Back Salto Punch Front Salto

I think Oksana Omeliantchik's tumbling pass is still one of the best.

I was just thinking today how I had never had any of my gymnasts try back flip to front flip on the trampoline (probably because we never got past working on setting a back layout that didn't travel so much).

I remember this Al Fong post and had thought that this progression drill would have been a cool setup and might have been fun for the girls to try:

True, it's not a combo skill for the weak or faint of heart. It takes physical preparation, guts, and a smart thinker to do this kind of tumbling. Otherwise, the athlete can get hurt, either by twisting an ankle, injuring a knee, jamming her back or whip lashing her neck.

Using various rebounding systems like a tramp, a long tramp, or a rod floor help speed up the learning process safely. One of the best ways to teach this is by slowing down the whole skill using mats and a little help from your team mates. Even if the gymnast doesn't succeed right away, she can still try it with very little worry for her well being.

Saving Handstands, Too!!

As an add-on to my brilliant post, "Saving Handstands", here's Al Fong on what he does to encourage his gymnasts to go for the handstand and train to control it and not go over:

To make it fresh, interesting, and challenging in a fun way, we sometimes approached the cast hand exercise a little differently.

The assignment: cast to a handstand in such a controlled manner that the gymnast is able to pike down to stand on the same bar. Low and high. This discourages the athlete from over casting past the handstand or casting only ¾ of the way up to the handstand so she won’t fall over.

Are the Olympics all that matter?

Nastia Liukin ended up flat on her face after falling from the uneven bars during the final round of the women's Olympic gymnastics trials. (Jae C. Hong / AP)

I know people have the best of intentions and mean well when they say it, but I often find it irksome when I read or hear people complimenting a young gymnast by making remarks in the spirit of, "Wow!  I'll see you in 2016!"; or comment on a parent's FB wall, "You're raising a future Olympian!"; or coaches, being asked, "Do you have anyone that's any good?  That's going to the Olympics?"

As if that's all that there is to this sport.  The Olympics.

There are around 69,000 competitive female gymnasts in the United States. According to 2009 figures, Level 4 had the most participants at almost 22,000, followed by Level 5 at near 17,000.  The numbers only continue to drop off as levels go up.   Many drop the sport of artistic gymnastics before reaching optionals.   In 2009, there were only 79 out of those 70,000 participants training at the elite level.  And it's those training in the elite program, not J.O., who tend to be on track for international and Olympic competition.

2009

• Level 2:  221
• Level 3:  1,214
• Level 4:  21,766
• Level 5:  16,856
• Level 6:  8,542
• Prep Opt.:  2,295
• Level 7:  7,623
• Level 8:  5,269
• Level 9:  3,248
• Level 10:  1,684
• Elite:  79

 So are only 79 or 1,763 gymnasts worthy of admiration, because they reached a "high" level of gymnastics training? 

In 2012, only 5 gymnasts made it on the Olympic women's gymnastics team (which happens only once every 4 years), with 3 alternates.  Where does that leave the other 69,000 competitive gymnasts?  Failures?  Of course not.  No more so than those Olympic gymnasts who never won a medal of any color in any Olympic games.

As admirable as Olympic aspirations are, the sport of artistic gymnastics offers so many meaningful experiences to so many lives that goes beyond Olympic dreams.

Al Fong in a recent blogpost:

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):

Jump Rope Toe Point Drill

Taking Ownership and Responsibility for Your Own Gymnastics