Gymnastics Coaching.com

… “Mark tricked me into thinking we were going to look at a house that his parents were buying, and when we pulled up closer to the area, he wanted to get out and look around,” Patterson said. “When we got out of the car we turned a corner and I saw rose petals and candles all over the ground with a ‘Will You Marry Me?’ sign. He also had champagne and a scrapbook opened that I had made him in our first year of dating, and he had finished the last page.” …

read more on IG – Patterson Gets Proposal, Gives Pre-Olympic Support

For the second day in a row I’ve subscribed to a new Trampoline blog.

It’s by LEIGH HENNESSY ROBSON, Owner and Coach of the Acadiana Center for Trampoline Techniques in Lafayette, LA.

Leigh is a film maker and Communications professional. It shows.

Check a recent post on the American women.

Trampoline Pundit

Raising Elite Athletes by Dr. Malcolm Conway

Written specifically for parents from grade school to college Dr. Malcolm Conway tears away the myths and falsehoods surrounding sports training, college recruiting, injury prevention and recovery, sports nutrition, coaching, and even “over-parenting.” Dr. Conway has interviewed 12 top world class athletes from various professional sports to ask them how they prepared as a young athlete. …

Amazon

I dunno. What about the many benefits of Elite Sport, Doctor?

Is this book fair and balanced?

… Leave a comment if you’ve read it.

VIG Gymnastics in Aarhus, Denmark is seeking head coaches for men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics. MAG chief Anatoly Babko will retire after this season.

details (PDF)

See more European coaching jobs on GYMmedia.

Thanks Helge Vammen.

Get yer Danell Leyva merch at Winter Cup.

Yeessooo! merchandise on Facebook

From Romania, Marta Karolyi hates sending American gymnasts to Europe.

Except for the annual Jesolo Trophy Invitational.

Couch Gymnast:

… The US have confirmed a delegation of 31 people …

Again, Team America will send so many strong girls that it will be impossible not to dominate.

Russia and Romania will be there to contest. It should be interesting.

If you have to choose between watching American Cup or Jesolo, … there is no choice. Viva Italia 🙂

related – results from 2011

… OK, that image has nothing to do with Jesolo. It’s from a funny post by Big Fake Smile making light of the recent gymnastics and skating “spectacular”

It’s PIT DAY on Gymnastics Coaching. I’ve been researching best, cheapest and most durable designs — both in ground and above ground.

Gymnova invented the “suspended” pit, so far as I know. The knock against the “suspended pit” design is that the foam top can be easily split by bigger athletes. I’ve heard that there is a more expensive kind of foam fill that is unsplitable, but it’s about twice the cost.

My gut feeling is that their built-in pit is more durable.

In ground or raised, it’s still nice to have loose foam for NEW skills.

Loose foam is messy. But cubes can be ordered with fire retardant covers.

Those images all come from the current Gymnova catalogue. (PDF)

Do you have a favourite pit design? Leave a comment, if so.

… After much consideration, I’m still leaning towards the Jim Walker design as best of the best.

What’s the best channel pit you’ve ever seen?

source

And what’s the least expensive you’ve ever seen?

Please leave a comment.

American Gymnastics in the comments likes the safety of semi-circle trench pits like this by GYMNOVA.

Tom Trapp, Diving coach, wonders whether there’s potential to use an extreme sports air bag for gymnastics?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That one is the Acrobag.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion on whether it could be used by circus acrobats, divers or gymnasts.

Woodward Copper Mountain should be the place to test one.

Apr 19-21st, 2012 Men – Norman, Oklahoma
2013 Men – University Park, Pennsylvania

Apr 20-22nd, 2012 Women – Duluth, Georgia (not Athens)
Apr 19-21st, 2013 Women – UCLA

I’ll be attending the women’s competition this year, hosted by Georgia Tech.

details