Entries Tagged 'psychology' ↓

Sport is boring if you know who’s going to win.

Upsets are exciting.

Here’s a Nike ad cheering the underdogs.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’ve often told kids: “You don’t need to be better than the #1 competition. … But you want to be close enough that you can win if they miss.”

via Cirque’s Marceline Goldstein on Facebook

Jeremy Mosier at a recent clinic recommended we prepare kids for double somersaulting skills by training “Cody” and backward “Kaboom”. (VIDEO)

Once you can do those, the double salto backwards seems easy.

Not on that video, but another great drill for double back is “gainer“. (backward salto travelling forwards)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Trampoline guru George Hery talks about using gainer as preparation for flyaway. True.

But those same gainer drills are great psycho-motor preparation for double back, as well. If a young gymnast is not comfortable with gainer, I don’t want them doing double back.

Gainers teach them how to get around when under-rotating.

Watch more gymnastic training videos on TheGymnastic Minute Channel on YouTube. Support the Gymnastics Minute free videos by . buying GymSmarts DVDs

So true.

This from luvgymnastics in Australia.

… You know you’re a gymnast when/gymnastics is life, the rest is just details!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Kendra Wilkie Street on Facebook)

From keego666:

I don’t think coaches get enough credit for all the support and hard work that goes into training a gymnast! So this is kinda about how they pull them through! I heard this song and was like ‘I MUST MONTAGE THIS’ haha Miley Cyrus is becoming my guilty pleasure! …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The next time you have trouble finding motivation to get out and exercise, think of these guys.

This is the story of Dick & Rick Hoyt, the most inspirational father and son team to race in an Ironman.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Team Hoyt began in 1977 when Rick became inspired by an article on racing he saw in a magazine. Dick Hoyt was not a runner and was nearly 37 years old. After their first race Rick said, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.” After their initial five mile run, Dick began running every day with a bag of cement in the wheelchair because Rick was at school and studying, unable to train with him.” As of February 2008, the Hoyts had competed in 958 endurance events, including 65 marathons and six Ironman triathlons. They had run the Boston Marathon 25 times.

They also compete in triathlons in which Dick pushes Rick for the foot race, then with Rick sitting in a boat for the swim portion, Dick pulls him with a rope attached to his body. For the cycle portion of the triathlon, Rick rides on the front of a specially designed tandem bike …

That’s another fantastic link from Sport At Its Best – Team Hoyt

Linked by Brett MacAulay on Facebook.

Recall the Volkswagon publicity stunt where they installed a keyboard on stairs?

This Volkswagon creation is even better.

A long staircase. Next to it a slide. Which way would you go?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Marceline.

If last year you told me I would be linking to notorious coach Al Fong all the time, I’d have called you crazy.

But I’m really enjoying his frequent blog posts.

For example, on this post – Versatile Straps – Al recommends “tumbling handcuffs”, bar safety straps used on a tumbling trampoline.

Click PLAY or watch the drill on YouTube.

This works great for beginners. Later we’re going to want the kids to use shoulder flexion / extension to add power.

In extreme drills, coaches slide the strap down to the neck. This “locks” the arms in an extended position, but can be scary for beginners. Use with caution. I still recall a young gymnast at a training camp freaking out trying that for the first time. (… Come to think of it, I’m going back to his gym this Summer, surprised they’re inviting me back.)

related – Open Shoulder Trainer (invented by coach Peter Soul)

details – TumblTrak $24.95

Dean Potter is one of the most interesting extreme athletes in history.

A childhood fear became Dean’s destiny.

Dean Potter is characterized by creativity, commitment and challenge. He started climbing as a child, with a free solo fall from a stone wall as one of his earliest memories. Since that time, he has speed soloed Half Dome and El Capitan, Cerro Torre, and Fitzroy. He was the first to make a one-day free ascent of El Cap and Half Dome, and a one-day speed linkup of both of those big walls and Mount Watkins, Yosemites third Grade VI wall. He has also established testpiece crack routes in the Utah desert and highball boulder problems in Yosemite.

