Rick Mc

why Youth Sports?

I’ve really been enjoying Mark Folger’s new blog dedicated to coaches, parents, gymnasts and gymnastics fans.

Check out one called Hidden Opportunities in Youth Sports:

Younger athletes look up to older athletes who excel at their sport. A simple compliment from one of these older athletes can “make the day” of the less experienced athlete. When you “make the day” for a child, you make the day for their parents as well, allowing one simple good deed to go a long way. …

A seven year old who does a nice straight arm, straight leg cartwheel is excellent in the eyes of the four year old who’s struggling just to get hands and feet placed in the right order for her cartwheel.

That same seven year old may look up to a ten year old who does a cartwheel on the high balance beam. The ten year old sees excellence in the level 8 gymnast …

read the rest – Hidden Opportunities in Youth Sports

Photo HPTCamp.com

Elite Gymnastics. This is How We Do It.

An edit by TheGymEffect who “just threw this together”.

… Right.

Video editing is painstaking and time consuming. But this is a bit of a hodge podge. Interesting from start to finish. The highlight for me are interesting dance parts.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Song: “This is how we do it” by Montell Jordan

I saw this linked from Quitters Try:

Dedicated to finding the best gymnastics montages out there – a tribute to great song choices, clip selection, subjects, and editing. Suggestions/submissions always, always welcome!

Please contact me via my Youtube account: QuittersTry

training core body strength

U.S. Mens National Team Coordinator Coach Kevin Mazeika recommends an interesting exercise ball drill.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

More Gymnastics Minute videos on YouTube.

related post – Rings press handstand strength

if Florida wins NCAA Championships …

Aunt Joyce has a good summary post (with video) of who I would consider the team most likely to win the 2010 Gymnastics Champinships, after UCLA:

… Rhonda has peaked her team well this season and Marissa and Ashanee continue to improve with every meet.

When comparing them with UCLA, they have more difficulty on floor exercise and more variety in their vaults, but their overall execution is just not in the same league. This is a team missing Melanie Sinclair …

The Home Team

Who would have guessed at the beginning of the season that Gator Ashanée Dickerson, from Florida, would be named SEC Freshman of the Year over, from Florida, Shayla Worley?

Added incentive for the Gators is that their school is on pace for their best athletic year ever.

Of course Florida will enjoy home court advantage when they host Championships April 22-24th. (I’m still shopping for an airline ticket.)

Lea is going. She’s posted her team predictions on her Manual on Handstands blog:

… it’s likely that these four will make the finals and each one has a chance for the national title …

UCLA, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma

antibacterial gymnastics chalk?

I’m suspicious.

Magnesium carbonate is about as an inert substance as any.

Why add “five key essential oils and an additional natural drying agent“?

… Designed to inhibit bacteria, fungi and virus growth in the chalk and on weight lifting and gymnastics bars, PrimoChalk™ is the superior choice for health and safety conscious coaches and athletes. …

Click through if you want to check PrimoChalk™ for yourself.

And leave a comment if you’ve tried PrimoChalk™.

(via GymChat)

Men’s NCAA Gymnastics Championships

April 15-17th at Westpoint, the biggest men’s College meet of the year is upon us.

From Stick It Media:

… The top three favorites going in are Stanford, Oklahoma and Illinois, but that doesn’t mean we can count out Michigan and Cal. Michigan boasts the NCAA’s top team score this season and Cal is showing serious signs of peaking at the right time.

The all-around competition is completely up for grabs among these top contenders: Oklahoma’s Steven Legendre and Jake Dalton, Cal’s Glen Ishino and Kyle Bunthuwong, Illinois’ Paul Ruggeri and Michigan’s Chris Cameron and Mel Anton Santander. Each of these gymnasts have cracked the 89-point barrier this season, with the latter five exceeding 90 points. Just a guess here, but we think the eventual winner will be the one with a high score on pommel horse.

