Hello all,
incase you were wondering why I have so many tabs that seems to make no sense. It is for a school project and after this course i will delete the tabs.
Sorry if it's an inconvenience
Monday, 12 March 2012
Counter Twisting: Re-Update
So I have been struggling with the new twisting. Can't lie, I am getting frustrated and seem to not be getting the entire concept. I have been asked to make a video and I am going to. I have downloaded the software and need to learn how to use it and then I can quickly make the video.
Today I was doing back layouts with a "D" motion. It caused me to quarter-twist my wrong way. This, instructed by Dave , is normal and means that I am doing it correctly. It may be a builder you want to try. I figure that if then I decide to do a back full on the first half of the flip then I repeat the drill with the foot swing and it should even me out into a nice lay out position. I have not tried a back full this way yet but I will and keep you posted.
Today I was doing back layouts with a "D" motion. It caused me to quarter-twist my wrong way. This, instructed by Dave , is normal and means that I am doing it correctly. It may be a builder you want to try. I figure that if then I decide to do a back full on the first half of the flip then I repeat the drill with the foot swing and it should even me out into a nice lay out position. I have not tried a back full this way yet but I will and keep you posted.
Warm Up for Younger Kids: is there a right or wrong way?
Hey everyone, I have been asked to write up an article about the proper procedure for a warm up. Simply, there is no right or wrong answer. It comes down to what works for that specific individual and what gets the best results long term.
Specifically lets talk about younger athletes and how warm up may or may not affect their performance. You will find that a lot of people, including professionals and non professionals believe that warm up is needed. Text books will say 10-15 minute warm up is crucial for a few reasons.
- increase core temperature
-increase blood flow
-mental visualization of up coming events
- joint mobility and flexibility
- etc
The list goes on and on depending who you ask, I find these are the ones that are well known to the majority. For high level athletes most warm up and cool down for at least 15 minutes to decrease soreness and increase training adaptations. For younger children say at a gymnastics club who are recreational and comes once a week, what good does a warm up do? Does it provide benefits? If so, what ones? If not, Why not? What is the extent of the benefit? is it worth it? All these questions arise when talking about younger individuals who do not even understand the concept of training due to the fact they have not been around the world of athletics long enough.
Lets take a 5 year old kid who is in a gymnastics program once a week for an hour at the local gym club. For the sake of the article lets say this is an average kid who won't be the next Usain Bolt. He will play sports recreationally and eventually be good at one enough to make the high school team but then get a desk job at microsoft after slaving a few years through post graduate education. Bleak as it may sound, this is an average because most people do not make sports a life long journey. Very few can do sport full time with a small job on the side but inevitably most of us have to work at a job. The parent of this child wants the child to learn coordination, balance, agility, social conventions, strength, flexibility, speed, etc. We must remember that the parent is paying the money for an hour of learning and fun incorporated into a fun environment. At five years old, it has to be as fun for the parent as it is for the child. Lets face it, if the parent does not believe the child is getting anything out of it, even if the child tells the parent he or she likes it the parent won't pay money. The child can have fun in a play ground for free; they come here to learn from someone who hopefully has a good handle on the concepts of gymnastics, both mental and physical.
Now lets look at the basic warm up and compare. If you have done gymnastics then you will be familiar with this and can skim through but if not then here is how it normally works.
-5 minutes of running/jogging/walking/walking in different positions/hopping etc in a circular motion around the floor apparatus
-10 minute stretch where kids start from head and stretch all major muscle groups to the toes ( if the stretch is done properly)
** this is done as a group usually of a few different sections with 2,3,4 + coaches all participating in the warm up. The norm is 2 or 3 coaches to about 20 kids.
After this 15 minute warm up the classes split up into their rightful sections and the coaches take their 5 or 6(+-2) athletes and go to separate events. If you ask any coach out there who has ever led a warm up how many kids actually follow what you are doing then you will hear the same thing usually. Most kids do not follow or not 100% at least. There are the special kids who follow instructions perfectly but unfortunately there is a huge factor that no one can control that prevents a proper warm up from taking place with almost every young kid. PAIN. If stretching is done correctly it will not feel good. It will feel like muscles are being pulled, joints are on "fire", burning, tearing etc. All these words have been used by different people I have trained from young kids to older national level athletes. as soon as a kid feels a slight sense of non-comfortability ( if that's a word) , they will stop immediately. Out of 20 kids who are 9 and under I will have one or two who actually hold the position despite the pain. Many will fight you when you come and GENTLY persuade them to do the stretch properly.
