Category: safety

Gymnastics Australia COVID-19 reopening

Frank Sahlein shared a document from Gymnastics Australia:

PREPARATION OF TRAINING/ COMPETITION ENVIRONMENTS

Once gymnastics clubs are provided with the endorsement to resume gymnastics activities in any capacity, the following specific factors for a safe resumption of training and participation should be considered …

Program Scheduling

  • How can training be staggered to minimise numbers and reduce contact?
  • Modifying training times so that there are less people present at one time
  • Scheduling adequate venue and equipment cleaning time between sessions.

Cleaning

  • Bathrooms/change rooms, kitchens, and entrance foyer

  • What is the protocol and frequency of cleaning shared facilities?

  • Treatment of surfaces

    • –  A single deep clean will not provide any ongoing protection

    • –  Use a product with residual viricidal activity to inactivate viruses

    • –  Diluted bleach solution for non-porous surfaces (70% alcohol solution or diluted bleach solution) is effective on non-porous surfaces.

    • –  Surfaces such vinyl mat coverings, high touch areas (doorknobs, benches, etc) require regular mechanical wiping.

    • –  Some cleaning solutions may cause skin irritation, so take care to use gloves when cleaning, and wipe mats again with damp cloth (water) for surfaces that have greater contact area (e.g. children lying on mats).

That’s a short excerpt.

Read the entire document.

One recommendation new to me was this:

Gymnastics Australia recommends that all its members download the Australian Government COVID-19 contact tracing app (COVIDSafe).

American Gymnastics Academy reopening

Every club needs a video like this to explain how Gymnastics can be trained safely after COVID-19 reopening.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

details on MG Elite complaints

Scott M Reid interviewed many MG Elite gymnasts and their parents regarding their complaints about coaches Maggie Haney and Victoria Levine:

Parents were not allowed in the gym at MG Elite and Haney warned gymnasts not to complain to their parents about her coaching methods, according to six parents and documents related to the USA Gymnastics investigation.  …

Girls who were unable or reluctant to perform skills or displeased Haney in training or competition were screamed at, berated and ridiculed, according to six parents and documents. A mistake could lead to Haney telling a gymnast she was lazy, fat, uncoachable or disrespectful, according to interviews and documents.

Haney and Levine regularly called gymnasts retarded or said they should be in the “retarded group,” according to parents.

“They used ‘retarded’ all the time,” a parent said. …

Sometimes Haney got physical. Haney pulled gymnasts by their hair off the balance beam or out of foam pits, according to five parents. When a gymnast fell on bars during a photo shoot for a leotard company, an enraged Haney pulled the girl by her hair to her feet, according to the gymnast’s mother. …

Special report: Families detail Maggie Haney’s abuse of young gymnasts

related:

GymCastic – Emotional Abuse: The Maggie Haney Eight Year Ban

The Skating Lesson – Maggie Haney’s Coaching Methods

Belgium has been training

… she and teammates Maellyse Brassart and Senna Deriks board together in an apartment building near the national team training center.

“Actually, we’re pretty lucky because we can still train at our gym, so that’s good.

Our whole senior team can still train in the hall. But after training we just go back and make our food and we don’t leave the building.” …

At 169 cm, Derwael is the tallest woman to win the World Uneven Bars title in more than three decades. She credits a part of her success to Belgian national team coaches Yves Kieffer and Marjorie Huels, who have worked with her for the past seven years.
“Without them I wouldn’t be standing here now,” she said. …

Determined Derwael biding her time before Tokyo

Click PLAY or watch her 2019 Gold on YouTube.

Communicating with parents about COVID-19

As I post more and more Gyms are opening, or getting ready to open.

Communicating with parents is critical.

I like how Bryon Hough is doing that messaging for Classic Gymnastics in Minnesota and Iowa.

Clean and clear on their website, as is the logo.

via Chalk Bucket forum

Gymnastics Clubs are reopening

So far, so good at Avant Coeur.

Every coach and every Gym has to decide what’s best for them.

