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The old blanket objection to any prepubescent athlete using any weights is slowly disappearing.

It’s obvious to me from personal experience that very young children can condition in very similar ways to adults.

My objection to youth weightlifting is not that it is unsafe, but that it is inefficient. Take identical twins. Put one in the weight room 10hrs / week and one in a gymnastics program 10hrs / week.

Within a month you would see a conspicuous advantage in most motor and physical traits for the gymnast.

I often recommend free weight and even weight machines for young athletes — but normally only as a general conditioning supplement to the “real” conditioning in the gym using their own body weight as resistance. Or to correct a muscular imbalance.

Safety is a slight concern for me. The worst accident I have seen in years was a gymnast who dropped a free weight on his toe. (He was fooling around without permission at the time in socked feet.)

Still, it is worth checking this article to see what the most recent research is showing:

… There are still those who insist that training with weights and particularly the sport of weightlifting should be avoided until a person is fully developed. …

The lack of data is the issue; the alarmist negative response by well-meaning physicians and scientists has done an immeasurable disservice to the sport of weightlifting.

The sport is actually safer than is generally believed, especially if training and competition are appropriate for the age group and properly supervised …

USOC Olympic Coach E-magazine article

photo – CrossFit Kids

Sheena Steacy at Altadore showed me a smart drill for getting kids to “stand up” on take-off for front tuck on beam, focusing on correct body position.

It’s also good psychology to do the front up on to a high landing surface.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

more GymnasticsCoaching.com videos

Just added a link to the Gymbrooke blog news page under “Blogs” on the right hand navigation. I subscribe to their RSS feed, as well, to keep informed on what new topics they post.

Gymbrooke posts gymnastics news from the perspective of Ontario, Canada. They look at the big picture, as well, with content on College and Olympic sport.

I am happy to say, they just picked up one of our posts praising Grant Golding, winner of Men’s Elite Canada last weekend.

Gymbrooke.com

I was impressed with Adam Ondra, a world ranked rock climber at age 11.

Then I saw video of Gisela Pulido, a World Champion in the booming sport of Kite Surfing at age 10, I believe. She was too young to compete in one World Championships, but won the other, KPWT (Kiteboard Professional World Tour), 2004, 2005.

photos and interview with Gisela Pulido and her father – ikiteboarding.com

A video of the wonder child from Spain is posted on YouTube. This kid takes some major air.

Kite Surfing is extremely difficult. I am very surprised Giselita could get so good at such a young age.

Gisela Pulido – official website

I’ve heard the meet will be much improved this year.

MARCH 1-4, 2007

BRENTWOOD SCHOOL
100 S. BARRINGTON PLACE
BRENTWOOD, CA 90049

LogoPage

As an “inactive judge” (I missed the FIG course for this quadrennial) I saw things more objectively at the competition last weekend.

If you are not judging or coaching, gymnastics meets are slow and boring in Canada. The “action” is short compared with the period of time I spent sitting on my butt.

I love gymnastics — but, as a spectator, was ready to exit when the meet was half over.

Certainly some of the American competitions are much more efficiently run than are ours in Canada. Some competitions there do everything they can to shorten the meet.

Post-competition I visited (drank beer) with the judges and heard the usual concerns.

“The judging regulations are not clear. Not smart.”

“The rules are changed too often. It is confusing for judges and coaches.”

“I’m giving up my holidays / missing work to judge.”

This competition the judges were aggravated by being charged a $50 “membership fee” in my region. For some reason the Provincial Gymnastics Association does not deduct that $50 from the first honoraria judges get each season — far easier for all concerned. (I immediately offered to have my club pay that fee for the judges in my city.)

Correction – judges can have the $50 deducted from honoraria, I am informed.

Bottom line — Canada does not treat their judges well enough. When we judge in the USA we are well paid and treated with respect. That is not the case, normally, in Canada.

Zhang Nan, China, 147.5cm (4.8ft), 38kg (83.8lb)

Small, light athletes have a huge advantage in acrobatic sports.

