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. …
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 …
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 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.
… 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.”
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.
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 horsewithout 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.
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.
… 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.
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.
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.
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
… 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. …
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.
… 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.
… 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.
Do you recall the name Tim Dalrymple?
