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TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume XV / Number 11/ November 1972 5 FROM THE PUBLISHER, Glenn Sundby 6 ON THE BEAM, Barbara Thatcher 8 VIEWPOINTS, Dick Criley 1972 OLYMPIC REPORT, Dick Criley 10 Men's Competition 17 Words From The Captain, Makoto Sakamoto 18 Wo~n's Competition 28 View From The Tube, Renee P. Hendershott 30 NEWS AND NOTES, Renee P. Hendershott 31 Springfield College, Mimi Murray 3~ Calendar 33 Judges List 34 Book Review 34 Front Hip Circle, David Reeves 35 Cartwheel On The Beam 36 The Leap 37 SEQUENCES BY SCHULZ, Diete Schulz 41 FIG TERMINOLOGY, Dr. William J. Vincent

Cover: Akinori Nakayama 1972 Ol ympic Gold medalist performing on pommel horse.

Photo by Mitchell Barosh

Publisher: Glenn Sundby Associate Editors: Dick Cril ey and Renee P. Henders hott Staff Writer: Barbara ThatcherContributors: Mimi Murray, David Reeves, Makoto Sakamoto, Diete Schulz and Dr. William J. Vincent.

The GYMNAST: Statement of owners hip, management and circulation as requi red by the United States Post Office Dept. for Second C lass mailing privilege. Owners: Glenn and Barbara Sundby (DBA Sundby Publications), 410 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

Management: Glenn Sundby, Editor-Publisher. Circulation: Subscriptions paid 7,947; promotional and complimentary copies distributed 400; Total mailing 9,280.

GYMNAST m'agazine 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. Copyright1972C> all rights reserved by SUNDBY PUBLICATIONS, 410 Broadway, Santa Monica, Ca. All photos and manuscripts submitted become the property of GYMNAST unless return request and sufficienl'postage are included.

NOTES FROM THE

PUBLISHER: WOW! 1973 is here already and we are not finished w ith 1972.. .'72 has been a GROWING YEAR for GYMNAST, but also a rough year of publishing and mailing problems( but not as rough as LIFE magazine, they folded). Although we have not completed our 1972 editions we we look forward with optimism to 1973. We have hired additional help in our editing, typesetting and mailing departments for '73 which should hopefully help us catch up on our production and mailing schedule within the next few editions . .. In appreciation of your patience and loyal support(with the help of the "SCATS" and a couple of advertisers) we are pleased to bring you this colorful cover and centerphoto edition of GYMNAST. MORE COLOR? We would like to bring you colorful issues of GYMNAST with every edition, but not yet, we need a few thousand more subscribers and a couple more advertisers featuring full co lor ads. You help us get the subscribers and we'll work on getting the co lor advertisers.

IN THE MEANTIME, Gymnastics is booming all ove r the USA .. . More winter clinics then ever before, mor.e private Gymnastic Clubs opening up, plus more schoo ls and recreational programs are being activated or reactivated then ever before in the history of Gymnastics in America .

We' re really growing! 1973 will bring us visits by a varity of foreign teams starting in February with the Olympic Bronze medal team from Hungary : HUNGARY - Feb. 15 to March 4 RUMANIA - Feb. 21 to March 4 JAPAN - About March 15 (and May?) FRANCE - April 20 to 29 The Hungarian team will go to Chicago, Indiana State, Penn State, Temple and probably New England .. . Remember if we hold any resentment because the Hungarian team beat our girls out of a Bronze medal in Munich, it was the judging and politics that put our girls in fourth place, not the individual gymnasts . .. so as our Associate editior, Dick Criley suggested to me. " Let's put our Best Foot Forward and give them a warm reception on their visit to the USA" (after all, weCAN beat them in a very warm and friendly manner).

GYMNAST Magazine has also been asked to help out in lining up a competition and exhibition tour of the USA in May for a group of girls(ranging in age from 9 years old to 20 plus a few years) from the Nippon GymnasticClub in Tokyo which will include two of their top Olympic team members.

They would like to meet and compete with other Private Gym Club teams in the USA who would put up a matching number of girls(6) in the same age brackets. Sounds like this would be a good project for the new Independent Gymnastic Clubs Association members to part in. If you are interested in hosting the Nippon Gymnastic Club, drop us a line at GYMNAST and if all the technical details(sanctions & fees can be worked out OK we will get moving on the .itinerary schedule.

The STAFF of GYMNAST magazine would like to Wish Each and Every Subscriber a JOYOUS HOLIDAY SEASON and we look forward to SERVING YOU MUCH BETTER in 1973.(As Dickens' Tiny Tim would say " God Bless You , One and All) 5

ON THE BEAM

by Barbara Thatcher

Olga Korbut, Olga Korbut, that 's all I hear an ymore. Little girl gymnasts had no problem thinking of what to be for Halloween. And I'm just waiting for a toy compan y to come out with an Olga .Korbut doll complete with leotard, warmup suit and grips.

INTRODUCTION Six years ago. when I walked into a high school gym in Pleasant Hill, California and attempted to do my first cartwheel, the last thing I expected was that someday I would be writing a column for thousands of people who were interested in a sport that was then (and often is still) a mystery to me.

Then there were few waiting lists to get on a team but then there were very few teams. Clubs that started with 30 girls have grown with 200 or 300 girls and at least that many more waiting for their chance. Where once coaches searched for gymnasts to coach, gymnasts now search for coaches and clubs.

Then it was perfectly natural to start gymnastics at the age of 15 or 16, now clubs are offering classes for pre-school children.

But gymnastics, like anysport still needs the dedicated individual. The coach that will open the gym a couple of extra hours each week just because his team needs the extra workout. The judge that doesn ' t dash out the door after a meet but stays to answer questions and give suggestions. The gymnast who never misses a practice.

I sometimes think I should have listened to my coach when he subtly hinted that I take up some other hobby, like maybe gardening. Maybe I should have quit when I realized that I'd never make an Olympic team . Maybe I should have quit when I realized I'd never have to go out and buy a trophy case . But I guess from the very beginning until now I've always remembered that once my coach said, " I'd rather coach a person who was 90% dedication and 10% talent than the other way around."And believed if you like something you should keep on trying.

Before I came to work here I wondered why I always received my magazine for August in February (maybe I'm exaggerating a little). Now I know. Two months .ago when I arrived as a recent college graduate (my major wasl think journalism) the place lookeda little chaotic and understaffed compared to the largenewpaper staff and office I was used to. Hopefully this will change.

Hopefully some of the responsibility for this publication will shift to my shoulders (I ' ll probably end up being about 3ft. 2 in. with all of that weight) and hopefully the magazine will be better with each issue.

So what am I doing here? A little bit of everything, answering letters, writing, editing, proofreading, and acting as a liason between my boss and the gymnastics world. So if you have any articles, ideas and suggestions send them to. me. My boss is still trying to catch up on all the work that piled up while he was away at Munich covering the Olympics. Hopefully he'll be ready for 1976 and besiqes Ilike to getmail, and always try to answer it as promptly as I can .

I always thought if I ever wrote a column there would be two people I would want to thank; my first coach and my college advisor. My coach because he showed me the magic of gymnastics, and my advisor because he always had a soft spot in his heart for sportswriters, even if they w ere girls, and always tried to be helpful. I will always be grateful.

Well my boss told me to introduce myself. Maybe I should have started out "Hi I'm Barbara read me", but that approach has been done enough already and right about now this is beginning to sound corny. So maybe you'll write back and introduce yourselves I hope so because the only mail I've been getting lately has been addressed to "resident" or "Dear Sir" and besides journalists big thrill has always been to see their name on something even just a letter. . '..

B.T.

6

Speaking of dolls, the little pixie of the Long Beach SCATS; Cathy Rigby is getting married in .

January. For those of you who don ' t get the L.A. (that stands for Los Angeles) Times an article and picture of Cathy with her fiance, professional football player Tommy Mason appeared recently with her comments that she would continue training but would have less time to devote to her gymnastics career. Cathy Mason, nah it 'doesn't have the same ring.

Anyway best wishes for much happiness.

With the end of falling leaves and the beginning of falling snow gymnastics season begins. It started in fact several weeks ago for the gymnasts in Indiana with the Indiana Collegiate 路 Gymnastics Invitational. Team scores were not kept but the school that captured the most individual awards was Indiana State, home of Rick Danley and Ed Slezak. Southern Illinois University, the defending NCAA champions only managed to grab a handful of seconds and thirds. (Could this be an indication of how the rest of the season will go?)

Whether it does or not I must say that.

Southern Illinois (home of Gary Morava and Bill Meade) sends out very pretty press books (Definition : A press book is a small publication produced by a school 's sports information department and sent to various newpapers and magazines to let you know how great the team has done and will be doing.) I had never seen one for gymnastics, footb~1I yes, basketball definitely, and ' maybe even soccer but gymnastics?

* While on the subject of colleges the .NCAA has announced the appointment of the selection committee for College Athletes Top Ten . Congradulations to Frank Bare who was named to the Committee. Mr. Bare is executive director of the United States Collegiate Sports Council and was executive director of the U.S.G.F. Bet you didn 't know he was also a champion gymnast in high school and at the University of Illinois.

Sound the trumpets, ring the bells, several new gymnastics schools are starting throughout the nation . Alt's Gym School of New Rochelle, New York is one of them. Instruction is being held at the Racquet Club of Westchester (Gyronastics ahyone?) Another newcomer is the Pioneer Gym School located in Springfield Massachuetts at 120 Chestnut Street. Got that 120 Chestnut Street.

Photos by Milchell Barosh

Cathy Mason? Cathy Rigby 1972 Olympian will have a new -name when she marries football player Tommy Mason in January.

A well known team the Marvateen's (that almost rhymes) are moving to a semipermanent location until arrangements are made for the completion of their own gym.

Another team in search of a gym is the Diablo Gym Club. The club has been working out in what was formerly a variety store, now however increased enrollment and rather cramped facilities have forced the club to look for a new headquarters.

Olga Korbut, Olympic sensation performs during the Olympics on the balance beam, one of the events in which she earned a gold medal. (Just in case you didn't know already)

gymnasts such as Kim Chace, Debbie Hill and Dagmar Hintnaus. (Wait a minute this is very confusing isn't Kim Chace from Florida) . The SCATS will also have a Christmas Clinic this year as will the University of California at Berkeley and Sacramento State College.

Enough about clinics. I'm really beginning to think that Christmas is not complete without snow, trees, candy canes and clinics. However you can have the snow the weather ' is still like summer out here . .

Speaking of snow reminds me of Canada and Canada reminds me that I have been receiving a lot of news from them lately. The women 's team as you might know placed 11th in the Olympics and is very optimistic about their chances for the next Olympics. A course in coaching Women 's Gymnastics is even being offered in Ontario in January. The four unit course will be given at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology. One of the top clubs in that country is the Flicka Gym Club of North Vancouver. Although it has only been in Continued on page 40

FlicKa Gym Club, one of the top clubs in Canada poses for a team picture.

*

The Newsletter of the month award goes to Jack Miles who writes the Florida Newsletter. It is not only hilarious and entertaining but informative too. Where else could you learn that two of Miles' gymnasts opened a boutique call "Elephants Trunk III". Plus Miles just nonchalantly drops a few commercials here and there.

*

Florida certainly must be some state (of course we all know it will never compare to Calif) if the publicity I've been getting for the Sarasota Christmas Clinic is any indication. The National Clinic will have such big names as Abie Grossfeld, Frank Cuminskey and James Culhane. Plus " A Night of Stars" exhibition and a big " North - South Meet". Maybe I'll move.

*

*

The East and West will not be forgotten either as the Unive~ity of Arizona holds the Western Gymnastics Clinic, and the Eastern Gymnastics Clinic is held 路 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Florida again?) Anyway a highlight of the Western Clinic will be the East - West Meet and the Eastern Clinic will have it's "Night of Stars" too.

* Moving farther West the SCATS will hold their 10th Annual Christmas Carousel in Anaheim Arena, featuring well known

7

Photo by George Winters

The Olympic All-Around winn ers watch as the Japanese flag is raised. The Japanese team aga in as in the 1968 O lympics were the .ictors in the men's gymnastic competition.

VIEWpoints

by Dick Criley

A lot of criti ca l words have been wr itten over the 20th Olympiad, even to the point of suggesting that they be d iscontinu ed if no way can be fo und to el imin ate nationalism and East West confrontat ions. We can be sure that th e General Assembly of Internat iona l Federations (GA l F), which enjoys strong Soviet bloc support, wi ll try to step forward as a replacement to the 10C. On the other hand , the 10C may adopt some rea li stic and up-todate standards for at hletes and discard some of the trappings w hi ch promote nation-againstnation competi ti veness. It is difficult to envy the Canadians in their sponsors hip of the 1976 Summer Games, but we can wish them the best of success in overcom in g the problems w hi ch were so vivid ly exposed by this year's Games.

8

I am sure there are other spo rts with internal rifts, bu t why does th e US gymnastic community have to keep up an East-West battle within itse lf? I refer specifically to the catty remarks, pot shots, and unpleasantries which were exchanged over Lind a Metheny and Ca th y Rigby . It does not lend stature to our gymnasts or our US gymnasti cs commu nit y in the eyes of the rest of the world to downgrade a competitor because she is " from the East" or " from the West." Thi s situation has existed among men 's gymnastics for too long, as we ll , with Southern Ca lifor ni a, wh ich ha s contr i buted man y of our Olympic gymnasts, continually ho lding itself up as the hotbed of US gymnastics. These tensions can not help but dest roy t he cooperativeness wh ich leads to team spirit and team unit y.

The carping between the AAU and USGF co ntinues too. AAU Gym nasticsC hairman Tom Ma loney spent a fa ir amount of space in hi s recent assessme nt of the US men 's team in the

AAU Gymnastics News downgrading the team because of it s USGF affil iat ion . (Many of the quotes w hi ch follow are from that issue of th e NEWS).

I do f ind o n e statement of his that seems wo rth considering further, "Th e present col lege program is evident ly a fai lure in so far as develop in g all- ar ound gymnasts of international ca liber is concerned." H e goes on to su ggest th at men need a cl u b program so that gymnasts both in and out of co llege can ha ve a place to train. The members of the women's team we re all p roducts of the private club system, and this is also the way of man y of the top international gymnastic powers.

Under the US Olympi c Committee, the USGF t ri ed to develop a Nationa l Coach in g p rogram.

The idea was to select a coaching staff from all parts of this large country to coord in ate the training of the gymnasts for our national teams .

For reasons which are not officially public, the program broke down.

The Swiss have set up a nationa l program in w hi ch the Swiss Gymna stics Federation finances what amo unts to a national sports school in which the gym nasts are selected by Nationa l Coach Jack G un tha rd and bound to a 6-year co nt ract. They go to co ll ege i n their chosen field under financing by the Federation and train and compete under one Nation al Coach. If th ey loaf; their financial support is removed, and they ma y be held liable for th e money already spent on them. Gunthard states, "We have somet hin g to hold ove r the heads of our gymnasts- -you do not. Our gymnasts are diSCiplined, yo urs are not. " The Swiss organ izat ion is uniqu e and , at present, workab le because of Guntha rd and beca use of the sma ll size of the co untr y.

Another small country , Japan , enj oys the unique situ ation that its gymnasts are mostl y conce ntrated around the Tokyo area.

Comm u nica ti ons are readil y faci :i tated by regular meetings of th e JGA Men's Tech ni ca l Committee. Many of the ir top gymnas ts have been deve loped in a coo rdin ated effort from j unio r high through high sc hool and co ll ege.

Ou r readers are, by now, fairly well acquai nted with the Japanese sys tem since we have been carrying reports and interviews since 1960 on its development. Now comes an interestin g observation, made b y Masao Takemoto, Japan's Head Coach , to Tom Maloney in M uni ch, "In m y opinion it is better not to have a National gymnastic program in any co untry. It is better for gymnasts to perform on the ir own under their own coach. This is what we are now doing in Japan. " A nd t hen there is Russia. Marilyn Savage, Canadian Women 's Coach, told Tom Maloney, " The new system being used by the Russians for their women ' s team is mos t interest ing and deviates from the system they have used for yea rs. Now und er the ne w system, the outstand in g girl gymnasts train sepa rately w ith their own coaches in their own gyms to preserve the indi viduality of each girl. ... The girls even during the O lympic train in g period in Mun ich worked separately w ith the ir own coaches." Tom noted the same thing in watc hi ng Olga Korbut tra in in a gym away from the other Russian girls. She told him in an i nterview that, " I am only coac hed by my own coach in my own gymnasium." She added that the ~ussian team train ed together for only one week before departing for M unich.

(There was tension w ithin that Russian women's team. If one carefu ll y wa t ched Tourischeva during Korbut 's exe rcises, her

pleasure at Ko rbut 's uneven bar break was not disguised no r did sh e part icu larly rejoi ce ove r hi gh scores awarded the perky littl e co mpet itor. ) The No rth Ko reans utili ze what m ight be ca lled a private cl ub approach. Th eir coac h told To m, " We have no problem ge ttin g the necessary ti m e for training as all of o ur gymna sts are soldie rs sta tioned at a tra inin g base ." Howeve r, acco rdin g to Mr. Einos uke Takahas hi , so m e of their gymnasts have train ed i n Japan and hi seq uipmentfirm , Senoh N isse n, has so ld eq uipment to th em .

I have argued in p revio us V IEWpoint col umns fo r a coordinated age gro up prog ram , for be tter d irection f rom th e USGF, fo r more support fo r p ri va te club s (wh ich may be fort h com ing if t he N ation al Association of Ind epende nt Clu bs eve r gets off the ground ), and that the NCAA should be in the b usin ess of turning o ut co llege ath letes and not tr yin g to be the tool for international d eve lopment. (I think so mething ve ry interesting will co me out of the NCAA wit hdra wa l from the USOC. Whil e I agree with Tom Ma loney that the co ll ege sys tem of training is not all that successful internationally beca use of the different goa ls of t he NCAA, I am not tota ll y sure of th e independent club approach either.

W e do have a large body of ex -gymn asts, so me of w hom co uld contribu te th eir know ledge to the d evelo pmental efforts. But just how far ca n these gymnasts take their proteges? Th e girls, of co urse, have gone all the way to th e Ol ympics under the direction of experienced men coac hes, but there are few non -co ll ege coaches with that kind of experience who are coaching at the club level. In add ition, there are few gi rl s who are sti ll active cumpetitors at the age at which men u sual ly reach their peak in gymnastics. (The average age o f th e top 20 men in the AA was 24.25 yea rs.)

One b ig problem ha s always been the fina ncing of further training for gymnasts or any o ther at hl <;!tes after th eir co ll ege scholarsh ip days are over. An innovative approach was suggested by Irving Jaffee (Modern Gymnast, Dec. 1967). He proposed that professional sports be taxed or voluntarily co ntribute money to support the estab lishment of ·a national sports school and coac hing staff.

Th e reasoning behind this program was that pro sports take the tal ent developed by the athlete as an amateur but do noth ing to underwrite its development.

I turn aga in to the idea of a national sports sc hool. In my " id ea l" system, th ere would be a developmental program guided by the USGF (perhaps building on the sta rt of the AAU Junior Olympic Program) which would be supported by the independ ent cl ubs and NHSGCA. These gymnasts cou ld receive further training in the co lleg es and independ ent clubs and could be chose n to go on for international training at a national sports school under the best coaches and at one location.

Basic to this idea , as pointed out by Nick Stu art, Nationa l Coach for England ' s Mens team to Tom Maloney, is the development of knowledgeable gymnastic coaches. Nick feels that there must be closer comm uni ca tion between the academic and coachi ng bodies.

(See also Dr. George in GYMNAST, Jun e-Jul y, 1972.) .)

Thi s is already being recognized by some US coaches. As reported in the July 25, 1972, issue of NCAA News, Armando Vega commented , "I

Two of the top performers in Olympic competition were Ludmilla Tourischeva, pictured at far left and Olga Korbut, far right. Both trained under the new system which allowed each girl to practice with her own coach up to the time of the Olympics. don ' t think we are go ing to do anyth in g internation all y. We won't until we adopt so me of the international ways of coac hing. We ' re still doing things we d id as coac hes 20 years ago.

We haven ' t progressed . A lready, there are too man y nations ge tting ahead of us."

Our improvement will co m e as greater unit y and cooperation within the gymnastics co mmunity provides the deve lopment of new gymnasts and estab li sh ed talent. Until then geographi c and politi cal division can only hurt our athletes and our sport.

(Note added just befo re going to press. In the Sep temb er, 1972, iss ue of th e Olympische Turnst, we lea rn that the German s, too , are co nce rn ed about the lack of gymnastics progress amon g the yo unger set. Bruno Schreiber, a member of t he Deutsc her TurnerBu·nd, indicated that the DTB n ee d ed to place more emph as is on Ol ympic gy mn asti cs among its c lubs and in the nation 's schools if Germa n gymnasts can ever expect to approac h th e top ranks.)

The North Korean team relaxes on the lawn in Iront 01 the Olympic Sporthalle

All the members 01 the US women's team were products 01 private clubs throughout the US.

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photo by George Winters

9

Photo by Di ck Criley

Maleev-USSR

Ol YMPIC REPORT - MEN

by Dick Criley The men's compu lsory competitio n started off wit h a set wh ich included the Cubans, ItaliariS, Bulgarians, North Korean s, and individua ls who represented Finland, Canada, Norway, Great Britain , Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Spain, and Liechtenstein.

In this set, the North Koreans were the most outstanding. They had good stra ight arm work on rings, although their strength moves needed improvement since most of the levers were held high . They vaulted wel l, performing the hecht with low pre-flight and a strong arm push. In some cases there was too much arm action in flight , but their landing s were so lid .

On the parallel bars, Song Sob Li performed a good compu lsory set fo r a 9.25. Their hori zonta l barwork was good and very much in the Japanese sty le. Howeve r, their floor exe rcise need ed improvement in ,he aspect of tumbling but their hold positions were sol id and the press was usually well done.

Of the other teams competing, on ly the Italians really caught one 's eye, particularly with respect to the'ir vaulting. Thi s was their high event for a 43.65. A few of the Cubans, notably Jorge Cuervo, Jorge Rodriquez and Roberto Richards, looked good on certa in even ts, such as the horizontal bar, but otherwise th e i r techniques on the compulsor ies required further polish.

Among the individuals, Mauno Nissinen of Finland , a former Un ivers ity of Washington gymnast, was the highest. finisher in the AA standings at 53.35. Only Song Sob Li and Song Sob Kim of North Korea had hi gher sco res, 54.75 and 53.70 respective ly. At 9.1 , Nissinen had the highest pommel ho rse sco re for the set.

