GymNiceTic was the first to link to this yesterday. NASA met up with Nastia Liukin to discuss how gymnastics and astronauts in space are similar.  The video is available to download and watch on the NASA website. Of course, she had to throw in the word “Super Girl” into it! It’s a short video but none the less enjoyable.

Coach Dawn Writes has composed a list of 5 gifts that every coach might like for Christmas.

Great athletes.  I’m sure I don’t have to expand on this, but I’ll quickly define what I mean by “great”.  Surely skill comes into play, as well as a high sports I.Q., a love of the game, a love of hard work, an understanding of and commitment to team, the ability to rise to the occasion, and a strong desire to be a leader.  And that’s just the start.

Understanding bosses.  Administrators that know we’re slightly crazy during season and put up with it, who know what our programs need before we even ask, that understand that they’ve got to fight for our teams and programs so that we’re adequately funded and supported.  Bosses who want success.

Awesome recruits. These folks have all of the traits of “great athletes” as described above…and they fit in with your team seamlessly.  Not only are they fired about your school and your team, they commit to your program early out of respect for the other people that you’re recruiting.

Perspective. Every win doesn’t mean you’re going to win a national championship and each loss doesn’t mean that your team is awful and doomed to failure.  Perspective shows us coaches that we are leaders and teachers of young people.  While the most immediate benefit of our instruction is sport skill building, we’re also building them into better human beings.  We’re teaching them how to win and lose with grace, how to take care of their bodies and eat healthily, how to value hard work, how to deal with the unfairness that will sometimes happen in life, and how to be a member of a group with a goal or cause that’s bigger than they are.

Passion. I hope you love what you do.  I hope that you can’t go to sleep some nights because you’re so excited about a new play that you know will work or the next competition.  I hope that your athletes make you laugh even when you want to be serious.  I hope that you jot down ideas about your team on napkins while you’re having lunch.  I hope that you love learning about your sport and your craft.  I hope you’re getting better every day.  I hope you love what you do.

Read more from Coach Dawn Writes

Let’s hope that we all have a happy, healthy and enjoyable Christmas!

“True Beauty” features a beautiful CG x-ray energy effect that emanates from within a gymnast, zebra, skate, eagle and the fuel efficient Ford Mondeo’s ECOnetic. The ad illustrates that the new Mondeo has even more than surface appeal – it looks beautiful, but its streamlined and efficient mechanics underneath look even more beautiful. To get this message across, Digital Domain combined real photographic imagery (to showcase the exterior beauty) with dynamic X-ray imagery (to illustrate the under-the-bonnet beauty)

Seems to be common enough to have gymnastics in tv adverts - Audi , Air Europa, Dam Bier, Coca Cola and of course my favourite, the Adidas advert.

On World Champion Aliya Mustafina:

What in an incredible talent. Mustafina reminds me a lot of myself (although i believe she is much more talented). She doesn’t take anything for granted and is very focused on her goals.

I think she is far better and has more personality, but I feel like Mustafina’s all-around capabilities are akin to my career. She excels under pressure and doesn’t seem fazed by anything going on around her. She wants to win and is willing to work hard to get there.

Click through here to read the full interview where Shannon reviews both the Men’s and Women’s gymnastics at the World Championships this year.

Geoffrey Taucer is looking for suggestions, what would you like to him him write about in his blog? Technical of course!

Nadia Comaneci calls for more opportunities for women in their sport

CBC has compiled a list of what they consider to be the top 10 most influential (and bizarre) drugs scandals in sport

Watch some Women’s Podium Training videos via Gymnastics Australia

Shawn Johnson tweeted that she is getting a new website

British Gymnastics have become quite active on their Facebook page in the last week or so coming up to the Commonwealth Games and have become even more active today. Become a fan of them to keep up to date with news.

BBC also have great coverage on their website

You can keep an eye on the Official Commonwealth Games site for gymnastics information and also results.

Here is the BBC’s TV coverage of Artistic Gymnastics starting today, share with your friends on Facebook, on your blog etc. It’s often quite hard to find out when gymnastics coverage will be on.

Here is a summary of Michael’s list:

• Don’t think of your child’s sport participation as an investment for which you want a return.
• Don’t show negative emotions while you are watching your child at a competition.
• Don’t do anything that will cause your child to be embarrassed.
• Don’t make enemies of other parents.
• Don’t interfere, in any way, with coaching during competition or practice.

Are your gym parents doing any of the above? I can certainly relate to the point  “Don’t show negative emotions while you are watching your child at a competition“. I have heard and seen some parents make negative reactions to their child wobbling on beam or stepping forwards in a dismount.

