12 days of up-and-coming gymnasts

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.

    Uchimura.jpg
    Kohei Uchimura – Reuters

    Who else will Gymblog choose?

    boom goes the dynamite

    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.

    gymnastics poem montage

    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

    inspirational coach Pete Carroll

    A 60 Minutes profile on USC Football coach Pete Carroll, who has the highest winning percentage of any active coach.

    http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf30can10cbsnews/rcpHolderCbs-3-4×3.swf
    Watch CBS Videos Online

    Banking about $4million / year, Pete still makes time to work to reduce inner city violence with gang kids.

    A Very Barney Christmas!

    These White House Barney the Dog videos are so goofy, so retro, that I actually enjoy them.

    This one features a cameo by Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    Thanks Claudine Gervais.

    Christmas gymnastics video montage

    Past and Present Gymnastics linked to a Christmas themed montage from fb07 out of the U.K.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    it’s called Christmas 2006 Gymnastics Montage. But some of those clips are from more recent meets, no?

    Perhaps it’s been updated over the past 2 years.

    extreme playground gymnastics

    Scott Bird of the excellent Straight to the Bar blog linked to The 6 Sickest Playground Workouts You Can’t Do.

    One of those that caught me eye instantly includes using safety straps on a playground bar:

    … Hailing from Colombia, these kids’ workout is more a performance than a exercise. …

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    More videos like this posted by William Steven Santana, age-17, on the Dragonsamurai91 channel.

    This is what I love about the internet. Some teenagers with a camcorder and a playground can “invent” a new sport: Arte En Barras. It’s like Parkour on a bar.

    I assume they’ve studied the (very similar) travelling rings videos.

    Playgrounds are fantastic outdoor “conditioning gyms”. And they are FREE.

    related post: the playground I train at myself when on holiday in Mazatlán, Mexico.

    13 World Championships – Espen Jansen

    claus wrote to confirm that his old friend Espen JANSEN is still unbeaten in Norway. He’s 40yrs-old.

    In fact, last April Espen won the All-around at a World Cup competition at age-39.

    jansen_port07.jpgNorwegian Espen JANSEN was not only the by far oldest gymnast (39) in Lausitz-Arena at the last Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, but also the only participant who started on all the six apparatuses – he was therewith (unofficially) the best in the all-around competition in this event and gained remarkable 81,725 points.

    Already at the last World Championships 2007 in Stuttgart the man from Oslo was the oldest WOLRDS-participant and holds a record of 13 participations in World Championships since his debut in 1991 in Indianapolis. This record was formerly held by Austrian Thomas Zimmermann with 12 WORLDS-participations …

    The father of four kids thinks about quitting somedays …

    GYMmedia

    Merry Christmas Espen. You are an inspiration.