Most of the scores awarded in the first compulsory set were in the low and middle 8's with the exception of the North Korean work which easily out-classed the other teams' effo rts with a 267.8 total. The Bulgarian s were next at 253.00.

10

The second round of men's compulso ri es began in the even in g after three rounds of women 's exercises. In this set were France, West Germany, Rumania , Russia , Yugoslavia and Switzerland.

The Russians started out on the vau lt and picked up a 46.75 which included a 9.6 from Andrianov and 9.5 from Klim enko . Th e Russian technique on the hecht: arms in front and up, body about hori zonta l at point of contact, and sli ghtly piked , the pike opening as they pushed off vigorous ly. There was no arm slapp in g and th e landings were usually so lid . On the parallel bars the Russians scored 47.6 with four gymnasts scoring 9.5 or better: Andrianov , Klimenko , Voro nin , and Mikhaelian. Russian ' horizontal bar work showed less amplitude than it co u Id have, particularly on the rise to the suck through and stradd le cut w hi ch did not always get as high as it cou ld . They were obvious ly playing it safe. On the dismount, they went very close to the free handstand before releasing which gave them a litt le trouble in liftin g their chests on the land ing. Andrianov showed good control of the FX compulsory with lift demonstrated in the dive to handsta nd o ut of the front handspring and also on the dive cartw hee l. Th e Russians used a straight arm backward roll just before the final tumbling pass. They used the reverse lift for the piked front somersault with the step out almost stra ight-legged because of their height. Their FX tota l was 46.8, with Andrianov at 9.6 and Klimenko at 9.5 their lead in g performers. They also looked good on the pommel horse w ith Andrianov and K,limenko se ttin g the pace at 9.5 each. As a note on their rings performance: they did finish the front some rsau lt we ll above the rings but often touched the st raps w ith their legs in executin g the stradd le cut. Voronin alm ost caught his foot in the rings on his d ismo unt. He received a 9.6 for an exercise performed alm ost entire ly with straight arms and maintained hi s reputat ion as one of the wo rld 's best ringmen. The Russi ans totaled 282.20, obviously pushing for a high sco re as they knew th ey must to stay in contention for the team title.

In the meantime, the West Germans were also pushing hard to show that they were no t so far behind the East Germans. Their best eve nt was the parallel bars which reflected genera ll y nice, clean work. Eberhard Gienger was high at 9.55 with Guenter Spiess next at 9.40. The German execution of the compu lso ry dismount seemed to ri se too hi gh, om ittin g part of the double flank and close ly resembling the " Wendy Off" . A score of 45.5 was recorded on the horizontal bar, their second highest event. Their compulsory total was 272.25 .

In the 6-ring circus wh ich was the men ' s compet ition , it was difficult to follow the fortunes of anyone tea.m. It was the misfortune of Swiss gymnast, Hans Ettlin , to inju re himself on the arabian d ive ro ll ea rl y in the FX comp ul so ry. As a resu lt, Switzerland had to car ryo n the remainder of the compet iti ons wit h 5 men , all of whose sco res had to count.

Swiss gym nast, Peter Rohner, was th eir strongest competitor w ith a 54.35 at the conclus ion of the compu lsory exercises. At 263.8, they fini shed ahead of 6 teams.

The Yugos lavs had produced no one to take the place of the great Cera r on th e pommel horse. Only Milenko Kersnic approached a 9.0 score (8.90).

The Rumanians finished just behind the West Germans w ith a 266.8. They had good balance in their team with no one ind iv idua l particularly outstanding.

At the end of the first two rounds the Soviet Un ion was in first place w ith 282.20, West Germany seco nd at 272.25 , No rth Korea third at 267.80, followed by Rumania , Switzerland , Yugos lavia, France, Bul ga ria , Cuba and Italy.

The fina l round of the compulsories grouped East Germany, Poland, Czechos lovakia, Hun ga ry, Japan and th e USA. All eyes, of course , were turned t9wards the Japa nese who were really in a class of their own.

East Germany put on a strong show in an effort to upstage the Russians and also to show th e prowess of t heir athletes to the West German audience.

Most of the Japanese were working despite injuries: Kato w ith a shoulder injury, Tsukahara with a knee injury, Nakayama with a foot injury and the ot hers w ith minor injuries of one sort or anot her. They started on rings and immediately showed the ir top form: much stra ight arm work, and the hi gh inlocate. Their total here was 47.7. Nakayama showed that he st ill was the class of the compe tition with a 9.7 for the ring compulsory. On the lon g horse, the Japanese we re just a tenth ahead of the Russians, suggesting that stri cte r standa rds were being applied. Kato was th e on ly vau lter to sco re a 9.5. It may have been a portent of things to co me but Tsukahara had the lowest score of the team o n hi s comp ul so ry vau lt w ith a 9.1. In genera l, the comp ul sory exercises as performed by the Japanese were as clean and as sharp as expected. On their floor exercise, they used the reve rse li ft on the dive from the handspring mount but it came right off the ground with no rea l dive. Toward s the middle of the exerc ise, the arched dive roll was high w ith the arms up in front and lead in g and the chest high. In contrast to the Russians, th ey used a bent arm backward extension roll before the dismount and also used the reverse lift for the piked front somersa ult. Short little Okamura may not have had much body leng th to stretch, but he stret ched as much as he co uld on the HB to show good am plitud e.

In this set the East Germans finished seco nd behind the Japanese w ith a 278.40 total. Their performances we re generally so lid but not particularly spectacular . Klaus Koeste , a vete ran of their 1968 Olympic team, scored a 56.25 w ith even the ir sixt h man, Ju ergen Paeke scorin g 53.75.

The three Kubicas did yeoman 's wo rk in t he Polish cause but And rzej Szaj na had th e highest compu lso ry total at 55.40 .

This last round was of great intere st to t he repo rters beca use of the US gymnasts taking pa rt. The US started on the parallel bars which was not the worst event to sta rt on, but every man proceeded to have his . own breaks w ith scores ranging from Greenfield 's 7.75 to Hug's 9.10. The fever was contagious and hung on to the US team th e w hol e way through th e comp ul so ri es. Ma rshall Avenel', a thi rd pl ace AA finisher in the 1972 NCAA Championships, was topped on the HB by 30-yea r-ol d Jim Culhane who performed abo ut up to hi s . maximum potential. John Crosby was sloppy on the kreis kehre and broke o n the shoot thro u gh before the st raddl e cut.

George Greenfield hit excep t on his kreis . kehre , performing a ni ce rise to th e stradd le cu t. Crosby received 7.0 and Greenfield an 8.8.

Aside from hooked to esa t the beg innin g of the exercise, Steve Hug looked good for a 9.15, while Sakamoto performed cleanl y and without flair for a 9.20.

Th e US was more than 2 points behind the Poli sh team at the end of the first two events.

On the Floor exercise where the US expected its stron gest showin g, Ave ner sta rt ed off w ith an 8.5 and Hug. rece ived an 8.85, j ust barel y sho w ing th e sca le and performing a lo w st radd le jump. Sakamoto rece ived an 8.95 to ti e w ith Jo hn Crosby. Crosby , who had previo u sly tied the wor ld' s best on this eve nt, was only so so in hi s appea ran ce and performed the d ismount with bent legs and an in secure landing on t he handspring.

At the end of 3 eve nt s, the US was almost 4 full points b ehind the Polish tea m . It became difficult to k eep atte ntion o n the US tea m as th e Japanese and East Germans were p uttin g o n quite a show.

GYMNAST

. Hug-USA

Photo by' George Winters

. Andrianov-

USSR, Olympic 路 gold medalist floor exercise

On th e pommel horse, there we re many breaks including Sakamoto 's disaster. He was performing with a to rn bicep and inju red wr ist and could not p ut the elements together w ith t he swing and timing necessary to stay o n the horse. His 5.35 score reflected seve ral bad performed w ith many b reaks.

Crosby incon sisten cies of rhythm, and Ave n er plowed through his exe rcise fo r an 8.95. Hu g hit for a 9.15 but had to complete i n the horrendous noise w hi ch gree ted Kato's 9.85 HB performance.

Th e US looked on ly a little better on the rings. Hug hit for a 9.0. Avener made up a little ground w ith a 9.15 show in g good strai ght arm wo rk and high in locate setti ng up a good dismount. Sakamoto rebounded from his PH catastrophe with the highest score of any or th e US team in the co mpulsories, a 9.35. He worked w ith good te chniqu e, relatively stra ight arms, ve ry steady, a good dismount, b ut w ith a hi gh front lever .

In vau lting, th e US had th ei r high even t score, 45.4. 路Good hecht s were turn ed in by Hug, Sakamoto, and Culhan e. Th e US sho wed sloppy tec hnique in t erms o f push-off and form in fli ght, but their landings were solid .

Sakamoto had good height and earned a score of 9.30.

At the co nclu sion of the comp ul so ry co mpetiti ons, the US was in 11th place w ith 261.75 just behind the Swiss at 263.8. The Japanese we re obvio usly the leaders at 285.05 w ith th e Russians just barely wi thin st riki ng distance at 282.2. Foll ow in g t hen, we re the East Germans, West Germans, Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Nort h Koreans, Rumanians , and Swiss.

Below the US we re Yugoslavia, France, Bulgaria, Cuba, and Italy.

It was difficult fo ll owing the compulsory exe rcises to find any Americans who we re w illing to co mment on the US m en's team . It was pai nfull y obvious to those who watc hed them that t here was no team sp irit. (This impressio n was obv iou s from the moment they first stepped o n th e fl oo r.) Durin g th e marches between event s, no one marched w ith hi s head high and with sur.e purpose in hi s stride. There were no pats on the back from teammates following a comp letion o r a good job. In performing as indi vidual s th ey we re team-like only in th e contagio n w ith w hi ch th e breaks spr ead from one to the next.

Among the intern at io nal fi gu res interviewed

by ABC's Tom Ma loney was Masao Takemoto w ho offered t he o pini o n that, " Yo ur United ,s tat es mens team is q uite good in sofa r as d iffi cult gymn astic movements are co ncerned , however, th eir basic move ment s are rea ll y quite poor. Th ey are definitely too heavy fo r gymn asti cs and <I re ca rel ess and sloppy o n si mple gymnastic movements. On t he o th er ha nd their o ri gin alit y and d ifficu lty is q uite good. " N ick Stu art, Nat ion al coac h of the Engli sh team ad ded, " The USA Mens team see m ed to me to lack co hes io n. They d id n ot seem to be wo rkin g in the same direction. Yo ur gymnas ts as usual have great tal ent and the ab ility to win medals, but somehow it ju st does not happell ."

11

Jack Gunthard, Swiss National Coach spoke at great length with Tom Maloney entering as his opinion t~at , " It (the US team) is certainly a team with potential and plenty of optional difficulty. But your compulsory exercises were very bad ... As I have always said, you have certainly great talent in America, but it is not being developed proper/yoYour gymnasts lack discipline, you do not seem able to get the most out of a team . The United States certainly will have a chance for second or third place, but I doubt if they can ever win the team tit le from the Asians."

Rumors were rife that the US mens team had serious personality strains which surfaced during the training camp. One US Coach felt that the lack of team unity could have been predicted from psychological studies and the problems worked out ahead of time. The National Coaching program lost the support of the USOC, and the team psychologist was elim inated along with the program.

(For further comment, refer to the accompanyi ng report by Team Captain , Makoto Sakamoto.)

US Olympic coach, Abie Grossfeld felt that the US competitors may have been overscored in Ch icago. This may have raised the optimistic thought that we were better than we really were.

France, Bulgaria, Cuba, Italy, and the various individuals kicked off the first round of optional exercises.

Mauno Nissinen kept up his 9.+ average with steady performances across all events for an optional total of 54.50.

Various difficu lty elements noted in this first round follow: France 's Boerio started off his FX routine with front somie, front roll , front somie. One gymnast from Great Britain used a back ff with full twist to frontsupport. Canadian Andre Simard (with a full but neatly trimmed beard) looked particularly good because of his abi lity to show off his tall thin body line; for example, the flowing smoothness of his full spin on one foot and drop to Swedish fall.

Mendoza , the sole entry from Mexico used RO, ff, full fo llowed by a punch-front somie in his mount. Gines of Spain scored a 9.45 for his FX optiona l, mounting with a double back as well as including a hi gh layout back dive to prone position. ,.-.., Among the teams taking part, the Cubans looked the most improved over their compulsory set (but 19 points worth?). Cuervo mounted on FX with a double back , included a sideward aerial, and dismounted with RO, ff, suicide tuck back to back roll straddle stand ; RO, ff, double twist. His 9.45 tied Gines for high score of the set. Teammate Rodriguez used a similar final pass, concluding with a single full twist. Tall Roberto Richards' exercise was well composed to make effective use of his height.

For a tall gymnast, his tumbling was quite strong.

The Bulgarian, Kondev, mounted with a double twist which was low and used a back ff with Y2 turn to rear support which was a nice bit of originality.

On the pommel horse, Richards (Cuba) looked very good for a 9.35. His closest rival was Nissinen at 9.1.

When it came to the rings, only Nissinen broke into the nines for a 9.0. The rest of the scores ranged in the low and middle 8's.

In vaulting the trend was to the more difficult vaults such as handspring with 1Y2 saito to feet (henceforth referred to a handspring 1Y2), ROback (now dubbed the Tsukahara vault), and

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1

Nissenen - FIN

handspring with full twist. The Cubans were among the most adventurous in attempting these newer faults and scored 45.20 for their efforts. Cuervo used the handspring 1V2 for a 9.4. It was a good high va ult but overturned just e nough to req uire a step or so for balance.

Mendoza of Mexico performed the Tsukahara vault for a 9.3. One of the Cubans performed the same vault in Pike position.

There was little of excitement in the parallel bars. Most of the routines were stoc k in thei r difficulty and composi tion . Richards (Cuba) did a fine, high , clean routin e for a 9.3 score.

Nissinen also performed ' well and threw his double saito dismount for a 9.4. France's Boerio also hit clea nly for a 9.3.

As usu al, the horizontal bar was the most spectacular of the events. The Cubans had th e best team performance, 46.05. Cuervo at 9.5 showed flexibility in disengaging from a back seat circle with straight legs when above th e bar, a simple move but one that looked very good. Richards used his long body effectively in giant and in-bar work, had some good grip changes, threw in a high barani hop, vault, and dismounted with a high hecht with legs together. Sagre dismounted with a pike flyaway with full twist but lost his footing on the landing and received 8.9. In general, the Cubans merited their high bar scores.

Great applause greeted tall Bruno Banzer of Liechtenstein, one of Europe's smallest countries, when he received a 9.05 for his HB exercise.

A popular dismount on the HB was the toe on (straddled or together), partial circle to cast front off. Which was performed by various individuals and members of national teams.

Among others deserving mention on the HB were Bulgaria 's Zoev who used a double twisting flyaway which covered lots of mat, France's Guiffroy, and of course, Nissinen who hit solidly for a 9.1.

At the end of this first round, Cuba had accumulated 269.25 but, beca use of their low compulsory score were still behind France which earned 266.50. Their respective team totals were 519.90 and 522.65. Mauno Nissinen was the highest scoring individual in this set in the AA with 107.85. Just behind him were Jean Pierre Miens of France at 105.40 and Jorge Cuervo at 105.35.

The second round of men 's com petition included th e Russians, West Germans, Hungarians, North Koreans, Swiss, and Yugoslavs. The evening scores were higher improvements were greater for the lower ranked teams than for the Russia ns who were already performing at close to their maximum.

The North Koreans, up against a better basis for comparison than in the compulsories, achieved almost 10 more points for their optionals. The Yugoslavs improved by 8 points over their compu Isories.

The Russians led off on the floor exercise.

Klimenko mounted with RO, ff , double back which was very high and overturned, causing him to step completely out of the area, but he recove red with a jump turn to step back in. A pass along the side included RO, pike side, to shoulder roll , on to side scale and pose; back along the diagonal with RO , ff, full twist, ff; pose in Y stand, side aerial, prone drop, pike

and snap to stand from rear suppo rt (Ito movement), sp lits, st raddl e press; dismount RO, ff, full. Klimenko received 8.95, which was the low score for the Russians with th e other members of the team receiving from 9.35 to 9.45.

Andrianov mounted with RO , If, double back and stepped out of the a rea; later in clud ing two sid ewards somersau lts, also RO , full twist, If with step o ut to sing le leg circles, turn to prone drop, straig ht sp lits, press handstand , RO , If, a rabian dive roll and out with a stradd le to sp lits; turn to double leg c ircles, Y stand, and dismount with RO , fI, full.

On pommel horse, the first Russian bumped a long with many small leg faults. Among the better performances were Klim e nko 's 9.55 and Voronin at 9.45. Mikhaelian received 9.25 yet, he too , bumped the horse on his scissors.

Andrianov had an obv ious break and was given an 8.8 (which did not undul y penalize his AA sta nding) . Later, in a n interview he exp lained that he had poor ha nd pla cemen t in a travel which caused him to falter.

Un the rings, ~chukJn mounted with inlocate, inlocate, whippet up to suppo rt and on to handstand. He showed 'g ood strength and good straight arm work. He dismounted with a rudolph for a 9.3. Andrianov (9.5) also mounted with double inlo cates to straight arm rise to handstand, giants from handstand both ways, lower to cross, back roll to L support, press to handstand , 2 dislocates, double twisting flyaway . Voronin at 9.65 was most impressive with good strength (including planche) and showed good shoulder flexibility.

He dismounted with an immediate full twist from a back lever. rhe Russians tried hard on vaulting (as did the judges) . Schukin overturned a handspring 1V2 but received a 9.2 at which the c rowd duly whistled their displeasure. Maleev used a full twisting handspring and received 9.2. Voronin also used the full twisting handspring with what appeared to be good technique and the crowd indicated dissatisfaction over his 9.2. Klimenko used the Tsukahara vault for a 9.3. Andrianov did a high handspring 1V2tO a very solid landing for a 9.6.

Kasamalsu - IPN

11

The 47.20 which they accumulated on the parallel bars was the Russian 's second highest event total. They were quite solid : Voronin hit for 9.45, Klimenko for 9.6 (including stutz handstand ; diamidov, handstand ; back toss (with . separated toes) to handstand, . and dismount with full twist), Andrianov at 9.55 performed the double saito dismount.

High event for the Russians was the horizontal biH, 47.55. 9.5 scores were awarded Schukin and Voronin and 9.6's to Mikhaelian (who jammed his knee or wrenched his ankle on the dismount) and Andrianov. Klimenko had too many small breaks in his routine to be awarded an obviously high score and received " only" 9.25. (With that many misses, a US gymnast would not have even broken into the 9's.)

Apparently the Russians had extra time to warm up on some events such as the vault where Schakhlin was the head judge because they were still warming up after other teams began competition on the other events.

The Russians totaled 281.85 on their optional exercises which was slightly less than their compulsory total of 282.2. EVidently they had to overextend themselves to challenge the Japanese. As Tschukarine, their coach pointed out, however, this was a young team and they will do better with more experience.

The next best team in this round was the North Korean team . Song ]I Kim looked very good 001 HB, using a straight legged disengage above the bar. His technique was good with amplitude and flexibility shown in his stalders (both ways) , double German giants, and a double flyaway dismount , but he received but 9.35. Song Sob Li, their tDP man, eamed a 9.5 for a routine which included jam, stoop through, . takemoto, pirouette catch, straight body kip to hand, stoop through, 2 eagles, change of grip , barani hecht vault, back hip circle, ...stoop through , change grip, straight body kip , giants to double flyaway with full twist in the second saito. He had several small form breaks, the most notable on his barani hecht vault ..Where the Japanese keep their toes glued together, the North Koreans come unglued a little and their timing was not as precise, but they showed tremendous discipline and rhythm ow their in-bar work well as路 giants.

as

Roberto Richards - Cuba

14

The North 路Korean flov. exercise warm-up looked sluggish but under the competition pressure they pulled it together for a 46.30. Yun Hang Ho had some inte resting combinations including one starting from a wide straddle stand, double leg circles to straddle stand , lower to Japanese splits; slide legs around to prone position, straight body .press to handstand. From another North Korean: headspring to straddle stand, press to Japanese handstand and roll out. Song Sob Li was among three North Koreans using the double back for the mount; 路 he also performed headspring to straddle stand , double leg circles; back ff to straddle jump; pike front with step out; and dismounted with a double twist. On the whole, their transition moves did not look smooth and their routines were mechanically precise rather than rhythmic.

On the pommel horse, the North Koreans looked a little choppy and tight but they did complete. Most of them had bent legs on their scissors.

On the rings one North Korean used a double twister for dismount which was so high he almost wrapped up in the rings. Heung Do . Shin performed a back lever mount to iron cross, olympic cross, L cross, pull 路to L support, press to handstand, fall out to giant to handstand; lower frontwards to inverted cross, fallout to iron cross,pull to inverted hang, 2 dislocates, full twisting flyaway in which he almost caught his foot in the rings .

Their performances were quite consistent across the six events ranging from a low of 45.25 on PH to a high of 46.90 on rings. If they had been given a more favorable starting position, it seems likely that they would have been able to push their compulsory totals a good 4-6 points higher and with their optional total of 277.25 finished in fouth or fifth place.

The West German performances met with wild applause from the home crowd.

Outstanding individuals included Gunter Spiess, Walter Moessinger, and Eberhard Gienger both of whom hit all their exercises, except pommel horse, fairly well. Gienger climaxed his PB exercise with a double saito dismount and received a 9.55. He was also high man for the team with a 9.65 on the horizontal bar. On the floor exercise, Bernd Effing showed both strength (from rear lying prone position, to straddle V seat, press to handstand) and good tumbling (including headspring to front somersault) for such a tall gymnast (almost 5'11 " ). The best event for the West Germans was their parallel bars, 46.50, and their low event, as for so many teams, 44.75 . Reinhard Ritter threw a pike double flyaway off the HB, but he scored only 7.8 because of breaks in his routine.

Among the other teams competing ill this round were the Swiss who were still competing with 5 men . On the floor exercise, they showed good tumbling but their composition was not very imaginative. Peter Rohner was th e ir best performer. They attempted the newer vaults : Tsukahara vault by Bretscher for 9.3 and handspring 1% by Rohnerfor9.5. Coupled with his 9.25 ~ from the compulsory, this edged Rohner into the 6th position for the individual finals . They also piled up spirit points for their HB performances, a real team effort with consistent scores in the high 8's and low 9's.

With a full team they could hav e fini she d even higher than 11th in the team standings.

