… On August 26, Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham became the first person in a wheelchair to land a double backflip. …
… I’ve also been working on a front flip. I’m gonna have to say that one’s scarier than the back flip. In the front flip, you’re trying to get around without your head digging into the ground. …
Gymnastics Examiner posted an exceptional interview with Jay, the man who missed qualifying for two Olympics. Yet has become one of the biggest success stories in the USA with his website American Gymnast.
Examiner.com: Can you tell me a little about your childhood in gymnastics?
Jay Thornton: “I was very fortunate to have several a wonderful coaches from the beginning. I was a pretty good twister. I was a little bit bigger as a kid and I had that going against me. I’m about 5’10″ and competed at about 170 pounds. I was a bit bigger as a kid and wasn’t the most physically gifted, but my first coach, Tim Erwin, started preparing me with sound gymnastics technique from the day one.”
Examiner.com: When did you decide you wanted to go to the Olympics?
J.T.: “When I was 10 years old. It was 1984, the year of the Los Angeles Olympics and I, like every other gymnast at the time, was watching the ’84 U.S. Men’s Olympic team compete. When I saw them win that gold medal, I knew at that point that I wanted to become an Olympic gymnast.” …
Read about the coach who taught him to love gymnastics, Nick Brancheau. His inspirations: Roethlisberger and Bilozertchev. And how he reconnected with the woman who would become his wife.
The advantage of buying grips and equipment from American Gymnast is that Jay truly knows the sport inside out. Here’s his reaction to to Sho Nakamori’s post on his Reisport Ring grips tearing after only 2 days.
Jay’s younger brother Andy, who also competed for the University of Iowa, posts an excellent blog, Andy’s Angle, on American Gymnast. I read it religiously.
Note that the coaching video tutorial section has a new address: Gymnastics on Demand
Crystal sends us a link to an an interesting study that seems to indicate that landing barefoot on soft mats causes more “distress” on the feet than on harder mats.
Certainly many higher level gymnasts prefer stiffer mats for landings for many reasons, especially as the risk of ankle sprain is lower.
Dr. Bill Sands tells us that Sport Science research in gymnastics is dying. … If so, why don’t they make their reporting documentation and language more accessible?
The format and unnecessarily complex wordusement of that abstract makes me want to burn my most recent issue of the Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology.
He was lying on the ground after peeling off on a dismount before he discovered what had happened.
The manufacturer is Reisport, as good as any of the competitors, I’d say.
Over the years I’ve seen many Reisport grips break in only a matter of days, but never Ring grips. Horizontal Bar grips normally get stretched and break sooner.
NOT unheard of. Our friend, Mario West, had the exact same thing happen at the Winter Cup a year and a half ago — High Bar was his first event, and it happened during warmups. It didn’t injure him badly, but it affected the whole meet.
Since then, he’s been going to a gentleman in Gaithersburg, MD named “Tien” (not sure of the spelling), who handcrafts his grips. Apparently, the Japanese and Chinese national teams both buy from this craftsman as well, and Mario seems to have more confidence in his grips.
Leave a comment if you have any advice on where to get gymnastics grips more durable than Reisport.
Aussie Dr Glenn Singleman has held the record (jointly) since 1992.
First Glenn and Nic Feteris climbed, then BASE jumped 5,955 metres (19,537 ft) from one of the Trango Towers.
In 2006 he and his wife Heather Swan climbed Mt Meru in the Indian Himalaya, jumping from 6604m (21,667ft), in the process setting new Guinness World Records for both BASE jumping and wingsuit flying.
Canadian gymnast 
