Should Boys and Girls be Coached Differently?

 *Thea completes a skill and is looking pretty awesome*

My reaction:  "Hey, that was pretty good....for a girl."

Thea:  "YOU'RE SO SEXIST!!!"

 Should boys and girls be coached differently?

YES!

"Should I coach girls differently than boys?" That is a question often heard in the private conversations between coaches. Coaching has survived a period in which that question, regardless of its legitimacy, would have instigated ridicule. The mere implication that there might be different methods for coaching the two genders was characterized as an assault on all females.

But as the number of athletic opportunities for females increased, the louder the question has become. It is not being asked to identify either gender as less competitive than the other, but by dedicated coaches who sincerely desire to use the best methods to prepare female athletes.

In my experience in this sport, girls are from Venus and boys are from Mars.  Generally speaking, there's just a world of cultural gender differences; and it has nothing to do with being negatively discriminatory nor treating one gender as superior to the other in athletics.  It simply has to do with recognizing realities that boys and girls in general, tend to march to the beat of different drums.  Even most boys and girls themselves recognize this.

More from the IDP clinic

Mark Calton covering blocking drills:




Peggy Liddick on connection bonus:

OMG and LOL

Imagine having your photo taken with McKayla Maroney unimpressed on one side of you; and Cheryl Hamilton with her "OMG" mouth drop on the other.

Someone should have started a Cheryl Hamilton meme to compliment the McKayla unimpressed one.


Hat tip:  GymnasticsCoaching.com

WOW- WOGA Bars with Yevgeny Marchenko

From 2008:

Uneven bars workout with WOGA's level 10 girls, coached by Carly Patterson's former coach, Yevgeny Marchenko

Preparing for Tomorrow's Gymnastics, Today

Wade's spoken to me a couple of times about anticipating and preparing athletes of today for the trends of tomorrow, so as to remain current and relevant to the times (at least for international, high-end gymnastics).  And he spoke specifically to me about bars.

It appears that for the next couple of Olympic cycles, the trend in women's gymnastics will be to connect bar releases.  So the Tkatchev technique of not focusing on a specific kind of tap and just swinging up and sitting up and dropping on the other side will now be obsolete (because you can't swing out of it into anything else, aside from kipping).   Coaches still teaching Tkatchevs that way will be following the buzzards.  They've actually been doing so, ever since the bar distance was changed 20 years ago; yet many still teach the Tkatchev technique that was compatible with the bars in close.





The men's style of tapping encourages strong counter-rotation; and this is what Wade had introduced to Sonya when he started her off on Tkatchevs. Eventually, hers ended up being a kind of hybrid.

History of the Yurchenko Vault

From Natalia Yurchenko's website:

The Yurchenko Vault  – in her own words:

“This vault is in the code of points under my own name. Indeed, I was the first gymnast to do this vault during an official competition. It was in Moscow during the Competition in 1982. I am very proud and very happy that there are many gymnasts today who perform my vault.

Few people know that the first gymnast who performed this vault was a male gymnast! It was invented by Russian gymnast Victor Levinkov during a national competition in Former USSR. But this vault was not well accepted in the male Russian gymnastics. So my trainer has decided that I should do it and I began to learn it. First I thought that my coach has gone crazy and wanted me to break my neck. I did not even succeed in imagining how I could arrive on the board back to the horse and spring without seeing where I should put my hands.

But always with clenched teeth, with eyes closed with fear, I began to learn it. After having repeated the motion a thousand times, it got easy and very dynamic with a second flight phase “high and far”.

At the beginning, I often fell. My legs were baldy placed on the board, my hands missed the vaulting horse. Concerning my vault, the study of the technique is very important because the little failings lead directly to the fall which can be very dangerous, especially when you fall on the head.

Spotting Giengers

First two videos from Gymnastike's Technique Tuesday:

Risk Failing

The Art of Sprinting Like a Bolt of Lightning...in Slow Motion

 I had always wished we could take the girls to the park, field, Drake Stadium...someplace where they could really run all-out, for further than an 80 foot runway will allow.

