Gymnastics Coaching.com

Confirmed.

Seneca College in Toronto will no longer be offering their Artistic Gymnastics Coaching Program.

Too bad.

This decision was made before the catastrophic injury to one of the Seneca elite gymnasts, Taylor Lindsay-Noel.

Alex competed Junior Olympic Nationals last year.

Alex Loch of Maple Lake has won a lot of medals over the years in gymnastics — but what may be more impressive is his mettle to overcome impaired vision.

He competed as a Level 10 gymnast despite being born legally blind. …

He’s able to see just 2 to 3 feet away what most people see at 20-to-30 feet away. …

Blind Gymnast Competes Despite Vision Condition – WCCO

Watch a video of Alex on that news article.

Thanks shergymrag.

Three time Olympian gymnast Blaine Wilson just married Rythmic gymnast Aliane Baquerot.

On the recent Sacramento stop of the 2008 Tour of Gymnastics Superstars they took a detour to Reno, Nevada and tied the knot! The announcement was made to the audience during the show ….

Wedding Bells for Blaine Wilson! – GymnastTV

Blaine and Makare Desilets, who married in 2001, are divorced with a daughter Wakaya.

coach M — responding to the post Oksana Sivovol – highest 1/1 on beam — asks us to compare the layout 1/1 twist competed by Oana Ban from Romania.

It’s awesome.

Click PLAY or watch Oana on Youtube.

Oana was 5th AA at 2003 Worlds and qualified to the All-around at the 2004 Olympics … but an injury sustained during the meet at Athens forced her to withdraw from the competition.

Gymnastike posted an entertaining interview with the famous Romanian dance coach.

Geza Pozsar was Nadia Comaneci’s choreographer and got to experience one-on-one what she was like as a young gymnast. He tells what he thinks made Nadia so special.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-3-16/mediaplayer.swf

On those bars we want to raise and lower often, we have added load binders like this. We switch the rail from Men’s to Women’s on some bars, as well.

The only problem … they are too easy to open. On this style of load binder we are using a zip tie to ensure it does not open accidentally. (We need cut it off each time we change the rail.)

Leave a comment if you have alternatives to suggest.

====

UPDATE: Coach Steve from the beautiful city of Nelson, B.C. recommends:

We use this one from American Athletics. It has a locking pin that you have to pull back in order to open it.

There are many visually impaired gymnasts, but “vaulting” is not the best activity for them.

There are no specific details about the spotting accident in this article:

Michael McCarthy, a blind albino from Port Jefferson who was 7 at the time of the 2001 incident, attempted to hurdle a vaulting horse at the Spins Gymnastics Academy in Port Jefferson Station when he fell to the floor, according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

His lawyer, Steven Ferber, said yesterday that McCarthy’s instructors were negligent in letting go of his midsection as he fell.

McCarthy had to wear a body cast for six months and still suffers from back problems stemming from the fall, Ferber said yesterday.

Suffolk County Judge Peter Mayer rejected the gym’s argument that the blind boy should have known the risks inherent in his participation. …

New York Post

Monica, editor of the Steliana Nistor – a real champion blog spoke with Steliana personally:

— Steliana, do you miss gymnastic?

— No!

It’s a straight answer, gave exactly on the “Lie’s Bridge” from Sibiu. The city’s habitats avoid to lie when passing the iron bridge because they are afraid the bridge will give away under their lie’s weight. Steliana came back home in Sibiu three weeks ago. …

STELIANA NISTOR: “I won’t go back to Deva!”

A Bronze medalist with the Romanian gymnastics team in Beijing, Steliana is enjoying chocolate and looking forward to the freedom of University.

All the best.

This is a spoof news story:

BEIJING—After numerous protests and accusations of foul play from Paralympic athletes, especially those participating in judo, basketball, and tennis, the International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday they would investigate claims that many members of the Chinese female Paralympic team have full sets of functioning arms and legs.

“After reviewing the scores of U.S. volleyball’s 25-0/25-0/25-0 three-set loss to the Chinese women, we were already considering an inquiry. But what confirmed it was how they looked on the podium together, all smiling, waving both hands, and standing on both legs,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told reporters, adding that having arms and legs, especially in the Paralympics, offers a significant competitive advantage. “Unfortunately, because official documentation provided by our Chinese hosts does state that their female Paralympians lack arms and legs, there is very little chance of anything resulting from the investigation.” Thus far the Chinese women have won gold, silver, and bronze in every single event except for swimming, in which American female Paralympian Michelle Phelps has won a record 36 gold medals.

The Onion

Thanks Jennifer Isbister.

Three weeks into the new season, at my gym we’ve been pretty successful at NOT ripping on bars.

original – flickr

Drills including pirouettes on floor bar, safety strap bar and mini-tramp under the low bar all help the kids avoid rips.

I just hope we can keep it up.

Ripping the hands is a significant setback for most gymnasts.

related post: preventing rips on the hands