Gymnastics Coaching.com

This commercial is making the rounds on the internet.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Shawn Johnson gave the traditional Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention in front of over 80,000 spectators. (video)

The (Un)Orthodox Gymnastics blog reminds us that gymnasts gave the Pledge 4yrs-ago too. At the Republican National Convention.

Kerry Strug and Mary Lou Retton

Shawn Johnson, Unregistered Democrat

Zach Aguiar from Lowell, MA, injured his Achilles tendon. So, this summer, ended up training a LOT of horizontal bar. He posted a video of some new bar skills on Gymnast.com.

Check the excellent pads they have on their bar:

Much tastier than that Michael Phelps Wheaties. …

or

(via Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics)

From email. Thanks Stu.

Gymnastics Canada and Gymnastics Ontario have finalized plans to launch a donation campaign beginning next week to help support injured gymnast Taylor Lindsay-Noel.

Taylor, who suffered a spinal cord injury while training in the gymnasium at Seneca College in Toronto on July 15th, is undergoing rehabilitation at Bloorview Kids Rehab in Toronto.

The Gymnastics Canada-Gymnastics Ontario fund will help provide additional financial support for Taylor during her recovery.

“We wish Taylor and her family our best wishes at this difficult time,” says Jean-Paul Caron, President & CEO of Gymnastics Canada.

“The Canadian Gymnastics community, including her coaches and fellow gymnasts at Sport Seneca, is confident Taylor will show the same spirit and determination to meet the challenges ahead that she did as a gymnast.”

Information about the donation campaign will be posted on the Gymnastics Canada and Gymnatics Ontario web sites.

I assume Sport Seneca will be a partner, as well in this campaign.

I’ll post when the campaign goes live.

Thanks to all the people who have contacted me about this terrible accident.

Trick biking is getting pretty nuts.

Daniel Dhers won the Dew Cup in both 2006 and 2007. And X-games gold in 2007 and 2008.

In Portland, on the Dew Tour, responding to a near impossible Quad tail whip by Mike Spinner, Daniel threw down this first run.

Click PLAY or watch Daniel on YouTube.

Daniel’s family lives in Argentina. But he trains at Woodward, Pennsylvania.

related video: BMX Daniel Dhers vs Mike Spinner

Of course another form (less entertaining) of BMX was introduced as an Olympic sport in 2008. Here are the medal winners:

full results

For BMX Racers, Olympic Debut Is a Surreal Experience – NY Times

An update to the old “agility ladder”, this product called “Universal Strength Apparatus” made by BodyWeightCulture might be terrific for young gymnasts. It’s quite inexpensive at $99 in the USA.

Each Universal Strength Apparatus – (USA) – Suspention Training Ladder features:

-12 handles

-1 foot attachment

-2 hooks

-1 over-the-door attachment

When two USA ladders are attached to one another in series you get a total length of about 16 feet and 24 steps. That’s a lot of climbing fun! The USA handles are designed to rotate freely which allows for less friction on the skin, yet forcing fingers, wrists and forearms to work harder than on the stabilized bar.

… the hook over the bar attachment design allows to adjust the height of the apparatus to place the foot attachment exactly where you need it.

Can USA handle my weight?

USA can support up to 300 lbs, however while testing this apparatus it was able to support 4 grown men with a total weight of over 600 lbs.

read more – Elastic Steel

Click PLAY or watch a video of the device in use on YouTube.

Thanks Celciusss who sent us a link to that video.

It may be safer to introduce climbing to preschool kids on something like this rather than a rope. And there are dozens of advanced conditioning variations for the older athletes.

related post: teaching safe rope climb to beginners

One of the moderators on Chalk Bucket, bogwoppit, alerted me:

This is a very sad story, one of our lovely young Canadian gymnasts was very badly injured doing a new bar dismount at her club. She trained at Sport Seneca in Toronto, the same club as Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs and Peng-Peng Lee and was a hopeful for the 2012 Olympics.

Taylor Lindsay Noel is a 14 year old only child in a single parent family. She was a talented pianist and a gifted student.

… shocking how life can change so quickly. I know we all have many causes to support, but if you can help I am sure even the money for your morning coffee would benefit this child.

Here are two newspaper articles on Taylor and her Mom’s struggle to deal with the Canadian Gymnastics Federation. The comments are the bottom of the Globe and Mail article are particularly shocking.

TheStar.com | GTA | Paralyzed gymnast waits for miracle

globeandmail.com: Mom fights to have gymnast’s plight recognized – Comments

Chalk Bucket

Taylor

She was injured on a bars dismount.

Her Mom, Rowena Lindsay, is quoted in the news as being frustrated with the lack of media attention to her plight.

Friends have established a fund to assist with medical expenses at CIBC, transit number 07312, account number 7759185.

We are thinking of you, Taylor. Stay strong.

That’s the title of a post on Chalk Bucket by Nightflare514.

… It was a clean break, Thank God. She was doing a squat on, and kind of tumbled of the low bar, and put her right arm down and *SNAP*, it was broken. Nobody else thought it was broken, but I saw the way it jerked, and then after that she couldn’t move it. And I also knew something was wrong, because Mattie … she just doesn’t cry unless something is seriously, majorly wrong.

How many times have I heard this story?

Many coaches underestimate this “easy” combination, the one I always refer to as: “the most dangerous skill in gymnastics”

At the start of the school year, all the girls in my club must “pass” these progressions:

Click PLAY or watch the short video clip on YouTube.

related post: teaching REGRASP on a gymnastics bar

Athens was a disaster. Men’s Judging a laughing stock.

But — I grudgingly admit — the judging was much improved in Beijing. (And this from a Canadian who’s team was controversially knocked out of the Team final.)

Even Canadian Hardy Fink, past Men’s Technical Chair, was impressed. He was the original author of the current code.

Congratulations to Adrian Stoica and everyone judging at the 2008 Olympics.

larger photo – National Gymnastics Judges Association – USA

I’d better post this now before I’ve had a chance to speak to any of the judges personally. I might change my mind.