Archives for February 2016

February 23, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 8 Comments

187: McKayla Maroney

Olympic gold medalist and three time World Champion, McKayla Maroney has much to share about where she has been, what happened along the way and where she is going next. She settles long debated gymternet questions and we find out what caused the physical and emotional breakdown she referred to in this video last year. We discuss:

If she feared blowback from speaking frankly about her experiences.
The skill she tried that Marta told her to never to do again.
The circumstances surrounding her injuries and multiple surgeries.
The post-Olympic tour conditions and their effects on her health.
She answers fans suspicions that her injuries are due to poor nutrition.
Some fans claim that AOGC break gymnasts, her thoughts.
Did the advice she received from her coaches contribute to her injuries?
How she dealt with self identity as she struggled to stay healthy.
Discusses the role of humility and insecurity through the Olympic selection process.
Does she think the men’s team should be more like the women’s program in order to be more successful?
Dealing with criticism on social media.
She describes her personal experiences as an elite gymnast, and their influence on changes she would like to see made at the national team level.
Did she really have to hire bodyguards after the Olympics?
Who does she credit with teaching her that amazing vault technique: her second coach, Howie Liang at Gym-Max or her Olympic coach, Artur Akopyan at All Olympia Gymnastics Center (AOGC)?
Why did she go overtime in 2013 at the Antwerp World Championships on floor?

McKayla Maroney official website

Fill your emotional chalk bucket! Positive Coaching Alliance is a national non-profit developing “Better Athletes, Better People” by working to provide athletes a positive, character-building youth sports experience. Check out their free resources and courses. There are even trainings specifically for gymnastics.
US Olympic Committee SafeSport: Learn about the dangers of emotional misconduct in sports. Definitions and model policies to prevent emotional and verbally abusive coaching.
Resources :
- Dr. Alan Goldberg’s article on Coaching Abuse.
- Sports phycologist and diving Olympian, Dr. Megan Neyer at Neyer Performance Strategies offers therapy and training for gymnasts and gymnastics schools.
- Safe4Athlete’s therapists referral network.
- Treatment centers for athletes with eating disorders EDRS or McCallum Place.
- 24-Hour Suicide hotline 1 (800) 273-8255
We are having our very first design contest, and your art could be Gymcastic’s newest t-shirt. Submit your best gymnastics themed art to be made into some sweet swag.

Grand Prize (x2 Winners): Your design featured on our page, your artwork on the bodies of gymnerds everywhere, and a free t shirt with your design!

How to Submit: Post your design on Instagram, Tumblr, or Twitter. Use the hashtag #gymcasticdesigncontest

FAQ and Rules here.

Club Gym Nerd is our way of saying thank you for helping us pay the bills! GymCastic members are automatically entered to win 6 awesomely gym nerdy prizes per year and get lots of perks like being able to preview this week’s big interview with McKayla Maroney. This month, one lucky member will win the exclusive, sold-out, Cloud & Victory Legends sweater below.
- Join Club Gym Nerd here.
- Get one of our awesome shirts here.
The Gymnastics Legends Sweatshirt by Cloud&Victory

February 17, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 2 Comments

186: Amanda Borden

amanda borden interview — Olympic gold medalist, Amanda Borden

The smiliest gymnastics queen in all the land visited Uncle Tim this week. On the 20th anniversary of her Olympic gold, the commentator, gym owner, coach and member of the Magnificent Seven, Amanda Borden, chatted about (01:15:10):

Why that forward shoulder roll in 1992 compulsory beam routine was so hard
Whether or not horrific fall replays should be shown on TV
Committing to the University of Georgia; going pro and never leaving home for training
Her thoughts on the gymnastics fans theory that Mary Lee Tracey has an injury curse
If NCAA coaches should ditch the ties and heels and rock a warmup suit like elite coaches
Being one of Mary Lee Tracy’s first stars and learning to navigate that elite world together
The significance of female head coaches winning the first team Olympic gold medal

Jessica, Spanny and Lauren have your weekly roundup of the latest news stories from around the gymternet:

Uncle Tim’s major news (forgive us this indulgence, we are really excited for him)
Beth Tweddle broke her neck on a reality show but she’s up and walking
Orozco won the all-around in his first competition back after his second Achilles tear
Chusovitina killed it at the WOGA Classic. Proving that age is nothing but a number and we have the data to prove it
- Ages of Pre-Olympic World Medalists
(11:30) Sophia de Jesus’s floor routine went viral, like way beyond Lloimincia or any other gymnastics routine we can find.
- Spanny broke down just how huge her numbers are.
- We analyze why this routine, in particular, broke through.
- (24:40) Could Sophina de Jesus do her hip-hop floor choreography in elite? We asked two elite judges. You must hear their answers!
(41:26) NCAA News :
- We talk about teams we love who ranked 8-16
- Cal’s WOGA-ness and throwing every vault in Code
- OSU’s unique and innovative commitment to artistry
- Auburn gymnastics beat Alabama for the first time since 1979
- Sacramento State and their robot choreography and insane skills (Ezhova)
- Kentucky’s Sidney Dukes
- Georgia who just beat LSU and Florida!
- Agree or Disagree Greg Marsden who said, college meets should stop extended awards ceremonies at the end of a dual-meet.

February is the month of love and what do we love? Gymnastics t-shirts! We are having our very first design contest, and your art could be Gymcastic’s newest t-shirt. Submit your best gymnastics themed art to be made into some sweet swag.

Grand Prize (x2 Winners): Your design featured on our page, your artwork on the bodies of gymnerds everywhere, and a free t shirt with your design!

