Saturday, August 30, 2008

I still do gymnastics in my head

all the time.It soothes me and I know that doing the movement mentally teaches the body how to actually do it in real life. This way I can keep my skills up even though I can't move like that anymore :))

And most of the time I do mental gymnastics I do P bars. I don't know why but it's been this way for years. It just flows into and out of my brain when it wants to and most of the time my routine looks something like this:


This to me is the embodiment of perfect mens artistic gymnastics, the way I was taught.Not the most acrobatic movements in the realm of possibility but everything, EVERYTHING, is done to the Nth degree perfect.It SWINGS.This is 2008 Bejing's all around Gold Medalist Nastia Liukin's Dad.So cool.

15 comments:

Christine said...

That's how I feel about ballet. Practiced for 10 years, and certain pieces of classical music bring it all back, and I find myself choreographing in my head. It's a passion that never leaves you!

Mark Reifkind said...

Christine

I can imagine.having to spend so much time doing mental practice to just be able to DO the physical skill is a great ability to have for many things.

Nikki Shlosser said...

Sir, I have an obsession. And I'd like to share it with you, haha. :) I've had the same obsession for.... about as long as I can remember...
It's wanting to be able to do the press to handstand, my gymnastics coach called it a stiff-stiff. You know, like stand with feet wide, bend down and place hands close to feet, raise feet into handstand. (What is that really called?)

I think about it way too often, and yeah, even have dreams about doing this one *simple* thing. I wonder if I could get it if I really worked on it... might as well try, right? *shrug*

Mark Reifkind said...

nikki,

its called a straight arm straight leg press. You could absolutely do it as strong as you are. the real key to doing it right is making sure you don't get ahead of the proper sequence.
you MUST get the hips directly over the shoulders FIRST and then the legs come up evenly.
the real key is very strong shoulders( and wrists) to prevent them from going forward as your hips come up.
try practicing JUST rotating the hips over the shoulders and not bringing the legs up over and over. great drill.
the straight arm straight leg press was a specialty over mine :))
I could do it anywhere and with feet together as well.

Nikki Shlosser said...

I will practice, Sir! That is awesome that it was a specialty of yours. :D
I'll let you know how it goes, for sure! Man, if I ever get this....
....
........
:)

Franz Snideman said...

Cool! I have never done gymnastics..but what's funny is that I too dream of doing gymnastics in my head as well. The feeling is so liberating..so powerful...so superman-like.

Gymnastics truly is the embodiment of all ATHLETIC POTENTIAL!!

I'm sure for you Rif it is even more real because you have ACTUALLY done it on a very high level! Must be amazing!

Doubledouble13 said...

I still do gymnastics in my head too. I find it comforting to know that I can still remember what some of these skills felt like even though my body won't do them anymore.

Mark Reifkind said...

nikki,

you will get it no problem!just get the hips all the way over first, then the legs and you'll be up!
I am planning on being able to train my handstand again in the very near future and I am way excited about it.

Mark Reifkind said...

franz that is way cool. we had a lot of track and field guys come into the gymnastics room to practice all the time to help their sport.
and you're right being able to do gymnastics, even in your head, is probably the most powerful you can have. gymnasts learn to FLY.

Mark Reifkind said...

edit:
powerful feeling you can have.you learn to control the body absolutely.

Mark Reifkind said...

doubledouble,

I bet you know exactly what I am talking about. funny though is I still dont want to swing highbar,lol.

fawn said...

Gymnastics is so cool... I have always wondered what your event was.

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks fawn,p bars was one of my favorites but I competed all around my whole career.

Nikki Shlosser said...

Update:
I can do the SASL press from a headstand pretty easily.... how can I progress that to a handstand? I feel like my legs are too short and torso too long to be able to get my hips over my shoulders.
Ooh - maybe try it with a slight platform, an inch or so, under my feet, and work my way down????

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