Christmas Gymnastics Show
Basingstoke Gymnastics in the U.K.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I saw that on a new Men’s Gymnastics blog – GymnasticsPlanet.co.uk
Updates from January, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Rick Mc
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Rick Mc
gymnastics festivals Canary Islands and South Africa
World Gym for Life Challenge 2013
Cape Town… This will be the first time an (FIG) international mass participation gymnastics event will be hosted outside of Europe. The 2013 event is expected to attract approximately 5,000 participants, an estimated half of which are international. …
51st International Gym Festival “Blume – Gran Canaria”
November 24 – December 2, 2011… The 51st edition brought together more than 5,200 sportsmen and women from 192 local and 40 international groups. …
For more information on the event go to http://www.blume-grancanaria.org.
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Rick Mc
Gymnaestrada at World Championships
One of the terrific troupes from Japan who performed at Gymnaestrada 2011 Switzerland, has been entertaining the audiences (during breaks) at the World Artistic Championships in Tokyo.
Cool.
click on page to see original on Facebook
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Rick Mc
DeVeau’s Gymnastics on Gymnaestrada
Gymnaestrada is quite new to the USA. Here’s what one club from Indiana thought of the experience.
DeVeau’s School of Gymnastics was proud to send a performing group to the 2011 World Gymnaestrada in Lausanne, Switzerland. The World Gymnaestrada is the premiere event in the Gymnastics for All discipline and is conducted by the FIG once every four years …
The group from DeVeau’s consisted of eleven performers including one boy’s team coach, one tumbling specialist, one Nationally rated judge, one Level 9 competitive athlete. Rounding out the group were a
former professional cheerleader and family (dad – soccer player, son and daughter – students of DeVeau’s), one six-year old gymnastics student, and a professional magician. One of the main purposes
of bringing this diverse group to the Gymnaestrada was to return with information to share with the gymnastics community.read more – Perspectives from our club’s Gymnastics Professionals (PDF)
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Rick Mc
Canada should host World Gymnaestrada
The World Gymnaestrada is not growing. Numbers peaked in Portugal 2003.
Lausanne, Switzerland 2011
Increasingly, other General Gymnastics festivals are growing, attracting people away from the World Gymnaestrada. (Coaches in Iceland told me that Gymnastraeda was too expensive. They’d rather go to one of the alternatives, especially those in Germany.)
The World Gymnaestrada has never been hosted anywhere but Europe. FIG should host on another continent, or change the name to European Gymnaestrada.
To me the logical first city outside Europe to host is Montreal. It’s a bilingual city with easy, inexpensive access to Europeans.
Cirque du Soleil is based out of Montreal, and would likely be interested in partnering. Cirque would have a modernizing influence, certainly. (Gymnaestrada has not evolved with the times, in my opinion.)
I’d love to see Gymnaestrada rules more restrict smoking and drinking. Canadian law would take care of that.
smokers at Gymnaestrada 2011
Though the average participant is 30yrs-old, there were plenty of youth breathing in second hand smoke in Lausanne.
I’d love to see more health and fitness, less partying.
In Switzerland the organizers went on ad nauseum about Green themes. But there was nary a word against smoking nor (partner) Heineken.
Canada had 600 participants in Switzerland 2011, and put on strong shows. The USA had 300 attendees, by comparison.
Gymnaestrada is well supported by Gymnastics Canada. CEO JP Caron attended. Coaching Education Director Elisabeth Bureaud was Chef de Mission. and Chief Technical Officer Cathy Haines organized the Canuck school residence in Lausanne.
Here’s Elisabeth working in Lausanne, kicked out of the Chef’s area due to a special event.
Unfortunately, JP Caron told me there’s no great host venue for an event of this scale in Montreal. (Toronto might be possible.) He felt a Gymnaestrada of the Americas might be a more logical first step.
Who else might be the first European host?
Japan? Brazil?
Leave a comment if you have an opinion.
Rick Mc
In Lausanne at World Gymnastrada 2011 I did…
In Lausanne at World Gymnastrada 2011 I did not see even one Cheer team amongst the 19,000+ participants.
That’s a shame.
A team like this would have been one of the very top draws in Switzerland.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Cheer is perfect for Gymnastrada.