Elements of difficulty noted in the Hungari a n performances included th e ir vaults : M agyar and Molnar both perform e d th e handspring 1Vl with good height though requiring ex tra steps for balance on the landing . Wh ile vaulting was their best e vent with a 45 .95 total , th e ir poorest effort as a team wa s on th e floor e xe rc ise with 44.30. Every man scored at least 9.0 on th e PH with Imr e Molnar high a t 9.40.

The Yugos lav team with 6 men finish e d 0.1 be hind the 5-man Swiss team in th e optional exerc ises. There was littl e to dist inguish th e m in composition, difficulty , or viriuosity of performan ce . Despite the loss of Cerar, th e team did show a little of his influen ce in turning in four 9+ performances on th e PH for a 45 .30 total. Their low events were Rand FX, both at 43.90, while they were highe st on PB at 45.70.

The final round of competition matched the ja panese and East Germ a ns, Poland , Czechoslovakia, Rumania , and the USA. All eyes, of cou rse, were concentrated on the japanese performances. These p e rformance s ranged from a "low" of 46.3 on th e va ult to 48.7 on the horizontal bar.

I All of the japanese individuals were outstanding, including their No . 6 man , Teruichi Okamura , who was first man up for the team 12 times. This undoubtedly cost him several tenths on each e xerc ise, ye t he still finished 14th in the AA standings from Competition I. Starting on the floor exercise, The japanese difficulty included Tsukahara 's mount with double twist (low and necessitating a recovery) and double twist dismount -- a dynamic and spirited e xercise earning a 9.45. Nakayama 's diff icu lty included : handspring to layout front , headspring (although it looked as if he pounded his head into the floor!) , later inc lu ding ff , jack-knife back to front support; high V seat and press to handstand; and a full twist in the dismount for a 9.65. Kenmotsu mounted with a double twist; his subsequent passes included fro nt som ie , headspring, front somie; a nice recovery e lement from a rabian dive : springing out of the roll he lunges sideways in a stag leap; dismount with double twist. He also received 9.65 . Kato mounted with RO, ff , full , step, turn and drop into splits, double leg circles, back extension roll into the corner, RO, ff, piked arabian front , roll out and turn into back bend, shoot through to his back, come up to straddle seat, press to handstand , forward roll ; RO, side somie, single le g circle to stand ; RO , 2 ff , full . He was awarded 9.6.

On the pommel horse , Tsukahara suffered two major breaks for an 8.7 score. Nakayama hit we ll for a 9.4. Kato and Kenmotsu tied w ith 9.6 for very intricate and well done routines, which did include some one-pommel work.

Okamura started off the rings w ith good control and included slow lower from handstand into back lever and dismount with doub le flyaway fo r a 9.45. Kasamatsu showed good straight arm work in his ro utine whi c h earned him a 9.5. Tsukahara hit for a 9.6. Kato 's very smooth routine which concluded wit h a very high double also earned a 9.6. Kenmotsu hit for 9.5 with beautifu l stra ight arm work.

Nakayama 's ring routine was superb and very solid . He dismounted w ith a ful twist and received 9.7 .

In vaulting, Okamura used a handspring 1Vl but underturned it and received an 8.8. This vau It caused a long judge's conference because they had overscored a Russian on the same

Kasamalsu - JPN

va ul t wit h a simi lar break . Nakayama's fu ll twisting handspring with one g iant step brought him a 9.25. Kasamatsu also performed the full twisting handspring, somewhat more securely, for a 9.35. Tsukahara performed the vault which has been named after him , but his approach was low and his elbows too bent to g ive him the desired push-off and he snapped down too quickly and overturned his vault, doing a back roll to a stand . He still received 8.8.

Kenmotsu, like Nakayama, performed a clean, full twisting handspring with one giant step for a 9.4. Kato threw a rudolph (l VI twisting handspring) with good height , control, and landing but received only 9.5 for it.

On the parallel ba rs Tsukahara had a beautiful e xercise climaxed with a handstand on o n e bar followed by snap down and 1Vl saltos to his feet for a 9.5. Nakayama performed his " patented" exercise and dismounted with a high, free front off with VI twist to score 9.65.

Kenmotsu a lso scored 9.65. The pace picked up with Kasamatsu ' s 9.7. Kato was awarded a 9.75.

An element of intere st from Kato 's routine : from a handstand, snap down with stradd le and drop to peach from the upper arm support. He dismounted with the double saito.

The horizontal bar was the last one for the japanese. Nakayama had a t remendous exercise climaxing w ith a full twisting hecht dismount. The crowd whistled disapprova l of the 9.6 score (too low). Kasamatsu hit for a 9.75 as did Kenmotsu . Kenmotsu's full twisting hecht dismount was very controlled and almost vertica l over the bar. Kato had a 9.7. Tsukahara performed wit h good extension ; his difficulty e lements included a barani hecht hop (very high) and a doub le twist in g double flyaway (a

full twist in each some rsau lt) . His 9.9 score brought down the house! japan's optional total was 286.20 and their C + Total 571.25.

The East German team had an outstanding individual in Klaus Koeste who tota led 57.00 (higher than any Russian though lower than 4 japanese) in the optiona l exercises. Because of the tremendous show being put on by the japanese, it was difficult to pick out hi gh li ghts from the East German performances. It was noted, for instance, that their vau lts te nded to be simp ler, tho u gh very sol id and controlled.

Rychly performed Czech giants on the HB. Brehme and Koeste both turned' in 9.55 HB scores but we re topped by Wolfgang Thuene at 9.65 . Koeste's dismount was a cast, front in pike position. As a team they scored well on the floor exercise from a low of 9.25 for juergen Paeke who used a running front with stepout, handspring, front as part of his mount, to Koeste's 9.55. Th e East Germans picked up 281 .30 in the optional exercises for a cumulative total of 559.70. just a little off this pace was the Polish team with a high of 47.20 on H B and a low of 46.20 on vau ltin g. Their team total for the optionals was 279.10 and their combined C + score was 551 .10.

The Czech team earned 270.55 in the optional competition. They were best on the vault (46.20) . Nehasi l had some good front tumbl in g work on FX: pike front , tuck front , headspring, tuck front as part of his mount.

Their C + total was 538.55.

The Rumanians acc umul ated 272.10 in the opt ional events. Their high event was the va~1t at 45.85 and their low eve nt the pommel horse at 44.85, where their routines lacked

째

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15

smoothness. Their t + 0 total was 538 .90.

The US started out on HB with Jim Culhane first up. Things went well up through his vault catch. Later, he bent his knees on a stoop in and almost hit the bar. He did a forward seat circle and in popping out missed his grip and fell. He remounted and did his double flyaway and received an 8.3. It was not an auspicious start for the evening. Avener had two form breaks in the first three moves of his HB routine. His double flyaway, however, was nice and high . He received an 8.9. Crosby also broke form to receive an 8.55 but like Avener dismounted with a good secure double flyaway. Hug performed a good, difficult exericse very smoothly and cleanly (but without any great flair) to receive a 9.3. Greenfield fina ll y came into his own on the event in which he usually exhibits good technique . He never really looked poised in the routine but completed, throwing a rudolph dismount, to be scored at 9.35. Sakamoto ran into trouble and just barely made his ful l twisting hecht, having to kick it around and with the accompanying form breaks was scored 8.85. Perhaps itwas fortunate that the Japanese had not yet competed on this event but since Russia had been up last in the round immediately preceding , some comparison was inevitable.

On the floor exe rcise , Culhane received an 8.65, Hug 8.85, Sakamoto 9.0, Greenfield 8.95, Avener 8.90 and Crosby at 9.30 was high man .

John used a double back in his mount (one of 17 double backs performed in the optional sets) and was the on ly one to perform the arabian dive plus full twist (1 Y, twisting dive roll from ff) .

Avener's double back mount was better than Crosby 's but he suffered other form breaks. On a supposedly strong event the US scored but

45.00.

The pace of the team picked up a little on pommel horse. Greenfield and Culhane got through abol.Jt as we ll as they had hoped (completions!) and Sakamoto worked through his injuries for an 8.75. Avenercame on with no major breaks for a 9.30. Hug put together a good routine with even rh ythm for a 9.4 (high score for the US in the optionals).

On the rings, Greenfield p erformed a relatively stock routine with no particular breaks for an 8.9. Hug hit we ll for a 9.-05 but this was almost overlooked since the Japanese were vaulting and doing quite well at it. Crosby also came through with a 9.0, throwing a good double flyaway dismount. Aven e r carried the momentum of the previous two events on to the rings, hitting his double twisting flyaway, for a 9.15. Sakamoto did some of his best work of the evening, clean and with good technique, throwing a pike double flyaway . His award was

9.30.

From top to bottom: Sakamoto, Avener, Greenfield, Grosby and Hug

16

Culhane stuck his vault nicely ' for an 8.9.

Avener did a high Tsukahara vault but took one step for balance and received a 9.15. Hug did a full twisting handspring but did not comp lete the twist before landing and also received 9.15.

Greenfield attempted the Tsukahara but had a low approach with bent elbows, slid on the horse, had littl e push-off, and received an 8.6.

Sakamoto performed a Yamashita with y, twist but was short on the twist and received 9.05.

Crosby's full twisting handspring had a good landing but he was awarded only 9.25.

Culhane again led off on the parallel bars with a cl ean, but somewhat stock routine, dismounting with a nice free layout front off with y, turn and a 9.0 score. Avener threw a routine wh ich included p each to handstand, diamidov, stutz handstand, lower to peach;

upper arm cast, front uprise, swin g pirouette, ... back uprise , rear stutz, ...handstand , back layout off. His sco re was 9.15. Greenfield also performed a clean routine receiv in g 9.05 . Crosby hit we ll with hi s exercise including his double saito dismount for 9.25 . Hug had to comp lete his routine in the din whic h greeted Kato ' s 9.7 HB routine but he did so with poise and received a 9.3. Sakamoto was on the PB at the same time as Tsukahara was performing his 9.9 HB routine and though he did not hold his diamidov, he showed good technique and smoothn ess for a 9.30.

The US scored 272.10 in the opt iona ls,same as the Rumanians. This score was higher than the optional totals for 8 other teams, but it was not enough to boost their standing much from 11th place which th ey had occupied afte r the compu lsory sets. The best US event was the PB 46.05 and their worst, HB, at44.95. With a 533.85 C + 0 total the US had to settle for 10th, just .85 ahead of.the Swiss. Even if the US had picked up .1 to.2 per man across each of his 12 exercises, it would have b ee n difficult to pick up the ll Y2 points needed to push into 6th place. With an add itiona l 5.1 points however, they cou ld have dislodged the Rumanians from 7th, but this was the difference between the two team s in the compu lsory exercises.

At the conclusion of the men's competition, the japa nese were easi ly in first place at 571.25, fo ll owed by the Russians at 564.05, and East Germany at 559.70. Th e US was 38 points behind j apan, 31 behind Russia , and 26 behind East Germany. The US did fi ni sh ahead of Switzerland , Yugoslavia, France, Cuba, Bulgaria , and Italy.

O n Iy Steve Hug of the US made it in to t he AA finals, finishing at 26th in Competit ion One with a total of 109.45. None of the other US compet itors finished in t he to p 36.

Only 11 different men were to appear in the finals: 5 j apanese, 2 Russians, the East German Klaus Koeste, Polands' Wilhelm Kubica, and Peter Rohn er from Switzerland.

The disease of national prejudice among the judges again favored the East Europeans. Th e North Korean coac h, in an interview with ABC's Tom Maloney, felt that the judging was not good and that the judges d id not appreciate difficulty or originality. H e felt that North Korea shou ld have been able to finish 3rd or 4th with fair jud gin g but stated that they intended to fini sh in the top 3 by 1976.

I n an interview session following japan's captu re of the team award, Coach Yukio Endo was asked about a quote attributed to him that the japanese wo uld w in all 8 gold m edals in the men 's division. He disclaimed the strong " wou ld " but said that they "s hould" win them. " japan came to win and were p roud to continue their w innin g streak ." When queried abo ut the jury be ing favorable to the Russian team ,Endo parried the question but Masao Takemoto, Head Coach for the j apanese men also tolrl Tom that, " The judg in g at the 1972 Olympic Games was not good. We japanese know we will be underscored by the Communist judges, but we train harder and try to show the judges there is a gap between the j apanese gymnasts and other nations. Th e judgin g in Munich was much wo rse than in Ljubjana at the World Games. I ca n o nl y hope the judges wi ll improve in t he future . At th e present time they do not look for o ri gina li ty and on ly abide by the rules and do not give cred it for new movements."

It is possible that this time , the politics did not affect the US Men's team as much as did their

own errors. Nonetheless, a few optiona l performances were deserving of hi gher awards and might have received them if the judges had really been on th ei r toes .

ABC sportscasters Gordon Maddox and Tom Maloney

A FEW WORDS FROM THE CAPTAIN

by Makoto Sakamoto After f in is hing my optiona l routines I went to the locker room and drooped onto the bench. I cou ldn 't be lieve that I had fini shed the competition . Injuries had plagued my training since last November, and many ti mes, especiall y duri ng the Olympic training camp, I had remarked, "It's so easy to give, but I must plug along and do the best I can! " The two weeks after ruptur in g my left -bicep mu sc le we re most difficult to endure. Every day I wo rk ed with apprehensio n as I tested moves I could perform without agg ravating my injury.

Occasionally I was over ly optim istic and performed moves th at brought sharp pain to the arm. Many times I told Abie that I was pessimistic about my chances of doing routines in the Games, but Abi e reassured me when he sa id, " Even if you ca n't compete in all the eve nts, you wou ld sti ll be an asset to the team. " In our last day of practice in West Point I reinj ured my right wr ist, and consequent ly I had to avoid doi ng kehres on the side horse for about 10 days. I had first injured my wr ist at the National AAU Meet last Apr il. Since the first trial was to be held about three weeks later I cou ld not rest my wrist but had to practice with the pain . Th e tra ining for Berkeley, the site of

the first trial , was terribly depressing, and , as I remembered those practice sessions I wondered if I cou ld go through t hem again . In Washington, the United States departure site for most Olympians, I used two ice packs, one for my arm and anot her for my wrist.

Of course, I was not alone in injuries. Steve Hug had a bad shou lder since la st February.

George Greenfield 's back bothered him frequently, and jim Culhane kept me company with an ice pack placed on his ailin g shou lder.

The j apanese team, likewise, we re bothered by injuries. S. Kato had a hurt shoulder,Nakayama worked w ith an injured foot , Tsukahara, I believe, had an injured hip. As fo r t h e gi rl s, Lind a had to stay away from pract ice fo r about one week du e to a .pulled diap hragm , and Nancy Thies was a doubtful performer up until a few days prior to the competit ion. The message expressed in t he say in g, " If there is a will, the re is a way," helps the athlete to overcome hi s injuries .

In aWh onesty, I feel that most of ou r men gymnasts lacked t he w ill that is exp ressed in the above say in g. We cou ld have sacrificed more! I firmly believe that this is the reason behind o ur dismal showing in t he Olympics, and until we can field seven men tota ll y dedic.ated to gymnastics we wi ll never exce l in international competit ion . Our coaches must endeavor to see to it that no gymnast takes " the easy way out." They must be uncompromising in demanding on ly perfection. This may mean less in the way of high sco res in the short run fort h e co llege and high school dual and champ ionship meets, but this is the on ly road left for us if we are to challenge japan, Russia, and East Germany. Any coach who feel s the quick impu lse to criticize Abie or anyone else for ou r poor Olympic showing sho uld first and last sea rch deep within him se lf.

The j apanese are strong because they work hard and long on bas ics. Many of our coaches are rushing to win meets w hich are of little internationa l consequence. You ca n't be doing stutzs when you ca n't even support yourse lf. It is to those coaches that I feel t hat the last sentence in the previous paragrap h. is most applicable.

I would like to exte nd my personal thanks to everyone on the team for those moments when they can honestly say, " I put forth 100%."

Sakamoto leads the US team as they rotate to their next event during Olympic competition.

17

Tourischeva-USSR

Ot YMPIC REPORT To the American public, the number one story of the 1972 Olympic Gymnastic competitions had to be the performances of 17 year old Russian gymnast, Olga Korbut. This was largely due to the excell ent TV coverage provided by ABC in addition to the originality and flair of Miss Korbut's routines. There were many other outstanding performances, however, which the television aud ience was not able to view.

The second story of the gymnastic competitions would have to be a tale of biased judging. Nearly all of the USGFers who attended these games were asked by friends back home if the judging was as poor as had been alleged on television. Bud Marquette' s blast at the judges, particularly the womens ' judges set the USA gymnastics community on its ear.

The third story in gymnastics was probably a toss-up between the performances of our US Women 's Team and the winning ways of the Japanese Men 's Team. The US women got the nod from ABC because of the build-up wh ich had been g iven the team , particularly Cath y Rigby, while the Japanese men -- indeed, most of the men's competition -- were given less cove rage and at poorer time slots than the women .

There were 3 competitions in gymnastics at this year's Olympic Games. These were the team competition , the all-around competit ion , and the indi vidual event championships.

Competition I to choose the team winner was based on the performance of the compulsory and optiona l rout in es by the 6-member teams.

18

Pharo by George Winters

Competition II to choose the all-around champions drew the top 36 competitors from Competition I, who repeated their optional routines which were added to one-ha lf their compu lsory plus optional :otal. This was necessary because the IOC had decreed that a person could not earn 2 medals for the same performance; i.e., a team medal and AA medal.

Competition III took the top 6 indi vidua ls on each event from Competition I who repeated their optional routines again , as has been customary in the past.

The physical set-up afforded by the German Organizing Committee was indeed superb. The apparatus was situated on raised platforms whi le the judges were seated just below platform level on the main floor. A long runway was provided for vault with the side horse at one end of the arena and the long horse at the other end. A carpet-like pad served as the running surface. The floor exercise was centered and remained inplace while the parallel bars shared a portion of the platform where the women ' s vault took place. The uneven bars and high bar were mounted (at different times, of course) to the same base plates whi le the balance beam and the pommel horse and rings occupied the 4th platform.

The judges, 37 men and 26 women, were assigned by the FIG with superior judges (theoretically neutral) drawn from the Technical Committes of the FIG. The scores were flashed electronically to the superior judges who then cleared th em to be flashed to the audience and simultaneousl y back to the computers which prepared the print-outs and carried out the ranking of teams and individuals.

Th e competit ions were most organized. The march-ins were carried out briskly and each competition was so timed that every starting time went off on schedule. German aides carried signs to identify each team, and an interpreter was assigned each team. The music to signal change of event was lively and spirited, reminding one of the catchy tune of Disneyland's Small, Small World.

All of the compu lsory exercises were performed in the first day of competition w ith 2 sessions of women followed by one of men in the morning and 3 of women and 2 of men starting in the late afternoon. Canada, Switzerland , and Bulgaria started bright and early at 8:30 AM along with individuals from New Zealand, Australia , Spain and Sweden. The second group, USA, Great Britian, France, and Holland began at 9:40. The first men started at 11 :15, exactly on time.

The luck of the draw had given the US women a starting time well in advance of the countries who were to be their main competit ion. The scores in the evening tended to be higher than those in the morning and the US suffered some disadvantage from the draw as we ll as international politics. Nonetheless, the American women finished the compu lsories with a 5th-ranked score, just .05 behind the Czech and Hungarian women and 5.2 behind East Germany and 7.05 behind the Russian women.

The Russian and East German women were easily the class of the competition alth ough it was argued that the US cou ld have given the East Germans a good run if they had been better seeded and better prepared psychologically.

Wirh respect to the women ' s competitions, Tom Ma loney, as repo rt ed in th e AAU Gymnastics News w ro te, " Our Wom ens team was definitely a better team than the Hungarians who won the bronze for third and our team was terribly underscored on opt ional beam and uneven ba rs. It is most discourag ing to see o th er teams w ho are not in co nt ention for a medal doing a basically stock routin e w ith no ri sk and yet they receive hi gh sco re s. Th e answer here has to be that because th ey are not in co ntention fo r a medal the jud gin g is ve ry li beral. Th e Commu ni st jud ges who work together to aid all Comm u n ist nation s not on ly refu se to give ou r gi rl s the scores th ey deserve bu t also deli bera tely shave points and give as Iowa sco re as is possible."

The opinion that the US women deserved 3rd place at the end of the team competition was shared by several international experts. Ms .

Liese l Neimeyer of t he Deutscher Turnerbund press department wrote, " Never did a US wo men' s team perf orm at Olympic or wor ld games as co nvinc in gly as the 1972 tea m d id in Munich. This tribute must be paid to them before entering on details because the y had every reason to be dissatisfied with th eir overa ll sco res. More t han any other t eam th ey we re handicapped by bad luck in belonging to the seco nd of the five comp ul sories competition groups, and there were ever so many cases of underscoring. " Dr. Joseph Gohler, Editor of the Olympishe Turnkunst : " If there was anyt hin g to comp lain of it was the sco rin g. One of th e reasons fo r unfair sco ring always p ro vok in g sh rill wh ist ling of the 12,000 spectators was the deplorable fact that some judges, male and fema le, were not able to discard national prejudice, and another and more frequent reason bei ng the slacken in g of judging standards in the co urse of compet it ions. Scores in th e even ing were mild er than in the morning, with compet itors t hat had to perform early losing va luab le tenths. The US girls were among thos e lu ck less, thus narrowly missing the bronz e medal though experts were unan imous that they were better than the Hun ga ri ans... ln spite of their handicap of belo n gin g to an ill -favored competit ion group , fi ve of th em had qua lifi ed (for the all-.arou nd compe titi on) w ith Na ncy Thi es missi ng the limit by a bare twentieth of a ·point...On their respective Mun ich showings th e US girls have stole n a march o n t he likeab le US boys. " In an in terview wit h ABC ba ckup man, Tom Maloney, Canadia n women's Coach , M arilyn Savage agreed that, " The US women ' s team sho uld have had third place as a team and we re grossly underscored on both compu lso ry and optiona l exercises. The judging i n genera l was pretty fair ; however, there we re some fl agra nt deviations from th e Code of Poinis.Th e crowd definitely . affected the judging and se ri ous erro rs were over lo oked."

COMPETITION ONE In the compulsory exe rcises, the elemen ts of the exe rcise were speci fi ed by the FIG but th e nations were al lowed to incorporate t hese part s into their own rout ine w ith t h e req u'irementthat all performers of the team execute the comp ulsory 'in the same way . The music for f loor exercise, for in stance, differed from nation to nation.