In a 1 hour class I do not have time to sit around and force kids into positions they don't want to be in. Yes arguably stretching is good but it does not matter if you know it, it matters if they know it. Sure you can tell the kid 100 times that it is suppose to feel weird and uncomfortable but most kids are primitive. If they don't see or feel an immediate benefit then they don't want to do it. sad to say but adults are the same way. Try to tell someone to do something that they don't understand. Wont work. Yes I could sit down for 20 minutes and tell the kids about exactly why stretching is good but that does not matter to the average kid. Kids are to hedonistic to care. They want what they want and they do not care about the long term effects. Not blaming them, just stating something I have noticed. Hypothetically a one on one situation with all the kids in the warm up would yield better results because the coach can focus entirely on that one individual. Good luck doing that to 20 kids in 30 seconds. (that's how long the average stretch is held by a rec coach, not saying it is the right or wrong amount of time). even with 3 other coaches you wont have the time to get to every kid in a concise manor where learning and understanding actually takes place. So after this 15 minute warm up where the kids who want to stretch do and the majority who hate it don't then what do you have? Absolutely nothing. The kids are not more flexible because you just had 10 seconds to show them the right mechanics before the other kid needed help. The kids are now bored. More hyper probably after sitting and standing in a single spot stretching and worst of all the parent is wondering what they are paying for. But wait it gets better. So let's say you are a coach and decide stretching is crucial for their development of the child. Now you take them aside and do not go on events because the kids do not know how to stretch and time needs to be given to that. So you spend another 15 minutes going through the basics of stretching. "What if you just pick one stretch a day and go through it?" Great idea, if the child saw you more then once a week and have nothing else to focus on. Many people who work with kids understand how hard it can be to teach a child even the simplest concepts. 5 minutes out of 10,080 minutes until the next class a week later is not going to teach them much. You also have to factor in retention ability and the want to learn. In my opinion and only my opinion, I believe that that time could be spent doing many other things. Gymnastics unfortunately, at the rec level is no more then the minimum does of physical activity for the day. Majority of the kids do not take away anything that is used in their lives later on. Social abilities come from school and home. Any school of thought will tell you that everyone needs more then 1 hour of physical activity a week so the child must be getting it from somewhere else mostly. Learning comes from school. Gymnastics is just a way for kids to taste something different. I don't know about everyone else but if I am at a new restaurant with foreign food, I don't want to consult the food guide to see what is my best option. I see something or smell something I want to try and I go for it. Why would gymnastics be any different. I guess the question I am asking is, " do the kids really gain enough in 1 hour of rec gymnastics in order to try and instil training techniques at such a young age?" My answer would be no. Gym is a play park to them. How many kids stretch before going on the swing ? Make FUN the majority of what they are doing and if the kid decides that one day they really want to take their gymnastics to a new level then start incorporating flexibility and all these other boring things. Let them be kids. It wont hurt them. The child is not going to rip a tendon doing a tuck jump. Stop wasting those precious 15 minutes and let the kid play a game to warm up for 5 minutes then take them on events for 55 minutes. Let the kid actually learn to like gymnastics before you hit them with the hard facts. Us as adults don't like brutal honesty, most people want to be lulled into an uncomfortable situation rather then just be thrown into it. Let the kid be a kid and not an olympic athlete.
Many do not agree with this and that is fine. I am just stating what I find works as I mentioned earlier. One man who disagrees with me goes by the name of Chris Dal Cin who is a physiologist at Canadian Sports Center in Toronto. He explained that he would try to teach kids stretching because it instils an athletic attitude in the child for later use in a specific sport, whatever that may be. I agree and preparation is one of the prerequisites for becoming a good athlete. But is 5-9 yrs to early? Many eastern block countries such as Japan do not let the children specialize until about 14 years old. This could be because it enables the child to get a good grip on the basic strength and conditioning principals before picking a sport to specialize. This allows an easier learning curve instead of information overload. Felicia, my co coach at Halton Hills explained this to me and I understand how that makes sense. Introducing so much to someone so quick usually results in a large percentage of the information to leak out. What the eastern countries do really coincides with what I am saying about not focusing on stretching so much. Allow the child to grow a bit have some fun and when that child a long with the parents decide it's time to move up, then introduce the harsh realities of the sport. Let the kids be kids for now.
:)
Specifically lets talk about younger athletes and how warm up may or may not affect their performance. You will find that a lot of people, including professionals and non professionals believe that warm up is needed. Text books will say 10-15 minute warm up is crucial for a few reasons.
- increase core temperature
-increase blood flow
-mental visualization of up coming events
- joint mobility and flexibility
- etc
The list goes on and on depending who you ask, I find these are the ones that are well known to the majority. For high level athletes most warm up and cool down for at least 15 minutes to decrease soreness and increase training adaptations. For younger children say at a gymnastics club who are recreational and comes once a week, what good does a warm up do? Does it provide benefits? If so, what ones? If not, Why not? What is the extent of the benefit? is it worth it? All these questions arise when talking about younger individuals who do not even understand the concept of training due to the fact they have not been around the world of athletics long enough.
Lets take a 5 year old kid who is in a gymnastics program once a week for an hour at the local gym club. For the sake of the article lets say this is an average kid who won't be the next Usain Bolt. He will play sports recreationally and eventually be good at one enough to make the high school team but then get a desk job at microsoft after slaving a few years through post graduate education. Bleak as it may sound, this is an average because most people do not make sports a life long journey. Very few can do sport full time with a small job on the side but inevitably most of us have to work at a job. The parent of this child wants the child to learn coordination, balance, agility, social conventions, strength, flexibility, speed, etc. We must remember that the parent is paying the money for an hour of learning and fun incorporated into a fun environment. At five years old, it has to be as fun for the parent as it is for the child. Lets face it, if the parent does not believe the child is getting anything out of it, even if the child tells the parent he or she likes it the parent won't pay money. The child can have fun in a play ground for free; they come here to learn from someone who hopefully has a good handle on the concepts of gymnastics, both mental and physical.
Now lets look at the basic warm up and compare. If you have done gymnastics then you will be familiar with this and can skim through but if not then here is how it normally works.
-5 minutes of running/jogging/walking/walking in different positions/hopping etc in a circular motion around the floor apparatus
-10 minute stretch where kids start from head and stretch all major muscle groups to the toes ( if the stretch is done properly)
** this is done as a group usually of a few different sections with 2,3,4 + coaches all participating in the warm up. The norm is 2 or 3 coaches to about 20 kids.
After this 15 minute warm up the classes split up into their rightful sections and the coaches take their 5 or 6(+-2) athletes and go to separate events. If you ask any coach out there who has ever led a warm up how many kids actually follow what you are doing then you will hear the same thing usually. Most kids do not follow or not 100% at least. There are the special kids who follow instructions perfectly but unfortunately there is a huge factor that no one can control that prevents a proper warm up from taking place with almost every young kid. PAIN. If stretching is done correctly it will not feel good. It will feel like muscles are being pulled, joints are on "fire", burning, tearing etc. All these words have been used by different people I have trained from young kids to older national level athletes. as soon as a kid feels a slight sense of non-comfortability ( if that's a word) , they will stop immediately. Out of 20 kids who are 9 and under I will have one or two who actually hold the position despite the pain. Many will fight you when you come and GENTLY persuade them to do the stretch properly.
