Calender Girl

A quick edit job...so a bit rough. But I thought the concept was neat, after discovering some other features at flagrantdisregard.com for my flickr photos.

What's Up? (The Opposite of Down...Duh!)

Katy started up with our adult program (Energy Unlimited) around February of this year. She came in, out of shape and in need of exercise that she could get excited about; enough for her to stick with.

I remember the first day she walked into the gym, I took good care of her; but still, after 2 passes of lunges across the floor, she was wobbly on her feet the rest of workout.

10 months later, she has made remarkable progress. The video charts her rise...

Numera Oona!

Merry Christmas! I thought I'd string together footage I gathered over the past year of one of my prized intermediate girls who has now just graduated on to Level 5 team. Congratulations Toona!

It Won't Rain All the Time

Erica asked me to make this video for her yesterday, effectively cutting in line, in front of a number of fellow gymnasts who have asked me for a video of their own (this will be Erica's second). She wanted to send it as a present to her best friend Natasha back home in Vermont to express how much she is missed. She directed what to film, and staged herself crying. She should win an Oscar (no, not really). Check out the piece of melted ice hanging from her cheek, like a glob of gelatin.

She requested the much overplayed Evanesence song, "My Immortal"; but I've done it already in a previous video, and am bored by it. It's a great song, but has seen overuse in just about everything. So I went with another sad song (Erica's a sad kid; sweet and beautiful; laughs a lot; but rather sad). I've always liked the melancholy hope in this song. Hope Erica and Tosha approve of it as well.

I thought the lighting over by the beam worked out very well to create a "shadow and light" contrast look. And Erica's self-filming of herself actually didn't turn out that bad. This really is her film.



Erica sometimes speaks of moving back to Vermont, as she goes through her teen angst here in Los Angeles. But she's not allowed to move back....we here, would miss her too much.

Here is the dedication Erica wrote out for Tosha, that was just too long to include on the video:

"Natasha is a dear friend of mine she has supported me in almost everything and scince i am a crosse the united states i have know clue what she is doing if she was ever in danger i cant help her she is better than a friends she is my sister almost and well i found something out the other day and it got me so worried about her but i am trusting he wont have any blode moment and if you do Tosha red thin you know what im talking about and please dont keep things from me i tell you everything and this video was hard to keep from you but i knew you would like it so sweatdreams and hugs and kisses best friends forever i love ya see you soon i hope you enjoy the show and show this to who ever you can tosha"

Um...personally, I think that should be saved as a personal letter; but whatever makes Erica happy. (I'm not going to nit-pick spelling...but don't they teach our kids the value of using periods and other punctuation marks in sentences these days?) *sigh*

Thea the Gymnast Chapter Three: ~Theatrics~

Thea turned 8 in August; and, in part, because of the movie music I used in her previous videos, I thought it'd be fun to continue the theme of parodying epic movies; and what blockbuster hit is without its endless string of sequels? So, I shall continue to chart Thea's progress. Her silliness in the beginning, I think, is because she was finally seeing the fruits of my labor in filming, and went through a brief phase of hamming it up for the camera. It's interesting to see how much her gymnastics has matured within just the past couple of months. That's in large part due to her coach Alexis. Thea has a lot of problems with form, and Alexis has not tolerated sloppiness from her. The last clip is a tease of Thea in the dawn of acquiring the dance elements in the level 5 floor routine. I am quite impressed by how far she has developed, almost overnight, in her sense of performance and grace; and also her ability to retain, as she used to have a bit of difficulty in memorizing routines. I think it's just that she's starting to "get it", and beginning to understand what artistic gymnastics is supposed to look like. She will graduate on to team next session, after the holidays, along with a couple of other fellow intermediate class gymnasts.

What About Everything

Sara bungee-tumbling.

"I Wish that I Knew What I Know Now....When I was Younger...."

"I spit in the face of people who don't want to be cool!"

Big Fun instructor, Porfirio Gomez, is the epitomy of Latino heat and Caribbean cool, all rolled up into one complete package. Take a tour, into the life of what it means to be cool...and hot!




Just re-edited the video with some better footage, after a rush job to get it done in time for our staff party last weekend. This is version 2.0.

Anatomy of a Push-Up

Coach Dan is a pretty strong guy, and can do high reps. But does he deserve criticism for the quality of his work? Is it lack of quality that contributes to his ability to do 200 push-ups or 50 chin-ups? You be the judge....

In this video, you will see his harshest critic, level 6 gymnast Ana, trash him and his push-ups (Nothing quite like having a punk kid who's still wearing braces talk smack about you, behind your back). I will probably do a follow up video, showing the good....the bad....and the ugly.

(You're a Wonder) Wunder Woman

Michele Wunderlich is one of the funniest kids I know. Here she is in some of her glory:




The only thing funnier are the words that come out of her mouth.

The growls that she does toward the end of the video while on bars is because she was having a horrible time on her glide kips. Yuri had her start growling to put some "gambatte" heart and energetic aggression into how she was kipping. It helped, and she started making them.

Billie Gianna

Gianna kept doing that Michael Jackson thing....so...um...yeah. Hence the music.