Category: history

The Sports Gene (2013) – a review

MANY told me I MUST read this book. And I finally did get to it.

Very entertaining. And thought provoking.

The_Sports_Gene_Book_Cover_2013Are stars like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams genetic freaks put on Earth to dominate their respective sports? Or are they simply normal people who overcame their biological limits through sheer force of will and obsessive training?

In this controversial and engaging exploration of athletic success and the so-called 10,000-hour rule, David Epstein tackles the great nature vs. nurture debate and traces how far science has come in solving it. …

Amazon

I wouldn’t count on every factoid being correct. He’s out of date on women’s Artistic Gymnastics, for example.

The 10,000-hour rule is quickly debunked, David Epstein repeatedly pointing out that researcher Anders Ericsson NEVER called it a “rule”. If you train Beam seriously for 10,000 hours, your chances of making it to the Olympic Beam final are still infinitesimal.

There’s no controversy. The best of the best have both very specific genetics and excellent training.

If you don’t have time to read this book, you can get a glimpse by watching David Epstein’s TED Talk from 2014 instead – Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger? (15min)

Read reviews on NY Times and The Guardian.

top 10 male gymnasts at World Championships

Korolev #5, Dragulescu #3, Uchimura #2.

Who’s #1? 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

USAG buys the Karolyi Ranch Gym

… athlete and coach housing and recreational areas …

… the portion of the Karolyi Ranch that USA Gymnastics is purchasing is 36.2 acres and includes housing for 300 athletes, coaches and administrators; three training gyms, two artistic/acro and one multi-discipline (rhythmic, trampoline/tumbling); a dance studio; dining and recreational areas; medical and rehab facilities; and office space. The training gym for rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline and tumbling was added in 2010.

The Karolyis first began training athletes at the Ranch in 1984. They will retain their personal residences, the Lodge and the remaining acreage. …

Ranch

USAG

The geographic location is poor, of course. Something more central to everyone in the USA would have been better.

The Karolyis are expected to maintain a presence at the ranch, and USA Gymnastics is considering turning an older portion of the main gym — one lined with pictures, medals and trophies from major competitions dating back to the 1980s — into a museum to honor the Karolyi legacy. …

While Penny considers Aug. 24 as Karolyi’s official retirement date, there has been no decision yet on her replacement.

… “I’ve met with the coaches and told them our main goal is to get through Rio and not worry about making it a distraction.” …

Summer Games

Simone Biles on Mom & Dad

Her life story is amazing. When will the movie be coming out? 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/175789869

related – Dvora Meyers:

… A quick look at the results of the recent 2016 Secret U.S. Classic affirms Biles’ take on representation.

In the junior division, 8 of the top 20 were black or biracial. The field that qualified to the junior national championships later that month was also quite diverse. It was 37 percent white, 31 percent black, 24 percent Asian and 8 percent Hispanic. …

The decades of black gymnasts who paved the way for Simone Biles

Chusovitina will retire Monday

Oksana:

“I will retire on Monday. I cannot tell you months, days, or years, but it’s going to be a Monday.”

How This 41-Year-Old Got to Rio—and Became the Oldest Competing Gymnast in History

gallery-1469126479-oksana-chusovitina-then-now

Kerri Strug interview

Interesting.

Kerri Strug: ‘I was supposed to land the vault. Anything else would have been unacceptable.’

Strug

I’m reading The Sports Gene. One section talks about how athletes do not feel pain during extreme sports focus.

End of the Perfect 10 – a review

by site editor Rick McCharles

This book was written for the general public. They like it.

But as a coach I still enjoyed it. To revisit the history of the Code was a good catch-up in advance of Rio.

the-end-of-the-perfect-10-9781501101366_hr
Amazon

Dvora provides balanced perspective on the pros and cons of eliminating the iconic perfect 10. She interviews many of the important players on the world scene including Hardy Fink, the primary architect of the current Code. Hardy’s not happy with how his original proposal was changed over the years. But feels eventually it will work as intended.

New to me was the revelation that Bela Karolyi did not discover Nadia on the playground. Another part of the great Karolyi myth.

By the end of Perfect 10 I redoubled my conviction that giving up the perfect 10 was a HUGE mistake. We’ve never been much good in marketing the sport. A great salesman like Steve Jobs would conclude that the perfect 10 was our greatest and most valuable asset.

The NCAA women’s program got it right. It’s more important to fund gymnasts through University and keep coaches employed than to exactly rank the very best of the best perfectly.

That said, FIG will never go back to the perfect 10.

But I’d love to see them add something like a “Ranking Score” on top of the current system.

Each quadrennial, on each apparatus, a 10 would be set in advance.

For example on WAG Floor it might be 17.0. If Simone scored 16.5 her Ranking Score would be 16.5 / 17.0 = 9.70.

YES it might be possible to exceed the perfect 10 under this scheme. Fans would love to see a 10.100. 🙂

I bought the audio version. The audio book reader – Elise Arsenault – is poor. Not professional enough to check the correct pronunciation of names in a nonfiction work. She calls Marta Karolyi “Martha“, for example. 😦

related reviews:

• Slate – A Perfect 16.223

• Meghan O’Rourke – Why Extreme Gymnastics Will Dominate the Rio Olympics

• FloGymnastics – Q&A with Dvora Meyers

Katie Teft – Bars

1996 Olympic trials. Two hop 1/1s in series.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

via REGION 5 ELITES WHO CHASED OLYMPIC GLORY: KATIE TEFT, TWISTARS USA

Trinity training the “Phillips”

I mean the Biles.

Click PLAY or watch Trinity on Instagram.

 

Click PLAY or watch London Phillips on YouTube. (2005)

London never competed it at a major FIG Championships so it was not named after her.

(via papaliukin)

Kyle Shewfelt interview

The Skating Lesson continues their series of Gymnastics interviews with 2004 Olympic Gold Floor medalist Kyle Shewfelt. Clearly TSL are picking and choosing whom they want to speak with. 🙂

Kyle likes Gabby over Aly for the AA. He slightly prefers Maddie over Ashton on Bars.

And he feels some scores at the American Olympic trials are up to 0.3 too high.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (68min)