In a 1 hour class I do not have time to sit around and force kids into positions they don't want to be in. Yes arguably stretching is good but it does not matter if you know it, it matters if they know it. Sure you can tell the kid 100 times that it is suppose to feel weird and uncomfortable but most kids are primitive. If they don't see or feel an immediate benefit then they don't want to do it. sad to say but adults are the same way. Try to tell someone to do something that they don't understand. Wont work. Yes I could sit down for 20 minutes and tell the kids about exactly why stretching is good but that does not matter to the average kid. Kids are to hedonistic to care. They want what they want and they do not care about the long term effects. Not blaming them, just stating something I have noticed. Hypothetically a one on one situation with all the kids in the warm up would yield better results because the coach can focus entirely on that one individual. Good luck doing that to 20 kids in 30 seconds. (that's how long the average stretch is held by a rec coach, not saying it is the right or wrong amount of time). even with 3 other coaches you wont have the time to get to every kid in a concise manor where learning and understanding actually takes place. So after this 15 minute warm up where the kids who want to stretch do and the majority who hate it don't then what do you have? Absolutely nothing. The kids are not more flexible because you just had 10 seconds to show them the right mechanics before the other kid needed help. The kids are now bored. More hyper probably after sitting and standing in a single spot stretching and worst of all the parent is wondering what they are paying for. But wait it gets better. So let's say you are a coach and decide stretching is crucial for their development of the child. Now you take them aside and do not go on events because the kids do not know how to stretch and time needs to be given to that. So you spend another 15 minutes going through the basics of stretching. "What if you just pick one stretch a day and go through it?" Great idea, if the child saw you more then once a week and have nothing else to focus on. Many people who work with kids understand how hard it can be to teach a child even the simplest concepts. 5 minutes out of 10,080 minutes until the next class a week later is not going to teach them much. You also have to factor in retention ability and the want to learn. In my opinion and only my opinion, I believe that that time could be spent doing many other things. Gymnastics unfortunately, at the rec level is no more then the minimum does of physical activity for the day. Majority of the kids do not take away anything that is used in their lives later on. Social abilities come from school and home. Any school of thought will tell you that everyone needs more then 1 hour of physical activity a week so the child must be getting it from somewhere else mostly. Learning comes from school. Gymnastics is just a way for kids to taste something different. I don't know about everyone else but if I am at a new restaurant with foreign food, I don't want to consult the food guide to see what is my best option. I see something or smell something I want to try and I go for it. Why would gymnastics be any different. I guess the question I am asking is, " do the kids really gain enough in 1 hour of rec gymnastics in order to try and instil training techniques at such a young age?" My answer would be no. Gym is a play park to them. How many kids stretch before going on the swing ? Make FUN the majority of what they are doing and if the kid decides that one day they really want to take their gymnastics to a new level then start incorporating flexibility and all these other boring things. Let them be kids. It wont hurt them. The child is not going to rip a tendon doing a tuck jump. Stop wasting those precious 15 minutes and let the kid play a game to warm up for 5 minutes then take them on events for 55 minutes. Let the kid actually learn to like gymnastics before you hit them with the hard facts. Us as adults don't like brutal honesty, most people want to be lulled into an uncomfortable situation rather then just be thrown into it. Let the kid be a kid and not an olympic athlete.
Many do not agree with this and that is fine. I am just stating what I find works as I mentioned earlier. One man who disagrees with me goes by the name of Chris Dal Cin who is a physiologist at Canadian Sports Center in Toronto. He explained that he would try to teach kids stretching because it instils an athletic attitude in the child for later use in a specific sport, whatever that may be. I agree and preparation is one of the prerequisites for becoming a good athlete. But is 5-9 yrs to early? Many eastern block countries such as Japan do not let the children specialize until about 14 years old. This could be because it enables the child to get a good grip on the basic strength and conditioning principals before picking a sport to specialize. This allows an easier learning curve instead of information overload. Felicia, my co coach at Halton Hills explained this to me and I understand how that makes sense. Introducing so much to someone so quick usually results in a large percentage of the information to leak out. What the eastern countries do really coincides with what I am saying about not focusing on stretching so much. Allow the child to grow a bit have some fun and when that child a long with the parents decide it's time to move up, then introduce the harsh realities of the sport. Let the kids be kids for now.
:)
Saturday, 10 March 2012
A crazy thought
Hey everyone, i was just fiddling around on youtube and found a video that was very interesting. It speaks about how everything we perceive is really just the connections we humans make in our brains. It is very interesting and raises thought experiments such as:
Humans call internal body as a distinct difference from the external world. But in reality the difference is the width of 1 cell. If that one cell is really the only difference and the human body is millions of cells wide, why is it crazy to believe that humans can not interact on a molecular level with what we call the external world? Its just once cell over.
BTW this video also illustrated the extent of my thesis to a realistic view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbh5l0b2-0o - Athene's Theory of Everything
Check it out
Humans call internal body as a distinct difference from the external world. But in reality the difference is the width of 1 cell. If that one cell is really the only difference and the human body is millions of cells wide, why is it crazy to believe that humans can not interact on a molecular level with what we call the external world? Its just once cell over.
BTW this video also illustrated the extent of my thesis to a realistic view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbh5l0b2-0o - Athene's Theory of Everything
Check it out
Attitude During Training : drop the soap
Hey Guys,
Lets face it, Sports are not easy, nothing in life worth getting is. I believe that attitude is the most important part of a persons sporting career. Any joe shmoe can land a trick a few times and feel invincible. How many can land on their head 10 times the exact same way with no idea how to fix it but yet still manage to muster up the courage to keep going especially with no discernible light at the end of the tunnel ? I find it takes a different type of athlete to do that and I hate to say it but the majority of athletes, within trampoline, I see are drama queens. Maybe its a sense of superiority. Many athletes I communicate with seem to have an air of accomplishment by just being able to say they train gymnastics. I have seen it become more of a competition to the outside world rather then a respectable show down of hard work of opposing athletes within the confines of a gymnastics club. I find this attitude tends to come from the athletes who have been given special standings compared to other athletes. Yes I am talking about "rising stars". How do you really expect much else if an entire sporting nation labels you as higher up on the latter then the regular stream , non- high performance, categories?. I have to be honest, attitudes of the majority of athletes is going down hill. Athletes are getting lazier, giving up to early, and use the sport as a way to increase their perceived self value in comparison to other athletes or non athletes.
