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FROM THE PUBLISH.: USGF CONGRESS:After several years of struggle and growing pains the Annual USGF Coaches Congress seems to have arrived with this years meetings in Denver. The program, organization , attendence and interest was the best ever. In this Special USGF Congress ed ition of Gymnast featu ri ng extensive reports by our Associate editors, Dick Criley and Renee Hendershott we bring you the Congress as if you were there. (hope you enjoy your trip to Denver with us).

THANKS: You and I have more to thank than Gymnast magazine for the fine coverage by these reporters . Dick Criley was sent to the Congress by the HAWAIIAN GYMNASTIC ASSOCIATION, Renee Hendershott had a portion of her expenses covered by Nissen Corp.{our thanks to Norman Barnes) to report the Congress for the NISSEN NEWSLETTER. The USGF Office also helped with our expenses in return for photos to use in their USGF NEWSLETTER . So this edition, as is the case with most every edition of Gymnast is the result of a lot of people working together to further the SPORT of GYMNASTICS. Readers, writers , photographers, coaches, judges and even critics, prople you may never see listed in credits or by-lines in the magazine continue to contribute mach to Gymnast. .. What if you had a Meet and nobody came?: .. . What if you had a Congress and nobody showed up? .. What if you had a magazine and nobody subscribed? .. We all need each other. . . THANKS FOR YOUR PART

The 1972 Congress was the site for the inaugural meeting of the Independent Gym Clubs Asso~iation. The organization is being formed in the hopes that the many independent clubs throughout the country will have a voice in the growth and development of gymnastics in the United States. The club system has produced a majority of top women gymnasts in the country. In fact the members of the 1972 women's Olympic team were all products of the club system.

911 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume XIV / Number 12 / December 1972

4 FROM THE PUBLISHER, Glenn Sundby 6 ON THE BEAM, Barbara Thatcher 8 VIEWPOINTS, Dick Criley

1972 USGF COACHES CONGRESS, Dick Criley, Renee Hendershotc Gl e nn Sundby

10 Committee and Coaches Reports 13 Frank Bare's Address

USGF CONGRESS REPORT, Renee Hendershott Olympic Reports 18 Jackie Fie 19 Dale Flansaas . 19 Muriel Grossfeld Women's Technical Committee 22 Elite Program 24 Comments on Compulsories 25 Calendar Changes

26 HELEN'S CORNER, He len Sjursen 27 SEQUENCES BY SCHULZ, Dieter Schul z

Cover: Di ann e Grayso n,.fin a li st in th e 1972 Olympic Tria ls, during he r fl oor exercise routin e at th e Mid-West Ope n . Photo by Ken Coleman

Publisher: G le nn Sundby; Associate Editors: Di c k Criley a nd Re nee P. He ndershott ; Staff Writer: Ba rba ra Thatc he r; Contributors: He len Sjursen and Di e te r Sc hul z.

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GYMNAST magazine is published by Sundby Publications, 410 Broadway, Santa Monica, Ca. 90401. Second Class Postage paid at Santa Monica, Ca. Published monthly except bi-monthly June, July, August and September. Price 75¢ a single copy. Subscription correspondence , GYMNAST - P.O . Box 110, Santa Monica, Ca. 90406. Copyright1972© all rights reserved by SUNDBY PUBLICATIONS, 410 Broadway, Santa Monica, Ca. All photos and manuscri pts submitted become the property of GYMN AST unless return reques t and suffi cien t postage are included.

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6

Cathy Stocks .... demonstrated that even the strongest of bars can break. This is a unique move seldom caught by a photographer. And remember you saw it first in GYMNAST magazine.

ON THE BEAM by Barbara Thatcher

Unusual. A seve n lette r wo rd to describe December.

It started o ut as a rather bland ' month actua ll y, no exciting photographs, no titillating news, not even a few good rumors.

* *

But then we received a picture of Cathy Stocks. Cathy it seems wanted to perform a cast-bounce-back flip dismount off the bars. But added a littl e unexpected o riginality to her ro utin e when she executed a cast-bo un ce­break-the-bar dismount instead . Cathy was not injured but the bar just won't be the same and wi ll be o ut for the rest of the season.

It was a photo fin ish (littl e pun there) to decide which of the next two pictures was the most peculiar, my boss doing a handstand o n a structure outside the Olympic Village at Munich o r Bill Tom doing a handstand on the Great Wall of China in China . Actually the pr ize goes to Bill tho ugh for slight ly more orig in ality. These handstand fanatics , just ca n' t be co nte nt to visit coun tri es like other people.

*

Decembe r was also the month Belva ("Keep On Tuckin") Pierce of the Beverly Hills YMCA came up with a new move " the Sori". It started o ut to be an abbreviat ion for " side or front ae rial" and the move is a combinatio n of both. Te n yea r o ld Belva is creative in other ways too and is the on ly gymnast I know who wears two­tone fingerna il po li sh .

How ca n I forget that itwas in December thaI met Olympian, Kim Chace at the SCAT;s

Christmas Carousel. I don't usua ll y have fav.orites (journalists must be object ive) but she is one of them. Kim just returned from a trip to Japan and was on her way back to Florida, where she sa id since the Olympics he r club has been growing by leaps (stag or sp lit?) and bounds.

* *

Lookin g ahead to Jan uary (Happy New Year) there seems to be a very important meet comi ng up. The first USGF National Elite Meet of 1973, will be held January 26 and 27 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Sponsored by the Marvateens the meet will draw not on ly National competitors but also Olympian,Roximne Pierce (no relation to Be lva who m I mentioned ea rli e r). Th e later two Elite meets will be o n the West coast so this is a good opportunity to see Elite gymnasts witho ut traveling all the way o ut here.

*

And as we reluctantly leave December let us not forget some recent meets such as the 13th Annual San Jose Invitational with gymnasts of a ll ages and abiliti es co mpe ting and many top gym nasts such as Leonard Caling, Jim Turpin a.nd Joe Sweeney.

*

We have so me very inte rest ing pictures of th e Mid-West Open, howeve r we have no results . (A meet wit ho ut results, what is this?) But if it had not been for Ken Coleman we would not even have the photographs. Th e unique rin g picture ta ken at the meet appears to be of Ken. Wou ld anyone care to e labo rate on what happened at the meet? Please.

My most consistent correspondence with a sports information department is with the one at Bemidji State College in Bemidji, Minnesota. The team, coached by Rick Olson, seems to be having a good season. They finished second in the Northern Invitational Gymnastics (what else) meet, this month. Their star performer Earl Neist also won the All-Aro und honors as he tumbl ed (another verb for edged) by Glen Taylor of SI. Olaf's College. Good work team or is that good team work. .

* *

Two other colleges worth noting for the 1973 season are California State College at Northridge and Cal State L.A. (Los Ange les) . Both teams showed consi derable strength in the Northridge Invitational and edged out NCAA co llege division champion Cal State Fullerton in the Cal State L.A. Holiday Classic. Can't wa it for the Nationals.

More gymnastics schoo ls? You better believe it. This tim e in New Jersey where three of them just opened or are about to open. Th ey are th e Will Moore School, Hartford Rd ., Mt. Laurel; the North Jersey School of Gymnastics, Fellowship Hall, St. Timothy Luthern Church, 395 Va lley Rd ., Wayne; and Burmeister Gymnastics School, 187 Whitehead Ave., South Ri ver. Cou ld it be that gymnastics is fast becoming th e National spo rt?

*

Need a good trans ition move? Having problems deciding what should fo llow a kick, lunge, forward rol!'? Then Maria Bakos is the person to contact for help. The forme r Hungarian coach who was, from all reports, a great help at the O lympic training camp, wil l help any girls having problems w ith floor exe rcise ro utines. Now don' t eve ryone run to the mailbox at once. But if you have specific problems that just can' t be worked out her address is 1542 2nd Ave., New York, New York.

*

Remember last month's co lo r edition? Well fo rget it. It probab ly won't happen aga in unless (Mu ltiple Cho ice) a} we get more color film ; b} we get new cameras; c} we get new subscribers and rich advert isers. If you guessed c, you were positively, abso lutely correct. But no, we don ' t real ly want co lor. We' re content with b lah, drab, black and white, nothing-type p ictures. Besides I'm not photogenic anyway and the only adva ntage to color as far as my picture goes is that you'd get to see my b ig, b lue, gorgeous, eyes. But just think of all the peop le who are photogenic and would look super great in color. Ju st think how neat it would be to see a p in k warm -up sui t in pink instead of off-gray. But no, we don' t want color. .. .. 1 tried to convince myself but it's just no use cause we really wou ld like it.

* *

Well that's 30 .... journalistic ta lk which means. that 's it; finis; the·en-d. And so as I bid fa rewell to decided ly, diffe rent December; and sit here getting Flor ida feve r w hich is the equivalent of California' d reaming when you live in Ca li fornia , I'm thinking WOW I actually got some mail this month, maybe it will happen aga in. That would be nice.

. . lD~G BUtH SCA

~....- ... ~~ - .... " ~_ r~:- ..

• • ' . l

-The top two pictures are from the Mid-West Open. The~ are l.. .. doi~g a reverse planche, and l .... in a unique ring position. The middle picture is of KIm Chace (dId get her name though) followed by two pictures from the Christmas Carousel.

7

VIEWpoints . by Dick Criley

On October 25, 1972, the NCAA Council voted to withdraw as a member of the United States Olympic Committee. For more than 10 years the NCAA had worked to obtain reorganization of the USOC because of their belief that the USOC in its presently Constituted form did not serve the needs of athletes, amateur sports, or the National interest.

The NCAA pointed out that each member of the NCAA, the staff members and the student­athlete remained free to determine their own policies and positions in light of the record of the USoc. In addition, the NCAA emphasized that they were not advocating that the United States withdraw from the Olympic Games themselves. The NCAA withdrawal simply meant that . the NCAA would not appoint representatives to USOC committees, nor assist in fund-r.ilising and that it would urge its 700+ members likewise to withhold support in these areas.

The NCAA has since published a 32-page booklet, United States Olympic Crises, the problem that won't go away, to detail its side of the story. This booklet retraces the early history of amateur athletics and the establishment of the Amateur Athletic Union and the earliest form of AAU discrimination against college athletes. Almost as soon as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association was born in 1906, differing views on how to run various sports developed between the IAA and AAU.

The AAU formed a committee in 1918 which was to be representative of various organizations interested in the Olympic Games. It was these few people who chose the 1920 Olympic team. As in 1972, charges of mismanagement flew and reorganization was called for. Upon reorganization in 1921, the American Olympic Committee, as it was then called, reduced the number of votes allocated to the NCAA from 16 to 3 and set the precedent that gave a preponderance of votes to the AAU . The NCAA and other groups such as the YMCA, Army and Navy did not accept an invitation to join this Olympic body and continued to call

8

tor reorganization. Eventually the AOC approved changes which allowed more appropriate representation of these groups.

When the NCAA tried to place the certification of amateur status in the hands of the Olympic Committee, the AAU delegates voted against the proposition as they felt it would weaken the power of the AAU as sports governing body.

The AAU regained control of the Olympic Committee in 1926 and engineered changes in its constitutio·n which again changed the basis of representation by the colleges, YMCA, Army and Navy. Before college action was taken to withdraw from the Olympic Committee, the death of its President brought about the election of General MacArthur who recon ciled the different factions for the 1928 Olympic Games. MacArthur himself called for a sports congress to undertake the revamping of the program for the good of US athletics.

Avery Brundage succeeded to the Presidency of the AAU in 1928 and brought about the reorganization of the AOC to the satisfaction of the NCAA. In 1936 further gains in equal representation of the various sports committees of the AOC were achieved. Peace apparently reigned as Brundage moved into the Presidency of the AOC, which was chartered as the USOC by Congress in 1951. Nonetheless grievances were accumulating, mainly over the cavalier attitude the AAU had taken in administering amateur sports.

By 1960, the NCAA was again asking the USOC to undertake a complete review of its operations, especially with respect to the favored position of the AAU as governing body for 19 sports.

It was felt that the AAU was not serving the best interests of all of its sports, that the organizations which were developing and financially supporting athletics were not receiving their due recognition, that the AAU through its strangle-hold on the USOC was pre·venting the NCAA from acquiring its rightful place in I nternational representation, and that the sole interest of the AAU leaders .

was a self-serving and self-perpetuating one to maintain the reins of power.

In the early '60's, the Basketball, Track and Field and Gymnastics Federations were formed with NCAA support. A long struggle ensued as these organizations sought to wrest recognition by the International federations in their sports from the AAU. It was necessary that they be recognized by their International counterparts to be recogn ized by the USOC. The AAU did everything in its power to undercut such recognition , including the "use" of the USOC to support the AAU contention that it alone was the governing body for each of these sports. Even in such a sport as baseball wherein there was no AAU program, the AAU successfully prevented USOC recognition of the Baseball Federation.

Almost annually since, the NCAA has considered withdrawing from the USoc. The distinction between the AAU and the USOC had become quite blurred with the large number of votes controlled by the AAU and its independent sports allies. The US Olympic Committee became the puppet and the handmaiden for the AAU, to reinforce AAU registration and sanctioning authority and defend it against attack from foreign sports bodies.

As the International federations gave more serious consideration to the recognition of the US Federations in Track and Field, Basketball, Gymnastics and wrestling, the original arguments of " International obligations" which the AAU used to suppress the emergence of US sports federations were suddenly reversed and the cry went up that the US could not accept dictation from outside bodies on these domestic matters of recognition. There was nothing in the USOC constitution which said that it had the authority or function to affiliate with or initiate affiliation for any International sports federation . Indeed, it was to remain passive until the International body itself decided at which time it was to act in accordance with its constitutional requirements for membership. To remedy this matter, the USOC changed its constitution without prior notice so that it had to pass upon any National organization before it could seek affiliation with the International federation.

In effect, all control of all International competition was placed in the hands of the USOC Board of Directors. As the NCAA booklet noted, " If Ralph Nader believes General Motors is too much 'establishment,' he would be flabbergasted by the USOC's role in controlling International competition."

The basic issue as framed by the NCAA, then, is the self -assumed and continued monopolistic control that the Amateur Athletic Union has claimed and tried to maintain over various amateur sports in the United States mainly through the U.S. Olympic organization.

In 1968, an article appeared in the Southern California Law Review (41 :464-490) which reported the conclusion that, "It has become impractical for the AAU alone to act as the National governing body for domestic athletics. Even if a restructuring of the AAU could be accomplished to give other organizations more representation, it is improbable that this alternative would be an effective solution . The long history of the dispute_makes other association's acceptance of integration into the AAU framework highly unlikely . . . The simplest alternative would be to declare that the AAU can no longer act as the sole domestic governing body, but may

operate merely as one of several private athletic associations in the United States." The review made no mention of the AAU domination of the USOC.

Reacting to the news of the NCAA withdrawal from the USOC, AAU president John B. Kelly Jr., said, " It doesn' t surprise me too much. Walter Byers (NCAA Executive Director) would like to be cza r of all amateur spo rt in this country and has been frustrated in this attempt."

The widespread publicity focused upon mismanagement of US athletes at the 1972 summer Olympic Games in Munich may have set the stage for action on the NCAA demands. With the US garnering fewer medals than usual, the perennial question, " Why?", and the perennial answer, " Because the US Olympic Committee ... . ," will not so readily be hidden away.

At the same time we find the USOC under fire in this country, the Internationa l Olympic Committee has been under fire abroad from many nations, notably the Iron Curtain countr ies for much the same reasons. The IOC has catered to National Olympic committees to such an extent that the International sports federations have had little voice in the organization . The federations have been arguing that they have the developmental programs and that they arrange the competitions at the Olympic Games and that they deserve representation with more than a voice on the IOC.

