This is a follow up to the post on single point of failure industry standard apparatus cable floor attachments.
Ricky points out that it’s not only the floor plate we need to consider, but the entire tie-down mechanism.
The most frequent mistake made in gyms is when some well meaning maintenance person decides to use a threaded quick link like this one:
Yes, that’s the same kind used in the new installation pictured above. Safe when used properly. Safe when threaded only once.
But in my opinion, if you’ve got those in your gym, replace. It’s possible for the threads to get stripped after repeated use. Likely you’ve seen Quick Links fail. They are untrustworthy.
UPDATE: Here’s an example of one of those Quick Links having failed.
Of the better alternatives, mountain climbing carabiners are light, strong and widely available. Get locking carabiners, just in case.
Locking carabiners have the same general shape as non-locking carabiners but have an additional sleeve securing the gate. These sleeves may be either threaded or spring-loaded twist-lock. …
There are two main kinds:
• Twist-lock
• Screw-lock
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Other suggestions:
George and Ian upgraded the attachments at Phoenix Gymnastics, Edmonton, by adding floor plates with multiple bolts, rather than just one. GREAT.
(Those still worry me when attached to a wood floor – on basketball floors, for example. I’ve seen the entire floor plate, with 4 flimsy wood screws, pull out at the same time.)
Tim Douglas linked to a new-to-me technology they’ve used called – Chemical Anchoring (PDF)
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Update.
Greg Jackson has some cautions regarding the climbing carabiners:
In rock climbing, we use very similar anchors and bolts too. I have installed quite a few of those in far more uncomfortable positions than standing on a gym floor.
The most important part of the system is proper installation – especially in relatively soft concrete. It’s common for people to be too casual while drilling the hole. You must keep the drill straight so that you don’t flute the hole and, for some anchors, you must ensure that you’ve drilled to the proper depth.
If you’re going to use two anchors, they must be at least 10 times the diameter of the anchor away from each other or from an edge, otherwise the concrete will “dinner plate”.
Chemical anchors have been used for ages. The French climbers have been using them in their famous limestone cliffs for decades.
The quick links are plenty strong if closed properly with a wrench; use Loctite Blue to seal the threads. Don’t use Loctite Red as you’ll need a blow torch to break the seal.
DO NOT use an aluminum carabiner, they will wear very fast with the repetitive movement against the sharp steel edges of the anchors. In permanent carabiner installations on rock climbs, steel quick links are used. A steel carabiner is usually huge and quite expensive as they’re used mostly for rescue and not climbing as they’re too heavy.
… So, there’s no perfect alternative to the threaded Quick Link, so far as I can see.
Decades ago we tried these U-bolts, hoping they were more reliable than the Quick Link.
I’ve never seen one fail.
Leave a comment if you’ve anything to add to this discussion.
The EQUIPMENT, supplied by Whitey Anson of AAI, was perfect.
The coaches are there for the competition. I heard no complaints.
…. But here’s where I found the meet lacking:
• scant media coverage
• no LIVE blog (only one gym Mom was tweeting)
• no LIVE scoring
• no dedicated home page for the competition
• Mr. Video Online was not there. So no videos of the meet are available.
Tumblr is a microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their tumblelog private. The service emphasizes ease of use …
Tumblr makes a painfully limited alternative to WordPress, but a fantastic alternative to Twitter.
People love it.
As of January 7, 2011 Tumblr included more than 2.6 billion total posts and nearly 12 million total blogs. …
Gymnastics Tumblrs (there are many) pass on interesting videos and photos. This one of the Russian women’s team, for example:
… There are plenty of fresh and also enjoyment toys in a gym. Nevertheless possibly the almost all fun doll in the health and fitness center is actually a stuff security gap.
There’s 2 varieties * a shed memory foam hole and also a resi-pit. A loose polyurethane foam hole is a lot like a major, enormous pool area filled up with quite gentle space-age foam hinders alternatively of water. Resi-pits resemble major big soft cushions, generally one yard thick developed down into the floorboards. …
How to Have Fun With Gymnastics by ElenovskajaMedlents
It seems to have been written by a computer programed to include key words at any cost: nudists, Huge Playthings for ladies, etc.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has brought a disciplinary suit against Gymnova, a Marseille (FRA) based company specialising in the design, manufacturing and distribution of gymnastic apparatus.
The incident occurred at the Trampoline World Championships in Metz (FRA) in November 2010, when as the official supplier, Gymnova is accused to have delivered trampolines of a poor quality. …
eHow is an online how-to guide with more than 1 million articles and 170,000 videos offering step-by-step instructions on how to do things.
It’s much criticized as a “content mill” or “content farm“. Low quality crap written to get a high Google ranking, pushing Google ads deceptively.
Hows that working out for them?
eHow got the #1 rank for a Google search = “Gymnastics Coach”.
(I reset the Browser so there was nothing in the cache or history.)
Sage advice from eHow:
… Encourage your gymnasts to stay on their toes at all times by using the balance beam. Instruct each gymnast to walk across the beam at the beginning of practice. Once your practice is finished, ask them to do a simple handstand or flip on the beam to demonstrate the necessity for balance.
Why doesn’t Google rank content farms lower?
… Maybe they like all that Google ad revenue.
In Bing eHow was #1, as well. (And Bing results are consistently worse for me on any specialized search term.)
Check in your own browser. My results might have been personalized by location.
The new Duck Duck Go browser filters out all eHow results. This site was #1 there.
Is Facebook a good place for kids? U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama doesn’t seem to think so. She says she’s happy her daughters aren’t using the popular social networking service.
Obama’s daughters, Sasha, 9, and Malia, 12, aren’t allowed to use Facebook for security purposes. …
That’s a no-brainer. If I was the President, I wouldn’t want my kids on Facebook, either.
Here’s a more worrying story for gymnastics coaches:
This 24yr-old teacher from Georgia was asked to resign after posting photos like this from her European summer vacation: Cafes in Italy and Spain.
Georgia is the Bible Belt. But this is pretty tame compared with photos I see everyday of gymnastics coaches.
Andrea thought her privacy settings were on MAXIMUM (only friends could see her posts) but somehow the pictures got out. One of her students called the school to complain.
coaches should not be facebook friends with their athletes
JO feels we need some “professional distance” between coach and athlete.
A few coaches felt they had enough mastery of the ever changing Facebook privacy settings to friend gymnasts, but only let kids see very limited information. (Not other peoples photos tagged with the coaches name, for example.)
Just Another Opinion took the gutsy stance that coaches can benefit from friending their gymnasts. It’s a new mode of communication we need embrace.
One coach in my region communicates with his team via Facebook. That’s where his athletes live. He uses Facebook very efficiently. Communication has never been better as his athletes “share” some of his posts with family and friends.
I’ve got mixed feelings, myself. On the one hand I’m savvy enough with the internet (I hope) to avoid major gaffs, yet every week I read about male coaches going to jail, often partly due to inappropriate text or Facebook messages sent to minors. It’s easy for an innocent joke to be misinterpreted.
So where are we in 2010?
My advice to coaches is that they set up a private social network for their club, coaches, kids and parents on a site like flipbook.
Anyone who chooses can opt in.
Some of the advantages of Facebook, with a much lower risk.
… This is assuming that flipbook truly has foolproof privacy, of course.
Coaches can make a group for their club team, then invite members to join. You can easily send messages to members and/or fans, parents, etc. You can also: update a team calendar, upload and share team forms and documents, and upload and organize videos of your team…. and its free!
