tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Shawn Johnson gave the traditional Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention in front of over 80,000 spectators. (video)
The (Un)Orthodox Gymnastics blog reminds us that gymnasts gave the Pledge 4yrs-ago too. At the Republican National Convention.
Kerry Strug and Mary Lou Retton
Zach Aguiar from Lowell, MA, injured his Achilles tendon. So, this summer, ended up training a LOT of horizontal bar. He posted a video of some new bar skills on Gymnast.com.
Check the excellent pads they have on their bar:
From email. Thanks Stu.
Gymnastics Canada and Gymnastics Ontario have finalized plans to launch a donation campaign beginning next week to help support injured gymnast Taylor Lindsay-Noel.Taylor, who suffered a spinal cord injury while training in the gymnasium at Seneca College in Toronto on July 15th, is undergoing rehabilitation at Bloorview Kids Rehab in Toronto.
The Gymnastics Canada-Gymnastics Ontario fund will help provide additional financial support for Taylor during her recovery.
“We wish Taylor and her family our best wishes at this difficult time,” says Jean-Paul Caron, President & CEO of Gymnastics Canada.
“The Canadian Gymnastics community, including her coaches and fellow gymnasts at Sport Seneca, is confident Taylor will show the same spirit and determination to meet the challenges ahead that she did as a gymnast.”
Information about the donation campaign will be posted on the Gymnastics Canada and Gymnatics Ontario web sites.
I assume Sport Seneca will be a partner, as well in this campaign.
I’ll post when the campaign goes live.
Thanks to all the people who have contacted me about this terrible accident.
Trick biking is getting pretty nuts.
Daniel Dhers won the Dew Cup in both 2006 and 2007. And X-games gold in 2007 and 2008.
In Portland, on the Dew Tour, responding to a near impossible Quad tail whip by Mike Spinner, Daniel threw down this first run.
Click PLAY or watch Daniel on YouTube.
Daniel’s family lives in Argentina. But he trains at Woodward, Pennsylvania.
related video: BMX Daniel Dhers vs Mike Spinner
Of course another form (less entertaining) of BMX was introduced as an Olympic sport in 2008. Here are the medal winners:
For BMX Racers, Olympic Debut Is a Surreal Experience – NY Times
An update to the old “agility ladder”, this product called “Universal Strength Apparatus” made by BodyWeightCulture might be terrific for young gymnasts. It’s quite inexpensive at $99 in the USA.
Each Universal Strength Apparatus – (USA) – Suspention Training Ladder features:
-12 handles
-1 foot attachment
-2 hooks
-1 over-the-door attachment
When two USA ladders are attached to one another in series you get a total length of about 16 feet and 24 steps. That’s a lot of climbing fun! The USA handles are designed to rotate freely which allows for less friction on the skin, yet forcing fingers, wrists and forearms to work harder than on the stabilized bar.
… the hook over the bar attachment design allows to adjust the height of the apparatus to place the foot attachment exactly where you need it.
Can USA handle my weight?USA can support up to 300 lbs, however while testing this apparatus it was able to support 4 grown men with a total weight of over 600 lbs.
read more – Elastic Steel
Click PLAY or watch a video of the device in use on YouTube.
Thanks Celciusss who sent us a link to that video.
It may be safer to introduce climbing to preschool kids on something like this rather than a rope. And there are dozens of advanced conditioning variations for the older athletes.
related post: teaching safe rope climb to beginners
One of the moderators on Chalk Bucket, bogwoppit, alerted me:
This is a very sad story, one of our lovely young Canadian gymnasts was very badly injured doing a new bar dismount at her club. She trained at Sport Seneca in Toronto, the same club as Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs and Peng-Peng Lee and was a hopeful for the 2012 Olympics.
Taylor Lindsay Noel is a 14 year old only child in a single parent family. She was a talented pianist and a gifted student.
… shocking how life can change so quickly. I know we all have many causes to support, but if you can help I am sure even the money for your morning coffee would benefit this child.
Here are two newspaper articles on Taylor and her Mom’s struggle to deal with the Canadian Gymnastics Federation. The comments are the bottom of the Globe and Mail article are particularly shocking.
