Month: August 2019

collage of a photo of a girl dismounting off of a balance beam and two women somersaulting on trampolines captioned "VS."

Artistic Gymnastics vs. Trampoline and Tumbling

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Hey everyone! Today I’m going to be talking about two fundamentally similar, but ultimately unique, sports: artistic gymnastics and trampoline and tumbling. If you’re reading this post, I’m assuming you have at least some knowledge of gymnastics and trampoline. If you’re not familiar with the latter, I’m working on the post “Trampoline 101” which covers the basics of trampoline, double mini, and power tumbling. The main topic of this post is whether or not you, dear athlete, should choose artistic gymnastics, trampoline, or maybe both!

Pros of tramp

  1. If you have any gymnastics experience already, you will adapt easily to trampoline. There are a few technique differences in the jumps and somersaults, but most of your skills will translate very well.
  2. All the events use a pretty similar skill set. Tumbling is the odd one out of the bunch, but if you’re not too good at it or any other apparatus it’s not the end of the world because…
  3. You don’t have to be the same level on all events. This is by far the biggest pro in my opinion. If you’re terrible at one event, it won’t hold you back from advancing on other apparatus. You don’t even have to compete on all events. Most trampolinists I know do trampoline and double mini, but not tumbling. Conversely, some people only tumble, and others do all three. It is up to you, your coach, and the type of program your gym offers.
  4. It’s usually coed. Both girls and boys compete on the same apparatus, so most programs don’t limit their availability to only one gender, which is nice for boys trying to find gymnastics opportunities.

Cons of tramp

  1. It’s an unknown and under appreciated sport. Most people can at least sort of visualize what you mean when you tell them you’re a gymnast, but when you tell someone you do trampoline, most people will be confused. “That’s a sport?” And don’t even get me started on trying to explain double mini to people who’ve never seen one.
  2. Since it’s relatively unknown, finding places that offer it can be tough. I know this is not the same in all countries, but in the US, trampoline can be very hard to find. Not as hard as acro, but it is still a smaller niche than artistic gymnastics.
  3. Lack of “artistry.” I would argue that there is artistry in the technique and execution of trampoline and tumbling passes, but if you’re looking for dance and music, this is not the sport for you. This probably won’t be too hard for boys to come to grips with, as MAG is already like that, but for girls who love dancing on floor and beam, this is a major consideration.
  4. Lack of college opportunities. As of 2019, there is no NCAA T&T (though I highly doubt I need to specify the date as I’m wary of it ever happening due to insurance issues). The National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs has just added T&T (minus synchro) to its events, but there are still very few colleges that offer it. All is not lost, however: the emerging women’s sport of acrobatics and tumbling often recruits power tumblers. For boys (and girls), tumblers can also try to find scholarships from competitive college cheer teams, and trampolinists can try diving.

Pros of WAG/MAG

  1. It is a well established sport. Even in the most rural of places, one can find a women’s program. Boys’ programs can be a bit harder to find, but they are still more ubiquitous than trampoline gyms.
  2. Artistry. On the women’s side there are dance elements on beam and floor, as well as music with the latter, that many find to be the most fun and compelling aspects of the sport. If you loathe those elements, trampoline might be a better fit.
  3. College opportunities. There are a plethora of both NCAA and club college teams all around the United States offering scholarships or, at the very least, a good way to make friends in college. If you’re thinking of switching sports, high-level gymnasts can easily transition to cheer, acro and tumbling, or diving.
  4. Community. Just looking on YouTube, there are tons of channels dedicated to artistic gymnastics. Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media sites also have huge gymnast and gym fan communities; it’s hard to find basically any channels or accounts dedicated to T&T.

