PamelaOC
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Balance beam skills
- Thread starter PamelaOC
- Start date
FootballDad
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I've always admired gymnasts (both male and female) for the amazing skill, strength and flexibility that is required.
Of course, the multi-culti crowd was thrilled that Gabby Douglas won gold and are hoping that gymnastics will be dominated by blacks shortly. Just like they are waiting for scores of Serena Williamses in tennis and Tiger Woodses in golf.
Of course, the multi-culti crowd was thrilled that Gabby Douglas won gold and are hoping that gymnastics will be dominated by blacks shortly. Just like they are waiting for scores of Serena Williamses in tennis and Tiger Woodses in golf.
Old Scratch
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Gymnasts are great athletes, parkour is gymnastics much cooler cousin.
[video=youtube;NFYxxuVXj40]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFYxxuVXj40[/video]
[video=youtube;NFYxxuVXj40]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFYxxuVXj40[/video]
Those young ladies do some amazing things. It's interesting to consider why it seems that only pre or barely post pubescent girls are capable of doing this (amongst the women). I think that adult women are at a disadvantage (besides the difference in genders) because the estrogen that makes a woman a woman takes away the flexibility and weight distribution necessary to succeed. Women with high levels of testosterone, either natural or fake, will not get enough of the benefit of musculature as a man will.
Thus hyper masculine women like Martina Navritolova or the Williams sisters can push other less testosteroned women around in tennis but don't get the muscular benefits enough to do it on the balance beam. Even if you look at super doped women, like female body builders, there never seems to be a balance where the muscle can work in harmony with the body like it can with male gymnasts. The balance beam and gymnastics seems one area where gender norms cannot be altered by the modern desire to make women into men.
Thus hyper masculine women like Martina Navritolova or the Williams sisters can push other less testosteroned women around in tennis but don't get the muscular benefits enough to do it on the balance beam. Even if you look at super doped women, like female body builders, there never seems to be a balance where the muscle can work in harmony with the body like it can with male gymnasts. The balance beam and gymnastics seems one area where gender norms cannot be altered by the modern desire to make women into men.
PamelaOC
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There's a "sweet spot" as far as muscle mass goes for the best balance between agility and strength. Past that point, the negative impact from the extra weight added has more of an effect than the strength benefit from the additional muscle. Still, at least in the United States, relatively few female gymnasts are the stereotypical super-thin types. I weigh about 113 pounds now, but when I was competing I weighed around 120, and most of that extra mass was muscle.
GWTJ
Mentor
Gymnastics is a strange sport. My daughter did it for about 6 years. They train extremely hard all year for maybe 6 meets. Imagine training all year for 6 baseball games.
It's also the only sport that you need to build up a certain amount of strength just to perform the basic moves. Without that strength you will never compete. Ever.
I did notice that girls with certain body types had built in advantages. Girls that were bottom heavy were at a disadvantage as the sport requires mostly upper body strength along with flexibility.
The biggest difference between gymnasts and other athletes is the ball factor. Gymnastics is one of those sports like figure skating or bicycling or mountain climbing, you don't really need hand eye coordination as you would in baseball basketball or football.
The one thing I didn't like about the sport was the physical toll it took on the girls. Most girls I saw had all kinds of injuries by the time they were 15. My son played baseball from 5 years old through college and never had an injury.
It's also the only sport that you need to build up a certain amount of strength just to perform the basic moves. Without that strength you will never compete. Ever.
I did notice that girls with certain body types had built in advantages. Girls that were bottom heavy were at a disadvantage as the sport requires mostly upper body strength along with flexibility.
The biggest difference between gymnasts and other athletes is the ball factor. Gymnastics is one of those sports like figure skating or bicycling or mountain climbing, you don't really need hand eye coordination as you would in baseball basketball or football.
The one thing I didn't like about the sport was the physical toll it took on the girls. Most girls I saw had all kinds of injuries by the time they were 15. My son played baseball from 5 years old through college and never had an injury.