Gymnastics Coaching.com

On the International Gymnast Forum numblemon lists her Golden Age of Beam.

From 1979-1985, I found beam to be the most innovative and graceful.

It’s an excuse to post likely my favourite gymnast of all time, Natalia Shaposhnikova.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A reminder on why we no longer allow flash cameras at gymnastics competitions!

Hey, that was 30yrs-ago!

Where are the 1-arm handstand skills in 2009?

Click through to IG Forum see other examples from that era: Filatova, Agache, Illienko, Mostepanova (of course).

Thiago Simões has started up a new Brazilian gymnastics blog, in English.

… Artistic Gymnastics has become a huge success in Brazil thanks to incredible world class gymnasts like Daiane dos Santos and Diego Hypólito. However, outside of Brazil very few people know about Brazilian gymnasts other than these two athletes. This is the main reason why I decided to create this blog: to make people around the world aware of Brazilian gymnasts …

Check it out and subscribe to encourage gymnastics blogging worldwide: Brazilian Gymnastics blog

For some reason, Brazilians really excel at all acrobatic sports.

I’ve not yet seen this documentary on performance enhancing drugs.

… The documentary examines the steroid use of the director Christopher Bell and his two brothers, Mark and Mike Bell, who all grew up idolizing Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan, and Sylvester Stallone, and also features professional athletes, medical experts, fitness center members, and US Congressmen talking about the issue of anabolic steroids.

Beyond the basic issue of anabolic steroid use, Bigger, Stronger, Faster* examines the lack of consistency in how America views drugs, cheating, and the lengths people go to achieve success. …

wikipedia

But Valentin Uzunov of The Gym Press found it very unsettling. He’s not nearly so sure now that gymnast, especially male gymnasts, are not experimenting with them … for Rings.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer for Bigger, Faster, Stronger on YouTube.

… On December 14, 2008, Mike Bell, brother of director Chris Bell, who was prominently featured in the film, died at 37. …

At my gym the most frequently mentioned gymnasts are Tsukahara, Yurchenko and … Elise Ray. She has 3 skills named after her on Bars for cripes sake.

What an innovator!

Elise Ray on bars at the 2000 US Gymnastics Championships.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This is one of the routines picked by numblemon from her Golden Age of Bars 1994-2000.

Click through to see why. Other routines shown as examples: Maloney, Bi, Chelsea Otto, Doni Thompson. Like Elise Ray, these are not routines often mentioned in 2009.

Could you use one of these? I saw it at Island Gymnastics Academy, PEI.

Coach Jim Rand used it for a fitness testing contest. Standing long jump.

I first learned of this drill from watching videos of Soviet male coaches back in the 1980s.

Tkachev layout to STAND ON THE BAR.

(Normally we pad the bar. And use 2 spotters to start. You need to be a strong spotter to do it the way shown in the video.)

Click through to watch it on Gymnastike.

Terry Walker began his career in coaching in 1983 and has coached gymnasts at the national and international level since 1987. A coach of two former Olympians, Terry coached with Cypress Academy from 1988 to 1995. He returned to Cypress with his wife, Tamara, in May of 2003 and became the Competitive Girls Director in 2004.

I recently learned that US Glove has spun off a new site dedicated only to wrist health of gymnasts called TigerPawWristSupports.com

Aside from Paws, it offers accessories … not that Tiger Paws have become a fashion item.

Recently we recommended neoprene wrist bands on a post called preventing Bar wrist rips.

You can get those here, as well. Cheap.

home page – TigerPawWristSupports.com

Thanks Steve Karr for the new site. Wrist and hand problems are one of our biggest concerns with Artistic gymnasts.

Coach Greg Marsden pretty much invented modern NCAA Women’s Gymnastics.

How did Utah grow the sport in their city to attract a big audience?

click through to College Gymnastics Board – Promotions and marketing

You would think so judging from a number of headlines in the news late June.

Those articles came out of this study:

… The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has released its 26th annual all sports report.

In addition to collecting data on catastrophic injuries in all high school and college sports, the report also contains cheerleading injury data. The latest figures are from the 2007-2008 academic year.

The report defines catastrophic injuries as any severe injury incurred during participation in a school or college sponsored sport, and includes three categories: fatal; non-fatal (resulting in permanent severe functional disability); and serious (no permanent functional disability but severe injury).

…

The report’s conclusions for the 26-year period from the fall of 1982 through the spring of 2008 include:

— There were 1,116 direct catastrophic injuries in high school (905) and college sports (211). High school sports were associated with 152 fatalities, 379 non-fatal and 374 serious injuries. College sports accounted for 22 fatalities, 63 non-fatal and 126 serious injuries.

— Cheerleading accounted for 65.2 percent of high school and 70.5 percent of college catastrophic injuries among all female sports.

The report’s author and center director, Frederick O. Mueller, Ph.D., professor of exercise and sports science in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, noted that the number of cheerleading injuries fell slightly in 2007-08 year. …

read more – Medical News Today – Catastrophic Sports Injury Report Released

Is Cheer a dangerous sport?

Absolutely.

But I dispute the findings on at least one important point. They’re combining statistics from competitive Cheer with often poorly trained pompom wavers, also called Cheerleaders.

Don’t tell me the Cheer team at my gym are dangerous. They’re not.

The most interesting article I saw on Cheer injury was a personal story posted by NOELLE BUHIDAR.

She suffered a bad ACL tear at the 2004 World Spirit Federation Nationals in Tulsa, Okla. It was a career ending injury.

Is she bitter? Not at all …

read Noelle’s story – Cheerleading’s thrills make risks worth taking