tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
by Rick McCharles (not in Nepal)
My other great passion after gymnastics acrobatics is hiking.
In Nepal you can do both.
From Prakash lal Shrestha, Gymnastics Chief Coach in Kathmandu.
If you are interested in trekking yourself, check my other website: besthike.com
Are you sick of hearing about the American Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team?
Living in Canada I remember many, many years past where I personally disliked the USA. They were over-hyped and over-scored. For decades. Not the kids, rather the system under President of the FIG Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee Jackie Fie. From the USA ….
These days I have no complaints. USA is the best and most entertaining of all gymnastics nations.
However, with MONTHS to go before the Olympics, I suspect many of us will soon have Ameri-fatigue.
A coach, originally from Northern California, a former teammate of Amy Chow, is looking for the right job.
Anything and everything from pre-school to the Optional levels including developmental and TOPS.
I am very much detail / goal / progression / strength / flexibility / body position and dance oriented. …
I am looking to be in a more competitive atmosphere again. As well as having the opportunity to work in a program that allows me to be my full potential, and contribute to helping kids achieve their fullest potential.
I am looking for full time with medical benefits. I am currently available to start coaching immediately and am excited about the possibility of contributing to your program.
For more information email: usagteam @ Yahoo.com
Jon Kolb, a former gymnastics coach, is a professor at the University of Calgary. He’s been spending a lot of time in China lately doing research on air quality in advance of the Olympics.
Specifically, Jon wants to advise coaches and athletes on how best to handle that environment.
Quoted in the New York Times:
… Mr. Kolb, the Canadian Olympic official, spent much of August in Beijing trying to answer the question hanging over the city as the Games approach: Has air quality actually improved?
An environmental physiologist, Mr. Kolb visited several stadiums, and sneaked into a few others, to measure pollution with a small monitoring device. On Aug. 5, his measurement of fine particles pollution, or PM 10, reached 200, roughly four times above the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization.
“We’re worried,†Mr. Kolb said. Of Beijing air pollution, he added: “There’s no doubt about it. It’s off the charts.†…
Beijing’s Olympic Quest: Turn Smoggy Sky Blue – New York Times
On the other hand …
Jon was there for the pre-Olympic test meet. A number of coaches and athletes who were there told me it wasn’t as bad as they expected. None that I spoke with noticed any problems during training or competition.
(via Beijing Olympic blog)
On our Alpamayo trek in Peru 2004, I managed a pretty good leap to keep my feet dry. All that gymnastics training paid off.
original – flickr
more photos – Bevan Hughes — Alpamayo
how to hike Alpamayo – besthike
Cam, elite gymnast, is attending my coaching course right now.
Here he is spotting a buddy at Calgary Gymnastics Centre for “Stutz” on parallel bars.
It goes badly wrong.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Incredibly, spotter and gymnast accidentally interlocked fingers during the half turn. You could not repeat that if you tried.
No harm done. … Except the embarrassment of losing his shorts.
The The Times of London was quoted on Gymblog:
VLADIMIR PUTIN has resorted to an age-old trick to capture the voters’ imagination: sexing up the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, with an array of glamorous new female recruits.
Ahead of this month’s rigged parliamentary elections, Putin was reported to have complained that there were not enough beautiful women in his United Russia party. The error was soon corrected with a platform of stunning ladies, including four former athletes who have starred in topless photoshoots and Svetlana Zakharova, the elegant principal ballerina of the Bolshoi.
This just goes to show Putin can get away with anything. He’s like an aging Hugh Hefner. With nuclear weapons.
Former Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion Alina Kabayeva is one of the harem, as well.
Khorkina, now 28, has faced media controversy before. She posed for Russian Playboy after winning the world all-around title in 1997.
I don’t know whether to condemn her brazenness. Or admire her gutsy confidence.
I was honoured to have Bin Fan, 1996 Olympic medallist for China, attend a coaching course I directed.
We asked Bin (now coaching in Canada) about differences between coaching in China and Canada.
He said the biggest difference is the number of Tumbl Trak tumbling trampolines in North America. They are still not commonly used in China.
Bin likes them.
TUMBL TRAKâ„¢
The original Tumbl Trakâ„¢ is a training tool designed to allow for increased repetition of tumbling and gymnastic skills and to decrease stress on body parts.
That was the same comment we heard a few years ago from the famous Russian acrobatic tumbling coach, Vassili Skakun. He said the best thing about tumbling in North America is the Tumbl Trak.
We should all thank Trampoline inventors George Nissen and Larry Griswold.
Conventional wisdom is that NCAA female gymnasts are amongst the world’s most injured athletes.
… I once read an article claiming that only professional bull-riding produces more major injuries than gymnastics. While I don’t know if that is really true, I feel fairly comfortable saying that gymnastics is the most injury-prone of all non-contact/non-collision sports. …
GemGemz.com: Injuries common in gymnastics – focusing on NCAA Women’s Gymnastics
Professor Keith Russell from the University of Saskatchewan has tracked the research for decades. He often presents on the topic of injury prevention at FIG Academy events.
And Keith Russell agrees. Female gymnasts are close to NCAA male football players in terms of injury rate. It’s a very high risk sport.
Recently I posed to Keith the possibility that College injury statistics might be skewed. Last season after winning Championships, many of the Georgia girls were booked for surgery. That surprised me as they looked “perfect” during the competition. I speculated that whole teams are block booked for surgery immediately after the last competition of the year in preparation for the following season.
Am I right?
Much is minor surgery that a club based gymnast would not undergo. Club kids would “heal naturally” from such “injuries” as sore ankles at the end of the season.
But College programs have a lot of money invested in their teams. And access to the best sports medicine facilities.
Leave a comment if you think my theory is crazy. That College gymnasts really are more injured than club gymnasts as the statistics seem to indicate.
gymgymgymnast08 on Chalk Bucket linked to two inspirational videos.
Not superb editing, but I like the message of both:
Gymnastics …
Its being able to do things most people can only dream of doing Its being with your team more than anyone else Its being able to remember every routine you’ve ever done Its never having time to do anything else Its ripped and blistered hands and feet. Its always being sore- but never contemplating a night off Its not being able to understand how some people can’t touch their toes Its using chalk more than soap Its never using the words “can’t” or “impossible” Its owning more leos and warm ups than actual clothing Its knowing you work ten times harder than any other sport Its that dizzy, happy feeling when you stick that one landing Its having your own language and using it non stop. Its not just a sport… *Its a way of life*
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The second video is an inspirational slideshow montage: YouTube – Gymnastics is…
Gymnastics Coaching.com 