Here are some great drills that we have been doing for core strength and handstands on bars. I picked up these bands GAT from Best Athletic Design. We have come up with some great drills and exercises using these.
Crash of the Week
Thanks to Joey Lawrence from The University of Washington for sharing this video.
Best Part of the video- Watch the girls reaction!
Who Cares?
Who cares?
Unless someone does, things start to fray around the edges. In your gym, IT HAS TO BE YOU!
Often it is the owner or gym manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally throughout the team. Caring is everyone’s job.
You’ve probably been to the hotel that serves refrigerated tomatoes in January at their $20 breakfast, that doesn’t answer the phone when you call the front desk, that has a shower curtain that is falling off the rack and a slightly snarky concierge. This is in sharp relief to that hotel down the street, the one that costs just the same, but gets the details right.
It’s obviously not about access to capital (doing it right doesn’t cost more). It’s about caring enough to make an effort.
If we define good enough sufficiently low, we’ll probably meet our standards. Caring involves raising that bar to the point where the team has to stretch.
In your gym: The owner of the mediocre gym who’s reading this, the manager who just got forwarded this note- all have great excuses. Times are tough, equipment upkeep is expensive, nobody else cares-why should I, I am a college student and this is just a part time gig, the parents are jerks…who cares.
Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money.
Like most things that are worth doing, it’s not easy at first and the one who cares isn’t going to get a standing ovation from those that are merely phoning it in. I think it’s this lack of early positive feedback that makes caring in service businesses so rare.
Which is precisely what makes it valuable.
Wit & Wisdom
“It’s too bad the people who really know how to run the country are so busy cutting hair and driving taxis” George Burns
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
“A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults.” Lawyer Louis Nizer
“The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.” Eldridge Cleaver
“Ideology is just a pejorative word for principles in which you happen not to believe.” The columnist “Lexington” in The Economist
” Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.” Horace Greeley
“We must learn to love life without ever trusting it.” G.K. Chesterton
“Tony, My mom wants to know if you are available to do a private lesson and help me with my MILF circle”. A pre-team kid at my gym. (I am assuming she meant MILL CIRCLE)
“Dave’s my brother, I love him with all my heart. No matter how many times I’m charged as an accessory” Christopher Titus
I do collect quotes and great sayings- Have a quote you would like to share? Keep the MOMENTUM going! SHARE
Team Mikey’s Way Update
Contributor Eddie Umphrey interviews Ian Makowske about Team Mikey’s Way and the progress so far.
Shoot Through Drill for Level 4s
Here is a pretty advanced drill for your level 4’s to work on shoot through on Bars. I picked up these bands while I was speaking at GAT from a company called Best Design.
Remember- Safety First. THEY WILL FALL!
Photo Caption Contest Winners!
Photo Caption Contest Winners:
5th Place- (LOL): Abby Williams from College Park Gymnastics:“Gee, this new ‘Extra Super Hold’ hairspray REALLY does work – but I must remember to spray it away from my face next time!!!”
TIE
John Deary (yes, that John Deary. The one who put up the $100 Gift Certificate) “If only I could get this raspberry seed out of my tooth I could win the meet!“
4th Place- (LMAO): Carrie Hartfiel from Thames Valley: “Is it safe to pick my wedgie?”
3rd Place- (Spilled my coffee): Taylor Churchill also from Thames Valley: “That is going to leave a mark.”
2nd Place, (Peed a little) winner of a GYM MOMENTUM T-shirt : Shelly Kury from Cutting Edge: “Hmmm… I wonder what I have in my meet bag for snack.”
1st Place (Laying on the floor, unable to breath) winner of a $100 gift certificate from Gymsupply.com : Steve from Bailie’s Gymnastics: “I wonder when I should tell my coach I forgot my grips”
CONGRATULATIONS STEVE ON YOUR WINNING SUBMISSION!
