Gary Connery is apparently the first person to skydive out of an aircraft and land on the ground without injury without the use of a parachute.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Kottke)

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… The four-part HBO Documentary Films series, The Weight of The Nation explores the obesity epidemic in America. Watch all four parts of The Weight of the Nation …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Sodas, juice, sugary breakfast cereals, fast food and most processed snack foods are bad for us, their proliferation corresponding historically with the national weight gain.

Fresh food costs more than junk food, which puts the poor more at risk. Children are surrounded by the siren call of unhealthful food, fad diets don’t work and real change takes time. …

LA Times – Review: HBO’s ‘Weight of the Nation’ pounds away at obesity

… sugary soft drinks are the no. 1 source of calories in our diets,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “We get more calories from sodas and sugary drinks than any other individual food — cake, cookies, pizza, anything.” …

Soda giants scramble to fill void as sweets consumption declines

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Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Ferney Lopez Camacho and Emilio Toledo on Facebook)

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Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games will be hosted in Ontario, Canada.

(via Mikaela’s coach Susan Barrett-Manjak on Facebook)

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Talk about inspirational. The best feature I’ve yet seen on this girl.

Lola, from California, is legally blind, suffering from a condition called Nystagmus, which means her eyes move constantly, causing her to see double.

It means she has no depth perception whatsoever and when she’s running up to the bar she cannot see it until she’s just five feet away. …

Lola feels the tag “legally blind” is not accurate. She can see. But not with much precision. She wants to be treated the same as every other athlete.

Click PLAY or watch it on the Daily Mail.

(via the Tumbl Trak email newsletter)

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As part of our decade-long, global partnership with the International Olympic Committee and ‘Thank You Mum’ campaign, we’re proud to introduce the ‘Raising an Olympian’ series. (8 videos) …

Click PLAY or watch one of the 8 on YouTube.

(via Full Twist)

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Kyle Shewfelt grew-up much smaller than the other boys.

‘WIMP’, ‘Pansy’, ‘Homo’..were all words he would hear regularly, causing him to cry on occasion. At six he began gymnastics and continued to receive name calling for his choice in athletic sports. This bullying only made Kyle push harder.

He refused to be known as a wimp, so he continued training in gymnastics and forced himself to become tougher. …

If you want to help eradicate bullying, click over to Facebook photo and SHARE.

Kyle’s not gay. But suffered bullying from homophobes.

Happily, I think things are changing for the better. At least in some parts of the world.

Josh Dixon came out publicly while competing for Stanford, I think. He’s now at the USOTC in Colorado Springs commenting:

… he has not had a single negative response “in any way, shape or form.” If anything, the only homophobia he has encountered has been from within himself. He acknowledges he once felt internal pressure about being a gay man in what some label the “gay sport” of gymnastics. He didn’t want to fall into a stereotype. But he’s come to embrace it, and he says his sexual orientation now makes him stand out more at the elite level. …

Out Sports

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… A long time ago my wife, Armine Barutyan and I decided to make some important changes in our gym. Mainly, to change the way everyone (coaches, gymnasts, staff, and parents) communicated with each other. We made it a point to greet everyone and say hello when we came to the gym and goodbye when we left. …

Respect Starts with “Hello”

This might surprise people. Al Fong insists on efficient training. He doesn’t like to waste a second. Yet takes time for this social nicety.

I agree with Al. We coach 3 domains:

• physical
• technical
• psychological

Of the 3, the psychology of your gym is the most important.

GAGE, Missouri

Al likes a tidy facility, too. He’s not comfortable unless all mats and equipment are parallel to the walls, and stacked in pyramid fashion.

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Talent is only a piece of the puzzle.

John Geddert posted advice on how to deal with talented kids:

1- Let them lead you to the elite program rather than you drag them there.

2- Having talent and using talent- … there are talented athletes in every gym in the country. There are two things that separate those that achieve from those that don’t …

3- Take your time

4- Physical Abilities

5- Get Parents on Board

6- Efficient Training … keep the training hours manageable. Many of the top clubs in the world simply overtrain.

7- Flexibility … flexible when it comes to the athlete experiencing other events and activities

8- Seek help where needed

9- Train weaknesses

10- Live to fight another day

details – Dealing With Talent

What to improve next?

A high res version of that photo is available by clicking on the image.

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… Some are trying to make fitness cool.

Let’s Move! Flash Workout initiative by Beyoncé Knowles is a part of a larger Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States.

The campaign was started by First Lady Michelle Obama. The Let’s Move! Initiative has the goal of “solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight”. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Watch thousands of students from across the country and around the world dance to Beyoncé’s “Move Your Body” in the 2011 Let’s Move! Flash Workout. …

Click PLAY or watch a mashup on YouTube.

letsmove.gov

related – A big fat (cigar smoking) idiot had the nerve to criticize Let’s Move founder Michelle Obama for her diet and fitness. Talk about picking the wrong battle.

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