This graphi created by Aaron Kuehn.
Thanks Bettina.
Category: sport science
Concussion – the film
Have you seen Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian forensic pathologist who fights against efforts by the National Football League to suppress his research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) brain degeneration suffered by professional football players?
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
Anyone who boxes or plays football should know the risks by now. I’m more concerned for coaches and athletes in sports who assume they are at low risk of micro-trauma injury to the brain. Trampoline? Artistic Gymnasts?
related – League of Denial
Taylor Lindsay-Noel audiocast
Canadian gymnast Taylor Lindsay-Noel was paralyzed in 2008 training a toe-on double front dismount from Bars. No pit. No spot.
She’s very eloquent. Very active online.
And now she’s launched a podcast called Tea Time with Tay.
In her first podcast Taylor details the day of her life-changing accident.
Here’s her website.
Gymnastics – safest landing positions
Dr. Dave Tilley is concerned:
… the unfortunate reality is that the typical way gymnasts were taught to land growing up (me included) may not be the safest for them and most effective to stick skills. Not to mention coaches are also unfortunately very mis-informed about what the best available science suggests for proper landing mechanics. The concerning typical landing position that we need to move away from is one of
• Knees and feet together
• Glutes engage with the “hips tucked under” into hollow
• Knee dominant landing strategy
• Stiff impact with upright torso… The reality of the situation is that we need to change the way gymnasts land, starting from a very young age. The more ideal landing we should be teaching and forcing athletes to use is
• Feet hip width apart
• toes, knees, hips, and shoulders close to inline (generally)
• core engaged in relative neutral (not excessively hollowed or arched)
• proper angular displacement of the hip and knee joints
• hip angle generally 30 degrees, and trunk / tibial lines close to parallel …
With greatly increased difficulty being competed now and into the future, obviously the “best” landing positions are the ones that bring impact forces to zero with the least risk of injury, especially major injuries like ligament ruptures.
Most of the top male gymnasts in 2016 land their difficult skills in a very typical way.
Check these successful WAG landing positions. (Some are luck, of course. But many are skillful.)
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
balancing activities can improve memory
Climbing a tree and balancing on a beam can dramatically improve cognitive skills, according to a study recently conducted by researchers in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Florida. …
The results of this research, recently published in Perceptual and Motor Skills, suggest working memory improvements can be made in just a couple of hours …
Climbing a tree can improve cognitive skills, researchers say
Thanks Jeff.
22 G.S. George articles
An archive of newsletter articles by Dr. Gerald George can be found here.
A sample — “The Mechanics of Impact“:
… The effectiveness of the take-off sets the uppermost limits of what the gymnast can hope to obtain during the airborne phase of any skill. During this moment, the path (trajectory) followed by the performer’s center of gravity, as well as the quantity of rotary motion (angular momentum) available for skill execution, are irrevocably established. …
Once the gun has been fired, there is no turning back…for the trajectory and momentum of its bullet are irrevocably established! …
Gymnastics Coaching.com 