tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Andy Tucker, one of our FARTS Adventure Racing Team, posted this photo:
Don’t Forget the Bouldering « Funtastics Adventure Racing Team
Though I missed that weekend myself, most of the team trained recently at Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas.
The FARTS are all ex-gymnasts. We might not win the Adventure Race, but we’ll certainly have the happiest handstands of any of the competitors.
Leon Å tukelj, a legend in Gymnastics, …
He earned a total of 6 Olympic medals: 3 Gold, 1 Silver, and 2 Bronze. Other medals earned are 5 Gold, 3 Silver, and 3 Bronze; a total of 11 Worlds medals won. His last major competition was 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Å tukelj, aged 97, was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.
… he lived to be a century old and died just 4 days short of his 101st birthday.
Leon Å tukelj was able to hold on to the title of having been the oldest living Olympic gold medalist for about 10 years, though.
Remarkable.
More detail with links – Leon Å tukelj, the 100-Year-Old Olympic Legend
Steve Penny, President of USA Gymnastics, must read this blog.
Just this morning I posted something critical of their website: I hate USAG TECHNIQUE MAGAZINE on-line, and in the afternoon this popped up:
Internet/New Media: Web Design
Webmaster – USA Gymnastics (Indianapolis, IN)General description:
The Webmaster is responsible for every aspect of the organization’s Web site. The Web master will: work with each department/program to keep the Web site up-to-date and well-maintained. …
Send this job description link to people who know gymnastics first, and who understand Web 2.0, as well. (For one thing, they need bloggers linked from the home page.)
The USA Gymnastics website does not “suck”, but it’s very old fashioned. Rather than keep patching the static HTML pages they need a new design.
There’s no holding Peggy McAlpine (yes, McAlpine) after her Bungy jump 20yrs ago at age 80, she’s now managed to enter the Guinness book of records for going Paragliding at age 100! Incredible.
… perhaps I’ll go run up a mountain. I’m YOUNG compared with Peggy.
Rick McCharles
If you’re reading this blog, you know the internet can be a big time-waster.
My strategy is to stop watching regular TV. Watch my computer screen, instead.
Yet every once-in-a-while computers are useful. They can make our jobs as coaches easier. Our live’s richer.
In fact you can find a coaching job on the internet. Meet your mate.
The internet has potential. It’s getting better.
From my presentation at the 2007 BC Fall Congress in Vancouver.
A few of the links recommended:
In the past I loved Technique Magazine on-line, the best resource for coaches out of USA Gymnastics.
Then some years ago, someone decided to change the format of the page to this:
You must click on the RED CORNER in order to flip the page.
Flashy, but not useful. Form over function. Many are confused, I expect, by the unusual format and navigate away from the page without finding the red corner.
I cannot link to good articles or resources in Technique. It’s dead to me.
I assume the good folks at USAG do not care to have the wider audience on-line that a conventional page would bring. Too bad.
TECHNIQUE MAGAZINE – USA Gymnastics
An under-appreciated drill for improving kip on Bars or Horizontal Bar is kip series on safety straps.
I asked one of the Funtastics gymnasts who had had some trouble learning the kip when she was younger to try for at least 8 in series on a safety strap bar. (I expected her to do 3-4 on first attempt.)
Here’s how she did:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
In my experience, gymnasts who can do 8 in series will never again have any problem with single long kip in their routine. Connecting cast handstand should be relatively easy. Through “overload” gymnasts learn how to kip efficiently. This can be done on a low bar for glide kip series too (though I never use that drill myself).
No spotting is required. No “rips” on the hands.
(Same strategy for giant though I ask gymnasts for somewhere between 20-40 giants in series.)
Related posts tagged with safety straps
If you do not live in the USA, it’s amazing how many website offers do NOT apply to you.
For once, here’s a CANADA ONLY sale. Ten percent off anything at TumblTrak.
… At its core are tumbling products like the Tumbl Trak, Air Trak, Air Floor, Portable Tumbling Tramps and Tumbling Mats. We also offer vaulting, bar and beam equipment like the Porta Table, Jr. Kip Bar, Tumbl Trak Bar, Sectional Beam, Low Beams and much more.
Tumbl Trak also offers competitive pricing on cheer and dance equipment like Spring Floors, Cheer Floors and Ballet Bars. This year, look for new innovative cheer products that will include a Launch Pad for learning flips and an Air Cheer Floor that will blow you away!
Welcome to TumblTrak – Your source for Gymnastics, Cheerleading, and Dance Equipment
Gymblog has a great overview (including videos) of the top candidates for the Chinese Women’s Gymnastics Team.
If you’re like me, you have trouble distinguishing one wonderfully precise girl from the next.
China’s legitimate shots to make the women’s Olympic team include:
– Pang Panpan
– Zhang Nan
– Zhou Zhuoru
– Cheng Fei
– Li Ya
– He Ning
– Xiao Tingting
– Xiao Sha
– Yang Yilin
– Li Shanshan
– Jiang YuyuanI’m sure there are others I’ve left out.
read the entire post – China’s 2008 contenders « WordPress Gymblog
Certainly Possibly Vault will be first priority as it is for the USA. Both teams want to improve difficulty from 2007 Worlds. (It’s surprising to me how far behind the Men they lag in difficulty though the horse is only 10cm lower.)
Cheng Fei has the only guaranteed spot at this point, I would think.
Now I read on difficulty plus execution that Cheng Fei will be “captain”. Not nearly a match for Alica Sacramone. That’s 1 point in favour of the USA.
Not to be outdone by Oksana Chusovitina, Jordan too is getting ready for Beijing. And he is training all-around.
Emailed by Tyler Hass of RingTraining.com:
My friend Jordan Jovtchev, who stars in the Ring Strength DVD, as well as a couple upcoming videos (more on that to come…), just qualified for his FIFTH Olympics. That is not a typo! He set the record in 2004 when he made it for a fourth time. But he was disappointed with the results in 2004 and so he decided to keep training and go for it again.
What is equally amazing is that to qualify, he had to compete in all six events. For the past several years, he has only competed on rings and floor, so he had to re-learn some of his old events. He ended up qualifying in the top 15 in the all-around competition. He also won bronze on the rings at that competition.
To see Jovtchev’s 2004 Olympics Final rings routine click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
This was filmed at the 2004 Olympics, where he won the silver medal, although most experts felt he deserved the …
related post – rings – strength “routinesâ€
Gymnastics Coaching.com 