Entries Tagged 'books & manuals' ↓

3 gymnasts named:

Shannon Miller – Missouri

Kerri Strug – Arizona

Mary Lou Retton
- West Virginia

(via International Gymnast forum)

After weeks “broken”, the IG website seems to be working.

IG Online

On the homepage are interviews with Canadians Kyle Shewfelt and Brittany Rogers, Aussies Lauren Mitchell and Dasha Joura.

The video tab takes you to Universal Sports. The clips won’t play, however, unless you are in the USA.

Blythe from Gymblog posted some information:

A simple software upgrade that went very wrong has been what’s keeping the International Gymnast Magazine website frozen, according to the site’s online forum.

The homepage appears to be normal, aside from a large banner in white letters on a red background that reads, “International Gymnast Online is currently unavailable due to site maintenance. Please check back Jan. 1.” But the links don’t work, aside from the forum.

IG’s Amanda Turner posted this in the forum:

Fortunately we were able to do the upgrades and restore our database, but there is an issue with the article engine. No news when it will be fixed Hopefully ASAP!

We have quite a few stories waiting to go up. If this is not fixed by Friday, we may start posting them here on the forum!

IG, where are you?

Some subscribe to IG for a digital subscription to the magazine. Those customers must be ticked-off right now. I assume IG will make amends for the outage, if and when they ever get the site working again.

The major gymnastics magazine websites suck, IG included. (Though I have to admit, International Gymnast is the best of the bunch, when it’s working.)

IG has upgraded their website using new software called Vivvo 4.

It’s up right now after having been down for the last number of days. NOPE, it’s been down for weeks.

screenshot

International Gymnast

The Inside Gymnastics magazine website falls even further behind. They’ve made small improvements, but a complete overhaul of the Inside Gymnastics site is what’s really needed.

Shawn Johnson: Olympic Champion: Stories Behind the Smile
21.99

Limited Edition Autographed Shawn Johnson: Olympic Champion: Stories Behind the Smile
50.00

Where to send your money – Hy-Vee.com

I saw this too-late-for-Christmas gift idea linked from an excellent, well-informed new blog called All Gymnastics, All the time.

Up to date information about all the disciplines of gymnastics..

It covers Rhythmic, Trampoline Sports, Aerobic and Acrobatic Gymnastics.

Inside Gymnastics magazine’s photographic year in review is up.

Some nice pics.

Photo Gallery: A Look Back At 2008 In Pictures

Sadly there are no captions, no thumbnails, no photographic credits. No slideshow.

A nice Christmas present from the magazine … badly presented online.

Inside Gymnastics has great potential. But I really wish someone who “gets” the internet would get onboard and improve their website.

Marketing Manager Nicole Harris got back to me after I sent some very critical feedback to the Inside Gymnastics magazine website.

I complained about their “Best of 2008″ year end survey. Nicole wrote:

*Regarding the survey, based on the comments, we have revised the format of the survey so that not all questions have to be completed.

I complained about the potentially fantastic new audiocast feature. Nicole wrote:

*In terms of the radio show, the broadcasts will be available soon as podcasts on iTunes. The first show is also archived on our website and the Dec 17th show will be available on our website soon as well. Going forward, we’ll try to be a little more visible in terms of promoting the broadcasts in advance as well as making them easier to find on the site.

The radio show will be a monthly broadcast throughout all of 2009.

SWEET.

Thanks Nicole. I’m very impressed with your response. And looking forward to the podcast in iTunes.

Inside Gymnastics online

And some good holiday news:

GK Elite Sportswear and Inside Gymnastics magazine, two of the leaders in the gymnastics industry, partnered in a “Spirit of Giving” outreach, benefitting a California gymnastics club that has touched the many lives with its unique approach to teaching. This year’s recipient is the Community Youth Center, based out of Concord, CA. …

press release

CYC offers scholarships to children from inner city and underprivileged areas.

Why do I even bother with this site?

Their latest good idea — gone bad — is a “Best of 2008″ year end survey.

