Gymnastics Coaching.com

My buddy Derek has edited his club website for years: Funtastics.org

Now he’s added a “blog”.

screen shot

Check it out for yourself:
Funtastics “the blog”

While you are there, check out the great team photos linked from the right hand navigation.

Why add a blog?

That’s the page on your site that lets people know “what’s new”. The most recent posts are on the top. The content is frequently updated.

Fact is that 99.9% of gymnastics club websites are BORING. Static pages, often out-of-date.

The blog is where the interesting and entertaining stuff is found.

I’m always recommending the gymnastics photos of Amanda Manfredi from Arizona.

On flickr she goes by inspir8tion.

But the best place to see her work is on AmandaManfredi.com

It’s true.

I.G. confirms.

Not such a surprise given that she blew the other Achilles about 10yrs ago. Oksana has competed explosive tumbling and vault at the highest international level through 5 Olympics.

related posts:

recovery from Achilles tendon tear

Courtney Kupets – Achilles tendon tear

another Achilles injury – Isabelle Severino

Entries are being accepted for what in my experience is the best meet in Canada.

Former Canadian Olympic coach David Kenwright:

“… The event is highly organized, very athlete-centered, coaches are treated with dignity and respect, and the judges are very well taken care of. These events made huge impacts on my athletes, as the very best teams, countries and gymnasts were right there. … I am a supporter and also a fan of this event and will always bring my athletes to it for inspiration, excellent training and competition environments, and because you can experience the very best close to home.”

It was last held in 2002. And I’m thrilled to see it back on my calendar.

Wild Rose will fill very quickly. Get your registration in yesterday if you want to compete there. American coaches are inevitably disappointed with Canadian competitions, so inferior to their own. This is the exception.

This prestigious international gymnastics event will be held in Edmonton from April 2-5, 2009.

This event caters to female gymnasts from L.E.A.P. (Alberta Pre-competitive testing program) to F.I.G. International levels and will attract some of the world’s best gymnasts. The purpose of the event is to expose Canadian female gymnasts, coaches and judges to some of the highest caliber of gymnastics the world has to offer.

It’s hosted by Champions Gymnastics in Edmonton, Alberta.

WildRoseGymnastics.com

Schedule an extra day at the West Edmonton Mall.

Coach Mihai Stoica sets up this station to remind the gymnasts to keep the centre of gravity over the base of support.

I’m not sure.

Very little seems to slow the worldwide juggernaut that is Cirque du Soleil. They’re expanding faster than at any time in history.

world page

I did hear a forum rumour that the planned
Circus Mcgurkus (Dr. Seuss show) is postponing creation due to the uncertain economy. It’s being developed by former Cirque Artistic Director FRANCO DRAGONE.

Has this extremely difficult skill ever been competed?

Many have trained it into a pit.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s 2004 Olympian from Japan, Daisuke Nakano doing the triple.

I saw it first on Gymnast.com, Smooth Skills #14 – The 5 craziest gymnastics skills ever!. I’ve come to look forward to that regular video series posted every Monday.

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.

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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