tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Realis was the stage name of World Acrobatic Gymnastics champions Arthur Davis and Shenea Booth who reached the finals NBC’s America’s Got Talent, Season 1 in 2006.
Click PLAY or watch the Realis finale performance on YouTube.
An 11 year old singer, Bianca Ryan, eventually took home the $1 million dollar first place prize.
The Magnificent 7 are on the Today show Saturday morning, Nov. 17th, including cute little Dominique Moceanu.
Except now she is 26-years-old and expecting.
An excellent interview:
Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu was only 14 years-old when she captured the world’s heart (and the gold medal!) at the 1996 Atlanta Games in the field of gymnastics. Today, Dominique, 26, is all grown up, married and expecting her first baby, a girl, on January 3rd.
We flew to Cleveland, Ohio to catch up with Dominique at the Gymnastics World Gym. She chatted with us about the pressures of being a young athlete, how she’s having a healthy pregnancy, and of course, winning Olympic Gold.
Click … for all the photos and interview highlights.
Photography: Gabbeli Photography
Nadia Shatila (MySpace) is a coach, personal fitness trainer and CrossFit trainer.
A former Nationally ranked gymnast, she has recently started teaching and training CrossFit at a gymnastics club.
More of us need to start doing the same. It’s lucrative supplementary income.
Unfortunately, in this interview (video) Nadia speaks of the problems she’s had trying to do so.
Worth a look if you are considering adding CrossFit to your program.
Photo source – Living Well: Strong abs not only look good, they help you feel better – Seattlepi.com
Thanks to Blair Lowe for the link. He does Crossnastic Gymnastics himself in California. In Blair’s experience, the cardio component of CrossFit is too much for many ex-gymnasts. It is intense!
Trudy McIntosh arrives in Orlando, Florida today to join Cirque at La Nouba.
That reminded me of Yvonne Tousek, one of the best gymnasts of her generation, double Olympian and 3 time NCAA Team champion with UCLA.
Last time I saw Yvonne she had just begun training with Cirque.
Time for an update.
Here’s a good (but older) article from the Denver Post, backstage at the Cirque du Soleil show, Corteo:
Keeping “Corteo’s” athletes and acrobats strong and healthy is an act in itself. By Suzanne S. Brown
…
Yvonne Tousek, who performs in five acts in the show, is an example of what it takes to be a professional athlete at this level. A Canadian who represented her country as a member of the Olympics team in 1996 and 2000, Tousek studied psychology at UCLA and led its gymnastics team to three NCAA championships. That many years of competition taught her to watch her diet and training schedule.
I try to eat mostly lean proteins and avoid fried foods,” she said. “I tend to eat five or six small meals per day. My biggest meal is after the show, which isn’t the best timing, but that’s how the schedule is. I’ll eat chicken or turkey, with no sauce or glaze, and some light carbs, such as a little rice. I’m not real big on vegetables, but I’m trying to eat them more.”
During the day, she snacks on yogurt, granola bars and fresh fruit. …
Tousek is one of six performers who bounce on trampolines styled as beds, engaged in a pillow fight that has them doing jumps and flips requiring impeccable timing and accuracy to prevent midair collisions. “It takes a high amount of focus,” she said. Then, toward the end of the production, she’s one of only a few women who do giant swings on the high bar. In between, she takes comedic turns as a human golf ball and one-half of a horse, so the show involves lots of running and costume changes, as well as a demanding physical performance.
Bouncing Beds
Staying strong:
At 5 feet 3 inches tall, Tousek, 27, is a petite powerhouse who supplements rehearsals with the troupe by working out a couple of times a week at the fitness center where she’s living. She builds cardiovascular strength with workouts on the elliptical machine or treadmill. She also takes Pilates and yoga classes with the other artists.
The schedule sounds exhausting, but Tousek says that being able to perform as part of the cast of “Corteo” is liberating. She’s allowed artistic expression that isn’t possible in competitive gymnastics, where every movement must be done with precision. “Compared to college, where you had to do things exactly, this is much more personal. You’re able to engage the audience,” she said.
The degree of concentration needed to perform in sync with others was something she had to learn, however. “I still get nervous,” she admitted.
One of Tousek’s partners in both the trampoline and high-bar scenes is Damian Istria, a 24-year-old Australian gymnast who also competed in the 2000 Olympic Games.
