WAG faster, higher, stronger...when is it going to end?

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

M

mandy

I recently watched some olympic games from like 1970 or so.

I noticed that the skills are definitely A LOT harder in comparison. In the video I watched the where excited for a double back...

But when is it going to end? Can skills really get even more challenging?
 
In the US, youth gymnastics for girls has grown exponentially and so have the odds of exceptional gymnasts finding their way to coaches who want to work with them. Without further equipment changes we probably won't see much more, but I expect the equipment will evolve and with those evolutions we always see more difficulty.
 
In the US, youth gymnastics for girls has grown exponentially and so have the odds of exceptional gymnasts finding their way to coaches who want to work with them. Without further equipment changes we probably won't see much more, but I expect the equipment will evolve and with those evolutions we always see more difficulty.


All right....you've peaked my curiosity. What kind of equipment changes are possible?
 
Much of the increases in difficulty from the 70's and early 80's are due to equipment changes.

Back then there were no sprung floors- imagine doing a double back on plain matting :), a plain horse vault, and have you ever tried the old fashioned springboards with no springs? Bars were wooden , and oval, not the round springy fibreglass things we have today.

It also extends to the training environment, even when these upgrades were made to competition equipment, it's hard to train the harder skills, especially without injury. No strap bars, decent trampolines, tumble traks, pits were rare. I remember giants being a huge skill only elites trained, these days you can throw almost beginners on a strap bar :)

Even grips are very different from the might as well not bother things of the 70's.

Although I did read a discussion somewhere that while the indroduction of the vault table has made yurchenko's so much safer, it has made handspring vaults and even tsuks to some extent much harder. See Prodnova..
 
Possible equipment changes might include the introduction of the sprung beam. They have already invented it and it's used in many gyms as a training tool.
 
I would hope that those "driving the bus" for elite and Level 10 gymnastics in the US will also consider frequency and severity of potential injuries in deciding what to "incent" in terms of crazy new tricks. Particulary since these are children--almost all elite gymnasts are minors and are not consenting adults. Some of them are very young.
 
Possible equipment changes might include the introduction of the sprung beam. They have already invented it and it's used in many gyms as a training tool.

I had to look this up. This is all I found in the market. But added padding allows for better tumbling and turning and end brace rod is spring loaded providing power for the dismount punch and stability.

http://www.ten-o.com/Alumaflex-Competition-Spring-Balance-Beam,1627.html?b=d*390

There may be more spring beams. But even this one will allow for more difficult tumbling and dismounts. Now at meets, I believe the equipment are regulated. How are new equipment approved to be used at sanctioned meets?
 
Seriously, isn't beam hard enough to watch already?

Yup! But I do like the added padding and spring loaded end. I am of course no expert, but while improvement in equipment is eminent, and geared towards increasing difficulty in skills, I also think safety is a large part. IMO. So, I think it can be a good thing.
 
They could also put a teeny tiny spring floor under the vault table and make men's parallel bars springier so that the guys can really launch themselves up into the air. No one would ever have to see another double pike dismount again!

(For the record, I am opposed to both of these things!!)
 
I would hope that those "driving the bus" for elite and Level 10 gymnastics in the US will also consider frequency and severity of potential injuries in deciding what to "incent" in terms of crazy new tricks. Particulary since these are children--almost all elite gymnasts are minors and are not consenting adults. Some of them are very young.

i wish you fully understood the process. nothing being done is crazy. and we can't train anymore than we already are. and those that are "young" will not have the physical ability to push the end of the envelope. you can only do so much at certain ages. that is a fact. 8 year olds will NOT be ale to perform double layouts whether on a spring floor, rod floor, tumbl trak, etc; you have to learn HOW to do double backs first.

yes, there will always be the idiot coach who "thinks" that "his" 8 year old can perform double backs on any of the devices. and that kid will get hurt. the majority of coaches wouldn't do that. let's keep a perspective on all this. :)
 
sorry Faith, the site won't let me quote within your post.