How to Submit: Post your design on Instagram, Tumblr, or Twitter. Use the hashtag #gymcasticdesigncontest

FAQ and Rules here.

Club Gym Nerd is our way of saying thank you for helping us pay the bills! GymCastic members are automatically entered to win 6 awesomely gym nerdy prizes per year. Members were able to preview next week’s big interview with McKayla Maroney and will get to see the interview in it’s entirety, before anyone else. This month, one lucky member will win the exclusive, sold-out, Cloud & Victory Legends sweater.

Join Club Gym Nerd here.
Get one of our awesome shirts here.

Svetlana Khorkhina. Anna Pavlova. Nastia Liukin. Nadia Comaneci. Olga Korbut. Mo Huilan. Daniela Silivas.GYMNASTICS LEGENDS UNISEX SWEATER cloud and victory gymnastics — The Gymnastics Legends Sweatshirt by Cloud&Victory

Precision Choreography Award for Excellence Winners.

Be The Match one of our listeners needs a bone marrow donor.

February 10, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 4 Comments

185: 2008 Olympic All-Around Finals (Commissioned)

Embed from Getty Images

Our first ever commissioned podcast! Club Gym Nerd member, Red, ordered a recap of the 2008 women’s Olympic all-around finals with “fairytale expectations as if we didn’t know what happened to the competitors.” We talk about the medal contenders, the fan favorites, sideline shenanigans, judging flubs, standout skills and routines, with routine play by plays. From Anna Pavlova, Stelliana Nistor, Chusovitina, Jiang Yuyuan, Kesenia Semenova, Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Yang Yinlin; we cover all the juicy details and include leotard fashion reports. Spencer, Uncle Tim and Jessica take you through every last drop.

Club Gym Nerd members support the show and in return are automatically entered to win 6 awesomely gym nerdy prizes per year. This month, one lucky member will win the exclusive, sold-out, Cloud & Victory Legends sweater.

Commission your own podcast here.
Join Club Gym Nerd here.
Or buy one of our awesome shirts here.

Grand Prize (x2 Winners): Your design featured on our page, your artwork on the bodies of gymnerds everywhere, and a free t shirt with your design!

How to Submit: Post your design on Instagram, Tumblr, or Twitter. Use the hashtag #gymcasticdesigncontest

FAQ and Rules here.

2008 Olympian Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs’ training partner, Taylor Lindsay-Noel talks about her injury in the video below. The way her mother spoke out after the accident, forever changed the way catastrophic injuries are handled in the gymnastics community. These days most federations, coaches and gyms respond immediately to help the gymnast cover medical care and assist the family.

February 5, 2016 by GymCasticCrew Leave a Comment

Ages of Pre-Olympic World Medalists

While the only numbers that matter at the end of the meet are the scores, taking a closer look at gymnasts’ ages will provoke the thoughts of any Gym Nerd. Here, Princess of Sexy Data Taylor Anderson compiled the ages of medalists competing at Worlds the year before the Olympics. The tabs below are separated by competition, with the final tab showing the combined average ages from all the competitions.

Here are the key takeaways:

Medalists have gotten older over time, indicative of rule changes.
Overall, Vault medalists are the oldest on average (19.48), while Bars medalists are the youngest (16.36).
The average individual champion has gone from 15.83 in 1991 to 18.3 in 2015.

For gymnasts, age might just be a number. What do you think this means for the sport?

February 3, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 14 Comments

184: Chow Loves Bush

Remember this show is rated PG 13!

In the gymternet news, Uncle Tim, Lauren Hopkins, Spanny Tampson and Jessica chat about:

The Bronze trailer got even raunchier and we can’t wait for this movie to come out!
Mustafina’s bad joke: a photo of her holding a gun to her head
Liang Chow posting photo of himself and his gymnasts holding Jeb Bush signs
American Cup roster updates and why Jesolo is becoming the greatest meet ever.
Our sadness of the lack of camp news.
Lauren’s profile on 26 year-old Armenian-American, Houry Gebeshian who could be the first female gymnast ever in the Olympics for Armenia.
(30:00)What kind of themed gymnastics video what Mr Moceanu (Dr. Mike Canales) should do for his 40th birthday with his wife, Dominique Moceanu.
What gymnastics spin is greater than the Temple women’s team who turned getting stuck in a blizzard for 30 hours into a team building event.
(00:46:00)Feedback from Angela who thought our discussion of transgender athletes was uninformed, to say the least.
(01:03:00)NCAA NEWS:
- Why we love Elizabeth (Ebee) Price
- An update on Katelyn Ohashi who, after x-rays came back negative, was revealed to have a fractured sternum after a CT Scan on Wednesday.
- Is the Michigan men’s dynasty over?
- Some of the Florida 10’s made us squeal with joy, like Bridget’s beam, other’s were questionable.
- Why Aja Sims got 700 million Spanny points.
- The best comeback skill of 2016: hint, Boguinskaya and Nastia argued about it at length.
- Why UW is the team we should all be watching.
- The most heartbreaking meet we’ve ever watched: Auburn vs. Arkansas.

Grand Prize (x2 Winners): Your design featured on our page, your artwork on the bodies of gymnerds everywhere, and a free t shirt with your design!

How to Submit: Post your design on Instagram, Tumblr, or Twitter. Use the hashtag #gymcasticdesigncontest

FAQ and Rules here.

GymCastic members are automatically entered to win 6 awesomely gym nerdy prizes per year. This month, one lucky member with win the exclusive, sold-out, Cloud & Victory Legends sweater.

Join Club Gym Nerd here.
Get one of our awesome shirts here.

Archives for February 2016

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