Istria, who has been with Cirque one year, said he aspired to be in the company because it requires athleticism and acting, and that the standards are high. “It’s one of the things I’ve always wanted to do,” he says. “The atmosphere is amazing.”
The most demanding schedule comes on the weekends, when he performs twice a day. He does an hour of strength training and conditioning before the first show. Between shows, he eats dinner, stretches and prepares for the evening performance.
Mental preparation is important too. “You stay on edge when you work with five guys that are swinging around you,” Istria says.
The Denver Post – Workouts with Cirque
Tournik – horizontal bar act
images from forodvdmania
Corteo – video preview
Did you see the IMAX film Everest?
Ed Viesturs, one of the best high altitude climbers (who lived to tell the tale), reveals in his autobiography No Shortcuts to the Top that he “was wasting his time” in off-season conditioning. For years.
No one had ever questioned Ed’s self-designed program.
Finally he got some coaching, a personal fitness trainer completely revising his strength training program. Ed now advocates “functional training”: specificity.
From Ed’s website:
Running: Typically 7-8 miles a day on hilly roads (approximately 1 Hour) – 4 days on, 1 day off.
Weight Training: I try to train with weights two to three times a week. I work all parts of my body and try to focus on my core as well. The exercises I do simulate the movements that I make while climbing, lifting a pack, shoveling snow, and climbing steep and varied terrain. Many exercises are done while balancing on inflated half balls or while standing on one leg. I do a low number of sets with a high number of repetitions keeping the weight moderate for strength and endurance. This upper body work helps me when carrying a pack, shoveling a tent platform, and provides me general strength to make it through a long day in the mountains.
Every athlete needs a coach. Even Tiger Woods. Even Ed Viesturs.
About Ed Viesturs – official website
I highly recommend the book. It’s written for the general public, not the mountaineering elite.
No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks
The list is final.
I should have guessed my favourite American gymnast would be #1. She has had some injury problems, though. Is Shayla durable enough for the NCAA?
She could turn pro.
TOP-5 ELITES : :
… Number 1 – Shayla Worley
… Number 2 – Bianca Flohr
… Number 3 – Christa Tanella
… Number 4 – Randy Stageberg
… Number 5 – Darlene Hill
Shayla Worley is on everybody’s wish list and it’s because she has superb skills on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise – and will easily augment a college team’s vault line-up with a very nice Yurchenko 1/1, or even a 1.5.
more details – GymGemz.com’s Top 5 Elite College Prospects
original – flickr – Chalkbowl
Social networking on sites like Facebook are fun. But they can be useful too.
As an experiment, we’ve put up a Facebook page for Gymnastics Coaching. (You can click through from the top of every page on this site if you wish to try it.)
Facebook members can post photos, videos and comments directly.
If you’ve no interest in social networking, here’s a short video making light of the trend:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Music – A Social Network for Two – by Ze Frank. Graphics by Shaun Moriarity.
Gymnastics Coaching – Facebook
International GYMNAST Online has the best preview article on the Pan Arab Games which starts today:
Sherine Elzeiny and Mohamed Serour, Egypt’s two Olympic qualifiers, will headline the competition at the 11th Pan Arab Games, which begin Wednesday in Cairo. …
The first Pan Arab Games were held in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1953, with nine nations competing in 10 sports. The games were held every four years through 1965, when political instability began hindering regular organization. The games were held only twice during the next two decades: in 1976 in Syria and in 1985 in Morocco.
The games are still held intermittently, happening in 1992 in Syria, in 1997 in Lebanon, in 1999 in Jordan and in 2004 in Algeria.
The 2007 edition will be the largest yet. Twenty-two countries are competing in 33 sports, including both artistic and rhythmic gymnastics.
Recall the terrific gymnast from Australia? She competed full twisting front lay-out on Vault.
… gymnast Trudy McIntosh has joined the magic of Cirque du Soleil.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist will begin performing in the entertainment empire’s La Nouba production at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, next week.
She has just completed 10 weeks of intensive training at the Cirque du Soleil headquarters in Montreal, Canada.
…
Trudy, who turned to aerial skiing after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, last year made a remarkable comeback to gymnastics in a bid to qualify for the Beijing Games.
But former coach Mark Calton said her body failed to hold up to the rigours of elite gymnastics and she was forced to close the door on her dream of making it to another Olympic Games.
Calton, who also works as a scout for Cirque du Soleil in Australia, sent an audition video of Trudy to the company after she made the decision to retire from gymnastics. She was accepted a month later.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 