Gymnastics Coaching.com

The Spieth competition Floor at my gym is too hard, in my opinion.

Kyle Shewfelt, 2004 Olympic Floor champion, only rarely tumbled on it during training. He mostly tumbled on our rod floor.

Now Scott Weller has developed a product he calls the “First Significant Improvement to the Spring Floor in 25 Years.”

(Scott was a former all-around gymnast at the University of Michigan and Arizona State University.)

Meets FIG, USAG, NCAA competition specifications.

WOGA, Aspire Kids Sports, Arizona Sunrays are using it!

Bill Sands has looked at it:

“I’m very pleased you’ve really followed through and appear to have a superior product. I’d like to see the test results and study the athlete/apparatus interactions, but congratulations on a job well done.”

Wm A. Sands, PhD, FACSM, C-ARS, NR/WEMT
Performance Services – Recovery Center Leader
U.S. Olympic Committee – 1 Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909-5760

The pitch:

THIS TECHNOLOGY significantly reduces the peak forces transmitted to the athlete and the post-impact vibration in the floor. Lighter athletes can get more rebound while heavier ones will still have the full force.

THE WELLER spring comes up slower than it compresses (recoil). A slower recoil is almost certainly beneficial as tests have shown that spring floors can cause inadvertant knee bends during backward tumbling known as the “double knee bend”.

THE WELLER spring fits into the same caps in the floor now! So it’s easy to retrofit any spring floor. Just pop out old spring and put in the Weller spring!

It’s distributed by King Bars Sports in Arizona.

I’d love to see it in action. Leave a comment if you’ve tried it.

This is an update to a post I originally wrote for Gymnast.com …

I am happy with my decision to have liposuction, and in a way wish I would have done it sooner!

So says 22 year-old Jessica, a cheerleader and gymnast with an athletic build, who found that any extra weight she gained went straight to her thighs.

Jessica is typical of many successful acrobatic athletes. 5’3″ tall with a mesomorphic build.

She was not obese nor even particularly overweight. Only frustrated that her formerly muscular legs got so BIG as a young adult.

more photos

… frustrated with buying size 7-9 jeans that were too loose for her tiny size 3 waist, Jessica started researching the possibility of having a liposuction. …

Jessica’s Experience with Tumescent Liposuction

I know nothing about liposuction. But found the article linked above fascinating.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion. Is this a good option for former acrobatic athletes?

Or should ex-gymnasts simply stay in shape as did 1984 Olympic Champion Mary Lou Retton, still considered a “Celebrity Babe”.

larger original – Mary Lou Retton, 40, and daughter Shayla Rae, 13 – Celebrity Babes blog

If you’ve seen Nadia lately, she looks great too.

Nadia at age-46

Mail Online – I’m a super-fit mum at 46, says former gymnast Nadia who stunned the world with her Olympic perfect 10

GymnastTV is posting a weekly video summary of NCAA gymnastics action.

Cool.

On week 2 of The College Show we go to The Windy City Invitational with the men’s teams from University of Iowa and University of Minnesota. We also have highlights from the Nebraska/OU meet. On the women’s side we have University of Michigan, UCLA, Utah and Georgia.

Watch the 9min “highlights” reel of the past weekend on GymnastTV.

Kupets on Bars at the 6min mark.

I subscribe to the GymnastTV video podcast in iTunes. The videos are downloaded to my computer automatically.

After a disastrous meet, Florida dropped from #1 to #5.

full rankings – Troester

Note also that GymGemz is back posting regularly. It was the best blog last year following NCAA Women’s Gymnastics.

Yet another initiative from the busiest former World Gymnastics Champion, Shannon Miller.

Good looks for a good cause. Nikken TriPhase Technology and Sport Bracelet versatility combine with beautiful 24k gold accents in a design personally selected and approved by seven-time Olympic Medal winner Shannon Miller — the most decorated American gymnast in history. Your purchase of this Special Edition bracelet includes a donation to the Shannon Miller Foundation.

ShannonMillerFoundation.com

Nikken Magnetic Sport Bracelet “Shannon Miller” Edition – $30

Life Magazine – 1992 – Photographer: Ted Thai

I met Dru in Australia. We were both competing in the Victoria State “Geriatric Gym” championships 2007.

Gymblog reports that Dru is planning to compete her first Master’s Games, Sunday Feb. 22nd in Geelong.

source – Straight to the Bar

Sounds impressive?

Gymnast, Ivan Elliot, competed at age-78.

Just testing how the new flickr videos look embedded on this site …

Adult Rec hijinx at Seattle Gymnastics Academy.

I like that cargo net over the pit.

