Category: safety

decline of USA High School Gymnastics

Brian Mozey:

… 1978, the United States had 1,279 high schools and 29,943 boys participating in high school boys gymnastics. There were also 32 states that had at least one school competing in the high school level.

Fast forward to the year 2016-17, the United States has 117 high schools and 1,894 boys competing in boys gymnastics at the high school level. From 32 states in 1978 to eight states in 2016-17, there’s been a drastic decline in men’s gymnastics.

… Iowa High School Athletic Association removed boys gymnastics from its sports because of liability issues and insurance related concerns. …

The national decline of high school boys gymnastics

High School Gymnastics in Canada has nearly disappeared completely. ☹️

Mark Williams points out that Texas still has a thriving competitive High School program, WAG and MAG.

National Gymnastics Teal Day

Click PLAY or watch Buttercup on YouTube.

Monika Míčková on eating disorders in Rhythmic

Monika Míčková is a retired Czech rhythmic gymnast. She competed Worlds 6 times.

She posted an awful retrospective of her long career. It begins with …

You’re fat.

You are lazy.

You are incompetent.

You are stupid.

From the mouth of the coaches I heard these words almost every day and took them as a normal part of the drill. They also behaved equally to other girls, regardless of age and performance. No one imagined something strange going on, everyone accepted that it was supposed to be. …

You can read it here. (Czech)

I used Google Translate.

(via

on emotional abuse in coaching

In a recent Q&A session Gretchen Kerr, vice-dean of academic affairs at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education talks about her role as a volunteer athlete welfare officer with Gymnastics Canada and her views regarding emotional abuse.

As a psychologist Kerr’s field of expertise is the emotional abuse of athletes which she is using to advocate policy change and influence coach education. …

There is a fine line between pushing an athlete to be their best and maltreatment. That line is crossed when the athlete performs through fear and intimidation rather than their desire to achieve.

In their paper Stirling and Kerr (2008) report that emotional abuse takes the form of physical behaviours, verbal behaviours and the denial of attention and support – bullying, berating, humiliating, degrading and intimidating/threatening are all forms of emotional abuse. …

read more on Warriors In Leotards

Emotional abuse has been little documented compared against sexual abuse.

“skirts are stupid”

There’s a bit of a storm over on The Twitter.

In the latest GymCastic audiocast Spencer and Jessica were discussing whether or not it’s a good idea to coach in a skirt.

Potential #WardrobeMalfunction.

Consensus is that it’s better not to wear a skirt while coaching. Just in case. Jury is out on whether or not skirts are stupid, in general. 😀

Coach Sue Sylvester

Don’t get them started on high heels while coaching.

hey journalists – no crotch shots

This message is slowly getting through to mainstream sports media.

But I did see a few during Commonwealth Games coverage. ☹️

Heart this tweet.

a future USA Training Center

I’m one of those who doesn’t see any way around USAG going bankrupt.

If even one court starts awarding money to athletes abused by the National Team Doctor / criminal, they’ll have to pay out to victims as much as possible. And shut down.

If they survive, I like this goal.

Rhonda Faehn:

… USA Gymnastics hopes within a month to have a temporary home for four training camps this year and six to eight annually in 2019 and 2020 while it looks for a permanent location that can service all of USA Gymnastics, including the men’s team and the rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline and tumbling programs as well. …

… “The goal is to find the best fit and the best opportunity for all the disciplines, and that is going to be the top priority – what is the best setup, an airport with a lot of direct flights …

Houston selection camp a breath of fresh air for U.S. women’s gymnasts

Ideally they’ll find a title sponsor to build that facility. Or some billionaire.

Colorado Springs works well for the Men. Any alternative would have to be as good. Something like the AIS.

Gymnastics was one of the 8 founding sports of the Australian Institute of Sport 1981.

Click PLAY or watch some training footage on YouTube.

Keeping Gymnasts SAFE

Chalk It Up Buttercup is the YouTube channel of 8-year-old Buttercup.

In this excellent video Buttercup and her coaches talk about keeping gymnasts safe, especially on appropriate and inappropriate touching.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This is the video I’ll be showing to kids. It’s relatable and balanced. #BurnItAllDown types seem to want to ban all spotting. That’s dangerous, of course.

(via Aimee B)

the danger of circus aerial acts

After the death of super skilled aerialist Yann Arnaud I find myself getting more worried for performers.

Steve Harvey just about has a heart attack on stage.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.