To this end, the General Assembly of International Federations was formed. The GAIF has sought to take part in deciding questions concern ing the holding and organization of the Games--the site, supervision of technical condit ions, the drafting of the programs of competit ion, the distribution of revenues from the Games, and the improvement of adj udication procedures. Thus far, the IOC has taken little notice of the GAIF and has taken advantage of the lack of

. leadership in the GAIF and rifts w ithin the International federations, some of wh ich are not GAIF affil iates.

More than 40 years ago the last Congress of the IOC was held in Berlin . At that meeting the definiti<;>n of amateurism was discuss~d and the emergence of the earliest I nternational sports federations was noted. The nine Congresses which had met to that time had always grapp led w ith topical problems of the times and their discussions led to decisions which furthered physical education and sport throughout the world.

The IOC was slatEd to hold a Tenth Congress in 1971. It never materialized . Now, apparent ly it wi ll be held in 1973, probably in Bulgaria. It is to be hoped that Lord Killian , new IOC President, wi ll lead the deliberations with new courage and that some new balance of power will emerge between the National Olympic committees and the International sports federations.

Su ch a meeting, beset with problems of its own, can hardly hope to produce results to ease the problems faced· within the United States. Yet the parallels are strikingly similar: administering bodies governed by a powerful old guard, secrecy, lack of cQoperation with sports federations, jurisdictional disputes, the definition of amateurism, and the like.

In the meantime, the NCAA has apparently decided to by-pass the IOC and the USOC to make a splash in a new International arena. To this end the US Collegiate Sport Council has

been established with Frank Bare as its fulltime executive director to engineer participation in the 1973 World University Games in Moscow (August 15-25). The US will field 9 men's teams and 7 women's teams. The USCSC is charged with team and coach selection, training camps, fund raising, and travel to and participation in the Games. The games are sponsored in alternate years by the International Federation of University Sports. (FISU).

It wi ll be of considerable interest to the athletes, coaches organ izat ions and var ious regional athletic conferences to obse rve how democratically the USCSC operates with respect to the charges entrusted it by the NCAA.

Among the most cr itical areas will be those of women's team se lections and the aspect of fund raising. From early reports given at the USGF Congress, it agai n sounds as if a small sports committee will make all the decisions in each sport and that the USCSC will approve all of these for the 700+ members of the NCAA.

I hate to sound pessimistic but this sounds about like where I came in nearly 10 years ago when the NCAA was setting up the USGF (and other sports federations) to assume a leadersh ip role in our national sports programs. Having failed to make any headway in the USOC and the IOC, we're now headed off to the FISU 's greener pastures and the " new Olympics", the World University Games. Can sports politics be less comp licated there? I doubt it, but the NCAA wil l have no other direction to turn should they fail to make this option work.

BOOK REVIEWS by Dick Criley

WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS FOR PERFORMERS AND COACH 1972 by Pauline Prestidge. Published by Faber and Faber, 3 Queen Square, London, WC1 N 3AU, England. 121 pages, L."iU pounds.

Mrs. Prestidge is will"known as the leading coach of women 's gymnastics in Great Britain and has authored many articles and books on the subject (See Book Reviews, Modern Gymnast, Dec. 1971 ). This little book, while aimed particularly at the coach, has several qualitites which make it appea ling to the

·gymnast. Her Pen has lucidly described the essenti~1

qualities of a gymnast: body awareness and contro l, suppleness, strength, stamina, coordination and timing, amplitude and courage. These are qua liti es which one must explain time and time again when asked, "What is gymnast ics and what does it do for you?"

A set of warm-up exercises is presented to aid suppleness and st rength. A section on ballet exercises has been included to improve poise and elegance as well as strength and bod y awareness. The need for correctness is emphasized and the main exercises are illustrated to show correct positions.

Each of the Olympic events is allocated a chapter or more and basic and esse·ntia l skills are described. Not every move is presented , of course, but a pretty good sampl ing is found. The gymnast who reads this book will benefit especial ly from desc riptions of the feel of a move. The phrasings are those of someone who knows not only how a move is supposed to be performed but also which muscles are involved and the feel ing the gymnast should have in doing it.

Helpful hints in progressions, composition, and construct ion of exercises are included. The draWings are excellent and Jim Prestidge's photographs of gymnasts in action are also illustrative. The terms used appear to be those generally approved in Britain , the U.S., and Canada, so there should be not difficulty in following the progressions. The book concludes with sets of training plans for different age groups for different frequencies of meeting per week.

I suppose my main criticisms would be that it is not a book for the novice coach and its hints on spotting are somewhat scattered. Some of the best spotting hints are to be gained from • . the photographs where one picture is indeed worth several paragraphs of explanation. The final chapter on history seems to be more of a nod to the PE history requirement than any really extensive effort to inform.

It is a little difficult to decide just where this book fits in. Advanced coaches may want it to include in their libraries but will also find Mrs. Prestidge's philosophies of value. The PE teacher who has had only her co llege gymnastics course will undoubtedly find this of value as reference. And then there are all those men in the women 's coaching rankswho know their mechanics and spott ing well but who may still benefit from the observations of an experienced woman coach writing about women's gymnastics. I would recommend this book for its highly readable style, knowledgeable presentation , and $5.00 price tag.

REBOUND INTERNATIONAL Edited by Bob Bollinger. Published by Rebound International, Inc., 1915 Knowlton St., Rockford, Illinois, 61102. Frequency : 8 issues / year. Subscription : $12.00/ year.

Although our review appears some months after Rebound International's appearance, we of the GYMNAST staff welcome a new magazine and its editor, Bob Bollinger. RI is devoted to the sport of rebound tumbling or trampolining as it is more fami liarly known in the U.S.

RI covers major news items concerning trampolining and tumbling with International correspondents including England 's Ted Blake (Editor of LIFT -- Li ason Internat ional for Tumbling), Kurt Baechler, Sid Aaron, and Ron Froehlich and U.S. co lumnists Bill Copp (AAU Trampoline Ch .) and Ron Munn and Wayne Miller (USTA) .

In addit ion, RI discusses developmental programs, reports major competitions, and publishes "controversial " articles. In the first issue, for examp le, the F.I.T. was challenged to become more representative and democratic, and a story on Alexandra Nicholson revealed how she had been subjected to old fashioned sports politicking with in the U.S. trampoline community.

Rebound. International also plans tumbling articles and has started a series on mini - tramp which included competiton rules and difficulty ratings on mini-tramp skills.

In itia lly, it appears that the USTA and AAU are being cooperative in developing the sport of trampolining. If ed itor Bollinger is ab le to carry out his announced policies, he will keep open lines of communicat ion which have broken down in the gymnastics community .. We wish you well Bob and applaud your efforts to re-establish trampoli ne and tumbling in all their varied forms in this country.

9

Frank Bare former executive director of the USGF presented Master of Sport awards to Frank Cumiskey: USGF technical director and Gene Wellstone, Penn State University coach for their contributions to the sport of gymnastics.

1972 USGF Coaches Congress

Denver, Colorado Reports & Photos by Glenn Sundby, Renee Hendershott & Dick Criley

Coming as it did on the heels of the O lympic Games, the USGF Congress was we ll attended by everyone who wanted to get the " true sto ry" of th e u.s . gymnastic performances at the Games. According ly a large port ion o f the genera l meeting was spent on the women 's and men 's Olympic Repo rts. A second area o f major co ncern was the direction of our nation al program in gymnastics in light of th e delerict ion of duty by the u.S. Olympic Committee.

Th e Congress also afforded meeting opportuni t ies for the National Assoc iat ion of Co ll egia te Gymnastic Coaches(NACGCA), National High Schoo l Gymnastic Coaches Association(NHSGCA), Nat iona l Gymnastic judges Association(NGjA), Women 's and M en's Technical Committees, Men 's and Women 's Olympic Committees, and th e independent gymnastics clubs, Films o f th e Ol ympi cs were shown, courtesy of Frank Endo and Don Clegg, and hospitality was ex tended by Walt Zwickel, Gymnastic Supply Company, Nissen, Gym Master, and American . A special award ought to go to th e hosting Colorado Gymnastics Association for t heir o rgan iza tion of the Congress and for providing shuttl e serv ice to and from th e arrport.

For the first time the Congress sta rted on a Friday afte rn oon to permit the heavy load of committee and associat ion meetings to run their course. Highlights from th ese meetings fo ll ow.

10

Frank Cumiskey

MEN'S TKHNICAL COMMITTEE

USGF Techn ica l Director, Frank Cumiskey, ca lled the meet ing to order and took a ro ll ca ll to find nearly half of the Sta te Techni ca l Chairmen present. H e described the main purpose of t he meeting as o rga nizat ional and to clarify the recently published " Men 's Rules for Competitions."

The basic purpose of the State Technical Chairmen is to stimulate gymnasti cs at all leve ls w ithin their states in an effo rt to build a better national program from the grass-roots up. Th e cha irmen were urged to wo rk wi th estab li shed groups and w here none ex ist to take part in orga ni zi ng a state-w ide associat ion. No cha irman is expected to run the w hole show in his state, but he should se t up comm ittees in different sites (enlisting schoo ls, V's, Turners, AAU, etc.) to handle the loca l situat ions. USGF sa nctions for the men 's meets may be issued by the State Chairman if the compet iti ons are run accord ing to USGF standards. The main purpose of the sanct io n was noted to be that communication take place as to the nature of the com petition.

Discuss ion over proposed age-level programs brought a 3-pronged philosophy : 1) tea ch good gymnastic habits from th e beginning, 2) make use of compulso ry exe rci ses, 3) get gymnast ics sta rted ea rl y in a youngster's development. Compulsory exe rci ses have been published fo r 3 developmental age group levels and for a junior and eli te national d iv ision level. These exerc ises w ill be t r ied o ut for the next 2 yea rs and new ones set up for the 4 yea rs after 1974. Eventually, films wi ll be prepared on these exe rcises. A system of achievement awards is being developed as incentive to progress. While 1-2 events may be worked at the developmental level, the natio nal emph asis is to be on th e all-around.

The junior Program is new and may eve ntuall y h ave i ts ow n n ati o n al championship. At ,present, 'there is no possibility of working in w ith t he AAU junior Olympics and thi s program and the AAU junior Nationals are to be co nsidered as parall el programs rather than ri va ls.

A new system for the USGF Elite Champ ionships was announced. Four regional meets, taking all comers 1S yea rs or older, will qualify the top 6 AA and o ne alternate to the USA Championships. At the U SA Championships th e gym nasts wi ll compete as a team from their region . The reg ional meets will be run by a comm ittee of th e State Techni ca l Chairmen of that region , Some questioned the need fo'r such a meet saying that th e Chairmen in that region could get together to ag ree on who the top 6 gymnasts in th eir reg ion were, The coach of th e regional team who would accompany the gymnasts to the regio nal meet wou ld also be named by the Sta te Chairmen in that region. In 1973 the USA Championships will be held May 3-5 at Penn Sta te. This meet wi ll also serve as a qualifying round for the World Un ive rsity Games in Moscow and to se lect team members for internationa l match compet itions. Further info rm atio n w ill be fort hcoming from State and Reg iona l Technical Chai rm en and the National Technical Director by March 1, 1973.

A fin al note of clar ificat io n: W here possible, state cha irmen w ill be named by th eir state (o r loca l) association rather th an by the USGF. Terms of off ice will thu s vary and new faces wi ll appear. Th e important thing, new state cha irmen were told, is to get th e developmental programs sta rted. The " hot spots" of gymnastics must be enlarged; lists of competitors, coaches, and judges compi led: and the suggested USGF procedures followed to build a solid base in each state.

NATIONAL GYMNASTIC JUDGES ASSOCIA TlON

As reported by Ted Muczy ko, th e accomplishments of the past year were: 1) A new set of rules interpretations for 1973. 2) Establishment of judges training programs at nation al and internatio nal cl in ics. 3) First judges cou rse offered for g raduate cred it at Indiana State. 4) Development of standa rdi zed judging sheets for compul so ry and f inal compet iti ons. 5) Publication in 1972 of Interpretat io ns of the FIG Code, its comp lement, and other FIG publications, and new NCAA rul es affect ing judging, 6) Pub li cat io n of a 1973 set of interpretat ions.

In progress: A hot line concept whereby regional experts may be ca ll ed (but not collect) for answers to difficult questions. Cassettes are being prepared as a part ial approach to

Abie Grossfeld

increased requests for judge's training programs. A book on judging should be ready by the end of 1972. Wallet-sized cards are being prepared as memory refreshers. Certification procedures are being rewritten .

The NGJA indicated its awareness of the new USGF Men 's Technical Committee and their goals. Within each region an effort will be made to coordinate with state chairmen . Also a need for close cooperat ion with judges for high school gymnastics was mentioned.

USGF GENERAL ASSEMBLY Frank Bare's Report has been presented

separately. Men's Olympic Games Report

Team Manager, Dr. Eric Hughes, commented on their disappointment over our men 's performances. He felt that Abie, as Coach, was not to blame, but that, "ou r poor showing may be traced back 3-4 years, " and challenged the college coaches to tighten up with their training rules and discipline. As Manager, he also thanked the equ ipment companies for their help in supplying apparatus for training and uniforms for the men 's Olympic team: Porter, Nissen, American, GymMaster, Spieth­Anderson, Zwickel , IGM, Frank Endo, and Mrs. Anita Johnson.

In contrast with others, he felt that the U.S. men had been scored the way they shou ld have been. The few errors seemed to be honest mistakes.

Olympic Coach, Abie Grossfeld, noted that there were a lot ot personal problems on this team which created many difficult situations both in the training camp and in Munich. He praised the West Point training site for its lack of distractions, good facilities, and excellent cooperation.

Forty-five days were spent in training at West Point. During the first two weeks the compu lsor ies were standardized, individual weaknesses strengthened, and a few changes made in partsof routines. Training ran 4 hoursa day 6 days a week. Each day started with a review of the day's plan and pep talks to encourage team unity. In warm-ups it was discovered that everyone had a different pattern and some resistance was encountered in imposing a team warm-up drill. The workouts varied from individual workouts on individual events to 2-3 man squads. An end of workout strength and flexibility circuit w ith partners was also set up and also resisted, but the effects showed in our improved ring performances. Sakamoto led a set of morning exercises -- to get the system going as th e Japanese do -- but attendance was no t required . Abie also thanked variou s individuals

who assisted in the training camp: Rusty Mitchell, Masayuke Watanabe, and Frank Cumiskey.

Abie reported at great length on indiv idual accomplishments and problems at the camp. All the cards were laid out on the table -- which should serve notice to aspiring Olympic candidates (and others seeking berths on international teams) that our national coaching staff is concerned with discipline and team spirit and that there will be less tolerance of prob lem gymnasts in the future. As Abie said, " Prior to the camp th ey were all willing to put in a lot of hard work. They thought they wouldn ' t mind, but they rea lly did! "

This team was better trained than the 1966 Dortmund World Games team -- but since international rules no longer permit a repeat of the compulsory exercises, this t'eam did not have the same chance to try for higher scores-­and cou Id have scored 10 points higher to finish 7th although we were hoping for 5th.

Abie made severa l recommendations fo r the future. 1) That the alternates stay on at the training camp to stay in cond ition should inju ry put one or more team members out of commission. A case in point was bringing Jim Ivicek to West Point after Sakamoto tore his bicep. 2) A 3-4 week camp may be better than 7 weeks in view of the background of the US gymnast. 3) The type and length of train ing are not the answer to our problems but the answers seem to lie in year ' round training. It is difficult to run a good program when there is no remuneration involved . Another recommendation is to set up a good youth development program. In answer to a question from Hal Frey, Abie avoided the point as to whether the colleges should go to AA only, but he did offer his own fee ling that gymnasts themse lves shou ld go AA, especia ll y as he felt that is the on ly way the US can do well internat ionally.

