Gymnastics Coaching.com

Dean Potter is one of the most interesting extreme athletes in history.

A childhood fear became Dean’s destiny.

Dean Potter is characterized by creativity, commitment and challenge. He started climbing as a child, with a free solo fall from a stone wall as one of his earliest memories. Since that time, he has speed soloed Half Dome and El Capitan, Cerro Torre, and Fitzroy. He was the first to make a one-day free ascent of El Cap and Half Dome, and a one-day speed linkup of both of those big walls and Mount Watkins, Yosemites third Grade VI wall. He has also established testpiece crack routes in the Utah desert and highball boulder problems in Yosemite.

Dean has walked the longest highlines, often without a safety leash, though he has dedicated over a decade of engineering and testing to create the safest highline systems currently used. Most recently, he has combined BASE jumping skill with highlining and free soloing, using a specially engineered ultralight BASE rig as his backup system. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tom Otjes, from Cirque du Soleil, just got back from China. He did some touring with talent scout Jun Chen.

Tom posted this photo on Facebook.

The gyms in China are certainly improving!

Killer choreography.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Recommended by Valérie Oudin. Merci.

The 1992 Olympian from Bulgaria, Silvia Mitova, was famously underscored. Despite that, she finished 11th AA in Barcelona.

In 1993 Silvia was nearly paralyzed training double twisting double back on Floor. That was the end of her career.

She has her own gym in Zieglerville, PA, Silvia’s Gymnastics.

I’ve added a link in the right hand navigation to the best new gymnastics coaching manual in years.

Dwight Normile’s review on International Gymnast:

Click through to read the rest: June – Chalk Talk – ‘Championship Gymnastics’ Scores Very High Marks

That link takes you to the online magazine.

I’ve talked to several coaches who bought a copy. Reviews are unanimously good, especially for the illustrations.

They grumble about the price ($79) … but agree the 280 page text is excellent.

Order it from the official website – Winning Gymnastics. Or phone 888-796-5229.

Or you might try to catch Dr. George at one of his seminars this summer.

Or … you could get the dead tree June edition of International Gymnast magazine.

Komova’s on the cover. Good call!

After meeting up with his first coach, Kelly Manjak, the 2004 Olympic Floor champion Kyle Shewfelt was inspired:

… This past November, at the Alberta Gymnastics Federation year end banquet, they surprised me with this AMAZING video.

They also flew in Kelly, my former coach, to be a part of the celebration and it was a very special and emotional night!

This video represents my career in a nutshell and I absolute love watching it. It brings a tear to my eye every time…

Thanks to Robin Marsden for putting it together. I am forever grateful. …

My Favourite Video…

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This must be Shewfelt video week. I previously posted 2 new videos featuring Kyle. (Tumbling clinic and Festival 2011 interview)

… ACL tears are 4 to 8 times more frequent in females than males …

I’m still trying to get my head around that statistic. It’s simply not what I’ve seen in gymnastics knee injury over my lifetime.

Update – Commenters quickly pointed out that female gymnasts are far more fit than the average female athlete. These statistics are for all sports. Our stats are likely quite different.

Perfect 10 Physical Therapy and Personal Training has launched a program oddly named:

Cincinnati DNA Plyometeric and agility program

… increase jumping height, improve jumping and landing efficiency, improve landing mechanics for a perfect stick and in the process decrease the risk for injuries including ACL injuries. …

It’s a a 6 week program, 3x/wk plyometrics and agility, 2x/wk weights geared to physically prepare the female gymnast.

Click through to see a 7min video on the program.

And contact Perfect 10 if you want to know more. We might get some ideas of drills to include in our own injury prevention conditioning programs.

From grizzle in the U.K. aka mbm aka misstady [well, rizzo] aka grizzoline.

… Features Terin Humphrey, Nastia Liukin, Sarah Shire, Hollie Vise, Nadezhda Ivanova, Alina Kozich, Anna Pavlova, Courtney McCool & LVE among others …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube

(via Gymtage)

USA Gymnastics will celebrate the accomplishments of the USA’s 1980 Olympic Gymnastics Team on Saturday, Aug. 14, as part of the final day of the 2010 Visa Championships in Hartford, Conn.

Thirty years ago, the 1980 USGF International Invitational, the alternate Olympic competition for gymnastics, was held at the Hartford Civic Center, now known as the XL Center, after President Jimmy Carter decided the United States would boycott the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, Soviet Union. …

The members of the women’s 1980 Olympic Team are: Luci Collins Cummings of Inglewood, Calif.; Marcia Frederick Blanchette of Assomet, Mass.; Kathy Johnson Clarke of Longwood, Fla.; Beth Kline Rybacki of Upland, Calif.; Amy Koopman Enxing of Village of Lakewood, Ill.; Julianne McNamara Zeile of Thousand Oaks, Calif.; and Tracee Talavera Kent of Tallahassee, Fla. Ernestine Weaver was the head coach, and Paul Ziert was the assistant coach.

The men’s team is comprised of: Phil Cahoy of Omaha, Neb.; Bart Conner of Norman, Okla.; Ron Galimore of Indianapolis, Ind.; Larry Gerard of Fort Worth, Texas; Jim Hartung of Lincoln, Neb.; Peter Vidmar of Coto de Caza, Calif.; and Mike Wilson of Plano, Texas. Francis Allen was the head coach, with Bill Meade as the assistant. …

read more – USAG – 1980 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team will be recognized at ’10 Visa Championships

Congratulations.

Looking back, the two boycotted Olympics seem a tragic waste.

… Should we have the Olympians compete? What MAG and what WAG gymnast would win if they put the grips back on in 2010?

Vidmar and McNamara?

The 2000 Olympic medalist from Russia on the beach in Vancouver, B.C.

It’s Yekaterina Lobaznyuk‘s birthday today.

StickItMedia:

For the third time in the last four seasons, the SCATS Men’s Gymnastics program (in Huntington Beach, CA) has produced a national champion. Last month, Sam Mikulak earned the Level 10 (16-18) all-around gold in a hard fought battle against Jesse Silverstein. Mikulak’s exploits were key to helping SCATS win the Level 10 national team championship as well. …

Coached by Grigor Chalikyan and Albert Avchian, Mikulak is capping off a remarkable club career as one of the sport’s most consistent competitors over the years. His 91.55 is the highest ever JO Nationals all-around score under the current scoring system. Along the way, he has become one of America’s best vaulters …

read more – StickItMedia Exclusive Interview: Sam Mikulak

This photo is from last year …

Sam joins Michigan this Fall. … I’m thinking Michigan may be the team to beat in 2011 after that astonishing 2010 season.

Talking to the Canadian National team coaches last week, many raved about the up-and-coming MAG talent in the USA. … They raved about the Pommel Horse in the U.K., even more, though.