Year: 2011

Amy Chua has been a Professor at Yale Law School since 2001.

She came into public attention recently after publishing her third book, a parenting memoir, titled Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

In it she describes her efforts to raise her children in a strict Chinese tradition.

According to a Wall Street Journal article her 2 daughters were not allowed to:

attend a sleepover
have a playdate
be in a school play
complain about not being in a school play
watch TV or play computer games
choose their own extracurricular activities
get any grade less than an A
not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
play any instrument other than the piano or violin
not play the piano or violin

In 2011 western children lead lives too undisciplined, in my opinion. For many sport is the only area of their lives with rigour. Responsibility. Accountability. Consequences.

The Chinese Gymnastics Blog took up this topic, linking to an extreme GTM (Gymnastics Tiger Mother), Dr Leow Mei Ling. Her daughter is Malaysian gymnast Emma Ooi.

details on New Straits Times

OK … That family takes discipline too far.

This is a starting point for a long discussion. Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

Published in USA Gymnastics Technique magazine 1999, this is still the definitive article. One I like to hand out to parents.

By Wm A. Sands, Ph.D.
Motor Behavior Research Laboratory
Department of Exercise and Sport Science
University of Utah

… What are the benefits of gymnastics?

A few of the key points:

• Gymnasts are among the strongest, pound for pound, of all the Olympic athletes.

• Gymnasts are among the most flexible of all athletes.

• Gymnasts are very good at both static and dynamic balance.

• Gymnasts learn early to fall without injuring themselves.

• Gymnasts are among the smallest and lightest of athletes.

• Gymnastics is a reasonably safe sport.

• Gymnasts tend to do very well in school.

• Gymnastics shares with other sports the opportunity to learn about teamwork, sportsmanship, fair play, dedication, patience, dedication, perseverance, and planning.

• Gymnastics helps people learn to work hard for objectives that can take years to achieve.

• Drug abuse in gymnastics, while not unknown, is extremely limited

read the entire article – Why Gymnastics – by Bill Sands (PDF)

Brittney posted this …

Preteam girls doing level 5 bar routines, giant drills, front giant drills, and stalder drills. Most of these girls were ages 6-8 at the time (Spring 2010). …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I particularly like the forward giant drills at a young age and stage. Very safe. Super preparation for the future.

Thanks for the link, Jacob.

This is the 20th annual. Congratulations.

L’International Gymnix kicks off March 10 in Montreal and features Canadians Madeline Gardiner, Coralie Leblond-Chartrand, Christine Lee, Sabrina Gill, Victoria Moors, Vivi Babalis, and Brianna Clark and International guests Alina Martynova (RUS), Jessica Gil Ortiz (COL), Georgia Wheeler (AUS), Venus Romaeo (GBR), Jessica Hogg (GBR), Asuka Teramoto (JPN), Julie Croket (BEL), and Brianna DeJardin (BEL).

Also Kristin Klarenbach.

Gymn.ca

Grace Chiu is posting some pics on Facebook.

Canadian trampoline and tumbling athletes are in South Africa for competition.

Before the meet, they bused out to a rural gym.

Jamie Atkin:

… Up until recently they had virtually no equipment. The trampoline you see below is around the size of a single bed and those are blankets wrapped around the springs for padding. They also had a mini-tramp.

Not long ago the club was gifted with two brand new Eurotramp Trampolines with end-decks and mats as well as a brand new DMT and landing area. This is beautiful equipment and these coaches and kids sure love it all! …

… we took a 5 minute “Coke Break”. They have been sponsored by Coke and they proceeded to pass around 600 ml bottles of Coke to everyone and we posed for a photo before the kids downed it all. …

read more on the Airdrie Edge Travel Blog

Thanks Brett.

University of Minnesota.

Goldy Gopher apparently never saw it coming — a sucker punch smack in the nose above his heartwarming bucktoothed grin.

An annoyed fan — a University of St. Thomas math professor and a devoted University of Minnesota booster — socked the fuzzy-suited mascot after tiring of his antics during a men’s gymnastics meet Saturday night.

The mascot-mauling left the professor red-faced, regretful and banned from the University of Minnesota’s Sports Pavilion and Williams Arena for a year …

Star Tribune

What a shame.

Men’s gymnastics needs every fan they can get. 🙂

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has brought a disciplinary suit against Gymnova, a Marseille (FRA) based company specialising in the design, manufacturing and distribution of gymnastic apparatus.

The incident occurred at the Trampoline World Championships in Metz (FRA) in November 2010, when as the official supplier, Gymnova is accused to have delivered trampolines of a poor quality. …

FIG

Merde.

Gymnova is the official equipment supplier for the 2012 Olympics.

(via Gymnastics Examiner)

Gymnasts are vulnerable, especially male gymnasts, especially during the phase of “peak growth velocity”.

During that phase coaches are advised to reduce hard tumbling and vaulting. Land on soft surfaces. And be very cautious when the athlete reports pain near growth plates.

Certainly there is a great deal of individual variation in growth. Many gymnasts are “late maturers”.

Those images are taken from an excellent report by Istvan Balyi & Richard Way, The Role of Monitoring Growth in Long-Term Athlete Development November 20 2009 (PDF)

Some conclusions:

Monitoring growth before, during and after the adolescent growth spurt is very important for coaches to be able to create an individualized plan to optimize athletes’ development.

• Growth measurements are needed to monitor growth.

• Plotting growth will help to identify the onset of the growth spurt

• Before the onset of the growth spurt standing height should be measured on every birthday, or at the beginning of the annual training cycle in clubs.

Most coaches are not measuring growth velocity in 2011. … They should be.

GymNiceTic – Dutch gymnast Celine van Gerner looks good!

56.066 AA with one fall.

Celine van Gerner, Dutch European Trials BB, Opmeer 5-3-2011

Click PLAY or watch her Beam on YouTube.

Becky sends us this link.

1. This is amazing.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

2. This is dangerous.

Get some coaching, dude. You’re going to hurt yourself.

And NO, I’m not linking to your double back.