Gymnastics Coaching.com

Every gymnastics club has a “lost and found” dilemma.

What to do with all the clothing and other items left behind by the kids?

I try to sift through the pile and keep anything particularly good or expensive. The rest goes to charity.

We need to empty our “lost property” box after every recreation session.

If you have any other strategies, leave a COMMENT below.

We frequently link to Rik’s books and articles. He is one of the most prolific writers in our sport.

And we just got our hands on Rik’s new book Back Handsprings – The Secret Techniques (2007).

It is a gold mine of drills. Very comprehensive. Safety is foremost.

We like the “Basic Safety Guidelines for Tumblers”.

The illustrations are lifelike (how did you do those Rik?) and easy to follow.

Back Handsprings: The Secret Techniques

Even the elite gymnastics coach will find “secret” drills (never before seen) but the book above is actually very appropriate for Cheer coaches too — though Rik offers another volume specific to Cheerleading.

Of course the fear of all coaches is that insufficiently fit kids will “chuck” backward handsprings without doing the prerequisite conditioning and technical drills.

These books should help “educate” the general public as to how much work is needed before doing your first “backspring”.

CHEERLEADING: Conditioning for Back Handspring & Tumbling Success! – Rik Feeney

For many, many more books and articles (some of them free), check Rik Feeney’s website — GymnasticsTrainingTips.com

We’ve added a new Category in the right-hand navigation column: “Twisting”

So far 13 posts are available talking about “twist”.

Most gyms still have athletes who tell me, “I have problems twisting.”

Usually those problems start at a young age and stage of development. Usually those kids have developed some bad habits.

The most successful clubs have the Head Coach responsible for a club-wide twisting program.

photo – Brandon O’Neill

Everytime I think there is no way to invent another pommel training device — a new one comes along.

Showed to many top coaches at USA Men’s Winter Cup, check out the EGE mushrooms:

Here’s a floor horse version with easily removable pommels:

We know that 70% or more of top male gymnasts suffer chronic wrist pain. It’s one of our biggest overuse injuries in the sport.

The EGE equipment is designed to:

1) create a surface upon which gymnasts of all ages and levels can train without causing severe wrist damage, 2) establish a standard piece of equipment that can support the skill development of the gymnast, and 3) add a colorful, lightweight and portable pommel horse station that can bridge the gap between traditional mushrooms and pommel horse.

No additional (expensive) matting is required.

There are 2 more variations.

Prices, more photos, video and equipment specifications are posted on TheAmericanGym.com.

An avatar (buddy icon) is an Internet user’s representation of himself or herself on-line. It can be a 3 dimensional cartoon figure. Or a badge like the one below.

GymnasticsAvatars.com offers free (100 x 100 pixels) avatars of hundreds of international gymnasts … including Shaposhnikova.

Many use badge avatars to represent them in on-line forums.

GymnasticsAvatars.com

Nastia Liukin is a media superstar.

Not just in the gymnastics community, but worldwide.

The most recent evidence of this is her video profile on the AT&T program called “Home Turf Online” which interviews top American athletes. The host is former baseball and football great Deion “Primetime” Sanders.

To watch the streamed video you need a fast computer and fast internet connection.

It’s entertaining. A glimpse into the WOGA gym and home life with Papa coach Valeri Liukin.

See How They Live – Nastia Liukin – video

Some years just an excuse of a meet to highlight American gymnastics on TV, this competition had some great stories in 2007.

It was the Senior breakout of wondergirl winner Shawn Johnson who is a treat to watch. Not that #2 Natasha Kelley is not a wonder herself. And fantastic Shayla Worley could not even get to the finals as only two Americans could quality.

Potential Olympic champion for 2008 Fabian Hambüchen of Germany was the favourite in the men’s competition. But instead crowd pleaser Jonathan Horton took the all-around title, his second in two years.

photo – interview with Jonathan Horton – Inside Gymnastics

details on American Cup 2007 – GymMedia.com

I spent many days at Kingborough Gymnastics in Tasmania, one of a handful of Aussie clubs who have been awarded a 5 Star rating by Gymnastics Australia.

Club 10 has been developed by Gymnastics Australia. This scheme is an accreditation system that provides a framework for continuous improvement across ten key club operational areas.

The Club 10 vision is ” An accredited network of vibrant and successful affiliated Clubs providing a comprehensive range of Gymsports, to Australians of all areas and abilities”.

A Club achieves a Star rating, from 1 to 5 (5 being the highest), through and comprehensive auditing scheme. Australia wide in 2004 only 5 clubs where awarded a 5 star rating.

Kingborough FQA’s

It seems to me that a rating system for gym clubs is a good idea. But many Aussie coaches told me that the new program is flawed. That achieving a high rating was far too much trouble. And that it will be some years before the 5 Star rating system is widely recognized by the general public.

We wait on that day.

In the meantime, I posted a few photos of Kingborough on flickr if you want to see what a 5 Star club looks like.

Friend of this site, Olympic Floor Champion 2004 Kyle Shewfelt let us know about 50 more photos (flickr) of himself and the Canadian Men’s Team linked from KyleShewfelt.com.

All pics by our favourite photographer – Grace Chiu

In Melbourne, Australia I saw an interesting variation on the Russian “tramp catcher”.

Interesting, but not nearly as safe.