Gymnastics Coaching.com

There was some hope that the excellent University California Berkeley men’s gymnastics coach might stay. I hoped.

But Tuesday, June 29th Barry announced his resignation.

… “I’m very proud of the work we have done over the last 20 years here at Cal – not just the great teams and champions, but I’m proud of all the great people who have left their mark,” Weiner said. “Mostly, I am proud of the contributions that our student-athletes have made and continue to make in all walks of life. I have been very fortunate to have spent 19 great years coaching at Cal. I am going to miss working with all of the great kids and people who make up the Cal community.” …

I’ve written a letter to the Chancellor of the University in support of the Men’s team. … But I have to tell you, I’m much less optimistic about the fight now that Barry is gone.

Click PLAY or watch a video featuring classic Barry Weiner on Gymnastike.

related:

Gymnastike – Cal Berkeley Gymnastics IS in Jeopardy but YOU can Help!

Cal Gymnastics Forever

Couch Gymnast says that former Women’s Head Coach Nicolae Forminte has returned after a month “retired”.

Sounds like he may be the official Vault coach of the team.

Deng was a member of the Chinese team at the 2008 Olympic Games and participated in the preliminary and team final rounds of competition. In the preliminary team competition, Deng performed on all four apparatuses. She was ranked ninth overall after the preliminary round; however, Deng did not advance to the individual all-around final because no more than two gymnasts may represent each country in the all-around competition.

She’s the current Beam World and and National Champion (VIDEO).

June 29 – Waveney Gymnastics Club in Lowestoft have pulled off a coup by signing a deal for Canada’s team to base themselves there before the London 2012 Olympics.

Jeff Thomson, the technical director for men’s artistic gymnastics at Gymnastics Canada, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the club, having agreed to use the venue as their base in the build up to the Games.

Canada first welcomed to Waveney in September 2009 when the men’s team spent 10 days there in preparation for the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held at the O2 Arena, the same venue will be used for London 2012.

The club is one of only a few to be wholly equipped for men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics with Gymnova equipment, the named equipment manufacturer for gymnastics at London 2012.

In March Azerbaijan agreed with Ipswich for its full team to train there. …

Last week the Pegasus Gymnastics Club in Maidstone signed a deal for Slovenia to train there. …

Inside the Games – Waveney Gymnastics Club signs deal with Canada for London 2012

Thanks Brett.

Sport is boring if you know who’s going to win.

Upsets are exciting.

Here’s a Nike ad cheering the underdogs.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’ve often told kids: “You don’t need to be better than the #1 competition. … But you want to be close enough that you can win if they miss.”

via Cirque’s Marceline Goldstein on Facebook

One of the few men to have ever completed a Ninja Warrior (Sasuke) obstacle course, here’s a highlights video of #2, Makoto Nagano, the astonishing Japanese fisherman who’s bested dozens of gymnasts and other strong men.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I saw this video linked from the excellent GymnasticBodies.com blog:

… There are five stages to the Sasuke challenge, each of which must be successfully completed in order to move on. In my opinion, the final stage is particularly challenging; a 50′ chimney climb followed immediately by a 30′ rope climb – BOTH OF WHICH MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 60 SECONDS! …

Coach Sommer – Makoto Nagano Montage

Coach Sommer is a strength guru, author of the Building the Gymnastic Body manual and videos.

If you impress him, you’re strong.

Jenn Isbister is uploading some routines to the GymnCA YouTube channel.

Here’s 9yr-old Shallon Olsen proving that tiny, light girls can still vault Yurchenko. She was 2nd AA.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Jordyn Pedersen, Oakville Gymnastics, finished 1st AA in the same division.

Click PLAY or watch her Vault on YouTube.

The International Gymnastics Federation is stepping it up:

The clips filmed at the recent Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships in Rodez (FRA) are the first High Definition clips ever produced and offered online by the FIG. And that’s not all! The clip includes exclusive never-before-seen sequences filmed onsite and behind the scenes (VIDEO) in places only the FIG camera can go!

Click PLAY or watch Aerobic Gymnastics World’s Highlights on YouTube. Click over to High Def if you have a high speed connection.

As web video quality and coverage improves, can traditional TV compete?

I don’t think so.

Jeremy Mosier at a recent clinic recommended we prepare kids for double somersaulting skills by training “Cody” and backward “Kaboom”. (VIDEO)

Once you can do those, the double salto backwards seems easy.

Not on that video, but another great drill for double back is “gainer“. (backward salto travelling forwards)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Trampoline guru George Hery talks about using gainer as preparation for flyaway. True.

But those same gainer drills are great psycho-motor preparation for double back, as well. If a young gymnast is not comfortable with gainer, I don’t want them doing double back.

Gainers teach them how to get around when under-rotating.

Watch more gymnastic training videos on TheGymnastic Minute Channel on YouTube. Support the Gymnastics Minute free videos by . buying GymSmarts DVDs

Sports Girls Play has a good post – Tips for Dealing with Gymnast’s Hand Rips.

Great content, as always.

But it mentions using tea bags to “reduce the pain and speed the healing of the rip“.

This was common with War wounds decades ago, especially when medics had nothing else.

Some tea (green and black) has tannin, not tanic acid.

The two terms are often confused. There’s a clarification on Wiki Answers.

My question to the great gymnastics blog-o-sphere:

Does tannin from a wet tea bag actually do anything for a gymnasts hand rip?

Does it reduce pain?

Does it speed healing?

Or is this another “gym legend”? … A useful placebo?

Five minutes exhaustive research on the WWW couldn’t answer this question conclusively.