Author: Rick Mc

Career gymnastics coach who loves the outdoors, and the internet.

keeping in touch with retired gymnasts

Almost every athlete “retires”, sooner or later. As coaches we try to guide them to pick the optimal time.

Worst case scenario is when the athlete quits angry. And later regrets both how they left, and that they left.

Wendy Bruce Martin has a 10yr old daughter who quit her Team. And then shared a letter her child received:

Coach to former athlete:

… Just wanted to send you a quick letter to let you know how much I will miss you not being in the team anymore. I’m sure it was very hard on you to decide what you wanted to do. However I am very proud of you for making such a hard decision! No matter what I just want you to be happy …

read more on Facebook

That’s a class coach. 🙂

Cliff Diving World Series

Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series … Boston this weekend

… a massive crowd saw UK diver Gary Hunt toughing it out with rankings leader Orlando Duque for top spot, while Blake Aldridge stunned everyone with a brand new dive.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, established in 2009 … an annual international series of cliff diving events …

Divers jump from a platform at a height ranging from 26–28 m. …

Five judges score each dive based on a scale of 0 to 10 in half-point increments. …

… highest and the lowest judges’ scores will be discarded …

post-Olympics food celebrations

After her competition I saw Trampolinist Karen Cockburn tweet:


Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful messages. I’ve been having a great time in London with my family and I got to eat Pizza for the first time in over a year!

Gabby enjoyed an Egg McMuffin.

John Orozco got this reward from a friend at the Cake Boss TV show.

That pic was linked by Arabian Punch Front who collected more food stories – The Olympics Are Over. Now What?

Actually, I’ve seen elite male gymnast who eat well. And some that eat mostly crap. Performance and weight seemingly not much affected.

Female adult acrobatic athletes eat “treats” rarely. And in small quantities.

Bellu – National Council of Sports

Looks like the Head Coach is departing. Romania hoping that his successful leadership with the Gymnastics Team will transfer to their other Sports.

Google translate:

Octavian Belu … was appointed president of the National Council for Sport …

Belu has already taken the first steps. … in October all Romanian coaches … meeting …

“It will be a discussion of principles, how to performance manage out what benefits have what conditions do they have and how they can solve problems in our country …

gsp.ro

(via Fangymnastics on Facebook)

Update: Some good news, it seems:

… Carmen Tocala, the President of ANST, said that this new position would not affect Bellu’s activity at the Olympic Gymnastics Center. …

Fangymnastics