Rick Mc
safety at World Gymnaestrada
One concern I had on arrival at World Gymnaestrada 2011 was safety of the participants.
With no competition, no awards on the line, you’d think there would be comparatively few injuries.
Yet I saw many people there in casts. And a few in wheelchairs.
This girl was injured 2 days before travel to Switzerland. (She came with her group, anyway.)
At Gymnaestrada 2011, 154 people were treated on Wednesday, July 13th, with 19 people evacuated to hospitals for small trauma (sprains, strains, etc.).
Organizers had 82 medical staff on duty each day to care for the 19,000+ on site.
Overall, I felt Gymnaestrada performances were fairly safe. One Acrobatic Gymnast from Portugal had a bad fall on a double back. He was taken out in a stretcher, the worst injury I saw personally.
Next day a Canadian Acrobatic gymnast (who was also showing double back) told me that it turned out he was OK.
Kara, 
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mattias Marois
wow! yeah thats not good!, at the gymfest this year, one group the coaches neglected to spot a child doing front tucks on mini tramp, she nearly hit her head on the tramp several times, and her head did hit once, not good, thank goodness that child did not get seriously hurt, but it was very possible,
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Norm Lewis
I would hope that by the end of the Gymnaestrada your concerns were suppressed? I know that I was quite pleased with the safety of the event and at each of the venues. I was also witness to that very unfortunate crash out of double back, but I am not sure that there was much that could have prevented it. I’m not sure what the intentions of this tweet are but I feel like I would like to give kudos to all of those in charge of safety at this event. With over 600 Canadian athletes that were all subject to the jet lag, the scorching sun, and the ten straight days of “go go go” I am only aware of two breaks and one of them was a coach. While 154 may seem like a large number to some readers for a single day, I think it is important to keep in mind that there were 20,000 PARTICIPANTS at this event. I would also assume that a large portion of that number was due to dehydration and heat stroke as was my only other witness of paramedics being required on site.
As a manager and coach I truly feel that the safety of this event couldn’t have been better organized and enforced.LikeLike
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coach Rick
Thanks Norm.
It’s great to hear you feel that way, being on the INSIDE.
See you in Denmark.
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Kara
I completly agree with EVERYTHING Norm said. I have been a team chaperone of many differnt gymnastics events including Nationnals, Westerns and training camps and now World Gymnestrada. When taking into consieration the sheer numbers of participants, the range in ages and abilities and the environmental factors.. this event was very well done. Yes there were injuries, but I suspect the ratio of injury to participant was much lower then at a Canadian National Championships!
Way to go Switzerland, for a job well done!!! And I can not wait to go again in 4 years!
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Rick Mc
Rick Mc
Rick Mc
Gymnaestrada – Japanese Evening
Japan is always a big draw at the World Gymnaestrada.
At the two other FIG Gymnaestradas I have attended, a Japanese Men’s Rhythmic Team was my favourite act of all. Sadly, no Men’s Rythmic team made the trip to Switzerland in 2011.
The audience was very supportive of this show after the disasters Japan suffered in March. The theme, in fact, was “Reconstruction“. An MC thanked the World for their support over the past months, and vowed that Japan would rebuild stronger than ever.
The show was tied together not by any theme of Reconstruction, oddly, but rather by an unusual and excellent LIVE band highlighting Anna, the vocalist. (The theme could have been “Swiss Balls” as those featured in many acts.)
Lighting was excellent. But the group opted not to use much the giant video screen. Too bad. Shibumi is a Japanese word meaning elegant simplicity. Many of the acts were elegantly simple.
One highlight was Tokyo Women’s College of P.E. Rhythmic Gymnastics. (They did 3 acts. Rhythmic is far more attractive to me when freed from the constraints of competition attire and rules.)
Nitaidai University showed a 4 high pyramid, always impressive.
My favourite act was a U of Tsukuba comedy Swiss Ball number. They included many movements I’d never seen before. Here they are in a longer version of that act, performed earlier in the week.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
All in all the show was OK, but I am wondering why Japan gets the BIG stage for two shows while superb Portugal only got 1 night?
related – FIG – Waido and the heart of the Japanese
Recreational Gymnastics 
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