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… wing walking is the act of moving on the wings of an airplane during flight.

Capital Coastal

Agnes Skinner (fictional character from the Simpsons) was a wing walker in the 1920’s.

Selena is one of those rare gymnasts who could not seem to retire.

She finally did.

I love her stream of consciousness advice to the young kids still at her old club:

I miss it. Absolutely everything about it. I miss the crashes, the tears, the bruises, rips and cuts. The pressure, the pain, the rush. I miss flips, air sense, sore muscles and that feeling of accomplishment. I miss callused hands, sockless feet, spandex, stick it, and chalk. I’d do anything to nail a perfect beam routine, to stick all my tumbling lines or a dismount. I miss landing double backs and twisting tsuks. Toe on fronts, layout walkouts and front tucks on beam. I miss eating mat or twisting too hard and having a mouth full of foam. Yeah, I even miss conditioning. I miss rope climbs and working so hard your muscles shake. I miss overcoming fears, conquering skills. I miss competing, I miss being afraid. Take me back to the vault room, my locker covered in messages – to that smelly old gym I call home. I miss drama nights & laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Those outrageous ideas we’d come up with. I miss being inspirational, I miss being there. I miss the coaches…even when they yelled. Cause they believed in me when I stopped believing in myself. I miss travel meets – long bus rides and plane rides. I miss handstands in the elevator & milkshakes at midnight! I miss cheering so loud it hurts to talk, I miss march in. I miss nervousness, I miss the crowd. I miss walking on that floor, hearing my music; I miss the glory, the high scores and the low ones too. I miss that feeling that nothing but gymnastics gave me. Waking up everyday with unbelievably sore muscles but excited for training that night anyway. I miss stretching, the front tuck game and circuits. I even miss not being able to hang out because I had practice or training camp. I miss that security, that sanctuary that place where nothing else matters it’s just you and your passion. But more than anything…I miss the girls. I miss my team: those girls who I call family. Of course I miss the good times but I miss the bad ones too the hard ones, like saying goodbye – I still miss you everyday E.N., RIP. I miss being part of “that” team, I miss training nights and warming up to S Club 7. The goofy vault warm-ups, the support system, training groups and countless crazy times I miss being your captain; I miss each and every one of you. I miss every little bit of it, the good and the bad.

keep your chin’s up ladies.

WOW.

Brittney from Adrenaline in Denver is a strong gymnast with a bright future.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

More videos like this on the Gibson Athletics SaltoCafe YouTube channel.

At my gymnastics club this season we have many “first year” competitors.

First year in a new age / ability category.

I find that first year competitors work hard and make rapid progress. They are motivated to prove they should have “moved up“.

Sports Girls Play has an excellent post, however, on the other kind of season: The Confidence Season:

Sometimes the road to success is not the fast lane. …

… Each season we end up with a group of athletes who excel – they have mastered their skills, are relatively consistent in their performances, regularly place in the top third during awards, and are learning the next level skills with excitement. We also have a group of athletes we call “bubble kids” – they are making it through their routines, getting average or lower than average scores, are not getting called up for awards, and are not as ready for the next level skills. Sure we could push them ahead anyhow, but that often leads to discouragement, low self esteem, and the development of fears.

When the placements for the next season come out, many of the parents of our “bubble kids” get a little anxious. They worry that their child is being left behind, won’t be with her friends or will be bored. But more often than not, when we have these athletes stay at their current level, one year later we hear from the parents that it was the best decision they did not get to make! …

The Confidence Season

original – flickr – Sarah_Hawkins

more photos by Sarah_Hawkins tagged “gymnastics”

The decision on whether or not to “move up” next season is very individual. There are many variables.

It must be decided case-by-case.

Window art down alleyway of Lichfield Street, Christchurch, NZ

flickr – bkiwik – larger version

Separated at birth?

Aussie actress-turned-fashion-model Emily Browning … and Olympic gymnast Dasha Joura.

See more photos on the The Australian Gymnastics Blog.

Standard for Men’s Horizontal Bar, has anyone tried a 3 finger grips made for Bars?

Tru Grip Women’s Three Finger Hook & Loop

DGS

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It’s very common for athletes to run through a specific mental sequence immediately before they compete. Often they use physical movements to make the imagery more vivid.

Imagery is a key component to good gymnastics, and nobody “images” more wonderfully than Cheng Fei. …

Click PLAY or watch Cheng Fei on YouTube.

(via Comet on the IG forum)

The International Gymnastics Federation has never found the right formula to make their World Cup competitions take off.

Men’s competitions have been consistentently well-attended and popular with the best gymnasts in the world.

But the women’s competitions have been hit-and-miss. Historically the American girls don’t go to European World Cups. And run an often criticized variation of the event themselves called the American Cup.

The International Gymnastics Federation recently cancelled the annual World Cup Final.

What should the FIG do next?

Here’s their most recent strategy:

The FIG plans to reduce so-called “A-competitions” or “A-World Cups” to five or six locations per year, where only 12 to 18 gymnasts per apparatus (& only one per country) are allowed to perform. Thereby meets will be more compact and shorter.

…

(In 2009, there are nine World Cups: Montreal, Cottbus, Maribor (B-category), Glasgow, Moscow, San Juan, Doha, Osijek and Stuttgart (A-category).)

details and link – GymNiceTic

Related – entries for next World Cup – Maribor, April 17-19th, 2009

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Perhaps they need to bring back the “perfect 10” …

Motivated by unhappy TV executives and confused fans, international gymnastics officials are looking at reworking the revamped scoring system that eliminated the perfect 10 at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

Bob Colarossi, president of the marketing commission of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), is tinkering with formulas that could make the open-ended scoring system easier to understand. He hopes to have at least some minor changes in place before the London Games in 2012. …

ESPN – Execs want to clarify gymnastics scores

It’s on a Japanese site called ninja-mania.

One sample screen shot:

(via Gymnastic_fun on the IG forum)