Entries from June 2011 ↓

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (15min)

When I was a gymnast, in the distant past, our biggest overuse injury was shin splints. We ran, tumbled and vaulted on hard surfaces.

Happily, shin splints in Artistic gyms is now rare. Most clubs have only one or two kids with mild cases. (‘Pommel Pains‘, forearm splints, are as big a problem as ever.)

My running friends tell me that compression wear does work. … I’m wondering if any of those few gymnasts still suffering shin splints had experimented with these:

details on this brand

Leave a comment if you’ve tried them.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Paul is today a big star in Cirque du Soleil. Vitali Marinich is Head Coach at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

That video was posted on the WTFgymnasticsvideos YouTube channel. Extreme stuff.

It may have originally been posted by igorgymn1.

Available USA only.

Lifehacker recommends …

Most fitness apps for iOS will teach you to stretch and exercise through specific demonstrations, but iMuscle takes it a step further by actually showing you the muscles in action.

It works by providing a ton of animated diagrams that are accessible with just a touch. When you launch the app, you just grope the part of the muscular body you want to work on and it’ll stick a few pins in it. Each pin corresponds to a muscle (or muscle group) and its associated exercises and stretches. Touching any of the exercises or stretches will provide you with an animated demonstration, written instructions, and pictures of the affected muscles. …

iMuscle Teaches You to Stretch and Exercise by Literally Showing You the Muscles in Action

If you like that, check out similar apps for the Skeletal System and Muscular System.

Thanks for the link, Warren.

Andy Thornton discovered WTF, linking to some of the craziest gymnastics of all time. For example, this is how we want to see releases connected on Horizontal Bar …

Click PLAY or watch Sergei Kharkov on YouTube.

Check out these two posts:

• American Gymnast – Cool and crazy videos…
• American Gymnast – More crazy videos you gotta see!!

wtfgymnasticsvideos YouTube channel

Brian Keefer was paralyzed in 2008.

How did it happen?

How else … multiple forward somersaulting. His first attempt at triple front into a foam pit.

Around mid-morning, an enormous reddish-orange bus rolled onto Dubbers Drive …

Ty Pennington, the host of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” got out and knocked on the family’s door.

Brian Keefer answered.

“Good morning, Keefer family!” Pennington crowed, according to Brian. The Keefers had been selected by the show to have their home remodeled, with another fully accessible home — with a separate entrance — built for Brian. …

read more on the York Daily Record

(via IG)

Here’s the schedule of competition.

And the list of competitors.

In spite of concerns of lingering radiation, this is an excellent chance for competitors to prepare for World Championships in the same venue this coming October. A test event.

Click PLAY or watch Danell Leyva’s P Bars in training on YouTube.

More Leyva videos on Universal Sports.

This is gymnast Kelsie Hendry, who competed at the Beijing Olympics. In Pole Vault.

Kelsie is from Saskatoon, Canada, a city with a strong Women’s Athletics program.

It’s fair to say that the Pole Vault coaches (back in the day) would lurk around the Saskatoon gym clubs, awaiting the day the taller girls might retire from gymnastics. They knew that within months a gymnast could surpass their dedicated Pole Vault competitors.

I recall back in the 1990s borrowing the Pole Vault matting one winter, in order to construct a resi-pit under our Bars. University of Saskatchewan Head Coach Lyle Sanderson was happy to loan me the mats. The gymnastics clubs were his Pole Vault development program.

related – Longtime Canadian friends share pole vault bronze medal (gymnast Carly Dockendorf)

Of course Pole Vault is just one sport where ex-gymnasts excel instantly.

Thanks Dana Brass, for the link.

The National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) is the governing body for the sport of Acrobatics and Tumbling at the collegiate level.

This is a new program similar to competitive Cheer. They have 6 member schools, so far.

They’ve gotten rid of “Cheer” in the name (good idea) but now are easily confused with both “Acrobatic Gymnastics” and “Tumbling”.

You might be interested in their Safety Certification Guidelines (PDF) downloaded from this page.

It includes an Emergency Plan, Injury Report Form, 911 Script, Concussion procedure, Transportation guidelines, and more.

You know what I’m talking about …

Every time we let the general sports photographer into our gyms, the photo chosen (out of hundreds) is a crotch shot.

I won’t link to this AP photo as I’m not wanting to send them even one visitor.

It happened at the Canadian Championships this year too. The local sports reporter working for us was terrific. Later the paper’s sports photographer rolled in, wandered the floor, and posted a crotch shot unrelated in any other way to the results of the meet. Or the text of the article.

There’s no debate on this topic. Photographers that deliberately choose photos that emphasize the genitals of girls and young women should be named, denounced and specifically disallowed ever to attend our competitions in future.

Feel free to name names in the comments if you know of a scumbag photographer you’d like to ban.

related:

• NCAA photographer LuckySo-n-So defends his crotch shot pics on a photo forum.

• Pornstars in powder: sexism and snow
… on the bigger issue of using sex to sell product

Raj has been doing a terrific job documenting his transition from Olympic medal gymnast to ‘Buffoon’ and acrobat in Cirque du Soleil.

You can see him soon in the new permanent show IRIS.

… In June, the entire team, production and cast, moved to our new home city of Los Angeles. We were taken to see the Kodak Theatre the same week, and when I first saw the stage, my jaw was on the ground. For one, I could not believe that we will be sharing the same stage that previous Oscar-winning actors and actresses have walked and talked on. When I set foot on the stage for the first time, I could literally feel the immense energy of the place. Believe me when I say, there is something magical about this theater. There is a special quality about it and I haven’t yet found the words to describe it. All I can tell you now is that it’s a pleasure and I am humbled to be performing there. …

read more on IG – Bhavsar Blogs on New Life in Cirque du Soleil

Preview tickets are available for as little as $33. But if you want to feel like a high roller, you can plunk down $253 for the Red Carpet treatment.

Click PLAY or watch an IRIS Preview on YouTube.

It’s TODAY … according to Facebook. June 26th.

Thanks for the link, Tasha.

The Special Olympics World Games 2011 will take place in Athens, Greece June 25th – July 4th. 7,500 Special Olympics Athletes from 185 nations will compete in 21 Olympic-type sports. These will be the first games that founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver will not attend, Ms Shriver passed away in 2009. …

The Artistic Gymnastics events will take place from June 26th – June 29th in the Hellinikon Olympic Indoor Hall and the Rhythmic Gymnastics will also take place in the same venue on June 30th – July 3rd. I know that Ireland have 5 gymnasts competing in Artistic Gymnastics (Alan Quinlan, John Michael Gannon, Carole Ryan, Laura Rumball & Pauline Connell) and 2 gymnasts competing in Rhythmic Gymnastics (Barbara Norris & Una McGarry). …

read more on Full Twist

official website

I saw the Iceland Special Olympics team training last week. Never had I seen athletes with intellectual disabilities so serious. Athens will be a very serious competition.