Just thought I'd point you guys towards some books and movies about gymnastics that you might be interested in! Unfortunately you don't see gymnastics in the media too much, but I have found a few things I enjoyed.
My FAVORITE gymnastics book is called "Gymnastics: The Trials, The Triumphs, The Truth" by a guy named Dan Gutman. I have loved this book since I was a little girl. There are a few bios in there of famous gymnasts, both men and women, of the past. It provides general descriptions of all the events and has a "gym talk" vocabulary section, which is pretty funny :) It also talks about some of the down-sides of the sport, like some occurrences of eating disorders in elite gymnasts. My favorite part about the book is the stories/biographies of Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut and their journeys in gymnastics!
There is a movie called "Nadia" that also gives an overview of Nadia Comaneci's life, being trained by Bela Karolyi in Romania and reaching success at a young age. It's a little corny but VERY interesting and definitely worth a view, in my opinion. It gives you some insight into her life, and you learn that she had to overcome many obstacles. You may be able to find this at a library, but you might need to do some searching. I also know that is available on VHS from Amazon.
Another is a Lifetime movie called "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" about a gymnast who moves from her more fun, relaxed gym to a very serious gym to follow her elite dreams. The movie deviates a little bit from the real world of gymnastics (ex: at the meets, the gymnasts compete with spotlights moving all around them. It's just little things like that), but if you're willing to look past that I think it's a worthwhile film.
This next one I would direct both to you as gymnasts as well as to your parents. It's called "Gymnastics" from the Sport Psychology Library. I have not read it myself but have heard it's immensely helpful in giving insight on how to overcome the mental obstacles that gymnastics presents.
Then, of course, we've got "Stick It" and "Make it or Break it" :)
Who knows, maybe I'll write a gymnastics novel someday. But only if all my blog readers promise to read it and pretend like they like it :D
wow! i didnt know there was that muchh!!!!!!! thanks!!! oh and i wrote a story about two twins going to elite! and there story behind it!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! You can send it to me if you want to and I'll post it! But you don't have to :) Oh, it would be so fun to do a writing contest about gymnastics! But I don't know if anyone would participate.
ReplyDeletehaha! i think itd be fun!! but mines 5 pgs!!! hahha! but i think it has a good plot!(:
ReplyDeleteThat's so awesome!! I don't care if it's long! I actually just set up an email for this blog, which I'll post about soon, so if you want to send it as an attachment you really should because I wanna read it! Lol. :)
ReplyDeleteok i will later today after gymnastics(:
ReplyDeleteI love Make it or Break it and Stick It!!(: haha, and I may look into the others you mentioned too. But, do you know of any other movies like Stick It, that are about gymnastics, but are fictional? Like, not a biography or anything like that.(: If so, that would be awesome, thanks!
ReplyDelete-gymnastics4ever
PS also, I would maybe enter something in a short-writing contest about gymnastics.(: