Gymnastics Coaching.com

As much as it surprises and pains me to say so, Peaceful Warrior is a terrible film.

I have trouble imagining a worse adaptation of such a wonderful book.

Don’t bother renting it. Save your money. Buy the original 1980 autobiographical fiction — Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives instead.

First, the movie got the gymnastics all wrong.

I know. This is not a gymnastics movie. But why confuse the skills, terminology and video editing for no purpose?

A wonderful opportunity to accurately highlight NCAA gymnastics in the 1960s was wasted. What a shame.

Secondly, the actor playing Dan Milman (Scott Mechlowicz) is totally unconvincing. Unconvincing as a gymnast. Unconvincing as an actor.

Finally, the great themes of Buddhist and Asian philosophy in the book are not communicated well. The book is clear, the movie a muddle.

I score this film a 2.0 out of 10.

The main redeeming feature is the gravitas of the always excellent Nick Nolte.

And I liked the the flip flop of the scene with 3 street thugs. In the book, Socrates (Nick Nolte) disarms the hoods easily. In the movie he takes much more the Buddhist approach, voluntarily handing over their possessions.

If you have an opinion on book or movie, leave a comment. (I know many enjoyed the movie.)

Way of the Peaceful Warrior

UPDATE: It seems Dragalescu was injured on this roll out landing at Europeans:

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Almost every male gymnast these days competes at least one tumbling skill to roll-out on Floor Exercise. They want to reduce the chance of a landing deduction.

Without question roll-out skills are very dangerous. Many have been injured. Recall that 1978 World Champion Yelena Mukhina became a partial quadriplegic in 1980 after under-rotating a “Thomas” salto (see video below).

They are banned in FIG women’s gymnastics right now. Should the men ban roll-out tumbling skills as well?

This is a discussion topic on the Chalk Bucket Gymnastics forum. It started after the report of 17-year-old Hungarian gymnast Zsolt Virag having a recent injury. He cannot feel his legs and may be permanently paralysed.

There are good points on both sides of the argument. Check it out for yourself:

somersaults to roll-out … – Chalk Bucket

Personally, I would like to see those skills banned. Or, perhaps better, devalued.

For example, Click PLAY to see a clip of a tumbler training “Thomas” (full-in, half-out to roll-out) or watch it on YouTube.

Over the past 6 months I’ve heard of a number of circus acrobat falls, all blamed on failures in rigging or errors made by riggers.

The most recent is the most tragic.

Before Roberto Valenzuela launched into his daredevil acrobatic act in the upper reaches of the Circo Hermanos Vazquez big top, ringmaster Jesus Vazquez issued his standard dramatic warning to the circus audience: “A screw that loosens or a cord that breaks could be fatal.”

But as the popular Mexican circus performer took his act before hundreds of adults and children in South El Monte on Monday night, the warning took on tragic meaning.

Valenzuela was performing a series of maneuvers while dangling from two 26-foot-long red cloths when equipment connecting cables to the material broke, sending the performer hurtling headfirst to the ground.

He was killed instantly.

Acrobat lacked safety gear to halt fatal fall – Los Angeles Times

Even more effort needs be put towards safe rigging.

Robert’s death is a tragedy that can have some purpose if it motivates the circus industry to prevent falls in the future.

Thanks to Michael Sanders for bringing this to our attention.

This reviewer works for the TechCrunch network, one of the most influential on the internet:

Finally, the most devastating blow against the Bowflex Revolution is its price tag. At $2,800, I really can’t even fathom recommending this product. There are about 1000 better options out there that cost at least $1000 less.

Bowflex Revolution

But you’ve got to admire the amazing athlete models Bowflex hires to pretend they use their products! One of the first on TV years ago was a gymnast from Multnomah Athletic Club Gymnastics in Portland Oregon, I recall.

Bowflex – Wikipedia

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

This video was entered in a Gwen Steffani contest.

(via Neatorama)

From Tyler at RingTraining.com:

A useful program for anyone.

This is a workout that has been around for ages, but with the Elite Rings you can add new life to it.

The basic idea of the workout is that you perform 10 sets of 10 reps of pushups.

Nothing new there, of course. However, in this workout, you will perform each set with a different variation of the pushup. Since the Elite Rings move frictionlessly in a 360 degree plane, you can perform countless varieties of pushups.

Limiting yourself to only 10 variations might be the hardest part.

Ringtraining.com

Archer pushup

Dieter Hofmann on the (less than thrilling) finals:

Carlotta Giovannini from Italy secured the 2nd gold medal for her country after Ferrari’s all-around victory yesterday and won the vault final in front of Anna Grudko (RUS) and Oxana Chusovitina from Germanyif

The victory on uneven bars went to Daria Zgoba (UKR), silver was won by Steliana Nistor from Romania and Ekaterina Kramarenko won the second medal for Russia at these championships, after Grudko’s silver on vault she now won bronze on uneven bars.

… Yulia Lozhechko (photo) from Russia won the beam final and Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) on floor.

European Championships Artistic Gymnastics – Amsterdam 2007

Most interesting to me is that Romanian gymnasts did well on bars, an event that’s been weak since the 1970s.

Looks to me the new coaching regime is turning out to be a change for the better.

Dieter Hofmann reporting on the event finals:

Rafael Martinez from Spain won the first final on floor in front of Thomas Bouhail (FRA), the bronze rank is being shared by Matthias Fahrig (GER) and the only 15-years old Greek talent Eleftherios Kosmidis.

As expectd the victory on pommel horse went to Krisztian Berki from Hungary. On the silver and bronze ranks follow Daniel Keatings (GB) and Flavius Koczi (ROU).

Oleksander Vorobyov (UKR) won on rings in front of Jordan Jovtchev (BUL) and Andrea Coppolino (ITA) who shared the silver rank.

… Anton Golotsutskov (RUS) won on vault, the victory on parallel bars went to Mitja Petkovsek from Slovenia and gold on high-bar was won by Fabian Hambuechen from Germany!

European Championships Artistic Gymnastics – Amsterdam 2007

To be competitive on vault you now need two triple somersaulting vaults.

The winner Anton Golotsutskov did:

1- handspring – double somersault fwd. 1/2 turn (“Dragulescu”) … slight step ont the landing, otherwise a great vault!

2- double- Tsukahara piked (!!)

The vault event is getting scary. Are FIG landing mats sufficient?

I don’t think so.

Very few of the competitors ever land a vault in training on hard mats. They do it only in competition.

We need to go to a competition landing surface like that used in double mini and acrobatic tumbling. (This would be great on horizontal bar, as well, where triple backs are getting more common.)

Not only a tremendous photo collection, but an accompanying blog.

This is the work of U of Utah dancer, photographer, choreographer, and deep-sea fisherman Christopher Peddecord.

More of Christopher’s photos on flickr tagged NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.

I love this skill.

How low must it be for no deduction? (Male gymnasts must be horizontal.)

UEG – European Union of Gymnastics – European Championships