Gymnastics Coaching.com

A quirky, unusual montage.

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Over 175,000 views.

Intense, original choreography.

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Recommended by Valérie Oudin.

… Known for her unique artistry and spectacular skills, Strazheva was a member of the gold medal-winning Soviet team at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and the 1989 World Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart. She suffered a torn ligament in her knee during her optional balance beam routine in Seoul, and was unable to finish the competition. …

International Gymnast – 2009 interview

Today Olga is a physical education professor in her native Zaporozhye, Ukraine.

Will be honoured tonight.

Congratulations.

… From 1966 through 1999, when the program was dropped along with wrestling and men’s swimming, Mitchell’s Lobo men’s gymnasts were among the most consistent winners the University of New Mexico has produced in athletics. His teams won 11 conference titles and finished second on seven occasions. …

… Saturday, at the UNM Student Union Building, Mitchell will be the guest of honor at a UNM gymnastics reunion.

“This is amazing,” Mitchell said in a phone interview. “I can’t believe they’re doing this. I’ll be seeing people I haven’t seen in 20, 30 years.” …

Mitchell: A Coach Worth Toasting

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.

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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…

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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)