It is understandable to many degrees. My coaches would tell me about times that they set up every piece of equipment before training and then having to tear down. We now do not have to go through this thankfully. gymnastics is also getting easier in a sense due to the constant changing of equipment for better spring and easier landings etc, trying to make the athletes job easier. I understand that injuries are very prone in gymnastics and any little difference may make the sport more enjoyable. Are we doing irreversible damage by catering to the athletes however? Other coaches have agreed with me in the idea that athletes back in the 80's and 90's trained much harder then the athletes of today.More was expected and the slow but steady decline in hard work is gradually increasing. I myself fall victim to its grasp and find that I could always put in more effort, but for some reason I would rather go out with some friends. What causes this laziness? Is it coaching styles? Do we need to start beating athletes again? Is it evolution and genetically humans are getting lazier? Who knows, but what I have done to try and combat this problem is one major thing. I treat the athlete like a co worker. You come in and are expected to do certain tasks before you leave. You do not go home until they are complete. I see too many coaches give in to the athletes whimpers of pain after getting tramp burn or crunching an ankle after a sloppy double back on floor. I tell you before you start what I expect, I wait for a nod or comment leading me to believe you agree with the set parameters and you go on your way. If you need help, spot, a matt, emotional guidance, fine, but I do not allow the athlete to move on until he or she gets done what needs to be done. I explain exactly why they are doing what they are doing and how to be able to accomplish what I have asked from them. If the athlete gets hurt by failing to follow instructions I simply reiterate the instructions. I dont allow for excuses or changes of the task. Finish what you start no matter what. I find I get resistance from the start but after a while and some compromising, the athlete soon learns what I am trying to teach. They can develop the hard working attitude if forced upon them but in a manor that both parties can understand. The athlete will not learn the attitude if they do not see a reason for it. Most athletes understand what the attitude needs to be like but the laziness factor over rides. If the athlete sees a way to get out of work then a lot of the time they will take it. If you as a coach are constantly thinking about how every little decision will change their perception of what it means to be an athlete then you are on the right track to creating a mentally sound athlete, which arguably is better then a talented, lazy athlete.
I have had athletes literally cry when I tell them to go get a beat board. I kicked that athlete out because she was too lazy to be a gymnast. I told her to go to recreational. She got upset, cried to her mommy and daddy but then what do you know, she ended up back at the front door of the gym looking sheepish asking to come back and promised to work hard. She told me that after a rec class she saw the attitude that I was trying to fix in her, that was evident in every kid in her class. Simply she finally understood that it is not skill that seperates recreational from professional, its attitude. Skills come after the attitude is in place.
With that being said, I have coached many athletes that have a great attitude and follow instructions, ask questions, are motivated by learning rather than parental influence and those athletes have excelled. The top 10% of athletes is my goal for all athletes. I find that many coaches admit that one kid just cant learn and they give up. Simply the coach will just wait it out till the athlete quits and then blame the athlete. It takes two to tango. Any physical or mental issue can be worked on and fixed, or at least improved. And lets face it , some athletes just do not have it in them to become the best but I believe if they want it enough they can learn that state of mind. If an athlete truly wants to learn then they will, one way or another. I find that incentive to train extra, give up sleep, to fix the issues and make your world revolve around a sport has deteriorated greatly. I blame the economy. Everyone is forced to believe that easier is better. Every new piece of electronic equipment or house hold utility is made to be easier to use every time a new model comes out. Great, we can get out stains that could not have been removed 20 years earlier. But now people think that there is always something that will do the hard work for them. There is no incentive to not spill because you know all you have to do it go downstairs and grab a super powerful soap and it will get rid of YOUR mess. Why can't people learn to not make a mess in the first place? Why cant athletes develop stronger bodies, rather then make the equipment easier? Why cant athletes see that there is no magic soap that will given them a gold medal at worlds? Well when people grow up with the soap in their face all day long its hard to not believe it. So coaches, please think about what you are doing. ask yourself questions like, " will this make them stronger long term or weaker long term?" . Everything is about a long term goal, not a short term goal. I find that coaches think the same way as the athlete and that also causes a lazy attitude.I fully admit to this as well and am trying to slow down and remember that accomplishments do not happen in a quick time span. I will make my training harder and my athletes training harder on purpose when there is a clear and obvious easier way of accomplishing the same thing. I will also make sure I scare the kids. I need to see that they do not hold back because of fear. I will put a hard beam in the middle of the trampoline and make the athlete do crash dives on the one half of the trampoline. That athlete better not travel or they are not going to feel good smoking their head on a beam. A lot of coaches probably don't like this idea but in 5 minutes she learned crash dove and has not shot forward since. If you give people the option to make mistakes then they will. Try to force the athlete to have to do it perfect every time so that it becomes instilled into their head. Coaches you are responsible for your athletes attitude. They learn from their surroundings, so please keep this in mind when you allow your athlete to go home because of a bump on the arm. Thanks ,
:)
Lets face it, Sports are not easy, nothing in life worth getting is. I believe that attitude is the most important part of a persons sporting career. Any joe shmoe can land a trick a few times and feel invincible. How many can land on their head 10 times the exact same way with no idea how to fix it but yet still manage to muster up the courage to keep going especially with no discernible light at the end of the tunnel ? I find it takes a different type of athlete to do that and I hate to say it but the majority of athletes, within trampoline, I see are drama queens. Maybe its a sense of superiority. Many athletes I communicate with seem to have an air of accomplishment by just being able to say they train gymnastics. I have seen it become more of a competition to the outside world rather then a respectable show down of hard work of opposing athletes within the confines of a gymnastics club. I find this attitude tends to come from the athletes who have been given special standings compared to other athletes. Yes I am talking about "rising stars". How do you really expect much else if an entire sporting nation labels you as higher up on the latter then the regular stream , non- high performance, categories?. I have to be honest, attitudes of the majority of athletes is going down hill. Athletes are getting lazier, giving up to early, and use the sport as a way to increase their perceived self value in comparison to other athletes or non athletes.
