Full Twist
A Gymnastics Blog
Time to say goodbye
Aug 28th
Before the new season of gym starts back in September, the senior coaches have a meeting. In this meeting we review the year, what has worked, what hasn’t. A major part of it is organising the groups for next year, what coach takes which group etc. As already discussed, I’m not too much of a fan of taking the brand new three or four year olds, so I tend to take a group of existing members for the recreation class. We also have to review the progress of our competitive gymnasts and see where we might have to adjust the groups. Due to group sizes changing as we have lost some gymnasts through the year, it was obvious that there would be some readjustments to all of the groups.
For the last two years I have coached the group that are third from the top (out of five groups). A few months of the first year were difficult, three girls crying and arguing over who was best friends with who and then one poor girl being left out because the rest were jealous of her because of her excellent ability and willing to try. Pretty heavy stuff for some six and seven year olds! This last year with them has been really great, I’ve gotten to know them and understand their moods and how they work. They’ve become really tuned in and grown up a little all the while remaining as cute and fun as ever, if not more! I often arrive late from work for evening training, as cocky as it sounds, I love seeing their faces light up when they see me, run over to me and tell me their stories from the last few days and what moves they had already been practising in my absence. It really worked both ways, I love seeing them come in the door, knowing that there is some things in my class plan that they will absolutely love doing, always excited at the potential that they each have. Needless to say, a lot of the time when I was down in the dumps about something, they could relaly cheer me up with their silly stories!
Our meeting earlier this month decided what I have dreaded over the summer. To evenly distribute numbers between all coaches and because of their progress throughout the year, my three star gymnasts are being moved up a group. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much say in the matter I think this was decided on between other coaches before the meeting. I am delighted for them that at such a young age they will be in the second top group, working on moves that they are very capable of but naturally I am upset at the loss. I know that this is great for them but at the same time, I worry how they will cope in a tougher group, will the other gymnasts be nice to them, will another coach push them too hard and change their mind about the sport. I’ve never become so attached to one group and really I shouldn’t but sadly this year, I’m really not as excited about returning to gymnastics as I normally am.
I wish the girls well and hope that they’ll be as happy and as comfortable with another coach as they seemed with me. I’ll always only be one piece ahead of them but I’ll really miss my special girls who have been an absolute pleasure to teach.
World Gymnastics Championships 2009
Aug 24th
The World Gymnastics Championships will be held in the O2 Arena in London from October 13th – 18th. I feel quite privileged that within 4 years, there will be 2 major International gymnastics events held near to me. I really hope to get to both or at least one of the events. To experience Olympic gymnastics in 2012 would be an absolute dream come true although I expect tickets to be snapped up very quickly and probably for a high price.
I haven’t yet bought tickets for the Worlds but hopefully in the coming weeks I’ll make my purchase. I’ve been told that the best tickets for the Finals are already sold out, so get yours quickly!
See the Official site for more information.
Code of Ethics
Aug 19th
Irish Gymnastics have released their new Code of Ethics on their website. You can download it from the download section in the main menu. How does this compare to the Code of Ethics in your country?
Bodies The Exhibition Part 3
Jul 28th
The fourth section displayed a model of a rugby player diving for the ball. This was really something else. The women beside me asking “How did they get it into that position?” and “How can they move it if the body goes into rigormortis? Maybe it doesn’t last that long?”. These questions still remained unanswered. I walked right around the specimen viewing every part I could in detail. As with the “runner” it was easier for me to see what is going on when an athlete is performing and how injuries might occur. You can see so much of these models that the hair on the body is visibly clear, notably on the arms and eyebrows. Unfortunately I cannot source a picture of it. The body has been put into the most amazing position as the “player” dives to the ground for the ball. If you look at the pictures below, you may be able to get a sense of the poses shown at the different exhibitions worldwide.
Here we were also shown the body in Transverse and Saggital sections. The exit then lead to a small gift shop and a visitors book in which to write your thoughts, I really wish I had done this, although it could have been as long as this blog post! I treated myself to a pair of socks from the Gift Shop, for those of you who know the cost of them, I will try to convince you that it was well worth the “X” euro! My socks are great, they map out the structure of the feet and legs – a bit geeky but I love them!!
