Category: Uncategorized

I’ve posted a number of times on the EVILS of fast food.

But athletes need food fast. What should they eat?

Sports Girls Play (a coach and Mom) recommends smoothies:

One of the challenges I face as a parent of an athlete is making sure her body gets the right nutrition through out the week. Add to that she is a very picky eater and lactose intolerant and you can see why it is a challenge. One of her favorite snacks/mini meals is a smoothie. Smoothies are great because they are portable, you can sneak in all sorts of good for you ingredients, and they are fun!

Since my daughter is lactose intolerant I have to be careful what I use as a base for her smoothie. She can handle yogurt in small doses but is not a fan of it. The recipe we use most often is very basic:

* Fill blender half full with frozen strawberries and a fresh (or frozen) banana
* Add a 1/4 cup of calcium fortified orange juice
* Blend until smooth, adding a bit more juice as needed.

Because the strawberries are frozen, you don’t need to add ice.

Our Favorite Quick Snack – Smoothies

That blog had another great post recently: Parenting an Athlete – Pushing the Limits.

A superb resource on the Gymnastics Revolution club website has photo sequences of basic gymnastics skills on the 4 women’s apparatus.

Here’s a sample screenshot from the Wolf Jump on Beam page:

Gymnastics Revolution – Gymnastics Interactive – Wolf Jump

Gymnastics Interactive is a descriptive set of information about many common skills. It is NOT meant to be a teaching or coaching aid, nor does it represent the only accepted methods for performing skills.

Related posts:

The Front Handspring Vault – Brian Bakalar, GymnasticsRevolution.com

avoiding arched giants

My reaction when I read this posted by kat on Gym Chat was, Guinness has got it wrong:

“Octavian Belu in Guinness World Records as World’s most successful coach”

– published in issue 4075 page 10 at 2007-12-03

Surely Leonid Arkaev, past Head Coach at various times of both Mens and Women’s Soviet, United and Russian National Teams has had far, far more champions.

Most Successful Coach-world record set by Octavian Bellu

[Dec 1]

BUCHAREST, Romania–Octavian Bellu, 56, Romanian gymnastics coach, has set the world record as the Most Successful Coach: 16 Olympics Gold Medals and a total of 279 medals at World and European Championships and Olympic Games.

Highly successful, Octavian Bellu led the Romanian gynastics team to five world and two Olympic titles, as well as coaching numerous individual gold medalists – since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, Romania has been the most successful women’s gymnastics power.

…

Octavian Bellu was head of the national team, with interruptions, between 1988 and 2005. He has been the coach of the Romanian Women’s Team since the defection of Bela Karolyi for political reason in 1981.

…

Octavian Bellu was appointed as the new president of Romania’s sports governing body

World Records Academy

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Bellu though, obviously, I admire the results of Romania, a sports mad, but small and impoverished nation. It’s astonishing what they have accomplished.

Leave a comment if you know anything else — or have statistics — comparing Bellu and Arkaev.

UPDATE: Kat did some further research, confirming that Arkaev won about 400 Olympic, World Championships, and European Championships medals, about 150 of those gold. As far as the team medals are concerned, every single medal isn’t counted, but rather one per team. link – Gym Chat

Certainly far more than Bellu.

If we compare only medals won by the women’s teams, it would be closer.

Octavian Bellu bio – Romanian-Gymnastics.com

Note: Bellu is a more correct spelling than Belu, though both are used.

Tough to beat this: Handspring front 2.5 twist STICK. Tsuk double pike.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

I ask again, why are the women so much weaker on vault than men?

If you thought pommel horse terminology was complicated, how about air flare breakdance lingo:

Power Moves …

* Flare: A widely recognized power move that involves swinging the legs around in a circular motion while balancing on the hands.

o King Flares/Hopping Flare: A flare that is done while hopping from hand to hand.

o Virgin Flare: A flare that is done with closed legs.

* Swipe: A widely recognized power move in which the breaker twists their upper body in the air followed by their legs.

o Baby Swipe: A footwork move that employs an airborne twist of the hips reminiscent of a swipe; not considered a power move.

* Windmill/Mill: A widely recognized power move in which the breaker rotates on the upper body while swinging their legs.

o Halo/Track: A variant of the windmill that involves balancing on the head.

o Superman: A variant of the windmill where the arms are stiff at the dancers side in a cocky manner.

Floats

* Cricket: A float that involves hopping around in a circular motion while in the hanglide position.

o Jackhammer: Crickets on one hand.

* Turtle: A float that involves balancing on both hands and walking in a circular motion.

o Pumping Turtle/Darkhammer: A hopping float.

o UFO/Air Turtle: An un-stabbed spinning float.

Spins

* 1990/90: A spinning one-handed handstand.

o Lunar Eclipse: A hopping 1990.

* 2000: A 1990 with the spare hand on top of your supporting hand.

* Elbow Spin: A spin on the forearm.

* Back Spin: A spin on the back.

* Butt Spin: A spin on the butt.

* Handglide/Handspin: A type of spin performed while balanced in a one-handed float position.

* Headspin: A spin on the head.
o Drill: A variant of the headspin.

List of breakdance moves – Wikipedia

This is not standardized. Most bboys don’t like the word “breakdance”.

Here are two of the best in the world, recommended by Glenn:

Click PLAY or watch Bboy Punisher of Alliance Crew in France on YouTube:

Click PLAY or watch Bboy Kim Yun Soo of Gambler’s Crew on YouTube:

A surprise winner.

