Author: Rick Mc

Sean McCann, USOC Sports Psychologist, published a thoughtful article in the most recent US Olympic Coach E-magazine.

One of the ironies of a coaching life, is that the great majority of the long hours that elite coaches spend are not evaluated, while a small minority of their work (competition) is endlessly and publicly scrutinized.

McCann offers 10 tips for coaches preparing to do the job. For example:

Prepare for the worst (but expect the best). Coaching in the last few minutes is much easier when you have done all the work you needed to in the hours, days, weeks, and months, preceeding the last few minutes. …

When you have effective contingency plans for the worst case scenario, you can relax as a coach. You can only know if they are effective if you have actually practiced these situations in training.

Essentially, the goal is to organize competition simulations in which your athletes have to handle conditions at least as tough as the worst case scenario. Examples include competing without a normal warm-up, changing the time of competition, playing loud crowd noise (USOC Sport Psychology has a 30 minute crowd noise CD we have distributed to coaches and athletes), and any other logistical wrinkle or challenge you can throw at your athletes.

Newsletter Article

The Chinese women’s and men’s teams were the prepotent winners of the team competition of the 15th ASIAN GAMES, which ended with the finals today.

GYMmedia.com report and final results

The gymnastics event was a huge success by all accounts.

Yang Wei – AA winner

Another excellent, comprehensive article from James Bathurst.

I’ve always liked variations of this drill. But I have seen it overused by some coaches. There is a risk of injury past 90 degrees. Be cautious.

One Legged Squat

The up-and-coming American powerhouse is definitely one to watch for Beijing.

I like her official website, loaded with video and animation downloads.

Good luck Shawn!

Originally uploaded by www.nataliebehring.com.

Another of Natalie Behring’s fantastic photo set from Beijing, China.

17 Feb 2006

“A boy trains at the Shichahai Sports School in Beijing. The Shichahai school is one of China’s more famous sports academies and one of its most visited. Criticisms of its harsh practices have been leveled by visiting Western media and sports figures periodically for more than a decade. China has a huge network of sports schools known for recruiting promising young athletes in the hopes of turning them into world champions.”

… Yang Wei said Li Ning remains as his idol.

“Li Ning has been my idol since I stepped into gymnastics. I have won eight golds in the Asian Games, but I am far behind him in international events,” Yang said.

As a gymnast for 17 years, Li Ning has collected eight golds and 11 medals at the Asian Games. He retired after the 1988 Olympics.

Li Ning still keeps the Chinese record of 14 world and Olympic gymnastics titles, with the closest challenger Li Xiaopeng short of two.

After his retirement from gymnastics, Li Ning built a sports wear and gear company named after him, which is currently the top brand in the Chinese industry of footwear and sporting apparel.

Yang Wei reaches dizzying height in Asian Games – Xinhuanet

At 26-years-old, Yang Wei may now be the favourite for 2008 Olympics.

photo – CCTV.com

On my way to the mountains this weekend, this video tweaked my interest.

In the rush they forgot to mention that Ross Rebagliati, the first men’s Olympic gold medal winner, got his medal returned after having it stripped for testing positive for marijuana. His was the “second hand smoke” defense. His fame (or infamy) led to a big corporate sponsorship deal with Roots.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

Want to know more? Check snowboard history – wikipedia

The legendary women’s Olympic coach from SCATS, who trained dozens of international gymnasts, speaks his mind about the new code (he likes it) and what he does NOT like about FIG and our sport marketing.

This is the second in a strong two part interview.

Download the video from Gymnast TV.

Gymnastics Canada Level 1 Introductory gymnastics (4th edition) and companion planning workbook.

Yup. It’s best English language gymnastics book available, in my opinion, succinctly explaining the movement pattern approach of principle author Keith Russell.

The 3-ring binder format allows you to add your own coaching resources.

The Coaching Level 2 and 3 manuals are also recommended though they have weak chapters and have not been revised in many years.

E-mail Gymnastics Canada for current prices as their website shop is “under development”. (Actually it’s been under development for months. Or years. … Don’t hold your breath.)

Far more than 100,000 copies of the Canadian Level 1 have been published making it, I believe, the biggest selling gymnastics coaching manual of all-time. You may find a copy in your local library.

Ruschkin Publishing is currently working on a major revision. I’ve seen drafts. It looks great.

Dave Skolnik of the Timber Lake Family of Camps is already booking coaches for 2007.

The Timber Lake Family of Camps own and operate 3 of the most respected and top quality sleep away camps in the Northeastern United States and we are currently looking for experienced gymnasts and/or coaches to lead our gymnastics programs this summer.

Each camp is a co-ed, traditional sleep away camp that promotes the skills of making and keeping friends while building self-esteem and self-confidence. We pay the highest salaries in camping!

If you are interested, please e-mail me at dave @ camptlc.com or call me at 1-800-828-CAMP for more details.

Dave Skolnik

I like the part about “highest salaries in camping”.

This site promotes gymnastics camps. We think they are wonderful for kids. But the payscale for coaches is lousy at most. You are far better paid working for a club. (Of course you need to factor money saved on food, transportation, etc.)

The Timber Lake Summer Camp Experience!