Georgia of the Jungle Gym
Happy Independence Day!I really wanted to use "George of the Jungle" for her theme music; but couldn't find a version that could work...probably something to do with the fact that this is "Georgia" and not "George".
This kid's pretty strong...I joke that she's Thea V2.0 and her classmate Kaitlin is Thea V3.0; but of course, they are each their own unique selves.
One stuntguy working out in the gym earlier in the year noted it one day, how strong Georgia is; and Georgia's classmate, Ruby, piped in with a footnote, "And she's only in kindergarten!".
Georgia and Ruby started around the fall of last year in beginning/advanced; but they were moved up to intermediates by the end of the session, when Georgia was still only five years old. She's now six.
Ruby's done gymnastics on-and-off, along with her sister Delphine; after summer camp, I was happy to see that one of them, at least, decided to linger on into the school year. And she brought her younger friend, Georgia, along with her.
For a long time, Georgia only came once a week. Happily now, she attends classes twice a week. One of the great things about having kids who are naturally strong, is that they are motivated to do the strength work. Georgia often does more than is assigned to her, when it comes to strength and conditioning. She is often heard saying, "One more time..." when working on her stiff-stiff, straddle press to handstand. I'll assign something like 10, and she'll discard the bad ones and only count the ones she deems worthy of being counted, in her estimation.
During the brief time she was in beg/adv, she was able to do standing backhandsprings on the trampoline; then lost them. The tumbling footage seen is mostly her best stuff, thus far; but for a while, she had a lot of difficulty getting off her hands and feet in her tumbling.
Her one weakness is that she tends to do everything slow. I don't think she lacks fast-twitch muscle fibers; it's just that she seems to be secure in areas where she is in control of what her body does. And when you are required to move fast through the air, in the beginning, it may feel like you have to relinquish some of that control, leaving gravity in charge. Georgia's learning how to deal with that.
And in the meanwhile, she is feelin' stronger everyday!
Labels: Georgia, intermediates
posted by The WordSmith from Nantucket at 7/04/2007 10:44:00 AM
4 Comments:
That was great, Michael! Georgia is indeed getting stronger everyday and I mostly attribute that to you and the rest of the coaches over at SMGC. You guys inspire her, motivate her and challenge her. For that I'm greatful. Thanks-- Georgia's Dad, Chris
Glad you liked it!
Even the team girls have taken notice of Georgia. She stands out, and is such a good student and motivated worker. Definitely enhances the quality of the intermediate class with her energy and enthusiasm when she is present.
Cool video! Gosh I wish my students would do their conditioning with such enthusiasm! How do you get that out of them??
It helps to have strong kids, to begin with. They are more receptive to doing things they excel at.
I think in part, having a certain atmosphere or attitude in the class to begin with, makes it easier to maintain when moving new kids up into the group. The new kids want to fit in with the higher level group; so even the ones who were lazy and whiney in their previous class, begin to shed that, and adopt the attitude of what's expected of them, in the more advanced class. It would be great if you could have that in the beginning level classes, as well. But with such high turnovers, new trials, and wishy-washy attendance, that can be tricky.
Then, making it fun and exciting; games and challenges sometimes work.
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