Entries Tagged 'sport medicine' ↓

There’s a number of things doctors would advise you not do after suffering a broken neck… gymnastics might just top that list.

But Boise State’s Amy Glass was never one for being told what she couldn’t do. …

Click PLAY or watch it on KTVB.

Update: Natasha Kelley is competing for Oklahoma with a completely torn ACL.

Here’s the conference I’d most like to attend this year:

Birmingham, England Apr. 30th – May 1st, 2010

It’s multi-sport, but has very strong gymnastics representation.

“This is unique opportunity for coaches working with young performers”, said Hardy Fink, Canada, Director of Education and Academy Programme of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

Prof Keith Russell (CAN), Prof Adam Baxter Jones (CAN), Prof Joachim Mester (GER), Prof Joan Duda (USA), Prof Nicola Maffulli (GBR), Prof Neil Armstrong (GBR), and David Hemery CBE.

Chairs: Professor Craig Sharp, Professor Colin Boreham, Professor Fred Yeadon, Professor Lew Hardy, Dr. John Atkinson, Mr. John Aldridge and Professor Greg Whyte.

Kelly's wedding with best man Kyle Shewfelt

Kelly Manjak (CAN) will be presenting on Coaching Issues.

Manjak coached Kyle Shewfelt to the Olympic gold medal … in Athens as well as a fourth place finish on the vault. Manjak and Shewfelt worked together for 16 years …

Coaching Association of Canada

British Gymnastics – Congress home page

More research on whether Nike has caused all your foot and leg injuries.

A word of caution from Dr. Ross Tucker and Dr. Jonathan Dugas:

… I guarantee that the media are going to be all over this and they are going to tell you that you should be running barefoot or in Vibrams. You will hear how science has proven that being barefoot will prevent injuries, and that those of you who are injured should blame your shoes as you lob them into the garbage bin. …

If you wish to guarantee yourself an injury, then go out for a 2km run barefoot on a hard surface, and you will be asking your calf muscles and Achilles tendons to do work that for perhaps 30 years, they haven’t had to do. …

read more – Science of Sport blog.

That article led me to some cutting edge research …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or compare a runner wearing shoes on YouTube.

More caution:

Disadvantages of Forefoot Striking Barefoot or in Minimal Footwear

* Thick-soled shoes are much more forgiving when running over glass, sharp objects, ice and so on.

* If you have been a heel striker, it takes some time and much work to train your body to forefoot or midfoot strike, especially because you need stronger feet and calf muscles. Runners may be at greater risk of developing Achilles tendonitis when they switch from heel striking to forefoot or midfoot striking …

Running Barefoot, Forefoot Striking & Training Tips

This comes from a new blog by Dr. Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University: Running Barefoot or In Minimal Footwear

That’s likely the best site of all for those who want to research this topic.

(via Full Twist – Running Barefoot – The Debate)

I’ve recently reviewed a book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

Excellent.

Man became the dominant species on this planet because we could run long distances efficiently, barefoot.

Yet companies like Nike over the past 3 decades have convinced us that we need buy $150 shoes to run. And convinced us to completely change running technique in those shoes.

There’s a growing body of research indicating that expensive running shoes are causing more injury than they are preventing. Other researchers are concluding that bare foot running is more efficient.

If interested, click through to this post – are running shoes ruining your feet? – and follow the links.

Or see the technique difference explained in videos:

• BBC – Shoes may have changed how we run

• Scientific American – Running barefoot is better, researchers find (video)

If this new research eventually proves that barefoot running prevents injury, it may turn out that gymnasts have been doing the right thing all along by working out barefoot.

I hope so.

Elite gymnastics is a dangerous sport.

Updates were posted by Bekah on IG forum.

One bit of good news:

… after a brief conversation with Twistars coach John Geddert, I learned the following.

“Jordyn [Wieber who is recovering from a hamstring injury] is doing very well…. she is gearing up for the March and April assignments and looks on track to challenge for spots for the Europe and Pacific Rim competitions.”

details and commentary on the injuries – Around the Chalkbowl: Injuries Galore

Jordyn winning American Cup 2009

These days my favourite blog post is Gymnastics Examiner’s The gymnastics week in review.

And this week’s edition by Blythe Lawrence is the best yet.

Some highlights and lowlights:

… $1.5 million settlement for gymnastics abuse case: A Chicago-area gymnastics club’s insurance company has agreed to pay $1.5 million in a civil suit against former gymnastics instructor Michael Cardamone, who was first arrested in 2002 …

Gymnastics on skis: Aerial ski coach Peter Judge calls China’s aerialists “unbelievable classic overtrainers.” “I found it astounding — and they were wondering why all their athletes were getting injured and blown up,” ….

… China’s aerial skiiers are poised to win medals next month in Vancouver. One reason is a 19-year-old former gymnast named Xu Mengtao, who Chinese aerial ski coach Dustin Wilson said “will change the sport.” …

Mary Lou Retton interview: The U.S.’s first Olympic gymnastics champion speaks out about the pressure on young athletes to win today, as well as being born with hip dysplasia, a condition that has led her to have hip replacement surgery before the age of 42.

click through for links to these stories and many, many more.

Gymnastics Examiner – The gymnastics week in review

by site editor Rick McCharles

This is my friend Barkat from Bangladesh.

K.M. Barkat Ullah

Does he look like a “physically challenged” athlete to you?

He is.

Barkat was a full-time gymnast who had competed internationally in Asian regional competitions. One day he decided to do some circles on pommel horse without any matting in place. He slipped, falling as he had thousands of times before, but this time somehow landed in such a way as to damage his upper spine. A fluke.

He was partially paralyzed.

If that happened to you, how would you respond?

It would either crush your spirit. Or you would get SUPER tough.

