Last week Okanagan Peak Performance Inc hosted a seminar for the gymnastics community. The title was The Most Important Ability for Gymnasts - What it is and how to improve it. Below is a brief recap of the seminar.Probably about 15 years ago I did a clinic for Pacific Sport on speed and agility. This was a short clinic for a number of athletes in their teens from a variety of sports. One of the athletes, Jordy, really stood out during the clinic and later I began coaching her and she eventually came to work for us.That was the first time I had worked with a gymnast. And a few things stood out right away. Gymnasts are really hard working. Gymnasts have really high relative strength. In other words their strength per body mass is excellent. Gymnasts tend to be hyper-mobile. Gymnasts tend to injured quite often.It was this last feature of gymnasts that was the inspiration for this presentation.You see, gymnasts tend to get injured. A lot.It's especially high when you consider gymnastics is a non-contact/non-collision sport it's unfortunate to see the high injury rate among gymnasts. You might expect to see injured athletes in football, rugby or hockey where an opponent is trying to run through you.In terms of gymnastics injuries, these are more commonly chronic rather than acute. This means the injury is the result of a pattern over time. Acute injuries can be traced back to a specific episode such as a fall or awkward landing.With male gymnasts the hands and wrists are the more commonly injured joints. This can the result of high speeds and loads being borne by the hands and wrists in an awkward position. Sometimes landings or transitions are one hand at a time doubling the force on these joints compared to when both...

Last week I was watching the Bachelorette with my wife. And yes, I surrendered my man card before settling in on the couch to watch.On this particular episode the girl (I'll pretend I can't remember her name so as to retain some of my manliness) and her dates appeared on the show Ellen. They played  a game call 'Never Have I Ever' and the guys were asked a number of questions to which they would answer 'I Have' or "Never Have'. And I thought this would be fun topic for a blog post from a coach's perspective.What are the things a coach would never say yes to? In no particular order here are the things a coach would never say.1. Ketogenic Diets Are a Bad Idea - We work with individuals that want to look, feel or play better. And to achieve each of these goals involves fitness training, and more specifically, resistance training. Carbohydrates are the fuel that allow us to train intensely. Restricting them in the diet impairs our ability to train as intensely as possible, delays our recovery and makes the training feel harder than it really is i.e. perceived exertion.But for those that don't have performance as their number one goal, ketogenic diets may be advantageous. There are instances when a reduction in carbohydrate consumption can helping with weight loss and with the treatment of some diseases.So while we typically advocate our athletes to eat a minimum of 40% of their calories as carbohydrate, and our look and feel better clients to eat a minimum or 30%, there may be times where a ketogenic diet could be a good thing for the right individual.2. Never Take Supplements - If you've worked with us for any period of time you know our definition of supplements which is 'in...