Gymnastics Coaching.com

Inspirational video linked by Kyle Shewfelt.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I love the Michael Jordan story.

It reminds me of his fantastic Nike commercial called Failure.

This guy’s got skillz, as a rock climber or free runner.

Jumping from one rock to the other, scaling walls or any man-made height without any aid, Jyoti Raju truly lives up to his nick name ‘monkey king’. He entertains visitors at the Chitradurga Fort in southern India by his monkey-like acrobatics.

Click PLAY or watch him scramble on YouTube.

Search YouTube for “Koti Raj – Chitradurga” to see more.

The title of an article in the August 2007 issue of USA Gymnastics Technique magazine.

Some downsides familiar to all coaches:

Undermining children’s confidence

Instilling fear of failure

Stunting growth and development

Raising anxiety levels

Strategies for coaches:

Encourage parents to take advantage of disappointment

Promote open communication with the child

Support a parent in letting go a little at a time

Cheer on parents who stay strong

Be patient and consistent.

I can recall many success stories of parents in the past who learned to let their kids grow up through gymnastics.

Certainly the terrible story of Jaycee Lee Dugard being abducted at age-11 will make some parents more protective.

Another step forward for NCAA.

The National Gymnastics Foundation, in partnership with USA Gymnastics, is creating a Collegiate Gymnastics Developmental Fund. The fund’s goal is to provide solutions to support collegiate programs in peril and offer educational and business training for coaches and program administrators to assist them in building financially secure programs. The Collegiate Gymnastics Developmental Fund complements the initiatives USA Gymnastics already has in place to support collegiate gymnastics.

“Collegiate gymnastics is a vital part of the gymnastics fabric in the United States,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. …

In addition to the Collegiate Developmental Fund, the National Gymnastics Foundation already has scholarship programs in place for men’s collegiate gymnastics and trampoline athletes that are endowed through donations and fees. USA Gymnastics organizes national championships for both men’s and women’s gymnastics to supplement the NCAA National Gymnastics Championships. USA Gymnastics has taken an increasingly proactive role in supporting the collegiate arm of gymnastics; earlier this year it hosted a summit to discuss the issues facing collegiate gymnastics and assisted in a fundraising effort for Cal State Fullerton women’s gymnastics team.

The Collegiate Developmental Fund (CDF) will be supported through public and private donations, as well as through some existing funds in the National Gymnastics Foundation. The NGF has dedicated funds valued at $100,000 to seed the CDF.

“The Foundation is still working out the details for the fund,” said Bob Wood, chair of the National Gymnastics Foundation. “No grants will be issued until the guidelines and parameters for funding and distribution are solidified. We are excited about the opportunities the Fund will present, and we hope the gymnastics community will band together to build a solid endowment for this effort.”

“This is a huge step forward,” commented Mike Lorenzen, president of NACGC/W. “We are very excited about the opportunity to work with USA Gymnastics and the National Gymnastics Foundation to identify solutions to maintain and develop new college programs.”

“It is important for us to work together to sustain NCAA gymnastics as an important goal for all of our athletes,” said Mike Burns, president of the College Gymnastics Association for men’s gymnastics. …

The National Gymnastics Foundation was created from the energy and excitement generated by the gold-medal Olympic effort of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Proceeds totaling $1.4 million from the 1984 Olympics were used to establish the Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Today, the Foundation’s assets total approximately $4.3 million.

USAG – National Gymnastics Foundation, USA Gymnastics create Collegiate Gymnastics Developmental Fund

Where can people donate?

… you can order vibrantly-colored, durable, life-sized wall stickers of Johnson to hang on any wall …

$85 – WallStars

It’s far from a done deal.

In fact, I think Chicago will win out in the end. Madrid would be the second most likely, IMHO.

… there is an art to the way the International Olympic Committee drafts reports such as the one it made public Wednesday evaluating the four cities in the hunt for the 2016 Summer Games.

It’s not just what the report says, it’s how it says it and, almost important, what it doesn’t say.

Thus there’s an art as well to reading between the lines of these things, which is why Rio de Janeiro emerged as the report’s clear winner, the report not only buying into the Brazilian vision of the bid as catalytic force but reciting the “potential power of the Games to transform a city, a region and a country.”

read more on the Olympic Insider blog

Back to school. Back to regular training in my part of the world.

Actually, the T&T athletes are doing a kind of early season “boot camp” called Hell Week.

Here’s the latest month from Rik Feeney.

larger version (PDF)

Gymnastics Examiner has a good post on this most unusual and painful skill.

Cool skill alert: German giants in combination

Click PLAY or watch Chanen Raygoza on YouTube.

See more routines: Cool skill alert: German giants in combination

Personally I don’t like German Giants even when done by Men.

Tammy Biggs shows ballistic kicking drills to improve strength in flexibility using theraband elastic.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Gymnastics Minute is a series of free introductory video tips produced by GymSmarts.

vbtube posted this on The Chalk Bucket forum.

I worked extra hard on this one. It’s basically about how Ivana has struggled but she always does her best and comes through it stronger.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.