Running fast is still an important factor in Yurchenkos- but not at the expense of an out-of-control round-off.

In general, though:  If you want to be a great vaulter, you really should know how to run.  Fast.





Not everyone is the same; but in observing the video, what do you notice, technique-wise?

Length of stride?

How far does the leg extend out?  Low long does the back leg push?  How much does the hamstring curl the leg back?

What part of the foot strikes first?  (I've read some debate on this topic).  Does the heel ever touch the ground?

Leaning forward?  Upright?

Shoulders?  Arm swing?  Are the hands held in clinched fists or relaxed?


If a compulsory vaulter could run this fast in 70-80 feet....it'd be interesting to figure out how far to set the springboard on a front handspring.  :-)

Bar Conditioning and Shaping

Resistance Band Exercises

In the old days, every male gymnast I know had his own surgical tubing for ring strength work and inlocate-dislocate shoulder strengthening and rehab.  Nowadays, there are so many companies that have marketed different types of resistance bands and bungees.


I love the hollow-arch corbetting exercises starting at around 2:30, both prone and supine:





I had played around with a similar station using the men's cross machine (pulley system on rings), but it was a bit too complex and cumbersome to set up (plus, the boys don't like to be kicked off their own equipment).  This version looks like an excellent setup.

At 3:46 in, Thea and Evan both talked to me about having seen this during their Regional clinic a couple of years ago.  They described it as best they could and mentioned how these thick bands allowed them to do pirouetting skills.

It looks neat and fun; but could definitely act as a "bad spotter", giving false weight-transfer and not discourage bad shapes and form- that would be up to the coach and gymnast to be diligent on staying mentally and physically disciplined.  Looks great for strengthening assist, though.

I did my detective work and found a video and website for the manufacturer peddling this and sent it on to Kort for review.  I even offered to purchase this out of my own pocket if he thought it looked like a good investment.

Porpoise Swan Dive?

The photo of Abigail in this post is a screen capture from the following clip:





I believe this was over last winter break.

Spotting Double Backs

I saw a nice clip of Charlie Tamayo a while back, spotting a double back on floor where he catches and guides the gymnast to land on her feet.  Can't seem to find it, now.  Essentially, after the first flip, you look for the gymnast's back and catch with both hands (or give a 2nd bump) and guide from there.








Same technique, essentially, but with a double layout:

Sunday Funnies: The Gymnast and the Frog

May 15, 2013  The image was taken by Penkdix Palme in Jember, East Java, in Indonesia. According to the photographer the frog actually angled the leaf towards the rainfall to provide maximum shelter, and remained there for approximately 30 minutes.

 Somehow I'm tying in frogs to gymnastics.  It kind of gives me the excuse to post the above photo, which is amazing (as far as I have researched, it hasn't been photoshopped (there's a series of them); we can only take the photographer's word on it regarding the frog angling the leaf for greater shelter against the rain).  If you look at this next photo, I think the leaf is just naturally angled in that direction.  Still an amazing photo!  And there's no reason to doubt that the frog can't recognize shelter when he has it.

Of course this makes me now think the photo's real, but staged.  I wouldn't put it past the photographer to have put the frog there and then film however it chose to respond.

And on to the gymnastics joke....

Back Tuck Power Drill

Back tuck drill

Interesting setup:




The coach is trying to encourage the head not to throw back and for a tall set to occur. 

Wade on Spotting Back Saltos

This is from the tale end of a clinic Wade gave on backhandsprings....






Supplemental variations (Not all entirely endorsed by me; just find them interesting):
Standing back tuck setup drill
Standing back tuck spot
Standing back tuck kneeling spot
How to spot a back flip 
Supporting back somersault technique (forum discussion)
Tips for Doing Back Flips on a Trampoline 
How to teach a back flip
Tips for spotting a back flip 

Press Handstand

By Wade:



Mary Lee Tracy:

Basic Body Positions by Wade

Wading through Life...

Today was Coach Wade's last day in the gym.