In the event finals, the stiffest competition will be on floor, pommel horse and vault. All the action will take place April 15-17 at West Point. …

read more – Big Week for Men’s Gymnastics

Click PLAY to wach Eddie Penev, Stanford Freshman, on Floor or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swfif ((navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i))) {$(“#display_video”).html(”);}

Team Qualifier Session I
No. 1 Illinois
No. 4 Stanford
No. 5 Ohio State
No. 8 Penn State
No. 9 Illinois-Chicago
No. 12 Temple

Team Qualifier Session II
No. 2 Oklahoma
No. 3 Michigan
No. 6 California
No. 7 Minnesota
No. 10 Nebraska
No. 11 Iowa

Individual Qualifiers:
All-Around: Ty Evans, Springfield, Derek Gygaz, William & Mary; Nash Mills, Air Force; Andrew Faulk, Navy; Josh Fox; Springfield, Ty Smith, Army.
Floor Exercise: Dylan Parrott, Navy; Josh Fried, William & Mary; Kip Webber, Army; Jimmy Pezzino, Springfield; Andy Hunter, William & Mary; Dave Ellis, William & Mary.
Pommel Horse: James Okamoto, Air Force; Garrek Hojan-Clark, Army; Chase Nobles, Air Force; Matt Tocchio, Springfield; Andy Hunter, William & Mary; Futa Ikeda, William & Mary.
Still Rings: Devin Menefee, Air Force; Dan Klimkowski, Air Force; Joel Uptmor, Air Force; Andy Hunter, William & Mary; Travis Langham, Air Force; Steve Deutsch, William & Mary.
Vault: Joel Uptmor, Air Force; Devin Menefee, Air Force; Jimmy Pezzino, Springfield; Alex Egerter, William & Mary; Dave Ellis, William & Mary; Dylan Parrott, Navy.
Parallel Bars: Kyle Bartgis, Springfield; Dylan Parrott, Navy; Alex Egerter, William & Mary; Matthew Throne, Air Force; Vince Smurro, William & Mary; Andy Hunter, William & Mary.
Horizontal Bar: Dylan Parrott, Navy; Josh Spencer, Springfield; Garrett Canter, Air Force; Vince Smurro, William & Mary; Travis Langham, Air Force; Joel Uptmor, Air Force; Jonathan Hoey, Army.

details – CalBears

Click PLAY or watch Daniel Ribeiro, Illinois, Pommels on Gymnastike.

Men’s Gymnastics routines are long, long these days. Some amazing skills and combinations. … But a lot of deductions, as well.

Sue Sylvester – Vogue

Our favourite Cheer coach channels Madonna.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The hit TV show Glee resumes tonight, after a break. (I found this episode disjointed and less engaging.)

the history of hand balancing

This is a guest post by Logan Christopher, as a follow-up to my review of the book he edited, The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

Thanks Christopher

Its always a good thing to look to the history of anything you are interested in, hand balancing included.

Did you know there was a time when the one arm handstand was known as an impossible feat? Yet one man went after it, telling others how he would accomplish it, only be met with laughter.

This man was Professor Paulinetti. Not only was he the first man to do a one arm balance with the legs together, but he did the same in a head balance as well as many other stunts. His most famous of all was the one arm planche, which has since been done by many acrobats, but at his time was untouchable.

Professor Paulinetti’s most famous pupil was Robert L. Jones. Bob carried on teaching the art to many others, as well as practicing it on his own. His most famous stunt was the stand on just his two thumbs. Finger balancing isn’t practiced all that often today, making this still one of the most impressive hand balancing moves.

There were many other great balancers at the time. How about Johnny Weber who could do a tiger bend on a single arm (that is going from the forearm stand up into the handstand all on one arm).

And Sig Klein the famous strongman was also an avid balancer. Here he is doing a prone press, pressing up into the handstand. Not too difficult except for the fact that he has a 75 lb. dumbbell strapped to his back!

The balancers today certainly have taken their skills to another level. However its great to see where it all came from. Plus looking at famous balancers of the past can give you ideas for moves not many people do today.

*****

Logan Christopher runs LostArtOfHandBalancing.com which teaches everyday men and women how to get started in hand balancing and acrobatics. All these pictures come from The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing