Shayla Worley, going for 2008 Olympics in Beijing: lots of injuries: [quote]Shayla moved closer to the gym three years ago. Her parents are now divorced, and Shayla lives with her mom and younger brother, Olin, in Baldwin Park. But as Shayla got older and better, injuries started to hamper her. Shayla ticks off her medical history as easily as one would count to 10: a herniated disc, broken ankles, broken feet, toes, a broken arm. In 2004, she had to wear a full-leg cast from her foot to her hip because of a knee injury. She wore that cast for eight weeks but still practiced on the uneven bars despite having one good leg.[/quote] ...regular competitive gymnasts even do vault with one arm in a cast - front flip over the vault - legs hurt, do bars, dismount in the pit -but so many injuries, prob. a lot due to over use -> this is her schedule: [quote]With everything she has to do, every day feels like a whirlwind. Shayla wakes up at 5:45 a.m., works out from 7-9, then goes to Boone High, where she is in 10th grade and takes three classes. She goes back the gym at 1:30 and works out until about 7. Then she goes home, eats dinner, does her homework, and goes to sleep around 11. She also takes three of her classes online. Last year, a torn hamstring kept her out of the Visa U.S. Championships, where she would have had a good shot to medal in the uneven bars, her strongest event. That sidelined her for the rest of the year.[/quote] --that makes 2 hours practice in the morning, 5.5 hours in the afternoon, totalling 7.5 hrs. a day. a lot of elites say they do like 6 hrs. a day tho. Amy Chow said she didn't practice that much - during her off-season time before she decided to go for her 2nd Olympics she said something like she practice only a couple hours a week? something like that, maybe it was like a couple hrs a day here and there tho lol. worst than that tho is if you don't get along w ur coach - the Swiss team fired their coaches b/c of it before the European Championships (it's in a thread in the Artistic Gymnastics category), diff. people like diff. coaches of course. the article describes Shayla's coach Jeff Wood like this: Shayla's coach: [quote]Wood, a hard-nosed coach who is not afraid to raise his voice and make his girls cry, says everything that Shayla does this year is in preparation for 2008.[/quote] check out the article on Shayla: "Gymnast Shayla Worley aiming for Beijing Olympics" - http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-worley0807may08,0,5145249.story?track=rss

you do hear a lot of talk about overuse injuries and broken bones / torn ligaments injury - like a list of them per gymnast - for a lot of the elite gymnast commentary - and pins in bones too. They said Dominique Dawes has something like double digit (or a high one-digit) number of pins in her I think - some big number. But then there are those like Amy Chow like you said that you don't hear that kind of stuff about. Outside of the U.S. they do esp. sacrifice a lot - more than in the U.S. according to their documentaries, like in China and Russia, Romania. A good schedule and good coaching technique and personality to match the gymnast is impt. I don't think you have to have those mean coaches in order to be elite! :D

In order to go to the most important events,they have to work hard,over 6 hours a day.If they train less hours,it will be difficult to them to get a medal at the Olympics or Worlds.

Here's a different kind of training, 5 1/2 hours a day, 5 days a week - weekends off!!: from gymrss post at http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=875&highlight=peng+peng Updated link to article: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Gross/2007/06/24/4286674-sun.html Some highlights: [quote]"She is very bright and has an intelligent approach to gymnastics" said Orchard, Peng Peng's mentor. "What captures the judges is the obvious joy with which she competes. She just exudes joy." She, indeed, does all of that. I noticed right away when I sat down opposite her in a classroom at Seneca, an institution where the gymnasts work out for up to 51/2 hours a day and study another four to five hours. The school wants to have the best gymnasts, but also smart ones. "We start practising at 7 a.m., and work out until 10:30," said Peng Peng. "Then, from 10:30 to 4 p.m., we focus on studies. Following that, it's back to the gym from 4 to 6 p.m. "But we don't train on weekends. That's when I take golf and tennis lessons. Also, on Fridays, I take singing lessons." [/quote] [quote]And what is she going to do after the Pan-Ams? "After that, I'll take a summer break," she said. "Then in the fall, you start working out to qualify for the nationals. I can't make the 2008 Beijing Olympics because I'll be only 15 years old and you have to be 16 in order to be eligible for the Olympic Games. So, I will stay with gymnastics because I love it. And I'll continue playing golf and tennis as sort of side sports. "My parents, who are good tennis players, don't push me. They only support me in my efforts and they come to watch me at every competition." [/quote] In 2007 she was the junior 2nd place all-around, at Houston International Invitational in Houston, Texas she got 7th all-around. Here's a bio with other info: http://www.gymcan.org/content/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=879&Itemid=28

"What captures the judges is the obvious joy with which she competes. She just exudes joy." The judges like when the gymnast is happy, that's why the coaches keep telling the gymnasts 'smile' lol - and don't forget about the smile right before you mount the apparatus - fake smiles are pretty obvious though.

It's nice not to have the usual schedule most gyms have of 5pm-9pm for the optional levels. Peng Peng went to Richmond Hill Gymnastics Club before Seneca, switched because she didn't like the schedule there - maybe more hours of practice there. It's good to have evenings free to do other stuff. [quote]The school wants to have the best gymnasts, but also smart ones. [/quote] That's good! So I guess they're not into yes-men gymnasts.

According to this article Shawn Johnson only practices 25 hours a week. Maybe it's a typo. topic: "just 25 hours of practice for top elite!" http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=34 [quote]Shawn Johnson is on a six-day-aweek workout schedule. The 14- year-old gymnast from West Des Moines trains 25 hours a week at Chow's Gymnastics & Dance with her coaches, Liang and Li Chow. She already competes on the national team, and now she is hoping to earn a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team. It will take a lot of practice - and a lot of time and money on the part of Johnson's family for her to reach her Olympic dream. "Every year, you pick up an additional hour here and there or add another day a week, and you don't really feel the effects until after the fact," said Shawn's mother, Teri Johnson. "We just don't take family vacations anymore because her training is year-round."[/quote]

Anna posts on gymnasticscoaching.com on Shawn's training schedule of 25 hours a week (rather than the 30-40 hours a week most other elite gymnasts workout for): [quote]Apparently this is because she is Chow

In a new article posted, it's actually about 24 hours a week (so like 4 hours a day, 6 days a week) of practice in Shawn's schedule: [quote]Johnson said she has focused hard on gymnastics this summer, although she has taken time to go swimming and to the movies with friends. She trains about 24 hours a week at Chow's Gymnastics in West Des Moines - and would do more if he would let her. "She is a kid who loves gymnastics," he said. "She wouldn't mind doing it 24 hours a day. But at this stage, it's not recreational. It's a job. It requires a higher level of commitment. "She not only dreams things in her head, she's smart enough to pursue it."[/quote] "Could a sophomore from WDM be best gymnast in the world?" http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=1006

What it means to be elite, from Alexandra Mariscu's (Romanian elite gymnast) book: Romanian journalist Andrei Nourescu wjo is telling Marinescu's story says "What you see on TV or what you read in newspapers is a completely different reality." [quote]It comes at a time when Romanian gymnastics is recovering from a difficult period which culminated in the dismissal of the senior team from the national training centre in Deva amidst allegations of abuse from gymnasts' parents and lack of discipline from the coaches. The reigning Olympic team champion was unable to field a team at the European Championships in April. It was revealed that former stars, Olympic champion Daniela Silivas and multiple world champion Gina Gogean, had received false passports to compete.[/quote] beating: [quote]Before the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, the coaches turned the heat on even more, and one day during training disaster struck. Alexandra's team mate Corina Unugreanu was struggling on her beam mount (a RO-rulfova) and was wincing from the blows it struck in the genital area." Octavian Belu started beating her. He was hitting her without any restraint, as if she were an animal. She kept failing and every time she was trying to repeat she was getting hurt even more in that area. Belu was looking at her coldly and he didn't care about her suffering. He only knew one thing: the exercise had to be perfect and anything else didn't matter. At one of the repetitions, Corina got so hurt that she started bleeding. None of us had the courage to tell Octavian Belu to stop hitting the gymnast. Everything went on like that until Corina, between two slaps, told Belu that she was bleeding. But his reaction was still icy: "What's wrong? You're bleeding? You deserve it! Move back on the beam and do it again!". In the end, Belu's co-coach Mariana Bitang came to Ungureanu's aid and stopped the beating.[/quote] inhuman: [quote]After Lausanne, Marinescu was diagnosed with a fractured vertebra and announced her decision to quit gymnastics. A decision, she claims, that cost her dearly. Legendary Nadia Comaneci had offered to take her to the USA for an operation, but, according to Marinescu, when Comaneci approached Adrian Stoica, General Secretary of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, he simply said: "There's no use making this effort. She's abandoning gymnastics anyway, so it doesn't matter". Stoica currently serves as president of the FIG's Men's Technical Committee. With her gymnastics days behind her Marinescu says she realised she was of no more use to the system that had created her. "They exploited me to the maximum, they ignored all my pains, which were proving that there was something wrong with my back, and here is what I became. And this only happened because they wanted to prolong to the maximum the time when I could have been useful to the team," she says.[/quote] Bela Karolyi was known to beat the girls too. Like so many other coaches. Related: "So how is this fair.": http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=1248 "What do you take for snack at gym practice/competition?": http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=1302 "Kim Gwang Suk - 1992 Olympics age controversy": http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=407 "Elite gymnastics videos": http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=483