Gymnastics Coaching.com

In our ongoing search for the best gymnastics and acrobatics books, KP recommended Soviet Gymnastics Stars by Vladimir Golubev.

It’s long out of print.

You might be able to get a copy at Biblio.com, however.

Five of us from Canada made the pilgrimage to the Santa Monica Gymfest, California in the late 1970s.

What an era!

Remembering Muscle Beach: Where Hard Bodies Began : Photographs and Memories (published 1999) documents how it all got started.

… Harold Zinkin (the first Mr. California as well as inventor of the Universal Gym Machine) tells the story:

He shares not only the stories of Hollywood celebrities who frequented Muscle Beach—including Mae West, Jane Russel, Jayne Mansfield, and Kirk Douglas—but also provides an insider’s account and photographic view of how this small strip of sand became a haven for the health-conscious and bodies beautiful.

Remembering Muscle Beach: Where Hard Bodies Began : Photographs and Memories

There was always a strong gymnastics connection.

In 1935, the City of Santa Monica hired UCLA coach Cecil Hollingsworth to teach gymnastics at Muscle Beach. By the late 1930s, there were 50 or 60 regulars and thousands of spectators came to see them perform on weekends.

Writers and photographers did countless stories and eventually The Beach was known nationally and internationally. To Zinkin and the other regulars, its fame was irrelevant, it was, he writes, “our education, our club, our cause. It was our youth.”

New Book Celebrates Santa Monica Heyday – Peggy Clifford, Santa Monica Mirror Editor

This past weekend I judged the Alberta Provincial Gymnastics Championships.

For the most part, it was a good competition. Coaches were calm and cooperative. The atmosphere between judges and coaches was positive.

Did we do a PERFECT job? Certainly not though there were no major errors on my rotations.

Tom Burgdorf called for something every coach would love to see:

Would someone please invent a robot official who is perfect in every situation.

It was in Tom’s Apr. 2, 2007 Parenting An Athlete Newsletter. He discusses how coaches should react to a bad score:

… Is it okay for an athlete to train 12 months a year and then get ripped off on bars where she should have been State Champion? But because of the judge your daughter takes 3rd?

Good question. There is no definitive answer.

Coaches walk a fine line. We are supposed to be competitive. We are supposed to care. We are supposed to protect our athletes. Do the parents expect us to blow up on a bad call to protect the team? …

The officials are right 98 – 99% of the time. And we certainly don’t complain when the officials goof “in our favor.” …

You can sign up to get Tom’s Parenting Newsletter by email from the GymNetSport.com Gymnastics Business Newsletter page. It’s free.

Old newsletters are posted on his website as .PDF files.

The well known Gymnastics Zone website posts a Cheer Zone page, as well.

It has a number of articles of interest to Cheer coaches:

Cheerleading Programs

Run Your Practices like Cheerleading is a Sport

Cheerleading Programs Checklist

There’s more on their Cheer Zone page.

Talk about consistency!

Former Canadian World Championships competitor Ashley Peckett (Gymnastics Mississauga) is in her final season in the NCAA.

… one of the most consistent gymnasts in UCLA history, hitting 99 of her last 101 routines without a fall, including 40 of 41 this season. She has become a valuable all-around contributor this year, averaging 39.075 in five meets, with a high of 39.35 set in the win over previously unbeaten Georgia on Mar. 4.

But how’s she doing at school?

Peckett, who boasts a cumulative GPA of 3.75 in Physiological Science, earns her third career Pac-10 academic award.

Six Bruins Selected To Pac-10 All-Academic Gymnastics Team :: Peckett receives first-team acclaim

Congratulations!

(via Gymbrooke)

I have no idea.

It takes us at least an hour to vacuum a competition Floor mat. And vacuum cleaners breakdown about every 3 months!

Carpet bonded foam is the best surface for gymnastics. But what a pain!

Altadore Gymnastics

Leave a comment below if you have any solutions.

Have a happy handstand!

Lads from Victoria, Australia have been doing handstands in unusual places: on a swing, in a phone booth, etc.

These are the ongoing Handstand Adventures.

Click PLAY or watch the adventures (so far) on YouTube.

Thanks coach Michael Jones-Evans !

Christopher Peddecord is a dynamite new photographer and a a BFA candidate at the University of Utah in ballet.

more gymnastics photos – flickr

more dance photos

I saw this set-up in the high performance gym in Homebush, Sydney, Australia.

This is about as good as it gets.

Who will be the first to do a cartwheel at the North Pole?

The South Pole has been done.

Sandwichgirl owns it.

(via Boing Boing)