The US was sho rt-changed internationa ll y as we had never received the most recent set of deductions before leaving for the Games although Canada had received them. For instance, the pike front saito dismount in FX cou ld suffer from 0.3 to 1.0 deductions depending on the amount of leg bend. Vaulting Superior Judge, Boris Schaklin showed how he cou ld deduct an ext ra 0.3 by div iding up the height and flight requirement. Dismount on PH and PB compulsories had to land opposite the supporting hand or suffer deduction . The rings dismount was being done wrong here; it is a straddle cut against the arms with shoulders at ring he ight or above. We also had problems with the kris-kehre on HB and were weak on the PB gl ide kip to double rear

dismount. In optionals we will have to watch the monotony clause, WhiCh , while it is now app li ed mainly in mounts and dismounts, will also be applied to interior combinat ions -- we had 4 gymnasts using cast to support followed by i\ swinging pirouette.

John Hinds and Dr. Eric Hughes

\V

Abie did note that the team did conform in appearance to the traditional European concept of clean liness and discipline. Judges were told specifically by FIG Technical Chairman, Arthur Gander, that they must deduct for (un) gymnastic appearance, giving examples of posture, sloppy clothes, chewing gum, dirty feet , long hair and the like.

Films of the Olympic Finals were shown by Frank Endo.

One of two US judges at the Olympic Games, Les Sasvary told of his experiences, starting from when he was named by the USGF and including the lack of support of our nation 's officials by the US Olympic Committee. By his account, one had to be " in training" to be in condition to serve as a judge at the Games. He noted that the green uniforms provided officials by the Olympic Organizing Comm ittee were " real pretty" . He told. the Congress that it was very important to a team 's scores that its first man up complete his routine and that the second man do a good job to accelerate the scores. He cited Japan 's Okamura as one who started 12 times for his team and provided a high level for starting their team's scores. He noted too, that the East Germans hit all their routines. Les had the audience in stitches over his accounts of the effo rts of certa in country's judges to sway favorable scores for their teams.

Les was high in his praise of Frank Cumiskey's performance as a U.S. Judge at the Games and Frank likewise complimented Les's job. It was evident that the two men had earned the respect of other nations for thei r strict application of the Code without respect to national origin. Both agreed that the judging at the Games was generally superior to previous Olympics.

WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES REPORT Bill Meade and Delene Darst reported on

plans for fielding a team to go to the World University Games next summer in Moscow. Bill noted that the NCAA, having withdrawn from the USOc, is interested in the World Games as a forum for a. better U.S. athletic performance and is directing more interest and money to this end. The U.S. team is to be selected by May 15, 1973. Athletes must be full-time students, including graduate students, aged between 17 and 28. There will be 4 team members and an alternate but 3 alternates wilT be se'lected so that a 6 man-team plus alternate can be fielded for international dual meets. Qualifying meets wi ll include NCAA University and College division championsh ips, the NAIA champ ionship, the USGF-USA Championship and others taking place before mid-May. A brief training period, mainly to consolidate and organize the team will be held at Southern Illinois July 27-31 and the teams will depart for Europe in early August. Possibly 2 dual meets will be held in Europe before the WUG.

Fund-raising will be part of Frank Bare's job as the Executive Director of the US Collegiate Sports Council. WUG patches are being sold at $2 (receipts from these go to the sports' involved, in this case patches sold by gymnastics groups help support the USCSC gymnastic team) by the USCSC and their Sports Committees. (Gymnastics patches available from Bill Meade at SIU) In addit ion it has been suggested that NCAA finalist teams be given a lesser amount of the gate receipts from that session with the bulk of the rest to go to the WUG effort. Dues of $100 would be levied against each NCAA Conference meet. Judges at the NCAA's would contribute part of their fees towards sending a judge along to WUG.

11

Delene Darst

The Sports Committees will not delegate authority but will select gym nasts, coaches, managers, and judges from the college ranks based on their contributions past and present, possession of an NCAA judging card , with some preference being given a coach who has two or more gymnasts on the team.

A sub-committee of the Gymnastics Sports committee has been se t up to aid in the selection of women. Delene Darst of the DGWS is chairman with additional memuers; French (Pacific U), Davis (So. Conn.), Cody (U.

Colorado), Hamlin (Penn State), Fairfield (U. Maryland, Baltimore) . The women' s team coach has already been designated as Miss Mimi Murray of Springfield College. The Manager and Judgewill be named by January 1. The team will be selected in meets from January 1 to Jun e, including the DGWS meet and the USGF Elite competition plu s a couple others. In addition a piani st will be taken along.

MEN'S MEETING -

COACHING AND TEAM

MANAGEMENT

I n a rather unique panel discussion seven college coaches discussed their organization or practice workouts and answered questions from other coaches on conditioning, programming compulsory and optional training, and team unity.

Rusty Mitchell (U. New Mexico): rather structured workouts, compulsories stressed untii Nov. 1, simulated meets, optionals approached from dismount, then mount, finally adding or changing a trick in the middle.

George Syzpula (Michigan State) : rotates different events daily, uses team leadership for each event, AA leader takes newer AA men through each circuit, Mondays for a compulsory meet, optional routines on Wednesdays, psychology of training important to handle four types of gymnasts--achiever, substituter, stagnator, and quitter.

Bill Ballester (U . Oregon) : structured practices, first three events per night and switching to six per night, team is together only during warm-ups and group tumbling, separate card on each gymnast, gymnast can leave practice when he completes his card, AA men alternate compulsories and optionals but specialists work both C & 0 every night, power workouts or running to en..! each workout.

Dick Wolfe (Cal State Fullerton) : less structure and more motivation, coach has to be enthusiastic to stimulate a good workout, warm-ups from 2-2:30 and workout until 6 o'clock, three rules of planning are What to do, How to do it, Do it!

12

Hal Frey (U. Calif. Berkeley) : school interferes with gymnastics; Japanese influence at Cal; important to get team to follow a schedule: M & T = hard work, W = shorter and individualized, Th & F = hard work, Sat = light; start with 20 minutes of warm-up using running, team rhythm drill, individuali zed stretching, apparatus circuits; at 3 o'clock the squads are ready to go PB & FX, PH, HB & R, V; vault daily but only 20-25 minutes, at 6:15 team and individual exercises; can't waste time si nce gymnasts are students arid have to study after practice.

Gene Wettstone (Penn State) : treat gymnasts as individuals, isolate problems on check-off charts, work on weaknesses, set goals for each gymnast which can be met in a month or so,C & o worked together, progress is slow.

Bill Meade (SIU) : emphasize team feeling, gymnasts work for the team, believes in working hard and playing hard, Discipline + Individuals = Team, warm-ups 3-3:30, start apparatus at 3:30, not a lot of tim e spent through fall and competition season on new parts, spring time for new moves, relies on two good assistants.

The coaches assembled agreed that this type of discussion session should be encouraged. Suggestions were sought for future Congresses.

A special meeting was scheduled between the high school and college coaches to enable them to discuss potential high school prospects. The college coaches were th ere but there were too few HS coaches to term this session a success.

Rusty Mitchell NACGC MEETING

An important NCAA proposal limiting grants-in-aid to athletes would permit a maximum of 12 scholarships to university division gymnasti c teams and 10 to college division teams. However, the text of the proposed ruling needed c larification as a strict interpretation would limit upperclassmen to eight with a team total of 12 participants, whether on scholarship or not. The NACGC authorized Ed Gagnier as chairman of the rules committee to pursue the topic and to attend the NCAA Convention January 11-13 in Chicago if necessary.

The "NCAA 1973 Gymnastics Rules" book is now out. A few errata were noted in the rotations specified for teams at Nationals.

The statistical reporting service for 1973 will be handled by Nissen. New formats have been established. These are ava ilable to member coaches upon requ est.

Fred Orlofsky, representing the NACGC at th e USGF Council, mentioned that the NA IA is seeking membership on the USG F and that the AAU is undecided whether to stay on or not. The USA Championships w ill be held May 3-5, 1973 at Penn State.

Dr. Gerry George reported on research awards to be presented in December at the various winter gymnastic clinics. He also summarized the types of research going on in the U.S. at present: single skill analyses, computer simulation of performances, P.E. course development. The Soviet bloc countries are working hard on biomechanics and the U.S. should be attacking gymnastics in this approach too.

A report from the NGJA was heard. (See previous NGJA report) . It was noted that college gymnasts can now judge H.S. meets and be paid for expenses.

The NACGC voted not to pay dues to the USOC in support of the NCAA stand pending restructuring of the USOC to give better support to ath letes and programs.

A request for more NACGC input on the WUG led to a promise by Bill Meade to report to the group at its annual spring meeting. The men members of the USCSC Gymnastics Committee are Bill Meade (NCAA), Gene Wettstone (AAHPER), Ed Badger (Junior Colleges), and Arlynn Anderson (NAIA).

USGF BANQUET

A report was heard from Cal Girard, executive director of the Canadian Gymnastic Federation. He noted that the strength of th eir program is in 300+ c lubs since there is little gymnastics in the schools. Competition goes from club to province leve l and from province level to the National level. Th e CGF is seek ing a men's technical director. The Canadian gymnastics program is being partly supported by the National Milk Foundation, which will help them sponsor developmental meets. Canada has also prepared a simplified form of the FIG Code for use in Canada. Some of their junior gymnasts will travel to Japan next year. Gymnasts from China will tour Canada in July . 1973 and compete against th e Canadian men 's and women's team.

Also at the banquet, several individuals were honored by awards:

Frank Cumiskey was elected to the Judges Hall of Fame.

Gene Wettstone and Frank Cumiskey were presented Master of Sport awards by Frank Bare who noted these were the first in what he hoped would be a new series to recognize outstanding contributions by individuals to U.S. gymnastics .

Regional Judge of the Year awards were presented by the NGJA to Frank Cumiskey (East), Ted Muzycko (Mid-East), Robert Fisher (Mid-West), and Les Sasvary (West).

National Judge of the Year award was presented to Les Sasvary.

As a final note, Frank Bare asked the group's applause in recognition of Mrs. Edie Miller who was leaving the USGF Office as their secretary after having re-vamped and streamlined their office operations.

Next year's Congress is scheduled for Nov. 9-11 . probably in St. Louis, Mo.

Frank Bare

USGF CONGRESS 1972. ... FRANK BARE I welcome you to the seventh annua l USGF

Congress. I'll always enjoy coming back to Denver. The fi rst USGF Congress was here 7 years ago . As I remember, we had 34 participants and we al l got together and sa id ... now that we're here, what are we going to ta lk about?

The futu re role of th is meeti ng is chang ing by virtue of the fact that more and more people attend each year. We see more and more opportunity now to offer special ized discussion groups in coach ing techniques and hopefully involve, then more and more high schoo l and college coaches, people who may come to share ideas with some of the more experienced coaches we have in the United States.

Beginning next year we will t ry to make it a regular feature to have a visito r from some foreign country as a guest lecturer. Last year we entertained inviting Mr. Kaneko of Japan and we just cou ld n' t get him. He is considered, in men's gymnastics the most technically knowledgeable man in that hemisphere and is the one who did the drawings for the Men 's Code of Points books.

At any rate, the USGF Congress appears to be a thing to be contin ued, and at this time I wou ld like to give you what I consider an annual report from the USGF. For many of you who have not been deeply invo lved in our formation , we w ill be 10 years old on January 7th of next year.

The growth in the office has been nothing less than fantastic. Many of you may not know unless you read Mr. Leptad 's book that our office sta rted in my kitchen. We remained there for two full years. Each time I had to bui ld onto the house. Finally little by li ttle we moved. The first pr in t ing press we used was in a YMCA bu il d ing. Finally they gave me free office space in a motel downtown and then last yea r the Tucson Conquistadores, a group to which I belong and wh ich sponsors the Dean Martin Open Golf Tournament, built a bUilding for us which we occupy rent free. We hope th at if you are in Tu cson you wil l come in and see it, because we are in a beautiful locat ion in a ve ry modern w hite bU ilding with the American flag and the name on the front. Fort he first time the sport of gymnastics can really look good to a fore ign visitor, and we have had many in the year that we've been there.

One third of our building is a print shop and how someone wit h two degrees in physical educat ion got into printing, I don't know. The Porter Company donated a sma ll press to us in 1965. Since that time we have added a piece of equ ipment virtually every year until now we have equ ipment capab le of printing fu ll sized magazines and posters. We can do bumper stickers and almost anyth ing else.

In 1963 our budget for the year was $37,000, most of which was a grant from the NCAA and that grant comes to us with no strings attached. Over the last 10 years it has decreased, but our f inancial year that ended on September 1st of 1972 indicates that we spent in the last 12 months $248,605 .00 in my office and the grant that we receive from the NCAA is approximate ly $27,000, so the rest of that nearly quarter of a mill ion dollars comes from either the foreign tours that we push, or the print shop .. . and mostly the print shop in the back of the bu il ding. We are most p roud of that , because of the things that come out of there are usable items of a technica l nature that wil l help promote and better gymnast ics for the United States .

Frank Cumiskey came to us last November following the Coaches Congress and spent a few weeks there looking things over and we looking at him. On January 1st he became technica l director of the USGF. I am no longer the director of the USGF. I remain under the name of consultant. As of October 1st, I became the director of the United States Co llegiate Sports Counci l and in that role am work ing towa rd promot ion of the World University Games winter and summer (invo lving some 13 sports.) The vast majority of the off ice management now has fal len on Frank Cum iskey's shou lders in hi s fi rst year in the Tucson off ice.

The future for the sport is abso lutely b right. I can ' t tel l you how many times when we look back on this program four or five years ago and compa re it to w hat it is now .. .. 1 can remember the gymnasts we have, compared to what we had even four years ago. It is a reflection on the growth that we are experiencing and what I think we wi ll continue to experience for the next ten years just as rapidly. . .

One of the things that we have suffered from the most is z lack of Nationalistic feeling and I'm not talking about the kind that causes some of our Social ist count ri es to judge favorably ... one for the other. I am talking about the kind that we seem to lack when it comes t ime to work together. We remain a g reat big country geographical ly and this has the impact keeping us separated when the time comes to work together. When I mention this I also have to think about the Munich games and there were probably more Americans watching gymnastics in Munich than at any previous Olympiad. I think the fact that t he judging there was somewhat better in some areas than years past and in some areas somewhat worse .. .. reflects a problem that we all have to face and that is difficult tosolve.

You may also know that at t hat meeting in Munich, I was elected to t he Executive Committee of the FIG. The prob lems that we face are very, very political. The gi rl s team was very clearly the third best team at the Olympic Games. There is no way they could have been any place but third .... but we finished fourth. Even the German sports wr iters wrote in the Munich papers that it was clear that the America n Women's team was third.

About 12 days ago I was in Johannesburg, South Africa. One of the women judges at the compet iti on there was a Swedish woman Mrs. Berg w ho was just elected to the Women's Technical Committee. I asked her how she fe lt about the judging? Is it really b iased in the women's part of the sport? She sa id in M un ich it was worse than ever befo re. She said that the head judge on balance beam called the judges together just befo re th e Hungarians came on.

(She was, of course, a Hungarian) She stressed ihe fact that the team that was com ing out now was doing exceptionally good work and that they should be rewarded appropriately. Jackie Fie wi ll te ll you that, sitting on the floor judg ing balance beam in Munich, that one of the Russian coaches came out and gave her a present and said, "Our team is coming up next! " How subt le do you have to be?The night before .. at least, it would have been a littl e appropriate. But we face this fact that there are considerab le bits of cooperation if we can ca ll it that, between the Socia li st countries, and fortunate ly I say, in princ iple, the Western countries, who although fr iend ly do not go to that length to support one another. We shouldn ' t have to take part in events as diff icu lt as gymnastic events and as complicated as judging is anywhere w ith the added factor of what the emb lem on your shirt o r leotard is .... but we do.

