On his GymSmarts coaching blog he reflects on an all too familiar topic:
Why do gymnasts stop improving?
… When I start to give a gymnast the same correction over and over again, but nothing changes, I need to stop and think what is causing this situation. …
Mas identifies typical reasons:
• growth spurt
• lack of good basics
• unwillingness to make changes
• bad habits
• fear
… The next cause of a plateau is the hardest one of all. That is the lack of interest in doing gymnastics, but she is hiding it within herself. Many times, she comes to the practice for a social reason or her parents expect her to go to the gym. …
There’s a new show landing on the Style Network called What I Hate About Me. The show claims to offer, “brutally honest expert advice and practical tips to help women who are trying to gain confidence and improve their lives.” …
Make It or Break It might be a lame TV show when it comes to explaining gymnastics to the general public.
But one theme is important. How does a dedicated athlete handle serious injury. Especially if they cannot return to the sport.
While the fictional Payson was falling on Shoot Half on Bars at National Championships, fracturing her back, a real life gymnast in Florida suffered a catastrophic injury on Bars.
… High School senior Dounia Bendris was practicing at Broadway Gymnastics in Oviedo when she slipped off the uneven bars, broke two ribs, collapsed a lung and severed her spinal cord.
Doctors told the 17-year-old that she was paralyzed from the waist down four days after Christmas. …
Donations can be mailed to CHASE care of Dounia Alyssa Bendris, 3924 Town Center Blvd. Suite 103-104, Orlando, FL. 32837. Donations can also be made via PayPal to DBendris@att.net or by clicking HERE.
Shannon Miller: “I Was Intimidated By Everything, Except Being On The Balance Beam”
Every coach needs to read this article published in … Celebrity Baby Scoop.
I learned a lot about one of the gymnasts I admire most.
One excerpt:
SM: … As far as beauty goes, I never felt beautiful in everyday life. It wasn’t until I stepped on the gymnastics floor and became engrossed in my routines that I felt truly beautiful. It was all about the work and the skills not the makeup and the nail polish.”
CBS: How was your self-image and self-esteem affected while being a gymnast? Do you feel you had a strong sense of body image throughout your gymnastics career?
SM: “I was painfully shy growing up. I would hardly speak at school and still remember the anxiety of trying to fit in, knowing I wouldn’t. Some people thought I was being ’stuck up’ when in reality I was just intimidated by those around me.
Gymnastics gave me an escape. I didn’t need to speak, just do. My self confidence soared when I got on the balance beam. My teammates had the same goals and fears that I did. High school is tough when you are 4’ 8” and weigh 65 lbs. However, when I got to practice and put on my leotard I looked like everyone else.
I never truly worried about my weight until I was about 18 years old. I lived with my family so I ate whatever was on the table. I remember eating ribs from our favorite barbecue place before workout on many occasions. Most people saw how tiny I was and thought I was dieting. They didn’t realize I was training 40+ hours a week and burning a zillion calories. I ate 5-6 times a day just to fuel my body.
However, at 18, right before the 1996 Olympics I started getting asked about being overweight. I had had a growth spurt and was now 5 feet tall and weighed 96 lbs. I hadn’t been concerned until I started having to field questions about my age and weight. I had always looked different than the other girls in my classes but now I really noticed it. …
Though Shannon is too diplomatic ever to disparage her coach, Steve Nunno, he was as verbally abusive and elitist as they came back in those bad old days.
Steve was not a man who would build the self-image of a shy young girl.
On the other hand, Shannon is today a terrific success story. She survived the challenges of being one of the world’s greatest gymnasts.
… I thought this song was fitting for a gymnastics montage because these beautiful and talented young athletes, in pursuit of perfection, often loose sight of reality and struggle with poor self esteem, poor body image, eating disorders, emotional scars, and other problems that can be carried on into adulthood. I want all of them to remember the message of this song, that they are loved
The girl at 1:15 is former Soviet gymnast and actress, Svetlana Zasypkina. At 2:12, that’s her starring in the 1988 Soviet film, “Kukolka.”
Gymnastike posted some FUN today for New Year’s Eve:
This year we’ve gotten access to shoot podium training at some big events like SEC Championships, Women’s NCAA Championships, and VISA Championships. Podium training days are always fun, but no one brings more fun to the podium than the Georgia Gym Dogs. They don’t train; they just dance!
Selected Most Heartwarming Interview Of 2009 on Gymnastike … and that’s saying a lot.
Nina Kim was an integral part of the University of Utah team as one of their two All-American seniors, but was also best friend of Olympic Champion Nastia Liukin and got to travel to Beijing alongside Nastia. In this interview, Nina talks about how her relationship grew with former WOGA teammate Nastia Liukin and watching her journey to Olympic glory.
It promotes her travel as a clinician, motivational speaker and for appearances. … Not all that easy to do if she’s supposed to be in the gym training full-time.
This initiative is getting some negative buzz on the internet. I’m happy to see Nastia organize her own personal schedule. … But is a retirement announcement next?
… Oksana Chusovitina plans to compete in 2010! At the moment, she trains everyday on vault, which she will hopefully show at the World Cup in Cottbus next March (in three month!), as well as on beam for the Worlds in Rotterdam.
In January she will return from Tashkent to Cologne and continue her training at the age of 34 (!) with her longtime coach Shanna Poljakova. …
… the manager of the Evangelical Portal at Patheos. Educated at Stanford, Oxford, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Harvard, he writes on religion, politics, culture, and faith.
Sho Nakamura recommended one of his recent articles titled The Olympic Promised Land.
… I knew that my gymnastics career was over — and my own Olympic Promised Land forever out of reach — when a team of men was screwing a “halo” into my skull and a neurosurgeon standing at the foot of my bed informed me that my neck was severely broken. An hour earlier I had walked into the hospital, every footfall sending long needles of pain up and down my spine, and asked for an x-ray. The radiologist gaped at what he saw: a part of a vertebra had slid forward to rest against the spinal cord, and fragments and chips were scattered inside my cervical spine like thorns in the grass. …
After a fusion surgery, I attempted briefly to return to the sport, urged on by a coach who told me that “We all break bones now and then.” Yet the pain grew excruciating, and it became clear that I would live the rest of my life with chronic pain. My career was over, my Olympic dreams finished. And my body was broken and could not be put back together. …
Sounds horrific. Yet the article is uplifting. (Sho found the article inspired him to continue his own physical rehabilitation from injury and return to competition.)
… In fact Tim is grateful for what the injury taught him. And how his life was redirected after retirement.
The Olympics, it turns out, was never the Promised Land. I found the Promised Land in that hospital room, and God used gymnastics to bring me there.
While the fictional Payson was falling on Shoot Half on Bars at National Championships, fracturing her back, a real life gymnast in Florida suffered a catastrophic injury on Bars.
Do you recall the name Tim Dalrymple?