Wade's an excellent technician and clinician.  I truly believe that he was BGS's best-kept secret.  He knows and understands a lot more about gymnastics technique than most of the name-brand, star-powered, well-known coaches out there in the entire gymnastics community.  This includes many coaches who have Olympic athletes credited to their names.

And he is quite simply a good teacher of life lessons, in general.  He has a very (w)holistic approach to coaching, cultivating his athletes to develop as human beings, let alone as just simply athletes.

Wade reminds me of my primary martial arts teacher, Mark Mikita, in this regard:   Always question and thoroughly examine what you are being taught; because if you don't, you may be misled.  As Bruce Lee preached (and which I have often cited on this blog),

1.  Research your own experience
2.  Absorb what is useful
3.  Discard what isn't
4.  Add what is specifically your own.

There are a number of techniques and styles to teaching the same skill; there are a number of drills to help get the gymnast there.  But not all drills are helpful; and not all progression drills fit together.  You have to have the right series of progressions, and make sure that all the pieces fit together.  This is why it's vital that a coaching staff within a school are all on the same page when it comes to teaching technique.  Otherwise, chaos and confusion erupts, with one coach saying one thing; and another coach saying something 180 degrees in a different direction.

Getting to Know Your Coaches: Wade Petersen

Saturday Morning Cartoon- Stewie's Floor Routine

How to Coach Gymnastics

How To Coach Gymnastics from Luke Knezevic on Vimeo.

Freedom of Flight

1972: Olga Korbut of the Soviet Union in action during the gymnastics competition at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The pretty gymnast won gold on the balance beam, the floor exercises and was also a member of the winning all-round team aswell as a silver medalist on the uneven parallel bars. She captured the hearts of the world with her impish style and brilliant smile. Mandatory Credit: Allsport UK/Allsport

Here is another really great gymnast:

This is why pits are needed

Unusual Beam Mounts

Jackie Bender: Epitomy of Strength and Balance

 Any gymnasts with with first names like "Kip", "Jim", and "Brigitte"; or with last names like "Bridges" or "Bender", deserve a shot at being developed into gymnasts (How about "Archie Pike"?).

This is really old; but I am pretty sure most of the 2 or 3 gymnasts who follow this blog (along with a few parents) have never heard of Jackie Bender (although the couple of coaches who come here most likely have):

One of the great names in gymnastics history, Canadian gymnast Jackie Bender, did the best one arm handstands, one arm press, jump to one arm handstand, planche, and reverse planche I’ve ever seen.

Not really digging the Twin Peakish freakish music in the video.


In competition:

The indelible mark....

....of a good coach, imprinted all over this kid's gymnastics:


Apparently Justin Laury is losing this kid to her family moving states. Hopefully she finds a gym that maintains all the good basics and shaping that Justin has hammered into her tiny frame.

The many uses for straps

Orthodox use for straps:


Some other creative uses:





Here's E on rings a couple of summers ago, swinging up into a front lever:

Russian Olympic Gymnastic Team Visits Iowa - 1961

Nissen News:

Under the auspices of the USA-USSR cultural exchange agreement (also known as the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961) the Russian Olympic gymnastic team accepted an invitation to visit the United States. Their stop in Iowa was a combined sponsorship by the Nissen Company, the American Athletic Union and the University of Iowa Phi Epsilon Kappa honor fraternity.

 

The Russian's arrival in Cedar Rapids on January 15, 1961 captured the entire city's attention. Following a red carpet welcome at the airport the team held a practice session in the new Nissen gymnasium and spent a few hours shopping in downtown Cedar Rapids.

 

The Nissen Company arranged for a short film to be made documenting the visit by the Russians

 which includes their practice session and the evening show!

LINK here to watch the 17-minute video.

If you have 17 minutes to spare, click on the link and witness a time capsule of history. 

Every competitive gymnast owes it to herself to know about those who came before and the history of the sport they profess to love.

