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On August 7, just after 11pm IST, Dipa Karmakar will make the first Olympic appearance for India in the gymnastics competition after 52 years. Watching her from Delhi with a mixture of happiness, pride and a few pangs of envy will be the gymnast who planted the seeds of this grand a dream into the minds of Dipa and her coach Bishweshwar Nandi.Ashish Kumar won Indias first medals at an international gymnastics competition - first bronze in floor exercises and a day later, silver in the vault at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. The same year at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, a far tougher competition, he was to win bronze on the floor. Dipa said, Ashish bhaiyas medal made us think that we must also try and win a medal for India. It is from where my coach and I decided to set a target and set about trying to achieve it.It is from that point as Dipa ascended, that the sport began to come apart in the country, largely due to administrative wrangling. Ashish says, The day I won a CWG medal, more than the joy I felt about winning the medal was the thought I had about the sport in the country. I thought, chalo, gymnastics can now shine, and younger kids will also start to get medals and everything is going to improve from then on.Far from that, the overall sport fell into a tailspin and a tough six years followed for the earliest pioneer of Indian gymnastics. Two groups are fighting for control of the Gymnastics Federation of India, it has been nearly three years since the last nationals were held and Dipas success is reflective not of the collective thriving of a sport, but individual drive.Ashish is currently at a training camp at the IGI Stadium complex which will last until August 10, one of three male and two female gymnasts apart from Dipa. He says, I was introduced to Dipa at the 2010 CWG Games camp held in Pune. She has performed so well and through her hard work, got such great results and qualified for the Olympics so we are all happy for her. Ashish himself now dreams of repeating a CWG-medal-winning performance in 2018, and qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He knows however that it will be a long haul. What he believes Indian gymnastics needs desperately though is a pro-active, fully functioning federation.He says, all activity in a sport is driven through the official federation, which does not exist in Indian gymnastics today. It means that despite the murmur around Dipa, Indian gymnastics remains at a standstill. Through the CWG2010 experience, Indian athletes, even in non-priority sport like gymnastics have understood that the road to international success is far simpler than they imagined before. It is why the absence of a committed federation rankles.Ashishs own blueprint for Indian gymnastics future is clear: for the elite athletes more competition, and for the coaches more?International Gymnastics Federation?(FIG) courses held in the country. The issues are not of hardware like infrastructure - Ashish says the UK Mishra academy in Allahabad, where he grew up, always contained high-quality apparatus - but rather getting coaches across age groups networked into contemporary developments in training and the gymnasts enough events to compete.Ashish points out that the FIG stages at least seven or eight international tournaments through which rankings are established. Being at those events is vital for gymnastics to work on improvement, Its not possible to enhance performance only by looking at video, you have to compete with the worlds best, see them perform in person. It makes a huge difference, helps boost morale, opens you up, in your mind and in body. Gymnasts need to compete in sizeable number of competitions - not the conventional single international event Indians get sent to every year. Ashish says, Then a time will come that you compete so often, that a competition becomes like a practice. If that happens, he says, the medals will start coming jaise kuch hai hi nahin?(like its not a big obstacle at all).It was his first-hand experience with the eccentric but successful US-based Russian coach Vladimir Chertkov, that introduced Ashish to the basic building blocks of an international standard gymnast. When Chertkov came into India 18 months before the CWG 2010, he spent his first few months conducting trials and fitness tests to sift out the stronger gymnasts from the weak, and build on strength. Then came a five-month camp in Pune where the gymnasts were made to do special conditioning exercises on every apparatus. Before Chertkovs way, says Ashish, We would turn up and do a warm-up and a halka-phukla?(light) conditioning and then do training. Under Vladimir, we would come in do special conditioning exercises on each apparatus as soon as we got into the gym. And only after those special conditioning exercises, could we go to practice. It was to change a gymnasts normal load two and a half times.At the start for the first two weeks it was tough because our bodies were not used to it, it wasnt habitual, but slowly after a month or so, our conditioning happened to work easily and we could feel it in our bodies - that they were getting fitter. So the gymnasts would work on six apparatus every session and then do three event trainings in the morning. We were doing nine apparatus in a day. And we did a few smaller exercises to improve our posture and our execution.?For gymnasts like Ashish, the results from the CWG and Asian Games were there to see.The other link in the chain now in terms of developing Indian?gymnasts today, he says, is for the FIG to be invited in to conduct various levels of coaching courses in India. At present, he says India has only one FIG-certified level 3 coach, Manoj Rana, level 3 being a high-performance level accreditation to work with the elite level athletes.?The FIG Level 1 course is for sub-junior kids, level 2 is for older. The courses teach the coaches about the training load of various levels and things like that. Only when our coaches become knowledgeable, can they use that knowledge and teach us what we know. It is possible that current coaching methods in Indian gymnastics at the wider level are antiquated but our coaches can only learn when they go onto these coaching courses, only then can they pass it on to us to learn.Dipas qualification for Rio could perhaps become an urgent message the Sports Ministry and the sports authority of India to take over Indian gymnastics until the issue about the Federation is sorted out and one federation can be formed, which is affiliated to the IOA and the ministry, one that can work and will work. Until that administrative muscle-flexing is sorted out, the planning around the sport needs to be conducted by SAI and the sports ministry, without any interference by feuding federation blocs.Asish says the current gridlock is only damaging Indian gymnastics. What could happen then is that Dipa will go to the Olympics and return and we will be back in the same place again. Without a clear forward-looking plan of action he wonders, What is the advantage of her going to the Olympic and creating history? JJ Arcega-Whiteside Youth Jersey . