Gymnastics Coaching.com

Georgia Head Coach Suzanne Yoculan is one of the most successful and best paid gymnastics coaches in the world.

But this is her last season at the helm of the 4 time defending NCAA Champions.

INSIDE GYMNASTICS posted one of the best interviews I’ve read all year.

For example, this was a big surprise to me:

… We train 13 hours a week in the gym, less than any [other] team in the country. And we’ve done that for over ten years. We spend the other [NCAA-allowed seven hours] having meetings. …

Yoculan would be hired for any coaching job anywhere.

INSIDE: So, what does come next for you?

YOCULAN: (laughs) I don’t know, exactly. I’m spending a lot of time talking about it, but I don’t know.

Speaking engagements, for one. I’m developing a website. I’m hoping to go to colleges around the country, speaking to women’s coaches—mostly male coaches of women’s [sports]—about how to win with hugs. I used to be the person that threw shoes. I don’t do that anymore. I think I know more about athletes, and how to take care of them, now; what works. I feel I have a lot to share.

I think the job of every coach, if you want a simple job description, is to assist an athlete with reaching their full potential, athletically and academically. I’ve been able to come up with a program, and tweak it over [26 years,] and I feel very comfortable that how we do things at Georgia could be applied a lot of places, in a lot of sports. I hope to share that message.

I also want to speak to colleges about adding gymnastics, and spend some time working on that with the NCAA Coaches’ Committee. That’s something I’ve never been a part of, because I don’t believe in spreading myself too thin, but now I’ll have that time, that energy.

I want to give back to gymnastics, stay involved with the sport.

I’m also starting a foundation, which will help the Special Olympics. That’s been a side project of mine [for a number of years,] and my foundation will focus on giving money to the Special Olympics and the other part I want to give back to gymnastics. I’m not sure how, or in what way, but I want to use all the money I earn with speaking engagements to give back to the sport that gave me a career, a life. I don’t know where I’d be without gymnastics. …

Coach Chat: UGA’s Suzanne Yoculan

At my gym we are just starting this skill with a couple of gymnasts.

A few ideas …

I’ve previously posted the first two of these videos, by Almir from Bosnia and Herzegovina. But I’m posting them again because they are the best I’ve found on introducing Reverse Hecht.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Prerequisites include these drills. Click PLAY or watch them on YouTube.

(Do that last drill over a foam pit, not a mat.)

Good examples of Tkachev from Pegan and Nemov. Click PLAY or watch them on YouTube.

And the best Tkachev I’ve seen lately from a female gymnast. Click PLAY or watch UCLA’s Anna Li on YouTube.

related post – introducing Reverse Hecht

Leave a comment if you have your own favourite drills for introducing Tkachev.

Coach Ed Vincent at Altadore has “improved” the basic Ring machine over the years.

This is a device that reduces your body weight by about 50% using a pulley system.

larger size

It’s great fun, for sure. And helps with specific conditioning for some strength parts.

Ed’s most recent innovation is to add a spring on to the main pulley cable. He hopes to “soften” the bottom of the swing on giants.

larger size

more photos

If you’ve never seen a Ring Machine before, here’s a funny video showing how they work.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Other devices built by Ed Vincent:

best pommel horse bucket

video – suspended “twisting belt”

Eliza — AKA malimalimali123 — has a series of Christmas Gymnastics montage videos. Here’s her most recent.

Click PLAY or watch Merry Christmas 2008 Gymnastics montage on YouTube.

Thanks rec coach.

Likely you’ve heard of the critically acclaimed feature film called The Gymnast. It’s a lesbian love story of two circus aerialists starring Dreya Weber (gymnast) and Addie Yungmee (dancer).

If you have time over the holidays, you can watch it free streamed on the internet in the U.S.A. at LOGOonline – The Gymnast

(You need a computer utility like Hotspot Shield to watch it outside the States)

Adult content.

It’s an excellent film, I thought. The start of the movie is gripping; the ending not nearly as good.

related post: The Gymnast – a short fictional film (Jennifer Sey)

Someone remarked, “This should be on the Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe TV show.”

Quite right.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Of course we are scheming to replace this old style pit with the new Jim Walker system.

But that is months or years away.

A resi-pit is another (much more expensive) alternative. I suspect we will end up renovating our existing pit with the Walker system. Perhaps adding new resi-pit mats “floating” on top.

A year end summary from He Kexin = 14.

(That blog name still breaks me up.)

Click through for the other highlights: The Greatest USA Gymnastics Moments of 2008.

For the holidays, Gymblog is posting one young future gymnastics superstar each day.

the great “who’s next” list of 2009

Four have already been chosen:

Sabrina Gill, Canada

Kohei Uchimura, Japan

Jeffey Wammes, Netherlands

Viktoria Komova, Russia

You might argue that Uchimura is not up-and-coming, but already a superstar. Yet, despite winning the silver medal in Men’s All-Around in Beijing, he’s only very recently become the anchor of the Japanese team. And born 1989, he’s very young.

Kohei Uchimura – Reuters

Who else will Gymblog choose?

Blythe on Gymblog for Christmas linked to a great video “Skills that make you go WOW.”

Here’s another compilation of shocking skills for your holiday viewing.

Click PLAY or watch Wow gymnastics montage on YouTube.

chachakid put visuals to this poem:

Patience is a man’s greatest virtue,
or so the saying goes.
A gymnast must have said it,
for a gymnast surely knows!
That in this funny sport of ours,
discouragement runs high.
And even the very best will find
this virtue has passed us by.
When hands are ripped and throbbing,
when every muscle’s sore,
will a gymnast still have patience
to limp in the gym for more?
When you’ve lost old moves
and progress seems slow,
will you still have faith in better days,
and not feel sad and low?
Can you admit your frightened,
yet not give in to fear?
Can you conquer pain and frustration
and often even tears?
When someone else does something,
you’ve tried so long to do…
can you still be happy for her,
or just self-pitty for you?
And when success seems far away,
your efforts all in vain,
can you force yourself to wear a smile
and disregaurd the pain?
If despite the pain and tribulations,
you can say “I won’t give in”
Maybe some day you’ll discover
that its now your time to win.

author unknown

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

more gymnastics poetry