I spent last week with the Tumbl Trak video team, visiting Washington State gyms, brainstorming best use of their products with different kinds of user groups. In different kinds of facilities.
Here we are at rural Brinnon Elementary.
Instruction was provided by Carrie Lennox of Jefferson County Parks & Rec who was there 4 days. Fun and fitness in a safe but challenging environment. A mobile program.
We dropped in (and trained) at the Twisters Adult class in Port Renfrew.
Here’s Carrie’s regular “Kid Fit” Parks & Rec class in Port Townsend, a set-up, take-down facility. She’s worked closely with Tumbl Trak for years.
First day in the program for this lad:
Again, the goal is high activity in a fun, safe environment. Rather than put little kids up high on a rope, why not have them sliding on the floor? Fun … and much safer.
I’ll post details on each of those programs on Rec Gymnastics over the coming week.
John Smith at NASA Gymnastics is genius at coming up with drills for Team. We got plenty of video.
The biggest news at Tumbl Trak is that they have a viral video — nearly 600,000 views. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.
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Tumbl Trak is a valued sponsor of this site. Their corporate mission is exactly in line with my own coaching philosophy.
“I am completely confident with my ability to catch the line if I were to fall.
Highlining at Cathedral Peak, Yosemite, California
Photograph by Mikey Schaefer
This shot is just one spectacular scene from “The Man Who Can Fly,” an episode of Explorer airing Sunday, February 12, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. The show captures Potter’s quest for true human flight, with first feats in free soloing and wing suit flying in Yosemite, California, and British Columbia, Canada. …
Pascal Tremblay from GYMNOVA Canada responded to my request for advice on best pits:
From our perspective, choosing the right type of pit will take a complete analysis considering every factor involved with this purchase (primarily the security of the users of course!).
1-Your actual gymnasium’s realities and impositions. For example, it is quite possible that to create a sunken pit in a gym situated on the 2nd floor is simply impossible.
2-The desired dimensions as well as all of the equipment you would like to into the pit.
3-The available budget (whichever type of pit you end up choosing, this project will be expensive.)
4-Your preference base on your experience. From a gymnast and coach point of view, a pit with foam cubes is psychologically more inviting to attempt difficult and complicated movements. From an administrator point of view, the pit with foam cubes seem less hygienic (even if the foam cubes are protected with covers…. covered or not, if a child vomits in the pit, it is a pain!).
From my personal point of view, I would opt for a suspended sunken pit for it’s easiness regarding maintenance and especially for the possibility to adjust the elasticity of the net and re-tension the pit (it is also cheaper in term of $$). I also believe that mixing a suspended pit and a pit with foam cubes could be a great compromise! Attractive proposition because it offers a sense of security for the users with the net preventing athletes to reach the ground between cubes, maintenance is easier and cheaper (less cubes).
Whichever pit you choose, you should always use it with a foam safety mat to prevent tearing up the pit’s foam. …
Pascal sent some additional pit diagrams:
If you have additional questions, Pascal invites you to contact him:
GYMNOVA Canada / GymRep et Cheer-Rep
450-662-9901 poste 2 (bureau)
514-894-3872 (cell.)
ptremblay a gymrep.com
Ladies judges, for your information, the way Kohei Uchimura lands IS the correct way to land. There should be no deduction. Please correct your Codes of Points.
… You know what you can do? Stop sharing things you don’t want tracked. …
Before and after March 1st best advice is not to do anything online you’ll regret in future. Somebody, somewhere could be tracking it. And it probably won’t be Google. They’re one of the least evil players.
If you want to dig into this deeper, the best authority is Jeff Jarvis. He’s the author of:
On Gymnastike, Anne commented on some NCAA schools using a 3rd party service called Varsity Monitor to follow their team online.
They flag “questionable conduct“.
That’s a bit scary. But I suspect Universities are mainly worried about what their high profile basketball and football players say. Gymnasts are probably the least of their worries.
Written specifically for parents from grade school to college Dr. Malcolm Conway tears away the myths and falsehoods surrounding sports training, college recruiting, injury prevention and recovery, sports nutrition, coaching, and even “over-parenting.” Dr. Conway has interviewed 12 top world class athletes from various professional sports to ask them how they prepared as a young athlete. …
It’s PIT DAY on Gymnastics Coaching. I’ve been researching best, cheapest and most durable designs — both in ground and above ground.
Gymnova invented the “suspended” pit, so far as I know. The knock against the “suspended pit” design is that the foam top can be easily split by bigger athletes. I’ve heard that there is a more expensive kind of foam fill that is unsplitable, but it’s about twice the cost.
My gut feeling is that their built-in pit is more durable.
In ground or raised, it’s still nice to have loose foam for NEW skills.
Loose foam is messy. But cubes can be ordered with fire retardant covers.
Written specifically for parents from grade school to college Dr. Malcolm Conway tears away the myths and falsehoods surrounding sports training, college recruiting, injury prevention and recovery, sports nutrition, coaching, and even “over-parenting.” Dr. Conway has interviewed 12 top world class athletes from various professional sports to ask them how they prepared as a young athlete. … 
