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Katrina from Westwinds Gymnastics recommends her kids do series of stair runs alternating with specific conditioning:

It would be a good idea to keep up with some of your conditioning and flexibility over the break (especially the girls attending Trials to AWG). Here is a short easy program you can do at home EVERYDAY to make the first day back a little bit easier:

– 3x stair runs (up and down is 1)
– 30 sec Samson/split stretch
– 3x stair runs
– 10x sit ups
– 3x stair runs
– 10x back extensions (or superman lifts)
– 3x stair runs
– 10x squats
– 3x stair runs
– 10x modified dips on the edge of your bed
– 3x stair runs
– 10x push ups
– 3x stair runs
– 10x V-snaps
– 3x stair runs
– 10x burpees

Then… 2 minutes of splits each way. If you are in Group B, take the cushion off your couch and use that for 2 minutes of over split front and back leg.

Westwind Gymnastics Club Women’s Team: Happy Holidays!

I’ve been hitting the stairs myself of late, sometimes carrying my bike. Good exercise for those of us who used to be has-beens.

Gregory Joujon-Roche – Hit the Stairs to boost your Booty

International GYMNAST Online

Having taught many, many over the years — parties at the gymnastics club are some of my favourite classes.

We get new kids and parents into our club. The birthday child often gets to show off for friends. It’s easy to fill the class with FUN activities. We schedule them during times of the week little used. Birthday parties are a win, win, win.

Best, I find, is to have a dedicated “birthday party coach” who teaches or organizes all parties.

Check the cost of a 90min party at Universal Gymnastics. Seems expensive:

A birthday party at Universal consists of one full hour of structured activity followed by 30 minutes for refreshments, opening of presents, etc. Invitations, juice, drinking cups and balloons will be provided… anything beyond that is your responsibility. …

To better insure maximum safety and fun, we require one instructor for the first 8 children and then one instructor per 6 additional children with a maximum party consisting of 20 children. For a parent child party the maximum number of children is 12 with one participating adult per child. …

$185.00 for the parent child party………………$205

$185.00 for 8 children………………………………$205

$265.00 for 9-14 children………………………….$300

$360.00 for 15-20 children………………………..$400

There is an additional $20.00 fee for nonmembers

Universal Gymnastics – Birthday Party

Looks like the parties at Santa Monica Gymnastics are FUN:

original

more SMGC birthday party photos on flickr

The big 4 are ranked in the top 4, as usual. But I spoke to one of the Stanford coaches, Mike Lorenzen, at Elite Canada last weekend. Mike thinks they can win it all this year, if they hit. With the Stanford Men ranked #1 (by a mile), we could see one University win both titles the same year for the first time.

2008 Women’s Pre-Season Coaches Poll

1. Georgia – 866 points (28 first-place votes)
2. Florida – 788 (1)
3. Utah – 779 (3)
4. UCLA – 743

5. Stanford – 727 (2)
6. Alabama – 685
7. Nebraska – 641
8. Oklahoma – 620
9. Michigan – 593 (1)
10. LSU – 591
11. Oregon State – 503
12. Arizona – 402
13. Penn State – 385
14. Arkansas – 365
15. Denver – 365
16. Missouri – 310
17. Iowa State – 285
18. Arizona State – 256
19. Auburn – 237
20. Ohio State – 202
21. Michigan State – 197
22. West Virginia – 130
23. Illinois- Champaign – 124
24. Kentucky – 104
25. North Carolina State – 72

UCLA Gymnastics Team Ranked No. 4 In Pre-Season Coaches Poll – Bruins open season on Jan. 4 in Las Vegas.

Avoiding injury is the highest priority for every team.

On Ask the Bruins, the coaches — Miss Val, Jim Foody and Chris Waller — respond to questions from fans. The most interesting NCAA coach interviews I’ve read so far this season: UCLA Bruins – Chat

In Canada, our good friend Stu Cram from Regina claims he is “retiring” as tabulator of scores for our major gymnastics competitions. He has done Nationals since 1981.

This is sad news for me.

When I hosted age group nationals over 20yrs ago, it was Stu who stayed up all night solving a computer glitch in our scoring system.

In the Canadian Gymnastics Hall of Fame, there will be a spot on the top tier for Stu.

Thanks for everything.

Stu will keep his website up for now as an archive of past meet scores. (I use it all the time.)

