tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Bruce Craven is an owner of Craven Sports Services.
Currently Bruce assisted male gymnasts at Taiso Gymnastics Saskatoon. As always he’s focused on training the correct muscles for each element. And contracting those muscles in the best sequence.
Click PLAY or watch L-sit training on YouTube. (Flexibility and specific strength.)
Dr. Dave Tilley on monitoring for peak height velocity.
Dave’s been tracking 3 numbers for each of the growing kids:
• height
• seated height (torso length)
• wing span
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
At MINIMUM your gymnasts age 10-17 should have a place in the Gym where they pencil in their standing height on some regular basis. They should know when they are growing. There are implications for training load.
If you want to research this topic, get Handbook of Sports Medicine and Science, Gymnastics. (2013).
Here’s the Google Books preview.
Hisayoshi Takahashi has been coaching in Canada for decades.
This one is inspired by books written by Professor Emeritus Kaneko Akitomo of the University of Tsukuba, who passed away on December 24, 2024.
While he was a professor at Tsukuba University, Kaneko had coached Endo Yukio, the Olympic individual all-around champion in gymnastics, and Kato Sawao, a two-time consecutive Olympic individual all-around champion.
Coach Hisayoshi Takahashi has many more books on Amazon.
This one is text only.
It’s a dense read recommended for keen Gymnastics coaches, mainly Men’s Gymnastics.
There are a number of spelling mistakes, most notably on Gymnastics skill names. Perhaps some spell checker changed some into English words.
The focus is on kinaesthesia and proprioception — what the gymnast feels and sees when learning and performing skills.
My first Japanese coach, Shiro Tanaka, did the same. It’s part of the Japanese coaching tradition.
I would say this kind of skill-based, very individual, approach is not a system.
Personally, I prefer the movement pattern approach based on biomechanics popularized by Professor Keith Russell. That’s a system. One approach for every gymnast, later personalizing technique based on body size, physical abilities, psychology, etc.
Takahashi has coached in Canada for decades and names Keith Russell and Hardy Fink as two of his influences, I should say.
That distinction made, there are certainly observations and tips that any Gymnastics coach would appreciate. Jot those down as you go.
Available only in digital format.
How to Become a Top-Class Athlete in Competitive Sports (2025)
Getting over the shock of Béla’s death at only age-82, many are still wrestling with conflicting emotions about the legendary coach.
YES he inspired many around the world. YES he helped popularize the sport in the USA.
But many, many gymnasts were injured and psychologically damaged by the Károlyi system which I would call unscientific and unsafe.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Béla Károlyi was never convicted of any crime. You might argue that he escaped justice many times.
GymCastic has always done a good job covering the controversies. Listen to this PODCAST episode if you want to know more:
The World Anti-Doping Agency did not — I believe — follow their own procedures correctly.
In April 2024, the Doping Investigations Unit of German broadcaster ARD released a documentary revealing the details of 28 positive tests for the banned heart-booster returned by 23 Chinese swimmers.[52].
All were declared “no fault” cases after Chinada reported to WADA that a mass contamination event had accounted for the adverse findings. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
One exciting update to the NEW iPad Pro announced yesterday is this feature called Live Multicam.
It could make video analysis of skills faster and easier.
Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 app will come free with the new iPad.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
As one of the authors of the Canadian WAG & MAG coach education online platform materials, I am impressed with what FIG has done with theirs.
It’s inevitable that eventually all our resources will be digital. Only a few of those printed.
Every organization is struggling with how BEST to move online.
FIG has challenges: 8 disciplines x 3 languages.
NEW is a requirement that all coaches in an FIG competition must get their Safeguarding Certificate by December 1, 2023.
The FIG is happy to announce that the Safeguarding Online Course is now available on the eLearning Platform. As approved by the Executive Committee in March 2023, the purpose of this course is to provide all coaches with a Safeguarding Certificate and therefore give them the tools they need to ensure a safe environment in Gymnastics.
This course is mandatory for all coaches registered in the FIG Coach – Sport Database, and the deadline to comply with this requirement is 1 December 2023. After this date, coaches who did not comply will see their registration pending until they obtain a Safeguarding Certificate.
via email
The guidelines are available here:
Step #1 is to register for the FIG E-learning platform. Anyone can do this.
There is a LOT of free content in all disciplines for anyone who registers:
Enter your email address and choose a password.
Step #2 is to have your national Federation create a “Coach – Sport” profile in the FIG database for you.
Only those coaches who are planning to compete in an FIG sanctioned meet need their Federation to create a “Coach – Sport” profile in the FIG database, however.
Sleep and recovery are super important for all high performance athletes.
Click through for some tips:
Gymnastics Coaching.com 