The weekend of January 16-18 was the first big weekend of the 2009 season for men's club gymnastics competition. Three notable meets held were the Vitaly Scherbo Invitational in Las Vegas, Windy City Invite in Chicago and the West Point Open.
The Scherbo meet featured Junior National Team members Jake Dalton from Gymnastics Nevada, Jeff Langenstein from San Mateo and Jordan Gaarenstroom and Adrian De Los Angeles from SCATS. Azarian's Donathan Bailey and Sam Mikulak of SCATS, also national team members, [...more]
The fifth-ranked Cal Bears defeated top-ranked Stanford in the 2009 season opener for both clubs. Cal freshman Glen Ishino provided an early indication why he was the nation’s top recruit by winning the all-around (86.200) in his collegiate debut. Check out the results here. This is the second season in a row that Cal beat […] [...more]
Ohio State freshman, Alexy Bilozertchev, has left the men’s gymnastics team for unspecified reasons. The announcement was made by Head Coach Miles Avery. Supposedly he will remain on scholarship to pursue his academic goals. What’s up with this? Bilozertchev, the son of former World Champion and Olympic gold medalist Dmitri Bilozertchev, was a prized recruit […] [...more]
The field is set for the 2009 Tyson American Cup. 2008 U.S. Olympian Joey Hagerty and 2008 U.S. All-Around Champion David Sender will represent the United States. Two more Americans will be selected after next month's Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas.
This is great news that Sender's career is still alive, especially after his heartbreaking ankle injury suffered just prior to the Olympic Trials. That injury most likely kept him off the 2008 Men's Olympic Gymnastics Team. Here is the rest of the field: [...more]
StickItMedia Exclusive Interview
Ten year-old David Finning knew what he was doing, yet he didn't consciously have a means to get his message across. It wasn't until one of his neighbors turned him in to his parents that he finally got the opportunity to officially become a gymnast. On that fateful day while his parents were at work, David somehow convinced his older brother and sister to help him position the family's backyard trampoline against the house. David then jumped down from the roof of his house onto the trampoline for added acrobatic effect, and ended up flying over a fence into the yard next door. Out of concern for David's safety, his neighbors busted him and called his mother at a local school where she worked.
David's father, Scott Finning, decided it was time to do something about his son's precocious obsession with being airborne. Scott found a local gym near [...more]
Two-time USAG Collegiate Gymnastics Champion, USAF Capt. Levi Torkelson, was killed in a traffic accident on December 27 in San Antonio, TX. Torkelson was an assistant men’s gymnastics coach for the Air Force Academy. Torkelson’s brother, Cory, suffered severe injuries and is in intensive care. Cory’s fiance, Kate Green, was hospitalized and is in stable […] [...more]
The 2008 club season ushered in the new scoring system, which consists of an "A" panel and a "B" panel. The "A" panel meaures the requirements, difficulty and connections of a routine, and the "B" panel measures execution. The new system affected only the optional clubbers (Levels 8-10), while the compulsory clubbers (Levels 4-7) still enjoyed the old "10" system.
The compulsory men will finally get a taste [...more]
The Progressive Skating and Gymnastics Spectacular took place on Tuesday night (Dec. 23) at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, SD. The men were well represented by Paul Hamm, Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring, Raj Bhavsar and Ivan Ivankov. For those who were unable to make the trek to Rapid City, don’t worry. NBC […] [...more]
StickItMedia Exclusive Interview
John Orozco has certainly made an indelible impact on men's club gymnastics over the past several years. Consider the following achievements:
* 2008 VISA Championships: 1st place All-Around
* 2008 JO Nationals: 1st place All-Around (Level 10/14-15)
* 2007 VISA Championships: 1st place All-Around
* 2007 JO Nationals: 2nd place All-Around (Level 9)
* 2006 JO Nationals: 3rd place All-Around (Level 9)
* Current member USA Junior National Team
Orozco, who trains at World Cup Gymnastics in Chappaqua, NY under Coach Jason Hebert, is on the fast track, [...more]
Coach Sommer from Gymnastic Bodies has a story about former U.S. Champion Mako Sakamoto’s prowess at doing free-standing handstand pushups on the parallel bars. Sakamoto, who used to coach Peter Vidmar, punched out 163 full range free-standing handstand pushups in a row at the age of 53…that means dropping down to the shoulders, not the […] [...more]