Gym Score Depot

Hamm proposed to long-time girlfriend Megan Shemanske … And she said “yes”.

Two-time Olympian Morgan Hamm had his engagement all planned out. He picked out the ring over Thanksgiving, planned a nice getaway to Jamaica to pop the question, and had the scene planned out in his head. Everything seemed to be on track until he got news that a tropical storm may be headed to Jamaica. …

read the story – News – Inside Gymnastics Magazine

Morgan is recovering from injury, planning to compete at minimum on 4 apparatus.

Brother Paul is training the all-around. And why not? There are fewer all-around gymnast competitors around the world than ever before.

“The most beautiful world championships of all times”, FIG president Bruno Grandi said about the world championships in Stuttgart.

I dunno know. Some people I talked to said it was the worst, rudest organizing committee ever. A disaster for spectators.

Still, the photos by Volker Minkus are fantastic. See a preview of a new book called The Beauty of Gymnastics (German and English text):

The PREVIEW uses that cool new “page flip” preview technology.

216 pretty pages:

However, ‘The Beauty of Gymnastics’ is more than just a documentation of the world championships in Stuttgart. The aim of author Andreas Götze, editor-in-chief of the gymnastics magazine LEON*, and his co-publisher Michael Weber was to present a book which also conveys the beauty and the fascination of gymnastics beyond the (world championships) days and which offers amazing insights into the world of gymnastics. Therefore, this illustrated book also includes interesting facts from the history of gymnastics and its world championships, a chapter about the development of the Code of Points, a presentation of famous ‘inventors’ as well as a collection of stamps with gymnastics motifs and much more.

With regard to the extraordinary design of the book, credit is owed to Andreas Aguilar, who became world champion on rings in Stuttgart in 1989.

The publishers will donate a part of the sales revenue to young gymnasts in Germany. …

home page

Good idea. But I’m not sure the straps will bind the mat tightly enough.

This unique, practical design transforms a standard pommel horse into an exceptionally effective trainer. Strapped securely in place, Pommel Horse Helper increases width of the horse by 2.75″ overall and lowers pommel height. Enables gymnasts to quickly build skills–including loops, back loops, spindles, Magyar Travel, Sivado Travel, Tong Feis, Russians, Rothlisbergers and Krolls– by slightly increasing degree of difficulty.

Helper consists of a crosslink core inside a very durable 18oz vinyl cover to which straps are permanently attached. 3-piece design and cutouts make it a snap to position. $119.00

gymnastic supplies, gymnastic equipment, gym mats, movement education supplies

– Cartwheel Factory

Our first-aid responders in the gym must be aware of how quickly students can suffocate once breathing is congested. There are not many specifics on this incident in the newspaper:

A teen gymnast and cheerleader who died Monday night after an asthma attack is being remembered as a good friend, student and teacher.

Alexis Franco, 17, had an asthma attack while practicing gymnastics at Aspire Kids Sport Center in Chandler. She died later that evening. She was a junior and cheerleader at Corona del Sol High School in Tempe.

Franco had taken gymnastics lessons at Aspire for 10 years, gym owner Scott Barclay said. She had just begun working at the gym as well. …

Cheerleader died after asthma attack

Oscar Pistorius is the South African Paralympic sprinter who wants to compete against able bodied runners. It looks like his bid to switch to Olympic competition will be denied by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

IAAF report concludes that Pistorius’ Carbon fibre prosthetic limbs provide a “considerable advantage”

The IAAF tests on Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius have now been handed to IAAF President Lamine Diack, and the early reports are that the tests have indeed confirmed that the carbon fibre prosthetic limbs, knowns as “Cheetahs”, do in fact provide Pistorius with “considerable advantage” over other runners.

Unfortunately and frustratingly for us, the IAAF have issued a press release which states that “the IAAF does not plan to discuss the contents of the report, or make any public announcement about any decision related to the report, until 10 January 2008”. Because of this, we don’t have access to the specific results and so we cannot, unfortunately, bring you any more detailed insights or interpretation of the specific test results. But the lead researcher, biomechanics expert Prof Gert-Pieter Bruggemann was quoted in a German newspaper as saying that the advantage is considerable – several percentage points in size. Apparently Prof Bruggemann was himself surprised at the size of the difference. …

The Science of Sport: Oscar Pistorius banned – IAAF result