Category: Uncategorized

Coach Lukas Stritt used this graphic posted on the wall to emphasize some key points with his boys.

related page – Newfoundland MAG Winter Games Camp

At our 3-day fun camp in Newfoundland, kids had a half hour free to invent fun gymnastics activities. The best were put on this video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Cygnus Gymnastics in St. John’s.

related post – Mountain Shadows – Have more FUN in the Gym

Click through to see them …

Exposure Manager

I’m en route to gym camp in Idaho. Doug Davis of Tumbl Trak will be bringing by some “toys” for us to test out. Fun.

The 17-year-old Grandville High School graduate was born with a right arm that extends to about elbow length, although she has no elbow, and one finger.

Growing up, she participated in soccer (her favorite), volleyball, basketball, and track.

But it was Dohring’s participation on the varsity gymnastics team that recently earned her a spot as one of four finalists for the ESPY Award for Best Female Athlete with a Disability. …

read more – The Detroit News

Good luck Linnea.

(via Gymnastics Examiner)

related post – Carol Johnston – Lefty

Senior
1st – Sam Offord
2nd – Thomas Pichler
3rd – Luke Wadsworth

Level 10/U18:
1st – Tyson Bull
2nd – Brody-Jai Hennessy
3rd – Kevin James

Australian Gymnastics Blog

full results are linked from Gymnastics Australia

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

… Capital’s Junior International elite, Mack Brannan …

Click PLAY or watch her training on YouTube.

Stalder bwd on HB with counter straddle -reverse hecht over HB to hang is named after Hanna Ricna (CZE) .

This vid was linked by Couch Gymnast.

Another terrific video tutorial from JAO:

A skill as old as the back handspring will have a thousand different drills to help learn it. This video represents a few of my favorites, but it is by no means exhaustive.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Of thousands of good drills like these, for me only 3 are critical:

• trust fall (spotted)
• trust fall bend knees slightly, straighten knees, return to start position (spotted)
• … same as #2, but the gymnast is spotted on a tip over to handstand on some

The trust fall is the most difficult part of the flicflac for beginners.

Beginners, once they can do it on the trampoline, should train downhill to ensure good technique.

Beginners should do long and low backward handsprings until they can do series. At that point coaches can consider advanced techniques … shortening the distance of the second half, for example.

There are 8 more great video tutorials on the JAO YouTube channel.

These two gymnasts are quite good at handstand walking.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

But I don’t like gymnasts doing these contests. It’s a pet peeve of mine.

Why?

Handstand walking teaches many bad habits. (bad line, bad form)

Kids learn to maintain balance by moving the hands (base of support) forward underneath them. This is bad preparation for many skills, particularly handstand on Parallel Bars.

My personal philsophy is to allow handstand walking backward and sideward, but almost never forwards.

… These girls are great tumblers, despite my concerns.

_____

Update: JO and K send us a related link, gymnasts from Capital Gymnastics in Texas doing handstand drills, including some handstand walking. (better form, still poor “line”)

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://c1403192.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/player.swf

… I’d still recommend the walking course be backwards and sidewards only.

Sho Nakamori had a ring grip break after only 2-days use.

He was lying on the ground after peeling off on a dismount before he discovered what had happened.

The manufacturer is Reisport, as good as any of the competitors, I’d say.

Over the years I’ve seen many Reisport grips break in only a matter of days, but never Ring grips. Horizontal Bar grips normally get stretched and break sooner.

Solution?

Dave Bucci in a comment on Full Twist said this:

NOT unheard of. Our friend, Mario West, had the exact same thing happen at the Winter Cup a year and a half ago — High Bar was his first event, and it happened during warmups. It didn’t injure him badly, but it affected the whole meet.

Since then, he’s been going to a gentleman in Gaithersburg, MD named “Tien” (not sure of the spelling), who handcrafts his grips. Apparently, the Japanese and Chinese national teams both buy from this craftsman as well, and Mario seems to have more confidence in his grips.

Leave a comment if you have any advice on where to get gymnastics grips more durable than Reisport.

Yesterday Andrew Hampy on behalf of Cal Berkeley Gymnastics submitted a business plan for financial viability to their chancellor’s office. It will be 3wks before they get a response.

Gymnastike linked a video from Cal Gymnastics Forever.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13222752&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

2007 Cal Gymnastics from Cal Gymnastics on Vimeo.

Click through to Cal Gymnastics Forever to see what you can do to help save both the Men and Women’s College Teams at Berkeley.