It is understandable to many degrees. My coaches would tell me about times that they set up every piece of equipment before training and then having to tear down. We now do not have to go through this thankfully. gymnastics is also getting easier in a sense due to the constant changing of equipment for better spring and easier landings etc, trying to make the athletes job easier. I understand that injuries are very prone in gymnastics and any little difference may make the sport more enjoyable. Are we doing irreversible damage by catering to the athletes however? Other coaches have agreed with me in the idea that athletes back in the 80's and 90's trained much harder then the athletes of today.More was expected and the slow but steady decline in hard work is gradually increasing. I myself fall victim to its grasp and find that I could always put in more effort, but for some reason I would rather go out with some friends. What causes this laziness? Is it coaching styles? Do we need to start beating athletes again? Is it evolution and genetically humans are getting lazier? Who knows, but what I have done to try and combat this problem is one major thing. I treat the athlete like a co worker. You come in and are expected to do certain tasks before you leave. You do not go home until they are complete. I see too many coaches give in to the athletes whimpers of pain after getting tramp burn or crunching an ankle after a sloppy double back on floor. I tell you before you start what I expect, I wait for a nod or comment leading me to believe you agree with the set parameters and you go on your way. If you need help, spot, a matt, emotional guidance, fine, but I do not allow the athlete to move on until he or she gets done what needs to be done. I explain exactly why they are doing what they are doing and how to be able to accomplish what I have asked from them. If the athlete gets hurt by failing to follow instructions I simply reiterate the instructions. I dont allow for excuses or changes of the task. Finish what you start no matter what. I find I get resistance from the start but after a while and some compromising, the athlete soon learns what I am trying to teach. They can develop the hard working attitude if forced upon them but in a manor that both parties can understand. The athlete will not learn the attitude if they do not see a reason for it. Most athletes understand what the attitude needs to be like but the laziness factor over rides. If the athlete sees a way to get out of work then a lot of the time they will take it. If you as a coach are constantly thinking about how every little decision will change their perception of what it means to be an athlete then you are on the right track to creating a mentally sound athlete, which arguably is better then a talented, lazy athlete.
I have had athletes literally cry when I tell them to go get a beat board. I kicked that athlete out because she was too lazy to be a gymnast. I told her to go to recreational. She got upset, cried to her mommy and daddy but then what do you know, she ended up back at the front door of the gym looking sheepish asking to come back and promised to work hard. She told me that after a rec class she saw the attitude that I was trying to fix in her, that was evident in every kid in her class. Simply she finally understood that it is not skill that seperates recreational from professional, its attitude. Skills come after the attitude is in place.
With that being said, I have coached many athletes that have a great attitude and follow instructions, ask questions, are motivated by learning rather than parental influence and those athletes have excelled. The top 10% of athletes is my goal for all athletes. I find that many coaches admit that one kid just cant learn and they give up. Simply the coach will just wait it out till the athlete quits and then blame the athlete. It takes two to tango. Any physical or mental issue can be worked on and fixed, or at least improved. And lets face it , some athletes just do not have it in them to become the best but I believe if they want it enough they can learn that state of mind. If an athlete truly wants to learn then they will, one way or another. I find that incentive to train extra, give up sleep, to fix the issues and make your world revolve around a sport has deteriorated greatly. I blame the economy. Everyone is forced to believe that easier is better. Every new piece of electronic equipment or house hold utility is made to be easier to use every time a new model comes out. Great, we can get out stains that could not have been removed 20 years earlier. But now people think that there is always something that will do the hard work for them. There is no incentive to not spill because you know all you have to do it go downstairs and grab a super powerful soap and it will get rid of YOUR mess. Why can't people learn to not make a mess in the first place? Why cant athletes develop stronger bodies, rather then make the equipment easier? Why cant athletes see that there is no magic soap that will given them a gold medal at worlds? Well when people grow up with the soap in their face all day long its hard to not believe it. So coaches, please think about what you are doing. ask yourself questions like, " will this make them stronger long term or weaker long term?" . Everything is about a long term goal, not a short term goal. I find that coaches think the same way as the athlete and that also causes a lazy attitude.I fully admit to this as well and am trying to slow down and remember that accomplishments do not happen in a quick time span. I will make my training harder and my athletes training harder on purpose when there is a clear and obvious easier way of accomplishing the same thing. I will also make sure I scare the kids. I need to see that they do not hold back because of fear. I will put a hard beam in the middle of the trampoline and make the athlete do crash dives on the one half of the trampoline. That athlete better not travel or they are not going to feel good smoking their head on a beam. A lot of coaches probably don't like this idea but in 5 minutes she learned crash dove and has not shot forward since. If you give people the option to make mistakes then they will. Try to force the athlete to have to do it perfect every time so that it becomes instilled into their head. Coaches you are responsible for your athletes attitude. They learn from their surroundings, so please keep this in mind when you allow your athlete to go home because of a bump on the arm. Thanks ,
:)
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Physiological Effects of Trampoline
Trampoline has gone through it's fair share of rumours pertaining the the safety and the perceived positive effects of bouncing up and down. The big one being obviously that everyone scared to land on their head. But are there other good things about trampoline besides the exhilaration of the experience that can potentially over ride a few small risks?
