[quote]I find this odd, considering the acceleration and jumping capabilities in these athletes are very good if not fantastic. Most former gymnasts I know do very well athletically in other sports.
Yea, just my observation. I’ve thought about it alot since I posted, and I can only think of one top gymnast I knew (several individual state championships)that did well at any other sport. This particular girl was also a great diver (duh) and also a really outstanding swimmer. In college, she set a few state records in powerlifting.
I dated her, however, and when we tried to play catch with the football or shoot some hoops, she was totally spastic. She actually ended up on a few American Gladiator episodes back in the day, but bombed out every time. On one of the shows, she was eliminated when she fell while trying to run across the beam, her best event![/quote]
Were most of these gymnasts full-time gymnasts? Meaning they trained 3-4 hours a day in the offseason if they didn’t compete in another sport. The athletes who were gymnasts who I worked with no longer did gymnastics as a sport anymore only for fun.
I find the kids who play on the playground and/or gymnastics/tumbling from ages 3-10 do better in sport on average than their peers. It just may be a matter of physical activity levels, creativity in movement patterns, all-around abilities, and the ability to take risks with their bodies that makes them better than there peers over the long run.