Entries from August 2009 ↓

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

When you see free running / parkour highlight videos on YouTube, it often looks like the sequence is done ad-lib.

Fact is, to survive, free runners must train. Carefully.

Increasingly the training resembles gymnastics training. Here bigboobspecial practices on the frame of his trampoline.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via FlipCatch)

As a follow up from our post gymnastics bar safety straps …

From Evelyn in Ireland:

We use the exfoliating gloves that you can usually buy in any normal chemist/supermarket/drugstore. They work perfect. They are a bit rougher than normal woolen gloves to give more grip. They are inexpensive and the kids can buy them in a variety of different colours which keeps them happy!!

The 2004 Olympic Floor Champion did a nice Public Service Announcement on TV featuring gymnasts from his original club, Altadore.

Click to watch it.

KidSport Mission:

We believe that no kid should be left on the sidelines and all should be given the opportunity to experience the positive benefits of organized sports. KidSport provides support to children in order to remove financial barriers that prevent them from playing organized sport.

We do this by:

Raising funds in the community to pay registration fees for KidSport™ kids to participate in sport programs.
Gathering used equipment for KidSport™ kids to use in sport programs.

Advocating the value and benefit of kids playing sports in the pursuit of lifelong health and wellness.

Raising funds in the community to pay registration fees for KidSport™ kids to participate in sport programs.

We believe that through participation in organized sport activities, kids learn the values of:

Co-operation

Team play and friendship

Commitment to goals

Personal excellence

Healthy competition

Self-esteem

UPDATE: The first video posted was wrong. The final edit is here now. Thanks Geoffrey.

One of the hottest viral videos of the last couple of days shows a man in a neoprene suit on a DIY waterslide, flying 115 feet and then landing safely in a kiddie pool …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s part of a Microsoft promotion.

Click through if you want to know how it was done.

Nani

Nani Vercruyssen marks her first seven months as a senior elite (18+ yrs) by winning the US elite gymnastics national championships in both individual and synchronized trampoline.

And, because of her first place ranking, she was also selected to represent the US at the 2009 World Cups in Belgium and Poland plus the World Championships in Russia.

At the VISA Gymnastics Championships held this past week at the Dallas Convention Center, Vercruyssen first won the senior women’s synchronized trampoline event with partner Alaina Williams of Huntsville, AL. She then tied with Williams in the senior women’s individual trampoline event but was named the overall champion according to a tie-breaking policy whereby the title is given to the athlete receiving the highest execution scores.

Vercruyssen started at the bottom of the senior elite ranks in January and quickly moved up to her current rank as America’s best female senior elite in trampoline gymnastics after having been the world champion for athletes under 18 years of age for the past four years.

Thanks Hal Halverson for forwarding us this information.

Go Nani!

Vercruyssen leaves Saturday 22Aug09 for her first World Cup competitions in Belgium and Poland. Vercruyssen is the first gymnast from Hawaii to compete at this level.

Vercruyssen is coached by her mother (Dr Donna Mah) and father (Dr Max Vercruyssen). She trains, coaches national-level teams, and judges at Hawaii Academy in Kalihi and attends Roosevelt High School where she is a senior.

source – Hawaii Girl Wins National Trampoline Championship

Altadore Gymnastics has 3 safety strap bars. What a luxury!

Only 2 have PVC pipe.

larger version – flickr

Actually, this is my least favourite system. Using the pipe means the kids do not need to flip their wrists in handstand.

My favourite is this system:

… 2 inch (5cm) wide straps with long sport socks (from the lost & found) wrapped around the bar. I want to simulate the feel of the actual wooden rail for the girls.

Mountain Shadows Gymnastics

However, the PVC pipe is easier for beginners. It would be ideal to have both systems on each straps rail in your gym.

related posts:

video – gymnastics safety bar straps

new video – Working the Strap Bar

I’ve had a couple of emails lately on how long the straps should be. I find most kids use straps between 26-35cm long, sewn in a loop from 55-75cm length of nylon webbing. (That’s 10-14″ long, from a length of material 21-30″ long.)

Or … you could simply buy them from 10-0. Note that those are the narrower 1″ version.

From an August 2008 performance in Netherlands of the National Circus of North Korea Pyongyang.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I saw this linked by Trampoline and Tumbling Coach Brett MacAulay on Facebook.

Why Alexandre Tkatchev, of course.

The story goes - true or not - that biomechanists dreamed up the “reverse hecht”, not coaches. And that Alexandre was the first to show it in competition in 1977.

Here he is in the Olympics Games 1980. (Deltchev from Bulgaria won Horizontal Bar.) Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tkatchev is a coach at West Valley Gymnastics in California.

Deltchev owns Deltchev Gymnastics in Nevada.

Leave a comment if you know more of the history of Tkachev.

What woman competed it first internationally?

Related posts:

Justin Moodley emailed looking for superbly fit athletes:

… casting for G4′s American Ninja Warrior. If you don’t know, it’s a competition show where people from all around the world travel to Japan to take on a crazy obstacle course. We have all the live audition details and you’re able to submit a video through our site if you can’t make the open call in Los Angeles. …

details – Got Cast

related posts:

Available at Amazon.com for $9.99 – $12.99.

I wish I was there. But it sounds like the 2009 Women’s National Gymnastics Championships is … lacking.

Dwight Normile’s take on Day 1 Senior Women:

With such a limited field, there was a definite lack of drama and energy in the air compared with a year ago, when so much was at stake. Nastia Liukin’s return to competition was highly anticipated, but she did not compete on bars, even though she warmed up the event prior to the meet. She did perform on beam, much to the delight of the crowd. Liukin executed with great caution most of her Olympic routine (front aerial, flip-flop, layout; Onodi, sheep jump; side somi; switch ring leap) and even added a side aerial. She dismounted with a roundoff double twist and scored 14.45 (5.6 difficulty).

Rebecca Bross (WOGA)

Nastia’s father and coach, Valeri Liukin, told IG earlier this summer that his daughter would not compete at worlds unless she was ready. And although this routine was clearly not Nastia’s best, it showed enough progress to make London a possibility.

“To be able to compete here (at home) was so cool,” said Liukin, who later explained her one-event showing. “I’m just not ready to perform yet. It’s a step-by-step process.”

Hidden beneath the great expectations was the battle among Sloan, Rebecca Bross and Ivana Hong, each of whom had something to prove. For Sloan, the lone Olympian among the trio, a victory would mean her assumption of the top rank in the country. For Bross, a former junior champion who has been slowed by injuries, a win would confirm her successful jump to the senior ranks. And for Hong, the title would validate her post-Olympic move from Great American to WOGA, as well as a realization of her immense potential. …

read more on International Gymnast – Bross Leads Hong at U.S. Championships

Since the meet is in Texas, I’m surprised the meet is not drawing a bigger live audience.

2009 Visa Championships – Women Day 1 Meet Results (PDF)