Err on the side of caution. Start training slowly with an abundance of physical distancing. No spotting to start.

If it works, gradually increase training. Gradually increase the number of kids invited to restart.

If even one child or coach tests COVID-19 positive for any reason, your Gym will likely close again.

Much depends on the risk in your area. New Zealand clubs, for example, will be back to normal quickly. If you are in a hot zone, you’ll have to go more slowly.

GOOD LUCK. We’re cheering for you.

Many owners right now are worried about this scenario. There has to be enough revenue to keep the doors open.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Gymnastics resumes in Italy

Some Italian gymnasts trained in quarantine during COVID-19.

But most clubs were allowed to open starting May 4th. 

Italy deems sports including Artistic Gymnastics, Golf and Tennis in the safest category allowing physical distancing most easily.

Team sports, including volleyball, have more physical contact.

 

 

U.S. Olympic Committee on reopening

As of April 28, 2020.

Here’s some advice on what to do when allowed to reopen sports facilities. It’s quite general, information for coaches of all Olympic sports.

USOPC Return to Training Considerations Post COVID-19 

Phase 3:

  • small groups allowed to train. But no general public access.
  • athletes, coaches, and staff have NO symptoms of COVID-19 (Appendix 2) in the past 14 days
  • anyone who had a case of documented COVID-19 infection needs a note from their doctor indicating they are cleared to participate in training
  • ideally participants should have 2 negative COVID-19 tests separated by 24 hours before resuming training
  • athletes record signs and symptoms (including temperature) on a paper or electronic log that is monitored by coaches or staff
  • athletes interviewed each time on arrival for symptoms
  • athletes should use their own equipment and avoid touching each other as much as possible
  • Use own water bottle, towel, personal hygiene products, etc.
  • Rigorous, frequent cleaning schedule/protocol of equipment with disinfectant before, during, and after training
  • cleaners wear appropriate personal protective equipment  (e.g., gloves, face mask, etc.) to prevent contact with contaminated surfaces and protect against toxicities associated with cleaning products
  • coaches maintain physical distance from athletes, as much as possible. No spotting, if possible.

Phase 4 would be return to normal training.

Download the entire document – USOPC Return to Training

 

 

My Gym is Online – Gymnastics conference

Lorraine Currie of Futures Gymnastics in Canada has organized an interesting event — an online Gymnastics Congress.

The theme …

Resilience 2020

Five days – May 11-15, 2020.

Cost is low:

$15 for any one stream: Business, Competitive, Recreational

$25 all access.

Proceeds going towards COVID-19 vaccine research at University of Pittsburgh and Sunnybrook Hospital.

Many big name presenters whom I’d love to hear.  This is a COVID-19 alternative for coaches who normally book themselves for one of the annual Congress events.

Details.

 

 

when MEN competed ‘Inbars’

IMHO – Inbars should be valued same as Stalder, Endo. 

It’s not a skill we should be encouraging. 

Growing up in western Canada we never called piked Endo or piked Stalder ‘Inbars‘.

Most often we called them stooped Stalder, stooped Endo.

Sometimes Stalder piked, Endo piked.

The WAG Code currently calls them Clear Pike Circles.  That’s better than Inbars, in my opinion.

These swings are a problem for WAG in 2020 for several reasons:

  • risk of lower back injury due to force of compression at the bottom
  • deduction for flexed feet getting into and out of the swing
  • deduction for lack of hip flexion
  • difficulty in getting back to handstand

They aren’t a problem for MAG and haven’t been since the men’s Code devalued to same as regular Stalder / Endo. We no longer see them in MAG competition.

But there was fugly era when MANY male gymnasts competed them for difficulty.  Very few men had the genetic limb length and physical ability to do them well.  It was painful to watch.

I coached only one who trained them, Davide Bardana. He’s also the best I can recall.

Kyle Shewfelt, years later at the same club, competed them as cleanly as any male gymnast of the day.

Click PLAY or watch Kyle on YouTube. Pirouette angle deductions weren’t as important in that Code as they are today.