Isaac Obrist in the 21st Century

Merry Christmas!

I've been meaning to make a video on Thea's brother, Isaac, for a long, long time. Wasn't sure what kind of a story to tell and what music to use. Meanwhile, he just kept getting better and better, making much of my footage "obsolete".

The clips used in this video span 2 years. Aside from the Tom Petty song, the intro and closing credit song are "cheesy", as is much that came out of the 70's (Hey! Nothing wrong with cheesiness! Click here for those too young to remember). I've just always wanted to use that opening sequence, with special effects footage of the dates going by...but how to tie it into gymnastics? Well, the answer is to not worry whether it fits like a glove or not, and just make the video.

Isaac is coached by Dan McCann; and in the last couple of years, Dan's focused the boys program almost exclusively to trampoline. Since we do not have anyone who is committed to training more than 4 hours a week, Dan decided to get them good on one thing, rather than worry about teaching them all 6 competitive men's events.




I haven't kept my files as perfectly organized as I would like. I just found this clip in a summer file, dated August 18, 2007. I think it's important to post up, since I don't recall Isaac setting his double backs with his arms up; but here, he clearly can set:







I'm sure I have more "lost" footage, floating around in some folder. There's sure to be enough for another video in the future.

Level 5 Floor for Intermediates

Since SMGC does not compete level 4's, I have the intermediate classes work on elements from the level 5 routine; that way, if any of them make it to team, they'll have a sort of "head start". In terms of the dance elements being progressive, moving from basic to something more advanced, I don't see it. It's silly that prior to the second tumbling pass, what differentiates 5 from 6 is a flexed toe in 5 and a pointed toe in 6. That's just....pointless; other than to confuse transitioners, who end up jumbling parts from 5 with parts from 6.

I wonder how often a level 6 gymnast doesn't realize she has kept a level 5 interpretation in her routine, goes unnoticed and uncorrected by the coaches, and then makes its way before tired judges who, after watching a hundred routines, fails to catch the error.

Anyway, most of our intermediates only train once or twice a week, in two hour classes. They don't always get to practice routines; but some really get into it.

I thought I'd put some videos up of the routines; that way, we can spend more time polishing in class and less time memorizing.

Hopefully, they will also get a "feel" for the performance aspect, and see how different gymnasts and different gyms interpret the same routine differently.

The following video is of Michele Wunderlich during practice, April 4th:


This is a video I took of my friend's daughter, Nika (who I taught her first backhandspring to):



The routine scored a 9.1 or 9.2.

Here is a 9.6 routine at the So. Cal State Championships, by another Nica. Outstanding dive roll!

The following is of one of my adult clients. Mari only recently began working on the level 5 floor routine and her background in dance and movement shows through in this partial clip:




Here is her first time doing a round off backhandspring without a spotter present, on the floor. November 24th:



I encourage all of my intermediates to run "level 5 gymnastics" through the search function on YouTube. You can learn quite a bit from observation and study. In my day, I didn't have such access at my fingertips. I had to monitor the tv guide for any gymnastics on Wide World of Sports or other sports programs, and set the VCR. Now you are no longer limited by only watching elite level gymnastics on tv; but through the internet, we are able to peek in on home video training sessions of anything from high level gymnastics to awful low quality gymnastics.

Far Away

I grew pretty close to the Derrett family, beginning with Emily. She is always kept somewhere, bouncing around in the best corner of my heart.

I've been wanting to make a video for Emily for the longest time; but she's a difficult one to film. Whenever a camera is around, you can be assured that Emily will run in the other direction, more often than not. Nita's a bit camera-shy as well, but was good about it, when I recorded some of her workouts.

This is essentially a Nita video; but it's hard to make one without including footage of her daughter Emily, who sometimes invaded her workouts (as shown in the video).

Nita pretty much learned her gymnastics within the year that she trained with us. She is quite athletic, having been a volleyball player in her "youth" (quotation-marked, so as not to imply that she is now "old"). I think she has a knack for boxing, too. Her technique may not be technically polished, but what you see in the video is the result of the barest of training hours put into acquiring jabs, crosses, and hooks. She also worked kicks, elbows and knees on the Thai pads and kicking shield; but unfortunately, I did not get around to having any of that filmed.

The music was hard to choose. I settled more or less by chance on this Nickelback song, while sift-tasting through my collection, because of the instrument that coincided well with the slapping thump of the boxing leather on the focus mitts. Plus, this is the kind of music that Nita and I both like.

The edit is kind of rough, toward the second half. This is because of two problems:

1. The MP3 file is corrupted, so that in order to synchronize the music to the footage, midway, I have to replay it from the very beginning; otherwise, the soundtrack is off.
2. Windows movie maker kept freezing up. I had to restart my computer about 15 times. I think I might be running low on RAM. The video really should have taken me no longer than 4 hours to complete.
   

If I had just one complaint about Nita, it's that she went to USC. Other than that, she's practically perfect in every way.

Here's hoping Emily finds the wisdom to become a UCLA Bruin. (^_~)