Dear Dr. George – What do you consider to be the most important coaching competency for success in gymnastics?
Answer – Gymnastics coaches can only be as effective as the skill models they happen to hold in their heads at that particular time. This is why it’s so important for them to have as accurate a conceptual model as possible for skill execution. For the model concept of the skill held in the coach’s mind determines his/her ultimate effectiveness when teaching gymnasts what to and, more importantly, how to do it.
Each coach holds a specific model concept for every skill which inevitably serves as the “ideal model concept” for the aspiring gymnast. And more often than not, the gymnast responds and trains only to within the limits of these models.
Consequently it becomes important for coaches to continually refine their skill models, particularly as they relate to the core movement patterns in gymnastics. It is far more important to continually refine basic skill models than to gain some cursory understanding of how to do complex, elite level maneuvers.
My recent book, Championship Gymnastics, provides aspiring coaches with a simple, step-by-step approach on how to develop truly ideal skill models. Taking time to conceptualize basic movement patterns may seem tedious at first, but it’s the fastest and surest way to ultimate success in gymnastics.
“Never forget the story of the tortoise and the hare!”
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Over the past week we’ve been using an iPad in the gym pretty much non-stop. It’s a winner. We’re using the Swim Coach Plus HD ($2.99) video app. Excellent.
Whether you like it or not, this is the year of the iPad. It’s soon going to be everywhere.
Grace Chiu snapped this pic of judges using them for analysis during Gymnix podium training.
Haha… that was a posed shot… We don’t judge using iPads. We keep our documents, like the Code, Help Desk, Models, clarifications there so they’re at our fingertips and we don’t have to print loads of paper and lug around 4-inch binders. Plus, it holds up my ProScore keypad.
Ivan Cuk, Samo Penic & Dejan Krizaj at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia have been experimenting with technology for measuring springboard actions on Vault.
The new device is composed of a processor unit with LCD display and is connected to accelerometer sensors that are placed under the top desk of the springboard.
… accelerations velocities are calculated … and several parameters such as time to maximal springboard compression and maximal velocity at take-off are determined and displayed. The data is directly transferred to a PC for further analysis ….
Matlab software was used to record, filter and analyze the measured data.
Results are in good agreement with simultaneously obtained results from the force plate and laser displacement sensor measurements (similar time and vertical velocity).
With developed equipment it will be possible to determine typical springboard action parameters for individual gymnast, optimal springboard parameters for a required jump, to analyze repeatability of springboard jumps, to analyze transverse movements and to optimize training and its efficiency. The developed device has good potential for use as a fast information system as well as a device for suitable science/research projects in vaulting.
We’ve not yet seen anyone compete the Jaeger with an extra salto. A recent article linked from Science of Gymnastics Journal analyzed the skill.
… From the data it can be concluded, that the double Jaeger is possible in either tucked or piked body posture …
Despite its feasibility, there may be … arguments why the Jaeger Salto on the high bar is not performed that often in international competitions, and potentially, why the double Jaeger may not be attractive for gymnasts to learn as compared to other release-regrasp skills.
… the Jaeger salto is a forward salto during which the athlete “sees” the high bar relatively late prior to regrasp, and therefore has less time to adjust the regrasp based on visual information, as compared to other flight elements, like the Tkatschev (Gervais & Tally, 1993; Raab, de Oliveira & Heinen, 2009).
… the athlete has to reverse the direction of his rotation when regrasping the bar, as compared to other flight elements, like the Kovacs Salto if he intends to perform a subsequent giant swing. …
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. …
After Canadian Championships in PEI, as usual, Keith Russell scheduled a week of Level 4 National Coaching Certification workshops.
To represent Canada at major international meets, you must be fully certified Level 4. (4 weeks over 2yrs)
This time round, Keith invited Kelly Manjak who’s coached both Men and Women to World Championships.
For a glimpse of what happened at the clinic, Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Kelly is very specific on basics, but not nearly so exacting on high level skills. He’ll spend years working handstand, then expect kids to add Tkachev to their routines within a few weeks.
The course was not videotaped, but I do have some highlights to post over the next couple of weeks.
• energetic, physical and physiological assessment
• training principles
• diet, nutrition and supplementation
• growth and development issues
• kinetics and kinematics
• angular and linear motion
• angular momentum
• stress, anxiety and coping
• motivation and goal setting
• mental skills training for practice and competition
• the psychology of learning and performance.
It’s available in paperback or ebook for $54.95. From that same Routledge link you can preview some pages free. University instructors can request a Complimentary Exam Copy.
Crystal was frustrated at the last meet after her kids had done a good job of STICKING landings:
…
Interestingly enough, we found that in order not to take a step, it was often necessary to lower ourselves down in order to gain more stability. The result however, was not a higher score – in fact, in some cases, the score went DOWN. Why?
After inquiring about the E-Score (which we can do in Canada), we learned that judges were taking the 0.3 body posture deduction, even though we had ‘stuck’ our landings. …
click for larger version
I’ve seen College gymnasts stick vault, and yet get a low score for the same reason. Yet as a coach I saw no fault biomechanical nor technical in how the force was absorbed.
The score was unjust.
… But there might be an upside to this mistake in the women’s judging rules. (Men’s judges are far more reasonable.)
Keith Russell has many times speculated on what would happen if we allowed one step or hop on landing … WITHOUT deduction. He feels the number and severity of injuries would decrease.
That step / hop is tremendously effective in attenuating the force of landing. It’s much safer.
My advice for Crystal, therefore, is to train the kids to do a small hop (not step) with the required posture. Also, to have them train landings up on to high mats … so that the timing of the rotation will allow a ‘kick out’ and, thus, a more vertical position with the torso.
… If the girls happen to stick with vertical posture, consider that a bonus.
If you have advice for Crystal on this dilemma, leave a comment on her blog – Exclamation Points.
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