The concept of screening is something huge I think the gymnastics world need to regularly partake in due to the high physical demands and injury rates. Screening refers to the idea of performing tests or movement assessments on gymnasts regularly to detect possible risk factors for problems. I have mentioned a few screening tests in […]
Last month I started writing about how I apply the Joint by Joint Theory proposed by Gray Cook/Mike Boyle into a basic gymnastics movement, the handstand. In Part I of this article series I went over some background info, and talked about the key role of hand/wrist interactions as it applies to handstand work in gymnasts. […]
The response to Part 1 of this post was incredible and ended up being one of the most viewed pieces of content on the site. I got some great feedback and it was awesome to see people enjoyed it. I think it’s a topic many people involved in gymnastics think about. So what’s a coach to […]
Bet that title caught your eye as you were browsing. Well it’s true, safe to say I haven’t really pushed anyone down during splits or much of any flexibility for quite some time now. I had plenty of memories as a gymnast standing up after being pushed down in”flexibility circuits”, only to feel like a baby deer […]
As many people who follow my blog may know, I have written about my concerns with doing high volume dynamic arch up type conditioning with gymnasts. This includes lots of arch ups/superman’s, uppers, lowers, weighted arching, and so on. Although it is engrained in our gymnastics culture to work on this arching type of strength, in my […]
One of the common trends I see in a lot of gymnasts I work with are issues in their middle spine (thoracic spine) and shoulder blade. Many times the gymnast gets “wide back” and rounded forward chest, with the shoulder joints sitting forward/rotated in, and commonly the shoulder blade pops up or “wings” off of their back. […]
I wanted to blog quick about a scenario where it might be a good idea NOT to stretch a gymnasts ankles for a toe point. Ankles are one of the most frequently injured body parts in gymnastics with a variety of injuries from getting crunched on short landings, chronic impingement, sprains, stress fractures, and more. A “rolled ankle” or inversion sprain is definitely among […]
It’s widely known that lower back pain is a huge problem in both male and female gymnastics. Despite more education coming out and progress being made, I unfortunately still treat a ton of gymnasts weekly at Champion for lower back pain. I feel by far one of the biggest contributors for things snowballing to big injuries […]
The info and video in this post came about because I’m in the process of putting together a really cool 4 part article series about shoulder pain in gymnasts. I think it would be helpful for all coaches/gymnasts to approach training with their gymnasts in this way. I have been spending an incredible amount of time reading and […]
About a month ago, I posted the link to Part 1 of this podcast with Dr. Eldridge. We talked about some really interesting concepts about gymnastics injury, training, issues related to strength and conditioning, and my using integrated gymnastics pre-hab in your gyms. Here is part 2 of this lecture that goes more into some […]