i have posted on this before. maybe Bog can find it for those that are new here.

we did do double backs on horse hair mats, plain ethafoam and resilite wrestling mats. because of this, our leg musculature was much more developed than those athletes today. we had less injuries BECAUSE our legs were so developed. ACL and Achilles ruptures were almost unheard of. today's floors have "tuning" issues as it relates to all of the different body types and twitch. i think if we had time to train kids on "our" floors from yesteryear, i believe we could have less injuries BECAUSE are leg muscles were so developed.

we all had excellent trampolines. and we all trained our gymnastics on them. AMERICAN ATHLETIC/AMF (AAI now) Nissen, GymMaster, etc; all made excellent trampolines. 1 inch, 1/2 inch, 1/4 inch and then eventually string beds or what is know as "Aussie" bed. and of course now you have "London" beds. everything else you stated is true. no tumbl tracks, no pits, etc.

we did not have grips. we made tape grips.

the vault boards were great, although only for the very best. remember, Natalia Yurchenko performed her "Vault" on a Reuther spring leaf board. Nissen, Porter and AMERICAN/AMF (AAI now) all had coil spring boards by the late 70's. and they all were very good and worked quite well. Yurchenko did her vault AFTER all these boards were available.

the "TABLE" was born out of safety necessity. Yurchenkos were very precarious and dangerous on the plain horse. i know. i had several doing them on the old horse. and as i have posted before, most of us were nervous wrecks when the athletes vaults went south.

but any of the conventional vaults can still be done with the table. they are not more difficult. what you see is a consequence of where the vaulting trend went with the invention of the "Toungue/or Table".

spring beams are a waste of time. if Simone can perfrom a double double dismount that should let you know that spring beams aren't required. if the concern is injury, and most occur on the dismount, then widening the beam 2 inches would help that.

and of course bars has evolved too almost mens high bar. and now we have round rails compared to oval and now those include soft rails. the rails today are much more forgiving on the elbows and shoulders than their predecessors.

anyway, if Bog finds that thread i posted in it will explain a lot of equipment history. and again i remind everyone here that it is my age group that you must give thanks to for "driving the bus" (thank you Midwestmommy) on any equipment changes that ALL of your children are the recipients of today. :):):)
 
yes, there will always be the idiot coach who "thinks" that "his" 8 year old can perform double backs on any of the devices. and that kid will get hurt. the majority of coaches wouldn't do that. let's keep a perspective on all this. :)

Saw a "youngest double back ever!" type video the other day, into loose foam and the kid had her arms overhead the entire time with the last flip pretty much fully in the foam...sorry, not a double back.

Also, equipment is only part of it. We also have a greater chance of finding exceptional athletes in all corners of the world. Gymnastics isn't everywhere yet, but it's in a lot of places.
 
Yup! But I do like the added padding and spring loaded end. I am of course no expert, but while improvement in equipment is eminent, and geared towards increasing difficulty in skills, I also think safety is a large part. IMO. So, I think it can be a good thing.
There are other beams with the same amount of padding. One of the gyms we compete against has an AAI Reflex beam (some sort of spring beam) and our girls hate competing beam there... they say it feels like its going to break, lol... as if a 50 lb girl could break it doing a straight jump. :) I guess it would just take some getting used to.
 
Saw a "youngest double back ever!" type video the other day, into loose foam and the kid had her arms overhead the entire time with the last flip pretty much fully in the foam...sorry, not a double back.

If you are talking about a certain 7 year old who was doing "double backs" and fulls on the tumbltrak, then yes, they weren't REAL double backs then. But as a 10 year old L10, it looks like she was doing piked double backs in her floor routine this season :)

But it may not have been her because her arms weren't overhead the whole time... and the foam on hers was low compared to the TT and she was starting the 2nd flip where we could still see her.
 
The funniest paer of the video is how the guy sitting in the chair doesn't even change his expression, just watches like he's bored senseless. Must've happened all the time, as he was not impressed one bit! LOL
 

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

Back