Mary Lee Tracy who coaches at Cincinnati Gymnastics (Junior Champion Lexie Preissman and Amelia Hundley) posts some of the best coaching and conditioning videos on her YouTube channel, found here.
Mary-Lee with Amelia Hundley
Circuit training is a great way to build up endurance and teaches the gymnast to perform skills even when they are tired. It is also fun for the gymnasts participating!
Circuit training set-up, easily adapted for any gym conditions
Gymnasts can be conditioned to improve their body tension. This improves the overall look of their gymnastics on all apparatus. I like the use of leg weights in these drills to help build muscle.
Shallon Olsen is one of Canada's rising stars in gymnastics. Born in 2000 and a member of Omega Gymnastics Academy, she has produced impressive results as a junior including capturing the all-around title at the 2013 Elite Canada competition. She is a very clean gymnast and already performs some very difficult skills in competition (DTY, full-twisting double back on bars).
A 10 year-old Olsen competes at the 2010 Canadian Championships and earns her a spot on the junior national team (photo credit: www.examiner.com)
Shallon competes on floor at the 2012 Top Gym Competition, where she placed first in the all-around and on vault (photo credit: Gymnastike)
Shallon trains at the same gym as Brittany Rogers and shows immense promise for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where she will be just old enough to compete. She is the most exciting to watch on floor, where she shows off her flexibility and difficult tumbling. With four years to go before Rio, she has plenty of time to improve her skills and become a great all-around potential for Canada. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Canadian Women's gymnastics team not only finished 5th in the team final but qualified two gymnasts, Brittany Rogers and Ellie Black into the vault final. With young stars such as Shallon, hopefully Canada can improve on this effort in 2016. Watch this space!
Shallon competes on floor in 2012
Shallon on bars at the recent Elite Canada Competition
Shallon's gymastics idols are Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin and enjoys reading and baking in her free time. All the best to her for the future, I'm sure that she will become a well-known name in the future!