Caption This

May 6, 1987

I couldn't resist snapping this photo, at Redlands YMCA.  A few years later, I sent it on to IG for their "caption this" monthly challenge.  They published it.  Below are the best answers from readers that IG liked, as appeared in the June 1990 issue:

Last Week's WOW

I've mentioned it before:  Eddie Umphrey and his friend Justin Laury are amazing coaches.  They are young, and up-and-coming.  Last week's Gymnastike Workout Wednesday has a sneak peak into Laury's Splitz gym:

In this week's WOW, we get to experience a workout with up-and-coming coach Justin Laury from Splitz Gymnastics in Michigan. This is a summer morning training session with optional level gymnasts and Junior International Elite Vanasia Bradley. Watch as coach Laury takes them through warmup, uneven bars basics and new skills, trains vault at a special station on the tumbltrak, and transitions into a new cardio workout.

Double flyaway from tap swing

In an earlier post, I linked to a series of vids on the tap swing.  In one clip, Tom Forster talks about the importance of really opening through the bottom.

I don't think I've ever seen girls train double back flyaways from tap swings (I've seen guys do it).  Here, Neil Resnick talks about the importance and value of training a double flyaway from tap swing (it demands good swing technique) over learning it from cast (or from cranking giants):




Initiating the double, first from a layout:




...and double layout training:

The Exclamation Point on a Good Lecture...

Eddie Umphrey's coaching awesomeness in action:

To the gymnastics coaches out there - Don't you hate it when you just finish lecturing your team about something then you go and walk under the low bar and hit your head on it like Kanye when he walked into that pole? Makes your whole argument invalid and you know the kids are laughing at you.

Progressions for Twisting

There are a number of methods to teaching twists.





Here is another series of progressions:



Thank the Creator for the mute button.






And one more:


The easiest, quickest, and simplest technique I've ever experienced in teaching back twisting is Wade's recommendation:  Set, pull the arms down and pin them over one thigh.  You don't even have to drop one arm ahead of the other or pull it off to the side first. 

Further tutes:
Twist direction with Glenn Vaugn
Layout and twist drill with Neil Resnick
Back with full on trampoline
Twisting progression with Doug Byrnes
Twisting progressions part II
Twisting drill with Kip Reed
Full Twisting Layout Drills with Paul Ruggeri
Full twisting layout tips with Paul Ruggeri

Are You a Yeller?

The Real Reason Why Kids Quit Sports, by Kathleen Noonan:

WHAT do you reckon is one of the main reasons most kids quit sport? While you're pondering, let's absorb this stat from the US: Each year 20 million children register for baseball, soccer, football, hockey and other competitive sports; about 70 per cent of those will quit by age 13. 
 
Also according to the National Alliance for Sports, these kids will never play those sports again. Never.

Pass another doughnut and plonk them down at the computer screen until it's time to take them to hospital in a specially built and reinforced obese person's ambulance. Never is an awfully long time.

While you are standing on the sidelines of the cricket/netball/hockey/rowing this morning before you drive off to another sideline on the other side of town, do you think your child will be among the 30 per cent who stick at it?

Well, going by research, if you are a yeller, probably not. Children hate mothers and fathers behaving aggressively on the sideline of junior sports events, especially their own.

Tap Swings

Resnick-Forster Bar Boot Camp 2013

 Looks like this YouTube user is uploading a bunch of clips from one of this year's Resnick-Forster's bar boot camp clinics.


Great planching exercises:




Beginning blind change drill (also old level 5 dismount):

Warm-up for the Heart and Mind

Valentin:

I think the best athlete warm-up seriously, or stand out most often than not in the warm-up, these athletes don’t just warm-up physically but mentally as well. The warm-up is a time were the serious athlete will put aside all thoughts (eg. school problems, bad day at school, whats for dinner, how much homework they have, and the list goes on for ever) and shift all his/her attention to what he/she is doing every instant of training.

Try vs. Do

Hat tip:  Rick McCharles

Or just maybe.....

Helpful eating tips

Al Fong offers some helpful tips to gymnasts in order to strike the right balance of eating enough of the right food without eating too much (especially of the wrong food):

Gymnastics Playtime

Gymnastics, as I've said before, is ultimately about play.  Whether done within the constraints of competitive, artistic gymnastics, or freedom from the rules and regulations to utilize anything and everything in unorthodox ways.  It's  the joy of movement experimentation and experience.

By analogy, here is the creativity of Jackie Chan, thinking outside of the box and improvising everyday items around him into a balletic, slapstick fight choreography (I'd skip through the first minute):





Of course, the following videos are also the kind of stuff that give most team coaches heart attacks.  I definitely wouldn't encourage these sorts of adventurous play from young gymnasts who don't have much experience in body and spatial awareness and knowing how to fall safely under less than predictable circumstances.



Eddie Umphrey's double lay on improvised swingset:

Sunday Funnies

Wall Trampoline Acts

Remember how the likelihood of accidents happening increases when there is more than one person on the trampoline at one time?  Well, that's with kids, unsupervised, on backyard trampolines.

This is an entirely different beast, altogether:





Ok, is it my eyes, or in some of the outdoor footage, is there no safety mats on the side of the trampoline frame?

Saturday Morning Cartoon- Simpson's Trampoline Nightmare

Speaking of backyard trampolines:



Hat tip:  GymnasticsCoaching.com

Home Trampolines

7-12-2013 A residential home in Santa Monica

Some coaches deem home trampolines to be so unsafe as to advocating pulling them off the market.


What are the accident rates in regards to home trampolines?  After all, swimming pools statistically kill more children each year than accidental gun shootings. 

Shipwrecked!

Vegetables Have Rights, Too!

When I first began poliblogging around 2005, I discovered a radical, extremist group I could call home:  Vegetable Rights Militant Movement.  They are a noble organization fighting on behalf of all fruits and vegetables who can't speak and standup for themselves; whose one desire is to live in peaceful coexistence with all sentient lifeforms on this planet.

 Herbivores cannot help themselves, I understand that.  But omnivores?!  What's their excuse? 

Plants weren't planted here simply to serve the whims and fancies of man and beasts.  It is inhumane to raise them on farms simply to be people food and cow food.   Just because they are healthy and nutritious for us does not give us the right to deprive fruits and vegetables of life, liberty, and the pursuit of plant happiness.  They should enjoy a natural death.

You owe it to yourselves to click onto the gallery of atrocities.  If you're going to eat plant life, you should at least be aware of the torture, pain, and suffering your vegetables and fruits go through to be prepared as meals for your selfish sustenance.

Yes, many of the photos are extremely graphic.  They're meant to be.  You will never look at a salad quite the same way again.

So take pause and think that the next time you sink your teeth into a baby tomato, you just might be taking a bite out of your own humanity.

What the heck am I going to eat?!?!

 Some of my favorite people are fruitarian/vegetarian/vegan (not from the planet Vega).  Ok, well...some of my favorite people are also meat-eaters, present company included.

But subconsciously, I think I've long harbored a certain admiration for my plant-consuming friends.

A friend of mine liked the following statement from The Thinking Vegan:

2008 USAG Congress Region 1

Tumble Ups for Beam

Let Them Fail

 "Once you realize life is hard, it gets easier"

Do we coddle our children too much in the States?  Bubble-wrap them into the self-esteem generation of 19th place ribbons?  The Rapunzel Syndrome of over-insulation?

A friend of mine linked to this interesting piece.  (UPDATE:  New link).  It's really not about playgrounds, per se, but the larger picture:

I am not sitting here, 15 whole feet away from my kids, because I am too lazy to get up. I am sitting here because I didn't bring them to the park so they could learn how to manipulate others into doing the hard work for them. I brought them here so they could learn to do it themselves.

They're not here to be at the top of the ladder; they are here to learn to climb. If they can't do it on their own, they will survive the disappointment. What's more, they will have a goal and the incentive to work to achieve it.

Quality First, Quantity Second

 It should always emphasize quality of movement and body shapes as opposed to tortuous numbers.

-John Geddert

 For any of you coaches who have watched any of Geddert's Success Videos, Daniel McCarty is the one who is doing quite a bit of the coaching in the videos.  He's no longer assisting Geddert at Twistars, but is a head coach at R-Athletics gymnastic club in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

My friend, Eddie Umphrey, along with Justin Laury, seem to share a lot of the same gymnastics coaching philosophy and technique training as McCarty.  You can see quite a bit of the influence merely in the body shapes drilled into their athletes.