UPDATE: A non-profit organization tries to raise money to help promote sport in the developing world. Initially, the IOC supported the group. But — last week — decided to uninvite them to participate in any way at future Olympics. Apparently paying sponsors feel the publicity and funds that Right to Play generate at the Olympics would somehow detract from their own marketing. You might remember that China did not want Right to Play in Beijing because they were vocal about Chinese companies not doing enough to improve Human Rights in Africa.

Click through to the links if you want to know more.

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Right to Play are the good guys.

Olympic Champions Trent Dimas and Kyle Shewfelt are two of the gymnasts who support this organization. Phoebe Mills is another.

… The IOC confirmed Thursday it has ended its relationship with Right to Play. That will prevent the international humanitarian organization from setting up shop at Olympic venues during the 2010 Vancouver Games, plus the upcoming Olympics in London and Sochi, Russia.

…

International Olympic Committee spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau said in an e-mail the decision “had nothing to do with sponsorship.” …

She’s a lying liar. (Her job description, I assume.)

The refreshingly straight talking IOC veteran Dick Pound admits the decision was to protect its sponsors during the Games:

… “When you raise a lot of money from people who support your exercise, you can’t have them ambushed by somebody else,” Pound said in an interview. “Right to Play knows that.” …

The IOC are the bad guys. As usual.

The Olympics are all about the money.

Right To Play is an athlete-based international humanitarian organization that emphasizes sports to aid the development of children and youth in underprivileged areas of the world. The organization has its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The organization was founded by Norwegian speedskating star and four times Olympic champion Johann Olav Koss. Other Olympians involved with Right To Play include Canadians Clara Hughes, who has won medals in both the summer and winter games, Praveen Perera, Alexander Ovechkin, Beckie Scott, and American Joey Cheek, who donated his 2006 Winter Games earnings from the medals he won, and Dutch Boxer Arnold Vanderlyde, just to name a few.

Right To Play programs are currently being implemented in 23 countries: Azerbaijan, Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, UAE, and Zambia.

Right To Play uses sports as a way to teach children about teamwork, fair play, conflict resolution, self-esteem, communication, commitment, respect, and integrity. Right To Play is committed to improving the lives of children and to strengthening their communities by translating the best practices of sport and play into opportunities to promote development, health and peace.

Wikipedia

You can volunteer or register your support on the official website – Right to Play

(via Gymbrooke Sports News)

UPDATE: TCO did a little more digging on this story. Turns out it was a complaint by Olympic sponsor GM that resulted in the humanitarian group being cut out of future Olympics.

TheStar.com – Shame on IOC for banishing charity group

Words and Music by Dean Laterra

main vocalist: Carly Weinstein (12 years old)

And she’s so fast, and she’s so strong, and she flips around, like she’s super girl, and I gotta know, how she does those tricks like that.

lyrics on the official website – Groovy Ruby

Cute.

Warning – terribly distorted photos are included in the video on YouTube.

(via mpk on the International Gymnast forum)

official website – Shawn Johnson

Maya Bielik started up a new gymnastics blog, the first and only in Hebrew. And in Israel.

From email:

Categories – elements, “our little country” (Israeli stuff), montages, college, nostalgy, documentary movies, laughter, Israeli competitions and worldwide competitions.

I’ve written about the Madrid worldcup, Georgia’s gymdogs and NCAA in general, I’ve put 6 documentaries by now, a post about Israel’s 2008 nationals, posts about Agnes Keleti, Olga Korbut, 50 years of Uneven Bars, Xiao Sha, Bela Karolyi, Romanian gymnasts, British gymnasts, Canadian gymnasts and much more.

Check it out at Gymania.net

Or in (garbled) English via Google Translate.

Maya had even posted a video from Canada that I had not seen, another from Oakville Gymnastics. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related posts:

the rise of Oakville Gymnastics

Kelly Manjak – conditioning and bars

The UCLA Freshman sensation scored a perfect 10 on the same night that Georgia’s Courtney Kupets scored two perfect 10s at another meet.

“Perfect” is a red flag to most coaches. We know that any performance could be better. Higher, stronger, faster.

But I’ve got no complaints with Vanessa’s vault score in this meet. Wow!

Watch it on CBS College Sport.

She competes with Brittani McCullough, recall, likely the most powerful vaulter in College gymnastics today. Brittani stuck Yurchenko full in the same rotation for 9.95. Yet the judges were still willing to award a 10 to Zamarripa.

It was clean.

UCLA Bruins – Zamarripa Scores Perfect 10 On Vault In Win Over Cal State Fullerton

related post: judging breakdown – Yurchenko vault