Sands on ‘placebo effect’

I was honoured that Dr. Bill Sands took the time to state his opinion on the placebo effect. That was in the comments on this post — Doc Ali on mental toughness

Bill Sands:

There is some argument as to whether or not placebo effects are real. …

… I do not think there is a placebo effect. Period. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. …

… Which makes sense to my reductionist materialistic way of thinking: why would actively doing nothing have any measurable physiologic effect? It shouldn’t and it doesn’t. Mind over matter? Bah, humbug. …

Bill is no beat-around-the-busher.

If interested, or if you want to respond, read Dr. Sand’s entire long comment including references here. It’s not easy to argue with Bill, be warned.

Bill does concede that placebos sometimes seem to work, especially when data is subjective and when pain is rated. So don’t completely rule out placebo as a modality, but don’t claim sugar pills cure AIDS, either.

Dr Sands takes on a new position at the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) in Colorado Springs starting 15 December 2011. Congratulations.

a John Roethlisberger story

John Roethlisberger is one of the gymnasts I admired most. Tough. Dedicated. Very difficult to defeat in competition. A warrior.

One time, he was too tough.

“Pack A Lunch and Grind it Out”……..As the Olympic Year approaches several of our USA National Team Members are in a battle with time to recover from injuries. In this segment of our Flash Back Interview with John Roethlisberger, John talks about his moment when his gymnastics came to a stand still between injury and time. John talks about his ACL Tear at US Championships in 1998 and his battle back from the injury at the age of 29.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS VIDEO SHOWS HIS INJURY ON VAULT

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NTMxNTEyMTQw?related=1

I showed up at his gym one day, invited by his father/coach. Though he had no idea who I was, John instantly connected. In the first few moments he told me that he’d never retire from National Team — somebody would have to take his spot away.

Danell Leyva may have John’s kind of career. Three Olympics.

gymnastics in Ireland

Things are happening.

Louis Smith was designated spokesman (to interest media) in a rebranding – ‘Gymnastics Ireland’ replacing Irish Gymnastics.

Geoff Rellis is back from very serious neck and spine injury on handspring double front vault.

And Luke Carson Kieran Behan this year won a World Cup medal, an Irish Gymnastics first.

Click PLAY or watch that routine on YouTube.

Up and up.

Trampoline Worlds Birmingham

Nov. 17-20, 2011

The FIG page is now up. And the official home page — BirminghamTT2011.com

With the Olympics in London next year, this is a great opportunity to interest the general public in the 3 T&T disciplines.

World Age Groups same venue Nov. 24-27th.

65th All Japan Championships

I was only able to attend a half day of the 3 day meet last weekend. But results are posted online as Japanese PDFs. And there are some articles, as well, than can be Google translated to a kind of Jinglish.

Find those on the Japan Gymnastics Association home page. There’s nothing yet on the English page.

… Leave a comment if you’ve seen any reports in English.

Kohei:

By the next year’s Olympics, I want to challenge the limits of the rules now.

Just as I was advising him. 🙂 He needs to get even further ahead of … Philipp Boy.

More namedropping. You’ve heard of Koji Gushiken (pic). And Naoya Tsukahara. (pic)

A guest of one of my gymnastics mentors, Shiro Tanaka, it’s lucky we only made it half way around the arena. There would have been many more embarrassing photo ops.

air flares on Floor Exercise

I saw one gymnast warm them up at Worlds Tokyo. (Leave a comment if you know who that was.) Who’s competed Air Flare since Morgan Hamm?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

side somi – a rant

This is what I’ve been waiting for — a blog dedicated to Judging.

It’s called The E Panel.

LloydM began posting in August and already has a lot of interesting and entertaining content.

Here’s one sample.

… what on earth is the point of doing something if it looks so heinous? …

read more

Subscribe via RSS to The E Panel. Or you can follow those posts on Twitter @TheEpanel.

A non expert, opinion based gymnastics blog: from admiration to condemnation, adoration to irritation and a bit of stupidity.

All that said — I actually like side somi on Beam. It’s different than any other skill.