Full Twist
A Gymnastics Blog
Paul Hamm – making a comeback!!
Jul 20th
Wuhooo!! Great to hear this news this evening!
Paul Hamm is on the comeback, hoping to make another run at the Olympics.
The 2004 Olympic all-around gymnastics champion tells The Associated Press he has quit his job in the financial industry and is heading back to the gym to start training full-time, in hopes of making the U.S. team for the London Games in 2012.
Thanks to USA Gymnastics and Inside Gymnastics for posting the news on Facebook
** UPDATE** More on the comeback by Paul Hamm himself!
How to look after your leotard
Jul 20th
As gymnasts – we love getting new leotards. Often, as kids you don’t realise that the more sparkly and extravagant the leotards, the more Mums and Dads have to live in fear of washing them incorrectly!
Dance Mania has posted these great tips on how to look after your leotard. There’s great tips on how to wash your leotard, and how to dry it. Read more on Dance Mania
Spelbound Gymnasts clean up!
Jul 20th
Spelbound the Britain’s Got Talent winners competed in the World Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships and really cleaned up!
Douglas Fordyce and Edward Upcott clinched the Gold in the Mens Pairs. Adam Buckingham, Alex Uttley, Jonathan Stranks and Adam McAssey also did exceptionally well to claim the gold in the Mens Four’s. Congratulations Guys!!
Read more on BBC Sport and More Than The Games
Nastia not to return to gymnastics?
Jul 16th
According to gossip website Hollywood Life, Nastia has “exclusively revealed” that she hasn’t yet made a decision on whether she will return to gymnastics. You can see the short article here.
According to the article Nastia wants to move on to bigger and better things since achieving such a big goal at a young age. She’d like to become more involved in TV and go to college to study something in that line. Of course, there was a plug for her new clothing line too. I never take these gossip sites too seriously. It tends to happen that one gossip site reports something (often false) and the other sites pick it up and add bits on. So I’m still holding on for a proper announcement from Nastia’s website, until then she’s still a training gymnast to me!
I’d love to see Nastia come back, she’s a beautiful gymnast. My gymnasts idolize her, although in 2 years time when the 2012 Olympics are over, they’ll idolize another gymnast if she doesn’t come back and win the Games. There’s been no updates on Nastia’s site since earlier this year which is such a pity. She seems to be using a more direct approach of social media by Tweeting, although I rarely see her communicate with her fans who adore her.
What do you think? Should Nastia come back or should she continue on making money from advertising, sponsorship etc?
Gymnastics School in St Petersburg
Jul 14th
These pictures were taken in a gymnastics school in St Petersburg, Russia. View the full set of photos here on English Russia. I think they’re beautiful. I’ve posted some of my favourite ones.
Grips
Jul 13th
Today I read this post this by Sho Nakamori, while he was training on bars and dismounting, his grip snapped and left his hand to go loose. It’s never happened to me but it’s a scary thought – especially when Sho only had them 2 days. I completely agree with him that this is unacceptable, how dangerous! Why do you think this is so? Have the companies who make hand grips not kept up with todays current moves and haven’t been developing new durable grips, strong enough to support the moves currently being performed by gymnasts worldwide?
It made me think, I’ve never seen a pair of grips break - although I’m extremely cautious of the loops that we use for the metal loop bar in our club. They’re recommended to be replaced 1 year from purchase. Often the girls forget their own so they are sharing which means some gymnasts loops will get used more than others and are being used double the amount that they normally would.
So, how many of you have had or have seen hand grips break? Are there some hand grips you would recommend over others? Leave a comment and share your views on hand grips.