Cons of WAG/MAG

  1. It’s expensive. This is probably not the case everywhere depending on the level of the athletes, Xcel vs. JO, USAG vs. USTA and AAU, etc. but it seems to me that gymnastics doesn’t really cater to lower income families. Leotards are expensive, warm ups are expensive, practice wear is expensive, I can go on. It may just be the culture of my gym, but it seems most of the trampoline gyms here try to keep costs on stuff such as leotards as low as possible (my leotard was $35, I bought my warmups off Amazon and had the jacket customized).
  2. Gymnastics is incredibly hard on the body. It’s rare to see an elite female gymnast over the age of 25, let alone in her 30s. And tons more athletes burn out before they even become senior elite. Trampoline doesn’t have nearly as compressed a time table, with the majority of trampolinists being in their twenties or thirties. That’s not to say there aren’t junior elites in T&T, nor that T&T isn’t hard on the body at all, but the longevity of an athletic career is far longer in trampoline than gymnastics.
  3. If you’re bad at one event, in hinders your growth in all other areas. Maybe you suck at beam. Maybe you hate bars. Maybe you’re good at tumbling but have terrible leaps or turns. Regardless, you will be stuck until you are well rounded enough to meet the mobility score and move on to the next level. And with the Olympic committee continually shrinking down the team sizes, you can forget about being an event specialist.
  4. MAG and WAG are two different beasts. Despite the fact that the are both artistic gymnastics, men’s and women’s gymnastics only have two apparatus in common and an entirely different code of points. T&T is scored the exact same for men and women, the only major difference between the two being the level of difficulty of elite voluntary passes.

And there you have it. Some (not all!) of the pros and cons of MAG/WAG and T&T. I should also mention that some gyms don’t force you to pick one sport: I know several gymnasts who do both. However, due to both financial reasons and possible schedule conflicts, it may be wiser to stick with one sport. I hope this was helpful for those trying to decide between the two. Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll see you soon.

collage of 4 different types of video cameras

Camera Crash Course: Different Types of Digital Cameras

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Hey everyone! It’s Nicki, and today I’m going to go over different types of digital cameras that can be used for photo and video for YouTube or whatever else you’re trying to do. These are not every single type of digital camera out there; these are just what I think are the most relevant in today’s climate. Also, I am not a professional photographer, videographer, or cinematographer; I know very little about the technical aspects of many of these cameras (especially when it comes to video), and the opinions expressed here are simply based on my research and limited experience as a hobbyist. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Point and Shoots/Compact Cameras

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1 via B&H Photo

Point and shoots, in the days before cell phones with cameras but after the invention of digital sensors, used to be the most ubiquitous consumer cameras on the market, and as such had a reputation for being low quality. Nowadays, however, many companies have produced high quality point and shoots such as the Sony RX100 or the Canon G7 X. Point and shoots are a great option if you want something lightweight or compact. The only downside, in my opinion, is the lack of interchangeable lenses; my RX100 mkIV, for instance, has a 24-70mm lens, so its telephoto capabilities are pretty limited (though newer point and shoots have been expanding their zoom ranges). Pretty much all point and shoots have cropped sensors, but Sony and Leica offer full frame point and shoots… for over $3000 or $4000. Yikes.

Action Cameras

GoPro Hero 5 Black via GoPro

Action cameras, as their name would suggest, are cameras designed to be worn while performing sports or other activities such as swimming. These cameras are usually pretty durable, waterproof, and compact. They also tend to have very wide lenses or 360 degree lenses. These days, GoPro is essentially synonymous with action cameras, but other brands such as Drift and Rylo also offer action cameras, the latter offering a 360 degree camera. Action cameras can also be used for more mundane things like travel or even vlogging; check out Caleb Wojcik’s GoPro vlogging setup here.

Camcorders

Sony FDR-AX100 via B&H Photo

Technically speaking, a camcorder is a video camera that also records what it’s filming; many professional cinematography cameras could be classified as camcorders (and we’ll get to them later). However, most of the time when people use the term camcorder, the image that forms is one of a cylindrical camera with a fixed lens, strap on the side, and a flip out LCD screen. Camcorders are kind of falling out of fashion with the rise of point and shoots, MILCs, and DSLRs with high quality video capabilities, but for hobbyists out there who aren’t that interested in photography and want something a bit more ergonomic for on-the-go filming (and cheaper!), camcorders could still be a good option. (Then again, I love my Sony FDR-AX53, so maybe I’m just biased.)

