Rick Mc

evaluating mild head injury

As a coach, people will look to you as ‘expert’ on possible concussions, even though the incidence is low in Artistic Gymnastics.

Here’s a quick checklist:

I only bring this up because of the relatively new evidence of sub-concussive brain damage.

If you’ve any doubt at all, take the athlete out of play. You are not expert enough to decide that a suspected head injury is minor enough to continue. As first responder, you’d pass the athlete on to a specialist.

Increasingly computerized neuropsychological test (e.g., ImPACT, CogSport) are being used for assessment. It’s getting easier and less expensive to do assessment.

That chart comes from this article – HEADS UP! – A Soccer Coach’s Guide to Concussion (PDF)

In 2011 there’s no such thing as simply being “shaken up”. And getting back in the game. That era is gone forever.

Pauline Nordin – body builder

You want guns?

Pauline Nordin represents something called the Fighter Diet.

Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube. Warning – some of the pictures are a bit racy.

new Canadian Olympic logo

Canada’s Olympic team will sport a new streamlined logo on their gear at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. …

The main difference between the Canadian Olympic team’s current and previous logo is the elimination of the flames in the centre of the mark.

The new design features a Maple Leaf in the centre above the five Olympic rings. A red oval border, reflecting a speed skating oval and athletic track, encircles the Maple Leaf and rings. …

New logo for Canada’s summer Olympic team

Click PLAY or watch a history of the log on YouTube.

Filip Yanev – H Bar – Shushanova

Bob and Polytroll found a routine where Filip Yanev competes the (G-value) Shushanova (VIDEO). ( Better than any female gymnast I’ve seen do it.)

I wonder what value he got from the Men’s judges?

WsvanWijk tells ~~it’s a~~ that ?a similar skill (Stalder to piked side vault) is already a C-part in the Men’s code.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That routine is also a good bad example of what we used to call “overuse of one kind of skill”.

I want to win an Olympic medal

Kelly Manjak recommends this Canadian documentary.

… by director Paul Cowan is about four athletes and a team that competed in the 1976 Olympics. They had trained courageously to be among those who would mount the podium to receive a medal. None of them did, but was it worth the effort?

I’ll Go Again answers the question.

You can watch it for free on the National Film Board site. Or click PLAY. (41min)

http://media1.nfb.ca/medias/flash/ONFflvplayer-gama.swf

It features gymnast Phillippe Delasalle.

That was the Olympics where the East Germans were rumoured to have a drug boat off-shore.

… East German swimmers won 11 of 13 events, journalists started asking questions about the broad shoulders and deep voices …

Athletes were tested for Drugs as early as 1968. A few even tested positive in 1976, mostly Weight Lifters.

China on Rings

The biggest surprise for me at Worlds last year was that China won Team on Rings, not Pommels nor Parallel Bars.

Click PLAY or watch 2011 Chinese Ring Championships on YouTube.

1. Chen Yibing Tianjin 6.8; 8.975 ; 15.775
1. Yan Mingyong Shanghai 6.9; 8.875 ; 15.775
3. Liao Junlin Guangxi 6.8; 8.725 ; 15.525
4. Luo Xuan Hubei 6.8; 8.550; 15.350
5. Liao Qiuhua Guangdong 6.7; 8.525 ; 15.225
6. Guo Weiyang Liaoning 6.5; 8.650 ; 15.150
7. Liu Yang Army 6.5; 8.525 ; 15.025
8. Tao Zhuyong Army 6.5; 8.250 ; 14.750

This is one apparatus where the new Code has worked. Routines are more amazing than ever before in history, yet there’s not much more risk of injury.

(via All Things Gym)

1932 Olympic tumbling champion

They don’t make them like Rowland “Flip” Wolfe any more. He was born 1914.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

…Wolfe was way ahead of his time particularly when one considers the surfaces tumblers had to contend with in the 20s and 30s. …

Had the International Gymnastics Federation recognized elements by naming them for one performer or another, a double twisting stretched back somersault might today be recalled as a “Wolfe”.

He was the first to perform this element in the Olympic Games.

… Wolfe could also perform a double back. He related that he did not perform a double back in the Olympics since his coach was not a reliable spotter. He describes a pile of corrugated cardboard arranged loosely in one corner of the gym along with rags and other soft material. He would then attempt double backs into the corner!

… He had a famous teammate, Charlie Pond, who later coached at the University of Illinois. Another DAC tumbler, Barbara Galleher Tonry, won nine NAAU tumbling titles. Every acrobat owes Pond a debt of gratitude since it was he who developed the twisting belt that bears his name. …

must watch Men’s Gymnastics video

Highlights from the 2010 worlds and 2011 Europeans.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’m in awe at how difficult Men’s gymnastics is today. Butterfly to Invert Cross on Rings !? … Merde.

Secondly, that (somehow) male gymnasts have found a way to manage the escalation of difficulty since 2006. It can’t go on like this forever, though. Nor can the value of your house keep increasing forever. 🙂

Great edit. Thanks RedNasvw from Netherlands.