(Beijing, December 2)

The women’s final of the “Good Luck Beijing” 2007 Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament concluded at the National Indoor Stadium this evening, with Olena Movchan of Ukraine emerging victorious, followed by Rosannagh Maclennan of Canada and He Wenna of China.

Ukrainian dark horse O. Movchan wins women’s final – 2007 Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament

No one expects this is a preview of the podium final at the Olympics.

Some of the top competitors missed. Some watered down routines. Many had problems adapting to the trampoline, though Rosie said it did not bother her.

Everyone liked the huge Olympic venue.

Beijing will be the biggest trampoline competition in history bringing a much higher media profile to the sport.

Day 2 results, following the Olympic format.

Lu Bin wins 3 events at Olympic Gymnastics test meet. Plus the team gold.

This was his first competition after coming back from an injury.

After winning on pommel horse yesterday LU, Bin was the best competitor on rings (SV 17.2), too, with a final score of 16.000, beating his teammate YAN, Minghong on second place despite his highest start value of 17.4 (15.900). …

* Results, Rings
1. LU, Bin (CHN) – (17.2) = 16.000
2. YAN, Minghong (CHN) – (17.4) = 15.900
3. RODRIGUES, Pinheiro (FRA) – (17.3) = 15,700

… LU, Bin used maximal and won his third gold medal at this event, the fifth for the Chinese hosts and before the last two men’s finals hue is the most successful atlet of thes pre-Olympics. He was the only one gymnast who presents two 17.0 difficulties and got 16,525 points at the end. …

* Results, Vault
1. LU, Bin (CHN)
1. (17.0) – 16,600;
2. (17.0) – 16,450 = 16,525

2. KOCZI, Flavius (ROU)
1. (17.0) – 16.450;
2. (16.6) – 15.925; = 16,187

3. OKIGUCHI, m. (JPN)
1. (17.0) – 9,350;
2. (16.6) – 15,825 = 16.087

The women competed only Bars. Surprisingly, China did not win this one.

… Although the Chinese all-around winner JIANG, Yuyuan reached the highest start value (17.1) she won the silver medal, because Zgoba absolutely exhibited the technical best performance and best execution of her routine (0,5 points in B-score). …

* Results, Uneven bars
1. ZGOBA, Daria (UKR) – (16.9) = 15,725
2. JIANG, Yuyuan (CHN) – (17.1) = 15,525
3. JOURA, Daria (AUS) – (16.3) = 15,250

GYMmedia.com
* Finals, 2nd Day (Sonntag)

photos – official website

Daria Zgoba – GymBox

Overweight, obesity and the consequent health problems are a huge concern of parents.

At least 3 different food rating systems are coming on stream soon in the USA:

Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center – Overall Nutritional Quality Index, or ONQI for short. (1-to-100 scale, with 100 being the healthiest)

Hannaford “Guiding Stars” rating system (zero to three stars, with three being the healthiest)

University of Washington nutritionist, Adam Drewnowski, a scoring system that could be translated into numerical scores or letter grades.

… But consumer advocates worry that the sudden flurry of rating systems could add to shopper confusion, not ameliorate it, at least until one of the systems wins out and becomes a national standard. Moreover, determining what foods are healthier is as much art as science, requiring judgment about how much value to attach to various scientific findings about diet and health. …

Is It Healthy? Food Rating Systems Battle It Out – New York Times

We previously posted progressions for Tkachev by Almir from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Here’s an animation inspired, I expect, by the skill done in training by Standford’s Cade Raggio.

Click PLAY or watch the cartoon on YouTube.

Related post:

video – gymnastics – Tkachev … plus! (Cade Raggio)

Researching pommel mushrooms for a friend in the States, I am comparing the competition against the Ultra Dome:

The Ultra Dome fits the budget of the gym owner as well as the gymnast who desires a home use apparatus. The dome is made of durable, molded polyethylene. The padded top easily detaches for floor circle work. The dome can be stacked onto a second base for an increased height of 5 inches. The Ultra Dome has the advantage of excellent stability on a spring floor surface and plural use as a small spotting block or preschool “shape”. Low cost, simple storability and great portability can provide multiple training stations and better lesson environments. UPS shippable.

Gym-Trix

I’ve been happy with the Ultra Dome in the past. Light weight, but sturdy.

I’ve not used The Basic Mushroom®:

… The Basic MUSHROOM head is constructed of 100% self skinning foam, which will help prevent microtrauma to the gymnast’s wrists and elbows. The working surface is textured to provide a non-slip surface. The MUSHROOM base is a white high density polyethylene plastic and has hand cut outs for easy portability. The base stands 15″ tall.The MUSHROOM head is 24″ in diameter as specified for U.S.A.G. competition. The 5″ tall MUSHROOM head attaches easily to the base with a tightening knob or can be used separately from the base for floor circles. The total height of the MUSHROOM and base is 20″ and the weight is 25 lbs. – T182

FREE SHIPPING inside the continental US! Price: $280.00

Gymnastics Products

Or, perhaps, the AAI:

The new TAC/10 surface is only available on this brand, and offers gymnasts an excellent surface to prevent slipping of the hands when performing circles.

* TAC/10 Pommel Training Pod is designed for use in teaching pommel horse skills
* TAC/10 cover provides easy cleaning with excellent grip and durability
* Top is 25″ (635 mm) in diameter and 18″ (457 mm) in height
* Removable top is marked with an “X” for proper hand placement

American Gymnast | Products | AAI TAC/10 Pommel Trainer NEW!

Durability is the most important factor to me.

But the option in future to add alternate tops with pommel(s) might be worth a premium.

Leave a comment if you have any recommendation on this search. The Ultra Dome costs about $250 plus shipping.