TheStar.com | GTA | Paralyzed gymnast waits for miracle
globeandmail.com: Mom fights to have gymnast’s plight recognized – Comments
Taylor
She was injured on a bars dismount.
Her Mom, Rowena Lindsay, is quoted in the news as being frustrated with the lack of media attention to her plight.
Friends have established a fund to assist with medical expenses at CIBC, transit number 07312, account number 7759185.
We are thinking of you, Taylor. Stay strong.
That’s the title of a post on Chalk Bucket by Nightflare514.
… It was a clean break, Thank God. She was doing a squat on, and kind of tumbled of the low bar, and put her right arm down and *SNAP*, it was broken. Nobody else thought it was broken, but I saw the way it jerked, and then after that she couldn’t move it. And I also knew something was wrong, because Mattie … she just doesn’t cry unless something is seriously, majorly wrong.
How many times have I heard this story?
Many coaches underestimate this “easy” combination, the one I always refer to as: “the most dangerous skill in gymnasticsâ€
At the start of the school year, all the girls in my club must “pass” these progressions:
Click PLAY or watch the short video clip on YouTube.
related post: teaching REGRASP on a gymnastics bar
Athens was a disaster. Men’s Judging a laughing stock.
But — I grudgingly admit — the judging was much improved in Beijing. (And this from a Canadian who’s team was controversially knocked out of the Team final.)
Even Canadian Hardy Fink, past Men’s Technical Chair, was impressed. He was the original author of the current code.
Congratulations to Adrian Stoica and everyone judging at the 2008 Olympics.
larger photo – National Gymnastics Judges Association – USA
I’d better post this now before I’ve had a chance to speak to any of the judges personally. I might change my mind.
You’ve likely read many articles on the extreme sport training in China, especially in the years leading up to the Beijing Olympics.
I’m generally slow to chime in. It’s unfair to impose all of my Western values on a developing nation.
But this article shocked even me:
… Chinese athletes, particularly women, tend to be much thinner than their Western counterparts. Guo Jingjing, a gold medalist in diving who weighs 108 pounds, pointed out as much rather ungraciously when she referred to competitor Blythe Hartley as “the fat Canadian.” The 5-foot-5 Hartley weighs 123 pounds.
Guo, 27, suffers from health problems related to diving and is said to have such bad eyesight she can barely see the diving board. It is a common hazard for Chinese divers, who are recruited as young as 6.
“Divers who start at an early age before the eye is fully developed have great chance for injuries,” said Li Fenglian, doctor for the Chinese national diving team. She published a study last year reporting that 26 of 184 divers on the team had retina damage.
Despite the validation provided by the Olympic medal count, China is probably heading in the direction of a more open system where the athletes have more freedom. Having tasted celebrity and the wealth it can bring, many athletes have balked at remaining in a system where they are treated like rank-and-file soldiers. …
Guo Jingjing is the most successful female diver in history.
What about our own Cheng Fei?
… Cheng’s road to Beijing began in central China, here in Hubei Province, a bleak industrial region where her father worked as a shipping clerk and her mother toiled in a tire factory.
She was born in 1988, an only child in a nation with a one-child policy. From the beginning, her parents say, she looked like a boy, so they treated her like one. Her father, a disciplinarian who had studied martial arts, pushed her from an early age, even pressing her to do calisthenics every morning before primary school classes began.
“I trained her like a military soldier,” said her father, Cheng Ligao, who now owns a shop in Huangshi. “She followed me step by step and I shouted to her, ‘One-two, one-two….”‘
Yao Juying, her first coach, recalled a remarkably disciplined and focused child.
“I cannot believe how hard-working she was at that young age,” Yao said. “I’ve been doing this for 24 years, and I’ve never found a second one like her.”
read more – Chinese gymnast endured childhood sacrifice – IHT
(via Gymnastics Crossing – Child Abuse or Champion-Building?)
Life is tough in China for athletes. But, likely, even more difficult for non-athletes.
Happily, their economy is improving rapidly. With disposable income and time, hopefully the Society will open up. Families will have more options for their children.
UPDATE: video interview with coach of 2004 and 2008 Olympic Champions, Valeri Liukin: how he got into gymnastics in Kazakhstan and why he moved away from his family to live and train with coach Edouard Iarov – Gymnastike
or 
Gymnastics Coaching.com 