Gymnastics Coaching.com

USA Gymnastics named the 2009 U.S. Men’s Senior National Team following the conclusion of the Winter Cup Challenge. The 15 members retain their national team status until the conclusion of the 2009 Visa Championships in August.

Guillermo Alvarez
Alexander Artemev
Raj Bhavsar
Chris Brooks
Kyle Bunthuwong
Chris Cameron
Joseph Hagerty
Jonathan Horton
Steven Legendre
Danell Leyva
Tim McNeill
Sho Nakamori
David Sender
Justin Spring
Kevin Tan

USAG

Note that 2007 Champion David Durante has retired.

Members of the National Team pose at the conclusion of the 2009 Winter Cup Challenge – Photo by Steve Lange

Shawn Johnson …

confirmed to Inside Gymnastics that she plans to return to competitive gymnastics after the conclusion of Dancing with the Stars. “Definitely,” she said of her return to the gym. “After the show, I’ll get back in the gym, start with gymnastics again and see where it takes me.”

Inside Gymnastics

The Couch Gymnast, as part of an ongoing series called Cartwheels in….., highlights Artistic gymnastics in Costa Rica.

Couch Gymnast – Cartwheels in….. Costa Rica

Getting good at gymnastics is not complicated.

Psychological preparation -> Physical preparation -> Technical preparation.

Kids improve steadily.

But in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics we see many girls “stall” progress at about age-14.

Why?

Physical changes to the body, for sure. But an even more important problem, I think, is that gymnasts age-14 start to suffer from chronic pain.

What can we do about it?

From a good overview article by Dr. Anthony Luke:

Prevention is the best medicine

Many sports injuries are preventable. Proper training is one of the most important keys to preventing injury in young athletes. Adequate adult supervision along with properly educated coaches and referees can help ensure children learn the proper techniques and rules for optimal play and safety. More specifically, setting appropriate limits for the amount of training is necessary to prevent burnout and overuse injuries –and to allow enough time for recovery of nutrition, fluids and energy. The playing environment should be safe …

tumbling on trampoline reduces the chance of overuse injury

Look and Listen

Parents and coaches should be especially careful when managing sports injuries in young athletes. If the child complains of pain, swelling, or disability with no injury – or constitutional symptoms, such as pain at night, fever or weight loss – these should be considered warning signs to promptly seek medical attention. Early medical care can often help avoid complications from an injury that can hinder a child’s ability to have fun and enjoy sports. …

I see many gymnastics coaches ignoring reports of pain from kids. This is very risky, long term. If your gymnast (later) cannot compete due to injury, you LOSE.

Why do children get different injuries than adults?

Young athletes get different injuries than adults mainly due to the growing process. Growth refers to an increase in size, either of the body as a whole or of its parts. Growth and maturation make a young person’s anatomy and physiology different and are controlled by timed hormonal changes. … With kids now starting some sports activities as young as three years old, parents and coaches should pay close attention to growth spurts, in order to modify training appropriately.

Puberty is the period where the most growth and maturation occurs. Puberty typically starts by 13 years of age in girls and before 14 years of age in boys. Girls may grow as much as 8 cm per year, while boys may increase by around 12 cm. These values can be useful to help identify the peak growth spurt in children. …

Knol – Pediatric Sports Injuries

Learning handstand on Parallel Bars can be dangerous. Especially falling over on to the bars.

Typically it happens as in this video posted by the gymnast’s Mom.

… Nothing but bruises and damaged pride. Took me a couple of minutes to get my heart started again, but I survived, too. 5 minutes later he tried again, without mishap.

Mom – Chalk Bucket

It does seem most boys crash once or twice before finally learning how to save the handstand by pirouetting out.

We train handstands on the end of the parallel bars, finishing with a handspring. Safety on that skill is our highest priority with beginners. (Boys and girls train swing and press handstand.)

Nice. Some interesting skills.

Click PLAY or watch his 2009 Winter Cup Prelims on Gymnastike.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

I know Guillermo had the goal of competing in Beijing. It’s GREAT to see such a classy gymnast stay in the sport after not making the team for 2008.

I went looking for a (possibly hilarious) video montage of the showboating Cuban-American gymnastics coach Yin Eloy Alvarez.

But I could not find one highlighting his …

… curious rituals. He would give his gymnasts a kiss on the back of the head before their routines, make a unique sign with his hands (perhaps a religious “sign of the cross?”), and follow his gymnasts’ routines with a thunderous roar, fist pump into the air, and often a huge leap and run towards his gymnast. I remember first seeing him as I coached and judged at numerous boys’ gymnastics competitions, and I would notice how his behavior would often take center stage among all who were present at the competition, regardless of what else was going on at the time. …

Andrew Thornton – Universal Gymnastics

Instead, I was surprised to find a subdued coach Alvarez in a series of 27 instructional videos explaining basics to the general public. Here’s a sample:

Nice work. Thank-you coach.

One of the demonstrators is his now famous son, Danell Leyva.

As of February 9th, 2009.

Stanford moves up to 4th. They rocked their Season-Best Gymnastics Performance this weekend.

Nebraska edged Oklahoma. A minor upset.

GymInfo – Women’s National Ranking for Team Total – Troester

More NCAA commentary on Gymblog.

I was pretty proud of these kids this weekend.

Confirmed on her blog.

World and Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson (U.S.) is among the 13 contestants for the upcoming season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

… The 17-year-old gymnast will be the youngest contestant yet on the hit reality show that pairs celebrities with professional dancers.

… If Johnson were to win, she would not be the first Olympic champion crowned on the show. Speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno won season four and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi won season six.

“Dancing With The Stars 8” premieres March 9 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on ABC, and will run through May. …

International Gymnast

Does Shawn have the personality and maturity for this challenge? (She’s gots to be better than Steve Wozniak.)

(via BodyRhythm)

Shawn is not much in the gym. Only conditioning and running right now.

Many are commenting online that gymnastics competition in 2009 seems almost out of the question. And that “Alicia might have been a better choice for this TV show”.

Likely Shawn knows that Lilia Podkopayeva won the Ukranian version of Dancing with the Stars in 2006.