In the first group to perform the compu lsory exe rcises, the Bulgarians showed good floo r exercise, qu ite pr ecise in th eir movements, w hil e th e. Swiss who .shou ld have out-scored

the Bulgarians on th e sa m e exe rcise were tar more ' da inty, but th e Canad ians w ith good tumbling and good composi tion were th e class of the first sectio n. The Swiss showed fine flair o n the un even bars but lost team po ints due to falls on the beam. The Bulgarians topped the Swiss and Canadians largely on the stre ngth of their va ulti ng.

In the nex t group, th e US wome n clearl y dominated. The co mpul so ry sco res appea red within reason based on the scorin g observed during the first group.

Th e US women were up first o n the uneven bars. Thi es received an 8.85, Moore a 9.00, Chace a 9.1, Rigby a 9.2, Pierce wit h a very smoot h rout i ne a 9.2, and Metheny wi th an att en tion -gett in g performance highlighted b y a full hold in the handstand p ri or to the so le circ le and recei ved but a 9.25. The first ev idence of the judges' bias showed here, yet the US totaled 45.75. On the balance beam, the US compos iti on of th e exe rcise won hi gh praise. Thi es led off, rece iv in g 8.65, Pierce 9.0; Moore 9.2, w hil e Chace with excell ent tempo and eve n rhythm sco red but 9.25, and Met heny who · suffered a b rea k by wa lk ing in her handsta nd alt hough she did not falloff rece ived 8.4, Cathy Rigby, a si lver medalist i n the 1970 World Games on this even t, bungled a littl e cartwhee l to rece ive also a 9.25. Th e caTtwhee l caused nearly all o f ou r girls some deduction so the event total of 45.6 seemed reasonable at th e tim e. The compos it io n of the US floor exercise co mpul so ry had been changed between the time of th e trials and th e Games, yet it was car ri ed off by the girl s w ith rhythm and sty le and won plaudits from Ms. N iemeyer for superb compos iti on and mature delivery. The scores ranged from 8.95 for Thi es and Pierce to 9.3 for Rigby, which was t h e highest awarded a US competito r in the compu lsory series. Joan Moore's exercise was very free-flowing and very we ll.done but she was scored on ly 9.15, too low to ensure that she could make it in to th e finals. During the va ultin g compet iti on, th e US women seem ed to have a soft take-off w ith weak push-offs from the horse, and on ly moderate post-fli gh t, wh il e the landin gs · were genera ll y so lid . At the co nclu sio n of the · va ult, the US team accumulated 45 .10 for a team total of 182.10 w hich w.as by far th e'best score of the morning.

It was fe lt that if the jud ging were to co ntinu e o n the sa m e level; th e US women sho uld place quite high .

In th e third round, Mex ico, Hun gary, Ruman ia and Yugoslav ia performed. Several in dividua ls were outstanding. Elena Ceampelea (Rum) was quite strong and had good tumb lin g in her floor exe rcise. Ilona Bekesi (Hun ) received th e high est score (9.6 o n UPB) awa rd ed upto that tim e by the judges.

Th e M ex ica n.women showed deficiencies in technique on most of the apparatus, but were lucky enough to keep up a good tea m spirit throughout. The ' base music o f their floor exe rcise was ! 'Cielito Lind o". Th is was th eir seco nd best event thanks to their tumbling.

The Rumanians had a floor exercise co mpositi on rat her si milar to the one o f th e US women. and th eir music reflect ed a light classic th eme.

The Hunga ri ans did not mea sure up to the US in t heir vau ltin g, they used a definite 1,2 placement of the hands on ·the horse w ith . much of the tw ist comp leted before hittin g the hor se. They did push off st rong ly and go t good post-flight and so lid landings. They n etted 44.7, however, o nl y 0.4 off the US pace. Th ei r Top 10 bottom: Chace-USA, Moore-USA,

Korbul-USSR

19

uneven bar work was smooth with moderate rhythm and showed good technique.

Particularly noticeable was the layout somie dismount from the high bar whi c h showed a little lift in contrast to the roll backwards approach of the US women. They topped the US 47.00 to 45.75 for reasons difficult to explain solely on the basi s ot composition or technique. This was th e only ev ent in which th ey outscore<;l the US. At the conclusion of the third round, Hungary had edged the US by .05 in the team standings. Right behind the US was Rumania at 179.00.

In the fourth round , Norway , Czechoslovakia, West Germany and Japan performed. .

Norway' s floor exercise music was based on Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor. It was a heavy piece and performed in a manner more suited to the concert hall than a sports arena.

Norway's vaulting led one to believe that they had a different vault in mind with a handspring on to the horse rather than cartwheel on, 1;4 turn off.

The Czechs picked up some good scores on the uneven bars (46.3) thanks to Dornakova and Brazdova. Their balance beam work did not appear even as good as the Hungarians. Their floor exercise did seem superior to that of the Hungarians by more than the .05 final difference. Their music was light and folksy with a somewhat classic handling. Dornakova and Nemethova were their stars on this event.

The West German team was a young team with only 2 girls experienced internationally: Erika Kern of thei r 1968 Olympic team and Jutta Oltersdorf of their 1970 World Games team.

Their composition on the beam and floor was not as strong as that of the US and their expression , while good , n eeded more se lfconfidence.

The Japanese suffered the same indignities at the hands of the judges as did the US team , (the Japanese had the potential for a 4th or 5th place finish), but at every turn, they were severely penalized, and the floor officia ls were overzealous in enforCing the peculiar rule which did not permit gymnasts to do any stretching and warming up behind their row of chairs (Eastern bloc gymnasts were never told to return to their seats). In vaulting, they had a hard run but they did not get enough height in the pre-flight for good pushoff and their low angle caused them to take steps to recover balance on the landing.

After four rounds, the Hungarians and Czechs were in a two-way tie for first at 182.15 with the US right behind at 182.10 and Japan at 179.10. The Czechs had outscored the US both on vaulting }nd unevens and even Japan outscored the US on unevens 45.90 to 45.7S. The last round found the judges warmed up to their task. The Russians and East Germans faced off with Italy and Poland rounding out the set.

The Russians started on the uneven bars with a 9.5 score from Koshel and earned two 9.6's, a 9.55, and a 9.45 for an event total of 47.70.

Outstanding performances were those of Turischeva and Korbut. The Russian floor exercise music was somewhat folksy as was the East German music and caught up the audience in its mood. While the Russians were indeed good on the floor, the 9.7 awarded Lazakovitch and 9.6 awarded Korbut seemed generous but Turischeva may just have deserved her 9.8. In vaulting, the Russians used a hard, vigorous run, contacted the board just right to give them

20

good height in their preflight and seemed to have feather-light push-offs and solid landings.

Turischeva and La zakovitch both received 9.6 's.

The East Germans started on the balance beam with 45.80 in a set of very precise and sure-footed performances wh ich otherwise lacked expression. Nonethe less, only Karin Jan z at 9.35 and Erika Zucho ld at 9.2S cou ld be cons idered strong, and here again the prejudice of the judges was evident.

On the uneven bars, Janz and Zuchold received the highest scores, 9.85 and 9} respectively. Angelika Hellman (GDR) tied with Korbut, Turischeva, and Hungary's Bekesi at 9.6. Their event total of 48.00 tied with the Russians 48.00 on the floor for the high score of the day in women 's competition.

The Italian floor exercise music seemed a little low-key and not sprightly enough for their arrangement of the elements.

The women 's optional exercises were resumed with the Bulgarians, Yugoslavs, British and Italians in the first round.

The Bulgarian floor exercise music was loud and heavy and tended to dominate the exerc ises. Blagoeva was their strongest performer and included RO, several ff, fu ll ; several butterfly turns; and the usual aerials in her routine. They did fairly well in vaulting with solid landings and Tzvetkova used a full twisting handspring. Gheorghieva attempted the handspring, with 1V2 somie but landed ingloriously and solidly. On beam, Pandezova used a gainer back off the side for her dismount.

Italy 's Mancuso turned in a nice rhythmiC, dance-like performance but received only an 8.8. By and large the Italians showed good technique on their tumbling and li ghtness and balance in their execution but little real difficulty. Rita Peri performed RO , FF, whipback, ff, somie as a part of her mount.

Great Britian's team did their best work on the floor (43.00) but did not significant ly raise their scores over the compu lso ry.

Yugoslavia showed unsureness on the beam but still did not pick up much on their better events, floor and unevens.

At the conclusion of this first round , the Itali ans led with 349.8 over the Bulgarians at 346.05, Yugoslavia at 339 .55, and Great Britain at 333.95.

In the second round, the French, Polish, Swiss and Dutch girls took part..

The French floor exercises were not well composed from the standpoint of smoothness and continuity but they did show good tumbling . Their music was blues and classical and a little heavy and loud . Cayre used a handspring, front somersault mount in her routine. On the beam , some imagination was displayed; one girl mounted with a piked front somersault to seat on the beam. Their uneven bar work was good but a littl e choppy in places.

The Swiss worked the unevens first. Examples of their difficulty elements included Marti ' s back hip to bounce on the HB, hecht over the low bar; Fritschi used a back straddle cut over the low bar for her dismount; and Bazzi also showed good difficulty. On beam, they displayed a lack of confidence except for Fritschi who used both aerials and full twisting aeria l dismount. The Swiss floor exercise showed strong tumbling and included elements such as back handspring with V2 turn to_the stradd le split position (Fritschi).

Holland's gymnasts put on one of the better showings of the western Europe teams and outscored the Polish team 179.00 to 176.80. Their

outstanding pe rformers included Ans van Gerwen w ho f ini shed at 22nd in the al l-around and Linda Toorop w hose uneven bar rout ine inc luded wrap around the LB to hecht w ith V2 turn , reg rasp with stradd le. Va n Gerwen mounted w ith a handspring onto th e low bar and as her hips passed th e high bar (legs straddl ed) caught the HB w ith her hands, somewhat like a Radochla front.

The Polish team led after t he first two events, vault and uneven s, but lost momentum with falls on the beam . They were the highest team in the group in vau lti ng, however, w ith 44.65.

Their landings were so lid . Matraszek mounted the uneven bars w ith a pike front some rsau lt to seat on t he low bar, kept the routine mov in g throughout, and d ismounted with a full twistin g hecht. H er floor exe rcise in cluded a double twist in t he mount.

After the first two groups, Ho ll and led , fo ll owed by Po land , Italy, Switzerland , France Bulgaria, Yugosl avia, and Great Brita in .

The US women were part of the third group to compete, th e first group to start in the evening competition . Competi ng at the same t ime were j apan, West Germany and th e individual gymnasts.

Th e A m eri cans sta rted on th e balance beam which was a comparat ively stro ng event for them at 45.30. Individually, Th ies had a sli ght bobble after her back somersault but oth erwise ca rri ed out he r routine well for an 8.9. Pi erce moved w ith deliber"ate gracefu ln ess, her back handspring was co ntroll ed bu t she appeared to need to recover her ba lance; she used a one arm wa lkover and received a fu rth er deduction for lack o f balance on a full turn for a 9. 0.

Moore fell o n he r dismount and had to remount whic h very likely accou nted for h er 8.65 --her routine includ ed back handsp rin g, a well contro lled one-a rm walkover, and a ga iner dismount. Kim Chace had a wobb le afte r her back handspring, but performed a secure aerial walkove r and was awarded but 8.95 . Linda Metheny, still sufferi n g from injuries, made up for her m iscue on the co mpulsory w ith a smoot h and precise exercise including seve ral hi gh jumps; nonetheless she d idn' t ho ld h er handstand and had a balance recovery or a hop turn , sink to knee stand. Cat hy Rigby was undoubtedl y underscored at a 9.35 w hi ch pl aced her in a tie with Zuchold for 6th on the event. H er only bobb le was after a walkover.

She left out her aerial walkover to ensure a good team score but still had a very d ifficult composition which she carried o ff far better th an Csasza r of Hun ga ry who slip ped into the fin als thanks to a 9.4 g ift from t h e judges. Cathy was wo rking under extreme pressure as a former medalist and because o f all the pub li city sh e had been subj e路cted to and did not appear as re laxed in h er exercise as she might have.

After a strong sh owing on the Beam, the US girls marched o n with heads held hi gh to t he floor exercise.

Th e American floor exercises showed good selection of mu sic, which comp lemen ted the dance and tumbling elements. The scores here we re in the low 9's. Ro xanne Pierce i ncluded " Deep in th e H eart of Di xie" as a part of her theme ; her co m position was good; she had good tumbling difficulty, incl udin g a dismount o f RO, full twist, but sco red only 8.95 . Thies received 9.05. Chace upped the pace with a 9.25. joan Moore who was quite underscored at 9.4 used RO , ff, double twist in her mo un t, also fr ont hand sprin g, layo ut front. Cathy Rigby displayed that pixie quality w hich coaches have al ways p rogrammed for h er and used " RollOut th e Barrel " as a part of her music. It was one of her best performances on th e floor and sh e

rece ived a 9.5 for it, placing her in a tie tor 9th on the event. Lin da M etheny, the veteran of the sq uad , started wit h a slow dan ce pass and picked up the pace wit h some fa st tumbling.

Her exe rcise had more change of p ace t han d id the ot her gir ls', but likewise had no wasted motions. Her d iffi culty in cluded RO , full twist, plus some superior dance elements. Her score of 9.35 was h er high in the optiona l exercises .

The US girls netted a 46.55 on floor exercise whic h was not to be topped by any teams except the East German s and Russians.

Meanwhile, t he j apanese gi rl s were facing their prob lems wit h the judges. They were pressured into sma ll breaks in ot herwise fine exercises and suffered the pena lty of being one of the teams in contention fo r a hi gh placing.

Examp les of thei r FX difficulty elements includ ed Hasegawa's handspring, front and RO, ff, full and Matsuhisa 's RO, arab ian stepout and RO, full. However, US tumbling and gene ral compos ition w as sti ll superior to that of th e j apanese.

Afte r their first two events, the US an d West Germany were tied at 91.85 w ith t he j apa nese less than a point behind at 90.90.

The West Germ ans hit quite we ll on the uneven bars with scores in the low 9' s with hi gh scores of 9.35 for Oltersdorf and Niederheide.

Th ei r vau lting was good (45.65) but on ly Uta Schorn carried of a good sco re, a 9.40.

The j apanese uneven bar work had a few too mimy stops and interm ed iate moves to set up a sequence, b ut th ey sti ll earned a score o f 46.10, just .05 behind the US. Matsuhisa w ith a 9.4 was the str ongest competito r.

On the beam, po o r co mposition and lack of sureness were responsible for the 43.65 received by the West Germa ns. Nonetheless, their exercises were we ll received by the partisan crowd.

The US girl s were working on the vau lt; Pierce's Yamashita was so lid fo r 9.25. joan Moore took a st ep on t he landing of her fu ll twisting handspring for 9.15, Kim Chace performed cleanly h er half-on half off va ult without a great deal o f post-flight and received 9.00. Thi es' Yamashita with V2 twist earned a 9.1.Metheny accepted a 9.2 awarded h er first vault. Ri gby received 9.15 for her Yamashita with V2 twist.

The japa nese were only sli ghtly better than th e West Germans on the bal ance beam with lots of difficulty but lacking smoothness in their transitions. M atsu hisa used both forward ana side ae ria ls but fell aft er her side aerial and used a full twi st ing aerial d ismount. Th e pressure exerted by the officials was getting to th em ca u sing m o re errors than observed during their workouts in the practice gym.

Th e West German floor exercise resembled that of the US in co mposit ion but failed to carry off the imi tatio n with the sa m e style and flair.

Th eir blu esy music was ove rdram atic for th ese young p erformers. Scores ranged in th e hi gh 8' s and low 9's.

The last event for the US was the uneven bars wh ere they ea rned a 46.15, just .05 behind th e West Germans. Thi es' exe rcise was ve ry fastm ovin g and embod ied a su rpri se abo ut 2/ 3 of the way t hrough when a cast to handstand, wrap-around did not lead to th e anticipated dismount but anot her third o f an exercise followed capped by an inward somersault off the HB for her dismount. j oa n M oore's un even bar work was beautiful in its amplitude. She had a co uple stops in the exercise and took a couple steps for balance o n her full twistin g hecht dismount and received but 9.1 . The crowd whistled the ir di sapprova l. for the 9.2 score

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awarded Kim Chace for her excellent performance. Linda Metheny had revamped her exe rcise somewhat to adjust for her injurie s and performed it well alth ough it was without her usual brilliance. She received a 9.1 . Rigby 's exerc ise approached her difficulty maximum and was performed with the same deliberateness as characterized Metheny' s work but with more sparkle. Her award was a 9.4 and a big hand from the crowd. Roxanne used a sta ld er early in her routine and showed some fine combinat ion s but received only 9.3.

All of the US uneven bar wo rk looked international in style and composition , but it was the on ly event in which they were really out-scored by other nations .

At the conc lu sion of round three , the US had stepped into the lead at 365.90 having accumu lated 183.80 on the opt ional events. The j apanese were next at 359.75 and a 180.65 optional total. The West Germans w ith an 180.45 optiona l total were third with 357.95.

In the fourth round were Hun gary, Rumania , Czechoslovakia, and Norway. It was to be an exciting round since the Hungarians and Czechs were tied for third place after the compulsory compet ition s. It wou ld have been a good round for the US to be included in so that comparisons cou ld have been made more directly.

Within 20 minutes of the US completion on the uneven bars, the Hungarian team was up and the judges' bias took its Great Leap Forward. The high scores awarded the gi rl s appeared to have no relationship to the difficulty or compos iti on of the exercises and were not any more outstand in g than the US in the exce llence of their performance. The Hungarians received a total of 46.85, 0.7 more than the US. It was hard to believe that the judges had forgotten the exercises wh ich they had just viewed.

The Czechs started off on the floor exercise with good tumbling and sprightl y folk 路dancebased music. They received 45.95.

The Rumanians began on the balance beam with only Miss Ceampelea breaking into the 9's (9.05). She mounted with a forward aeria l to sit diagonally alo ng the beam .

The Hungarians we re quite cautious in their beam performances with many stops in the middle of the routines which detracted from the fluidity which should have been their goa l.

On the floor exercise, the Rumanians had some catchy folk dance music which caught up the crowd who clapped in rhythm. Their tumbling was good and they includ ed many leaps and dance elements.

Th e Hungarians also used a folk music base for their floor exerci se. Their tumbling was adequate but a little heavy and the ir dance elements n ot as bold as the Rumanians or US team. Aniko Kery used a pair of forearm walkovers in succession, had a nice handspring, layout front in one tumbling pass, and displayed some good dance elements. At 9.55 she shou ld not have beaten US's joan Moore.

In vaulting, the Rumanians held the ir own with a good Yamashita from Paula Ion and quarter-on, Quarter-off with good pre-flight and push-off from Alina Goreac, each scorin g 9.35.

The Hungarian s vau lts did look superior to those of the US. Their vaults showed good preflight, strong push-off, and solid landings. The vaults used included handspring, handspring with Y2twist, Yamashita, Yamashita with Y2twist.

Marta Kelemen used a handspring with full twist for 9.35 despite a giant step on her landing.

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.-...-.

Kim Chace of the US women's team performs a handstand on the high bar during her uneven parallel bar routine.

On the uneven bars, Rumania ' s Goreac used a straddle sole circle to cast out with free 1Y2 turn pirouette to regrasp and dismounted from a held handstand snapp in g down to 1Y2 back somersault (a la Tsukahara on parallels).

The Czechs were scored .5 ahead of the US on the uneven bars, and just .2 behind the Hungarians, but their work did not appear to match up with either the US or Hungary. Even with the pull of the Iron Cu rtain country judges, the Czechs could not survive their own miscues and lost their momentum to the Hungarians and dropped behind the US because of too many falls on the balance beam.

They requ ired a 44.90 to top the US but received only 43.90.

Czech gymnast, Bujnackova dismounted from the beam with a cartwheel to full twisting back.

Despite the fact that they were not in contention for a medal, the Norwegians did not benefit by being in a round with three East European co untri es. Their performances were gene rall y overlooked by the crowd despite some nice elements on their floor exercise.

The Hungarians picked up 186.10 optional points for a total of 368.26 to put them 2.35 ah ead of the US. The Czechs checked in with 182.85 for a total of 365.00,just.9 behind the US. The Rumanians at 181.70 totaled 360.70 to edge in ahead of the japanese. The stage was set then for the appearance of the Russians and East Germans.

The Canadians and Mexicans had to perform in the shadow of the top two teams of the competition . It was this round of performances by the Russians and East Germans which was accorded the most coverage by ABC-TV and it was this round which helped g ive women's gymnastics a big boost (and maybe a littl e black

eye) . It took being present in the arena to capture the crowd feeling which was generated by the fine performances of Turischeva, Lazakovitch, Korbut, janz and Zucho ld .

As Ms. Niemeyer wrote, " The genera ll y more mature USSR women (with the exception of the somewhat impish 17-year-old Olga Korbut) made their superiority over the GDR women more discernible than was the case at theWorid Games two years ago. The technique of the East Germans was perfect, but, leav in g Hellman and Zucho ld 路 aside, their very perfection was somewhat co ld and lacked the radiance that arouses aud iences to enthusiasm."

The Russians started on the floo r exercise.

Koshel mounted wit h RO, ff, back, ff, full twist, which was low and caused a step for balance.

She was rated but 8.7 by the judges. Saadi mounted with RO, ff, back, ff, layout; kept her exerc ise moving; and used her height to good advantage to generate a li ght and airy effect.

Her award was 9.4. Lazakovitch had high, powerful tumbling, was li ght and fast, and made 路 good use of dramatic poses. The heavy music of her accompaniment Russian somewhat detracted from the routine, yet the judges awarded her a 9.6. A little girl, pixie character was the image projected by Olga Korbut (much like the US portrayal of Cathy Rigb y in 1968) and her music fit in perfectly with the character ization. There was evidence of much work having gone in to polish her exercise from its appea rance at the Moscow trials. Her composition while good was not as smooth as Rigby's, but her tumbling, which included a high arch dive roll, a layout back dive to chest roll out, and fast handsprings, maintained the fast pace and flashiness of t he routine . Her optional award was 9.75.

Turischeva did not miss Korbut' s 9.75 by much

(9.70) but stirred th e crow d w ith her RO , ff , do ubl e full. Th e crowd liked h er m us ic, fo lklike in character, an d cla p ped in rh ythm w here th ey co uld . A ll th e Ru ss ian ro ut-i nes showed goo d cho r eo graph y.

