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Seems every gymnastics club I visit lately has athletes training Capoera (Capoeira).

Kyle Shewfelt, Olympic Floor champion 2004, considered adding Capoeira elements to his routine.

Dozens of video games, TV commercials and films include Capoeira movements.

So what is Capoeira?

It’s a Brazilian martial art developed initially by African slaves. It’s interesting to coaches because it includes extreme acrobatic elements too difficult for gymnasts! One arm handstand spins, for example.

Good Capoeristas often also breakdance & take their acrobatics to the street.

There are plenty of video clips tagged with Capoera on YouTube.

Photo from Capoeira.com

It was a lifelong goal of mine to attend a Woodward Camp. I finally got there in 2005.

There are actually 3 Woodward Camps:

Lake Owen, Wisconsin

Woodward West, California

Woodward, Pennsylvania

I chose Woodward West because many Canadian coaches and gymnasts had raved about that facility and location. It is beautiful. Markos Baikos, in fact, insisted I go.

Woodward West is a huge camp, half boys, half girls. They offer gymnastics and cheer, as well as some trampoline, tumbling and acrosport.

The Action Sports offered: BMX, skateboard and in-line skating.

Woodward thinks BIG. Their goal for every athlete: Have the best week of your life!

Details on the Woodward website

Last summer I spent 3 weeks being WOWED by Charlie Tamayo, 2001 World Championships medallist for Cuba now living in the States. We were both coaching at Woodward West Gymnastics Camp in California.

charlie tamayo on Vimeo

Don Eckert, the Elite coach at Woodward, posted this clip. Don has one of the most astonishing video collections of unique skills anywhere!

Inside Gymnastics magazine posts video clips from training and competition and interviews with popular gymnasts.

We need more gymnastics video sites on the net.

IGTV on Inside Gymnastics magazine

Best is to download (right click) the video to your own computer. Then play it. Streaming video is problematic.

American-Gymnast.com: What type of adjustments have you made in your training in order to stay competitive at the age of 25?

Mohini Bhardwaj: Cross training was one way. I did weights, yoga classes, and cardio. I focused on different ways of exercising as opposed to spending all of my time in the gym. That also kept me from getting bored. It was so much easier when I had variety. If you spend your whole life in the gym, it’s nice to have some variety. During training, I spend a lot less time in the gym. I was more focused on being efficient instead of getting a lot of numbers in. I would listen to my body and not do things unless I felt prepared. I tumbled more into the pit instead of on the floor, taking softer landings. When you get older …

To read the rest of the interview, you would need to join American-Gymnast.com (free membership for now) and click on the TRAINING TIPS link.

American-Gymnast.com is one of the best places on the internet for gymnastics coaches.

On that site Mohini Bhardwaj, 2004 US Olympic Team captain, has an article where she teaches the free hip circle on bars with a series of video clips. And she is the demonstrator.

After seeing the article, coach Jacob Small took a laptop into the gym (connected by wireless internet) and had the kids try Mohini’s progressions. They loved it.

To see for yourself you would need to join American-Gymnast.com (free membership for now) and click on the TRAINING TIPS link.

The other day I was consulting with a parent board of directors.

I mentioned that a surprising number of gymnastics coaches are nervous to speak with parents and terrified of parent Board of Directors.

Wag Stephen Neal interjected, “They are PARENTnoid.”

The perfect word!

Successful coaches over the long-term learn to work closely with parents. Once parents understand the goals of the program, once parents are on-side with the goals of the coach, success is almost guaranteed.

Athletes all have ups and downs during their athletic careers. Every once in a while almost every athlete has the urge to quit. (Often later greatly regretting it.)

But I can think of dozens of times over my coaching career when myself and the parents were so committed to the goals of the program, that the athlete had no option to quit.

If the parent has questions about the program, the athlete is far more likely to drop out at a low point.

Related post:

management of gymnastics clubs

American-Gymnast.com gurus Jay Thornton & Stephen McCain posted a great article on the single most important piece of men’s equipment for training at home — a set of parallettes.

To see the article you need to join American-Gymnast.com (free membership for now) and click on the TRAINING TIPS link.

By now you have probably seen photos of Pro Skateboarder Danny Way jumping the Great Wall of China.

Simply amazing.

But recently I saw video of the crash where he hurt his ankle on YouTube.

The quality is poor as it often is from YouTube.

Way has posted good video of 5 separate jumps on DannyWay.com

It’s well worth watching the whole story from Way’s point of view. Fast computer and high speed internet needed.

Super coach Dave Ross built the Supertramp, 13×21 feet, a one of a kind.

On an earlier version (in the mid-1980s!) Jose Antonio of Spain performed triple layout with triple twist.

Even more impressive is Jason Burnett’s routine with 10 triple somersaults in series. Check out the video on the Rebound Trampoline website.

This shows that trampoline still has a long way to go in advancing difficulty.