1) Weight loss/ Cardio: DUUHHHHHHHH!!! Most people forget that trampoline is exercise just like running or elliptical or any cardio based movement. Yes, you will not lose as much weight as you would when doing a 30 minute High Intensity Interval Training session ( HIIT). If you are interested in learning more about HIIT please leave a comment and I will write another article. Most would be very surprised to discover how hard trampoline can be once you bounce for 15 minutes straight. I have seen 240 lbs guys who can bench and squat double their body weight who have had to fly off and rest for 20 minutes because of a cramp they have gotten after 5 minutes of bouncing. They were only doing seat drops and back drops. To get a little more technical there is an increase in capillerization ( formation of new capillaries) that allows blood flow to reach muscles quicker by taking shorter paths. It would be an interesting study to see what means of training increases cardio the most. I may be inclined to believe that trampoline would be better for cardio then traditional methods due tot he fact all muscles need to be squeezed during trampoline so that you don't fold in half. This causes a higher recruitment of muscles which causes a higher demand for oxygen rather then the normal amount needed for walking or jogging. Not to say muscles are not activated during running but it is not to the same degree because there is a lot less flight time. ie, less gravity to fight against. The body will have to make up for this extra utilization of oxygen by increase heart rate initially. Then the body realizes that that is too hard to maintain so it brings down the heart rate by increasing the amount of blood actually pumped our per beat. That is when you get the lower resting HR because the more blood being pushed out causes more preload ( end diastolic volume) which causes an actual stretch reflex within the heart which increases the amount of blood being pushed out passively. The body thinks this is awesome because it wants to work less and less so it will keep trying to increase the amount of blood ( ie, oxygen carrying cells) pumped with less effort. This has been shown to go to rediculus levels. For example the average resting heart rate ( BPM) is 72. An average athlete is 50-60. That is where I fall under ( 56+- 3). Then you have the VO2 max records of about 80+ ml/kg/min who have a resting HR of under 35. Ie Lance Arm strong. Enzymes are also creased when cardio is increased. The body breaks down Carbs, Fats, and Protein. The main energy source for cardio is Fat followed by CHO then protein is the last choice. Protein is only used after all the other substrates are used up. This is seen when athletes " hit the wall". The body wants to use oxygen as a fuel source because it is the easiest way for the body to make ATP ( the bodies main source of energy). It can do it in other ways but the largest amount of energy can be made this way. Unfortunately it can not be maintained. It takes longer to make energy from fats because you have to move the fats out of the storage deposits in the body before they can be used. Simply the fats are broken down into specific parts and these parts mix with other molecules in the oxidative metabolism pathways and creates energy. The body uses mostly oxidative pathways jsut to bounce on a trampoline so these fats that are broken down need the be moved and attached to other molecules such as acetyl COA which si the precursor to the Kreb cycle. Don't worry Ill put links. All of this changing and transportation of fats uses other transporters and enzymes. These enzymes increase in numbers when the stress builds up. The more cardio you do the more enzymes get made to counteract the new stress. Your muscle fibers also change. Please read my article on muscle fibers if you have not already. It will explain in detail what happens with exercise.
2) Spatial Awareness: Spatial awareness come from three semi circular canals within the ear. These have fluid inside of them and based on the movement of the fluids that sends a signal to the brain saying that you are facing a certain way. If you are up side down the fluids go upside down. This causes a signal tot he brain saying "HEY im upside down, yippie" . If the signal builds up and the brain literally overloads on the signal then dizziness occurs, head aches, nausea sometimes vomiting. Then the person has to rest and gain control over the fluids before resuming. After a while of flipping and twisting the body learned to control this signal and it becomes weaker so more signals can be tolerated and therefore you can be upside down longer before you feel dizzy, you also recover faster.
3) Joint stability: A lot of people have lax joints and don't even know it. There is a degree of anatomical variability that goes with this but a large portion of people with lax joints only have them selves to blame. For example flat footed people are not different then anyone else, they just don't use their muscles on the medial side of their leg like the flexor digitorum longus or their arch muscles on the bottom of the foot that cause the arch. This could be for many different reasons but that is not the point of this article. People witch lax joints need to tighten up the joints and exercise is one of the main ways of doing this. If a person has hyper extended knees then they need to bounce with legs slightly bent. For a normal person they will look straight but the person bouncing will know that their legs feel bent because they are normally hyper extending. Just thinking about this while you bounce will start to tighten up the knees. I have worked with many people who have this problem and they have over come in by simply remembering to bend their knees while standing and jumping and you can see a difference in their posture now. trampoline will help tighten your joints as part of a negative feedback system in the body. "uhoh joints being stressed, lets tighten them up so this body does not get hurt" - your body.
4) Coordination: Goes with spatial awarness but being able to move your body in weird ways does have its benefits and until you are put in a situation where you can look back and say " wow I am glad I could do that", you wont understand what I mean. Most people can comprehend this idea however. The body has to be balanced in trampoline at all times which is a lot easier said then done. This is caused by signals in the brain turning on and off muscles at certain times to keep your center of gravity stable. This takes practice but can easily be applied to off trampoline situations. Many times I have felt like falling but remembered my training and either chose the best way to fall so I don;t get hurt or I can actually prevent the fall all together. Once the body is trained to send signals very quickly and in just the right amounts then balance can be achieved. Most of the population walk around with big uncontrolled movement and a acute muscle contractions are forgotten about because lets face it, when do you really need to balance in life? Not really often. walking is a fall/ break motion, not really balancing to a high degree. Sure balance is a part of every movement we do but trampoline will help increase the awareness of your balance and teach the body how to control every little movement to a higher degree.
5) Neurogenesis: MY thesis:) Neurons grow in the brain based on the stimulus from the external world. If we learn new things or at least try neurogenesis increases and causes us to learn. Trampoline is a new stimulus for the brain for those who have never tried. Some studies as discussed in my thesis show that people actually get smarter in other areas of their life when exercise is included in their daily routine. The same way muscles grow when stressed, the brain does the same thing to a certain degree.