Bridge Cameras

Sony RX10 mkIII via B&H Photo

Speaking of cameras that have fallen out of fashion, bridge cameras, as their name would suggest, are cameras that were developed to bridge the gap between consumer point and shoots and higher end MILCs/DSLRs. Bridge cameras have a body similar to a DSLR, although usually a bit more compact, but do not have an interchangeable lens. Some bridge cameras alleviate the issue of only having one lens by having an absurd zoom range (the Sony RX10 mkIV has a range of 24-600mm, but also costs $1600, so…), but I personally think bridge cameras are kind of the worst of both worlds rather than the best: they only have one lens, which is typically not very fast, and they are larger and heavier than point and shoots. They can be pretty convenient, though, so if that’s what’s important to you, go for it.

MILCs and DSLRs

Sony a7 iii via Sony
Canon EOS 5D via Wikimedia

These are the most commonly used cameras by professional photographers and, increasingly, indie videographers. Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras and digital single lens reflex cameras are technically two different categories, but I’ve grouped them into one category because nowadays the only major difference between the two is how the image is projected into the viewfinder. DSLRs, as their name would suggest, are digital versions of film SLR cameras that utilize a mirror to project an analog image into the viewfinder. DSLRs are able to change lenses, and while they are the beefiest photography cameras on the market, they come in a wide variety of prices, usually depending on whether they have a cropped or full frame sensor. MILCs take out the middleman in DSLRs and instead of projecting an analog image into the viewfinder via a mirror, they simply project a digital image into it. MILCs, like point and shoots and bridge cameras, had a bit of a stigma when they first came out and were considered amateur, especially since none of them had full frame sensors. Now, they compete toe to toe with full fledged DSLRs, though they will probably always be considered inferior by photography snobs. Both MILCs and DSLRs have become increasingly good for video; the only downsides to them are that they often have a maximum recording time before they stop recording video and they’re kind of big to lug around and vlog with, if that’s your thing.

Professional Cameras

Panavision DXL via Yahoo!

And finally, we talked about top of the line photography cameras that happen to be good for video, so now we should talk about top of the line cinematography cameras. (Note the usage of “cinematography” rather than “videography;” the former implies a larger scale production than the latter.) These are your REDs, your ALEXAs (not the Amazon kind), your Genesises. I’ll be straight with you: I know jack shit about these cameras. All I know is that a single part of most of these cameras costs more than all the other types of digital cameras on this list. In her video “DO YOU WANT TO BUY A RED? maybe you should rent instead,” Kitty Peters goes over the cost of her RED Helium 8K setup, which totals $59500. Holy shit! You could buy a nice car or put a 20% down payment on a $300000 house with that money! Unless you’re a millionaire or willing to take out a loan for this kind of camera, you’re better off renting it. But let’s be real; as of me writing this, there is only ONE 8K monitor on the market, and very few 5K ones; unless you are making independent films that will be projected on a large screen or anticipate most of your audience watching your videos on 5K or 8K televisions, there is absolutely no reason for you to need to shoot at such a high resolution. But that’s just my opinion. If you have 60K to burn by all means get a professional camera to vlog with.

Alright, that about does it. For me personally, as I mentioned earlier, I am attached to my little camcorder, although I do wish it had a full manual mode (an oversight on my part as I was researching its features). I do also have a point and shoot and a DSLR, but neither have 4K video (and my T3i doesn’t have autofocus in video, which is an absolute necessity when filming myself), so at this point in time I just use them for photography. I also have a Hero 6 Black, which was a gift that I am trying to figure how to use more often (I may very well employ Caleb’s vlogging setup for it).

Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll see you in the next post.