Al Luber, UCLA, circa 1967
Al's daughter,
coach Carol, has been posting and uploading a series of photos charting the history of Santa Monica Gymnastics Center, through the years. This includes photos of Al, Carol, and Karen as gymnasts. Carol has also added commentary and her own thoughts on what makes SMGC and Al Luber stand apart from other gymnastics schools.
Check it out. Add your own thoughts and reflections.
My own connection to Al began before I ever even met him.
I had a late start in gymnastics. Fortunately, for the men, we don't peak until adulthood in this sport. If not for my coach Russ Ideishi, I would not have made it to UCLA. Russ came along and helped me cram years of missed training into a short space of time. Where I was from, there were no high level men's gymnastics or clubs with an advanced boys program. When Russ came along, it was a blessing.
I became a walk-on at UCLA. Eventually I dropped all-around and only focused on getting better at rings and floor. Half my teammates were Olympic caliber, so I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to get good enough to compete rings for UCLA.
When I left for college, Russ gave me his old set of push-up bars (some call them parallettes...but I was made to understand that the mini floor p-bars are parallettes...*shrug*). I treasured those bars, and put them to use, probably every day. When I shared an apartment with my teammates in college, those push-up bars got additional usage.
After I graduated, I began working part-time for Energy Unlimited in a little studio. Even though my assistant coach, Yefim Furman worked for Laura Brooks (owner of Energy Unlimited), and I knew her from fundraising events for the UCLA men's team, I did not get a job with her through her or Yefim. I just happened to notice an ad on campus that she was looking for trainers. I was hired. David St. Pierre was also working for her at the time.
Eventually, she moved out of the studio, and we found ourselves renting out space at the new Santa Monica Gymnastics Center, located now in Culver City.
So I taught the adult gymnastics there for Energy Unlimited along with Yefim. I had no interest in teaching children. I had done it in high school and during summer at Woodward. But for some reason, I remember thinking it was too much responsibility to teach kids.
One day Linda approached me to ask if I could substitute a Saturday morning class. I think I substituted a few more times; then somehow found myself on staff. My mind's fuzzy on how that happened. I guess I decided teaching children wasn't so bad after all.
One of my earliest experiences at taking teaching to heart, was when the mother of one of the intermediate girls, Molly Winawer, came up to me after class and asked if I was the coach who, last week, had told Molly she was doing well. I had to think about it for a moment, but did remember it. The mom, Jackie, let me know that Molly had come home very excited that evening, saying how the new coach said she did well in class. She told her mom that she listened and paid attention, and that she thought "I think he really likes me."
That put a lump in my throat, and emotionally unsettled and floored me. I know I was sincere when I told Molly she had done well; but I hadn't thought twice of having said it. It brought to my immediate attention how nothing can be taken for granted; that you can never be too careful and too careless with words; that you never know what effect and impact your words can have on a child's impressionability. The lyrics from Sondheim's "No One is Alone", from the musical Into the Woods, comes to mind:
You move just a finger,♬
Say the slightest word,
Somethings bound to linger
♪ Be heard ♭
We can never underestimate the impact we have as we move through this world. We are all involved in mankind, and affect the course of history to some degree or other, however seemingly minor.
Molly became a favorite of mine, after that, and I missed her when it was time for her to move on.
Sometimes when a child leaves the gym, it leaves you wondering if there was something more you could have done to have kept the child happy in the gym.
And over the years, I've learned to "let go". I grow attached to people very easily, although some of my friends used to tell me how cold and detached I could seem on the surface. It doesn't mean I don't care.
Just about everyone I have ever met who has subsequently left, I always wonder "What is he doing now? Is he happy? How's life treating him and how is he treating life?" I've seen so many kids come and go over the past decade or so that I've been at the gym. I care about them as if they were a part of me. And in a sense, they are. I've seen some kids grow and change before my very eyes, making me feel the passage of time, very keenly.
Al Luber feels it as much as any of us, having watched kids he used to teach now grown adults with children of their own. Some of these graduates would bring their own kids to become 2nd generation SMGC students; other former gymnasts have returned back to work for him as coaches.
One day, since I had stopped using them, I brought in my old set of push-up bars. They are no good just gathering dust and disuse, and are most happy when some gymnast is gaining mileage out of them. So as attached as I was to them, I wanted to see them out of retirement. When Al saw the wooden pair of bars, he recognized them as ones he had made. And so as it turns out, my coach Russ Ideishi had received them from Al, back at a time when Al was coaching my coach. Russ gave them to me, and I brought them back to the gym. So things once again, coming full circle.
I've since "borrowed" the push-bars and taken them home to get back into some kind of shape. Al had made a series of new push-up bars for the gym, so I didn't feel too guilty (so long as I am using them and they are not just gathering dust and cobwebs).
Like all the best of the classic coaches, Al is a kind of "jack-of-all-trades" when it comes to running a gymnastics school as owner and head coach. He's at once, a carpenter and an engineer, creating tools and innovative do-it-yourself training devices that you can't just buy anywhere. Many coaches have to use their ingenuity, building the equipment and making the most of what they have in the amount of space they have. As Carol writes,
He is a former engineer who gave up the safe and secure job path to follow his passions. He creates so many awesome training tools that combine his love for engineering and gymnastics! That is so cool! I come into work some days and he is rigging up an entire zip line spotting belt that he designed just so one girl can take her vault to the next level. He dedicates himself to these girls! He even made an indoor "slip n slide" for the kids to cool off with in the summer. He loves this sport. It is contagious.
He not only possesses great technical knowledge, Al is also a historian, having personally been involved in seeing and being a part of the evolution of the sport. Gymnastics is a small community, and he has plenty of stories and antidotes about gymnastics personalities over the years. So much history goes lost and unrecorded. If someone one day wants to put together a thorough history of modern gymnastics, he's one of the the people who the author should seek out and interview.
When gymnasts are experiencing pain, he's able to give a quick diagnosis to determine whether it's probably a mild sprain or Osgood-Schlatter disease. Makes me wish I had paid better attention to the sports trainers when they examined me, treated me, taped me up, etc. If I had known I would one day be coaching, I would have paid closer scrutiny to everything that was going on around me. I'm sure there's a lesson there...
I'm very grateful to Al and Linda for the kind of family atmosphere they have cultivated at SMGC. It's more like the local "mom and pop" store than a "Wal-Mart's". Working for them is absolutely the easiest job I have ever had. And because you like them so much, it makes staff members take ownership of the gym, and want to make the gym a success. Going to work is like going to a second home and second family.
It's a great feeling when you go to work and can't believe that you actually get paid to do what you look forward to doing and what you enjoy doing.
Thank you Al and Linda!
For those of you who have never visited the Santa Monica Gymnastics Center webpage, check out some of the cool and rare 8mm footage of gymnasts of yore. These are the guys that we used to hear "tall tales" about in my day.....only the stories are all true! And Al has some of their legendary feats captured on film, from collegiate competitions in the 60's to crazy beach meet skills flaunted at the annual Santa Monica Gymfest.
Acro Batman and Coach Robyn