Dean has walked the longest highlines, often without a safety leash, though he has dedicated over a decade of engineering and testing to create the safest highline systems currently used. Most recently, he has combined BASE jumping skill with highlining and free soloing, using a specially engineered ultralight BASE rig as his backup system. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Another excellent and interesting Spanny Tampson montage on Big Fake Smile.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Dream On …

by site editor Rick McCharles

Each year after the Canadian Championships we schedule an advanced coaching clinic. In this session the current National Coach Vladimir Lashin does a brief overview of release moves and dismounts on Bars.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

I tried to edit this into some kind of a “story”. But the clinic really was like the video, just a skimming of target skills.

The demonstrator in red is 9yr-old Shallon Olsen from Omega Gymnastics Academy, the most talked about gymnast at the meet. Everyone was asking: “If Shallon does this much difficulty at age-9, can she survive to age-15 when eligible for Sr. competition?

One of the lone voices to opine that big difficulty at a very young age is not necessarily a guarantee of burnout was Miguel Constante, one of the very best coaches in Canada. He feels it’s a tremendous advantage long-term, if the athlete can avoid injury and loss of motivation.

more video of Shallon training

… Is she cute, or what?

A big theme in the comments of this blog, of late, has been criticism online of gymnasts and ex-gymnasts being fat.

What should we do about that, as a coaching group?

Best, it seems to me, is to confront the issue. And who are the best spokespeople? Gymnasts themselves.

It’s easy for a genetic ectomorph like Shannon Miller to be a role model for low body weight.

Mesomorphic women like Shawn Johnson more often have a tougher time keeping excess weight off. Here she talks about healthy body image.

… “There’s a huge push in the world on an image, a stereotypical, beautiful model image, especially in gymnastics,” Johnson said. “I was a huge target for that.”

She said it wasn’t unusual to hear stories in her sport about cases of anorexia and bulimia. She said that her 4 foot 11 inch muscular build wasn’t popular with some on Dancing with the Stars, either. Johnson said she was frequently compared to Holly Madison.

“I don’t know if you girls know who that is, but she’s a model and she’s like tiny and tall! And they’re like, ‘You have to become her,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m 4 foot 11, that’s not possible,’” Johnson said. …

KCCI

(via Full Twist)

Mesomorph Sam Peszek is in.

… “I want to be the face of the fight against obesity,” she said. …

Indy Star

If you want to be a high level gymnast, percentage body fat is an important variable. But after retirement, it’s not a big deal. Most of the ex-gymnasts I know are far leaner than the general population.

“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”

A booster of UCLA Gymnastics, Coach Wooden is dead at age-99.

In 2009, John R. Wooden was named The Sporting News “Greatest Coach of All Time”

Not many would dare argue.

John Wooden was the coaches coach. A purist.

Seven Point Creed

John Wooden’s Seven Point Creed, given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Wooden also authored a lecture and a book about the Pyramid of Success. The Pyramid of Success consists of philosophical building blocks for winning at basketball and at life. In his later years he has been hired by corporations to deliver inspirational lectures and even appeared in commercials for Hartford Insurance and the NCAA. It is generally known that he received lecture fees that exceeded the salaries he was paid as a coach. Wooden proudly claimed that these late in life windfalls allowed him to set up education accounts for all of his grandchildren. In a 2009 interview, John Wooden described himself politically as a “liberal democrat,” who had voted for some republican presidential candidates.”

Among Wooden’s maxims:

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Flexibility is the key to stability.
Be quick, but don’t hurry.

Wikipedia

LA Times – John Wooden’s pyramid stands test of time

Not mental gymnasts, note.

University of Nebraska Head Coach Dan Kendig is one of the good guys. And one of the best Head Coaches in the NCAA.

Here’s his Gymnastike interview – Mental Edge Monday:

Dan’s with us up at the Canadian Championships, as always. He’s a big booster. (And loves to recruit Canadians, one ingredient of a winning College team, it seems.)

Dan has been with Nebraska since 1993 and is a two-time National Coach of the Year (1999, 2003). Coach Kendig has led the Huskers to 12 NCAA Championships appearances and 9 Super Six Finals appearances.