Author: Rick Mc

Anna Li … ??

At 1min 20 you can see some of the Bar connections she’s working on. Looks like fun.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://videoplayer.flocasts.org/player.swf

Anna knows how to HIT Bars. If she can get close to a 7.0 start score, we’ll be cheering her in London. I could see her competing Beam / Bars.

Could the use of platelet-rich plasma help reduce the number of Achilles tendon injuries in gymnastics?

One older Canadian gymnast tells us it worked for her. She linked to a YouTube video doctor’s description of the procedure.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is blood plasma that has been enriched with platelets. As a concentrated source of autologous platelets, PRP contains (and releases through degranulation) several different growth factors (cytokines) that stimulate healing of bone and soft tissue. PRP has received popular attention due to its use in treating sports injuries in professional athletes. …

When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is …

From a recent NY Times article:

… Its appeal only soared higher when professional athletes like Tiger Woods and the football players Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward reported that it cured them.

It is a new procedure, based on an idea that once seemed revolutionary: Inject people with their own blood, concentrated so it is mostly platelets, the tiny colorless bodies that release substances that help repair tissues. …

Now, though, the first rigorous study asking whether the platelet injections actually work finds they are no more effective than saltwater. The study, reported in the Jan. 13 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, involved people with injured Achilles’ tendons, fibrous tissue that connects the calf to the heel bone.

“We are sorry for the patients,” Johannes Tol, the lead researcher and a professor of orthopedic research at the Hague Medical Center in the Netherlands, said in an interview this week. “There still is no good treatment.” …

read more – Popular Blood Therapy May Not Work

That doesn’t mean coaches shouldn’t still consider the option. Many have reported success. But there’s no evidence yet that it actually works.

Note that there’s a slight risk of testing positive for a doping infraction after this treatment.

Leave a comment if you’ve had any personal experience with PRP.

NCAA Collegiate Schedule | CollegeGymFans.com | NCAA Friday | NCAA Saturday | American Gymnast videos FREE

… ANNOUNCED a new Recreational Gymnastics blog

New and interesting elements that were performed at the 1987 USSR Gymnastics Championships.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Gymnasts shown are Shushunova, Pryakhina, Sarkisyan, Zadorozhny, Schepotchkin, Porplenko, Kharkov, Rodion, Martsinkiv and Tikhonkikh.

The first triple back in competition was not Liukin, but Yuri Porplenko, seen in that highlights reel.

He did it first at the USSR Cup in Jerevan, Armenia, April 1986.

(via Rewriting Russian Gymnastics)

If the Men’s Collegiate Gymnastics program is one day canceled by the NCAA, people will be asking … why didn’t somebody do more to save it sooner?

Couldn’t somebody find a way to popularize guys that look like this?

Blythe Lawrence posted The Discussion: How to better market men’s NCAA gymnastics?

If you were hired as a consultant for men’s NCAA gymnastics programs, what would you tell them to do to improve exposure and meet attendance?

Several felt that a key strategy would be to “piggyback” on the success of the women’s program. (University of Illinois-Chicago runs combined meets now.)

The first thing I’d do (as God) is combine MAG and WAG Championships.

Ron Noe (Stick It Media):
• marketing plans for the teams
• promote the “stars” … (e.g. Ruggeri, Legendre, Wynn)

Anne Phillips (Gymnastike):
• school and other local exhibitions
• improve media exposure
• make meets more fun
… watch the beginning of the Alabama v Boise highlights video last weekend to see what she means by “fun”

Martina Eggeling (Gymnastics United) pointed out that we need “personalities” that can interest the school and general public. Men’s gymnastics has always lacked stars with charisma.

Alexei Nemov, Fabian Hambuchen. … Who else is in that category? … Uchimura?

Click through to Gymnastics Examiner for the full Discussion on this important topic.

Men’s collegiate gymnastics meets are actually more thrilling and interesting than the girls. … But nobody knows because nobody goes.

And that’s a shame.

The most dangerous skill in gymnastics in my opinion is …

Cast to stand on low bar, jump to high bar.

Many gyms have one broken arm / year on that sequence.

TumblTrak posted a good video on how to introduce the skill a year or two before you put them up on the regulation bars.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

For more information visit tumbltrak.com or call 1-800-331-4362

related post – JAO – jumping to high bar

As of January 24th, here are the top 10 teams:

more rankings on GymInfo

Stick It Media has the best summary of what happened last weekend – Stanford Tears it Up With 364.40 in Win Over Cal

Cal’s Dennis Mannhart, from Switzerland, is the #1 ranked all-arounder, so far, with 89.90 average.

The highest all-around has been Jake Dalton 90.750 (Oklahoma).

2008 Olympian Anja Brinker ruptured her right Achilles tendon on 23 January, the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) announced in a press release on Monday.

The 20-year-old was performing a floor routine during the gymnastics show Feuerwerk der Turnkunst in Berlin when the tendon snapped. …

THE ALL AROUND

Is there nothing to be done to help prevent this injury?

Georgia third. I’m surprised.

Their new star Lindsey Cheek, from Athens, has the top average AA score in the NCAA. Jay Clark was her first club coach. Watch a lovely video profile on Lindsey.

And Oklahoma is off to another great start. Kudos.

more rankings from 24 January 2011

Don’t count UCLA out. … Until next week. Then we’ve got to start counting them out as having any chance to defend the title. This is getting ridiculous.

And don’t put too much stock in the exact numbers. Teams from the SEC typically get higher scores than anywhere else. That seems to be true this season again, from some of the meet reports I’ve read online.

Fitness guru Jack LaLanne died at age 96 in Morro Bay, Calif., of respiratory failure due to pneumonia.

LaLanne brought fitness to America with his workout show in the 1950s to the ’70s. He demonstrated exercises that used no special equipment, just a chair and a towel. He popularized working out in the home so that more people could participate.

LaLanne was also a friend to USA Gymnastics and was part of the morning fitness activities at the 2007 Visa Championships in San Jose, Calif. LaLanne brought his fitness expertise to gymnastics professionals and San Jose residents. …

USAG

Jack’s best line at that competition:

“I can’t die. It would ruin my reputation.”