Category: sport medicine

Changing Gymnastics Culture – a review

I just finished my first skim of Dave Tilley’s new book, more than 450 pages.

Something for every coach: sports medicine, injury prevention, conditioning, ethics, …

I’ll be going back through and excerpting some of my favourite sections.

Dave was partly inspired to put his ideas together by the Nassar crimes. He sensed “outdated training methods and a toxic culture can foster abusive practices” in Gym … making it possible for a pedophile to go undetected for decades.

Coaches spent inordinate amounts of time with young children and parents place complete trust in them. Young athletes are taught that their dreams may depend on the approval of a famous trainer or coach. They are also programmed to believe that obeying orders given, without question, is the only path to achieve their dreams.

Together, these truths about certain areas of our sport, while not necessarily inherently malicious in nature, certainly open to the door to abuse and mistreatment of young athletes. …

I certainly recommend you download and check it out for yourself.

Dave’s made his book free. Click through to download.

The book is 3 PDFs.

In addition are two resources: Myofascial Release Checklist and a Splits Complex.

MSU will pay $500 million to Nassar victims

Michigan State University has settled hundreds of lawsuits filed against it by the survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual assaults.

The settlement will cost the school $500 million. The school will pay $425 million now and hold $75 million in reserve in case other Nassar victims come forward. …

“There will be no confidentiality agreements or non-disclosure agreements attached to the settlement,” …

Penn State University paid out $109 million to 35 victims in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. …

Detroit Free Press

double layout punch front pike

My Achilles hurt just watching this.

Click PLAY or watch Liu Jinru on YouTube.

(via BBS)

Tiffany Lopez reported Nassar to MSU trainers in 1998

Twenty years ago, former Michigan State University softball star Tiffany Lopez told three of her trainers that she was being sexually abused by one of the university’s team physicians. His name was Larry Nassar.

It would be 19 years before Nassar — who has been accused by at least 265 women with sexually abusing them in his role as a doctor to young athletes at MSU and USA Gymnastics — would be arrested for his crimes.

Lopez says she stopped playing the sport she loved and left MSU after her claims went unheard. …

“If I had been heard and believed 20 years ago,” Lopez told the crowd gathered at today’s summit, “the women standing beside me — all of the 265 young women who have now bravely come forward as victims — would have been spared from the horrors of sexual abuse.”

Lopez was joined by other elite athletes who are survivors of Nassar’s abuse on stage at USOW, including Aly Raisman, Jeanette Antolin, and Jordyn Wieber. …

Pop Sugar

Karolyis sue USAG, USOC

In the world’s most litigious nation, we expected this.

Bela and Martha Karolyi have filed suit against the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics, seeking more than a million dollars in damages and saying they should not be held responsible for any lawsuits stemming from crimes committed at their Sam Houston National Forest ranch by disgraced doctor Larry Nassar.

The suit, filed last month in Walker County, accuses USA Gymnastics of being in violation of a purchase agreement and a lease agreement at the couple’s ranch, which until last year housed the women’s national training center, and of failing to live up to a promise to “wrap their arms” around the couple and to defend them against allegations stemming from the Nassar sexual abuse scandal.

Houston Chronicle

related – Sabrina Vega sued Bela and Martha Karolyi as well as USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Changing Gymnastics Culture by Dave Tilley

After fifteen years competing up to the college level, and ten years coaching, I have spent the last five years as a medical provider treating almost all gymnasts (Sports Physical Therapy) while also still actively coaching competitive gymnastics at the same time. …

… in an effort to help, I have spent the last twelve months writing a new e-book covering all of these topics and more. I wrote it in an effort to spark conversations on how the sport of gymnastics can move into a new era that prioritizes athlete health, builds positive training cultures, and seeks the most optimal training methods based on scientific research as well as expert coaching opinion.

Shift Movement Science

Dave’s made his book free. Click through to download.

The book is 3 PDFs.

In addition are two resources: Myofascial Release Checklist and a Splits Complex.

I’ll be reviewing my own copy. I’m keen to hear what the sports medicine community has to say. So far as I can see they’ve been very quiet on Nassar. It was gymnasts who finally took him down, not parents or coaches nor his professional fraternity.

Toni-Ann back for a 5th year

Recall she had a season-ending Achilles injury February 2017.

Karolyis deny knowledge

I haven’t seen the full interview from last night. Here’s a trailer.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Gymnasts and Allies are ‘Great Leaders’

“The Gymnasts and Their Allies” are some of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders over the past year.

When the sentencing trial of Larry Nassar began, few people knew the former USA Gymnastics doctor’s name, much less the details of his crimes.

Then, the young women he sexually assaulted—more than 150 of them—told their stories.

Their seven days of harrowing testimony shook the world of sports and beyond. Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. The president of Michigan State University, Nassar’s former employer, resigned, as did the board of USA Gymnastics and the CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

As Olympian Aly Raisman said, “We are here, we have our voices, and we are not going anywhere.”

22. The Gymnasts and Their Allies

injuries at LSU

Good article.

LSU junior Lexie Priessman has had eight surgeries and may require another on her shoulder in the offseason. …

McKenna Kelley is sitting out her junior season after suffering an Achilles tendon tear in November. …

Gnat, now LSU’s student assistant coach, considers herself lucky. She said she has never had a stitch, surgery or been under anesthesia. …

Gymnasts passionately ‘push through’ sport despite high rate of injuries, which LSU is trying to curb

Ashleigh Gnat

One study:

Female gymnasts more commonly suffered major injuries compared with men, and more commonly underwent surgery after injury (24.4% of female injuries required surgery vs 9.2% in males).

The anatomic region most often injured in men was the hand and wrist (24%). The anatomic region most often injured in women was the foot and ankle (39%). Overall, injury rates were highest in freshman-eligible athletes.

Evaluation of Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics InjuriesA 10-Year Observational Study (2015)