The results of the games? We ll, I don't need to de lve in to the fact t hat the tragedy of the Israeli athletes was someth ing we had nothing to do with and there is nothing you can do about it. Since that time, many of you know, Montreal , in Munich tried to get o ut of the '76 games and I don't b lame them because you cannot turn the Olympic Games into an armed camp. Yet I think the Germans did everything possible to protect everyone there and to manage the games in a proper manner. The future of the games, I would say at best, is undecided. As you know as we are meeting here in Denver, they have turned down tne appropri ation for the Winter games and that leads me into somethi ng that I wrote for the introduction to the program. I' m sure that many of you have read of my perhaps severe attacks o n the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). I have done that w ith all sincerity because I feel that the greatest failure that we have when we participate in the Pan American and Olympic Games is the admini stration of the USOC. I wan t to take a moment to tell you w hy I have taken that position.

You know the NCAA has w ithdrawn and that the Jr . Co ll eges w ill , perhaps the High Schoo l Association w ill , all the major co nferences .... most of them have already met and decided to withdraw. This was designed to bring pub li c attention to the need for reorganization and rest ructuring of th e USOC with the idea that perhaps Congress o r the Senate will demand restructure. Late in October, Senator Tunny of Californ ia introduced a bill to call for restructuring of the Olympic Committee. He tacked it on to the bill w hich wou ld have given $15 million to Denver for the Winter games as an append ix so it passed the Senate rather eas ily; however when the Denver voters turned down the games that bill died. So did the appendix to it. So now we have to 'start over aga in. I might mention that our attorney in Wash ington helped write the bill. We felt that it was an excellent one, because we felt that it did defini te ly ca ll for investigation and restructuring of the USOc.

Let me give you a few points that brought me to the stand that I have aga inst the USOC and I hope that if you hear these yo u will believe them ... and I can prove them .. . 1 hope that you wi ll understand why it is that we have to take some act io n now. We had four semi-fina l or final Olympic trials for the Olympic teams (two for men and two for women) The proceeds from those events were given to the USOc. .. we fe lt. .. to help send gym nastics people to the

11

More than 200 people attended the Denver Congress and participated in numerous discussion groups and meetings; most of which were aimed at improving gymnastics in the United States.

Olympic games. The total was around $43,000. My office is charged with the select ion ot judges and as you all know ... in our spo rt it is important that the United States put American judges on the floor. We were entit led to two men and one woman judge. To this day ... as I stand here before you, I have never heard trom the USOC as to how they got there. So finally, because the judges were concerned ... they ca lled me severa l days before the final departure time to leave for the games and said , " How do we get to Munich? " So I ca ll ed the Olympic Committee director in Wash ington and asked, " How do the judges get to Munich? " He sa id, " We' re not sure yet." " Maybe one or two can go on an Olympic charter, but if they do, yo u must pay their way to Washington and if they spend the night in a motel before they go to Munich, you have to pay the hotel bill and you pay their room and board in Munich. " I said that I was under the impression that they were Olympic Games judges. He sa id, " Well none the less, that 's how it is and we ' ll on ly pay for two. " So, as Frank Cumiskey went from our offices, we paid hi s expenses totally. We re imbursed Mr. Sasvary and Mrs. Fie for th eir expenses connected with getting to the Washington D.C. area and then their expenses in Europe. Jack ie will tell you that she wanted to fly commerc iall y to get over ea rl y for the meetings of the FIG Women's Committee. They said, " Well , if you fly commercially, you have to pay the difference. We are going to give you only the amount it would cost you to fly with us from Washington.

Now ; 11 of this with a large orga ni zat ion that has already declared at the end of this year a 1.3 million dollar surplus to go with th e 5.7 million dollar surplus they already have in stocks and bonds. And we as gymnastics people have cont ributed more than our fair sha re to the sport ... don 't get any support whatsoever .. . .from them either politically or financially. Now, how dirty this has become IS

hard to believe unless you have been a part of it.

I attended a Board of Directo rs meeting of the USOC in Oklahoma. Our president, Gordon Chalmers from Indiana State is actually the board member and he was out of the country, so I went in his place. When I ca me out of the meeting, I told Mr. Chalmers that I will never go again.

14

At no time does the USOC board allow sports and athletics to interfere with their meeting. They had a caucus the night before the meeting began on Saturday morning and made a sign ificant trade. Basically the stru ctu re of th e board is 1/ 3 AAU, 1/ 3 independents (that is, speed skating, f ield hockey, figure skat ing,) in which category we appropriate ly fall. They had a ca ucus between the AAU and the independents. Th e other 1/ 3 are the Jr. Co ll eges, the High Schools and the NCAA. The AAU sa id, "We wi ll vo te for your nominee for President of the Ol ympic Committee if ~ou wi ll vote for us against the federations (wrestling and basketball in particu la r) They shook hands and said, " fair dea l" and it was done .. . in March.

So, during th e voti ng, for the wrestli ng federation and the basketball federation to get one to three votes out of 4000 on the Olympic Committee, they were defeated. The Olympic Committee had its elec tion of officers just about two weeks ago, and stran ge ly enough, Mr. Crumb who was the man they pushed for President was elected President.

Thi s type of act ivi ty at a board meeting is common. Let me give you something th at wi ll shock yo u (from the Boa rd of Directors of the USOC). They hired a stenographer to come in (a cou rt type stenographer w ith a littl e machine by w hich she stenotypes the notes. She sat there for the two days that we were there. When we wrote for the minutes of the meeting Mr. Lynch wrote back and sa id that there was a problem because the stenographer couldn't interpret her minutes; therefore there are no minutes of the meeting.

Mr. Sullivan, the attorney for the USOC came to the microphone and his opening comment was, " I'm a man of principles, and my first principle is exped ience." That set the tone for the meeting. At one time during the meeting there was an item that th ey wanted to vote on which was contradictory to the USOC constitution. Mr. Sullivan went to the microphone and said, "Ge ntlemen, why don ' t we have a motion that we rescind that paragraph from the co nstitution for this meeting. Someone said, " I so move". It was seconded and done! When you sit out there looking at this! These are the administrators of the total Olympic movement who get about

$10 million every four years from the American public to administer our Olympic and Pan American effort. This is the way business affairs are conducted.

Up until two years ago it was impossible to get a financial report from the USOc. The public chartered that organization ... a Congressional cha rter but you couldn't get a financial report until two years ago and then only because of grea t pressure from the universities, co ll eges, and high schoo ls .. .. to see where the money was. They found that $2.1 million of stocks and bonds are in the pension fund. And the big question we all ask is " pensions for whom? " They only have two full time employees. True, they have a multitude of people who work in the office, but they have only two full time employees! This is the type of thing that the organ izat ion has developed into in the la st four yea rs .. .. c1osed business doors. The College and University spo rts program in America has one ve ry leg itimate complaint and I' ll close this politi ca l discussion on that point.

There are a littl e over 4000 votes on the USOC. .. and w hen you hear that the AAU, and perhaps Mr. Kelly a little more i n particular, say that it 's a power grab ..... it is not a power grab any more than it was when they used that same term against us. It 's a work grab, because when the USGF became the governing body, our work load increased many times over.

The lower ELBA Park District of New York has three votes on the Olympic Committee ... and I think that most of you don't even know w here th at is because I found it las t February when I was at a sk i compet iti on at La ke Placid, New York. It 's just below Lake Placid. They have three votes on the USOC and so does the Big 10 Conference in total. Every AAU District (there are 58) in the United States has three votes on the USoc. The Big Eight Conference has three. The Big 10 Conference has three, the NCAA with 168 universities has three. Every past President of the USOC has one .... automat ica ll y. When you count up the number of small AAU subd ivisions and put those all together it comes into the man y hundreds of votes that they get ... but all of these powerful conferences wh ich have the facilities and possess the coaches, the funds, and the programs in many sports .. . not in all. ... all lumped together have three! The same number as the Southern Ar izona AAU which has neve r conducted a gymnastics meet in the history of the state!

With this type of structure, how can the co ll eges be expected to put millions and millions of dollars into the program? .... and then when they as k that they be given only fair representation, be told that " We don ' t want you here. " And they flatly look them in ttie eye and say it just like that , " Why are yo u people always making trouble?"

I know that this is an all too brief discussion on what is going to be a big fight, but I wanted you to know some of the points that have brought the NCAA to withdraw from the Olympic Committee. Now we meet in Chicago next Sunday in the planning committee to try to come forth with a recommendation for rest ru ctu ring. We will meet different colleges, some high schools, some business leade rs and several senators with the hope that we won't simp ly say that the OC is not functioning correctly, but that this is how maybe it will work better. We will try to take a constructive role. Editor's Note: Mr. Bare's address at the USGF Congress was transcribed from tape by Associate Editor Renee Hendershott.

USGF CONGRESS - 1972 Renee P. Hendershott

Yes, thi s yea r had to be my year at the USGF Congress. It is so ironic, becau se I thou ght I'd never be able to get away to come. In yea rs past , my friends Helen Sjurse n and Inky Ledfo rd would go and I wou ld get " th e word " from th em. This wou ld have been a perfect place for th e " Big Three" to meet. We used to call ourselves that , because we all wrote Newsletters and reall y stu ck togeth er ... each sending th e oth ers any " hot" news as fast as she could . I' ve neve r met either Helen or Inky, bu t th rough the years have grown to love them both. Thi s yea r could have b een th e yea r th at we met, bu t Inky retired last yea r, and Helen couldn ' t get away. So, I found myself th ere as news amba ssa dor ! What a sw itch! Someday we' ll meet ga ls, ... . someday.

Fortunate·ly, I have no news o r souvenirs fro m Cuba for you .... and thi s was due only to luck because, to my dismay, security checks were done at on ly one out of th e four airports from whi ch I fl ew. In fact in Chicago, after we had all herd ed into the plane with no checkin g, the police and customs office rs made a grand entrance to the tune of giggling stewardesses, and extracted a dubious looking young fell ow from our midst. He never did get back on . Not a word was said until we landed at Cleveland Hopkins Inte rnational Airport when th e stewardess apologized for our delay, ca lmly announced that there had been a hijacking attempt, and proceeded to tell us if"we didn 't like it to write the company! Well. .. . 1 never! I don't think I' ll be taking a plane anywhere for a while !

Finally, arriving all in one piece at th e Denver airport, we took a limousine on the 10 mil e trip to the Denver Hilton Hotel. Joan Pasqu ael , a judge from Cali fornia was sitt ing nex t to me. I've never met her or even written to her, but in seconds, we were engaged in conversation (about judging .. .. what else?) as if we had known each other for years .. .. and this is what I like so much about gymnastic people. W e all have something so much in common that we can be immediate and the most intense of friends. We are engaged in something greater than anyone of us. We are all interested in the same thing in one way or another, and that is to build the best possible gymnastics program for our youngsters to be exemplified by a world class gymnastics team representing the United States of America.

Some work at it by trying to improve judging methods, others by wr iting books, others through keeping communications flowing, others by working on committees, others by dedicating their lives to coaching, many doing the same as gymnasts. It is a tremendous driving force with in all of us which gives us purpose and direction.

It is hard to give you the real feeling one gets when attending a function so significant as the USGF Congress. You see people you have read about or seen in pictures . You see people you have actually seen or worked with before .... but never before in this light! The women were suddenly transformed into lovely princesses, beautifully made up and coiffu red, many in unbelievably exotic attire. The men all looked like ambassadors ... and ... all in all. .. . they proved that the hardest workers in the field do not always live in jeans or workout su its.

Colorado is mountain country and popu lar for its many ski spots, but do you think we saw a mountain? No! Well. .. . maybe a couple of

Renee He ndershott talks with Tom Heineike, the President of the newly formed United States Association Clubs and Graham Bartlett, recently e lected Vice President.

inches of mountains behind the buildings on really signifi ca nt words were said th ere. So the horizon .... one morning I got up at 6:00 much of it shou ld be known by all of you . In a.m., determined to get a better view and take future issues, I will print as much information some exquisite pi ctures of them. Up I went to from thi s very worthwhile event as there is the 22nd floor of the hotel all .armed with spa ce for it in the Gymnast. Gosh ... 1 almost camera, f il m and f i lters, and you know what I forgo t to tell you , I met my boss Glenn Sundby saw ? .. . SOL ID WALL! So much for the outsid e for the first time there and our very prolifi c scenery. men's coordinating Editor, Dick Cril ey, and my

The Denver Hilton was well suited to house ambitious Western reporter , Cheryl Wagn er such an elegant group of 217 people. It is a (wow .... is she a beauty!) OH .. . it was so much spacious; clean, and beautifu l building . The fun ... 1 hate for it to be over, but anyway ... . meeting rooms were no less luxurious than a Right now you should know that the USGF palace with their sh ining chandeliers and plush will be 10 years old next January 7th and ·it has carpeting. been holding these Congresses for seven years.

The first evening we spent getting registered There were on ly 34 participants at the first one and acquainted . I w ent around quickly and, when th ey did get together, they weren ' t glancing at everybody"s name tags and ·found sure of what they were going to talk about. This that I knew almost all of them, at least a little . year, seven· years later, all that has You get to feeling a little cross eyed and changed .... and it will change even more in stooped over after chasing elusive name tags years to come. Next year, t he Congress wi ll run for a whi le. I can remember when I saw Frank three full days (November 9-10-11) in St. Louis, Endo on one tag, how much I appreciated M issouri . There will be more opportunity to being able to meet this man who has offer specialized discussion groups in coaching contributed so much to th e field ... maybe not as techniques for High School and College a gymnast. ... or a coach ... but by taking movies coaches led by more experienced coaches in of so many marvelous meets and se lling them 'he United States. for cost so that gymnasts, coaches and judges The first meeting was for the United States cou ld study the best in the world f irst hand. He Associat ion for Independent Gym Clu bs a told me he judged 55 meets last year! Then newly formed organ ization of pr ivate gym there was Beatrice Lowe ... . maybe you haven ' t clubs who are coming together to help each heard of her. ... but Tulsa , Ok lahoma has felt her other with ideas for survival and improvement presence very strongly in t he past 37 years as and w ith the purpose in m ind of gaining a she has fought di ligently to get gymnastics knowledgeable vote on the USGF Governing programs in all the schools in Tulsa . She was Council. We wil l bring you more news of this such a proud lady, w ith the beady dark eyes of a group later, but, for now, if you are interested fighter. She told us that everyone of the in supporting the organization and receiving school libraries (and the re are 107 in Tulsa) their newsletter, write to President Tom had the Gymnast Magazine on its shelves. Then Heineike, Wichita Gymnastics Club 3641 N. there was Bud Marquette who, in spite of Hillside, Wi chita, Kansas 67219. having a double hernia operat ion three weeks Both the men and the women gave Olympic ago, managed to make it. He has announced his Reports, The Women's Committee gave their retirement as coach and will devote his time to report and we heard reports on the World fund raising from now on .. .. and .. . on ... there University Games, Canada, the annual report were so many more, the biggies .. .. the litt li es from the USGF by Mr. Frank Bare, saw Olympic and the middlies. films, went over the national compulsories with

After getting my nose back in joint, out came Delene Darst and the new Olympic the camera (and I got some duzies) I don ' t compulsories with Muriel Grossfeld. d iscussed know what people thought I was doing, but the tuture of the Elite program and, on Saturday pretty soon they got used to it and before I night had a gourmet banquet fit for a king. I was knew it I had about 50 really nice shots so pleased when we all received a free USGF inc luding some very funny ones that I didn't cup at the end. I had read about them being even know about until I got home in my given out as prizes for the puzzle winners in the darkroom. USGF newsletter and kind of secretly wanted

After going over 50 pages of notes and 10 one myself. They have them for sale now at the hours of tape taken at the many meetings at the USGF Office for $2.00 a cup and they would Congress, I am just now realizing how many make nice gifts. Sundays' many meetings

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culminated for some in the USGF/DGWS certification exam for women and we all went home just a little tired for the wear.

