Julia Sharpe: MAG competitor and All-Around Mother of Twins.

She stayed in shape throughout her pregnancy; and competes in men's artistic gymnastics.  Watch her.



Hat tip:  JAG

1977-1980, 1981 1984 MAG WAG Compulsories USSR Film

Gymnastics Among the Ruins

Photo by AL Shaibani Wedeea

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.

Rick McCharles had blogged about gymnastics development in Yemen a couple of years ago.  He linked to this article written almost exactly three years ago:

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 It was a barebones gym -- the kind you see in Olympic fluff pieces where there aren't proper mats, equipment is outdated, etc.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.

MAG Among the Ruins

Nick Blanton posted this up yestereday; and I've been waiting for him to respond to find out the origin/source/backstory of this photo.

Syria?  Iraq?  In a war-torn country?  Natural disaster?  Where?  What?

Man wipes

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's never understood the wiping action that some male gymnasts do in the corners.  Just, why?

The World's Toughest Sport

USA GymClub:

The World's Toughest Sport By Michael S. Yessis - Men's Fitness
[3(f+s) + 2b] (v+c+i) * � 3p = TOTAL SCORE Deciding which sport is the world's toughest is difficult. It requires knowledge and research. Time and patience. Science and the kind of math skills rarely seen outside a ninth-grade algebra class. Well, we have all of that, and we did our homework. We logged hours playing in the field. We interviewed elite athletes from former Soviet-bloc nations. We spent countless hours watching ESPN2. Eventually, we developed an exclusive formula - the formula - to determine the planet's toughest sport.
Now, on to the chalkboard. First, we ranked 40 sports in seven categories on a scale of one to 10 (10 is the highest possible score, with the "contact" category ranked from one to five). The categories are:

FITNESS (f). - The level of physical fitness you must have to participate.
SKILLS (s). - The complexity of the athletic skills necessary to compete.
BRAINS (b). - The mental toughness and intelligence needed, as well as the complexity of the sport.
PAIN (p). - Injury rate, plus or minus the potential for death.
CONTACT (c). - The chances of getting smacked by other participants (takes into account padding worn, too).
VENUE (v). - Where you play it. Climbing up a sheer rock face is tougher than playing table tennis in a rec room.
INTANGIBLES (i). - The little things. For instance, bull riders have no idea what the bull's temperament is that day. Or, the measure of how scared your significant other gets when you say you're going to play a particular sport.

Finally, we plugged the numbers into our special formula (see above), which gives each category its own level of importance. From there, we dusted off our slide rule. In a matter of hours, the results were in. Here they are:
1. GYMNASTICS (567.6 OUT OF 1,095.4)
Why? Male gymnasts may wear tights, but they score perfect 10's for fitness and athletic skills, and near-perfect marks for injury potential, mental toughness and difficult conditions. Let's see you spin in circles on the high bar, release, do a few flips and grab the bar again. Extra toughness points were awarded for the guy who survived a full-speed, chest-first plunge into the horse and for the Japanese Olympic medalist who dismounted from the rings with a broken leg.

Hat tip:  Turn Gymnastics Apparel

Gymnasts are Who We Are

Via Ganba Gymnastics:

Interesting spotting idea

Good progression drills for teaching p-bar giants in this post.

Sunday Funnies

Stutz...His Way

My coach in high school taught us stutz by riding the swing all the way to English handstand on one rail. 

The Sweet Taste of Gripping the Bars

Gymnasts' hands sweat as they swing. A mixture of chalk and a drop of honey, syrup or molasses helps some maintain their grip. Geoffrey A. Fowler/The Wall Street Journal

Everyone seems to have their own favorite recipe/mixture/ingredients:

There's a recipe to winning an Olympic medal on the parallel bars, and the key ingredient is sticky fingers.

Gymnasts' hands sweat as they swing, putting them in danger of losing grip of the bar. They dust their hands with gym chalk to abate moisture. But as gymnasts attempt ever-larger swings, they are on the constant hunt for a little extra help holding on to those slippery wooden bars.

That is how the gymnast's arsenal has come to include honey, molasses, Lyle's Golden Syrup or pretty much any other substance one might serve over pancakes.

~~~

most male Americans in the gymnastic competition, which begins Saturday in London, say they are honey men. Competitors from other countries favor sticky stuff ranging from Karo syrup to Coca-Cola.

U.S. gymnast Danell Leyva recalls a competition in France in which a gymnast used a beer-and-sugar concoction. "I smelled it and said, 'Dude what is that'?" says Mr. Leyva. "All right, whatever works for you."

Japanese gymnasts mix sweet and savory. Takehiro Kashima, a member of Japan's men's gymnastics teams in the 2004 and 2008 Games, says he experimented with his personal brew by adjusting proportions of sugar and water, then moved on to saltwater. He settled on a smear of honey spritzed with saltwater topped with chalk.

"It's odd, right?" he says. "But as you perform, you get this feeling of 'gu gu gu' like something is tugging on your hands," he says, using a Japanese onomatopoeia that denotes a sticking sensation.

Former U.S. national-team member Trent Wells melted gummy bears for competition in the mid-'90s. He says the idea came to a teammate who noticed the candies would stick to things if moistened and then shot out of a slingshot.

Read more »

Revolution of Slider Evolution and Innovation

Very creative, improvised use of the parachute to use for a Takamoto drill:

I assume Rebecca Sykes made this to share with Tony Retrosi's Gym Momentum.

I remember using the parachute at the end of obstacle courses for the purposes of sliding.

Just a week ago, I had an idea for Tumble Trak, who sell slider products:  Why not make them bigger?   They're fine for drills like this or this; or these. 

But why keep them at one size?  They were sized to move furniture, placed under furniture legs in some cases.   Certain creative exercises for humans could work better if the surface area were larger.  Maybe more grip action for the body to slider contact, too.

XR Slide is an example of customizing the slider concept for the specific purpose of exercise.  Too pricey, imo, though.

For further interest on the Takamoto:

Takamoto Drills

Half Takemoto Spot 

Full Takemoto

Full Takemoto Common Mistake

Marinitch - Takamoto Clinic

Hanging and Tapping

Great bar clinic by Nick Blanton at Louisiana Training Camp earlier this year:

P-Bar Giants

Wade's been posting up some more videos as of late.





Also from Nick Blanton:


Lee Woolls:

How to Coach Gymnastics

How To Coach Gymnastics from Luke Knezevic on Vimeo.

Double Layout Flyaway

Legend of the Azarian Cross

GymnasticsCoaching.com links to Gymnastike. I found the following video, with a great story on the origins of the Azarian Cross.




Some background:

In addition to winning three Olympic Gold Medals in 1956 and 1960, two World Championships and a European Championship, Albert created the extremely difficult still rings move called the “Olympic Cross.” This move is also known as the “Azarian Cross.” Albert was often called the “King of the Rings.” Another still rings element, the “Azarian Roll,” is named after Albert and is officially recognized in the International Gymnastics Federation Code of Points. An enthusiastic press wrote about Albert’s performance: “on that famous day in 1956, the Australian spectators at the Melbourne Olympic Games leapt from their seats with one bound to acclaim a Soviet gymnast of Armenian origin who had just achieved an act of gymnastic prowess never before seen. Suspended from the rings, Albert Azarian, World Champion in that discipline since 1954, rose slowly into the air, separating his powerful arms with ease, a smile on his face, and all of a sudden performed that famous cross with quarter turn, first to the left and then to the right. This cross is called the ‘Olympic Cross.’ His fellow gymnasts said of him that he was the embodiment of beauty of movement and of the physical force of the human being. In no international competition was he ever beaten on the rings. He was the King!”