Gymnastics Coaching.com

Gymnastics Canada Level 1 Introductory gymnastics (4th edition) and companion planning workbook.

Yup. It’s best English language gymnastics book available, in my opinion, succinctly explaining the movement pattern approach of principle author Keith Russell.

The 3-ring binder format allows you to add your own coaching resources.

The Coaching Level 2 and 3 manuals are also recommended though they have weak chapters and have not been revised in many years.

E-mail Gymnastics Canada for current prices as their website shop is “under development”. (Actually it’s been under development for months. Or years. … Don’t hold your breath.)

Far more than 100,000 copies of the Canadian Level 1 have been published making it, I believe, the biggest selling gymnastics coaching manual of all-time. You may find a copy in your local library.

Ruschkin Publishing is currently working on a major revision. I’ve seen drafts. It looks great.

Dave Skolnik of the Timber Lake Family of Camps is already booking coaches for 2007.

The Timber Lake Family of Camps own and operate 3 of the most respected and top quality sleep away camps in the Northeastern United States and we are currently looking for experienced gymnasts and/or coaches to lead our gymnastics programs this summer.

Each camp is a co-ed, traditional sleep away camp that promotes the skills of making and keeping friends while building self-esteem and self-confidence. We pay the highest salaries in camping!

If you are interested, please e-mail me at dave @ camptlc.com or call me at 1-800-828-CAMP for more details.

Dave Skolnik

I like the part about “highest salaries in camping”.

This site promotes gymnastics camps. We think they are wonderful for kids. But the payscale for coaches is lousy at most. You are far better paid working for a club. (Of course you need to factor money saved on food, transportation, etc.)

The Timber Lake Summer Camp Experience!

We’ve just added a “playlist” of our own videos on YouTube.

We have 26 hosted there — good and bad — so far.

You can get to our clips any time from the hand navigation column on this site under videos YouTube.

Here’s the latest — one of my favourite “landing and falling” activities.

Coaches at a recent upgrading course practice climbing as high up a ladder as they dare, then drop to a flat back landing on a big port-a-pit mat.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

I’ve heard good things about the Gold Medal Gymnastics video series with Amanda Borden.

But at US$30 each, they are expensive. (The going rate these days is $20, I feel.) Manufacture and distribution should result in DVDs far less expensive than books.

I can’t find the DVDs in my town. Leave a comment below this post if you have watched any of them. There are four in the series: Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor.

They might make a great Christmas present!

Gold Medal Gymnastics Drills: Vault

One of our favourite sites is American-Gymnast.com

They have a “pommel tips” page with equipment recommendations, notes for coaches and video clips.

Here’s an interesting one:

Elbow circles, on a mushroom with a bucket, are a useful way to facilitate the straight body position. This drill allows the gymnast to build muscle memory in the right position.

screenshot

American Gymnast | Training Tips | Technique | Pommel Horse

(Of course you are going to crash once in a while. We would put the mushroom right on the floor to reduce the height of the drop.

The Altadore Gymnastics pommel bucket, by comparison, is excellent, the bucket held by a twisting spotting belt, suspended by link chain. It is easy and quick to change the length of that chain using a caribiner.)

This guy gets a lot of press. I see articles about him all over the internet.

Congratulations.

Ng Shu Wai had blisters on his hands and opted out of the individual all-around finals. And his move paid off handsomely when he vaulted his way into the history books as the first Malaysian to win an Asian Games medal in gymnastics.

Shu Wai bagged a silver in the vault final at Aspire Hall 2 yesterday with a average of 16.487.

It could have been a gold had Shu Wai executed a better first vault.

Ri Se-gwang gave North Korea their first-ever gymnastics gold medal with a flawless second attempt of 16.675 for a winning average of 16.625.

Kazakhstan’s Yernar Yerimbetov, who was fourth in vault in the World Championships and the first to start yesterday, took bronze on 16.300.

Asian Games: Historic silver from Shu Wai

This is getting predictable. China tops podium, again.

He Ning won the gold medal in 59.450 points, 0.400 points ahead of teammate Zhou Zhuoru, while DPR Korean Hong Su Jong was third in 57.800.

Hong fell from the beam, which cost her chance to bid for DPR Korea’s first ever all-around title after leading the first two rotations.

Chinese finishes 1-2 in women’s gymnastic all-around

The reigning world champions rock on.

CHINA’s women clinched their ninth consecutive Asian Games artistic gymnastics team title on Sunday, extending the country’s domination of the event.

China accrued 239.400 points with North Korea finishing 10.850 points behind for silver and Japan a distant third.

“Today, everybody did a good job. It’s a joint effort to win a gold medal,” said He Ning, China’s joint top scorer with Zhou Zhuoru on 59.050.

China established an early lead in the vault but North Korea closed the gap on the uneven bars. …

China ease to double gold in gymnastics

A friend asked me for a generic job description they could use at their gymnastics club.

Download a copy to your computer if you might be interested.

Gymnastics-Head-Coach.doc (Microsoft Word format)

How would you feel if this happened to you?

Without warning, a popular Riverside gymnastics and cheerleading club has gone out of business, leaving parents stunned and coaches waiting for their latest paychecks Monday.

A letter taped to the mostly empty and shuttered club’s front door was the only notice given about the closure of Mission Hills Gymnastics, 7330 Sycamore Canyon Blvd. Parents and coaches said the company had been doing business for six years in Riverside.

“Due to a sudden and unforeseen meltdown with our business partners we have been forced to close,” read the unsigned letter. “This has been very difficult for our family to comprehend but unfortunately we had no other conclusion.” …

“I don’t have a job and I don’t have money,” said Rafael Aliyev, a cheer and artistic gymnastics coach from Kazakhstan. “I lost everything.”

PE.com | Inland Southern California | Moreno Valley-Perris