Note how she maintains body shape and tension, completely pushed out through the shoulder girdle:

Rhythmic Gymnast = Mad Ninja Skills

Not only can they pitch a baseball with style....

How rhythmic gymnasts shoot free throws. Noa Kadosh is on staff for the summer at Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

Considering all the amazing things they can do with a ball anyway, color me impressed but unamazed.

She could join the Harlem Globe Trotters.

Hat tip:  Gymnastics Coaching.com

Rise of the Machine

Not only will robots one day take over the planet; they will also dominate athletic events:




 Stuck landing.  Methinks Uchimura's met his match.  Just wait until it's doing a Kovacs with 2 1/2 flips over the bar.

Geek System:

YouTube user Hinamitetu has been perfecting this home-designed gymnastics robot and posting the tests online for over two years now. While it’s always impressive to see a little gymnasti-bot with more balance and agility than your puny human body could ever hope to achieve, the latest video in particular should totally blow you away. In it, the robot performs a quadruple backflip, one of the hardest feats in gymnastics which most people could only hope to achieve with a really springy trampoline underneath them. Let’s go ahead and add “acrobats” onto the list of career paths that will no longer be relevant after the robots take over.
To learn more about how the robot works, I asked my friend Caitlin to translate the About page from its original Japanese. As a disclaimer, neither of us are super familiar with the appropriate terminology for robot engineering, so if you’ve got a better translation then let us know in the comments:

“I used 2-axis acceleration sensors. That’s in the head and they primarily measure gravitation. That measurement value changes depending on the angle of revolution. When one sensor is level with ground, that sensor measures zero for gravitation. For the revolution, the positions are divided into four regions. For those boundary locations (up, down, left, right), it detects a signal to stand up or move down. (An up and down sensor circuit with a zero gravitation sensor value as the threshold.) Those signals combined with the pure H,L signals (H,L signal with a zero gravitation sensor value as the threshold) form the trigger. Using these signals as the base, it determines the timing of the bending and straightening the legs.”

Hat tip:  Juliaaa

Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf jump?

Not this:

But this:

Counting Your Sheep

Not this:

But this:

Technique Tuesday, trampoline drill for sheep and opening the hips for general:

In today's Technique Tuesday video, Capital Gymnastics coach Barry Hyder shares a drill he uses on the trampoline to teach gymnasts to open their hips. This drill translates to yurchenko vaults, tapping into a dismount on bars, and of course sheep jumps.

Here are some other drills, specific to the sheep jump, including another Gymnastike video on what judges are looking for:

Looking over the shoulder

A Justin Laury video:


Notice the twisting drill where the athlete looks over the shoulder to spot the floor?



I updated the "Your coach doesn't push you?" post with a video.

Jump Rope Toe Point Drill

So then Push Yourself!

The Future is Now

Some takeaways from Tony Retrosi's post:

It is "just so"

The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbours as one living a pure life. 

 A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.  This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.  In great anger the parent went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.

Sunday Funnies

The Gymnast with the Trampoline Tattoo

 Just a jump?!

I personally detest tattoos.  But this is amusing enough that I'd consider drawing on my hand for a temporary effect.


Hat tip:  Jocylnn Benjamin

How NOT to do a Straddle Back

If you don't have this skill down yet, and are currently working on it, I suggest you not click to view this video:




If you've clicked on this video and don't have a high-to-low bar transition yet, doesn't it just make you want to favor this instead of working on the overshoot?

You're welcome!

Saturday Morning Cartoons- Evil Gymnasts

The Gospel According to Me

Behold the moon; not the finger pointing to it

 A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence. 

