Bar clinic today. We’ll be talking, as always, about tangent of release:
… the body’s mass center exits from any external swing at a 90° angle to its radius of rotation (tangent to the swing) …
Just as the archer’s bow establishes the flight direction of the arrow, so too does the tangent release establish the flight direction of the gymnast. …
G.S. George is author of Championship Gymnastics. Greg Marsden is the legendary women’s coach at Utah, oft credited as the most important builder of the successful NCAA Women’s Collegiate program.
Ask anyone what they like about the new G.S. George Gymnastics textbook Championship Gymnastics. High on everyone’s list → the illustrations.
Stephenson, volunteer coach and former co-head coach for the Golden Gopher women’s gymnastics team, recently finished work on a book, “Championship Gymnastics: Biomechanical Techniques for Shaping Winners.”
Stephenson illustrated the entire book, which was written by Dr. Gerald George, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Louisiana. Here, Stephenson answers questions about the project, his artistic career, and future artistic endeavors.
How did the project of putting together “Championship Gymnastics” start?
“It really started in the early 1980’s, I had worked with Dr. George in creating a book called “Biomechanics of Women’s Gymnastics”. That book was probably the only book out in years that addressed so many of the important fundamentals of women’s gymnastics. We were pleased with it, but Jerry called me a couple of years ago as he was preparing to retire, and he said that he’d learned so much since writing that first book that he wanted to redo the whole thing. I was thrilled because my artwork has improved so much that I wanted to redo the whole thing too. We decided that we would make this happen. …
The most valuable to me is at 28 seconds: double full twist to kick open to full twist in the opposite direction.
We’ve known this was possible biomechanically, but that’s the best video evidence I’ve seen on Earth that you can untilt one way, and retilt the other, mid-air.
Astronauts have done it perfectlly in weightless conditions.
Steve Elliot, for fun, could show half-in, half-out four different ways. R,R – R,L – L,L – L,R.
• Twist Direction for Somersault Skills
• Twist Direction for Round-off
I found, happily, that Dr. G.S. George agrees with what I’ve been teaching for years:
- all somersault twisting should be done in the same direction
- the initial turn of of the round-off should be in the opposite direction
photo of Tseng 2010 - GraceClick.ca
For example, if you put your right hand down first on round-off, you normally will twist all somersaulting skills to the right.
If you put your left hand down first on round-off, it’s normal to twist all somersault skills to the left.
We know this is “most common”. Bill Sands published that conclusion in Technique Magazine (2000) – Twist Direction (PDF)
This is for Artistic gymnasts. It’s more important for male gymnasts to be “normal” than for female. And, yes, you can win the Olympics if you are not normal. But – all things considered – your odds of winning the Olympics improve if your twist direction is normal.
I’ve not seen any scientific data on why this relationship between round-off and twist direction is most common in successful gymnasts.
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Trampoline and Tumbling coaches take a far more sophisticated approach to this issue.
Brett MacAulay at Calgary Gymnastics Centre would do many tests before deciding what direction a new trampolinist would twist somersaults.
He’d do a separate battery of tests to determine what hand to put down first on round-off. The two are not necessarily related, despite what we see as “normal” in Artistic gymnasts.
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Order Championship Gymnastics from the official website – Winning Gymnastics. Or phone 888-796-5229. ($79)
Or catch Dr. George at one of his seminars this summer.
At exactly 15:17 UHT, it’s time for you to bust out that standing back somersault.
Due to the Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect relative gravity on Earth will be 1.74% less than normal. In fact this is the lowest gravitational pull since 1 April 1976.
This phenomenon was first reported by respected English astronomer Patrick Moore.
As Pluto passes behind Jupiter, the combination of the two planets’ gravitation will slightly but noticeably decrease gravity on Earth. If you jump into the air at that exact moment, you will feel a “floating sensation”.
Here’s the conference I’d most like to attend this year:
Birmingham, England Apr. 30th – May 1st, 2010
It’s multi-sport, but has very strong gymnastics representation.
“This is unique opportunity for coaches working with young performers”, said Hardy Fink, Canada, Director of Education and Academy Programme of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
Prof Keith Russell (CAN), Prof Adam Baxter Jones (CAN), Prof Joachim Mester (GER), Prof Joan Duda (USA), Prof Nicola Maffulli (GBR), Prof Neil Armstrong (GBR), and David Hemery CBE.
Chairs: Professor Craig Sharp, Professor Colin Boreham, Professor Fred Yeadon, Professor Lew Hardy, Dr. John Atkinson, Mr. John Aldridge and Professor Greg Whyte.
Kelly's wedding with best man Kyle Shewfelt
Kelly Manjak (CAN) will be presenting on Coaching Issues.
Manjak coached Kyle Shewfelt to the Olympic gold medal … in Athens as well as a fourth place finish on the vault. Manjak and Shewfelt worked together for 16 years …