I know you all would like to hear how our American judge, Mrs. jackie Fie felt about the judging in Munich and what our Olympic coach, Muriel Grossfeld, and our Olympic manager, Mrs. Mike Flansaas had to say about the Training cam p, the girls and Munich. After so many of us have drawn our own conclusions it will be good to hear just how this all affected these women:

Jackie Fie

WOMEN'S OLYMPIC REPORT .... USGF CONGRESS 1972

Mrs. jackie Fie - quoted in full After reading the numerous reports and

editorials on judging that have appeared around the country, I wish to give you only factual information and not a personal opinion and let you draw your own conclusions. These facts will be based on my scoring on the two events during ' the team competition, and on the scoring of the head judges who are " the respected authorities in gymnastics around the world. "

I was assigned to judge compulsory beam and optional floor. I'm going to tell you how I judged because I think you want to know what kind of job your delegate did and what scores she gave. I'm not trying to keep it a secret. My scores will be made .Dublic at this Doint.

During the comp~lsory beam ... i·JI give you the team results first: The actual team compulsory beam results were as follows :

Actual Results Results My Scoring URS 49.90 URS 45.60 GDR 45.80 GDR 45.90 USA 45.60 USA 46.10 HUN 45.40.2 behind us HUN 45.10 jPN 45.05 jPN 44.70 TCH 45.80 TCH 45.70

Therefore with the Hungarian score, my score of 45.10 was .3 lower than they actually

received .... so I thought they were .3 less good than their scores indicated. My score for the USA of 46.10 was .5 higher tr,an what we actually received (45.60); therefore my actual ditterence in team scores between the Hungarians and the USA was one full point, because I rated our team 46.10 and I rated them 45.10. Although the real difference came out to be only two tenths of a point (we were ahead of the Hungarians on compulsory beam by .2) .

The head judge, Madame Nagy scored our team as follows : 8.7; 8.8; 9.1; 8.6' 8.5> 8.7; and the 8.7 was for Cathy Rigby (This gave us a team

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score of 43.90 from the head judge.) She deducted for a swing down from the handstand to a v-sit for no hand placement behind the hips. Now, it seems that her deduction was approximately .3 for each girl (looking at her scores). The East Germans placed only one hand on the beam following the swing down and they had the other hand stretched forward in line with the rear arm and they were not deducted at all. No mention was given during any FIG Techni ca l Committe meeting that this was mandatory. The only instruction that we received was that the handsta nd position had to be retained, stretched , held, or marked, the arm position during the swing down had to be stretched, the arms straight, and there must be a certain amount of contro l during the sw ing down to the v-sit.

If Madame wouldn ' t have deducted for this, it would have added 1.50 to her score wh ich would have made us on ly two tenths lower than what we actually received (45.60). There was not one other judge on that panel that deducted for that, but she stuck to her guns that this was an infraction of the rules.

OPTIONAL FLOOR .... TEAM COMPETITION Actual Scores URS 47.95 GDR 47.60 USA 46.55 HUN 46.50 ROM 45.05 TCH 45.95

Results My Scores URS 47.90 GDR 47.40 USA 46.70

.05 behind us HUN 46.40 RUM 45.40 TCH 45.80

.3 behind us instead of .05

So you can see that my scores for Hungary were .1 lower than what they actually received. My scores for the USA were .15 higher than what we actual Iv received; therefore the actual difference in how I scored Hungary versus the USA was a .3 difference, whereas the actual difference was only .05 of a point. Therefore, according to my scores, we could have picked up 1.3 in these two events. Now these are only two events, you see, and my personal opinion was that we were 1.3 higher in the two events.

The overall team results were: Hungarians 368.25; USA 365.90; an actual difference of 2.35 between the two teams in the overall team results, and with my difference of 1.3, this only gave us a 1.5 to make up in the next six events and I think this could have been done.

Now I'd like to give you a little more interesting comparison. I've taken the judges sheets that we received back from the Technical Committee. I'm going to give you the scores that the head judges scored us .... not the average scores .... and this is going to support the feeling that was conveyed to me by the authorities in Europe, that we were indeed, the better team.

First of all , I' ll begin with beam which is not the most exciting one with Madame Nagy being in this position (and this is unfortunate because she is the new president of the Technical Committee for Women .) In compulsory beam, Madame Nagy's scores were 1.7 lower than what we received and that 's a great difference. In optional beam Madame Nagy. gave our team 45.10 in comparison to the 45.30 that we actually received , so she scored our team .2 lower in the optional beam.

Now, on floor with Madame Domendecko .. .. (and she does like our team on floor ). She has c)mmented several iimes. She is

especially fond of joan Moore in floor exercise. In compulsory floor, she awarded 45.90 in comparison to our 45.65, so she gave us .35 more in floor exercise compulsory. In the optional Madame Domendecko awa rded the US 46.7 versus 46.55 .... or she gave us .15 more and that 's a big difference on a team score if yo u can pick up .15.

Even more interesting is uneven bars. Madame Matlochova, the former Czech coach, who was the team trainer for Italy tor severa l yea rs, and has gone off of the Technical Committee (which I am very sorry to see) gave us in compu lsory bars (where we felt we were undersco red ) 46.1. We only received 45.75 (.35 more).

In optional bars we received a 46.15 and Madame Matlochova gave us 46.60. We would have picked up another .45 more, if the scoring was based on the scores of a so ca lled authority in the spo rt.

And in the va ult, Madame Berger from East Germany is our friend. She awarded our team 46.4. We only recei ved 45.10 ..... for our compulsory vaults. (We would have received 1.3 more according to her scores).

In optional va ult, Madame Berger scored us 46.3 and we actually received 45.80 which is .5 of a point more. I think these facts speak for themselves. In six events .... that 's bars, floor and vaults ... the head judges scored our team three full points (3.1) higher than what we received. And Madame Nagy scored our team 1.9 lower than what we received .. .. and this made the difference. We theoretically could have received 1.2 more in team points from the superior judges .... which wouldn ' t have been enough to win but based on the majority opinion of the Technical Committee we would have been in the third place spot. This supports the general feeling that prevailed during the Technical Committee meetings prior to the competitjon. The scores from Mme. Berger, Mme. Matlochova and Mme. Domendecko were indicative of their feeling that the USA girls had made tremendous strides and were now, without question, among the Elite of the International Competition.

I heard these same com ments from many. many people over there, prior to the competition, during the competition, and after the competition .... to mention a few, Madame Varda who is a respected authority in Europe. She is the former coach of the Hungarian team. She is now coaching the team of the Netherlands and was in direct opposition trom Madame Nagy. She felt our team deserved third . The West Germans, of course were very receptive to the Americans and they felt that we definitely were third. The Romanians, the team that we were there to beat ... one 01 the teams that we were going to beat.. . .felt that we deserved credit. The Swedes, the Canadians, the British and even the Czech people. They said that they only wished we could have beaten the Hungarians and they felt if any team was to beat them they were glad it was the USA and this came from Madame Tenterova, Hanna Valachova the judge and two other Czech people that were present.

I think that the girls on the USA team accomplished the near impossible jumping from seventh place to fourth place and surpassing the Czechs, the Romanians, and the japanese teams. I think we have a bright future and we only need to improve at the current rate that we have done in the past three or four years. This doesn 't mean even to accelerate our program. Even if we just

improve at the current rate we are go in g to move into third p lace spot and I fee l that we are strong ly going to cha llenge the formidable East German Team. These i1re the on ly facts that · I have ... and from this I hope you can draw you r own concl usions.

Dale Flansaas

TRAINING CAMP ... WASHINGTON D.C. .. WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED IN

MUNICH Dale Flansaas

Fo r the training camp we got together for about five weeks at Ya le Uni versi ty. This was a time to bring twelve gir ls together and train them for team depth .. . not just t he top 6. The main accompli shments were in polishing the compulsories with spec ial attention to the elements in th e compulsor ies.

We worked out a sem i-new f loor ex compu lsory and had new music for the rout ine. My main job was in gett ing the gi rl s outfitted . We were one of the best outfitted teams there. We usually make a lot of other teams very jealous because we have so much in the way of sweat suits etc. A lot of this is due to the donation Zwicke l usua ll y gives us of sweat su its. We usually buy the leotards .

This was also a time to get p ictures, passports etc. We polished optiona l ex ercises and made just minor adjustments in routines. The help of Maria Bakos was p robably the greatest assest we had in the dance area. These are the things that made our girl s do the job they did in Munich and this is generally the purpose of the training camp.

After the training camp we went to Washington DC. This was a transition stage, and with our compet ing first it wa sn't th e best stage for us, because it in vo lved a lot of time away from training. That was the only disadvantage in going to Washington. Here they got their traveling uniforms, they went thru processing which took about 4-5 hours. They also had to attend many social functions at the White House and the Congress had a banquet for them. Vice President Agnew ta lked to them The on ly thing I can say is that it would be nice if they could sho rten some of th ese extra things that they must attend so that they cou ld keep training a little harder .

My main job was in Washington, because I had to take ca re of transportation, col lecting per d iem for the girls, turning in budget reports from the camp, and I wou ld like to say at this time that if it hadn ' t been for Vannie Edwards helping me out (he handled the w hole budget at the trainin g ca mp) it wou ld ' have been difficult for me to do much training of th e girls.

I also had to complete all those O lympic forms that are important and attend manager meetings which give you an idea of what you are supposed to do, but a lot of the meetings were of a ve ry genera l nature and did take me away from training.

When we actually got to Munich we had about a week and a half of training. The th in g that was nice about getting to Munich was that eve rybody on the staff and the gymnasts rea ll y pu lled together. We had some tensions and problems along the way but everybody in Munich did pull together and wo rked comp letely for the team and I think this is why the girls did such a tremendous job on the floor.

The change of scenery and the atmosphere of being at the Olympic Games sparked the k ids and they really got going. Both their att itudes and their ac tual d iscipl ine just kept going up and we were lucky that they really peaked at the right time.

They trained about three hours a day. We usuall y took them into the gym for another hour and a half session to do some ext ra things, so they were training hard al l the way up to the competit ion.

Enterta ini ng no social activities, they were usually in the ir dorm by 7:30. They had workouts in the morning from 8-10. These girl s really put everything into their pre-training in Munich and I think they did the best t hey could have done as a team.

We felt that they were even better in some cases th an lackie's report indicates, I th ink with the c ircumstances they went through the training they went through, th at we had the best team that we poss ibl y could have ... and we sho uld congratulate the girls for coming through for themselves and for the USA.

Muriel Grossfeld demonstrating the new Olympic compulsories.

Women's Olympic Games Report

MURIEL GROSSFELD

The staff that was involved with the entire team consisted of Mr. Vannie Edwards, Mrs. Fl ansaas, Bil l and Ginny Coco, Maria Bakos,two pianists .... Mr. Art Mattox our regular pianist and Pat Melcher as some of you might know he worked on the compulsory music and played in the off hours to re li eve Mr. Mattox, Mr. Rod Hill, Ruth McBride was there for a whi le, and Bud Marquette was there the entire time and Dick Mu lvih ill and lim Fonteyn. Th ey were more involved with their own gymnasts though at that point in time.

We could never have had the ki nd of training camp we had without th e help of all the equ ipment companies. Mr. Darling from the Nissen Company acted as kind of a coordinator, American had their floor exercise mat there and all k inds of things that we were sending out for,the new Eastern system of Rheuther final ly got the uneven parallel bars to us. We got some off icia l beat boards and so every body did he lp dur in g the entire time with the equipment etc. We neve r did get a set of bars that adj usted correct ly. We on ly saw those when we got to Munich.

Th e compulsory floor exercise was changed qu ite a lot for severa l reasons .... mainly so that we wou ld have someth ing that all six girls could do with a great dea l of charm and purpose. We worked on the beam compulso ry coming out w ith what we fe lt would work the best for all six girl s. There we re slight changes. Most ly we had to work on the arms because most of the girls came with fairly nice ideas on how to perform the exercises but not a reall y good idea of how to do each element with a minimum of deductions.

Mr. Hill spent long hours o n the compu lso ry horse vault try ing to make it rea lly look Ii ke the compu lsory and if yo u li stened to l ackie's repo rt you wou ld have rea li zed that this was one of th e definite trouble areas. We cou ld have done better scorewise, in fact the only protest I gave during th e entire compet ition was fo r the scores that our girls rece ived doing the compu lsory horse vault.

I don ' t think we reall y started to wo rk together as a team at all until we got to Washington, and we pu ll ed together even better when we got to Munich. Th ere were many socia l functions to attend in Washington, but for the girls w ho were really in trouble there we re ways of avo iding some of these functions. In some cases we were ab le to keep three girls working out while the other three were sti ll required to go to the White House. I would not want to say that we should dispense with these White House functions. The girl s gave up many things to get where they were. For some of these girls, getting to the White House and hearing Vice President Agnew was very impo rtant to th em and the nice part of th e trip, part of their comi ng together so we ll in Munich might have come from those experiences in Washington. It 's something that we are going to have to examine for the future and decide exactly how much of this sort of thing we would li ke the girls to do, because I st ill think that they are representatives of their country that they are individua ls as we ll as gymnasts so that when th is is all over they won' t say we ll I guess I am at th e Olympics, but all I saw was a gymnasium. So we w ill have to th in k about how much it really did hurt us at that point in t ime.

W e had great fortune in Munich . The French team was either very lazy or ve ry secretive .. . 1 don ' t know which, but we were scheduled from eight to ten o ur first coup le of days they didn 't show up for their 11-til ? workout time, so in most cases we were abl e to finish what we were doing at a leisurely pace and work ti l1 :30 or 2. Finally when th ey came, we thought we wou ld lose the gym, but they st ill left us alone for another day or two .... so, becau se the French were so kind and d idn't train ve ry hard, we had 6 hours eve ry morning.

I would say they were in by 6 or 7 every night. This was not so that they could get enough sleep. This was so that they cou ld do th ings toge ther to begin to feel more together as a

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Muriel Grossfeld group. We did things like sewing leotards which we changed a lot every day. After we saw the competition area .... we had planned on wearing white, green and navy blue . We dispensed with the white. We got rid of the green because all of the officials were running around in their bright greens, so we proceeded to retrim our navy blue leotards. We did a lot of things together. As a leader I felt that if we did alot of these things it wou ld help in the end team result. We had a great range in ages among the girls and a great range in interests. So for the girls to enter this whole thing wholeheartedly was very, very difficult. They did it and I think it paid off.

There were a couple things that happened that we didn ' t expect. One was that for the compulsories we thought we had all the elements exact ly correct. Both Jackie and I checked repeatedly, and then the deductions Madame Nagy made for our girls after all this made it a litt le difficult for us. The other thing was that during the warmup period we we re all required to sit very sti ll in our chairs . As you well know some gymnasts st ill did not sit very still in their chairs during the warmup time. They warmed up on the floor continuously and at that time we were told that if we did this it would be a complete vio lation and there wou ld be a team deduction. So ou r girls had to rehearse a littl e bit ahead of time to prepare themselves for this, because if you are going to work on the balance beam it is pretty hard to sit in a chair perfectly stil l for ten or fifteen minutes and then walk up and compete.

Those of you who watched on TV we found did not see all of our team perform. I want you to know that we had 6 girls on that team and I am going to tell you something about each one so yo u might know how much they really did!

Nancy Thies from Champaign was the youngest member of our team. She had never been in a major international competition in her life. She had never seen a platform except on films before. The first day that she went to Washington she hurt her knee ve ry badly. She did a bounce back which is the compu lsory dismount and landed w ith her knee locked out. She could not even walk very well the ent ire time we were in Washington. She did most of her tumbling skills being held off the ground either by Mr. Edwards; Mr. Mulvihill, or myself so that she cou ldn 't do any of her tumbling, any of her difficult acrobatics on beam etc. We were going to all try a somi on the balance beam, so she began to get the idea that I didn't feel very enth usiastic about her doing a back somi on the beam for the first time in this meet, especially since she couldn't practice it. To give you an indication of what kind of ch ild she is. Every day she would say "Are you going to let me do the back?" I would say "Weill still haven't made the decision" .... before the meet came and at our last workout she got up on the beam and did about 25 of them to prove that she was just f ine.

