Coach's Training

Hi Coach Sommer,

I was perusing some of the photos on the GB Facebook page recently and I noticed that there are a couple where you are personally demonstrating exercises, e.g. weighted dislocates and handstand.

Please ignore this post if the following questions are too intrusive, but I was curious to know if you still train for gymnastics and, if so, which gymnastics strength feats / skills you are capable of performing?

Also, with the greatest of respect, as you have got older, and if you do still train, have you found the GB exercises and mobility elements to be beneficial in keeping your joints healthy, etc.?

Many thanks in advance,

Neil

Which photos?

The thing that has been hardest on my health as I have gotten older is all of the desk work required to run GB.  Ugh.  

Simultaneously having two full time jobs (coaching my elite athletes, running GB) for the last five years or so has been quite demanding to say the least.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

The thing that has been hardest on my health as I have gotten older is all of the desk work required to run GB.  Ugh. 

...And thanks will forever whisper on our breath.  <Takes health and runs >

Thanks as always Coach.

Coach,

Try not to destroy your body teaching us how to build ours.

Respect.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I always look forward to seminars as they provide an opportunity for me to occasionally join in.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

You may be a desk jockey now Coach, but I still recall in London noticing you had a perfect body line when you were demonstrating some handstand work. Most office workers would make Quasimodo cringe.

Coach did a nice full lay front lever at either the last or second last Australian Seminar. I don't think it would take too much to get him back into full gear

The thing I love seeing on the GB.com Facebook is the massive, beaming smile Coach always has at seminars. He is obviously so excited to do what he does and see his students do well. His passion for movement and function is seriously infectious.

Interesting, I always thought that smile had something to do with the pleasure he derived from watching athletes writhe in pain. It takes a special character to become a national level coach