-Bruce Lee

On rare occasions, I had to 'fess up to my athletes that, as hard as it may be to believe, brace yourselves.....wait for it.....wait for it.....here it is:

History of the Term "Spotting"

A little background, via GymnasticsCoaching.com:

Hartley Price: Coined the Term “Spotting.” In 1930 Price, recently graduated from Springfield College, was hired to coach at the University of Illinois. He was an excellent recruiter and gathered together some of best gymnasts in the country. He founded the University of Illinois Gymkana which put on shows to raise money and found ways for his gymnasts to earn money to pay their tuition.

“Doc” wasn’t much of a coach. His theory was, “Put the best gymnasts in the country together in the same gymnasium and they’ll coach each other.” That they did, winning five NCAA team titles in eighteen years.

He tried to emphasized safety by painting a large white circles (4′ in diameter) on the gymnasium’s walls. He called these “spots.” When his gymnasts saw the spot, they were supposed to think safety and look for those who could assist them through one element or another. Such assistance became known as “spotting.”
Gymn Forum: Gymnastics Centurions

Further reads:
Excerpt from "Teaching Children's Gymnastics" (Introduction which talks about spotting and securing)
Discussion on a German Forum regarding common knowledge of the term, "spotting" outside of gymnastics

Rescue Spotting

Will she catch her Gienger release?  Or will her coach catch slow her fall?

Sometimes a gymnast will say, "Spot me." And when I do just that, get slightly perturbed when I didn't physically touch her.  "You didn't spot me!"  Ah, but I did.

 Great spotting is an art that takes practice.

There are several different kinds of spots.  Some involve actual physical manipulation on the part of the coach, essentially carrying the athlete through the correct pathway of the skill; others involve some physical guidance or assist on the part of the coach, but with the athlete doing most of the skill, herself; then there's a "shadow" spot, where the coach is there primarily as "moral support".  And should anything go tragically off course, there is "rescue" spotting.  This involves the spotter jumping in there to prevent a potential catastrophic injury from an unplanned fall.

This post focuses on the latter.

So how effective is actual rescue spotting?  What are the chances of a coach actually doing it?  Dr. Sands did a study on rescue spotting.  Here, he also defines different spotting purposes:

Shape Spotting

I love spotting.

Shape spotting, heavy spotting, light spotting, shadow spotting; and even rescue spotting (yikes!).

However, I'm also of the belief that some coaches OVERspot.

And then there are those coaches of the philosophy not to spot much of anything at all.  That, too, is extreme, the result of which might be sloppy gymnastics and bad habits that will take a longer time to iron out.




Before coach Kevin left the gym, he told me he believed that muscle has memory; and he would spot every skill on level 5 bars, about 4 out of every 5 turns that the gymnast took on his bar station.

Coach's Spotting Belt

This is not an uncommon method for coaches when spotting pirouetting skills:

Tired of your back killing you after spotting a ton of giants, piourettes, and cast handstands on bars? This is a technique several gymnastics coaches have used to decreased the stress on their backs while repetitively spotting bars. The belt is hooked to the cables of the bar to allow the coach to balance forward while spotting instead of using their hip flexors and paraspinal (back) muscles to hold themselves up. I still recommend to keep the knees unlocked, bend at the hips, and engage the core while in the spotting belt.

Spotting a Tkatchev timer:




Here's Al Fong using the belt while spotting:






What I felt comfortable with was threading and looping straps together and putting my leg through one end and looping the other end around the bar.  I felt like I had greater freedom of movement while still having stability in spotting. 



Of course, I only discovered my method out of necessity to improvise since the gym didn't have a belt.  Originally, I was using a crappy trailer tie-down, whose buckle could not hold the length of the strap in place.  Eventually that got lost in the gym somewhere; so I thought up the idea of looping the straps together.  Perfect!

Cody on a Hotel Bed

Not trying to encourage any delinquent behavior or anything...

You are What You Eat

I suppose that makes me a plain bagel with cream cheese, this morning. 

Dr. Gerald George on Optimal Nutrition for Gymnastics Performance:

Proper diet and nutrition are critical for peak athletic performance, and developing optimal lean body mass.

It's important to remember that nutrition not only "fuels" the body, it also "makes" and "remakes" the body as cells and cellular material are constantly turned over on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

So it is not just a cliche that "we are what we eat." The quality of our cells and their energy delivery systems directly relate to better health and peak athletic performance.