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The first day we found out we had to compete w ith the only good team in the morning .... that is a depressing fact when you are a gymnast. .. Then the second day we found out that optional beam was our first event .... number one you feel " My God if I fall the whole thing's over" .... number two they felt that Madame Nagy was antagonistic, and it wasn ' t the friendliest place in the world to go to first, and .. .. Nancy Thies was up first, and I have never seen a gymnast in my life go up and perform with such composure and such beauty. She did her standing back and finished and then she smiled at everybody. So we got off to a great start I thought it was worth at least a nine something .. .. she got an eight something, but anyway.

The next gymnast that we could tell you a little story about is Roxanne Pierce. Roxanne was the winner of our trials. She was a Pan American Games All -A rou nd champion. When a gymnast is psyched in this direction and expects to be number one or number two it's hard to accept the role of going out first. In her best event, optional vaulting she went up first. We were in such terrible trouble in terms of the impression that we were making over in horse vau lting and Roxanne was up for this meet and performed like she was winning the Pan American Games All Around.

Kim Chace was kind of the victim of. ... each time when I made up the Ifneups I wanted to make su re that we had a person that was very strong and could make the score lead possibly for a big punch at the end. Kim invariab ly came up in this spot. She was totally reliable, a trait which she has not been known for in the past. She came through every single time .... with pushing our score. All the coaches at the training camp would agree that she made the most of every day at the training camp right down to the last day.

Joan Moore (and I have known her since she was 4 years old) is very talented but courage is not one of her greatest talents. Sometimes Joanie lacks the confidence to go ahead and do things. We had trained a double tWist all the way through the training camp. We got to Munich and she had still not done a double twist by herself. We had switched her from her own coach to Mr. Edwards .... and she had made that in f ine sty le. Up until two days before the meet she had sti ll not done a double twist without spotti ng. She came to me and said "Well, I think that, instead of doing what I had told you I wanted to do (she wanted to do it for the first time in the meet. I thought that she should do it ahead of time) I'm ready! I think I' ll do it by myself. She sti II did not know when we got to the meet w hether I would let her do it. I told her it really depended a lot on how the team was doing. When we went to optional beam before optional floor she fell from the beam, I guess she thought that I was going to think that this was not the best day of her life, so we got to optional floor ex warmups and I was standi ng on the stairs and this bomb passed me. She knocked me out of the way ... J almost fell on my side .... as Jackie saw ... wit hout doing a round off ... w ithout doing a front walkover, without doing anyth ing she ran down the diagonal and did a round off flip flop and a double full and landed on her side ... she sa id , "I'm ok!" and I said, "Well, ok, if you feel that you can do it there's no problem." and she did it and it was beautiful. Jackie sa id that Madame Domendecko thought she was much better than the score she received.

The next gymnast that I want to say something about is Linda Metheny. I have never seen the Linda Metheny that was at the training camp. She was without question at the ep itomy shape in her life. I have never seen her tumbling like she was tumbling. I have never seen her vau It Ii ke she was va u Iting. It was setto be a wonderful climax to a fantastic ca reer. When she went to Washington and on the same day that Nancy hurt her knee, she landed a somi rather heavily on the beam, found herself having difficulties breathing. It turned out that. ... and nobody's sure just how bad ly she was really hurt, whether the diaphragm muscles were ripped , whether part of the diaphragm was actually injured or what, she cou ldn ' t move, she couldn't breath and there wasn't very much at all that she cou ld do. At the time that we left Washington her coach Dick Mulvihill felt that she wouldn ' t compete. I felt that she probably would, but I can 't tell you all the reasons why I thought so I just got good fee lings about things. She didn ' t know. She wanted st ill to compete, but she was very mixed up. We went to Munich. We tried ice treatments we tried everything, but we found out that she had problems that were contributing more deeply to the injury. Finally she worked out only for two days before the competit ion, got back to what kind of shape we could get her in. She has a wonderful reputation internationally and none of our gymnasts had that except for Linda and Cathy Rigby, so just the fact that we could ~ven put her on the floor did mean a whole lot to the rest of the team. Linda competed feel ing that everyone would say she wasn ' t a very good gymnast. Most of you who were there probably sa id, "My goodness! What happened to her bars." " My goodness what happened to her floor! " A lot of people came to me that way and I fe lt kind of badly about it and I think you can spread the word SHE WENT ON THE FLOOR FOR THE TEAM and it meant more to her than anything in the world that her team cou ld have been third ... and it still means everything in the world to her that the team was fourth because it was a fantastic cont ributi on to gymnastics. So she competed knowing that eight times she was going to be much less than her best and she was willing to have that happen just to do what she cou ld do to contribute to the team score.

Last, I am going to ta lk about Cathy Rigby. What can you say? She was hurt so badly at the final trials. She got herself back into shape. She was definitely a world c lass gymnast. The tension on this child has got to have been incredible. We tried to keep newspaper people from her and we tri ed to keep everybody from her but you can't run away from the fact that everybody knew who Cathy Rigby was. When

Bud Marquette

4 ~ Ruth Ann McBride and Dick Mulvihill talk to Dale Flansaas.

she wa lked out on the floor they expected marvelous fantasti c wonderfu l things from her every minute. To compete every second knowing that people are expecting these th in gs of you to carry a very, very, heavy, heavy burden. She competed, not just fo r herself, but for the good of the tea m under extreme ly difficult conditions. I think that after her first exercise they were going to make it very difficult for her to achieve her goal which was to try to get into the top six in the All-Around and to win a medal in one of her best events. I think that most of you who watched it...when she got into the top 36 all-around, she looked a little liveli er because a heck of a lot of the pressure had gone. She had gotten through the first two days and made it through, but the pressu re on her has got to have been unbelievable.

All six of them, I hope, w ill be remembered by all of you. Since I have coached so man y teams, maybe I have too personal a feeling .... 1 have been accused of that , but I was with th e team in 1966 that broke into th e top six for the first time. Mrs. Flansaas almost ruined her entire life by ruining her knee in that meet and the rest of the team finished the meet on beam and bars with only five people, knowing that they were in a tenth by tenth running battle with a chance for sixth place. They did it. I don' t think most of you can name the six girls who were on that team.

In 1968 there were a lot of children on that floor who almost made fifth place and those of you who were there know that we were ahead in fifth place and that they on ly ca ught up to us during optionals and in fact we only lost the meet on the last Hungarian horse vau lt and I don't know that all of you could name those 6 gymnasts.

But now we have 6 gymnasts who went and they were fourth and its got to have been one of the most unbelievable breakthroughs of all time . I hope that all of you will remember them and talk about all six of them in the wonderful way that they deserve to be talked about, because they have done a service for women 's gymnastics that I don't think any of us should forget. The se rvice was done in terms of their place and their performance, but I think the biggest service they did for us is intangible. This was the first time that a team walked out on the floor (I admit that the leotards had something to do with it ... the hairdos had something to do with it ... the sweatsu its had something to do with it, although they did look good just walking but the ladylike and female

mannerisms of all si x of them, the way that they talked t6 people the way yo u saw them wa lking to dinner or moving around the village they were total ly groomed) totally women at all times. The way that they handled themselves on the floor for the first time put a team on the f loor that looked like a class team. I think that after Ljubliana everyone talked about how the Russians were women and the East Germans were not and that's one of the reasons why the Russians were so outstand ingly better than the East Germans. Well this team ... 1 thi nk ... out Russianed the Russians! They, for the first time made people say your team was really good, You usually get ... you don 't have this o r yo u don ' t have that. But this time the feel in gs that were expressed by the ent ire wo rld were that they were a very classy team! Thi s maturity breakthrough ... this intangib le class that we have now achieved means everything in the world and I don ' t think that we have any reason to be less than second place fo_ur years from now.

We have got to bu ild the best program possible and work together. The ch ildren wi ll learn .. all the gymnasts w ill work and I think if we all work our goa l very realistically should be second place and if we have to accept third as we accepted fourth, we would be awfully happy about that too.

I think that the other sad thing about the whole competition is that more people were concerned with cheating. I know that a coup le of the gymnasts were unhappy .... those that are better gymnasts and had a reason to expect more. The majority of the girls on the team ... although said that they weren 't third ... they were ve ry happy that ttiey were fourth. We should all be happy that they were fourth . In spite of all the reasons of why they were fourth and to say that this was a great accomplishment .. . if nexttime we go for second or are good enough for second or third, we'll be happy about that too, because I think it takes a lot of time to build a team that is a first or second place team. I can remember a long time ago talking to men gymnasts about the Japanese and the long battle they had in attaining their 1st place then they deserved it for so long I th ink that our cou ntry is strong enough and has the fort itude to maybe take an ext ra year lo nger than we have to (in terms of how good we really are) and now with a great organization to work for us on the other side of the picture I think that we can have the 2nd place and at worst the 3rd place team next ti me around.

USGF WOMEN'S COMMITTEE REPORT

Belty Meyer .... Age Group Program Her statist ics show a growth in the age-group

program through an increase in the number of USGF meets from 1969 to 1972, however, it is her opinion that all USGF/ DGWS meets in th e compulsory program are not being sanctioned or reported . She encourages Regional and State Chairmen to contact newslette rs in their regions and sta tes and request that they publish the policies and procedures ·for obtain ing and reporting on USGF approved meets in their areas.

To request approva l for a meet fill out this form:

USGF WOMEN'S COMM ITTEE REQUEST FOR APPROVAL

Approval request for: (check th e appropriate categori es)

MEET DIRECTOR :

ADDRESS OF MEET:

I agree to see that the above event is conducted according to the rules, regulations and I or guidelin es as set forth by the USGF Rules and Policies for Competition .

Applicant's Signature:

Address:

Date:

Fee (c irc le one) Loca l I Sectional-$5 .00, State­$10.00, Regional -$1 5.00,Nationa l -$25.00

Please make check payable to the USGF Women 's Committee. Fee is non-refundable. Return to: Miss Judy Hall, Dept. of P.E. , University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106 (Certificate of approval will be sent after receipt of fee)

She stron gly urges that the forms wh ich are sent to the director of each event along with the lette r of approva l, be filled o ut and sen t in after the event. It is very littl e paper work and does help the Women's Committee in eval utat ing the program .

The money sent in for sanctions is turned over to th e Women's Committee. Jud y Hall mentioned that the USGF will not sanction a meet which has competition fo r 6-9 yea r o lds. The Women's Committee does not believe in competit ion for youngsters under 10 yea rs of age .

The tape of the floor exercise music availab le from Betty Meyer, Northeastern III. University, Bryn Mawr at St. Louis, Chicago, III. 60620. Th e cost is $2.00. The music on the tape was recorded with the beginner level and th e second level was recorded with the intermediate level. Although it also fits the advanced level floor ex ., a new tape will be made especia lly for the adva nc'ed level. (I will let you know when it is available)

She mentioned that if anyone has a recommendation for a change in the program, that they go first to the State Chairman, then to the Region al Chairman ... or go directly to the appropriate sub-committee chai rman for a clarification .

"Currently, the women's gymnastic programs in many states (particularly at local

21

and sectional levels) are experiencing a shortage of qualified. rated judges for meets. Even many experiencerl judges have failed the current USGF/ DGWS ,dting examination the first time and there have been comp laints that the test is too difficu lt, particu larly for new and inexperienced coaches. To all eviate this prob lem and supply judges for the basic program, I suggest:

a. Cert ify judges at the separate leve ls of competition, i.e. 1. A sepa rate rat ing for the beginner compu lsory routines, A separate rating for the intermediate compulsory routines. A separate rat ing for the advanced compulsory .routines. 2. A separate rating for optiona l work at t he intermediate and advanced levels. b. Certify judges as beginning, in termediate and advanced compulsory routine judges or, intermediate and advanced optiona l judges. c. Cert ify judges in compulsory and optiona ls on each separate event, i.e. tloor exercises, ba lance beam, uneven parallel bars, and vaulting. d. Any combination of the above."

Delene Darst - Judges Training Program Th e women on the Technica l Comm ittee

have been ho ld ing judges trai ning cl ini cs throughout the country. They have reached 1500 people in the past year. Delene has given 15 clinics since last November mainly in the South and the East.

She requested that if someone is doing a judges cli ni c and receives a question from her stu dents, that she should send the question (or questions) to Jackie U. Fie, Box 312, Jefferson, Iowa 501 29, or herself, Mrs. Delene Darst, 7678 Cathedra l Hill Dr. Cincinatti, Ohio 45244 for answer and then give the answer to her group. This way we w ill be able to keep ou r judging c;o nsistent throughout the country.

A new Judging Guide has been prepared and is now avai lable at the Tucso n Office . It is no longer called Judging Guide 1972. It is simply ca ll ed Judging Guide. All revisions have been marked carefull y wit h an aste ri sk to faci litate convers ion from the 1972 judging gu ide.

Mrs. Darst informed us that if we are not on the Technical Committee, we can st ill obta in a sa nct ion for the courses that we are teaching; however we are not to advert ise the cou rse as a National USGF Course.

Shirley Bryan - Report from the Certification Committee

We have tripled the number of people w ho have been tested and become rated. The new cert ifi ca tion began Sep. '72 and will run til Sep. 1st, 1976. Since September 1st (until November 1st) we have rated 231 judges w ith the new exam.

35 national 71 reg iona l 121 loca l If you need officials, Sha ron Wilch , 6357 W.

Mississippi Place, Lakewood, Co lorado 80226 will send you a li st of rated judges. It is put o ut quarterly. Lu Wallace - Teacher's Training

The guide for teachers training has been revised. It is mostly changes of address etc. Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics - Judy Hall

Two women were sent to Varna to take the 'FIG course Judy Hall is the Vice Chairman. She men'tioned that there are a number of schools now using Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics.

Mar. 31 The Nationa l Championships will be held in the Chicago Area. We w ill send a representat ive to Holland in November. Four cont inents are interested in the sport. It is no longer ca ll ed Modern Gymnastics, it is ca ll ed " Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics" .

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Wilma Fizell, Joan Pasquael, Beatrice Lowe

USGF Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics Compulsory Music

Avai lable on tape .... Class Ii i and 11 ... $2.00 each : Nora Sutpin, George Williams Co llege, 555 Th irty-First St. , Downers Grove, Illi no is 60615 Equipment Specifications

A Standing Committee on specifi cations for equipment was created on request of the USA equ ipment manufacturers with Mrs. Sharon Weber appointed as Chairman.

1. The vau lt ing board wi ll be cove red as of June, 1972 with a carpet material not to exceed sis" . Th e mounting board for bars and beam need not be covered. The " padded" vau lt ing boa rd is illega l for use in USGF national and internationa l competi tions.

2. Th e ba rs w il l range from 54-78 cm in width and the rails will be the new sma ller diameter.

3. A 4" landing mat will be all owed over o ne regular lv.. inch (plus or minus v.." ) mat.

4. Policy The Women's Technical Comm itt ee recommends that USA manufactured equ ipment be used for USGF natio nal and internat iona l competitions. New York Judges' Certification

The USGF/ DGWS ratings earned at New York judges' certif ication examinat ion (Nagy) we re approved and w ill be good through 1972. Did You Know That •••

The USGF Women 's Technica l Comm ittee has devised a program o f statistica l evaluation of judges to study individ ual performance of judges at Nationa l Competitions? Evaluation of judges performances for AAU, DGWS, El ites is done by computer and is based on the sco re of the head judge and average score. The study is st ill under way and is not yet comp leted.

Rod Hill has been appointed as coaches ' representa tive for the Intermountain area.

