Category: safety

Responsible Coaching

Gymnastics Canada supports Coaching Association of Canada’s Responsible Coaching Movement:

Keeping Sport Fair, Fun, and Safe

Responsible coaching allows you to support your participants’ right to a safe, positive environment. Here are some ways to protect your athletes and yourself both on and off the field of play:

Read more on Coach.ca

 

Verona van de Leur autobiography

Simply Verona: Breaking All the Rules

Published in hard cover March 19, 2020.

Verona was an excellent gymnast, named Dutch Sportswoman of the Year in 2002 after winning the all-around silver medal at that year’s European championships and the silver medal on floor exercise at the world championships.

After early retirement she had life threatening personal problems. Fell out with her family. Lived in a car with her boyfriend.

Eventually she had a conviction for blackmail and a prison sentence. She began performing in adult webcam shows and then in adult films.

Read a Guardian interview detailing her chaotic life story:

Verona van de Leur: ‘When you have no food you do anything to survive

grip breaks on Rings

Most of the time, the gymnast “rips off” … hopefully into the pit.

Click PLAY or see what happened to Devy on Instagram. (2016)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCjw5GoGhR-/

Mykayla Skinner wears tape grips

UNDER her Bailey Velcro grips.

Expensive, slow and complicated. But it seems to work for her.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – I recommend Bailey single buckle grips for most gymnasts.

Uchimura – triple twisting double layout

An excerpt of this is the video I use most in coach education courses. Talking safe landings. Bringing massive impact forces to zero.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ellie Black’s left leg

Work those single leg squats, ladies.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Constructing Landing Pits

The American Gym offers some tips on safe pit construction:

… Training pits should be longer and wider than competition matting requirements. Since gymnasts have not yet mastered the skills they will be performing, like they would in competitions, they need a larger margin of safety …

Anatomy of a Landing Pit or Trampoline Pit

hard landing mats in the pit

We see it EVERY competition …

Gymnasts competing skills on to hard mats that they’ve obviously rarely done on to competition mats.

It’s dangerous.

Coaches should do a better job of simulating the competition landing in training.

coach Warren Long at Taiso Saskatoon

The best I’ve ever seen was T&T coach Tammy Stephenson. She trained landings on to very high, very soft surfaces for most of the year. Prior to a competition she alternated layers of matting stiffened with sheets of plywood.