Tweet I am a strong believer that as coaches, we should spend a lot of time  in class on conditioning and basics. With my current group of gymnasts, I have spent a huge amount of time on handstands and the all important core conditioning rather than trying to learn new moves. The latest competition has just proved how far my gymnasts have come.When I began to coach them they were beginners, they had each spent 9 months or so in the Recreation class until they were invited to join the Competitive class.  They …

Tweet If you haven’t seen it already (or even if you have!) check out this great video of 13 year old Greg Townley

Tweet Char wrote a nice piece on Aerial Skiier Ashley Caldwell
Your chair is your enemy -  a piece from The New York Times
Aileen Gallagher of NY Magazine on Why figure skating is so much better than gymnastics
Blythe has a response to Aileen Gallagher’s article from a gymnastics point of view
Ross Tucker on The mental edge or physiology – what separates champions from contenders?

Tweet My girls competed excellently at the competition last weekend. Their individual scores were so consistent that we came away with the team gold. I’m so delighted for them. As I  said in my previous post, the girls really deserved medals for all of the hard work and effort they have put in over the last few weeks. They’ve really pushed themselves and it’s paid off. I know they have it in them to reach their full potential for the competition finals in a few weeks time.  I’m one very proud …

Tweet Many thanks to Gymnastics in Europe for drawing my attention to this blog Coaching Gymnastics In The New Millenium. So far I have just skimmed through some of the posts but I’m so excited about reading the posts. The post content seems to be the exact type of subjects I like to read about when it comes to gymnastics. Biology, Anatomy and Physiology are a huge passion of mine so as you can imagine, I can’t wait to read some posts!
Speaking of which, Gymnastics In Europe has just started …

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I recently bought “Letters to a young gymnast“, a book  by  Nadia Comaneci. It just arrived today so I’ll be snuggling up in bed to read it tonight. I must be honest and say that I have not read many gymnastics books that aren’t directly about coaching. I have read Chalked Up by Jennifer Sey, I enjoyed the read.It was interesting to find out how gymnasts conducted themselves and the lengths they would go to to achieve their dreams goal, even if compromising their own health.
 I’d be interested to …

Tweet It’s one particular thing I love about coaching. I love seeing the gymnasts smile.  My groups are doing really well lately and achieving some great new things. I love seeing them smile and be happy to achieve something great. Well done girls, I’m really proud of you!
 

Tweet There’s something I have noticed about myself since I’ve come through my teenage years and left my gymnast days behind. I am now nearing my mid-twenties and have begun to realise that a part of me is missing. It’s not that I feel less of a person but there is something I really miss about myself.

 
As a gymnast I was a hard worker, stubborn and fearless but now I am just a hard worker and stubborn. I no longer have the firey fearless persona that the other gymnasts admired …

Tweet Many thanks to Rick McCharles for posting a link to these  FANTASTIC photographs from The Big Picture of gymnasts in action at the World Championships in London.  I am so impressed by the photographs.  There are also some great photos on examiner.com  and a great collection of day 2 on Zimbio .  It really is times like this when I can’t be there to witness the action, that I am so thankful for the internet and for other peoples gift of photography!
Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts or to …

Tweet This week the World Championships 2009 will kick off in the O2 Arena in London. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make the trip across the pond to see the event. Luckily, for those of us who can’t attend, BBC will be providing coverage of the event during the week. Coverage will be split between BBC1 and BBC2 and coverage will also be available online on the BBC Sport Website for UK viewers only.
 
Coverage is as follows:

Thursday 15 October – Men’s all round final

              Live on Red button 1830-2115
             All on …

Tweet Tonights training session will be the first for me in the 2009 – 2010 season. I hope that this year will be a very successful year for all gymnasts and that throughout this season that they find out more about themselves and continue to enjoy the sport.
Throughout the year, I hope to continue to write more blog posts about the adventures in the gym.  As I explained in my previous post, three of my best gymnasts have progressed to another group so it will take me some time to get used …

Tweet 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?

Tweet I often find it hard to recall moments from my childhood; the first time I rode a bike, the first time I went on holidays, but I can always remember my first day at gymnastics.
I had spent the summer in between school term telling my parents that I wanted to take up football, tennis, camogie (an Irish womens sport) and all kinds of other different sports. At this stage, I had been in swimming classes for quite some time and was doing very well. In July, I attended my …

Tweet Thanks to Rick at GymnasticsCoaching.com for posting this youtube video of a fantastic little gymnast Catherine Lyons from the UK. Catherine was competing at Level 4 and shows some amazing strength, power and flexibility and only at aged eight! I’d imagine we’ll be seeing her in the Olympics in years to come. Well done to Catherine for doing so well!
 

Tweet Everybody involved with gymnastics has their favourite routines from the competitions and events over the years. Below are some of mine. I have chosen some performances from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Every so often, I hope to show you my favourite routines from the past. 
My parents recorded the gymnastics from Atlanta on VCR for me to watch, over the months and years after the games, I watched the routines time and time again, hoping that some day I could be like those gymnasts.  These three floor routines I …