6) Toughen up the mind: To many young children and even older adults are simply to scared to live life to the fullest extent. This is a whole philosophical debate but I wont talk about that now. However I will say that if you are scared to get hurt then their are few sports open to you. Trampoline and gymnastics are great at teaching people to fall and go again. I do not like to see a person say " its to hard, i cant do it, what if i get hurt" Trampoline is a sport where everyone lands on their head sometimes. If you can get hurt and say " I want to do this again until I get it" then you have the right state of mind for trampoline and gymnastics. Some don't believe me but this attitude will get you far out side of the gym. It is this determination that causes people to fail a task but to keep going and eventually succeed and become the best or one of the best at their goal. Cant quit in life, so if you quit in gym or trampoline I find it is a direct correlation to your personal strive for success in your career. I will make an article on this specially for the younger athletes because it is an issue.
7) Independence: When you are on a trampoline, no one else is there to help you. Yes a coach may spot or throw in a matt but ultimately if you screw up it is your fault. This idea teaches kids to take responsibility for their actions. They understand, that THEY are the ones who did not perform the skill correct and learn to not blame other influences. This as in (6) can be taken to the outside world as well.
All these benefits of trampoline sound great but of course there is the possibility of getting hurt. How ever this is only accomplished when the individual fails to do many things.
- proper set up of equipment including matts and and analysing surroundings
- being mentally ready for the skill
-being influenced to try something that they are not ready for just to look cool
- not be physically ready
- not be technically ready
- not being focused.
All these factors influence a possibility of an injury. If this check list is marked off then an injury should not occur. Sometimes coaches push to fast ad sometimes athletes push to fast. I will say that I have never seen an injury from someone who has not been doing one of the above fallacies. Keep it safe and trampoline can give you many rewards besides a gold medal.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfgCcFXUZRk&list=PLED4A129E7F0F78D7&index=14&feature=plpp_video - Electron Transport Chain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juM2ROSLWfw&feature=relmfu kreb cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipolysis - how fats are broken down
1) Weight loss/ Cardio: DUUHHHHHHHH!!! Most people forget that trampoline is exercise just like running or elliptical or any cardio based movement. Yes, you will not lose as much weight as you would when doing a 30 minute High Intensity Interval Training session ( HIIT). If you are interested in learning more about HIIT please leave a comment and I will write another article. Most would be very surprised to discover how hard trampoline can be once you bounce for 15 minutes straight. I have seen 240 lbs guys who can bench and squat double their body weight who have had to fly off and rest for 20 minutes because of a cramp they have gotten after 5 minutes of bouncing. They were only doing seat drops and back drops. To get a little more technical there is an increase in capillerization ( formation of new capillaries) that allows blood flow to reach muscles quicker by taking shorter paths. It would be an interesting study to see what means of training increases cardio the most. I may be inclined to believe that trampoline would be better for cardio then traditional methods due tot he fact all muscles need to be squeezed during trampoline so that you don't fold in half. This causes a higher recruitment of muscles which causes a higher demand for oxygen rather then the normal amount needed for walking or jogging. Not to say muscles are not activated during running but it is not to the same degree because there is a lot less flight time. ie, less gravity to fight against. The body will have to make up for this extra utilization of oxygen by increase heart rate initially. Then the body realizes that that is too hard to maintain so it brings down the heart rate by increasing the amount of blood actually pumped our per beat. That is when you get the lower resting HR because the more blood being pushed out causes more preload ( end diastolic volume) which causes an actual stretch reflex within the heart which increases the amount of blood being pushed out passively. The body thinks this is awesome because it wants to work less and less so it will keep trying to increase the amount of blood ( ie, oxygen carrying cells) pumped with less effort. This has been shown to go to rediculus levels. For example the average resting heart rate ( BPM) is 72. An average athlete is 50-60. That is where I fall under ( 56+- 3). Then you have the VO2 max records of about 80+ ml/kg/min who have a resting HR of under 35. Ie Lance Arm strong. Enzymes are also creased when cardio is increased. The body breaks down Carbs, Fats, and Protein. The main energy source for cardio is Fat followed by CHO then protein is the last choice. Protein is only used after all the other substrates are used up. This is seen when athletes " hit the wall". The body wants to use oxygen as a fuel source because it is the easiest way for the body to make ATP ( the bodies main source of energy). It can do it in other ways but the largest amount of energy can be made this way. Unfortunately it can not be maintained. It takes longer to make energy from fats because you have to move the fats out of the storage deposits in the body before they can be used. Simply the fats are broken down into specific parts and these parts mix with other molecules in the oxidative metabolism pathways and creates energy. The body uses mostly oxidative pathways jsut to bounce on a trampoline so these fats that are broken down need the be moved and attached to other molecules such as acetyl COA which si the precursor to the Kreb cycle. Don't worry Ill put links. All of this changing and transportation of fats uses other transporters and enzymes. These enzymes increase in numbers when the stress builds up. The more cardio you do the more enzymes get made to counteract the new stress. Your muscle fibers also change. Please read my article on muscle fibers if you have not already. It will explain in detail what happens with exercise.
2) Spatial Awareness: Spatial awareness come from three semi circular canals within the ear. These have fluid inside of them and based on the movement of the fluids that sends a signal to the brain saying that you are facing a certain way. If you are up side down the fluids go upside down. This causes a signal tot he brain saying "HEY im upside down, yippie" . If the signal builds up and the brain literally overloads on the signal then dizziness occurs, head aches, nausea sometimes vomiting. Then the person has to rest and gain control over the fluids before resuming. After a while of flipping and twisting the body learned to control this signal and it becomes weaker so more signals can be tolerated and therefore you can be upside down longer before you feel dizzy, you also recover faster.
