Why would I ever want to try this?

Situational Awareness!

Hat tip:  Ganba Gymnastics.

I almost killed this kid... #fail #ftw #gymnastics #almostdead #turnen #highbar #crash #lucky #luckykid #veiligsportklimaat #vsk #tickettoheaven

A video posted by Boudewijn de Vries - Gymnast (@bejdevries) on Dec 23, 2015 at 4:34am PST

Related: Near Collisions in gymnastics 

I'm pretty sure I've seen another post on this topic by Rick.  Just can't track down the link. 

Christmas Gienger and Handstand fails

"Hover"board handstand fail:

Kenny Gesiakowski posted Santa's gienger fail.

Sunday Funnies

The Day after Thanksgiving

Friday (Christmas) Funnies

Source

A Visit from St. Nick, Gymnastics Style

This is a repost video ('Cause I was too lazy to script a new one):

Anne Josephson:

‘Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the gym
not an athlete was training,
the lights were all dim.

The stockings were hung
from the beams just in case,
St. Nicholas and the reindeer
stopped by the gym space.

Some gymnasts were hopeful
that Santa would leave
some brand new leos;

preferably long sleeve.

 Read the rest on the JAG blog.

The start of my own version a few years back:

Seeing this post from Rick, I thought I'd share the following which I made up and would recite during warm-ups, adding a bit more to it each day and refining:

"T'was now 1 day [first time I started saying this in the gym, it was 10 days before Christmas] before Christmas and all through the gym,

The gymnasts began stirring, feeling mighty fit and trim.

Their grips were all hung by the lockers with care,

In hopes that Coach Kort soon would be there.

Thea lay snuggled all warm in her bed,

While visions of her overshoot danced in her head.*

And Amy in her Bruinwear,

And I in my Santa hat,

Had just settled down,

On the cold, cold hard panel mat.

When out on the Tumble Trak there arose such a clatter,

That I sprang from the panel mat to see what was the matter."

That's about as far as I got by camp's end.

Last year during winter camp, I had a bungee cord around the midsection of my gymnasts as they ran sprints, so they could drag me along. And I'd holler, "....to the top of the roof, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all!" I also made up substitute lyrics then, but don't remember what used.

With my team coworker out for the holidays, I've been managing our preteam and level 3s and 4s all to myself, with some overlap between groups.  Last week Wednesday, I combined preteam and the new level 3s for running drills on vault.

Gymnastics Progressions

Justin Laury's new resource site is now open for business.  Check it out.

I've long admired his attention to body shaping.

Sacred Cows Die Hard

I think this research has a lot of merit:

There is much more than just hip flexors and quads in relation to structures that limit motion for the back leg of splits. The hip joint has two types of stabilizers to support it, static and dynamic stabilizers. Static stabilizers are more passive things out of the athlete’s control like inherent boney congruency or shape, ligaments/capsular tissue, and the labrum. Dynamic stabilizers are muscular based structures like the hip flexors, hip rotators, and other glute/adductor muscles. These muscular dynamic components tie in heavily with neurological control and strength to maintain hip stability during motion.

Passive hip stabilizers like the iliofemoral ligament, ligamentous teres, labrum, and anterior hip capsule are very important structures in the front of the hip that assist in stability during high force skills in gymnastics. The iliofemoral ligament and extension of the anterior capsule have been noted in anatomical research to restrain external rotation and extension ranges of motion, like seen in extreme back leg split positions, and stabilize the hip against excessive movement out of the front of the joint.  The labrum is a fibrocartilage ring of tissue that deepens the socket, aids in joint stability, and helps disperse forces. Research suggests it too can be stressed with excessive movement of the femoral head out of the hip socket.

Read more from Dr. Dave Tilley. 


Old school habits will die hard, though; and when coaches are still getting results (or perceived results), will their methods evolve?  Or stick with what they know and with what's been done for ages?  I'd love to see research examination on rhythmic gymnasts. 

Another important point is that gymnasts in the video are clearly hyper mobile individuals who don’t have an issue with passive range of motion. I’d be willing to bet money on the fact that on xray they have morphological hip changes like hip dysplasia or femoroacetabular version that make passive flexibility easy. They also likely have connective tissue level differences that makes it possible for them to get into these positions, with naturally reduced static ligamentous and capsular capabilities. These naturally mobile gymnasts with reduced static stability depend on exceptional dynamic stability to keep their hips safe and to increase their gymnastics performance.
This is usually the case for most flexibility examples in videos or presentations, where gymnasts who have huge flexibility ranges naturally are chose to demonstrate the drills. I will tell you honestly not all gymnasts will have the same hip anatomy. The same drill that is easy for one gymnast demonstrating the drill with underlying hip dysplasia or differences in morpholocial boney alignment will completely destroy another gymnast’s hips who don’t have that naturally.

Let Them Fail Their Way to Success

For kids older than 4, losing can teach a valuable lesson about how to recover from failure. 

"Everyone remembers the kid in the playground who kicked the ball into the woods when he lost the game," Matthew Biel, a pediatric psychiatrist at Georgetown University Medical Center, told the Wall Street Journal. "That kid wasn't given the skills to recover from failure. You don't want to be that kid."

Starting around 5 or 6, children become interested in competitive games because they gain the cognition to know rules, gauge odds and judge fair play. In essence, they are establishing their standing in the world.
"You have to recognize the stakes are really high for kids. That doesn't mean they are immature. They are playing the game with the appropriate level of gravity," Biel said. "It's why it's so much fun to play with them."

Throwing a game to a child is a bad idea because school-age children can sense when you're not trying and may view it as a loss of faith in them.

Read more.

Sunday Funnies

Chin Pillows

Some brilliant ideas work better than others.  This was not one of them:

This is related to the "sticky toes".

Oh, well.  I think the concept is still good- just not the execution of it   I've also thought of experimenting with some sort of modified neck brace.





How about a strip of velcro attached from a mouthpiece to the front top of a leotard?  I kid.  (Actually, as I type this, I think I have a clip somewhere of kids putting the front of their leotard in their mouths to back extension roll and feel their head position).

Island Hopping Team-Building and Problem-solving

Trap them on an island.Give them almost no tools.Watch how their minds work.
Posted by Chris Talbot on Saturday, May 16, 2015

Related.

Sunday Funnies

The Form Awakens!

I seem to remember a Jason Mortimer video (or someone else) posting a Darth Vader-use-the-Force-coaching video a few years back.  Anyone remember that?

The Force Awakens in one week!

Sunday Funnies