You started to notice this a couple of years ago, when top prospects, wanting to protect their health before heading into the NFL draft, would announce that they were skipping their team’s bowl games. …
Over the last couple of years, players skipping their bowl games became more and more common, and it is now, save for your occasional back-in-my-day cranky former players, generally accepted by coaches, fans, and media alike that any player who doesn’t skip a bowl game to preserve his draft status is doing himself a disservice. The game doesn’t matter, and hey, he’s not getting paid anyway. …
This is the peril of having a billion-dollar sport that doesn’t pay its players …
Category: safety
Acrobats in Kenya
Veronique Sprenger spent 10 weeks training with this troupe in a slum called Kangemi in Nairobi.
She’s doing a Masters in International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam on these athletes.
Watch all the way through. It’s impressive what they’ve accomplished with very little equipment. Tumbling on hard wood floor, for example.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
music while TRAINING acrobatic sport?
Many athletes use music to get ready for training.
I recall having my own PSYCH UP playlist, back in the day.
Some possible benefits:
Dissociation
Arousal Regulation
Synchronization
Acquisition of Motor Skills
Attainment of Flow
Taking that one step further, what about training acrobatic sport in headphones?
I’ve never tried it with gymnasts.
One option for wireless headphones is Decibullz.
Olympians call for Congressional USOC overhaul
Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis and nearly 50 other former Olympians are calling on Congress to overhaul the U.S. Olympic Committee, insisting a major reorganization of the USOC is needed to ensure athlete safety. …
Kathy Johnson Clarke and Julianne McNamara, members of the groundbreaking 1984 Olympic gymnastics team, and Marcia Frederick, the first American woman to win a World championship in gymnastics, are members of the group. …
Is It Bullying?
Fastfluff™VaultTrainer
I’ve posted this cool product once before, but this is a better video on how it works.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
details – $2350 plus S&H
Thanks Mary.
Gymnasts injured before arriving College
We have a very dangerous sport.
Thanks Greg.
College gymnasts – narcotic pain meds
According to the recently released NCAA National Study on Substance Use Habits of College Student-Athletes, the proportion of women’s gymnasts who reported using narcotic pain medications — nearly 18 percent — is the highest among student-athletes in any sport.
Overall, the use of pain medication, both prescribed and nonprescribed, has decreased among student-athletes since the release of the last NCAA substance use study in 2014, but health care professionals still are examining how best to manage pain among college athletes. …
our inspiration – Maggie Nichols
On Jan. 9, 2018, Nichols, then a sophomore gymnast at Oklahoma, released an 898-word statement informing the world that she, too, had been sexually assaulted by former USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar.
She let the world know that, in 2015, she and her coach were the first to report his abuse to USA Gymnastics, that she was the one who had been identified only as “Athlete A” in the reports of Nassar’s actions, which he inflicted under the guise of medical treatment on more than 300 victims. …
“I want everyone to know that he did not do this to Athlete A, he did it to Maggie Nichols,” Nichols wrote in the statement. …
2019 NCAA Inspiration Award: Maggie Nichols
Oklahoma gymnast hopes reporting abuse by USA Gymnastics doctor helps others feel empowered
keeping banned coaches banned
Nancy Armour, Rachel Axon and Brent Schrotenboer for USA TODAY:
1. Create a universal banned list.
2. Use existing enforcement mechanisms.
3. Require related youth-serving organizations to honor each other’s sanctions and share information on discipline.
Three keys to keeping banned coaches banned and children safe
Gymnastics Coaching.com 