Th e East Germ ans start ed o n th e balance bea m. Karin j anz showe d h er b es t w it h a 9.5 sco re fo r an exercise wh ich in clud ed a f ro nt w alk ove r ont o th e beam fr o m a di ago nal run for t h e m o unt and ca rt w hee l, back w ith f ull fo r di smo un t. Th ere were a co upl e moves w ith un sureness w h ich may have acco unted fo r th e d educti o ns, b ut eve ryt h in g else app ea red m echani ca ll y pr ecise.

Wh en it ca me th e Ru ss ian turn to va ult, Ko rbu t was amo ng t he fi rst up and perf o rm ed a high Ya mas hita w ith high p ost -fli ght an d so lid landin g for 9.6. Burd a had a ni ce high hand sp ring w ith full twi st and so lid landin g for 9.55. Laza kovi tc h also use d th e hand sprin g w ith full tw ist, twice wi t h in com pl ete tw ist and stumbling st eps o n h er landin g but wa s award ed 9.3. Turi sc heva al so used hand spring with f ull twi st receiving a 9.7. The Ru ssi ans all used an ev en length step , pi cking up th e pa ce of th e run as th ey hit th e takeoff bo ard : Th e steps numbered 11 or 12 plu s the hurdl e, and each run wa s ab out 20 me ters in length .

Th e East Germa ns p erfo rm ed th eir floor exercise路to variou s k inds of mu sic, but it w as still a su rpri se to hea r Am eri ca n sh ow tun e mu sic su ch as Zuchold's opening bars from " H ello Do ll y." She received a 9.55. jan z used a nice fol k d ance bea t and i nc luded in her exercis e three con secuti ve butterfli es; her score w as 9.7.

Zu cho ld received a 9.55 and th e thund erous appl ause whi ch greeted th e score mad e it diffi cult fo r th e M ex ica n girl s to compl ete their bal ance beam ro utin es

While Kos hel mi ssed her mo unt on th e un eve ns, th e rest of th e Russ ian tea m made up fo r it w it h we ll 路co mposed exe rcises. Bu rd a, fo r in stance, perfo rm ed cast to hands tand o n H B, sw in g dow n to LB, rebo und and shi ft grip to LB to w ind up in 路a hand stand pos iti o n.

Lazakovitc h ' s exe rcise was p owerful and poss ib ly undersco red at 9.5 as h er difficult y wa s so smoo thl y do ne th at it was no t recog ni zed , o n e such element b ein g he r f ree back hip circle to hand stand . She did a 3f4 giant to LB, bou n cin g bac k w ith arched b ody and o n th e forwa rd sw in g ge ttin g a b eat, ki p, back hip circl e, bo unce, f ull tw istin g hec ht o ff th e HB. Ko rbut 's exe rcise mu st be well en grave d upo n th e mind s o f th e televisio n audi ence fo r th e man y tim es it was sho wn as vid eotape r epl ay. Whil e so metim es accused of hav in g onl y t he路 big tri ck of th e ba ck lay out to regrasp fro m a straddl e sal e circl e o n th e HB, she fo llo we d this with a w ra p around , eagle; sea t c ircle o n LB, kip to HB, stoo p thro ugh and fall to sto m ach on LB, wra p aro und ; fo rward circle o n HB, half turn , bo unce o ff LB ; com e through , fo rward hip circle, fo rward straddl e circ le, bac k layo ut o ve r th e LB . For her ex ercise she re ce ived a 9.7 and mu ch appl ause from the crow d . (In th e din and w hi stl es-Euro p ea n equi va lent of boo ing-tryin g to influ ence th e judges, p oor Antoni eta Hernade z o f Me xico had to try to hea r her fl oo r exe rcise mu sic and compl ete her exe rcise. ) Turi sc heva mo unted with a va ult ove r th e LB; later perform ed kip to HB, rear sea t circ le, 1V2 piro uette to boun ce o ff t he LB, straddle ove r LB, b ounce , kip , forwa rd h ip circle, rea rwa rd sol e circle, free 1V2 pirou ett e and reg r as p , dro p to LB , w r ap aro und ...piro uette , d ro p back to LB, straddi e glide kip , ca tch th e HB, k ip, forward so le circle, V2 turn , bo u nce o ff LB... standing o n LB, ki ck to

Olga Korbut - USSR competitor and Olympic floor exercise champion.

Photo by Mitchell Barosh

hand stand on LB , half turn , fall aga in st HB , wrap aro und , full tw istin g hecht o ff LB. Sh e rece ived a 9.65 w hic h aga in bro ught lo ud w hi stl es o f di sa p p rova l fr o m th e audience. A ll o f th e Ru ss ians exc ept Ko rbut used th e 1V2 piro uett e with reg ras p to o ne sid e or th e o th er of th e HB. Th e Ru ssia ns o utscored th e Eas t Germ ans o n th e fl oo r exercise 47 .95 to 47.6 but th e East Germans reve rsed th e tr ick o n va ultin g, 47.9 fo 47.65. A ft er th e first tw o eve nts, th e Ru ss ia ns led 95.6 to 93.7 and ma intain ed t heir lead aft er 3 eve nts 143.15 to 141 .6 .

Z uc ho ld and j anz were ou tstandin g for th e Eas t Germ ans o n th e va ult. Zuch o ld rece ived 9.7 fo r a Yama shita and j anz 9.8 fo r her full tw ist from a pik ed han d sprin g. janz had good h eight and co mpl eted her twis t above th e ho ri zonta l, stretched o ut and had a so lid landing.

Ea st German perfo rman ce o n the bea m w as equi va lent onl y to th at o f th e Hun gari an s and sho w ed p oo r co mposi ti o n in m any respects.

Th ey lost som e p o ints h ere d espite good perfo rm ances by j anz and Zucho ld.

Th e Ru ss ian bea m perfo rm ances w er e we ll compose d and ea rn ed th em a 48. 20 w ith 3 perform ers aw arde'd 9.75's, La zakov itch, Korbut and Tur isc heva.

Korbut 's w ell publi cized routin e includ ed a layo ut back and ro lldow n throu gh c hest stand (this was th e third event in whi ch she used her layo ut back with th e ex treme fl exibil ity nee ded fo r th e un eve n!> or chest ro lls) to straddl e back up, a handstand from strength , and a stag hand stand , and a dismo unt w hi ch again was accu sed of bein g th e big tri c k : back so mersa ult to th e b ea m followed by front som ersa ult off. (Her consi stency on thi s tri c k is said to vary , som etim es lo w and n ecess itatin g an imm edi ate front, so metim es hi gh and showing a sta nd befo re throwin g th e fra n!. ) By co ntrast, Tu risc heva' s w ork w as cl ea n and with more cla ss an'd the diffic ult elem ent s w ere executed so w ell as to loo k simple.

Th e East G erm ans did w ell o n th e un eve ns with a 47.65 total and out- sco re d the Ru ss ians on thi s eve nt. Parti cul arl y go od were Zu chold, Jan z and Hellman. Zuc hold (9 .6) mounte d from a run and u sin g th e take-o ff b oa rd st r addl ed ove r th e LB to gras p the HB, stoop through ; ba ck sea t circ le o n HB, cas t to hand stand on LB ... back hip circl e, drop, w rap around , ea gle, straddl e over LB, k ip to HB, b ack hip circle, bounce on stomach, hecht d ismount ove r the LB . j anz rec ei ved a 9. 7 f o r h er ex erci se which started with a run , b ea t boa rd takeoff ov er the LB to grasp th e HB with V2 turn , kip up, und erswi ng w ith V2 turn to b o unce off LB, f ro m front hip circle o n LB, gra sp HB, half turn , sto op through seat circle, kip to HB, c ast to handstand, V2 turn , swing d o wn to LB, Radochla front to regrasp HB; dismount with kip to HB, ba ck hip circle, to full twistin g hecht d ismount.

Th e Canadi ans competed first on vaulting.

Their runs were fast but som ewhat choQPy and their landings no t as solid as f o r oth er t eams.

Their total of 45.55 was thei r high event in the optional competiti o ns.

Canadian Teresa M cDonald mounted the beam with a forward aeri al to seat using the beat board which wa s plac ed 2-3 feet away and at an angle.

Th e Canadian women did a good job on their floor exercise .. j enifer Dia c hun had strong tumbling, including a pike front in her routine .

The Russians to taled 191.35 in the optionals for an eight event total of 380.50. The East Germans scored 189.25 for an 8-event total of 376.55. Both teams were w ell above the other E'ast European challengers although the East

23

CATHY RIGBY 10th Place All-Around 1972 Olympic Games. Photo by

Mit,..h,.IJ ·• •.,..,h

Karin Janz

Germans did not have the depth behind Janz an d Zuchold th at Turi sc heva , Laza kov itch, and Korbut had .

Ms. Niemeyer observed that, " the womanlike, rhythmical style with a touch of dancing (USSR, Hungary, USA, CSSR) is asse rtin g itself against mere technical perfection w hich , as shown by the Eas t Germans, leaves you cold. " From Competition I were se lected the top 36 all-around perform ers and th e top 6 individuals on each even t. The US had only Cathy Rigby w ithin strikin g distance of a fin als berth w hen she tied wit h Zuc hold fo r 6th on th e beam. Zuchold got the decision allO w in g her to co mpete because she had the high er AA tota l (5th to Rigby ' s 10th after comp ulso ri es and optionals) . Cathy also was tied for 9t h on floor exe rcise with Ru ss ia' s Elvira Saadi . Only 9 different ' co mpetito rs represe ntin g only 3 countries mad e it into the finals.

The US and Hungary bo th adva nced 3 pl aces co mpar ed to their 1970 World Games stan dings while Holland jumped 6 pl aces up to 9th.

Canada made a re specta bl e showing at 11th and th e young West German tea m was likewise impress ive in fini shing 8th. Cathy Rigby was th e highest scoring western pe rfo rm er at 10th with 74.25 while Holland's Ans van Gerwen was western Europe's best with 72.95 and 22nd after Co mpetition I.

Despit e a well-publicized program in w hich yo ungste rs from all over th e co untry we re sc reen ed and brought along w ith special attention, France linished at 15t h. Here, however, as in Norway and Switzerland , gymnastics development has taken the track of enlisting majorit y participation rath er th an the formation of an elite. Norway has always had great stress on fitness programs in w hich rhythmi c gymnastics plays an impo rtant ro le. In Switzerland , va ri o us towns and can to n areas are spe ndin g cons id ~ r ab l e sums on facilities for at hletes and public fitness programs and t hi s effort sho uld pa yoff in more performers like yo ung Kaethi Frit sch i.

Various opinions as to th e state of US women's gymna stics in the eyes o f th e rest of th e world were received , all of w hi ch gave us hi gh prai se. Among the thoughts offered, howeve r, we re better coaching (in terms of psyc ho logica l management of the team), more individualized coac hing (apparently th e Russians train ed separate ly w ith their ow n coaches for much of the inte rim after their Olympic Tri als), and less publicity of th e Sports Illustrated var iety. It was qu estionab le as to how much t he SI article hurt Cathy when the whole team was being und ersco red by the judges, but the unfavorab le opinions held by Arthur Gander and others of the FIG were spread throughout the Munich newspapers, and this could not fail to affect the outcome.

Next issue, the GYMNAST will carry additional reports on the All-around and individual finals competitions. The AAU Gymnastic News was the source of quotes attributed to Tom Maloney and the international experts whom he interviewed while providing his expertise to ABC-TV in Munich. ' Additional notes were gathered in the preparation of this report from Mitchell and Jan Barosh. Translations of articles by Dr. Gohler of the Olympische Turnkunst and Mrs. Liesel Niemeyer of the Deutscher Turnerbund were prepared by Dr. Reinhard Becker. This compilation was prepared. by GYMNAST Associate Editor, Dick Criley.

26

At right: USA Women's team - Kim Chace, Cathy Rigby, Linda Metheny, Debbie Hill (Alternate), Joan Moore and Roxanne Pierce.

Photos by Mitchell Barosh

MOVIES -MUNICH OLYMPICS 1972See the greatest women gymnasts in their best ro utines. Rigby, Korbut, ja nz, Tou ri scheva, e tc. Gymnas ts name a nd sco re give n prior to each routine -- you be th e judge. Va ult in slow motion.

-RUSSIAN OLYMPIC TRIALSWorld womens gy mn astic team cha mpi o ns co mpe ting to represent th e USSR in Munich.

Optional ro utin es on a ll eve nts.

Filmed in Moscow.

MUN ICH supe r 8 & 8mm 400 ft. - $35.00 16mm -

800 ft. - $85.00

MOSCOW super 8 & 6mm 400 ft. - $35.00 vid eo tapes - price o n request -SPECIAL OLYMPIC PACKAGEMunich ga mes-Moscow trials Supe r 8 - 2 ree ls 400 ft. ea . - $55 .00 ALL FILMS IN COLOR Send c heck or money o rd e r to: CINECAMERA Box 746 Kailua, Hawa ii , 96734 Phone 261-2485

VIEW from

the TUBE ee Editor's note: Although Mrs. Hendershott submitted this article immediately following the O lympic Games, due to a lack of space it was not used in the previous Olympic edition. However we feel that the comments and TV observations made show tremendous insight.

A TV VIEW OF THE WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS COMPETITION AT THE 20th OLYMPIAD

Renee P. Hendershott Did we gel (he royal shaft? Bud Marquette seems to think so.

Watching on the first night , Sunday, I noticed nothing unusual. We saw only our own girls perform and their scores were not too obviously outof line. Cathy Rigby received a 9.2 on her bar compulsory. Her routine, as did Linda Metheny 's, looked clean except for two things, They both popped the fake eagle too low and threw the flip back off the HB like a swingback flip . Our girls all scored near this score with the exception of Thies, who scored 8.85.

Both Rigby and Metheny had very serious breaks in their beam routines. Cathy almost fell off after the cartwheel, aside from 4 other tiny breaks which brought her a score of9.25. Linda missed her handstand, overarching and almost going over. She did the hand stand again and was probably penalized for it .. .although she needed it to get to the next move. This, plus a few wobbles brought her a score of 8.4. The others all, wi.t h the exception of Thies scored between 9.0 and 9.25 .

I felt that Cathy was a bit underscored with a 9.3 on her floor ex compulsory, and floor ex is not her best event.

Joan Moore received a 9.15 on her floor ex, and thinking back, Joan looked gangly and lacked her usual elegance during this compulsory.

No one scored higher than 9.10 on the compulsory vault. It was hard to judge since we saw the vaults from the far end of the horse.

Monday, the Team Finals brought great disappointment 'to the USA team. Cathy Rigby left out her aerial front walkover in order to help her team make the push for 3rd place. She scored 9.35. I felt this was a fair score. She looked very solid and worked without a trace of fear, but a few small breaks on the beam brought her score down . Now she had no hope of making finals.

Kim Chace, who was tied for 3rd place at the end 'ot compulsory beam got an 8.95 on her optional, and Linda got a 9.10. Then Tourischeva of the USSR came on with a routine flaving a few breaks in it "and poor amplitude on her leaps and she received a 9.75!

28

Nancy Thies, youngest member of the US women's Olympic team poses on the balance beam. Miss Thies has been confused with other gymnasts in previous editions of the GYMNAST. The staff is extremely sorry for these past errors.

Photo by Mitche ll Barosh

Then we saw Bekesi from Hungary do an optional beam routine which would have brought her a low 8 in my estimation! She scored 9.40! Well, .... at this point, my adrenilin began flowing. This is when I opened my eyes and really started to pay attention to the judging! By the end of the beam event, Hungary was ahead of the USA by .7 of a point and the USA team was ahead of the Czechs by .055. Russia and East Germanywere still battling for 1 and 2. It was made known to us that the Superior judge was a Hungarian . Looking back now it seems that they scored our gals just about right so we wouldn ' t protest any of our scores. Then , they gave winqing scores to the ones they wished to get ahead. Since we can not protest any but our own gymnast's scores ... perhaps it was too late after this to do anything about it.

Kim Chace did a really good bar routine; and I feel she was a bit underscored with 9.2. Linda, because of her very serious injury to her diaphragm had to do a greatly watered down bar routine and still scored 9.10. Rigby did a bar routine comparable to Chace and received a 9.4. Pierce received a 9.3. She has some very difficult and original moves and is very strong on bars. Her connecting moves were improved from the time when we saw her at the Final Trials.

Then we saw Ilona Bekesi do a routine in which she displayed very poor amplitude, extended none of her gl ides, and showed no originality. I couldn't believe my eyes .... 9.55!

My score would have been in the low 8's.

At the end of this event, it was apparent that we were getting the ROYAL SHAFT. The judging on this day was nothing but POLITICAL! On the brighter side, we saw a girl who was considered Russia's second best gymnast, Olga Korbut, do one of the most unusual and

exciting bar routines in history. This little 17 year old bombshell kipped up to her feet on the HB, did a back flip and regrasped the HB during her routine. She performed other moves never before seen and deserved her score of 9.8!

Tourischeva, world champion (1970 World Games) from the USSR did a routine showing a number of full and l V2 twisting skills. Although she had a break on her landing, the routine seemed well connected, put had too many turns and not enough of the other elements, thus showing a lack of originality as compared with Korbut's routine. She got a 9.65 .

Tuesday, August 30, brought us the Women's Individual All-around Finals.in which Ludmilla Tourischeva of USSR won t'fl e gold medal. To determine the winner of "this event, V2 the compulsory and optional scores combined from the 2 days before wa s added to the optional score of this evening.

Little Olga Korbut did a beautiful layout dive backward to her hands and came down to the floor in a chest roll. ... a breathtakingly beautiful move. She had the old Cathy Rigby cute style and displayed a great deal of originality in her floor ex. I did feel that on this night , she was over scored, because in spite of a spectacular routine, she displayed quite a number of small form breaks. She did not deserve a 9.8 ..... that day.

Joan Moore was back to her old self again with her lovely fluent style and nice high tumbling. She did a 9.5 routine (including a double twisting back layout) and got a 9.5 .

Rigby seems to be in a transitional stage now.

She has grown older and probably could be working with a more mature type of music. Her style is definitely more mature, and her performance just didn't seem to want to fit the Beer Barrel Polka. She got a 9.55, and this was fair.

Karin Janz has style plus. She has abso lutely fantastic body movement with very few form breaks. She had a' slight bit of trouble with rhythm near the end, and scored 9.7.

Tourischeva made a 9.9 on this event. She, too, did a double full twisting back along with other very good tumbling pass es. I would say that was high for her routine . She had problems with her floor pattern in places and at certain times, I felt that , by using many lovely poses and body waves, she excluded a lot of spacial dance to save herself for her tumbling passes. She would have gotten a 9.6 from m e.

Going on to beam, Rigby did put in her aerial this time, but still received a 9.35. This was still fair , because she displayed a number of small form errors which kept her score down .

Tourischeva had a major break and several small ones besides low leaps and a bit of trouble on her landing and still got a 9.4. The routine was closer to 9.0.

Then we saw Tamara Lazakovich with a slow, heavy, conservative, no risk , and unoriginal routine get 9.75. Well ... 9.0 was the highest I could have given this gal.

Going on to bars, we saw Karin Janz 's well put together, and well executed bar routine receive a 9.7. With a couple form breaks this was a good score . She is rea lIy great.

This night spelled disaster for tearful Olga Ludmilla Tourischeva, Olympic All-Around Champion Photo by George Winters Korbut. She stubbed her toe on her glide during her mount and had to start again. She Then came Olga. WOW! That gal works as if Korbut really came out this night and gave it made the back flip okay, but then had a bad the beam were the floor! She did a high back all she had. Her form was so much better. I miss just before her kip to the HB. She literally layout to her hands to a straddle down, had thought, at one point, that she was going to get muscled up to the HB and managed her nice high leaps, and good turns. She attacked hurt. She came out of the back layout 'to her dismount. 7.5 was the score. that beam with the sureness of a cat and ended hands so vertically that she looked like she was At the end of these finals , Tourischeva was it with a well tucked back flip to the beam and, going to crush her chest. She came out of it rich in gold, Janz was bathing in silver and then an immediate front tuck off the side to beautifully though with only a slight leg break Lazakovich took a dubious bron ze. score a de se rved 9.9! which could have, but didn't cost her. She won DisillUSioned, and rightly so ... Cathy Rigby was the floor ex with a 9.9.

Lazakovich has a very tight and staccato style in 10th place ..... BEHIND ILONA BEKESI ..... who on floor. She "showed" well , although her In this author's eyes our USA Women 's could no way have out-classed her!!!! Joan pianist didn't seem to getthe feel of the rhythm Gymnastic Team looked great. No matter who Moore was 21st and Kim Chace was in 28th. The of her routine well . She scored 9.8. has the medals, I still think they belong in third one I really felt for was Linda Metheny, one of place or perhaps a shaky 2nd. They did a great Tourischeva gave a more elegant our most consistant performers. Having torn performance on this final day . A couple of job in spite of what was going on .... whatever it her diaphragm just before leaving for Munich , slight breaks after her more difficult tumbling was .... and HATS OFF TO OLGA KORBUT AND she was unable to work out for 12 days prior to passes still allowed hera 9.8.

KARIN JANZ. the Olympiad! She must not have even competed on this day . Her score was Olga Korbut, during the postflight phase of her vaulting.

36.250 ... half that of all the others.

Then on to the final day of competition, the winner of each event walked away with a gold medal.

Janz, Zuchold and Korbut vaulted to 1st 2nd , and 3rd places.

Tourischeva really tightened up and swung bars that night. She had a few breaks and landed a little crooked but got a 9.8. Korbut was back to her original self again, although she had slight difficulty making 'her handstand and her dismount lack e d the amplitude it had on the 2nd day of competition . She still got a 9.8 (dispite great audience disapproval and a protest from her coach); however the judges could not have given her more than that. The protest took so long that Olga seemed a bit embar.assed and nervous after a time.

Although Janz's routine is not quite as original as Korbut's she worked with such amplitude, good straight arms, and great rhythm that she received the deserved high score of 9.9. This gal had no breaks at all that I could see! BEAUTIFUL! Again Lazakovich scored a 9.8 on beam, and I just couldn't see it. She has very good form .. .. but that is where it stops. On the other hand .. .Janz had a well executed and very much more aggressive routine and received only a 9.55 .... TOO LOW. Comparatively.

Photo by Mitchell Barosh

NEWS

N'

NOTES Renee Hendershott Women's Coordinating editor

THE WRITING ON THE WALL "Success comes before work only in the dicitionary" Courage " If you think you're beaten yo u are, If yo u think you dare not, you don ' t; If you ' d like to win , but you think you can't, It's almost a cinch yo u won't.

If yo u think you' ll lose you've lost, For out in the world you' ll find Success begins with a fellow's will ...

It's all in the state of mind .

