Entries Tagged 'sport science' ↓

Ask anyone what they like about the new G.S. George Gymnastics textbook Championship Gymnastics. High on everyone’s list → the illustrations.

Stephenson, volunteer coach and former co-head coach for the Golden Gopher women’s gymnastics team, recently finished work on a book, “Championship Gymnastics: Biomechanical Techniques for Shaping Winners.”

Stephenson illustrated the entire book, which was written by Dr. Gerald George, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Louisiana. Here, Stephenson answers questions about the project, his artistic career, and future artistic endeavors.

How did the project of putting together “Championship Gymnastics” start?

“It really started in the early 1980’s, I had worked with Dr. George in creating a book called “Biomechanics of Women’s Gymnastics”. That book was probably the only book out in years that addressed so many of the important fundamentals of women’s gymnastics. We were pleased with it, but Jerry called me a couple of years ago as he was preparing to retire, and he said that he’d learned so much since writing that first book that he wanted to redo the whole thing. I was thrilled because my artwork has improved so much that I wanted to redo the whole thing too. We decided that we would make this happen. …

read the entire back story – Gopher Sports – Stephenson Completes Book Illustration Project

Thanks Roy.

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.

Sport Science geeks should click through:

Orthotic effect of a stabilising mechanism in the surface of gymnastic mats on foot motion during landings

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.

Istvan Balyi said something very interesting at a recent coaching course.

He feels that of all the variables of “sustenance”, sleep is the most essential for athletes. More important than nutrition or hydration!

Teenage boys can sleep as many hours as a baby. A teenage boy who trains intensely needs even more recovery sleep than his peers.

Consider interviewing your athletes regarding their sleep patterns.

related:

Psychiatric News – Sleep May Be Athletes’ Best Performance Booster

European Journal of Sport Science – Nutrition, sleep and recovery

Ivan Cuk (Slovenia) has posted a new edition of (ScGYM®).

Click through if any of these articles look of interest to you.

A HISTORY OF USA ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS (PDF)

QUALITY OF THE TEACHING PROCESS AS AN EXPLANATORY VARIABLE IN LEARNING GYMNASTICS SKILLS IN SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION (PDF)

COORDINATION OF HANDWALKING IN GYMNASTS: A COMPARISON TO BIPEDAL WALKING (PDF)

JUDGES EVALUATION OF ROUTINES IN MEN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS (PDF)

BASIC LANDING CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS (PDF)

Home page – Science of Gymnastics Journal vol.2, num.2, 2010

Ivan is looking for articles for future publication.

Related:

… The gymnastics community (FIG) knows that more knowledge leads to a lift in the level of gymnastics. At the end of June, the second symposium on artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, organized by the Faculty of Physical Education, Campinas University, will be held in Sao Paolo, Brazil. details.

We strongly support gymnastics conferences and would like to share information about all such scientifically orientated events. If you are planning to organize a scientific conference on gymnastics please let us know and we will publish the information on our pages. …

Frame rate: 12,000 frames/second.

… clips of various gymnastics skills recorded by the biomechanics team at Manchester Metropolitan University. With thanks to the staff and gymnasts at Sandbach Gymnastics Club.

Watch them on the BiomechanicsMMU channel – Gymnastics – on YouTube.

Best viewed in high quality

Linked by Brett MacAuley on Facebook.

There’s been controversy in Canada over the Own The Podium program, a 5yr, $120 million supplimentary investment in high performance Olympic sport. Much was copied from programs in Australia and the U.S.A.

Personally I agree with Olympic great Ken Reed:

… The intent of Canada’s Own The Podium program has become lost – or perhaps obscured – with the focus on the medal count. Yes, it was always about trying to win more medals than anyone in 2010. But from the get-go, it was clearly stated that this was a stretch goal – an ambitious target intended to galvanize our nation, inspire our athletes, focus our funding and build a foundation of partnership. …

… OTP is an overwhelming success. We have delivered funding, coaching resources, technology, preparation and team unity to build an environment for success. Regardless of the medal count, this is a fact. Canada’s team was prepared. …

OTP’s about more than medal count

On the other hand, decisions have already been made to change leadership, perhaps shift the focus of Own the Podium, and possibly even changing the much mocked name.

details – Baumann to take over Own the Podium

related – Should Own the Podium have been branded differently?

UPDATE: The U.S.A. owned the podium at this Olympics. Germany was fantastic, too. Congratulations. But Canadians are not disappointed with our results, overall. And once we defeat the States today in Men’s Hockey, we’ll have the most Gold medals for any host nation in Olympic history.

… Most of my friends are convinced that the upstart Americans will win Hockey. But I’m not worried.

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

From Ivan Cuk, Editor in Chief:

The new issue starts with an article by German authors Thomas Heinen, Pia Vinken, and Konstantinos Velentzas addressing a very interesting dilemma of twist directions.

The second article is the contribution by Trevor Dowdell from Australia who is exploring characteristics of coaching.

The third article is about the reliability of judging in men’s artistic gymnastics at the University Games in Belgrade 2009, written by a group of authors from Slovenia and Hungary: Bojan Leskošek, Ivan Cuk, Istvan Karacsony, Jernej Pajek and Maja Bu?ar.

The fourth article comes from Slovenian author Matjaž Ferkolj who has researched kinematic characteristics of Roche vault on vaulting table.

The second issue of our journal concludes with an article from Portugal in which José Ferreirinha, Joana Carvalho, Cristina Côrte-Real and António Silva analyze the evolution of flight element on uneven bars from 1989 to 2004.

It’s all free. Click through to the home page for links (PDF) to each article.

Science of Gymnastics Journal

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.

Core stability for gymnasts is important, up to a point.

But I’ve long suspected that coaches over-emphasize it, at the expense of other physical qualities.

For example, this gymnast is not arched due to lack of abdominal strength.

Giant doesn’t require much abdominal strength.

There’s a bit of trend in sport science, right now, to reduce the amount of core body conditioning we are doing, especially the traditional “sit-up”.

Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, is cited in this recent article:

MacLeans – The man who wants to kill crunches
A Canadian professor of spine biomechanics rails about the dangers of the ubiquitous sit-up

Of course that’s not sport specific.

A better article for coaches is …

The Myth of Core Stability by Professor Eyal Lederman, of CPDO, the Centre for Professional Development in Osteopathy and Manual Therapy.

I checked on this “trend” to avoid over-conditioning the core with Keith Russell.

He tended to agree:

… don’t isolate, use large body movements where ever possible and DON”T overemphasize the abdominals …”

Food for thought. Leave a comment if you’ve modified your core body strength training. Using more isometric training, for example.

related – Gymnastics Revolution – The Giant

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. …

read more – Paralyzed Gymnast Adjusts To Life After Fall

video interview with Dounia

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.

Bad news.

2007 U.S. All-Around gymnastics champion David Durante posted it on Facebook today.

… and Dave thought he was getting away from injury, retiring.

Get well soon.