Curious: Any Gymnasts Here?

[Mike03]

Since around 1992 I've been fascinating by gymnasts, mostly because I see them as the most mentally tough athletes. This is especially true of the females, but it may be true of the males too. I've wanted to write something about them, but I know so little about the intense process of becoming an elite or near-elite gymnast, and I don't know any gymnasts well enough to interview them about their experiences.

What amazes me about competitive-level gymnasts is how mentally tough they are for their age. Not only are they incredible athletes in terms of strength, precision, grace, rhythm, spacial comprehension and just plain courage, but they also seem to really have to deprive themselves of many of the simpler joys of youth, because training is so demanding and time consuming.

This is why I can say, with humility, that the greatest athlete I have ever seen is probably Kim Zmesklal. And that is coming from me, a rabid Lakers fan, Oakland A's fan, and fan of many other elite athletes.

Admittedly this post is a bit of a shot in the dark, but it never hurts. Around here at DU, it would not surprise me at all to find some professional or near-professional gymnasts.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Dunno if you have TiVo but I put gymnastics in as an auto-record. Sometimes there

are shows on about the rigors of gymnastics training. It usually focuses on the girls since their window of athletic opportunity seems to be smaller than the men's. As far as I know, unless they live near their coaches the best of the best usually give up everything and move to their training center far away from their families, where they work for many hours a day. They are tutored in order to keep up on schoolwork. I am sure you can google articles on this. Someone writes one every so often. :) You can also go to the http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/ or http://www.insidegymnastics.com/ websites and see what you can find there.

My experience with gymnastics is very small at this point. My kids have only been doing recreational stuff for a couple of years. I have some experience in training cheerleaders for tumbling, but again at the beginner's level (up through handsprings). http://aescougarcheer.com/Cheer101/tumbling.htm