Year: 2010

Sport is boring if you know who’s going to win.

Upsets are exciting.

Here’s a Nike ad cheering the underdogs.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’ve often told kids: “You don’t need to be better than the #1 competition. … But you want to be close enough that you can win if they miss.”

via Cirque’s Marceline Goldstein on Facebook

One of the few men to have ever completed a Ninja Warrior (Sasuke) obstacle course, here’s a highlights video of #2, Makoto Nagano, the astonishing Japanese fisherman who’s bested dozens of gymnasts and other strong men.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I saw this video linked from the excellent GymnasticBodies.com blog:

… There are five stages to the Sasuke challenge, each of which must be successfully completed in order to move on. In my opinion, the final stage is particularly challenging; a 50′ chimney climb followed immediately by a 30′ rope climb – BOTH OF WHICH MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 60 SECONDS! …

Coach Sommer – Makoto Nagano Montage

Coach Sommer is a strength guru, author of the Building the Gymnastic Body manual and videos.

If you impress him, you’re strong.

Jenn Isbister is uploading some routines to the GymnCA YouTube channel.

Here’s 9yr-old Shallon Olsen proving that tiny, light girls can still vault Yurchenko. She was 2nd AA.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Jordyn Pedersen, Oakville Gymnastics, finished 1st AA in the same division.

Click PLAY or watch her Vault on YouTube.

The International Gymnastics Federation is stepping it up:

The clips filmed at the recent Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships in Rodez (FRA) are the first High Definition clips ever produced and offered online by the FIG. And that’s not all! The clip includes exclusive never-before-seen sequences filmed onsite and behind the scenes (VIDEO) in places only the FIG camera can go!

Click PLAY or watch Aerobic Gymnastics World’s Highlights on YouTube. Click over to High Def if you have a high speed connection.

As web video quality and coverage improves, can traditional TV compete?

I don’t think so.

Jeremy Mosier at a recent clinic recommended we prepare kids for double somersaulting skills by training “Cody” and backward “Kaboom”. (VIDEO)

Once you can do those, the double salto backwards seems easy.

Not on that video, but another great drill for double back is “gainer“. (backward salto travelling forwards)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Trampoline guru George Hery talks about using gainer as preparation for flyaway. True.

But those same gainer drills are great psycho-motor preparation for double back, as well. If a young gymnast is not comfortable with gainer, I don’t want them doing double back.

Gainers teach them how to get around when under-rotating.

Watch more gymnastic training videos on TheGymnastic Minute Channel on YouTube. Support the Gymnastics Minute free videos by . buying GymSmarts DVDs

Sports Girls Play has a good post – Tips for Dealing with Gymnast’s Hand Rips.

Great content, as always.

But it mentions using tea bags to “reduce the pain and speed the healing of the rip“.

This was common with War wounds decades ago, especially when medics had nothing else.

Some tea (green and black) has tannin, not tanic acid.

The two terms are often confused. There’s a clarification on Wiki Answers.

My question to the great gymnastics blog-o-sphere:

Does tannin from a wet tea bag actually do anything for a gymnasts hand rip?

Does it reduce pain?

Does it speed healing?

Or is this another “gym legend”? … A useful placebo?

Five minutes exhaustive research on the WWW couldn’t answer this question conclusively.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

By Sele Leota, a film school graduate. More videos on the Selecious YouTube channel.

Recommended by Gymtage.

Dean Kalyan linked to this great pop music video saying:

I dig this. In an age where music videos continue to devolve into nonsense and porn-inspired gimmicks, it’s nice to see people with talent are still able to shine.

Love the “moon walking” dance steps.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Janelle Monáe (born December 1, 1985 in Kansas City as Janelle Monáe Robinson) is a Grammy nominated American singer, songwriter, dancer, and performer. …

Whether you’re high or low …
You gotta tip on the tightrope …

Janelle Monáe – official website

Nataional Champion UCLA Bruin gymnast Anna Li was chosen to speak at the memorial for legendary basketball coach John Wooden.

Congratulations.

The public memorial service was held, appropriately enough, in Pauley Pavilion. It was a venue Wooden loved and in which he won nine of his 10 NCAA basketball championships.

… Athletic Director Dan Guerrero announced that Wooden’s customary seat in Pauley Pavilion — Section 103B, Row 2, Seat 1 — would be retired. No one would ever be allowed to sit there again, a decision that was met with applause. …

UCLA Newsroom – Celebrating the life of John Wooden, a beloved coach and teacher

Anna posted a photo of the program with her name in it. (She’s there with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.)

Define provenance …

… Can you do it?

I couldn’t.

provenance
noun
the place of origin or earliest known history of something

On the internet that means trying to “source” where a video, photo or idea started. At minimum, you should link to where you first saw it. Best practice is to link to the original and where you happened to see it first.

On this blog I’d say I’m about 90% successful in crediting a source. Not perfect. But not bad.

Tara Sickmeier of International Gymnast Hot Headlines is the worst gymnastics blogger I know. If she ever credits where she finds a story it’s only by accident of linking to the originator. If she sees something on Gymnastics Coaching, there’s never a (via Gymnastics Coaching) link on IG.

I’ve several times sent messages to Tara on her unethical blogging behaviour. But have yet to get a response.

Forward a link to this post if you know her personally.

(via Buzz Machine – New rule: Cover what you do best. Link to the rest)