Program for Elite Competition 1973 Approved by the USGF Women's Techn ical Committee - Congress of Coaches 1972 USGF Elite Champio nship - May 3, 4, and 5 -Seattle, Washington Qualifiers: Gymnasts w ith 9.0 averages from Final Trial in June 1972 Roxa nne Pierce Karen Shuckman Linda Metheny Cleo Carver Kim Chace Claudia Fize ll Joan Moore Nancy Thies Cathy Rigby Debbie Hill Ade le Gleaves Debbie Fike

Dagmar Hintnaus Cindy Eastwood Janet Cantwell Ann Carr Diane Grayson Barbara Myslak

USGF Elite Qualification Rounds (2) January 26 and 27 - Mrs. Ruth Ann McBride -Meet Director 7901 Van Gogh Ct. - Potomac, MD 20854

March 23 and 24 - Mr. Dan Speraw - Meet Director 1730 Ro llins Rd. - Burlingame, CA 94010 Elig ib le Competitors based on best score from Final Trials, USGF ELITES, AAU, YMCA , JR and SR. USGF Nationa ls: Gymnasts w ith 8.75 plus averages: Co le Dowaliby - FT Janet Boyd - Eli tes Sand ra Phillips - FT Robin Bl eamer - Sr. Nat. Terri Spencer - FT Vicky Schuler - AAU Barbara Fleming - FT Diane Dunbar - Jr. Nat. Debbie Halle - FT Kathy Stewart - AAU Lisa Cain - FT Margie Pyle - AAU Gail Wyckoff - FT Lynn Govin - AAU Kyle Gayner - FT Karin Atkin s - AAU Laurel Ande rson - FT Keanna Eng land - AAU

Connie Jo Israel - FT

Gymnasts with 8.50 plus ave rages: Colleen Sturiale Elites Karen Robertson J r.Nat. Sandy Gross - Elites Sha ron Palmer - Jr. Nat. Patty McGarry - Elites Debb ie Theno - AAU Jill Johnston - YMCA Linda Antonio - Jr. Nat. Val Luce - Sr. Nat. Martha Newton - AAU Kim High - Sr. Nat. Susie Kinsman - AAU Patty Mirtirch Sr. Nat. Betty Mille r - AAU

Sharon Akiyama - Sr. Nat.

Meet Information A score of70.00 points in the All Aro und (8.75

average) in either the January or March Qualifi ca tion Round w ill q ualify the gymnast fo r th e Elite Champ ionship in May. A gymnast may enter both competit ions and w ill not be elim inated, if she scores 70.00 o r better in the January Meet and falls be low this total in the March Meet.

Qualifiers from the Final Trials (9.00 average) may ente r one or both of the qualifying meets and wil l not be e liminated if their score happens to fa ll below the qualifying score of 70.00 points.

Specific meet information wil l be mailed to coaches of eligib le compet itors by the two meet directors Mrs. Ruth A. McBride and Mr. Dan Speraw. Petitions for Special Cases wi II be accepted p rovided the following cond it ions are met: (January Qualification Round)

1. The gymnast atta ins a score of 68.00 points (8.50 average) in a USGF approved or sanctioned (registered w ith Vice Chairman of the USGF) compet ition dated after Ju ne 15, 1972 and before January 15, 1973. A copy o f the original Al l Aroun d Score Sheet must be provided to document the score. A list of the four or five Nationally rated or FIG judges that officiated must be prov ided. All this information must be sent to the Regional Technical Director and , if in order, forwarded to the Chairman of the TC for final approval. OR

2. If a meet situation as described above is impossible, th e Regional Technical Directo r may travel to the area of the gymnast in question at the expense of that particular club . The gym nast must peform all eight routines in one day with a reasonab le rest between each rout ine. FIG Rul es and USGF Meet Procedures must be followed. The RTD wi ll then confer by lette r or phone w ith the Cha irman of th e TC before fina l decision is rendered. Final date for review by the RTD will be January 15, 1973. March Qua li f icat ion Round - the dates fo r appl ication of cond it iol]s in number 1 and 2 above will be: February 1 to March 12, 1973 Further qualif iers to the Elite Championships 1973 will be accepted on th ese terms: (app licable to National Meets conducted by

member organizations of the USGF, provided they are scheduled prior to the Elite Championships) USGF

Junior Nationa l and USGF Senior Nat iona l, Gymnasts achieving 70.00 points using the USGF/ DGWS advanced compulsor ies plus optiona ls wi ll perform the Olympic Compulsories following the National Meet. These compu lsories wi ll be judged by FIG and / or Nationally rated officia ls only and the total points added to the optional total from the National Meet to determine whether a 70.00 is atta ined, enabling qualification of newcomers to the Elites.

DGWS Intercollegiates Provided Nationally rated or FIG rated judges

are used, gymnasts achieving a 35.00 point total (8.75 average) for optional exercises wi ll perform the Olympic compulsories following the National Meet. The compu lsories w ill again be judged by 4 FIG and/ or Nationa lly rated off icials on ly and the total added to the opt iona l total from the Nationa l Meet to determine whether a 70.00 score is attained. YMCA Nationals

Total for USGF/ DGWS Compu lsories plus Optionals will perform the Olympic Compulsories following the National Meet. These Compulsories w ill again be judged by 4 FIG and/ or Nationall y rated officials only and the total added to the optional total from the Nationa l Meet to determine whether a 70.00 score is attained, enabling qualification of newcomers to the Elites. AAU Nationals

Provided Nationally or FIG rated judges are used, gymnasts achieving a 70.00 point total for the Olympic Compulsories plus Optionals will qualify for the Elites.

USGF CONGRESS 1972 .... World University Games •.. BiII Meade and Delene Darst

In order to help rai se money to send gymnasts, coach , manager and judge ... and , for the women , a pianist, it is suggested that those running Collegiate Conference Championships and Regionals include in their budget $100.00 to be paid toward expenses for the games.

Judges at these competitions are asked to contr ibute from their fee to help send a judge. The World University Games are develop ing in importance now.

The manager, coach and judge will be se lected by the Collegiate Sports Council. The coach must be ava il ab le and meet the requirements. The manager must have one or more gymnasts on the team. He must also have an FIG rating so that in a pinch (if enough money is not raised ) he can double as judge. He must also be associated w ith a University. This is for both men and women. The men wil l be picked by May 15 of 1973. The women will be selected by December 31 st, 1972. Coach Mimi Murry of Springfield College has already been se lected to fill the capacity of women 's coach.

The Collegiate Sports Council is selling patches to be used by al l University Students whose schoo ls have teams in the 10 sports. They may be purchased for $2.00 and placed on jackets. The Counci l will make a profit of $1.30 on each patch and all this money will go into gymnastics. There is also a pin which can be purchased by $2.00. Anyon e wishing to o rd er the patches may write to: Bill Meade -Gymnastics University of Southern Illi nois Carbondale, Illinois.

Bill Meade

In order for a student to be eligib le to participate in the World University Games as a gymnast, he or she must be enrolled as a fu ll time student at the time ot the games. I hat means that if the games are in the summer and you will be going for the first time to a Un ive rsity in the fa ll , you cannot participate unless you enroll in summer school full time.

South African Cup •••. Frank Bare Reports I flew to London, England and met with the

male judge from Finland and the lady judge from Sweden and about nine ath letes from different parts of Europe and we all flew together to South Africa.

The two American athletes who went were John Crosby from Southern Connecticut and Joan Moore of the Mannettes in Philadelphia. I am compelled to tell you that never has the United States been represented by two finer young athletes. Joan won three out of four go ld medals ... three individual events and the AII­Around. Crosby was second in the All-Around and , I think, won two or three individual gold medals besides. But, more than that ... had they finished last .... 1 couldn't have been more proud of the fact that Ameri ca was represented in that way . Even th e newspapers picked it up .... that Joanie won the South African Cup ... and the hearts of everybod y in South Africa . The fact that they behaved as they did .... and the fact that they ' re good athletes besides .... did so much for us in the eyes of the eight or nine countries that part icipated there that it was really difficult to measure.

We' re going to send Kim Chace and Joan Moore to Japan at the end ot November to compete. Karen Patoile will go as the judge and manager for that group.

We've been invited to South Africa again in the spring for the' South African Games.

Meeting for the Independent Gymnastics Clubs

Mr. Tom Heineike, Wichita Gymnastic Club was elected President and Graham Bartlett Vice President. A fee of $10.00 per year has been set per member club. During this next year, bylaws will be drawn up fo r this new organi zat ion to be presented at the next Congress. The $10.00 w ill be used for expenses for travel in gett ing together to set up the bylaws and to put ou t a newsle'tter concern ing the activities going o n throughout the year. It is hoped that this group will be ab le to gai n a vote on the USGF Governing Counci l because there are more gymnasts in independent gym clubs throughout the USA than in any other organization represented on the Council. They feel that they should have a vo ice in sett ing policy for the age group program and that they can be of real help to the USGF.

Many fund raising ideas were presented during this meeti ng. The group will work on ideas such as this which will help all clubs involved . I hope to put a lot olthe information wh ich these people ca n pool together in the Gymnast in hopes that others w ishing to start their own c lubs will be al l the wiser when they make the big step.

If any of you are interested in supporting this organization as well as deriving benefits of membership, you may send your $10.00 fee to Mr. Tom Heineike, Wichita Gymnastics Club, 3641 North Hillside, Wichita, Kansas 67219.

Frank Bare former USGF Executive Director gives warning

" We have reached a point of growth where we will not any longer tolerate some of the behavior situations that we have been faced with in the past ... including 1972. How many times in 1972 did I hear, " I'm taking my boy or gir l and going home." .... from camp or cl inic or any other situation ... 1 don't mean o nce o r one person .. . I'm talking about several people and seve ral athletes ... and I assure you that in 1973 the stand is goi ng to be, "Take" em and go! "

" I have no doubt that if we had lost one girl from the women 's team in Munich or maybe two ... and picked up the next two in line .. . we would have still been in fourth place .... no doubts whatsoever! "

" When we ask that a boy or a girl meet certa in behavioral criteria ... they wil l meet it or they will not be a part of the team ... and the same th ing applies to a coach or a manager. We have reached a point where we will not tolerate ind iv idual pettishness and ,there is no other name for it...We have enough gymnasts in the United States right now so that we can take a good team representative of this cou ntry if we have to take the second team! I would by a large majority ... rather take the second team ... and have the image that thos'e two youngsters gave us in South Afr ica ... than take the first team and come out with the one we had at Riga in Latvia last spring . That will take us years to live down ... and I'm ta lking about everything from hair cuts to attire. We simp ly must demand that when you go on a trip for the USGF you don't represent us .... YOU REPRESENT THE UN ITED STATES OF AMERICA and that 's what we want you to look li ke."

Age Cut-Off AAU Junior Olympics Last year an attempt was made to change the

age clit-off date for AAU Junior Olympics .. . at the Convention. It was passed and even sent out that the age cut -off date would be Dec. 31 of the year in which you are competing. However a couple months later a message came to all district chairmen that they would have to revert back to the o ld rule bacause th e ruling had not passed the Convention. THE AGE CUP OFF WAS THEN SET BACK TO THE DAY OF THE FINAL DISTRICT ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHI PS.

According to my two sources NO CHANGE AGAIN THIS YEAR AGE CUT-OFF WILL STILL BE THE SAME.

- Th e age cut-off information is officia l. Checked with Tom Maloney, AAU Gymnastics Administrator.

23

PERSONAL NOTES TAKEN DURING THE DISCUSSION OF THE NATIONAL COMPULSORIES ..• USGF CONGRESS 1972 - All answers are quoted from Mrs. Delene Darst unless otherwise noted

BEGINNING BARS Q: After the stem rise is it permissable to keep the legs moving right into a cast to get the momentum to go into the underswing dismount? A: If she doesn ' t cast ou t of the stem ri se, she has to stop and the n go back for the underswing. Thi s would cause the rhythm to be bad and the technique of the underswing would be poor. Q: Can you cast as high as you want to? A: You would not expect a beginner to cast hi gh. If I were judgi ng, I would be impressed if she did a 3), handstand, but I would not deduct another who only went to horizontal. Th ere mu st be no extra pump for th e cast.

Mr s. Jac ki e Fi e interjected he re: " Inte rnati o nall y, a 3j., han dstand on bars is not consid e red an additio n. 3), is th e allowab le he ight. A full handstand would be conside red an addition. " Neither Jack ie no r De le ne would pe na li ze a girl for going as h ig h up as a 3),

handstand ." Q: Is the gymnast allowed to use the board for her mount? A: Yes, but no run is allowed . She just jumps to a lo ng hang. 10-1 2 yr. olds may be lifted to the HB without a d ed ucti o n as lon g as th ey a re not sw in g ing into th e ir mo unt. Anyone can use the board as lo ng as th e re is no run. State ment : After the mou nt in t he straddle over the LB, great amplitude is shown inth at the feet are al most back beyond th e shoulde rs . Th e gymnast must get we ll up overthe bar ... not just skim ove r the LB. Q: In both the beginning and intermediate routines some girls, when doing a kick over to the HB or a stem rise, lift their legs high, then bend at the knee to put their foot on the bar ..•• is this ok? A: Thi s is a matter of style . The kick over o r the ste m ri se is what yo u are looking for ... p lu s whatever went before. As lon g as she's moving, I wouldn ' t say that it would be better to keep th e leg high . It depends on the girl. INTERMEDIATE BARS Q: In the mount what is the deduction if the gymnast bends at the knee and does a knee swing up instead of a glide overshoot? A: .5 for changing th e e lement Q: After the gymnast does seat circle V2 turn cast up to squat on the LB can she jump into layout before the straddle on? A: It is not w ritte n to go to a layou t position, but we are looking for lo ts of amplitud e . As lon g as th e gi rl has e no ugh amp litud e to get her feet on top o f the bar befo re she starts the back sole circle around, there would be no deductio n for amp litude, bu t she mu st cast o r jump hi gh e noug h to get on top rather than on the back side.

If she goes to horizontal o r beyond before the st radd le on ... great, but we a re not looking for an intermediate to do th is. The gi rl who doesn' t do thi s wi ll not be deducted as lo ng as she ge ts up on top of the bar. Again, a 3),

handstand wo uld be acceptab le , b ut fur ther wou ld not. ADV ANCED BARS Q: I understand a seat circle catch is not acceptable? A: Correct. You must come to a defi nite seat c ircle posi ti o n and , without stopping as soon as

24

Roxanne Pierce(during her optional bar routine). Roxanne is one of several gymnasts shown in the National judging film. The film as well as the compulsory routines were discussed during the Congress.

you extend immediately reach back for kip . If they do a seat ci rcle catch .s will be deducted . If they co me to co mpl e te stop befo re th e catch, ded uct for a sto p (as long as th e a rms a re kept movi ng, the stop is not deducted) .

The gymna st must no t open o ut of the seat c irc le ... then beat her legs up ... then o pen down aga in to get into the kip . We d o no t want an extra pump. Q: In the films after the leg cut, Roxanne brings the R leg around, her hips stay back, and immediately kip, but that is not the way the text reads. The text indicates that when she brings the leg around in the turn the legs come together in front as she comes to a rear lying hang. A: Thi s is one thing we didn 't ca tch. As lon g as they don ' t have a stop in the movement there and they follow the text, this would again be sty lizin g. You are looki ng for a stem rise .. . you are looking fo r the leg to come a round to a sit. .. and then stem rise . As lo ng as they do n' t add anyth ing it's ok, but it must be co ntinuo us. Q: On the single leg cut, as some of our girls get more advanced, they reach for an eagle grip on the HB and turn under all at once. Is this all right? A: No. The right ha nd catches the HB in an und e rg rip as she reaches arou nd before she turns. Afte r she turns this is an overgrip. Th e left hand stays free and g rasps the H Bin an overg rip just as she goes for the single leg kip. BALANCE BEAM ROUTINES

Em p has is was made on interpretive freedom. Jack ie mentione d th is: " I thin k everybody has to rem em ber that th e deductions are stipulated in the code of penalti es and the ded uctions a re spe lled o ut. Th e re ·is not a lways a ded uct io n if the a rms go thi s way o r that way. The re is style and if yo u have a transit ion from one movement to the next movement. .. this is yo ur way of doing it, a nd unl ess it says o n the penalty list that there is a pena lty ... don't worry about it." Q: If the text does not stipulate a certain head position is it alright to place in a position which, is pleasing and yet different from someone else? A: Yes. Q: If the text does not specify position of the palms (up or down .•. in or out) may they be placed in any pleasing position as long as the arms are kept in the prescribed position? A: Yes. Q: If the text says to place the arms in a certain position but does not prescribe how to get there, is it alright to ... for example ... circle the arms back and up even if the film shows the arms circling forward and up?