Ankle Rehab Strengthening & Injury Prevention

Some ankle rehab:

Woman Up!

“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”

- Timothy Leary from Sometimes Being the Queen is All We Have to Hold Onto (2005) by Connie Cash, p. 35 in which Cash is quoting Timothy Leary.(Sometimes misattributed to Marilyn Monroe)

Empowerment through Choice and Change

If you don't change directions, you might end up where you are heading.

-Lao Tzu

Change is the one constant, in life.

Courage Up!

One person's fear is another person's excitement.

Al Fong on "fear proofing" your gymnast:

Technique Tuesday- Open Shoulders on Yurchenko

Gymnastike:

*This was the most watched Technique Tuesday of 2011. Kylee Botterman went on to win the 2011 NCAA All Around title* 

For the season 2 premiere of Technique Tuesday, University of Michigan assistant coach Shannon Welker shows us a drill he uses with his team to open up the shoulders in the preflight of yurchenko vaults. This drill has proven successful to the team - gymnast Kylee Botterman has tight shoulders yet is one of the best vaulters in the country and recently scored a perfect 10 on the event.

Are you any closer today than you were yesterday?

"If you really want to do something, you'll find a way.  If you don't, you'll find an excuse."

-Jim Rohn

The Hunter and the Woodman

A HUNTER, who was not very bold, was searching for the tracks of a Lion. He asked a man who was felling oaks in the forest, if he had seen any lion’s footsteps; or if he knew where the lair might be.  Said the WOODSMAN, “I will at once do you one better:  I will show you the Lion himself." The Hunter, turning very pale and chattering with his teeth from fear, replied, "No, thank you. I did not ask that; it is only his tracks that I am in search of; not the Lion himself."

No one does you, better than you

Beating a Dead Horse

It's necessary to hammer this home.

Tony Retrosi on basics:

One of my favorite Blogs is Functional Path Training by Vern Gambetta. This post was largely taken from one he wrote.

If you don’t get the basics right then everything that follows will be compromised.

In my experience the difference between good and great gymnasts tends to be that that the great ones always pay attention to the basics and have flawless mastery of the basics. They never stray far from the fundamentals; in fact no matter where they are in their career they touch the basics everyday.

Sure it is mundane, some have called it boring, but to be the best requires mastery of the basics. Advanced skill and technique is built upon sound fundamentals.

~~~

The great John Wooden felt that most mistakes under pressure in games was caused by weaknesses in fundamental basketball skills. Each day in each of his practices a significant amount of time was devoted to proper execution of fundamentals. You will NEVER really Rise to the occasion. You will sink to the level of training which you have mastered.

Pay Attention...

...and always keep out of the line of fire:

Building Blocks to Success

One of the things that really stands out about Al Fong's gym, is how many huge spotting blocks they have at their disposal.





Here is the latest setup posted- a mini-trench for beam work:





Rick McCharles posted this a while back:

Note the free standing elevated chalk box. 

Those segments are 8ft long, wide enough to leave a 2ft channel. 

The white base spotting box is the minimum height you’d possibly ever want to use. The yellow pieces can be stacked as high as needed for the height of the gymnast. This day it was set so the tallest girl in the gym could swing. 

The blue mat in-between is custom made to fit. 

Construction is layers of rigid foam, glued together. Then topped with carpet bonded ethafoam from an old roll strip. 

Al’s gym makes their own covers having purchased a $1600 industrial sewing machine. 

A contractor friend of mine priced out one of the yellow sections at less than $200 including handles and perhaps even a zipper closure. GAGE has dozens. Each is light enough to easily be moved by two small kids. 

Al finds this system far superior to the below ground channel pits.

Monkey Business

Wanna waste time?  Yeah?  Ok, good, click here

and you have only yourself to blame.  

(I stopped once I reached level 2, btw- seen enough; plus that music is hecka annoying...).

Happ-E Birthday E!

May 17, 2010 Photo taken by Kyleigh

I'm sure she's grown into that hat, by now....

Sunday Funnies