Though long, flawed and time consuming, I patiently filled out all those questions for which I had a strong answer. And left blank those questions for which they did not offer a good answer.

Finally, at the end when I clicked SUBMIT, this is what I got:

screenshot

Thanks for wasting my time, Inside Gymnastics.

I’ll try to resist the urge to visit your website in future.

related post: Inside Gymnastics bungles again?

The always endearing Olympic Beam Champion just updated her blog.

She’s working with a personal trainer to get back in shape. And next week she’ll become the first athlete ever on a box of Cheerios cereal. Nice.

Oh, and just in time for Christmas, a new book is coming out:

… a fun little scrapbook/ magazine book cming out for sale with hundreds of fun behind the scenes pictures and thoughts from the past 13 years of my career …

Amazon

The bible for me has always been Bompa.

Periodization Training For Sports

Some pages of the book are available as a preview free online from Google Books.

But rather than fill in the complicated YTP (Yearly Training Plan) forms that he recommends, I’d love to use an online version.

Features should include:

The best I’ve seen in the past have been Excel spread sheets.

But an online database would be easier.

Leave a comment if you can recommend anything like that.

by editor Rick McCharles

During the pre-Olympic furor of the book launch, I was as loud a critic of the media hype as anyone. In fact, I called the author a liar.

As a response to the critics, Jennifer often fell back on this position:

Chalked Up is a coming of age story that is about my early life spent as a gymnast. I hope you’ll find it has relevance beyond athletics. It’s intended to be the story of one child – me – not an exposé about the sport. It touches on broader issues than gymnastics: athletes who are willing to do anything to be the very best, a culture in which second place means nothing because only winning matters, mother daughter relationships, eating disorders, coming into one’s own. Ultimately, it is for anyone who has ever felt they weren’t good enough, ached to be better than they are, and has grown up to accept the person they were meant to be.

JenniferSey.com

I did not criticize the book (as I had not read it), only the sensationalist media coverage surrounding it. The author was an enthusiastic participant.

Chalked Up finally arrived in my local library.

Many had told me it was not nearly as bad as I would expect. And they were right.

It’s engaging. Fast paced. And tries to be … brutally “honest”. An interesting, if unrelentingly depressing, horror story of a gymnastics career.

There are enough factual errors to make it obvious Sey did very little research. No editor did a fact check.

By the end of the book it was clear that Jennifer Sey was the wrong child to train in the world’s most difficult sport. And that Parkettes was the worst possible club for her.

She sums up:

If my friends — some of whom have known me since my days as a gymnast — were asked to describe me, I think that they would say I am well adjusted and confident. A dedicated mother, friend, sister, wife, daughter. I am a part of all these things. But I am also anxious, sad, self-loathing, impatient, angry, frustrated, competitive, bordering on unhinged at times. …

I wonder if she regrets airing her demons.

related posts tagged with “Jennifer Sey”

Inside Gymnastics, an American gymnastics magazine (whose online coverage has been extremely intermittent and generally disappointing lately) will launch a radio program this Thursday, November 20th at 5 p.m. EST.

The C Score

Every time I get excited about Inside Gymnastics, they find a way to let me down.

Remember Inside Gymnastics Television?

That link is still on the site … but the last new episode was posted YEARS ago.

Now I’m excited about the recently announced Inside Gymnastics Radio:

…is coming to the internet airways this week! Look for our debut broadcast airing November 21st with athlete interviews, insight from the world’s top current and former gymnasts, expert commentary as well as Q&A segments with listeners.

Hosted by three-time Olympian John Roethlisberger, monthly broadcasts will be streamed live on InsideGymnastics.com.

With Roethlisberger on the mic, this is a guaranteed winner!

But where is it IG?

A full day after the promised Nov. 21st debut broadcast nothing is linked from your website: IG Radio

Lame. Lame. Lame.

Possible Christmas gift for a very young gymnast?

Gymnastics in Action

(rated 3 out of 5 by Dog Ear Diary)