For many a race is lost Ere even a step is run , And many a cowa rd falls Ere even his work 's begun.

Think big, and your deeds will grow, Think small , and you ' ll fall behind ; Th ink that you can and you will .. .

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you ' re outclassed , yo u are.

You've got to think high to rise, You 've got to be sure of yourse lf before You can ever win the prize.

Life's battles don' t always go To the strong er or faster man , But soon or late the man who wins, Is the fellow who thinks h e can."

· REGIONAL REPORTS Since our regular gymnastic season has yet to sta rt and th e Ol ympics are over, we have no regional reports for you this month ; however we do have a few remind ers for you and some bits of informatio n that yo u shou ld keep hand y.

REQUEST TO ALL STATES AND ORGANIZATIONS SPONSORING GYMNASTIC ACTIVITIES I am in the process of sett ing up the CALENDAR for The Gymnast Magazine and th e NEWSLETTER CHAIN. I wan t to know the date, Meet or Clinic Directorto w hom one may write for info, where the event is to be held, who is eligible to come, whether it is for boys or girls or both. If it is a clinic..,the fee, and any major · personalities ' w ho will be teaching in it. Meets sanctioned by w hom? Local , State, Regional , National, and International. Anything else that might be important? ... lnciud e it.

IF YOU WANT TO TAKE THE USGF/DGWS CERTIFICA TlON EXAM You must know ·these books backwards and forwards:The USGF/ DGWS · NationaL Compulsories - all three levels know both routines ... and deductions ava ilabl e at USGF for $1.50, also in the DGWS Gymnastic Guide 71-73 (purple book) yo u w ill have a w ritten exam on these The FIG Code of Points for Women - $5.50 at USGF. The 1972 Judging Guide for Women - $3.00 at USGF. The written exam co nsists of questions on genera l judging knowledge and the compulsories . The Practical cons ists of optional routines and va ults only. The first score w ill be given to you. Then yo u w ill judge 5 more routines on each event. (The practical judging s are on film. ) You do not have to take one of the many co urses that are being give n to be able to take the exam. All you need do is contact the clinic Director, pay yo ur $3.00 and yo u can take the exam.

Note: These two contributions appeared in Coach-Joe RooneY's TYGA T'S TALE a I'lewsletter 'CORRECTIONS FOR THE USGF/ DGWS . he writes and sends to his team members . .A COMPULSORIESFOR WOMEN newsletter of this type might be very helpful to If you are a new subscriber and have not other teams if their coac hes can take time out received the new corrections please write the to write one. In th e next pages he gives rules to be followed by team members in ·order to · USGF, Box 4699, Tucson, Arizona ill'ld enclose 25<1:. They have prepared several pages of remain on the team . Below he li sts the names of . girls suspended; for how long, and for what · corrections which will clarify the text and loop films where discrepancies occur. YOU MUST violation , along with new members and those HAVE THESE CORRECTIONS! on the sick list.

Then he has his lists of workout groups and equipment responsibiliti es for the month.

Measurments for Women's Gymnastic Every girl on the team has her name, address . Apparatus and phone number in the letter. This makes for better communication for all.

Uneven Bars: Scattered ,throughout t he letter are things on HB 2m 30cm (7'6V/' ) LB 1 m 50cm (4'16") width the light side like gymnastic pu zz les, human between bars 54-78cm (21 .26 " "30.74") interest items about tea m members etc., a Beam: philosophical article, meet results (you would 120cm high (47.24 " ) 5m long 100mm wide be surprised how much time it saves to print Fioor Ex.: these things . How many times have you had mothers come up ask ing how her daughter 12m x 12m (39.36 ft x 39.36 ft.) If on a platform, did?) . There is a spot in there for parent club · allow 2m aro und border for safety news and . .. last but not least. .. the meet Vault: schedule.

1100mm (43.31 " ) (This was n o t in the Guide. It was in the FIG Measurements booklet. .

Congratulations coach Roon ey! Everyone on your team must,bevery aware of exactly what is happening, what is expected of her, and what : Ju st in case you are rusty on the metric system: 1m eq uals 100cm equals 1000mm the near future holds for her and the team. .1 m eq uals 39.37 " TYGAT stands for Tacoma YMCA Gymnastic 2;54cm equals 1 in. and Acro Team .

FIG

30

. Doc Gruininger

DOC RETIRES AS LAKE ERIE AAU DISTRICT CHAIRMAN Yes, we all cal l him Doc, although he modestly ca ll s him self Mr. Gruininger. He is Doc to us and has alwa ys been our most beloved gymnastics friend in Northern Ohio.

This man has his finger in so many pots, I couldn't name them all ; but he knows w hat's going on and has one of the most level heads that we ha ve ever met up wit h.

Although , . theoretically , the district Chairman could change every 'four years, we have been privileged to have him as ' a permanent District Chairman and wQuld still have him if he would remain. However, this year Doc will become the President of the AAU in the Cleveland Area and this will mean th at he will be in charge of all AAU sports ..Because of his in creased responsibility in this area he announced hi s retirement la st Sunday (Sep. 17) at the Annual AAU Convention held at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

The GymnasticCommittee voted in Mr. Rudy Bachna, very well known to all of u s, as LEAAU District Chairman for Men, and h is wife Janet as District Chairman for women . Janet and Rudy have both been spreading the world of Gymnastics throughout our district for a number of years through their dozens of four day clinics they give all summer.

Spotting Dan Speraw, nin e years a competitor himself, and a former coach of the SCAT's team in Southern Ca. has been commissioned as coach for the Burlingame Olympian Club, 1730 Rollins Rd . Burlingame, Ca. 94010 Ph 415 - 6974567 Dan in his monthly newletter to his team has brought up a very important point : " SPOTTING " or " How to last through a-period of Beginners" How many countless times ,have we taught a cl.ass of 20; 30 or 60; and attheend of the period been completely .ex hausted without accomplishing much? An answer to this problem not only relieves our aching backs and arms, but also keeps the students busy ... andit is the fastest way for them to learn : Teach your gymnasts (or begin~ers) TO·SPOT EACH OTHER! For instance, 30 semicbeginners ready to try their fi.[st front hand springs: a quick division into 10 groups of 3, and· a five minute talk on spotting in general .. .. and then it's step by step, beginning with being turned over from a handstand .

1. One student ki cks up to a handstand betwe en the other two , and is held th ere .

2. Each spotter puts one arm along the shoulders, and the oth er arm just above the sma ll of the back, and they turn the gymnast over. I n other words, your two spotters assist just the way yo u wo uld ..... and then they rotate so each has a try.

3. Whefl this becomes comfortab le, they progress to kicking up a little harder and faster.

And after a w hile, work in g up to a hurdl e into the handstand, and being turned right over .... and finally , each gymnast is running to a handspr in g, and needing less and less assista nce.

The important point is that you, the coac h, are free to do your work of teaching, and ca n now be sure you r body won 't give in ha lf way through th e season.

Th e fastest way to learn is to teach.

Student's com ments to each other should be enco uraged.

Training Clinic Th e Western Sta tes Regional Trai nin g Clinics w i ll co ntinue again this yea r. Coaches have been writing t hat they wou ld like to conti nu e the clinics aga in this yea r. These cl inics we re reserved fo r the top 4 Elites, and 3 top juni ors of va riou s clubs throughout California , brought together from all over to t rain w ith top coac hes.

A COMMON GOA L: Bring t he Western Gymnasts up to intern ational competit ive skills , and recognition . If yo ur club or o rganization is interested, please contact Cheryl Wagner in ca re of the California Newslette r, P.O . Box 5141 Fresno, California.

GYMNASTIC

PROGRAM COLLEGE

SPRINGFIELD

Mimi Murray Springfield College is located in Western Massachusetts o n Lake Massasoit about three miles from the downtown of the seco nd largest city in the Commonwealth . The campus offe rs the advantage of a smalltown New England setting wit hin a metro poli tan area.

The co ll ege is an independent, non sectarian, so-educat iona l, privately supported in stitution co mmitted t o quality education for professional leaders hip p ositions and is open Springfield College Women's Gymnastic Team

without restri ctIOns to all qualified students.

There are. three und ergradu at e div isio ns: Health, Physical Education and Recreation; Teacher Educati on ; and Arts and Sciences. The three divisions offer programs lea ding to the B.A ., B.P.E., or B.S. degrees. Th e co ll ege has a grad uate division wh ich offers programs leading to the M .S., M. Ed., M .P.E., Certificate fo r Advanced Study (s ixth level) , and, in Physical Edu cation, to the Doctorate.

Th e Physical Educat io n majors at Springfie ld are required to take three skil ls co urses in gymnastics. Gymna stics I is an introductory course; Gymnastics II is comp ulsory exercises o n the four oumpic events; Gymnastics III is optional exercises o n th e four Olympic events.

The co ll ege offers other se lective gymnastics sk il ls classes: Modern Gymnasti cs ; Gymnastic Activities; and Recreational Gymnastics.

In additio n, Springfield Col lege has an exce ll ent dance program including all levels of Ballet, Modern Dan ce (I, II) , Advanced Modern Dance Th eori es, Fo lk Dance (I and II ), and Fundamentals of Rhythm . Th ere are also two ve ry active Dance Clubs on campus.

Our gymnasti c gym, judd Gym, (named for the first gymnastic coach at Sp rin gfield and pioneer leader in the field of gym nastics in th e Un ited States), is located in the cente r of ca mpu s an d is close to all o f t he dormitories.

Our team consists of approximately eighteen girls and we work out f rom 3:45 to 6:30 daily.

We also provide indi vidual practice time throughout the day whe n schedu les do not conf li ct. Th ese have prov en to be o ur most profitable coachin g tim es. Our coac hin g staff consists of one full-time coach, Mimi Murray, and an assistant coach who is a graduate teachi ng fellow. Thi s individual cha n ges yearly.

This yea r she is Marge Sm ith.

We share our gym facilities with ou r excelle nt men's gymnastic team, coac hed by Frank Wolcott. One of the strengths of our program is the support and coope rati on th e men 's coac hin g staff and team give us. We have at least two pi eces of apparatus set up and working at all tim es.

Presentl y, fifty percent of our team members are phys ical education majors while the other fift y percent are majoring in other areas such as pre-medical, sociology, teacher ed ucat ion , bio logy, and hi story.

We have o utsta ndin g training facili ties as we ll as the three Registered Physical Therapists teachin g in o ur Rehabilita tion program.

Th e ambiti ons of o ur compet iti ve gym n astic program are simple, ye t al l in clusive. We want to be the b est we ca n be as a team and as ind ividua ls. W e have been most successfu l and are quite proud of our ac hievements. Since be co ming coac h of the women 's tea m in 1969 our team has co mpiled a reco rd of twenty six wins against no losses in dual meet co mpeti tion . In the four yea rs from 1969 to 1972 the women h ave been the East ern Champ ions each year, t h e Nat iona l Interco llegiate Champions in 1969, 1971 , and 1972, and placed second in th e Nationals in 1970. The girls on our team wh o are in terested, are encou raged to compete in Nationa ls other than the D.G .W .S. Nationals. Not o nl y so we have exce llent athletes o n ou r team , bu t fin e young women who are also in te rested in a quality ed uca tion .

REEVALUATION OF THE CALENDAR I n the past three yea rs we have put every date we could get our h ands on into th e ca le nd ar eve n down to the last ity-bity loca i event. We p ut all of the international events fi rst, the national events second in a separate co lumn . and the regional events i n still another sepa rate co lumn . Th en we li sted all the loca l events that were being held i n each sta te separately .. . state by state.

This is what we found : 1. In usin g the state ca lendars o ne h as to triple check on the region al and nat io nal ca le ndars to make sure there are no co nflicts ... takes too much time.

2. The State loca l info rmati on th at we get in now is so bulky that the whole GYMNAST will be a ca lend ar if we put everything in ; We think this shou ld be solved in this manner. a. In every state there is someone who is aware of what is going on and who is capab le of producing a good ca lendar. We suggest th at someone f rom each state rece iving this newsletter send u s the name and address of the . person o r persons who are responsib le fo r getting their state cale ndar prepared and sent out. Send directly to Renee P. H end ershott, 17605 Fri es Ave., Lakewood, Ohio 44107. b. These co ntacts will be print ed in the GYMNAST so that you all will know who to write.

3. Peop le maki ng use of the Nation al Ca lendar are very likely to be in te rested in the Inte rn atio nal Ca lendar as well, so natio nal and intern atio nal dates will b e print ed together.

4. We wi ll co ntinue to pr in t as m any region al events includ ing open mee ts to w hi ch peop le from nearby surrro undin g sta tes m ay co me,ex hi bit ions.cli nics such as jud ging clin ics whi ch are not natio nal , but to whi ch peopl e in surrounding areas cou ld drive, co nvention s, regional qualifyi ng meets etc.

5. We already know contacts for some states because they write loca l n ewsletters.

Th ese p erso ns are already establ ished loca l newsletter write rs: 1. CALIFORN IA. .. Cheryl Wagner, cl o California Gymnastic Newsletter, Box 5141, Fresno, California.

2. FLORIDA ... . j ack Miles , cl o Florid a Gymna stics Newsletter, P.O. Bo x 10373, Fort La ud erda le, Florida 33305 .

3. MICHIGAN .... Owen Perkin s clo Michigan Gymnastic Newsletter, 2806 Lin wood Ave ., Royal Oak, Michigan .

31

4. NEW JE:I{SEY .... Helen Sjursen clo New Jersey Gymnastics Association Newsletter, 46 Poplar Place, Fanwood , New Jersey.

Munn clo Nissen 5. OHIO ... .Ron Gymnastic News - Ohio 5056 Brewster Dr. ; Columbus, Ohio 43227.

6. TEXAs ... . Brian Schenk clo Texas Gymnastic Reporter, 5100 Old M anor Rd. , Austin, Texas 78723.

7. NEW YORK .... Linda Chencinski, 36-36 172 nd St., Flushing, New York 11358.

8. MAl NE ..... Barbara E. stoyell, 46 College Ave., Orono, Maine 04473.

9. MID-ATLANTIC. . .Mrs. Dolores Cuddeback clo The Beat Board , 1541 E. Strasburg Rd . West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380.

10. ALABAMA ... .william Guy, Rt. #4 Box 120, Birmingham, Alabama 35210.

If you write one in your own area, even just a newsletter that you think might be of interest to only your own team, or know of someone who does, please ·Iet us know about it.

We need to know about them (a nd would like to receive a copy of each one) anyway because of our regional coverage in the GYMNAST. Your local newsletters often clue us in to something that would be of human interest to all, or really of importance. If we have the newsletters at hand, we can contact the people involved for information and articles for us all to read.

CALENDAR INTERNATIONAL - NATIONAL 1973 Feb. International Judging Course for Women (Artistic Gymnastics) German - Sponsor: Austrian Federation . Chief Lecturer Mme. Wiesenberger.

Mar. 9-10 National JC Gymnastic Championship, Farmingdale, NY. Mar. 23 NAIA Gymnastic Championships, University of Wisconsin , La Crosse Campus.

Mar. 30-31 NCAA College Division Gymnastic Championships, San Francisco State College.

Apr. 5-7 NCAA Gymnast ic Championships, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.

Apr. ? 2nd International gymnastic contest for Colleges at College for P.E. at Tilburg, Holland ... men and women .. .11 countries incl. USA invited.

Apr. 7-8 National Gymnastics Intercollegiate Women .. Cliff Lothery, Chicago Met. PE Office 31 E. Ogden Ave., La Grange, III. 60525 PH (312) 352-7600.

Apr. 12-14 USGF Jr. Nationals .. .Denver. . .Mr. Rod Hill, 6250 W . 55th , Arvada , Colorado 80002.

Apr. 13-14 National YMCA Gymnastic Championships, Lee Circle Branch YMCA, New Orleans, La. Apr. 13-17 AAHPER National ' and Central District Convention, Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Apr. 20-21 National DGWS Gymnastic Championship, Grandview College, Des Moines, Iowa Apr. 19-21 or 26-28 USGF Senior Nationals Apr. 20-21 AAU Jr. Nationals at Jefferson H.S. in Jeffersonville, I ndiana (across the bridge from Louisville) sponsored by Louisville Gc. Open to any AAU gymnast . . Sane, by AAU, USGF, NCAA ... Age minimum for women - 13 and for men - 15.

Compulsories: Women - 1972 USGF / DGWS Advanced Level. .. Men 1972 YMCA Nationals and AAU Jr. routines. Entry fee $5.00 women and $6.00 men plus $3.00 / team ... Cap Caudill 5303 S. Preston St. , Louisville, KY. 40213 PH (502) 968-3177.

May 3-5 USGF Elites. .Tentative site. .Seattle, Washington.

May 31 - Jun. 1 AAU Senior Nationals Ellsworth Stumpf will hold meet at Canisius College. Contact him at Dept. of P.E., Canisius College, Buiialo, N.Y. 14208 PH (716) 883-7000.

June 15 International Judging Course for Women in Madrid, Spain June (I ale) American Sokol National Meet and Slet (meet for members only) boys and girls from 13 to over 30 from US and Canada. Mrs. E.W. Schnabl, Dir. of Women , American Sokol Organization, 2503 S. Harvey Ave., Berwyn , III. 60402 "S let" means Festival.

- 32

Aug ? Internation al Judging Course for Women Canada and USA - Sponsor Canadian Federation Chief Lecturer to be decided. .

Aug. National Junior Olympics and many clinics are held during this month.

Oct. 26-27 European Championships in London ... The two best gymnasts from each Federation should come so that this championship will not be threatened as a major competition.

Nov. 15-18 1973 Modern Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The program is described in the June 1972 FIG Bulletin.

REGIONAL CALENDAR 1973 Jan. ? Women 's ludging Course in Rockville, Maryland area , directed by Mrs. Betty Lou Breese, USGF State Chairman for MD and National judge. For Info write her at 14209 Hiwood Dr., Rockville 20850 Ph (424-5243).

Jan. 13 Glassboro Gymnastic Winter Clinic at Glassboro State College N.J. for Boys & Girls 9 & up.

PIT ratio 10-1 Fee $7.00 Edgar M. Knepper, 255 Pinehurst Rd. Wilmington Delaware (302) 656-3715.

Jan 12-14 THIS IS A DATE CHANGE ... USGF / DGWS Women's Gymnastics Judging Clinic and Certification Exam conducted by Delene Darst, Chairman USGF Judges Training Comm. Tulakes Elementary School N.W. 63 and N. Galaxy - Oklahoma City. Clinic Fee $12.00 and exam fee $3.00 (exam optional). For info: Mary Ann Wagner 2114 W. 3rd., Stillwater, Oklahoma 74074.

Jan 18-22 AAHPER Southwest District, Town House, Phoeni x, Arizona.

Feb. ? Midwest Specialist Meet, Betty Meyer, Northeastern III. Univ. Bryn Mawr at St. Louis, Chicago, III. PH 312 - 583-4050 ext. 351 or 525 Feb. 17 10th Annual Quad Meet between Ohio State U., Miami U., Penn State, and Kent State at 2:00 PM Tickets : Adults $1.00 and students 50¢ get from Mr. Rudy Bachna address on Apr. 27-28 date.

Feb. 22-23 AAHPER Southern District Hotel Heidelberg, Jackson, Mississippi.

Mar. 4 MAGDA League Championships, Edgar Knepper 311 Mountain Ave. Apt. B-2 Bound Brook, N.J. Spectators Welcome - 15 tea ms competing.

Mar. 8-10 Eastern Inter-Collegiate Championships, Temple Uni ve rsity, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania .

Mar. 10 First State Open for Girls: Ron Gilbert 115 State Line Rd. Wilm., Del. 19803 Mar. 8-10 AAHPER Northwest District, Dave nport Hotel, Spokane, Washington Mar. 17 USGF Regional Meet - Girls Reg:on VII: Don Peters, 223 Williams St. Downingtown Pa. M_ar•• 18 Midwest Open Beginner Optional Meet for 10-12 yr. olds at Cicero Stadium , 1906 S. Laramie, Cicero, Illinoi s (Jim Stark).

Mar. 22-14 Western Athletic Conference Gymnastic Championship, Colorado State Fort Collins, Colorado.

Mar 23-25 or 30,31 - Apr 1. USGF Regional Meets must be held on one of these two weekends.

Mar_ 30-31-Apr. 1 USGF Regional for Region V, Carbondale, Illinois (for qu alifiers from III., Mich., Ky., Missouri, and Ohio) ... for wome n .. .Jr. and Sr. Level Meet. . Meet Director, Mr. Herb Vogel. .. For Tickets: Herb Vogel S.I.U., Health Dept. Carbondale, Illinois PH (618) 457-2565.

Mar. 23-24 Big 10 Gymnastic Championship, University of Iowa, Iowa City , Iowa.

Mar. 24-26 AAHPER Midwest Di strict, Sheraton and Columbus Hotel, Columbus, O. Mar 22-25 AAHPER Eastern. District, Mt., Airy Lodge, Mt. Pocono, PA. Mar 29-31 Pacific 8 Gymnastic Championships at UCLA- Los Angeles which includes competition by va rsity men from UCLA, USc, Cal, Washington , Oregon , Stanford and Washington State. For Tickets: Art Shurlock, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90024 PH (213) 825-1003 Mar. 31 Eiche'lnvitational for Boys ... Mr. Rolf Helmke, Eiche Turners, 165 E. 115th St. Chicago, Illinois.

Apr.7 Eastern States Invitational, Conn. , N. Y. , N.J ., Pa. , Del., Md ., Ruthann McBride.

Apr 12-14 AAHPER Central District Convention held in conjunction with the National Convention Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Apr. 14 Little 10 for Boys ... age group ... for ages 9 thru 14.

Rolf Helmke Eiche Turners 165 E. 115th St. Chicago Illinois Ph(312) 264-9493.

Apr. 27-28 "Gy mnastics in Motion " Gymnastic Spectacular at Memorial GymnaSium 7:30 PM Tickets: Adults $2.00 Students $1.00 Write to Mr Rudy Bachna #166 Memorial Gym, Kent State University, Kent Ohio 44240 PH (216) 672-2820.

Jul. 28 Midwest Gymnastic Assoc. Summer Invitational Arlington Hts. H.S. Tom Chapman 662-6395.

N.oTE ABOUT USGF STATE MEETS: They must all be held no later than weekend of March 18th.

JUDGING NOTES The new DGWS / USGF Women ' s Certification exam became available in September of 1971. The cutoff date for this first list was June 16, 1972. Since that time many people have taken the exam and either passed it or raised their rating leve l. It would be nice if we could get this li st up-dated each month so that we would all have a more complete list of women who are qualified to judge. Couldn ' t some of you women w ho are administering the exam send me the names of the persons who pass each month so that they could be published. Does anyone ha ve a suggestion as to how we could work this?

