Gymnastics Coaching.com

TV show Ninja Warrior: The Fireman

Click PLAY or watch a highlights clip on YouTube.

(via Straight to the Bar)

Yet another career for ex-gymnasts.

Alison Carroll will be the next actress to play the super heroine Lara Croft, promoting the game Tomb Raider Underworld which ships November 2008.

Alison is an experienced competitive gymnast with more than 12 years of … training. (Considerably more than Angelina Jolie.)

In preparation for this role, Alison is now training combative arts and weapons training, as well as world archaeology coursework.

BBC video interview linked from Gymnast.com

more photos – photos – Macho Chip

I have no idea what these guys are doing.

source – Dark Roasted Blend

Funny.

Watch the TV commercial – Active.com

(via Shergymrag)

Competes All-around!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I recommend Victory Collegiate Consulting to anyone not sure the best way to put together an NCAA Gymnastics package.

Tom Kovic posted a good article for families looking at the option. Here’s an excerpt:

Initiating phone calls to the coach

I think one of the toughest challenges prospects face in the recruiting process is initiating that first phone call to the college coach and for good reason. They are scared! Somehow, many young athletes envision an unapproachable coach on the other end of the line and view the task of calling the coach with fear. Coaches are former athletes who went through the same process. More importantly, they are educators who “know the stakes” and the importance of the 4 year college experience. Sure, they are competitive and want to attract the best and the brightest, but for the most part, they want prospects in general, to arrive at a comfortable college choice and one that is the right match. They typically see their role as being a “resource,” with a sincere obligation to provide family’s with valuable information and to answers their questions. They want to assist the prospect reach his “comfort level” in an effort to begin developing a collaborative relationship.

I would not encourage a prospect to pick up the phone and make a “cold call” without preparation. …

read the entire article as a .DOC file: Navigating College RecruitingConfidence.doc

Victory Collegiate Consulting – official home page

Beth Gardner is a preschool gymnastics guru. Here’s her take on the back bend:

… bridging in preschoolers. It has been such a controversial issue for a long time, and it is a never ending debate among coaches.

…

The current industry standard for bridging recommends that children do not start bridging until age 5. The industry standard USED to be based on the concept of “developmentally correct” in which the child was allowed to do a bridge if they could place themselves into the bridge position on their own. This, however, is no longer the standard. …

Bridging in Preschoolers – GymSmarts blog

I agree with the general age guideline. However, every gym has kids under age-5 that do back bridges easily and safely.

My own policy for all once a week gymnasts is not to REQUIRE bridges. Offer recreation gymnasts alternative stretches.

I don’t “ban” back bridges, but I also do not “push” back bridges.

In fact, even competitive gymnasts are better off doing bridge with the feet elevated. It results in better technique later on many skills including walkovers. We want gymnasts to use upper back and shoulder flexibility, not the lower back.

Leave a comment if you have a position on this issue.

original bridge photo – Picassa

This transformation seems so unlikely, I can hardly believe it.

April Burkholder is perhaps the greatest gymnast in LSU history. (She’s even got her own own bobblehead doll.)

In 2006 she won the beam title at NCAA Championships. She earned first-team All-America honors on each of the four events and in the all-around.

Two years later she’s a bad girl rapper?

rapper Alazae – MySpace

Video from Utah gymnastics training during the second week of practice 2008-09.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Gymnastike)

Andrew Thornton’s popular Smooth Skills video series is now a regular feature posted every Monday on Gymnast.com:

… I’m sure many of you have recently read that the current investigation of the ages of some of the 2008 Chinese Olympians has now been expanded to include two members of the bronze-medal winning Chinese team from Sydney in 2000 – Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao. This was largely prompted by the recent public acknowledgement by Yang Yun herself that she was only 14 years old in Sydney, where she not only helped lead her team to bronze but also won a bronze on the uneven bars and placed 5th in both the all-around and floor exercise.

Yang Yun’s spectacular performance at the 2000 Olympic Games caught the attention of virtually everyone, especially because she had never competed at a world championships or Olympics before. She arrived in Sydney as the newest member of the Chinese Olympic team, and shocked many by immediately establishing herself as an all-around threat as well as a medal contender on several individual events. Her smile and personality were just as charming as her gymnastics, and she performed as if she had been competing on the world stage for years. Not only were her bars and beam up to the typical Chinese standards, but she was one of the best vaulters in the world (rare for the Chinese at that time) and had a floor routine that was well received by the judges for its beauty and choreography. In fact, had Yang Yun not suffered a rare fall off beam in the all-around finals, she would have been the Olympic all-around champion.

Here’s a look at Yang Yun’s two vaults from the team finals at the 2000 Olympics, which I consider among the best vaults ever done by a female gymnast. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

see more of her routines on Smooth Skills – Part 9