Would you add anything more to the list?

With that in mind, it makes me think about funding in gymnastics. I was reading this article from the BBC Sport website yesterday which includes a small section about the amount of funding given to gymnastics and what it means to the sport. Sport England has allocated £11,388,481 to gymnastic national governing bodies for 2009 until 2013, with the hope that the numbers increase and gymnasts perform better although gymnasts such as Daniel Keatings and Louis Smith are still waiting for their gyms to be refurbished, with the Olympics coming closer and closer, they’d want to secure funding very soon to move passed the initial phase.

Admittedly, I haven’t looked too much into it but how much funding does gymnastics receive from governments / sports bodies in your country? We can see above what BBC Sport have reported, I’m sure there is more to find out. In a previous post, Irish Gymnastics secured an allocation for 2010  of €169,545 for the sport – encouraging as gymnastics was one of only 11 sports out of 59 funded that maintained their funding levels this year in a year where the Irish Sports Council’s budget was cut by 4%. In Ireland, gymnastics is considering more of a minority sport as the country has it’s main sports rugby, football and the GAA sports (Gaelic and Hurling). It would be interesting to see how much more successful Irish gymnasts could be if more money was pumped in, providing better training facilities and national support etc. I’d love to know how much funding USA Gymnastics, Australian Gymnastics etc receives and how the money is spent.

So it leaves me asking:

How much funding does gymnastics receive in your country?

What difference do you think more funding could make to gymnastics in your country?

Do you feel that the allocated money is being wasted and could be used more resourcefully?

If it was you who makes the decisions, what would you spend more money on? better coaches? better facilities?

I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts.

So do you think they did enough to win the competition?

Embedding is disabled – View the performance here on YouTube

I certainly think so!! The performance was much stronger than Monday nights, it was a lot more concentrated so that we could actually see everything that was going on rather than looking as chaotic as the semi final performance. They had a huge advantage considering poor 81 year old Janey Cutler was a little off on her song minutes before they came on stage. I definitely think they come across as the strongest contender to win!

What did you think of Spelbound?

In the last few months there’s been chitter chatter and comments on forums and blogs relating to gymnastics physique and look. One gymnast who has been commented on a lot, mainly in regards to her legs, is Shawn Johnson. This week KCCI reports on how Shawn Johnson has been helping to spread a positive message to girls about body image and self esteem. Read the report here and see a very short clip of Shawn speaking.

Well done Shawn, it’s great to see people using their fame for good reasons and issues like this.

Iowa Olympic star Shawn Johnson helped to spread a positive message about body image and self-esteem in Des Moines on Thursday.

The gold medal-winning gymnast said she pulled from her own experience as a not-so-cookie-cutter star to help central Iowa girls learn what’s really important.

“There’s a huge push in the world on an image, a stereotypical, beautiful model image, especially in gymnastics,” Johnson said. “I was a huge target for that.”

She said it wasn’t unusual to hear stories in her sport about cases of anorexia and bulimia. She said that her 4 foot 11 inch muscular build wasn’t popular with some on Dancing with the Stars, either. Johnson said she was frequently compared to Holly Madison.

“I don’t know if you girls know who that is, but she’s a model and she’s like tiny and tall! And they’re like, ‘You have to become her,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m 4 foot 11, that’s not possible,’” Johnson said.The girls who came to hear Johnson speak are involved in the Chrysalis Foundation’s activities. The group sponsors afterschool activities for girls all over central Iowa.Participants said they’ve already learned a lot about growing up, being a better person, learning to deal with bullies and how to be themselves.

Johnson said she hoped her words would solidify that message.

“Image isn’t everything,” she said. “It’s what comes from your heart and what you learn and what you say and how you act that means more than anything.”

Balance training effective at reducing falls and improving function

How much water is enough? Nutritionist Amanda Carlson explains what to drink and when in this video

I like the information posted on the London 2012 website for Artistic Gymnastics, Trampolining and Rhythmic. Some great information there for those who aren’t involved in the sport but enjoy watching it and getting to know how the competition works.

The UEG have announced nominative entries for the 29th European Championships in mens artistic gymnastics. The competition is to be held from April 21st to 25th in Birmingham, UK.

A total of 151 senior and 149 junior gymnasts will compete in the different competitions of these championships. In the senior category, 28 teams are entered plus some individual gymnasts. The ECh in Birmingham will offer the possibility to discover the generation of the 2012 OG and, with regard to the juniors, the generation of the YOG 2010 and 2014 and the 2016 OG.

Read the full details here on the UEG website