This title introduces fans to the world of women's college gymnastics. The title features informative sidebars, exciting photos, a glossary, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

The story of the winningest women's college coach in history

Every year student athletes compete in sold-out stadiums to see who can score a perfect ten. With striking photos and cool facts, readers will learn what sets college gymnastics apart, how competitions are scored, and which college gymnasts dominate competition.

A mental block in gymnastics is a performance-inhibiting phenomenon in which a gymnast loses the ability to perform previously automatic skills without any obvious reason. To explore this condition in NCAA Women’s Gymnastics, female collegiate gymnasts (N = 100) completed an online survey that included established questionnaires assessing presence of mental blocks and assessing perfectionism, rumination, and reinvestment levels. Results showed that the majority of gymnasts experience mental blocks across all divisions of NCAA Women’s Gymnastics. A MANOVA analysis revealed higher levels of ruminative reflection and conscious motor processing in gymnasts who have experienced mental blocks compared to gymnasts who have not experience mental blocks. These findings increase the understanding of mental blocks and indicate that aspects of rumination and reinvestment may increase vulnerability to the condition. Future research in this area might offer further insight into underlying causes of mental block development and possible interventions to help affected gymnasts and coaches more effectively.

Becoming a True Champion offers a path to achieving athletic excellence, longevity, and dignity through the values and hard work that once distinguished athletes as true role models. Providing an antidote to images of misbehaving athletes, this book guides readers through the ethics and standards that will set them apart both on and off the field.

How the Cold War era changed the trajectory of women's gymnastics Electrifying athletes like Olga Korbut and Nadia Comăneci helped make women’s artistic gymnastics one of the most popular events in the Olympic Games. But the transition of gymnastics from a women’s sport to a girl’s sport in the 1970s also laid the foundation for a system of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of gymnasts around the world. Georgia Cervin offers a unique history of women's gymnastics, examining how the high-stakes diplomatic rivalry of the Cold War created a breeding ground for exploitation. Yet, a surprising spirit of international collaboration arose to decide the social values and image of femininity demonstrated by the sport. Cervin also charts the changes in style, equipment, training, and participants that transformed the sport, as explosive athleticism replaced balletic grace and gymnastics dominance shifted from East to West. Sweeping and revelatory, Degrees of Difficulty tells a story of international friction, unexpected cooperation, and the legacy of abuse and betrayal created by the win-at-all-cost attitudes of the Cold War.