Gymnastics Equipment from Gymtek Sports www.gymtek.co.uk
This Vault is a central leg air operated for easy height adjustment from 105-135cm. Main body is protected to decrease injuries. The top body is made from a genuine leather. Across the front is a white section, which indicating the ideal hand placement when vaulting.
(Opens new window)Vaulting Table: £2,300 (inc vat)
Reisport of switzerland are a worlds leader in the advancement of gymnastics hand guards. So we are proud to be able to bring to you the full range of hand guards.
(Opens new window)Ring guards : £35.00 (inc vat)
European Championships 2012
Anybody brave enough to predict the results? Junior and Senior…..
My favourites are as follows
JUNIOR:
GOLD: GBR
SILVER: RUS
BRONZE: SUI
Im not brave enough to predict the Senior order but GBR, RUS, GER will be pushing for the medals. We can’t rule out FRA or UKR either!
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
One size fits all.
Is it possible for one coach to successfully coach MA and WA gymnastics at the highest level at the same time. Personally i think that they are worlds apart and therefore i do not see it being possible.
The reason that i ask is that at the Gymnastics Test Event in London i knew of a conversation that took place between a Technical Director (of a country we shall not name) and one of our National staff. The TD was looking for a candidate to coach MA and WA but only had enough funding for 1 position and was asking whether it was viable to employ 1 person to do both.
Even if somebody took on the challenge surely it would be a case of spreading yourself too thinly. I can’t think of a single mens coach that could successfully teach beam and choreography and i suppose it could be the case for a WA coach to try and teach pommel.
Only the brave need apply i think!
Any thoughts???
Posted in Coaching, Uncategorized
10 Comments
Taking responsibility for your own gymnastics.
After having an interesting conversation withour junior National coach on Saturday I have started to toy with the idea mark allowing my older boys to take responsibility for their own training, more specifically their competition preparation. Normally I dictate every skill, part routine,full routine and repairs during this phase but i think i am going to change at least 1 or 2 weeks of it to where the gymnasts takes 90% control of their training. This is how i will propose it happens.
For example:
If weeks 5 and 6 dictate that the gymnasts have to perform a total of 60 routines i would normally break that total down into skills, halves and full routines across the week. The gymnasts would then come into the gym and know exactly what I expected from them session by session, apparatus by apparatus. (they have the weekly programme in advance so they can look through and prepare for any hard days, or celebrate easy ones)
This is where it is going to change……..for now at least. I am going to tell my gymnasts that they are expected to perform, for example, 10 routines on each apparatus over the week. I will not dictate when, how or numbers per session. This way they will be able to take control and will perhaps do more on days where they are full of energy and less when they are a little tired or sore. I am hoping that it is going to be a great compromise for both parties……I get what i want and the gymnasts feel like they aren’t being MADE to do routines when they are not up to it on that particular day. I will however keep a record of the totals during the week so that i can see whether the gymnasts are doing what they say.
Fingers crossed it works, the British Championships 2012 is at stake.
Wish me luck!
London 2012 – Keatings suffers GB selection blow
Dan Keatings’s hopes of Olympic qualification suffered another setback after he was omitted from Great Britain’s gymnastics European Championship team.
Keatings was always up against it to earn his place after recently injuring his ankle ligaments during training, the latest in a long line of setbacks for the 2009 world all-round silver medallist.
Olympic pommel horse bronze medallist Louis Smith will travel to Montpellier despite a recent broken finger and will be joined by British champion Dan Purvis, a former world floor bronze medallist.
They are joined by experienced team members Kristian Thomas and Ruslan Panteyleymonov, along with Max Whitlock, who having travelled as reserve to the 2011 World Championships, now finds his place in the senior team.
Keatings is not the only injury absence, Youth Olympic champion Sam Oldham is also sidelined.
“These European Championships serve as an important challenge ahead of the Olympic Games and an opportunity for our senior team members to promote their performance on the world stage,” said coach Eddie Van Hoof.
“We have a very strong squad and with Sam Oldham and Dan Keatings ever improving fitness levels we will have a great depth to select from in the summer.”
British Gymnastics performance director Tim Jones is trying to stay upbeat in the Olympic countdown but injuries are causing some concern.
Three-time world champion Beth Tweddle will miss the women’s European Championships as she continues her recovery from keyhole knee surgery.
“As long as I can prove my fitness to selectors, and they’re confident I’m able to produce a result for the team, then I don’t think there’s any issues,” she insisted.
Posted in 2012 Olympic Games
Leave a comment
Sprint training continued…..
For those of you who are interested, here’s a nice little read.
Sprint training for vault – Off-season training programme for 7-12yr old gymnasts.
Courtesy of Will Banthorpe. Pipers Vale Gymnastics Club, Ipswich, GB.
Do running drills really work?
Ive spent many years coaching mens gymnastics who, ultimately, vault quite well when the boys are older, stronger, more powerful etc. Although i have though lots about trying to teach my young boys a correct, efficient running technique, i have never actually attempted to do so. I have even had offers from professional sprinting coaching to help me.
I read an article many years ago (so the facts me be a little blurry now) about how your average sprinter runs at 11m/s during a 100m race. The worlds top gymnasts were measured at 9m/s towards the end of the vault run. The person testing said that by efficiently increasing the technique and therefore speed of a gymnasts run then they would achieve higher, more difficult vault!
It seems to make sense but in reality have we got time to spend hours on teaching our gymnasts to run like a sprinter? This takes years for them to run with an efficient, powerful technique.
Further pushing me away from asking my boys to perform running drills everyday is that i see our WA coaches doing it with their gymnasts. It seems like an unwritten rule that young female gymnasts have to be shown correctly how to run during their early development. GREAT you may say but for me, having watched the little girls doing the drills very well and having hope, then to watch them run down the track with limbs flailing everywhere doesn’t fill me with confidence for the future of their sprinting.
Any thoughts?
Posted in Coaching, Gymnasts, Uncategorized
5 Comments
An entertaining gymnastics video
I like this guy as he seems not to take gymnastics too seriously.
Something i wish i could do occasionally!
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Kieran Behan……..massive tumbles!
Irelands Kieran Behan is certainly thinking of ways to make an impact on the Worlds Floor scene with these 2 tumbles. Not quite ready for competition yet but who knows…………
It would be really good to see these tumbles in the same routine!
Posted in Gymnasts
2 Comments