Jackie Bender Video

[Jason Stein]

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I'm sorry if someone has already uploaded this here, but it's floating around Facebook and I thought I'd share it.

Jackie Bender was a Canadian gymnast/acrobat. I've pasted some interesting bits from an interview below.

EDIT! Oh yeah, SHE'S BURLY.

How did you learn the handstands?

In addition to the team coaches, we had a ‘handstand’ coach. His name was Vladimir Bereschnoy, he was from the USSR. Mr. ‘B’, as we called him, helped me to develop strength, flexibility and balance and taught me the foundation skills backward roll to headstand and 1-arm press to handstand.

Most of the skills were his ideas, drawn largely from circus performers. As I became more proficient in performing them, I added nuances to make them my own.

Did it take a long time for you to learn those original skills ?

It took a very long time to learn those skills. I spent the first two years of my gymnastics career developing the strength, flexibility and balance to be able to perform them.

For most of my career, I trained 5 days per week about 8 hours per day: 5 hours with the team and an additional 3 hours on handstand work alone. During the early ears, from age 6 until 12, I trained 6 days per week… one day per week was spent on handstand work alone.

What is the most difficult skill you performed ?

The 1-arm press to handstand was one of the most difficult skills to learn. It required a significant amount of strength and balance to perform well.

The backward roll to headstand was very simple and a lot fun! That is, once I had mastered the headstand. However, it was a challenge to perform with minimal leg and arm movement because I used my limbs to balance.

The handstands I performed with the extreme back bends were challenging for me because I did not have a naturally flexible back. I developed that flexibility through intense training.

In retrospect, I wish that I had ‘listened’ to my back, and reported my pain more often.

There were many original skills that I worked on but did not perform in competition. There is footage of most of them but they are not all included in the video that is now on YouTube.

Offhand, I can think of a couple:

1) free-headstand mount on the beam from the beat board without hands

2) 1-arm pike press to handstand (instead of straddle)

3)1-arm hops.

Also, I performed 1-arm press to handstand on both my left and right arms. When I was about 10 years old, I fractured the growth plate in my right elbow while doing a release move on the uneven bars. While I was recovering from that injury, I learned how to do a 1-arm press to handstand on my left arm. To build strength and master the skill, my coach encouraged me to do several press to handstands in a row.

My record was 67 press-to-handstands in a row. i.e, continuously. The men's coach at a gymnastics camp in the US challenged me to a press-to-handstand competition against the entire boys team!

I lost by 3 press-to-handstands. The entire boys team performed 70 press-to-handstands collectively and I did 67 in a row by myself. My record for 1-arm press-to-handstands was 7 on my right arm and 5 on my left arm.

You stopped competing in high level because of back injuries. Can you tell us more about that ?

I fractured one of my vertebrae when I was about 12 years old and struggled with back pain from that point onward. I retired at age 18 due to a degenerative disc condition. Health care professionals believe that my back injury was likely a consequence of the high impact nature of the sport.

I believe the skills I performed with extreme back bends contributed to my back injury. As I mentioned previously, I did not have a naturally flexible back. I developed that flexibility through intense training.

[Ryan Libke]

It is sad that she had such bad back problems at an early age. That kind of training seems too intense for a growing child.

[yuri marmerstein]

what intrigued me the most about that video was the device she uses at 0:10

It seems to be a one arm handstand trainer that aids in balance by stabilizing the forearm close to the elbow. I have never seen it before

good video and interview. It shows how much work you really have to put in to be that good

[Razz]

67 press handstands :shock: :shock:

[Cole Dano]

Very interesting interview. Wonderful skills obviously, but such a shame that she blew up her back. I wonder how common it is for young girls to fracture their lumbar vertebra? I have one student who had a very similar injury as a girl in gymnastics and now in her late twenties her back is severely misbalanced and gives her much trouble.

I fully admire the dedication, the hours of practice to gain those phenomenal skills, but part of me will always feel that when the need to do something comes at that price then its gone too far. Sport should be healthy! OK i know thats incredibly naive.

For years i was put off by gymnastics because i had the impression that most gymnasts sacrificed their joints for the sake of the sport. Thankfully i found this place and realized that my assumptions were at least in part wrong.

[Seiji]

Next time I go to the doctor I need to check my neck... I really don't want to have back problems, it would be terrible for anyone. I feel so sorry for her I wonder what she does these days.

I think honestly, for the first time ever, I was more interested in the interview than the video. She was amazing.

[Nick Van Bockxmeer]

she should have been a handbalancer not a gymnast.

she rounds her lower back so much on straddle presses and then arches it so much on straddle planches. amazing reverse planches but then again that is a hell of a lot of lumbar hyperextension active or not.

[Jason Stein]

I wonder what she does these days.

Hey Seiji,

The interview I got the quotes from is 3 years old, but at the time she was getting her PhD at university in Canada.

It is an inspiring interview — for me, in that her spinal flexibility was earned, and not given. Even though her back was so supple it appeared to be a genetic feature.

She's another example of how upper-level athleticism and health, while often on parallel lines, are definitely separate and even diverge at a certain point.

j

[Guest Ido Portal]

I've ran into this clip years ago, but the interview is new and a real gem. Thanks for that, Jason.

Bender was not the originator of the one arm handstand in gymnastics. Shaposhnikova the soviet for example have performed this skill on the balance beam years before her.

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Ido.

[whitemonkey]

what intrigued me the most about that video was the device she uses at 0:10

It seems to be a one arm handstand trainer that aids in balance by stabilizing the forearm close to the elbow. I have never seen it before

I've never seen one either, but i have seen the same thing done with a wooden box(in a book that i have)

. I'm not even close to training my one arm handstand but i think i'll try it to get started when i reach that level in my training.