Renee P. Hendershott D_G.W,S. -- U.S.G.F. CERTIFIED JUDGES OF 1976 Official List from Sharon Wilch NCJ fE: THREE REPORTS IN ONE YEAR OR SIX REPORTS IN TWO YEARS ARE NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN THE ACTIVE JUDGING STATUS. ALL CARDS EXPIRE IN DECEMBER OF 1976. IF YOU HAVE TAKEN THE TEST FOR 1976 AND YOUR NAME DOES NOT APPEAR ON THIS LIST, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR TEST ADMINISTRATOR. CALIFORNIA NATIONAL RATING: Shirley Anderson 1162Cardoza Tulare, Ca.; Debbie Damsen 1141 North Norwich Fresno, Ca.; Joan Kidder 2305 N. Barton Fresno, Ca .; Maureen Rhodes2116 West Beaco n Ave.Anaheim,Ca. 92804; Cheryl Wagner 3054 E. Dayton Apt KK Fresno, Ca. 93726.

REGIONAL RATING: Joanita Atkins 4256 Elizabeth St. Cudahy, Ca. ; Shirley Anderson 1162 Cordoza Tucore, Ca.; Susan Capps 6699 Waterloo Road Stockton , Ca./ 95205; Nina Fomenko 8216 Fallbrook Ave. Canoga Park , Ca. 91304; Lorrie Gould 11682 Pine St. Los Alamitos, Ca.; Sharon Heffernan 383 Port Ro ya l Foster City, Ca. 94404; Judith Smith 3380 D Northwood Drive Concord, Ca. 94520; Debbie Swartz 1141 North Norwich Fresno. Ca .; Kathy White 29251 Trailway Agoura, Ca. LOCAL RATING: Marion Buttrill; Poll y Canfield ; Vicki Engbrecht ; Jennifer Jordan ; Nancy Paul; Kathlee n Shelly; Bobby Tudsbury.

COLORADO NA TlONAL RATING: Chris Beyer 1567 Robidou x Cr. Colorado Springs, Co. 80917; Phyllis Jones 2010 East LaSalle #201 Colorado Springs, Co. 80909; Marada Lyon 3806 Halfturn Rd. #160 Colorado Springs, Co. 80917; Sharon Weber 8790 East Bellewood Place Denver, Co. 80237.

REGIONAL RATING: Judy Bodman 1120 Edinboro Drive Boulder, Co. 80303; Patricia Druggan 3235 South Garland Wa y Denver, Co . 80227.

LOCAL RATING : Joanne Aschenbrenner; Cinda Ballard: Carole Bunge; Marjorie .Corso; Colleen Harschman; Mary Kvamme; Mary Ann Mahoney; Debra Page; Shirley Page; Shirley Snyder; Kathleen Stacy; Sharon Wilch ; Marilyn W ilcox.

DELAWARE NATIONAL RATING : Pat Knepper' 235 Pinehurst Road Wilmington Del. 19803.

LOCAL RATING: Gail Hill.

FLORIDA NATIONAL RATING: Wilma Fizell 130 E. Port Rd. Riviera Beach , FI. 33404; Rosemary Marshall 7829 W. Panama St. Miramar, FI. 33023; Joyce Griffen 324 Ohio Ave. Valparaiso, FI. 32580; Lydia Taylor 218 Grand View Ave. Valparaiso, FI. 32580 ; .

GEORGIA NATIONAL RATING: Pat Floyd 4558 Rosewe ll Road N.E. #K-4 Atlanta , Ga. 30342; Nancy Moynihan 4558 Roswell Road N.E. #K-4 Atlanta , Ga. 30342.

LOCAL RATING: Rita Klee; Diane Preston; Donna Stuart.

ILLINOIS NATIONAL RATING: Nanette Schnaible W.P.E. Dept.

Southern. III. University Carbondale, II.; Jolene Swoboda W.P.E. Dept. Southern III. University Carbondale, II. Phyllis Swoboda W.P.E. Dept.

Southern III. University Carbondale, II. LOCAL RATING: Catherine Korando ; Sandra Laing.

IOWA NATIONAL RATING : Jackie Fie Box 312 Jefferso n, IA. 50129.

KENTUCKY NATIONAL RATING: Carol e Liedtke 6805 Moorhaven D ri ve Loui svil le, Ky .

REGIONAL RATING : Judy Crabtree 4531 Fox Run Road Lou isv ill e, Ky. LOCAL RATING : Theresa Wa rn er.

LOUISIANA REGIONAL RATING : D ebbie Cooper Southeastern Lou isiana College Co llege Station H ammond , La .; Carolyn Embry Southeastern Lou isiana Unive rsity Hammond, La.; Barbara May Southeastern Lou isiana Un iversity Hammond, La. MARYlAND NATIONAL RATING : Belly Lou Breeze 14229 HiWood Drive Rockv ill e Md. 20850; D ia ne Carp enter 5400 Pooks Hill Rd Bet hesda, Md. 20014; Jean Edwards 1604 Marsha ll Ave. Rockv ill e, Md . 20851; Led ani Sain P.O . Box 57 Fork , Md. 2105 1; Diane Singleto n 5400 Pooks Hill Rd Bethesda , Md. 20014; Jean W eb er 1427 Jeffers Rd Towson, Md. 21204.

REGIONAL RATING: Mary Lou Price 18 Fence li ne Cou rt Gait hersb urg, Md. 20760.

MICHIGAN LOCAL RATING : Linda Morton .

MISSISSIPPI LOCAL RATING: Martha Fu lton; Josey Temp leton .

MISSOURI LOCAL RATING: G loria Jo h nson.

NEBRASKA LOCAL RATING: Linda Be ran.

NEW JERSEY LOCAL RATING : Jeanne Al bert ; Ba rb ara Beavis; A rl ene Norris; Eli za bet h W hitn ey'.

NEW MEXICO REGIONAL RATING : Shelly M ackay 2901 Santa Cruz S. E. A lb uque rque, NM 87106 LOCAL RATING : Pam Groves; Jud y H all.

NEW YORK NATIONAL RATING : Barbara H ess 327 Town Line Rd East Northpo rt, NY 11731; Marilyn Cross 204 Lake land Ave. Soyv ill e, NY 11782; D eborah Fauth 43 A rgy le Ave. Baby lon , NY 11702; Arl ene Resnick 454 Gard en St. East Meadow, NY 11 554; Mary Starn 121 Lenore Lane Centereach, NY 11 720.

REGIONAL RATING : Lorraine D elucus' 680 Ridge Rd. W. Onta ri o, NY 14519 ; Linda Hopkins 64 Van Bome l Blvd. Oakdale, NY 11 769; Doro th y M elin 1503 Devon sh ire Rd Hauppa u ge, NY 11787; Donna Sanzo ne 20 Ju ly Ave. Bayville, NY 11709 LOCAL RATING: Sharon A long' ; Annette Asmus; Jud y Black ; Loui se Mangan.

OHIO NATIONAL Delene D arst 7678 Cathedral Hi ll Dr. Cincinnat i, Oh. 45244.

REGIONAL RATING: Jan L. Fellers 1549 East Main St. Lancaster, O h. 43130; Renee H endersholl 17605 Fri es Ave . Lakewood , Oh. LOCAL RATING : Chri stine Be ll ' ; Colleen Ecke l; Nancy Gord on; Christ ine Kell e r; Kitt y O'Brien'; Mer il ee W ilde*.

OKLAHOMA REG IONAL RATING : M ary Ann W agner 211 4 West 3rd Stillwater, Ok . 74074.

OREGON NATIONAL RATING : Varina French Rt. 1 Box 245 Forest G rove, O r. 971 16 REGIONAL RATING: Arlene Crosman Rt. 2 Box 116 Lebanon , Or. LOCAL RATING: Ann Beeman; Pat Griffit h .

PENNSYlVANIA NATIONAL RATING : Dolores Cuddeback ' RD #3 West Chester, Pa. 19380;. Sandra Stutzman Frank li n Mars hall Co l. A th . Dept. La ncaster, Pa. 17603.

REGIONAL RATING: Barbara Blakes lee 919 West 17th St. Erie, Pa. ; M arth a Ferris 5763 Nort h Woodstock Ph ilade lphia, Pa . 19138; Kath y Gray 3207 Buffalo Road

W es leyv ille, Pa . 19138; Mary Ann Krick 107 Virg ini a Ave. Reading, Pa. 19606.

LOCAL RATING: Suza nne Fair; Ba rbara Harris; Carole Ide; Jean McM ann is; Jeanne Peters'.

LET SOME SUN

TEXAS LOCAL RATING: Darlene Schmidt; Joy Waggoner.

VIRGINIA NATIONAL RATING: Barbara Reinwald 3126 Mano r Rd Fa ll s Ch urch, Va. 22042.

REGIONAL RATING : Peggy Bialla 6428 Wa in fl eet Co u rt Spr ingfield, Va . 22150; Diane H armon 14941 Kamputa D rive Cent revi ll e, Va. 22020; M argery C. Jones 4203 Newport Dr. Chanti ll y, Va . 22021; Patricia J. Pyle 5431 H eron Dr. Centrev ill e, Va. 22020; Georgia C. W i ll 11930 Ce nt ral Dr. Fa irfax , Va. 22030

IN!

WASHINGTON NATIONAL RATING : M arne H ayter 6333 N .E. 158t h Bothe ll , Wa . 98011 ; Ann Ko skovich 24813 - 38t h Ave.Sout h Ke nt, Wa. 98031.

REGIONAL RATING: Sharl ene Cearlock 4803 N.E. 76th Seatt le, Wa. 981 15; Karen Hanson 111 " R" St. S.E. Auburn, Wa . 98002; Lyn Holt 800 - 4th N.E. A u b u rn , Wa. 98002; Karen Sanford 2309 - 24th St. Everett, Wa .

9820'1.

LOCAL RATING : Me lra Bo hnan; Mon ica Brown; Alma Carver; Pat Hatmaker; La ima Huston ; Maril yn McGillen; Peggy Rowan ; Karol Sanford; Ange la Schauer; Eli zabet h Stoelt; Judy Swanson.

WISCONSIN NATIONAL RATING: Mary I. Mclellan Un iversity of Wisconsin LaCrosse, Wi. 54601.

REGIONAL RATING : Jo Ann Friesen University of Wiscons in River Fa ll s, W i. 54022; Judy Schalk 1600 Sou th 93 rd St. West A llis, W i. 53214; Jan yce Sjoquist Univers ity of W isconsin LaCrosse, W i. 54601.

LOCAL RATING : Kay Carter; Ba rbara Friesen; Leno re Krajewski; Cece McCaigue;- Ma ry Posse lt ; Ma ri on Snowden. ' IF ANY ERRORS ARE FOUND, PLEASE FORWARD A POST CARD CLARIFYING THE M ISTAKE. iF RAT INGS, SPEL LI NGS OR ADDRESSES ARE INCORRECT PLEASE NOTIFY US IMMEDIATELY! Sharon Wi lch Ce rtificat ion Chairma n 6357 West M ississ ippi Place Lakewood , Colorado 80226

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33

BOOK Review by Renee Hendershott "Judging and Coaching Women's Gymnastics", Bowers, Fie, Kjeldsen , and Schmid is now available for $8.95 from National Press Books, Palo Alto, California. It is beautifull y and correctly illustrated by Diana Atti e Seeman .

Carolyn Bowers opens with a discussion of the responsibiliti es of judges in relation to U.S.A. Teams, and to competitors .... .gives you something to think about if you take judging lightly.

Miss Bowers also has done the chapters on dance as related to floor exercise and beam in which she explains the importance of using correct ballet technique and yet how the gymnast must bring " flair and excitem ent to the routine by unusual modification of dance movements". I would like to have seen more discussion on the achievement of style, thru use of selected modern dance and character moves, what the judge should look fo r in these areas ... but ... really this would take another entire book.

Many ballet moves are explain ed. She tells us how they should look, technical errors the judge will notice (in the terminology of the judge) and, in a separate chapter explains how to judge floor exercise. For the gymnast there are pointers on increasing one's score, and for the coach .... .pointers on how to prepare one's gymnasts for floor exercise.

Kitty Kjeldson explains a philosophy of coaching in which she gives an argument for specialization at the high schoollevel. ... a good article to show your administ rator when you can ' t get enough time in the gym!

In later chapters Miss Kjeldsen explains in easy terms how gymnastics is interrelated with the laws of Physics. She makes these laws "Live" by applying them to a few basic gymnastic skills.

This chapter would be very valuable to the coach in analyzing what is wrong with various tum~ling skills being performed by his/ her gymnasts . . She later joins Mrs. Fie in a very helpful discussion on the mechanics of vaulting, judging the event, comparison of differences to be expected in bent hip, horizontal, layout and vertical vaults .... something we have not seen so well organi zed before .. .and th e judging of lower level vaults .... not well covered in the FIG Code.

Miss Kjeldson ends her contribution with a helpful chapter on coaching psychology in which she discusses various types of problems arising on gymnastic teams with gymnasts of different personalities.

Miss Fie covers general judging techniques for both compulsory and optional routines. She explains the difference between our national system of judging compulsories and the new international system instituted in the last year. . She also covers the balance beam event, showing the characteristics speci fic to beam, a detailed analysis of selected beam movements, specific penalties and deductions, composition and coaching hints to increase th e individual score and list of difficulties. This is a very . detailed and excellent presentation.

Aside from writing the section on uneven bars which , incidentaly is one of the weaker sections in the book .. .(lwould like to have seen a more complete discussion on good composition on bars and many more examples of good and bad amplitude. Many judges just do not recognize poor amplitude on bars ...nor do they really understand good

34

compo sition ) ... Andr ea Schmid has w ritt en th e introduction to the work which embodies th e whole purpose of th is volum e .... " To serve th e dual purpose of evoking ideas and practical suggestions for tea chi ng and coaching gymnastics, and to clari fy th e proper judgin g techniques and to encourage a uniformity in officiating wom en' s gymnastics events through o ut the country ." I would venture to say that this book comes closer than any I have seen in accomplishing this purpose!

Gymnastic Skill and Record Manual, by Steve W . Whitlock 18103 Santa Barbara, Detroit Michigan, 48221 ...price unknown ...A manual which affords an opportunity for planning and recording the progress of individual gymnasts from novice to elite perform ers. This manual is meant to enable the gymnast and her coach to evaluate past performance, coordinate present training, and to plan for future growth and

development. There are long lists of basic, medium, and superior moves with space to record achievement or readiness next to each skill. Then ther e is a glossary of term s commonly used in gymnastics su ch as " jam" , " press ", " progression " etc. whi ch many person s new to gymnastics are not familiar with . Th e second half of the booklet consists of many blank forms which can be used for recording workout programs for each event, individual ex ercise program (place to record exe rcise, number of repetitions) sheets for recording the competitive routine you are using for each event, and, finally blank sheets for recording your competitive record with pla ces to record date, name of meet, and scores you made on each event.

M any successful gymnasts have used a system of recording and organi zing things such as this one. It might be very useful to you .

UNEVEN BARS - FRONT HIP CIRCLE

by David Reeves

Execution: From a stretched front support (1); fall forward retaining the stretched position in order to gain momentum in the forward rotation (2) . At a,position at / or slightly below the horizontal, ' pike sharply. (3a-3b) This shortens the circumference of the body, thus increasing the speed of rotation.

Simultaneously with the pike, loosen the grip and tuck the hands around the bar, reaching toward as much of an over grip on top of the bar as possible (3b). A slight bend in the arms will help acheive this. As the circle approaches position (4) a strong pull on the arms will be felt if the circle has been well 'whipped' . This is the moment to begin forcefully straightening the body, like a kip. The kipping action completes the circle, which should end in a free front support (cast off the bar) (5) .

Hints: (A) In the beginning, height on the bar in the starting position is the most importa"nt part.

Push up so that you're ' standing on your thumbs', with the bar well down on the thighs.

This may result in a slight pike at the hips, but as long as the chest is held high (slight upper back arch) you w ill be in a stretched position . Also, start as upright as possible (1 )... don 't start in position(2) . The further you fall before the pike, the more momentum you will have . Keep the head in a normal upright position throughout the circle. Starting w ith the head held up high and then throwing it down on the pike only serves to further disorient you during the circle.

(B) The pike should be a smooth whip to a tight piked position, not a sudden jerk.

(C) Tuck the hands around the bar, don't release and reg rasp, as this generally ruins the timing of the whip and results in the old Front Belly Circle ... and what you want is a Front HIP Circle.

(D) Attempt to straighten your arms on each circJe you try . This will encourage you to finish the circle high on the bar and thus be able to attain the free front support (cast away) position, at which point you have the fTI'we .

1

2

CARTWHEEL on the beam CARTWHEEL ON THE BALANCE BEAM Renee P. H ende rshott The purpose of this articl e is two-fold : to show how bas ic foot work (as di sc ussed ear li er in " Th at All Importa nt Foot Work ") is app li ed to acrobatic type movem en ts and : to demonstrate how a cartwhee l sho uld be done o n t he beam.

Fi g.#l Extend leading leg to sid e wi th toe po inted and leg straight.

A . Postura l Control a. Pull hips togeth er in back. b. Keep shoulders down and even as arm s are lifted. c. Pull abdomina l muscles in and up und er th e rib cage . d . Keep the b ack straight.

B. Th e su pporting leg sho ul d remain turn ed out. On floor thi s is possib le. On beam th e leg needs to b e turn ed in a b it fo r better ba lance.

C. T he h ip of the lea din g leg must be kept down and even wit h the other hip ....even if th e leadi ng leg is lifted.

Fig.#2 Transfer the we ight to th e lead in g leg.

A. Remember that as th e we ight is taken off the supportin g leg, its foot must arch immed iate ly.

B. Bend th e kn ee simul taneous ly w it h the pl acem ent of the leading hee l on the floo r or beam. It must not bend before!

Fig.#3 Keep th e same relat ions hi p between should ers and hi ps, bend at t he hip to reach the first hand toward th e floor o r beam.

3

4-

5

6

7

A. Th e 1st leg to go over must raise right alo ng with the body as it goes down (like a teeter totter.) If t hi s leg does not raise at least as much as the torso lowers, an unsightly 路Ii n e is crea ted showing the hi p juttin g up abo ve both to rso and leg . As yo u ca n see in th e illustration , the first leg over continues t he lin e o f t he torso an d hips to infin ity.

B. Do not p ut the first hand right under the existing ce nter o f gravity. It must be pla ced away from th e leadin g (now supporting) leg so t hat when placed o n t he beam, the 路ce nter of . grav ity will move in the directio n of the ca rtwhee l.

Fig.#4 To ge t to thi s position the lead in g and now supporting leg must push off and 路 extend ... toe po inted .

A . At this point the eyes mu st focu s on the spot w here the first foot is to land on t he beam .

You. co.1'"\ look b etter 1

B. Thi s is the spot where piking (o r less com mon ly ... over-arch in g) of the body occu rs.

Th e back and hips must remain perfectly exte nded in o rd er to enable the landin g foot to come down safely on th e b eam.

Fig#5 The secon d arm mu st no t be p laced straight down n ex t to and parall el wi th the firstarm . The gymna st mu st r eac h o ut in the d irecti o n of the w heel and pla ce the second hand d o wn later th an the 1st h and to show alternate p lacement of the hands and good range during this ph ase of the w h ee l. Th e eyes ar e sti ll kept on the land in g spot .

Fig. #6 & #7 The actuallanding .... Agai n the next lim b to land mu st no t " undercut " or co me d own too close to the hand rema inin g-on the beam. Thi s is prevented by al low in g the body to rotate past the ce nter of gravity and puttin g the foot down later.

A . Th e fo ot lands toe ball heel!

B. Th e h and must come off the beam qu ickl y so that the shoulde rs ca n remain in lin e with th e hips.

Fig.#8 On b eam, for a beginn er, it is easier fo r the gymnast to t urn a " quarter turn in " as she land s to co me to a 4th positi on landing.

(Thi s means if she does a " Ri gh t H and ed" ca rtwh ee l, she turns left out o f it. ... left leg endin g in fro nt) A. As the to rso lifts and the body stra ightens, th e eyes focus on th e othe r end o f th e beam . This aid s balan ce.

B. The shoulders sho uld be kept down and even at this po int to maintain co ntro l C. Th e gym na st w ho has good con trol sho uld work into side landin gs out of her cartw hee ls o n b ea m . These are more d ifficu lt, but ou r 1972 O ly mpic compulsory requires th is. type of landin g, so it is someth in g t hat sho uld be worked o n. Th e sa me end of th e beam can still b e spotted for land in g, and as th e torso lifts.

Th e hea d th en turns for wa rd (facing direction body is facin g) as balance is reac hed.

35

THE LEAP

The gymnast needs great strength in the torso and legs in order to execute a good sp lit leg stride leap.

She must be able to push off with strength enough to give her time to place her legs in the sp lit position. Her torso must show no strain. She must be able to place her arms in any position without having to FLING them into postion. This is onl y possible with a strong torso.

It is not important to travel a long distance during the leap. The important thing is to get up high enough to show the desired position; to give the effect of being suspended in mid-air for an in stant.

When landing, the gymnast ca n create the illusion of remaining in the air longer by smoothl y rai sing the arms (shoulder held down!) and keeping the rea rward leg elevated.

Debbie Hill

performs the leap The torso must be held upol') landing. It must not drop forward. The extended leg must not drop either.

Ii either of these faults occur,:thegymnast will give-the appearance of a heavy landing.

Maximum leg flexibility, important for 路 proper execution o f the leap, may be developed by achieving an over split One can do this by doing the stretching exercise pictured. Pushing against the direction in which one is stretching seems to help a great deal. The over-split can also be achieved by placing one extended leg on the balance beam or ballet bar and sliding out into as wine a sp lit as possible. Do not bounce, you may get a muscle tear.

1. Barby McCafferty, Lakewood YWCA lifting right hip no, no.

2. Barby in altitude on way out to extend leg.

4. Barb)' doing pull up against the stretch ..

3. Barby still lifting right hip, common error.

The fully extended leg in develope to back with balance. ~ostlon

I

Legs turned out; thighs pulled up; hips even

Shoulders must remain over the hips; NO LEANING 路Keep both shoulders forward. In this picture the gymnast is passing thru attitude .

The develope-- for torso and thigh strength This exerCise will give you the strength you need to lift the legs into the position desired , and to make a controlled landi ng. This skill is performed to the front, side and back. It is done to a count.of four. Upon reachipg extension, one rises on the toe (en releve) and balances for four counts; then lowers to fifth position .