As you can probably tell , I very much enjoyed the exhibition. It was definitely one of the highlights of my year so far. It would be impossible, as the exhibition had been on for so long but I wish that there could have been a professional there that I could have posed my questions to. I have so many that remain unanswered. Whilst viewing the specimens gave me a sense of clarification, I still wanted to touch everything, it was hard not to! I still wish that I had the chance to work on cadavers in college. Although smaller than I expected, I can understand why it might take people hours to get around the exhibition. There is some reading material to explain the specimens on display. I tended not to read these as I was already aware of the information.
Despite the negative reviews and reports, I found the exhibition to be amazing. A fantastic learning tool for anyone, whether you’re in the profession of medicine and biology or not and also for children. There were a few children there who seemed completely clueless to what they were looking at. The origin of the bodies on display is of mixed opinions and ideas, many people insist that these specimens were unclaimed bodies, which appeared to discourage some people from attending. Either way, donated or not, perhaps it would be some small comfort to the deceased that they have, in death, managed to provide such a wonderful educational opportunity for so many people. You are not permitted to take photographs at the exhibition, although these images will never be erased from my mind. I can assure you, the pictures in this blog post do the specimens little justice. I would encourage everyone to attend this exhibition.
Bodies finished in Dublin on July 27th. A similar exhibition “Body Worlds & The Mirror of Time” is currently running in The O2 in London, from the fantastic Professor Gunther Von Hagen ,whom some of you may know from the Autopsy programmes on Channel 4 some years ago. This exhibition is running until Sunday August 23rd, I think it would be well worth even a day trip to London just to see this – especially as flights from Dublin to Heathrow are very reasonable at under €100 return! Unfortunately I can’t see myself getting to London before the closing date so I just hope that this exhibition might come to Dublin due to the popularity of Bodies but somehow I doubt it.
Bodies The Exhibition Part 2
Jul 27th
The second section of the exhibition concentrated more on the arteries, veins and blood vessels and showed the various internal organs beginning with the heart. I can’t say I spent too much time in this section as the muscles and the structures that hold us together are more to my interest. Moving on, we were shown the difference between a smokers set of lungs and the lungs of a non smoker, quite shocking to see and hopefully a reason for people to stop smoking. In between the cases of the pairs of lungs, there was a box about a meter high, a quarter of it filled with cigarette boxes – encouraging the visitors to put theirs in and use the example of the lungs as a reason to quit.
The part that I loved the most from this section was the example of the arteries and veins in the body. Firstly you see a brightly coloured arm and a leg in red and blue. The plaque beside it explains;
“Using a technique called corrosion casting, the blood vessels were first injected with a coloured polymer which hardened, The remaining body tissue was then chemically removed, revealing the delicate matrix that transports the blood”
I have to say, I was blown away when I then saw the full male body specimen of this, it was amazing. I then moved on to view the digestive system, respiratory system and reproductive system – many men repulsed at the example of cancer of the Penis (yes boys, it can happen). Also present was a transverse section of an overweight female. It separated the adipose tissue from the rest of the body. Interesting to see although in my opinion, she was not all that overweight, I think a more shocking example may have educated people better.
Before the third section “Embryonic and Foetal Development” , there was a sign warning that some the displays might cause upset.
“Please pause a moment and consider if you wish to enter. All foetal and embryonic specimens perished in utero from complications during pregnancy as well as birth defects that occurred during this time”
Presented here was numerous fetuses at different stages of development. I noticed people skipping by the corner it was in. I had heard so much about it that my curious mind got the better of me. I must have spent 15 minutes in this small section. I was amazed to see the stages of the fetus, at 1 week it is bigger than a spec of dust on your TV screen, possibly the size of a pea seed in a pod. I was really blown away by this. What I couldn’t believe was that at 16 weeks, the fetus is the size of a puppy or a kitten. Also on display are examples of the fetus at 11, 13, 15 and 16 weeks to demonstrate bone development. A process is carried out whereby a dye is injected which binds to calcium to show and measure the stages of bone development. Really fascinating stuff. What I really thought was great, was a woman who seemed about 6 months pregnant with her son who was maybe 8 or 9, was relating it all to her own pregnancy and teaching her son about what is going on inside her belly while his future sibling is growing.
Despite reading various controversial blog posts and articles about this section, I thoroughly enjoyed it and walked away with a sense of calm and reassurance. I have always had somewhat of a nervous disposition towards pregnancy. Visibly we can see how the womans body changes outside but it was great to have some clarification as to what will go on inside my body if I someday choose to have children.
Part 3, the concluding post will follow tomorrow.