A: Yes, as long as the beginning and e ndin g positi ons a re as prescribed . At this point, Mrs. Darst mentioned that we were too up tight and too picky and that we mu st allow some stylization. TAKE NOTE JUDGES! BEGINNING BEAM XIII pg 90 I nstead of being a courtsy afte r the turn it turns into a lun ge - body wave with back leg straight and front leg bent. INTERMEDIATE BEAM II pg 94 Move th e waltz ste ps II pg 94 Drag right leg forward ... Cathy steps before she brings the right leg fo rward in front of left in 4th positi o n on toes. The re is no stop there ... keep it moving. IV pg 94 Th e roll is begun from a tuck position. Extend to a pike as the sho ulde rs come on to the beam. XIII pg 95 An example of interpretive freedom is this: Th e text says to finish with the a rms in high obl iqu e. The arm co uld circle c lockwise or counterclockwise as lo ng as it passes downward first before it goes upward to rear oblique. The di rect ion wo uld depend on the o rigina l position of the L arm. ADVANCED BEAM III pg 99 If the body twists sl ightly to the L as the head is tilted over the L a rm, th e re would be no ded uction . IV pg 99 No chasse has been subst itu ted here for the word " slide". It is a long slid in g step on the R leg. OR IX Same he re - no chasse he re . XI pg 100 When yo u push off th e knees to a squ at yo u may push off into a high piked body position . Beam and bars are different in this case. If yo u extend the legs to a st rai ght body position in a layout or 3), handstand, you have changed or ad ded an e leme nt. XIII pg 100 The two ste ps fo rward are on sligh tly bent legs o n t he toes. XVI pg 100 As the legs swing back afte r the H.S. forward ro ll , they must separate to pass to e ith er side ofihe beam, but they must be togethe r at the peak of the swing o r there will be a genera l deduction of. l to .s fo r st radd lin g the legs. XVIII & XVII pg 100

After you swing the legs back thru to the hori zo nta l after the H.S. forward roll and th en co me down o n the beam with the R foot, and as yo u st ra ighten up to stand .... b rin g the L foot forward and put weight o n it. He re th e re was discussion abo ut no t having enoug h room at the e nd of the beam to take the prescribed number of steps a nd then execute the ca rtwhee l dismount. For some g irls there is not e no ugh room.

Mrs. Darst explained that it had been decided that the gymnasts could eit her just step then o n the rig ht foot and place the· hands down for the CW o r she may step R ... step L. .. step R to p lace the hands down for t he CW and e ith e r will be accepted. Q: Can you kick the right leg up before stepping into the CW? A: Thi s will not draw a deduction. It is, aga in , a matter of sty le. Th ere was no time to really discuss flo o r exe rc ise, but she sa id the films a re correct Va ulting was not discussed.

Re me mber this is not an off icial communiq ue from the USG F ... but these notes are take n di rect ly off my tapes . I THINK THE MAIN POINT TO BE LEARNED HERE IS THAT WHEN THERE IS DO UBT ... FOLLOW TH E TEXT .... AND THAT THERE IS ROOM FOR STYALIZATION AS LONG AS YOU KEEP WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE TEXT.

CALENDAR

During this meeting I noted these changes in dates or sites or both from what I had reported to you last month

Apr. 26-27-28 USGF Senior Na ti onals .... Meet Directors: Mr. and Mrs. Bill Strauss 10 Juniper Rd. A.O., Macungie, Pa. 18062 (change in site) May 11-12 AAU Jr. Nat ionals at Jefferso n H.S. in leffersonvi ll e, Indiana , Contact: Cap Caudill, 5303 Preston Hwy. , Louisville, Ky. 40213 Ph. 502/ 968-3177 (change In date given to me by Caro le Liedtke) Apr. 12-13-14 USGF Junior Nationa ls .. .. Meet Director Mr. Rod Hill , 10601 W. 44th Wheat Ridge, Colorado May 2-3-4 USGF Elit e Championships .... Seattle, Washington DATE CHANGE FOR AAU SENIOR NATIONALS April 26-27-28 Still at Canesius Co ll ege, to be tel evised th e following Sunday ... CBS. Checked with Tom Maloney AAU Gymnast ic Administrator - Change is officia l. Dates lor USGF Regional Meets in 1973 Mar. 30-31 Region I Reno , Nevada .. . Meet Directors: Mr. and Mrs. Mike Flansaas, 445 Eureka, Reno, Nevada 89502. Mar. 31-Apr. 1 Region II Pacifi c University .... Meet Director: Mrs. Va rina French, Rt. #1, Box 245, Forest Grove, Oregon 97116 Mar. 23-24 Region III Denve r .. .. Meet Director: Mr. Rod Hill , 10601 W. 44th Wheat Ridge , Colorado 80033. Mar. 24-25 Region IV Des Moines, at Urbandale H.A .. ... Meet Directors: Mr. and Mrs. Bill Robertson, Corner House Gym Club, 7211 Bryn Mawr Dr. , Des Moines, Iowa 50322. Mar. 31-Apr. 1 Region V Meet Director: Cap Caudi ll , 5808 Lois Avenue, Louisville, Ky. 40619 Mar. 23-24 Region VI Meet Directors: Muri e l Grossfeld and Gai l Davis, Southern Connecticut State Teachers College, 501 Crescent, New Haven, Conn. 06515. Mar. 16-17 Region VII Downingtown Pa .. .. Meet Director: Mr. Don Peters, 223 William St. , Downingtown, Pa. 19335. Mar. 23-24 Region VIII Panama City, Fla .. .. Meet Director: Mrs. R.C. Ca rte r, Ca rt er Gymnastic Club, 1434 Balboa, Panama City Fla. 32401. OPEN MEET Feb. 10-11 Minn"sota Open at Nicollet Jr. High School , Burnsville, Minnesota , Contact : James Pederson , 11116 Radi sso n Ct. , !Jurnsville, Minn. 55337 Ho me 612-890-3445 .... Work 612-853-4197 for AAU Registered Girl Gymnasts Feb. 10 for Novice only using USGF / DGWS beginner level compulsories in all age leve ls. Feb. 11 competit io n for intermediate and advanced girls .... opt ionals on ly. FOREIGN GYMNASTIC TEAMS TO VISIT USA IN 1973

Have no news yet of exact dates o r sites but here are the tentative plans Feb. 15 - Mar. 4 Hungary Feb. 21 - Mar. 4 Romania Apr. 20-29 France Other dates May 1973 USGF Championship of USA (MEN) March 1973 South African Games (2 gymnasts) March 1973 Japanese High School tour July 1973 German Turnfest, Stuttgart Nov. 1973 FIG Congress, Rotterdam, Nethe rlands List 01 USGF / DGWS Certification Exam Dates lor the Eastern Area Jan.3 Needham, Mass. at Needham High School: Lois Carson, 617-692-4595 Mar. 7 Retest .... same place Apr date unset .. .. New Ha ve n , Conn . Southern Connecticut State College: Gail H. Davis 203-397-2101 ext. 380 June 28 Pittsford H.S .... near Rochester N.Y. 2:00 PM ... Sunni Delucas 315-524-4851 CALIFORNIA January Series of Clini cs to be started in L.A. area .... Shirley Ruhlman, 5725 Blanco Ave. , Woodland Hills, California 91364 March 1973 Kitty O'Brien OSU Women 's Gymnastics, 249 Ramseyer, 29 W. Woodruff, Columbus, Ohio 43210 - Expects to gi ve the USGFI DGWSCertification Exam April 1973 Northern Ohio USGF 1 DGWS Exam to be given in Lakewood - December date cancelled due to inablility to obtain rating film. For registration: Renee P. Hendershott, 17605 Fries Ave. Lakewood , Ohio 44107

NATIONAL ROMANIAN TEAM (Men and Women)

Competition Exhibition

EAST STROUDSBURG COLLEGE

East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Advance Sale $2 Students $3 Adults

STATE

At Door $2.50 $4.00

Contact: Bruno Klaus (717) 629-0244 Exhibition on Wednesday February 21, 19738 P .M. Will a lso b e hav ing competition exhibitions in Sy racuse , Denver , Berkeley and Oregon.

CENTURY SCHOOL OF GYMNASTICS INTERNATIONAL

GYMNASTIC GOODWILL TOUR OF CANADA AND THE USA

Gymnastic clubs, schools, YMCA's, schools interested in host ing a touring group of 10 gym nasts and coaches during the last two weeks in August 1973, please contact Pel Mead, 14 Pavilion Road. Apt. 33, Suffern, NY 10901 . Tentative schedule for tour is to give free Gymnastic exhibitions and clinics for Canadian Gymnastic clubs and to swing down through Michigan and M innesota to perform for clubs there th e n back to New York.

Nordkist Turnlestival Scandinavian Gymnastic's Fest ival Jun e 28 -July 7, 1973. For info rm ation contact: Sverre Melingjr. Nordisk Turnlestival 5500 Haugesund, Norway

Please find my $ 1 0 .00 annual membership dues to the National High School Gymnastic Coaches Association

Coach : ________________ _

High School: __ .~ ____ ___ .. __

Add res s: ________________ . _ _

_._------------------------------_.--TOM CHAPMAN Secretary-Treasurer Waukegan High School 717 Edwards Ingleside, Illinois 60041

GYMNASTIC COACHES INSTITUTE Aug. 19-25, 1973

The NATIONAL SUMMER PALAESTRUM CAMP is offe rin g a gym nastic Coaches Institute again thi s year. Staff will include: Vannie Edwards, Dale and Mike Fl ansaas, Ruth Ann McBride, Masayuki Watanabe and Paul Ziert. Combine improvement of you r coaching skills with a week in the heart of America's summer vacation land near Traverse City, Mich. Seimming, boating, and water skiing wi ll be availab le. In addition , beginning June 24 the NSP offers two four-week periods of camping for 10-18 yea r o ld s. " Physical fitness through Gymnastics and Aquatics" in a camp with outs tandi ng coaches, multiple equipment and a recreat ional program including othe r sports. Beginners welcome. Write for information -indicate camp or institute.

~~----------Addr~~ _______ _

City State Zip -----------No. brochures needed Institute

Camp No. applications needed -----------

Mail to: National Summer Palaestrum Camp 7901 Van Gogh Ct., Potomac, Md. 20854

CARA V AN OF CAMPS (For Boys and Girls)

'Spring Vacation Clinic - Oklahoma March 21-25 Levelland, Texas June 10-15 Santa Fe, New Mexico - June 17-22

' Santa Fe, New Mexico - " Elite 60" - June 24-29 , Rosewell , New Mexico - July 22-27

'Girls Clinics only

For further information contact: Camp Director: Larry Bilhartz, P .O. Box 1206 Andrews, Tex. 79714

HELEN'S CORNER Helen Sj ursen

TRY THESE FOR THRILLS AND SPILLS

l . From a squat on H B facing out, jump & execute a back jack knife, extend body grasping LB, g lide.,

2. From a squat on HB fac ing out, jump & execute a back jack knife, extend bod y grasping LB, free hip circle, shoot legs over HB to rea r support.

1

o

o 3 4 ro ----------------------------------------

~

O»{j ~ 3. From a squat on HB facing o ut, jump & ~ <::> o ' ~o 7 Z ~::-L: execute a back jack knife, stoop down, sole -p circle backwards, cast catch HB with V2 twist. ~ 0

0 6 0

1 z :3 4- 6 to - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -~ - - - - --

4. From a rear support on HB fac ing out (s it on bar) qu ick ly arch backwards grasping LB with body extended, pike & gli de.

5. From a stomach whip, cast legs ve ry high in back, release HB & regrasp LB in handstand position .

Girls From Turn< lub 1972

26

1

1 0

l~ 0

d! o;? 3 +

---------------

WANTED GYMNASTIC COMPETITIO NS

Who wants to compete aga inst a girls gymnastics team from Germany in April 1973?

All g irls are members of a new gymnast ics club founded in 1972. The club is ca lled " Turn - Club 72 Leve rku sen", which is grow ing rap id ly and today had 360 members. It has compet iti ve grou ps in women's gymnastics, " Rhonradsport" (we ca ll it gymwheel) and has just sta rted with trampolining.

Maybe a few Gymnast readers, know the coaches of thi s gymn asti cs team : they are Dieter Schulz and his w ife Ingrid, former German High School Champion in gymnas:ics. (Both toured the USA in 1972 for two months). On the occas ion of that last trip Dieter, w ho is also one of th e best Germ an trampo linist, competed successfully in the nat ional AAU - Champio nships to become the 1972 USA Champion on the t rampolin e. Bes id e the seven or eight gymnasts there will be w ith the group Gaby Hei land, a gymwheel-specialist. Sh e was third in Germany last year and wo uld like to do some ex hibit ions with the gymw heel in the USA. A ll together th e " Turn - Club 72" wi ll co nsist of 11 to 13 persons.

Who wants to meet this young gymnastics team? It doesn't matter, whether you are able to arrange a competiti on or an exhibition on the o lymp ic apparatu ses, the gymwheel and on the trampoline. If it w ill be a compet ition the internati onal rules for womens gymnastics w ill be the measure for judging (Code de Pointage of the F.I.G., edition 1970).

Considering that all gymnasts are sti ll going to school and therefore do not ea rn money, they need your help in o rder to make thi s tour possible. A ll our team will need w hile staying in your hometown is a sma ll guarantee to help cover expenses and your hosp ital i ty. On th e o ther hand maybe you w ill be able to gather a big crowd of spectators and gain some money, for your club out o f the meet ing, as you help to finance th is USA trip of these young German gymnasts. A rriva l: Friday, Mar. 30, 1973 at New York Airport. Departure : Monday, Apr. 30, 1973 from New York or Miami . If you are interested in meeting thi s group w rite to:

Dieter Schulz c/ o GYMNAST P.O. Box 110 Santa Monica, Ca. 90406

I,

SEQUENCES BY SCHULZ Photos by Dieter Schulz

Mitsuo Tsukahara executes a 1 Y, back somi dismount(snap down from a handstand back somersault} during the Olympic Games in Munich.

Yoshi Takei from Georgia Southern, demonstrates a glide kip straddle cut to support in the middle of the bars.

71

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Don Clegg 301 So. Wheaton

ChampaIg n, IL 61820

WANTED Coach to work full-tim e with Girl s Gymnast ic Club program in San Diego, Ca li fo rnia. Send resume and sa lary expectat ions to San Diego School Gymnast ics- 7056 Convoy Ct ., San Diego, Ca. 921 11 Work to sta rt later part of May with Good

Sa lary,bonuses and benifits.

NEW ENGLAND Gymnastic Supply

_ Original System Reuther Apparatus (Munich 72')

--.Sarneige Gym Mats (Munich 72')

-.Men's and Women's Uniforms

_ Gymnasium equipment plus any other hard to get gym or gymnastics item.

New England Gymnastic Supply

P.O. Box 982 Peabody, Mass. 01960

lWICKEL A Distinctive Line

of Men's and Women's Uniforms

• Why Settle for less?

FREE CATALOG •

ZWICKEL Gymnastic

Tailors

P.O. Box 309 Jenkintown, Pa. 19046

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.

~F AMERICAN ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT DIVISION P.o. Box 111, Jefferson, Iowa 50129

Only s.ystem Nissen h~s modern 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.

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 stabil ize the equipment in its folded position enabling it to be

. transported easily and safely.

Interested in more information? Fill out and mail our coupon!

11 __ ---' THE RELIABLE ONES

Name ____ _ ____ Position _______ _

SchooI/OrgaRization _ _____________ _

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City _______ State ______ Zip _____ _

NISSEN CORP., 930 27th Avenue S.W. Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406 Phone: 319/365-7561

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