Today, with the support of family, friends and his Gymnastics Federation, Barkat is one of the most inspirational athletes I know. Charismatic, enthusiastic, well-spoken in English, he has redirected his talent into studies at Jahangirnagar University outside Dhaka.

Within months he became the University champion at able bodied table tennis, the only sport left he could do with limited lower body mobility.

He and I spoke at length about the future of Paralympic sport in his fast developing country. I believe Barkat will be one of the leaders.

I’m researching Paralympic sport right now, encouraging Barkat to get involved as an organizer now, despite his youth. He’s planning on organizing at the two largest Universities in Bangladesh, as a start. Paralympic Table Tennis, as a start.

If you have any advice or information that might help his cause, please leave a comment.

Everyone in the gymnastics community worldwide needs rally around any of our athletes catastrophically injured.

A lot of people have asked me that question.

The last time I saw her was at the 2008 Canadian Championships.

Click PLAY or watch her Beam on YouTube.

Loaded with personality, well spoken and showing astonishing difficulty at a young age, Peng Peng was one of the great Junior prospects worldwide. And a sought after NCAA recruit. The audience LOVES this girl.

Unfortunately her beam coach, Carol-Angela Orchard, departed to England after the Beijing Olympics. Her club, Sport Seneca, shut down, the kids forced to relocate to a new space, about the same time.

Finally, Peng Peng was diagnosed last year with Spondylolisthesis.

… The good news is that Peng Peng expects to be cleared to start full workouts in March 2010. She’s already morning training at Oakville, coached by Kelly Manjak and the excellent staff there.

Your fans everywhere wish you all the best with a comeback, Peng Peng.

related video – Peng Peng Lee montage

Sydney was a disaster in many ways.

Andreea Raducan was the legitimate 2000 Olympic Gymnastics Champion.

… but was disqualified and stripped of her gold medal shortly after the competition concluded, when it was revealed that she had failed doping controls, testing positive for pseudophedrine, at the time a banned substance. She and her coaches maintained that she had been given the substance in two cold medicine pills by a Romanian team physician, and that they had not impacted her performance in any way. …

Does she look like a drug cheat to you?

Everyone. I mean everyone agreed that this was a gross injustice.

… Her case was brought to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the fall of 2000. Raducan herself was exonerated of any personal wrongdoing by the CAS, the Romanian Olympic Committee and the International Gymnastics Federation, and was not subject to any disciplinary measures. However, her medal was not reinstated, and the team doctor who administered the Nurofen was banned for two Olympic cycles. …

That drug Pseudoephedrine was, in fact, removed from the banned list in 2004, Raducan seemingly vindicated.

Well … it’s back on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list as of Jan. 1, 2010.

Once again, athletes who are subject to testing in competition need be very careful before taking cold medicines like:

Sudafed
Actifed
Contac
Claritin-D
Cirrus

Some of them no longer contain pseudoephedrine and have phenylephrine (not on the list) instead.

Andreea

We’ve posted this video before.

But at this, the start of a new year, a new decade, coaches should redouble our efforts to prevent catastrophic injury in gymnastics.

… about the sad stories in gymnastics. I cannot even imagine the pain of training your whole life for a dream then having it taken away.

Footage includes Julissa Gomez, Christy Henrich and Yelena Mukhina, whose stories are perhaps the greatest examples of tragedy in gymnastics.

Also included is Sang Lan, who is a very inspiring amd courageous woman. She has managed to keep a positive outlook on life and do many great things. She hopes to be one of the final torchbearers at next year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

The other gymnasts I chose becasue they were perhaps the best examples of gymnasts forced to retire in their prime, or before their career even really began.

I also included those who never lived up to expectations, those supposed to be the next big thing who were then forced to watch their dreams slip away in the spotlight.

REST IN PEACE:
Julissa Gomez
Christy Henrich
Yelena Mukhina
Alexandra Huci

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related post – goodbye Yelena Mukhina

related video – Yelena Mukhina Rest in Peace

related post – Sang Lan should light the torch in Beijing

Speaking of powerful vaulters not retiring, GymNiceTic translated a GYMmedia post (German):

… 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. …

GymNiceTic

Recall that Chusovitina tore her Achilles’ tendon Nov. 2008 on floor, landing double back short in competition. (video)

Oksana Chusovitina. Gymnastics Hall of Fame. For sure.

From FIG by email:

FIG Disciplinary Commission

GYMNAST HEARD

Lausanne (SUI) – FIG Office, December 21, 2009: The FIG Disciplinary Commission heard Brazilian gymnast Daiane Dos Santos on Friday, December 18, 2009, in Lausanne (SUI) after she tested positive for furosemide on July 2, 2009 during an out-of-competition test.

Composed of Rached Gharbi (TUN) President, Ms Margarida Dias Ferreira (POR) and Paul Engelmann (SUI), the Disciplinary Commission described the hearing as transparent, positive and constructive. It will bring its conclusions before the FIG Presidential Commission on January 26th.

Note that the proceedings opened against Daiane Dos Santos, 2003 World Floor Champion in Anaheim (USA) and winner of the 2006 World Cup in her discipline, are in keeping with the rules in force, according to which a therapeutic use exemption request must be made in the event that an athlete necessitates the use of a prohibited substance.

Since the Discipline Committee is actually meeting, perhaps we’ll finally get a decision from them on whether or not China was guilty of competed with two underage gymnasts at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

UPDATE … A ruling will be made February 26, 2010.

shergymrag found more information on Florida coach Shane Downey who was paralyzed on a tumbltrak in 2000.

… I’m even more convinced that Shane should take some responsibility for his accident. As sher says, he’s certainly experienced enough to know to ask for a spot if he might need one.