Horizontal rope climb & slider relay

Sunday Funnies

Give a Gymnast Enough Rope....

....and she'll hang herself upside down:

Coach Leonard Isaacs at North Stars Gymnastics in Boonton, New Jersey created a fun and innovative conditioning drill that to create a better "block" on vault and increase shoulder strength and flexibility

TOP's Rope Climb Test

Do you have "the shakes"?

Strengthening stability muscles

Yesterday morning I ran into Rodger while out for my exercise (not an uncommon occurrence) and he being walked by his golden retriever, Logan.  We walked back to Rodger's garage so he could show me some of his latest exercise equipment.  It includes rope undulations.  He showed an invention that his friend made for him.  It is patented and in the processing stage of being marketed.  The concept is the same as Groundswell bongo boards, wobble boards, bosu balls, Coreboard, and any other variant of a balance board device.  This one incorporates 4 relatively tall springs.  One of the exercises Rodger mentioned doing is to jump onto the board (like doing block jumps) and landing in a freeze position.  I think it would be a great exercise to practice stuck dismount landings.  I'm hoping to be able to acquire one of these.

 I tried standing on it in a squat and could not control my leg muscles from quaking.

What do I mean?

Anyone can swing like Tarzan; but can you climb?

Mike Cates accommodated my request to get more ropes in the gym.  A couple of months ago, he had one additional one installed over on the 2nd floor; so we can have 3 gymnasts climb at a time and less waiting around.

I've noticed that some kids seem to be stuck on giving in to the temptation of using their legs and aren't pushing past that crutch. Not everyone at the optional level can make it all the way to the top of the rope yet, using only their arms.

 So yesterday I thought I'd try this route:


That's Neil Resnick speaking at the bar boot camp I attended a couple of years ago at Colorado Aerials. I've been going back and reviewing the video clips I took at that clinic.

Even though I encourage the kids to push themselves, I've also told them to be safe and use their legs if their arms are about to give out.  Still, it didn't stop Tessa from burning skin off her hands when she slid down like a fireman one day.

Yesterday the girls had 3 rope climbs and if they could not do two of them without legs, then at the end they had to do 30 chin-up pulls, alternating arms, from a pike sit. I already like this better than seeing gymnasts who do nothing but scissor legs, never progressing beyond it.

Caroline impressed me one day by going all the way up and down twice without stopping.

 If there's one thing that is a king of beastly exercises, it's rope climb.




 Here's a challenge. 
Rope climbing should also be fun as well as challenging! ;-)