Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

It's worth watching these timeless videos.  Check out the routines of Alla Shishova, especially on beam.  She was ahead of her time.  Also observe the magnificent artistry of Olga Mostepanova and Natalia Yurchenko.  Neither gymnast had intricate choreography, but they were both captivating.  Their work conveyed emotional as well as technical impact.  Yurchenko moves slowly, floating through the air.  Who would think that such a light, slender gymnast as Mostepanova could find all that air time in her tumbles?  Technique, not muscle, gave these gymnasts their power.  Their artistry came from the consummate grasp of technique, something that cannot be expressed as execution or entertainment.  Ilienko, Bicherova, Frolova are other classical members of this team.  They will all be remembered for a very long time. The Soviet team managed to fall off beam even in those days, but their superior difficulty and technique lifted them above ...

Picture courtesy of Natalia Ilienko on Twitter 1981 World floor champion Natalia Ilienko, now a coach at Heathrow Gymnastics Club, is participating as a show coach in Tumble! a BBC reality game show in which celebrities train and present brief circus and gymnastics routines. She is seen here with her 'gymnast' Sarah Harding (ex Girls Aloud) and competition partner Leon Fagbemi. Natalia's floor exercise was always simply divine.  I can't think of a more expressive, spontaneous or musical gymnast. http://youtu.be/PdeNvaMTW0Y

Routines from the 1982 Soviet Championships. Enjoy a tiny, 12 year old Elena Shushunova, Olga Mostepanova, Alla Misnik; and Natalia Ilienko is accorded the dignity of her own music to perform on floor ...

This weekend my friend Tracey said to me that she felt that Nabieva’s stoop Tkachev-Pak combination, performed on Saturday at the World Championships for the first time, was quite possibly the most revolutionary moment in gymnastics history since Korbut stood on the top rail of the asymmetric bars in Munich and premiered her unique loop. Those of us of a certain age will remember Korbut’s impact on the sport and the tidal wave of admiration and affection she evoked. Most speak of her amazing ability to communicate and perform, of the unique charm and charisma she projected through her floor routine, of the astounding back somersault on beam. But it was perhaps on bars where her genius shone most brightly. Here she was an amazing innovator and risk taker. The trajectory of that loop is still imprinted in my brain and I have a visual image of it as I speak to you now. Few have had the courage to attempt it since; Mukhina, of course, added a twist, but that was more than thirty yea...

In my usual butterfly manner I am dipping in and out of matters somewhat haphazardly, without looking at individual areas in too much depth. This is partly because I lack concentration at the times I come to write this blog, but also because I tend to like to see a whole picture, even if slightly out of focus, rather than part of a picture in intense focus. Inter-relationships between different phenomena interest me more than single ideas. Also, my passion is for gymnastics and what lies behind its creative and expressive development, rather than a particular set of theories. Gymnastics is not something I observe coldly from the outside; I live each new and old routine, and my judgement of them comes from within me, and is preceded and shaded by many previous experiences. I am an armchair admirer of the sport; my main gymnastic achievement ever was to execute a forward roll without breaking my neck, and yet my recollection of my ‘favourite’ routines is always tinged with emoti...