36

back held up right; no strain

Position III Balan cing leg to front.

Shoulders even; hip on side of lifted hip down and pulled back; . even other hip

SEQUENCES

BY SCHULZ Photos by Diete Shultz

Adele Gieaves, Louisville Kent\lcky, demonstrates a back hip circle, straddle hecht over the low bar to catch in an eagle grip on the high bar.

17

MORE SEQUENCES BY SCHULZ

Yoshi Takei, Georgia Southern University, executes a back rise forward somersault to a straight arm support

Jim Ivicek, New move by Jim with Rusty Mitchell spotting.

Dana Shelley, University of New Mexico, performs a n Arabian back dive with 1V, twist to forward roll.

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39

LOUISVILLE GYMAND SWIM SUPPLY CO.

USSR trampo lin e team met Ame rican All-Star teams in five cities during a tour through the US. Continued from page 7

ex istence since 1967 the club has produced champion gymn asts such as forme r O lymp ia n Sandi Hartle y, and Ja ne t Te rry, Can adian National Junior Champion in 1968. The club is coac hed by Mrs. Gladys Hart ley and Alex Moorhouse. And lance thought al l they did in Canada was ice skate.

And if your plann ing to be in Europe th is summer you might plan on a tt e nding the German Turnfest in Stuttgart, ju ne 11-17 o r the Turnfestival in Norway, june 27-28 in Haugesund , or the 12th Olympiad Gam es fo r th e Deaf in Ma lmo Sweden, july 21-28.

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Apparent ly the gro u p of boys from the Santa Clara Valley Gym Club who went to the Fest iva l in Norway last summer made a tremendous im p ression on the No rwegians. A letter we received stated "From Cal iforn ia we had a visit from Nils Bengtson a nd his boys. Let us say that o u r meet ing w ith Mr. Bengtson and his boys was a rea l p leasure. The ir sporting attitude, th e ir modesty and the t hankfu lness these peop le showed, rea ll y gave us somet h ing to think abo ut. Mr. Bengtson himse lf was very e nt hu siastic, always on the move, always sm iling a nd gay. " A g low ing tribute to a coach who has no t o n ly bee n an important gymnast ics fig u re in t he Santa Clara area b ut also a great fa n of t he tea m at San Jose State. (He's a great fan of the ir soccer team too.) And I do n 't think eve r m isses a meet.

More Ru ssia n news .... Dur ing a week long to u r o f five Ame rican cities the . Ru ssian Tra mpoline team managed to defeat the US All Star teams t hree times with one loss and one tie.

Sponsoring the Soviet visit was the Nissen Compa ny in coope rat io n with the U.S. Trampoli ne a nd Tumb ling Assoc iation and the AAU. Chalk up one more victory for the ~ussians .

I was thinking of starti ng an Olga Ko rb ut Contest and the person with the best 250 word essay on M iss Korbut w ins but I haven ' t found a good enough prize ye t so scratch that. Then I was thinking of starting an O lga Korb ut Fa n Cl ub but someone in Brita in beat me to it so scratch that. But now m y boss is thinking of making Olga Ko rbut "t" sh irts . I don ' t know actua ll y this whole th ing is getting a little absurd. In fac t this whole column is gett ing absurd I th ink I' ll quit whi le I'm ahead , beh ind , upside down , where ever I am .

So as the o ld yea r e nd s and the new be gins, and the people in Santa Monica are st ill at th e beach getting suntan and I sit in my off ice dreaming about ski seaso n (oops wrong sport gymnast ics season) I also think " Gee it would be nice to get some mail so I could find things to put in next month 's column. Who knows maybe I wil l. Maybe a ll of you w ill get pens for Christmas. Anyway hope that your new yea r is as good if not better than t he last.

Olga Stariko va of the Russ ian sy nchronized trampoline team

FIG Terminology Interpreted by D r. William J. Vincent Each year, the American gym nastics scene becomes more closel y relat ed to th e intern ational scene . Consequently, we as coac hes, jud ges, and participants must understand the nomenclature of th e FIG. It is the opin ion of the author that we shou ld not on ly understand it, but use it in our comm u n ica tions and discu ss ions of gymnastics i n t hi s country. Listed below are th e FIG term s and t he common interpretation u sed in this co untry. It is hoped th at thi s wi ll be helpfu l to beginning and intermediate gymnasts w ho are not yet familiar wit h th e FIG term s.

FIG TERMINOLOGY/ COMMON INTERPRETATIO N G e neral Term s

1. Czech - Two hand s on one bar or pommel in undergrip.

2. Wende - Pos iti on frontways.

3. Kehre - Position sid eways (flank ) 4. Krei s - Position crossways 5. Feige Flange (backwa rd kip type or peach basket action ) May on occas ion also refer to a front kip action.

6. H echt - Layo ut position.

7. Stem m e - Uprise 8. Pirouette - Turn around long axi s 9. E!g rip - Eagle grip 10. Stoop - H ips flexed, knees st ra ight (pike) 11 . Squat - Hips flexed , k nees fl exed (tuck ) Floor Exe rcise 1. Saito - Somersault (also used on other events) 2. Japanese jump - Jump w it h v.. turn to handstand and / or chest rol l.

3. Streuli - Roll baCKward s to handstand (also on P.B.) 4. Spagat - Sp lits 5. Flic flac - Back handsprin g (fl ip flop ) 6. Arabian Cartwheel - Cartwheel without hands (k ick over) Side Horse 1. Simple swiss - Cu t one leg to baby moo re stradd ling the saddle and fac in g one end .

2. Double swiss - From circles, hop to other side of horse (hop moore) 3. Stock Ii - Two do ubl e rears in a row, from saddle to end and ba ck or vice versa. woo i. c. (means w ithout intermediate Circles) 4. Stockli backwa rd s - Begin a moore, but travel to the end or the m idd le (trave lin g moore) 5. D irect stockli A - From ci rcl es, moore with hand s behind yo ur back returning to circl es on both pomme ls.

6. Di rect stockli B - Same as direct stock li A, but f ini sh wit h su pport on one pommel onl y (usu.all y fo ll owed by a travel down or rear back into sadd le).

7. Tramlot - Travel down , rea r ba ck up (wo. i. c.)

8. D i rect tram lot - Trave l dow n rear up on one po m me l w ithout touch in g end of horse.

9. Kreisk ehre - D o ubl e rear (down or up ) 10. Swabenflanke - Loop

11 . Schwabenkehre - 'Loop WIth 1'4 turn to uphill circl es, or loop dismount w ith no turn .

12. Schwabenwende - Loop d ismount w ith v.. or y, turn ou t (O lympi c d ismou nt) .

13. Czechkehre - Moore to rear support (comp lete m oore).

14. Czech wende - Moore to front support (part ial moore).

15. Czechkreiswende - Moore d ismount over pommels.

16. Czechkehre straddled - Spread legs and st raddle pommel wh il e do ing moor e (baby moore ).

17. Chaquini an - Loop, wa lk (or hop) around, loop off with v.; or y, turn.

18. Double czech - Moore to Moore wit h one interm ediate circle.

19. Ru ssian Wende - Moore to Moore woo i. c.

(R ussian Sp in ) Ri ngs 1. Stem m e backwards - Rear upri se to support, L, cross, etc.

2. Stem me forward - Front upri se to support, L, etc.

3. Feige upward - Ba ckwa rd kip action w it h or w ith out swing to suppo rt, L, (mu st be sta rted under the rin gs) 4. Feige backward - Same as le lge upwa rd but start from above th e rings and drop backwa rd s first. May be done wi th stren gth or swing.

5. Feige forward - Fro nt kip after rolling from above to below the ring s.

6. Hanging scale frontways - Fro nt leve r 7. Hanging scale rearwa ys - Back lever 8. Free support scale - Plan ch (hips above rings) or maltese (hips betwee n rin gs).

9. Honm a - Rea r upri se, front so m ersault to suppo rt.

Parallel Bars 1. 'Stemme backward - Rear uprise from upper ar m hang to support , L, handstand , etc.

2. Stem me forward - fro nt up ri se from upper arm han g.

3. Stutzkehre - From a su ppo rt sw in g, rele ase and turn 180 0 and regrasp. Ma y be performed fo rward or backward. (stit s, stuts) 4. Diamidov - Full twisting stuts (ha lf in and half out) to a handstand pOSition w ithout re leasing one hand.

5. Healy twirl - Reverse Diamidov from handstand to support. May also be p erformed in floor exe rcise.

6. Czech w ende - Moore to ret urn between ba rs.

7. C2:echkehre - Moore to doub le rea r - pass legs over far bar.

8. Kreiskehre - Double r~a r moun t or di smount.

9. Feige (basket) - Peach (und erbar) from stand asa mount to support, 30 0 , or handstand.

10. Feige backward - Peach from support.

11. Streuli - Back ro ll from upper arm hang, change grips to handstand (w ith sw in g).

12. Sa ito forward - Fron t overbar flip to catch or dismount.

13. Saito Backward - Back overbar flip (back toss) to ca tch or dismount.

14. Elbow su pport scale - Gut leve r.

15. Free support scale - Planch 16. Carmi nucci - Forwa rd stuts with extra half turn to upper arm han g and rearward swin g.

17. Takei - Forward cast f rom below ba rs to support positi on w ith no regrasp to immediate front somersault to upper arm hang.

18. Japanese saito - From upper arm han g, back uprise and fron t fl ip to support.

Horizontal Bar 1. Finne nstem m e - From forward swing in hang position, stoop under bar, shoot backwards and german rise on front swing.

2. Munchnerstemme - Cast or swin g forward w it h y, turn arou nd one ann to sw in g forward with mi xed grip .

3. Vo ronin - Hecht catch.

4. Elgrip giant - Eag les or eag le giants.

5. Russian giant - I nlocate giants.

6. Czechstemme (Steinemannstemme) - One german gia nt (act uall y not a full giant) 7. Czech giant - Double ger man giant (over the top at least once).

8. Endo shoot - Forward (clockwise) Stalder eith er st raddl ed or in stoop pos iti on. Hand s in under grip.

9. Stalder shoot - Backward (co unt erclockwise) Sta lder either s tr ~dd led o r in stoop position. Hands in over grip.

STILL RINGS SKILLS and TECHNIQUES By John W. Hinds Jr. Over 90 pages of sequence and strobe action photos co mbined with eas y to u'nderstand text, Makes "Still Rings Techniques" a welcome addition to any coach or gy mnasts' library.

Delux e Library Hard Bound Ed ition.

. $6.95

Comb Bound Wo rk book Edit ion.

.$5.00

En c losed p lease find $ . . . for . . . . Hard Bound and / or Comb Bound cop ies of STill RINGS SKillS and

TKHNIQUES.

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LET'S TEACH ROUT i NES ...~ The complete " Let 's Teach Routines" series ' by Dr. William Vincent pub lished in the Modern Gymnast magazine ha s been compiled together into ane pamphlet and is ovailab le f or iust $1.

Coaches and P.E. instructors should find this work very handy (wi th discoun t s up to 50% for large orders) for use as a classroom text.

One copy ...... .. ........ . $ 1.00 each .75 each Fifty cop ies .... .

One hundred copies .50 each Order from ' LET'S TEACH ROUTINES

P.O. Box 110 Santa Mo n ica, Ca. 90406

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You'll be a better gymnast with

Modern Lines CUSTOM APPARATUS by Krawitz Co . - Balance Beams of solid laminated White Pine acclaimed by many coaches and gymnasts as the best beam made.

A unique Vaulting - Storage box that doubles as a tumbling ramp , spotting platform or obstacle course.

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CUSTOM APPAREL & ACCESSORI ES Functionally styled to bring out the best in your performance Warm-Up Suits " Pants, Shirts, Leotards, Slippers, Hand Guards, Suspenders, etc.

CUSTOM CHEMICAL PRODUCTS Formulated to meet the special needs of the gymnast. CHALK UP for the horizontal & uneven bars, dries and cools the hands. HOLD IT for vaulting, floor-x and beam, where trac t ion is needed. MAT & APPARATUS CLEANER, GYM FRESHENER, AND FOAM OFF.

Floor Exercises . . . Balance Beam .. .

Uneven Bars . .. These f ilms are available in all formats, 16mm Color-Sound , Super 8mm Single Concept, even the exciting new Norelco PIP . Teaching booklets included . Send coupon for complete information . No instructor shou ld be without these professionally produced films.

Send today for our free brochure APPROVED BY USGF ...

DALE FLANSAAS, JUDGE '68 OLYMPICS , CONSULTANT

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1972 USGF MATERIALS LIST 1. CODE OF POINTS FOR MEN Th e o fficial FIG Code, i nclu des A-B -C parts with ill ustra ti o ns and all r ul es. A MUST for all ju dges, coaches and gymn asts .... $5.00 2. SUPPLEMENT TO THE MEN'S RULES FOR COMPETITION The 1971 revisio ns to th e above FIG Code . Designed to be pasted i nto above book .... $2.50 3. USGF MEN' S RULES FOR COMPETITION NEW boo k for men 's r ules fo r co mpetitio n, comp ul so ry exe rcises, hosti ng o f fo rei~ n teams, regu lati on s govern i ng USGF tea m s, etc. .. . $3.00 4. CODE O F POINTS FOR WOMEN Th e officia l FIG Cod e, in cl udes fi gures fo r d iff icu lt y rat in gs, ru les and all latest revis io ns in e nclosed su pp lement. ... $5.50 5. AGE GROUP GYMNASTIC WORKBOOK The USGF Age G ro u p Wo rkboo k, co m p lete w ith ro uti nes (co m pu lso ry) fo r boys and girl s, ages 6 th rough 18.

Sti ck Figu res and a bu ilt-i n g radi ng sys te m for cla ss room wo rk .. ..$3.00 6. 1971 JUDGING GUIDE FOR WOMEN Co m bi nati o n of o ld Ju d gin g Gu ides 1 & 2.

In cl udes all changes from FIG Co urse in Madrid , Spai n .... $3.00 7. NATIONAL COMPULSORY ROUTINESGIRLS The officia l USGF- DGWS ro uti nes fo r girl s.

Three levels of rout ines now being used nat io n-w ide fo r schoo ls, co ll ege, u ni versity and post-gradu ate co m petit io n ... . $1.50 8. A HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF USGF Fi rst Ed it io n, hard-cover, of th e Docto ral Di sserta ti on o n th e ' Histo ry of the D eve lop me nt of th e USGF '. Complete and ve ry we ll documented study , beg in s in ea rl y 30' and reviews the amateur sp orts fe uds of yea rs go ne by. Lead s to fo u nd ing of USG F i n 1963 and b rin gs d eve lo p me nt up to date in 1971.... $6.50 .

9. RULES AND POLICIES FOR GIRLS The o ffic ial USG F reg ul ati ons and po li cies fo r girl s com p eti t io n in the United States .... $2.00 10. MEASURMENTS & DIMENSIONS Th e o ffi cia l FI G book let co ntainin g all t he diag rams and m eas ureme nt s fo r m en's and wo m e n ' s equi p ment .... $2.00 11. FIG BULLETIN O ffi cial pu b li ca ti o n o f t he FIG mail ed directl y to you f ro m Sw itze rl and . Time ly articl es. Va lu abl e to all in gym nasti cs .... $7.50 per year 12. MODERN GYMNASTICS A . Cod e o f Po ints for M o d ern Gymnastics ... $2.50 B. Class III Beg inn ers : Gymnast iqu e M o d ern e - by Mildred Prchal. ...$1.50 C. Cla ss II -Interm edi ate: Gy mnastique M o derne - by M . Prchal. ... $1 .50 13. USA GYMNASTICS NEWLETTER Th e o ffi cial word fr om th e USGF N atio nal Offi ce. Listi ngs o f new boo k s and se rvices, tec hni ca l changes and w hat 's newswo rth y o n a natio nal scale, Pu b li shed eve ry o th er mo nth ... .$5.00 per year 14. GYMNASTICS CHKKS All new - NOW avail able, bea uti f ul ch ecks in light blu e w ith a mal e and femal e gymn ast shown o n th em . A grea t new wa y to p romo te o ur spo rt. All ow 4 to 6 w ee ks fo r delive ry and mail sa mpl e of ex isti ng check with all info rmati o n yo u w ish to have prin ted on your new gymnasti cs checks .... $6.00 - 200, $11.00 - 400, $16.00 - 600 etc.

15. CREST Embro idered clo th , suitable for use o n warm- up su its, blazers, o r un ifo rms ....$2.00 All o rd ers have to be pre- paid Boo ks are mailed book rate unl ess pa ymnet is enclosed forf irst class mail Specify: Men 's or Women 's MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO U.S.G.F. Order from th e United States Gymnastics Federation, P.O . Box 4699 Tucson, Arizona 85717 U.S.A .

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ATHLETES IN ACTION WANTED COLLEGE GRADUATES - FUTURE GYMNASTS Is the end of you r college ca reer the end of your gymnastic career also? Sad ly, this is true in most cases ... But NOT WITH ATHLETES IN ACT ION' Join th e excit ing , quick ly growirg Athletes in Action Gymnastic Team. Ath letes in Act ion is a division of Campus Cru sade for . Chr ist, an interdenom in at ional st udent movement designed to present the claims of Jesus Ch rist to a wo rl d in desperate search of answers to the basi c issues of life.

If you are a Christian gymnast and want to use your at hl etic tal ents to se rve God , 路 then write toda y for more ' information on qualifications and procedures for joining thi s team .

Ath letes in Action Campus Cru sade for Christ Arrowhead Spr ings San Bernardino ,.CA 92414 GYMNASTICS ILlUSTRATED...

Please find my $10 .00 annual membership dues to . the National High School Gymnastic Coaches 路 Association 路 Coach :_____ _ High School : Address: _ __

TOM CHAPMAN

Secretary-Treasurer Waukegan High School 71TEdwards Ingleside, Illinois 60041 BOB ANDERSEN'S

SCANDI SP.O RTS' Anyone can achieve the Scandinaviar latest imports from Denmark .- Leotarc in all sizes and colors.

Sizes to fit '2-6 year olds, also avai , order.' Send for our Brochure.

$9.00

1972'OLYMPIC GYMNASTIC FILMS M~n Super 8 路 400 ft . $40.0'0 Women Super 8 400 Ft . $40.00

WRONA'S Gymnastic Appa.r el 420 Shenango Road Beaver Falls, PS 15010 Chippewa Townshop 412846-7078 . , ALL GYMNASTIC NEEDS Serving Pittsburgh and Tri-State Area 30 Years Experience

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GYM SHOP JEWELRY J-1 Charms: $1 .00 J-2 Charm Bracelet: $2.00 (one charm included) J-3 Charm Pendant: $2.00 J-4 Delux Charm Pendant: $2.50 J-5 Sweater Pin: $1 .00 J-6 Bowknot Pin Charm: $2.00 J-7 Brooch Pin: $2.00 J-8 Ear Rings: $3.50 J-9 Key Chain: $2.50 (with delu xe oval charm) All above items availa ble in Sihone Or Cahone.

10% discount allowed o n an y jewelry order totaling more than $10.00 MEN

Lapel Pins - Tie Tacks - Tie Bars - Key Chains & Money Clips available for all events (FX,SH,R,LH,PB,HB &AA). ~ • -- _I 0:_ ...

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Gym Shop TROPHY SPECIAL ' .

Regular $3.95 trophy - now $2.95 with blue molded base, silver male or female figure. (Goltone or bronzetone figure on white or red molded base available for 25¢ additional).

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GYMNASTIC MODERNE ... .. the feeling of joy in life and movement!

In a direct translation, Gymnastic Moderne is "Artistic Gymnastics': The name "artistic" reveals that it is a form of art; self-expression, a natural rythmic moveme nt . . . it is the rythm ' of the sea, ffie naruralness of the ou/·o{·doors and Ihe harmony o{ the land, sea and sky.

It is gymnastics with a spirit of competition and striving for high achievement. 'I t differs from the "classical gymnastics in that it uses small hand apparatus; hoops, balls, streamers, indian clubs and jump ropes. Th e goal is to achieve beauty, grace, femininity, fitnes and self· discipline through rythmic movements. The grace, accuracy and the poise is that of an experienced dancer . .. she leaps, twirls and dances with music with seemingly no effort at all.

Gymnastic Moderne was originally developed in Europe, but now , it is becoming more and more popular in the United States. GSC is proud to be a leader in making this sport more widely known. Please write for our catalog containing all the apparatus needed for your programs.

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GYMNASTIC SUPPLY COMPANY / 247 W. 6th St .• San Ped,o. CA 90733/ (213) 831 ·0131

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GYMNAST Subscription rates are : 2 years $14.00 1 year $7.50 Please send me Poster_ and a _ year subscrip ti on to GYMNAST Name ________________________

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GYM SHOP custom Mini .... '.IIPIIP' $7.5-0 post paid

GYM SHOP custom Parallelles $29.95 post paid

QUAD GRIPS Try quad grips with wid e protection area, four finge r ho les, and exclusive adiestable 2 ring bu ck le.

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Super " T" Shirts: Finest quality 100% combed co tton featuring sport shirt length sleeves, breast pocket and choi ce of co lors. $5.00 each Indicate by check ing be low : size: .. Sma ll , .. Med ium , .. large, .. X1 l arge co lor: .. ..; Blue, .. White, .. Yellow Please indicate 2nd and 3rd color choices

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A Distinctive Line of Men's and Women's Uniforms

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P.O. Box 309 Jenkintown, Pa. 19046

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You're right, Jimmy, but the experts call it quality. The American UPB-344-SS uneven tension bar was selected for use in nearly every major gymnastics championship this past year. American has a complete line of gymnastics equipment for every level-from beginner to international competition.

Write for our free American catalog of gymnastics apparatus, physical education equipment, trampolines and portable bleachers.

AMERICAN ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT DIVISION P.O. Box 111, Jefferson , Iowa 50129

Only ~y'stem Nissen has mode.r n tubular steel guy braces for greater stability and safety-

New System Nissen No. 610 Uneven Parallel Bar with width adjustment from 17 to 31 inches. , 'r Nissen has developed new tubular steel guy braces which not only look more modern , but are safer too. They provide both compression and extension strength, something old-fashioned cables can't possibly achieve .

Another advantage of Nissen rigid-type guy bracing is that height adjustments are much easier. The T-handles on the guy braces are simply loosened, the equipment raised and the T-handles re-tightened.

Another important function of Nissen guy braces is to stabilize the equipment in its folded position enabling it to be transported easily and safely .

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