Gymnastics Coaching.com

The Olympic Gold Medal gymnast from 1984.

The movie star.

A celebrity endorser on the Home Shopping Network.

… surely you remember Mitch Gaylord.

Turns out he’s currently one of the top executives at Jewish Life Television:

… full-time Jewish television outlet. It broadcasts 24/7 from studios in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. Its line up includes a wide variety of themed programming, including motion pictures, documentaries, interviews, news and sports, entertainment, and numerous special events.

The network was launched in 2007 …

… After a successful stint leading the network’s coverage of the Maccabiah Games, commonly known as the Jewish Olympics and held in Israel

Here’s a recent interview:

… After a successful stint leading the network’s coverage of the Maccabiah Games, commonly known as the Jewish Olympics and held in Israel every four years, Gaylord became JLTV executive vice president.

“It’s not about me anymore, it’s about doing good in the world,” said Gaylord …

click through to read it – Former U.S. gymnast Gaylord still setting the bar high

Mitch was super talented as a gymnast. But famously arrogant and difficult to coach.

I wonder how much he’s actually mellowed over the years.

by site editor Rick McCharles

I’m attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland Aug. 27-30th.

There must be some great acrobatics here amongst the hundreds of acts. Leave a comment if you know of any.

I don’t link to many of these stories. But this one is big in the news in Scotland right now. A man is charged with abusing 14 girls and one boy over 22-years.

… A Scottish gymnastics coach accused of sexual assault has told a trial he did not behave inappropriately to the young female gymnasts he taught. …

BBC – Gymnastic coach sex charge denial

Most of these stories come out of North America, it seems.

Bruce Blake, a national level gymnastics coach, has joined the award-winning coaching staff at the North American Sports Academy in Gig Harbor.

…

Blake will join forces with directors Linda and John Smith at NASA Gymnastics to round out an accomplished staff.

Gateway – Experienced coach joins NASA Gymnastics staff

Congratulations, Bruce. Great gym. Great Staff.

Beautiful part of the world. Gig Harbour, Washington State.

ManicTrader posted a handstand on The Nose of Half Dome.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube

There’s an interesting thread on the International Gymnast forum:

do you think there’s a pattern between a gymnasts peak age, and their body type?

The discussion is around whether ectomorphs (e.g. Nastia) can continue in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics longer than mesomorphs (e.g Shawn Johnson).

There’s no research to back this up. But my gut tells me yes. I think it’s true.

… and I can’t believe we are still talking about whether Shawn Johnson will make a comeback. How many months does she have to be off training before fans concede.

Past Olympic gymnast for France, Frederick Nicolas, now with Cirque du Soleil, linked to an excellent edit.

This is my tribute to Benoît Caranobe, 2008 Bronze Medalist in the Men’s Individual All-Around at the Beijing Olympic Games. Exactly one year ago from the post of this video, Benoît became the first Frenchman in 88 years to stand on the olympic podium for this sport. I made this video to commemorate his achievement in the Men’s All-Around, as well as to thank him for his inspiration.
—–
C’est mon hommage à Benoît Caranobe, la personne qui a gagné la médaille de bronze au JO Pékin 2008. Il y a exactement un an de la date que j’ai téléchargé ce clip sur YouTube, Benoît est devenu le premier homme français sur le podium du concours général depuis 88 ans. J’ai fait le montage de ce clip pour rendre hommage à son succès au concours général et pour le remercier de son inspiration ! …

Song : “Beautiful is Gone” by The Ruse

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It strikes me that there are tens of thousands of these videos for female gymnasts. But very few for the men.

Friday night at Embassy Suites in downtown Lincoln, where Husker gymnastics alumni and friends from across the country will gather to roast a man who’s highly regarded for both his technical skill as a coach and his entertaining personality.

Francis has a way of making people smile. He’s an original.

“You could also say he’s a pioneer, the father of gymnastics in the state of Nebraska,” Nebraska women’s coach Dan Kendig said. “Francis started the first age group program in Lincoln. He was the Husker men’s coach for four decades, but he was gymnastics, period. I sometimes thought he went to bat more for our women’s team than his own team.

“He was there to see great gymnastics, period.”

The 67-year-old Allen said Monday he’s having no second thoughts about retiring. He grew frustrated and weary pouring over line-item budgets for his program. It was getting ridiculous, he said.

He plans to spend more time coaching at his Nebraska School of Gymnastics, as well as continuing to make leather grips for gymnasts. In fact, Allen has preliminary plans to manufacture his specialized grips at a factory in Norman, Okla.

Who knew Allen made grips for former Olympic greats Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller, among others? …

Lincoln Journal Star

Thanks Francis, for all your many years of contribution.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

When you see free running / parkour highlight videos on YouTube, it often looks like the sequence is done ad-lib.

Fact is, to survive, free runners must train. Carefully.

Increasingly the training resembles gymnastics training. Here bigboobspecial practices on the frame of his trampoline.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via FlipCatch)