Choosing A Summer Camp
Gymnastics Camps, love them or hate them, they are a reality and here to stay. Camps can help recapture the love of the sport for gymnasts after a long competition season. They can help the gymnast get themselves set up, get a jump start on next season and they can even help the gymnasts work through a block. I am always amazed when I see a coach at a camp give one of my team gymnasts a correction I have given a million times and the kid makes the correction for them! Another positive attribute about camps is that the gymnasts that have attended camps always seem to be a lot more comfortable in competitions because each meet they see friends from camp.
We all know the down side of camps, over reliance on spotting, teaching “tricks” instead of progressions. So my question is – Why don’t you go to camp with them? And if you can’t go, why not send another coach from your gym. Give them an opportunity to learn.
Finding the right gymnastics camp for your gymnasts is important. After all, they will be attending the camp to learn new skills, have fun, try new things, make friends and hopefully create memories that will last a lifetime.
The first place to begin your task of choosing the right gymnastics camp is to gather as much information as possible about the camps you are considering. Here are some guidelines.
1. Start Early!
Ideally, begin your camp search the fall before your team will attend camp. This provides the time to tour camps, see them in action, and meet camp directors and other staff.3. Consider and List Camp Expectations.
2. Determine what type of camp you will need for your team’s particular situation. Ask yourself, “what does the ideal camp experience include for me and for my team?”:
- Unparalleled fun and learning?
- The opportunity for new experiences?
- To develop new skills?
- List your expectations.Which are non-negotiable and which are preferences?
3. What are the staff’s qualifications?
It’s important to know who will be caring for and coaching the gymnasts. Starting from the top, what are the director’s qualifications and is he/she respected in the gymnastics community? What is the instructor’s caliber of coaching? Do the camps have any Olympic, international, national and/or collegiate coaches on staff? Does the camp staff go through any training in spotting or teaching of the latest gymnastics techniques? Is the camp staff USA Gymnastics Safety Certified? A big mistake coaches make is to take a team to a camp they wants them to experience, not the child. Don’t make your gymnasts miserable by signing them up for something they are not going to enjoy. You may have a brand new group of Level 4s who really want to do gymnastics 6 hours a day. BUT- you may also have a group of gymnasts who can not handle that work load. Make sure you know what you are getting into.
4. What is the budget for camp tuition for your average family?
Many camps offer team discounts, tuition assistance, and programs where the coach can come and stay free
5. Determine if the program is American Camping Association ACA accredited or state licensed.
Camps are unique worlds unto themselves, created especially for children and full of fun and learning. Not all states require camps to be licensed. This is very important information to know about the summer camp you as there are different standards that must be met in order to be state licensed or ACA accredited.
If the camp is ACA accredited, this means their program has undergone a thorough review and met up to 300 standards in terms of staff qualifications and training to emergency management. Furthermore, their standards exceed state licensing requirements. ACA accreditation is excellent evidence that a camp is committed to providing a safe and nurturing environment. Look for the ACA-accredited camp logo on a camp’s website, in their literature or displayed on a sign posted at camp; this is the most important logo a summer camp can show.
6. Use All the Resources Available
Ask for recommendations from friends or look for feedback or reviews on the web for the program your child is interested in. If you can find someone who has been to a particular summer camp that you find interesting, it would be wise to try and get some feedback as to what their experience was to aid in making an informed decision with your team.
Many camp marketing materials are easy to review online; others are easily requested. Look carefully at the ways camps present themselves online and in print.
Some very important questions to ask:
What is the cost and what are you getting for your money?
How many Hours a day of training?
What are the facilities?
Coach to Gymnast Ratio?
Does the camp have campers set weekly skill goals and evaluate their progress?
What other activities are there?
What type of supervision will the gymnasts be getting? Find out what amount of interaction your child will have with his/her camp counselor. Will the counselor be living in the cabin with your child and staying throughout the night? Will the counselor eat meals with your child? How accessible will the counselor be if your child has a question or gets homesick?
What type of medical staff exists at the camp? Are there doctors, nurses and/or athletic trainers?