This is wonderful for those kids. (They certainly aren’t getting selected for basketball at school.)

Some female World and Olympic competitors weigh as little as 70-80 pounds (31-36kg). These young women are tiny, though the average height and weight must be increasing as difficulty becomes more important relative to artistry.

A study focusing on talent selection included these points of interest:

Girls who are naturally small in structure and slim have a greater chance of being a good performer.

Although bigger gymnasts also had stronger legs, this did not help them to outperform the smaller more agile gymnasts. Hence it may be that a small structure is a better predictor to good performance than being strong.

Gymnasts who had a high strength to weight ratio also produced high levels of performance. Therefore, strength is only a relevant predictor of good performance if it is considered closely with body mass. This was particularly obvious in skills where there was less technique involved. The results indicate that as the skill became more technical (ie the back salto) girls with good technique could outperform those with a high strength : weight ratio.

…a gymnast twists she needs her body to be as narrow as possible to permit speedy (twisting).

Talent Identification in Elite Gymnasts: Why Body Size is so Important – Joanne Richards – Western Australian Institute of Sport Gymnastics

Wow.

This short clip shows most of the “big trick” moments in gymnastics history.

Shame it is so hard to watch in the low resolution flash format.

Click PLAY, or watch extreme tumbling on YouTube.

For once I was a spectator at the Canadian Men’s National Team Selection Meet, not a judge.

After a long break from competition (training with Cirque du Soleil for some months), Grant Golding of University of Calgary never looked better, dominating the Men’s AA.

It left me scratching my head. “How could Grant be named non-competing alternate at Worlds? He looks fantastic.”

Canada came 6th in Denmark without Grant. What would they have done with him on the team?

Everyone agreed Grant’s line, style, extension was much improved. (Perhaps the artistic training at Cirque.)

‘’The hard work and hard training has really paid off,’’ said Golding. ‘’It really feels good to come to this meet and hit all my routines. It gives me a lot of confidence for next year which is a big one for us with the worlds serving as an Olympic qualifier. All the guys know we have to keep working hard.’’

2006 Gymnastics Canada

The other big surprise for me was the excellent day 2 competition of young Luke Boyd also from U of C. He hit 6 for 6 and looked very much a Senior competitor.

In Junor, Jayd Lukenchuk of Saskatoon was the winner despite errors. Good gymnastics. Good potential for the future. There are a few more very good prospects in the age group program.

Addition: Thanks to hosts U of C Gymnastics Centre, Unocal Parents Association, Alberta Gymnastics and Gymnastics Canada for hosting the meet, again in Calgary. This has become almost a permanent annual home for the meet, either at U of Calgary or at Calgary Gymnastics Centre.

Canada is strong now. But does not have much depth.

The high performance competitive structure which has developed the excellent current team under National Coach Edouard Iarov, I feel, is too severe. Too discouraging for athletes and coaches.

For example, having Juniors compete FIG is crazy, in my opinion. The boys have too much incentive to do long routines emphasizing difficulty over quality. Under the current international rules, our system should plan to develop difficulty over a longer number of years.

There were many injuries and near injuries. More than in the past.

The current code of points is excellent for deciding the rank of the best 8 in the World. But is dangerous for the vast majority of competitors.

Kazakhstan won their first rhythmic gymnastics team title with a stylish display at the Doha Asian Games on Saturday.

Japan took the silver medal with 144.750 points, failing to close the gap with Asian champions Kazakhstan, who performed in the final rotation to finish with 148.600 and earned the top combined score on three apparatuses (rope, ball and ribbon).

China took the bronze medal with 142.775 points, ending their sweep of the team titles since rhythmic gymnastics was included in the Asian Games in 1998.

Team leader Aliya Yussupova of Kazakhstan performed with fluid movement, artistry and expression to lift Kazakhstan’s score.

People’s Daily Online — Kazakhstan wins first team title at Asiad rhythmic gymnastics

photos – Aliya Yussupova, Longines Ambassadress of Elegance