .. . Don 't ru sh ahead, pro ceed slow ly."

Th is last caution is especiall y ap p li ca b le as th ere is so mu ch mat erial to cover . Yet now, it beco mes poss ib le to develop jud ges in so m e of our (gymnastically) und erdeve loped areas. The co urse ca n be tak en wi thout an ins tructor, alone or in a gro up although th e o b vious choice wo ul d be in a group w ith an instructor

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•••••••••••••••••••• Price List Film

1972 Olympics

Footage Length in Time'

B Women's Highlights (colo r) Price

A . Womens's Compu lsories 240 ft.

9.6 min . $ 39.50 (c) $ 24.50 (b&w) :B Women 's Highlights 525 ft. 21 min . $ 87.00 (c) $ 50.00 (b&w) C Wome n 's Fin als 1,100 ft. 44 min . $ 175. 00 (c) $ 85 .00 (b&w) D M en 's High li ghts 555 ft. 22 .2 min . $ 92.00 (c) $ 55.00 (b&w) E M en ' s Fina ls 955 ft. 38.2 min. $ 155 .00 (c) $ 75 .00 (b&w) Specia l p ri ces are ava ilab le if th ree or more films are p urchased. Write for quotat ion. " Thi s is based on a project ion speed of 16 f rames per second, The film s were taken at 24 frames per second; therefore , the .performances can be viewed at slight It slower than-no rmal motion·when ·projected at 16 frames per second.

A lso Co ntact for FILM RENTA LS 1971 AAU Women's Hi ghl ig hts and 1971 USGF Women's H igh lights

1. Price: $lB.OU 2. Duration: 5 days. Fi lm is to be ma il ed fo r return o n the fifth day from the date it i ~ received.

3. Pay ment : $80.00 Deposit. Re fun d (i.e. $62.00) w ill be sent upon r eturn of th e fi lm.

4. If yo u decide to pu rchase the fil m, the renta l cha rge w ill be considered as pa rtia l payme n. fo r t he fil m .

5. Postage : Film wi ll be sent FOB Destinat ion .

You must pay fo r return postage .

D Men's Highlights (color) Rental Po licy (Same as above)

Write To: Donald Clegg 301 South Wheaton Road Champaign, Illinois 61820

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Pos ition s a re ava il abl e fo r gymn asts w ho wish a caree r-t yp e jo b tea chin g and coac hin g gy mn as ti cs exclu sive ly in a priva te ly. ow ne d gymn astics schoo l. Present openings re quire mal es with p e rfo rmin g and tea ching stre ng th s in Tra mpo lin e a nd Tumbling but with suffi cie nt all-a roun'd kn owledge 10 leach girl s' classes, boys' classes , and coa c h a boys te am .

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Sa laries to be compe titi ve with New Je rsey area te achin g sa la ri es .

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-RUSSIAN OLYMPIC TRIALSWorld womens gymnastic team chan ' pions competing. to represent th e USSR in Munich.

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MUNICH super 8 & 8mm 400 ft . . $35.00 16mm -

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MOSCOW super 8 & 8mm 400 ft . - $35.00 video tapes· price o n req uest -SPECIAL OLYMPIC PACKAGEMunich games-Moscow trials Super 8 - 2 reels 400 ft. ea . - $55.00 ALL FILMS IN COLOR Send check or mo ney order to:

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~9U4NTgOLD

.....................

I Want Gold is the first fictional novel ever done about the sport of Women 's Gymnastics. In this work, the author has tried to show as many of the trials and tribulations as possible, it takes for an athlete to make an Olympic Team.

As the story states many times , the sport of Gymnastics is possibly the most beautiful athletic endea vor a girl can go into, but as the story also brings out politics , favoritism etc. , can make it one of the ugliest endeavors a girl can go into.

LeeAnn Beaumont is a dedicated, hard working girl who wants to represent her country in the Olympic .Games. She is willing to give that extra bit of her life in order to reach this goal. She learns that athletic ability is not the o'nly thing it will take to make the team. It is a hard lesson, one thathas sent many a good athlete to the sidelines, but LeeAnn is more than a good Athlete. She is the exception, the one in several million.

GREAT STYLES FOR ACTION GREAT STYLES FOR ACTION

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Please rush me my copy of "I WANT GOLD". Find $4.95 enclosed (Plus 6'10 sales tax for California resident orders} •... I understand if I order before the deadline Oct. 1, 1973 the publisher will cover all costs of handling and mailing as an Introductory bonus. * ~ML

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WRITE FOR TAFFY'S NEW CATALOG OF GREAT STYLES FOR ACTION 1571 Golden Gate Plaza. Cleveland. Ohio 44124

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