Do you have a summer camp (good or bad) you want to share? Keep the momentum going. CONTACT
Keep in mind what is important
Tony, "Just what I needed"
Ivan "you need to keep in mind what is really important"
This is just a friendly reminder to all coaches out there that some of the most important things going on in your life have NOTHING to do with your gym or gymnastics. Last week I had a typical 80+ hour work week. Between Coaching, owning 2 gyms, writing and posting for Gym Momentum and getting things ready for my summer camp and the Gym Momentum Training Camp (more on that later) my brain was about to explode. I decided to take a 1/2 a day yesterday and go skiing with my good friend Ivan Ivanov. He too was feeling the stress of a busy competition schedule, gym ownership and his responsibilities to USAG with developmental camps. In what has become an annual event for us, we both escape from our gyms one morning and spend some time skiing.
The time out of the gym, out of the office and out on the slopes was just what was needed to refocus and refresh things. Every trip up on the chairlift was nearly as enjoyable as each run down the slopes. We shared business ideas, coaching ideas and drills, thoughts on philosophy and education and on raising children.
Please take the time to get away with friends and family, even for just a few hours. The 4 hours away is not going to have negative impact on your business or coaching and could really help.
Ivan, Mike, Chase, Tony. Gunstock mtn 2012
Behind the scenes at Tumble Trak
Behind the Scenes of Tumbl Trak Products Team
James Parent │ Sales Representative │ Tumbl Trak
Tumbl Trak seems to be known as the innovators of new gymnastics equipment. So here is a look at what we go through on a daily, monthly, yearly basis on taking a product to the market.
The first thing I think we should address is how we get new ideas. Ideas come to us from several sources. One is our Products Development Team, a group at Tumbl Trak, which might have some specific gymnastics problem to address. Sometimes coaches who have ideas, or who have a finished product , contact us. We get some ideas from other industries, and gymnastics specific issues. We are always looking for new ideas from people who can help solve a problem that many coaches are having during the training process. Tom Forster came to us with a device that helped teach kids to shift their wrists and it is now being sold as the Forster Bar (I never said we were great at names).
Ideas are presented at our Products meeting, and discussed to determine potential problems with development. If the product is deemed to have potential we quickly think of what type of materials we will use to make the idea work. We tried the Forster bars out in a number of different materials and sizes to see which would be optimal for training.
The next step to the process is making the first prototype. This is usually a very rough product to assess whether the idea’s primary goal may be achieved. We test this prototype inside our facility, making sure that it will not be a danger to field test the longevity of the materials. If it passes our initial test then we get it out into one of many test facilities that are friends of Tumbl Trak. This is a test to see if the kids can beat up the equipment and let us know about the weaknesses that they have seen and to test the durability of the piece. The feedback during this phase is extremely important to us, which is why we want the test facility to put it through a lot of use.
With the feedback that we have gathered we will work on a next version of the product. This one will include some corrections that need to be made to make it safer, last longer, and will include many additional features to make it work with a lot of our other products or products that gyms will normally have. Once again we will do the initial test inside of our facility and then will get them out to test facilities.
This process will continue until we are satisfied with all of the features that it has as well as the safety of the item. This could take one year (the least amount of time we let a product be tested before going to market) or multiple years. All of it depends on the complexity of the design or the product itself as well as how may ideas we are working on at that time. Sometimes we find out that a particular prototype will not work, or will be too expensive. However, the core idea is good, and eventually it may morph into another idea. Even though the Forster Bar is out in the market we are continuing to test out new materials to help battle the issue of a high retail price. We hope we can find the perfect answer of getting the product to work the way it does right now, but be able to sell it for less.
That is the basics of what we do in order to bring you the equipment that you love. If you have any questions or have ideas please let us know. Our goal is to help the gymnastics industry train easier while getting the job done
NOTE FROM TONY: Last Summer the great people from Tumble Trak sent me some equipment to review for them. Read the Review of the AIR PIT.