Gymnastics Coaching.com

One of the gym Dads volunteered to build us an extension to our Powertrack.

Here the Altadore boys are checking it out … even though construction is not complete. (It works!)

larger version – flickr

larger version – flickr

This way we can use all 40ft of trampoline for tumbling skills.

Equally valuable is the new storage space we’ve gained, under the structure.

=====

My club has been advertising for a new Women’s Head Coach / Technical Director for over 8 weeks. And we are still looking.

Perhaps, instead, we will go with a short term plan, for just the coming 2009 season.

If you might be interested in an interim position, email Rick McCharles for more information.

Coaches and gym Moms on the Chalk Bucket forum have a good thread going, sharing ideas for keeping kids at the gym: How do you keep your gymie healthy?

It’s cold and flu season.

One of our girls has “cold induced asthma”, an annual occurrence each Autumn.

Leave a comment if you’ve any tips to share with other coaches.

My #1 priority at the gym is to try to minimize the number of injuries.

There’s no use training hard, conditioning hard … and then missing 3 weeks of training due to injury.

Far smarter is to avoid the injury in the first place.

Yet today I had a girl come to gym on crutches. She had injured a toe doing seat drop on trampoline. (Don’t ask me how.)

Another gymnast is out having hurt her knee jumping up on to a height during conditioning. (She missed the landing, and “bumped” the knee on the way down.)

From the NY Times:

… “I think that there is a general quality of ‘heartiness’, or ‘robustness,’ that may influence who gets hurt and who doesn’t,” said Carl Foster, director of the human performance laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. “I’ve never seen any systematically collected data, and I’m not even sure what one would measure, but anyone who has worked with athletes for any time at all has seen that there are just some people who are fragile and some who aren’t.” …

Clues to Help Explain the Frequency of Injuries

Myself, as an athlete, am not easily injured. Good genes? I’m also smart. And careful.

Seems to me that predisposition to injury is both genetic. And determined by how intelligently you coach your athletes. How smart you train. The quality of your gym.

Some injuries ARE avoidable.

(via Outside)

hmmm – larger original – flickr

Chinese Bo Lu, left, and Ning He, right, celebrate their victory at the Swiss Cup gymnastics tournament in Zurich, Switzerland, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008.

(AP Photo/Keystone/Steffen Schmidt) original – ESPN

Scores will be posted on GymnasticsResults.com

Gymnast Kohei Uchimura, the men’s all-around silver medalist at the Beijing Olympics, showed a solid overall performance to win his first national championship crown on Saturday.

The 19-year-old Uchimura racked up the highest scores in the floor exercises and pommel horse, the first two disciplines, and went on to become the first teenager in 12 years to win the men’s national all-around title with 91.900 points.

Naoya Tsukahara, a member of Japan’s gold medal-winning team at the 2004 Athens Olympics, was also 19 when he claimed the first of his five national all-around crowns. He was 14th in Saturday’s final.

In the women’s all-around competition, 16-year-old Koko Tsurumi won for the third year in a row with 60.800 points, 1.900 ahead of Olympic teammate Yuko Shintake.

Japan Times – Uchimura earns first national title

Uchimura was second in Beijing despite two falls on the pommel horse. This guy is good. And young.

source – Reuters

Uchimura vs Hambüchen at World’s 2009?

more details – Uchimura Wins Japanese Title – IG

Five-time Olympians Jordan Jovtchev (Bulgaria) and Oksana Chusovitina (Germany) each finished second all-around at the most recent international competition. (Fabian Hambüchen and Romania’s Sandra Izbasa finished first.)

Oksana – Yahoo Sport

Younger competitors must be wondering when they will finally retire.

Five-time Olympian Jordan Jovtchev (Bulgaria) will compete for one more year before hanging up his grips.

Jovtchev, 35, hopes to end his career on a high note in 2009 by winning medals at the Europeans in Milan and the World Championships in London, said Nikola Prodanov, current president of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation.

Jovtchev has won four Olympic medals — one silver and three bronzes — and 12 world championships medals, including four golds. A botched routine left him in a disappointing eighth on still rings at the Olympics in Beijing.

“Dancho had intentions to retire after the end of the 2008 Olympic Games, but he didn’t want to leave the sport this way — without a medal,” Prodanov said.

Jovtchev finished second Wednesday at the Arthur Gander Memorial in Switzerland, his first competition since Beijing.

Jovtchev still plans to take over the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation as its new president. It is expected he will be confirmed for the position this month. …

International Gymnast

UPDATE: LBLG reports that Oksana Chusovitina was injured: “She may have torn her achilles tendon on her second pass (double tuck) on floor.”

From the Facebook Somersaults Fan page.

Dr. Jeni McNeal (in mountain bike helmet) at the Big Blue Adventure Race Lake Tahoe.

larger original – flickr

Jeni went over the handle bars recently. No doubt all that gymnastics landing training helped her soften the landing.

Quite a few tricks I’ve never seen before.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tim, age-21, from Derby in England trains “Parkour/Free running, bboying, Calithenics, Puma Style”.

(via FlipCatch)

If you like this video, check out handbalancing freak (video).

Nicely edited staff documentary from 2007.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (10min)

Documentary Part 2 – YouTube

disclosure – I love Cirque du Soleil