A cool place for friends and family members of Santa Monica Gymnastics Center to come hang out. So nuke the popcorn in the microwave; Snoopy dance...dance..dance around the room...then pull up a chair, and be prepared to laugh and cry; to feel embarrassed and inspired; and to just sit back, relax and enjoy these music videos.
When non-athletes want to run fast they set about moving their legs
as fast as they can, so you might assume that Bolt has achieved this
exceptional record by making his legs move faster than everyone else
has. But this idea doesn't stand up - in fact, it falls flat on its
face. "Elite sprinters don't swing their legs any faster than recreational runners," says Dr Sam Allen of Loughborough University. Instead, the difference is that a top sprinter takes longer and more powerful strides. Research
shows that an amateur runner often takes between 50 and 55 steps to
complete 100m, while an elite sprinter takes in the region of 45. "Elite
athletes generate so much more power, owing to the fact they naturally
have more fast-twitch muscle fibres. These elite athletes therefore
spend a lot less time on the ground which results in them being
propelled forward much quicker," says Allen. Studies led by the American based researcher Peter
Weyand have found that at top speed an elite sprinter's foot will
typically spend 0.08 seconds in contact with the ground at the beginning
of each stride compared with about 0.12 seconds for an amateur athlete. Sam
Allen says the fastest sprinters seem to be spend about 60% of the time
in the air, with no foot on the ground, while for amateur athletes it's
more like 50%.
So I learned this photo posted earlier was taken of a facility in Yemen.
Yemen, in recent time, has been experiencing a crisis in leadership and stability. It is on the verge of a civil war; and made vulnerable to being a safe haven for al Qaeda and IS.
As the first gymnast sprints down the fraying stretch of carpet toward
the vault, his gruff coach shouts encouragement in Arabic: “Jump big,
like you dream!” Hurdling himself onto the vault, the gymnast’s height
on his takeoff is impressive. Later on, as he tends to the blisters on
his hands from the dozens of conditioning drills he executes each
practice, he admits with a shy smile to the big dream that motivates
this dynamic explosion off the vaulting table – to one day compete in an
international meet.
It is sad to see the setback and downward slide of a country like Yemen.
*UPDATE* 12:30pm 8/26/2015
Gaar Adams, who authored the above article, left a comment on Nick Blanton's page:
This
is Yemen. When people hear about Yemen, the things that come to most
people's minds are words like "war", "extremism", and "terrorism." But
the people of Yemen are some of the most kind and hospitable folks you
would ever have the pleasure of meeting
and -- though you may not associate a country of such strife with
gymnastics -- Yemen actually had a gymnast (its first) at the Olympics
in 2008, Nashwan Al-Harazi. I lived in Yemen in 2009 while intensively
studying Arabic and trained a couple of times with Al-Harazi at the
national training center in Sana'a (I'm a former gymnast.) It was a
barebones gym -- the kind you see in Olympic fluff pieces where there
aren't proper mats, equipment is outdated, etc. But the work ethic and
resilience of these guys was incredible. I'm a freelance journalist in
the region and returned to Yemen before the 2012 Olympics to write a
piece on Al-Harazi's remarkable story about getting one of the Olympic
wildcards and to revisit his gym 4 years after he went to Beijing.
(Attaching the article at the bottom of this post.) Al-Harazi's gym in
Sana'a is still standing -- these photos are actually from a smaller
training facility in Hodeidah, Yemen, a port city on the western coast
of Yemen that's been under increased bombing by a Saudi-led coalition
over the past few weeks. It's senseless. This is how you breed
extremism/contempt/disillusionment/anger -- through the needless
destruction of facilities that are positive outlets for youth and by
forcefully taking away programs & spaces that provide opportunities
for young people. The kids who trained here took pride in their
abilities and were incredible athletes considering their limited
resources. Now, a part of their identity has been removed until this
place can be rebuilt, and all that's left is them asking "Why?" with no
one to answer that question but violent propaganda on both sides. The
Olympic opportunity provided to Al-Harazi helped him immeasurably --
he's now a gymnastics coach in the USA. Any opportunity like that for
these kids in Hodeidah has now been taken away (by an operation being
funded heavily by the United States, but I'll keep my politics here to a
minimum.) It's an absolute tragedy. Here's Al-Harazi's story below.
Please read it, share it, and remember next time you hear about Yemen or
a country in the MIddle East that it's filled with good people -- the
vast, vast majority of whom reject terror, extremism, and just want to
live their lives in peace like everyone else: http://www.salon.com/.../pommel_horses_and_protestors.../
I have a feeling he and I don't see eye to eye on politics. But we both probably hope for the best in regards to Yemen.
Justin Howell's lecture on Round-offs, last session on Saturday- filled up to standing room only capacity.
It's been quite a while since I've been to a Regional Congress. Long overdue for me. The last time might have been back in the SMGC days, when I was not interested in being a team coach. Speaking of which, I had lunch with a former co-worker; and also ran into these former SMGC students, now coaches:
Rachel is now at the gym Lilly was at before she moved to Chicago. Angie had a brief opportunity to work with Eddie Umphrey before Eddie gave up his head coach position to be with his fiancee at Airborne.
Speaking of Umphrey, I brought my cohorts over to Chainey's house for some dinner to meet the new addition.
Prior to seeing them, I asked Chainey if he'd been working out. He says
he runs about "3 blocks" (direct quote) and does some push-ups. That's
about it. So this is what he looks like as of yesterday:
I used to get into arguments with people all the time back in college- people who were adamant in their belief that Chainey was taking steroids; or that he must lift weights. Nope. None of that. The only weight he lifted was his own body. Nor did he do a lot of extra strength training- mostly routines. He's just a genetic freak of nature.
I did a lot of videoing, in part to bring back and share with the staff back at home base. Not sure how much I will share on YouTube and this blog.
My co-workers did not bring their video cameras; but I shared my digital camera (the Casio that can also film in slo-mo and back to normal speed all in one shot) and my iPhone 4 while I used my iPhone 5 (64 gb). 2 extra battery packs. After each lecture, I'd have 45 minutes to dump the memory into my laptop and would recharge while filming the next lecture.
What kind of perplexes me is how many coaches- even if fairly new- seem unaware of so many drills and concepts that seem easily acquired through the internet. I guess some coaches don't waste as much time as I do on YouTube; or run detective searches through blogs and social media for content.
I was disappointed that Neil Resnick was not present yesterday for his lectures.
Everyone has something to offer, though; and I enjoy listening to anyone express their thoughts and views and share their ideas about anything related to gymnastics.
I'm sure this barely scratches the surface on what's possible:
I'd be curious to just to see creativity on multiple parallel bars side to side. I can imagine giants and back tosses that travel side to side. I've sometimes wondered what would happen if the sport of gymnastics allowed for further radical evolution of the apparatus. How about a horse as long as a balance beam with multiple pommels? More than two bars for unevens? Men's high bars similar to unevens in that you can do a release to another high bar? With parkour, circus acts, trampoline walls, etc. there are just limitless possibilities on turning anything into a competitive sport.