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Ron Jaworski Womens Jersey . The move comes after the Canadiens were approached by the Buffalo Sabres for permission to speak to Dudley - a former Sabres player and head coach. "The Sabres called for permission and I appreciate that, Im flattered, Dudley told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of ESPN. http://www.eaglesrookiestore.com/ . Then the Pacers gave Oladipo and his Orlando teammates the cold shoulder. Paul Georges buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter spurred a 21-4 run, finally sending Indiana past the Magic 97-87 in a tougher-than-expected opening night matchup. Herman Edwards Eagles Jersey . SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. Wilbert Montgomery Eagles Jersey . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby cant seem to find the right word for whats happening. If the Pittsburgh Penguins captain is being honest, he is not really interested in finding one. He would rather just enjoy a hot streak that is bordering on absurd even by his remarkably high standards.The two-time MVPs 17 goals lead the NHL just over a quarter of the way into the season, even though he missed the first six games while recovering from a concussion. Even though injuries have forced head coach Mike Sullivan to shake up his lines. Even though Crosby insists he hasnt made some sort of conscious decision to pepper the opposing net.You can call it whatever you want, Crosby said.Just dont call it luck.You dont get puck luck (that many) times, teammate Patric Hornqvist said. I just think hes in the right spot at the right time.Over and over and over again.The games most creative player is in the midst of a rebirth at 29, a renaissance that coincided with Sullivans arrival last December. Its a union that has propelled Crosby to some of the finest hockey of his career. He captured the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP last June after the Penguins won their fourth Stanley Cup title and he hardly looked weary from a shorter than usual summer while captaining Team Canada to a remarkably easy stroll to the gold medal in the World Cup of Hockey in September.The player who appeared on the other side of his prime a year ago has reclaimed his spot as face of the sport and appears in no mood to give up the mantle anytime soon. Not that Crosby wants to talk about it. He figures hes just doing what hes always done.Im in the same spots, the same areas, said Crosby, who is putting the puck on net 3.5 times per game, just a slight uptick from with his usual average. When you think its going in you tend to shoot a little bit more because you feel good, you believe its going in ... When youre struggling a little bit, you feel you need to bring it closer or pass up a shot and make a pass. I think thats normal for everybody. Thats pretty common.Crosby never met a teammate he didnt like to set up, but maybe he is finally getting a little selfish. It wasnt always that way.Playing against him in the past, I would try to make sure I was taking away passing lanes from him, said forward Eric Fehr, who spent nine years facing Crosby while skating for Washington before signing with Pittsburgh in 2015. You dont really expect him to pull up and shoot. You see him coming down in aa 3 on 2 youre expecting him to lay it in somewhere.dddddddddddd I think thats changed him a little bit and that makes him tough to defend.The proof came Monday night against Ottawa. Crosby and Hornqvist broke in on the rush in the first period and even though Hornqvist had a step on the defender, Crosby ripped a wrist shot over Craig Andersons blocker instead.Then there are the things Crosby does that are nearly impossible to defend, instances when his ability to read a play before it happens puts him a split second ahead of everyone else on the ice. His team trailing by a goal as the seconds ticked down against New Jersey last month, Crosby stood calmly off to the side during a scramble in front of the net, let things sort themselves out then picked the puck out of a sea of bodies and casually flipped it over goaltender Keith Kincaide to send the game to overtime.Last week against Dallas, the athlete who once homered while taking batting practice at the home of baseballs Pittsburgh Pirates stunned everyone by trying to bank a shot in off Stars goaltender Antti Niemi from behind the net. When the puck bounced off Niemi and right back to him, Crosby swatted it out of midair . The puck smacked off the middle of Niemis back and into the goal.Only a few players in the league can bank those in and its always the same guys, Hornqvist said. If you have the skill, might as well do it.Its the type of thing that is happening for Crosby more and more and seems to represent his career coming full circle. Hes only led the NHL in goals once, when he poured in 51 in 2009-10. He was on his way to doing it again the following year when he a hit to the head in the 2011 Winter Classic against Washington sent him on a nomadic path back that robbed him of the better part of two seasons. Some wondered if the magic would ever return in full.Its also why the concussion he suffered in an early October practice raised so many alarm bells. Yet he preached calm instead of panic as he recovered, then went out and scored in his season debut against Florida as if to tell everyone to relax. It also started a run that shows no signs of slowing down.Theres no really great way to describe it, he said. You just hope it keeps going in.---This story has been corrected to delete a reference to a crosscheck to Crosbys head in the 2011 Winter Classic. ' ' '