GONE HIKING …

Site editor Rick McCharles will be mostly offline well into June 2026.  He’s section hiking part of the Pacific Crest Trail in California. 

correct position for L-sit

Bruce Craven is an owner of Craven Sports Services.

Currently Bruce assisted male gymnasts at Taiso Gymnastics Saskatoon. As always he’s focused on training the correct muscles for each element. And contracting those muscles in the best sequence.

Click PLAY or watch L-sit training on YouTube. (Flexibility and specific strength.)

Handspring ➙ Salto vaults with “Flyspring Technique”

This is one of the best Handspring forward salto half vaults I’ve ever seen

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Not the most common technique, Haleigh uses what my mentor Boris called “Flyspring” technique. First contact on the table with hips piked. She OPENS her hips while in contact to increase reaction force.

This technique works best for very fast, very powerful gymnasts. They tend to take off closer to the back of the Board and contact the front of the Table. GOAL = get the hands on the table as quickly as possible.

Dave Tilley’s LANDING training

I’d concur that the very BEST drill for landing facing forward is jumping down from a height to punch forward salto. It’s also my favourite drill for take-offs facing forward.

For strong gymnasts I’d include 10 drops to punch front — OR 5 sticks, whichever comes first. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Introducing Forward Saltos to Beginners

BIGGEST chance for injury is hitting the face on the knees. I always emphasize keeping the knees wide apart:

Leave space for the face. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. 

Forward Walkover progressions

A long and comprehensive video. Of course many are appropriate, as well, for Backward Walkover and combining the two.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Changing Gymnastics Culture – a review

Dave Tilley’s excellent book, more than 450 pages.

Something for every coach: sports medicine, injury prevention, conditioning, ethics, …

Dave was partly inspired to put his ideas together by the Nassar crimes. He sensed “outdated training methods and a toxic culture can foster abusive practices” in Gym … making it possible for a pedophile to go undetected for decades.

Coaches spent inordinate amounts of time with young children and parents place complete trust in them. Young athletes are taught that their dreams may depend on the approval of a famous trainer or coach. They are also programmed to believe that obeying orders given, without question, is the only path to achieve their dreams.

Together, these truths about certain areas of our sport, while not necessarily inherently malicious in nature, certainly open to the door to abuse and mistreatment of young athletes. …

I certainly recommend you download and check it out for yourself.

Dave’s made his book free. Click through to download.

The book is 3 PDFs.

In addition are two resources: Myofascial Release Checklist and a Splits Complex.

Max Whitlock – Air Flair ON Pommels?

Ke Qinqin – oversplit on Beam

Ke Qinqin’s highest balance beam score to date is 14.900 at 2026 Chinese National Championships.

Amazing flexibility.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.