3) Joint stability: A lot of people have lax joints and don't even know it. There is a degree of anatomical variability that goes with this but a large portion of people with lax joints only have them selves to blame. For example flat footed people are not different then anyone else, they just don't use their muscles on the medial side of their leg like the flexor digitorum longus or their arch muscles on the bottom of the foot that cause the arch. This could be for many different reasons but that is not the point of this article. People witch lax joints need to tighten up the joints and exercise is one of the main ways of doing this. If a person has hyper extended knees then they need to bounce with legs slightly bent. For a normal person they will look straight but the person bouncing will know that their legs feel bent because they are normally hyper extending. Just thinking about this while you bounce will start to tighten up the knees. I have worked with many people who have this problem and they have over come in by simply remembering to bend their knees while standing and jumping and you can see a difference in their posture now. trampoline will help tighten your joints as part of a negative feedback system in the body. "uhoh joints being stressed, lets tighten them up so this body does not get hurt" - your body.
4) Coordination: Goes with spatial awarness but being able to move your body in weird ways does have its benefits and until you are put in a situation where you can look back and say " wow I am glad I could do that", you wont understand what I mean. Most people can comprehend this idea however. The body has to be balanced in trampoline at all times which is a lot easier said then done. This is caused by signals in the brain turning on and off muscles at certain times to keep your center of gravity stable. This takes practice but can easily be applied to off trampoline situations. Many times I have felt like falling but remembered my training and either chose the best way to fall so I don;t get hurt or I can actually prevent the fall all together. Once the body is trained to send signals very quickly and in just the right amounts then balance can be achieved. Most of the population walk around with big uncontrolled movement and a acute muscle contractions are forgotten about because lets face it, when do you really need to balance in life? Not really often. walking is a fall/ break motion, not really balancing to a high degree. Sure balance is a part of every movement we do but trampoline will help increase the awareness of your balance and teach the body how to control every little movement to a higher degree.
5) Neurogenesis: MY thesis:) Neurons grow in the brain based on the stimulus from the external world. If we learn new things or at least try neurogenesis increases and causes us to learn. Trampoline is a new stimulus for the brain for those who have never tried. Some studies as discussed in my thesis show that people actually get smarter in other areas of their life when exercise is included in their daily routine. The same way muscles grow when stressed, the brain does the same thing to a certain degree.
6) Toughen up the mind: To many young children and even older adults are simply to scared to live life to the fullest extent. This is a whole philosophical debate but I wont talk about that now. However I will say that if you are scared to get hurt then their are few sports open to you. Trampoline and gymnastics are great at teaching people to fall and go again. I do not like to see a person say " its to hard, i cant do it, what if i get hurt" Trampoline is a sport where everyone lands on their head sometimes. If you can get hurt and say " I want to do this again until I get it" then you have the right state of mind for trampoline and gymnastics. Some don't believe me but this attitude will get you far out side of the gym. It is this determination that causes people to fail a task but to keep going and eventually succeed and become the best or one of the best at their goal. Cant quit in life, so if you quit in gym or trampoline I find it is a direct correlation to your personal strive for success in your career. I will make an article on this specially for the younger athletes because it is an issue.
7) Independence: When you are on a trampoline, no one else is there to help you. Yes a coach may spot or throw in a matt but ultimately if you screw up it is your fault. This idea teaches kids to take responsibility for their actions. They understand, that THEY are the ones who did not perform the skill correct and learn to not blame other influences. This as in (6) can be taken to the outside world as well.
All these benefits of trampoline sound great but of course there is the possibility of getting hurt. How ever this is only accomplished when the individual fails to do many things.
- proper set up of equipment including matts and and analysing surroundings
- being mentally ready for the skill
-being influenced to try something that they are not ready for just to look cool
- not be physically ready
- not be technically ready
- not being focused.
All these factors influence a possibility of an injury. If this check list is marked off then an injury should not occur. Sometimes coaches push to fast ad sometimes athletes push to fast. I will say that I have never seen an injury from someone who has not been doing one of the above fallacies. Keep it safe and trampoline can give you many rewards besides a gold medal.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfgCcFXUZRk&list=PLED4A129E7F0F78D7&index=14&feature=plpp_video - Electron Transport Chain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juM2ROSLWfw&feature=relmfu kreb cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipolysis - how fats are broken down
Counter Twisting: an Update
Hey guys, for those who are interested I have been working on the "D" and have gotten closer to understanding how it works. The "D" has to go from a straight body to an arch at the end of the skill rather then pike to an arch because It will look like a floppy fish in the air if too much movement is noticed. Dave Ross also said that you can not do a contact twist into a skill that is going to use the "D". Two different types of twisting that can not be overlapped. So if you are trying back full and you really dont seem to get it try twisting later into the full after a quarter flip int he layout position with no twist.
I do find that It helps on Biranis now and have gotten comfortable with them. I feel like its a quick jerk in the air then the "D" then i float as if I did a back layout from the start of the skill. Back full is improving and I understand it more but I need a lot more practice. I have come to understand the actual technique so that is a huge step in the right direction. Rudy still elude me but I figure with time that will come and if I can get up to randy's and triple fulls with no arm flail then that means I have truly gotten the hang of it. It can be very fustrating doing biranis and back fulls for an hour but A few people around the gym have commented on the look of the skill with the "D". I must be on the right track if anything.
:)
I do find that It helps on Biranis now and have gotten comfortable with them. I feel like its a quick jerk in the air then the "D" then i float as if I did a back layout from the start of the skill. Back full is improving and I understand it more but I need a lot more practice. I have come to understand the actual technique so that is a huge step in the right direction. Rudy still elude me but I figure with time that will come and if I can get up to randy's and triple fulls with no arm flail then that means I have truly gotten the hang of it. It can be very fustrating doing biranis and back fulls for an hour but A few people around the gym have commented on the look of the skill with the "D". I must be on the right track if anything.
:)
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