What Our Intermediates Have Been Doing in the Gym

Here are a few clips of Tuesday's intermediate class, as an example of some of the exciting things the girls are working on. This is the last week. before we go over to LASG (our last week of the session will take place over there, to acclimate our kids to the change in environment). Some training devices we do not have at SMGC (tumbling pits), which is present at LASG; others will be missed, such as this bungee zipline:

Corynn demonstrating RO BH:

Naomi practices RO 2 BHs:

Kaitlin shows how it's possible to do 4 in a row, with a little help:

You can hook as many as 3 bungee cords (those weighing about 70 lbs or less will find themselves floating) to each side of the belt; at one cord, it supports maybe around 20% of their body weight, making them about 20% stronger than they normally are, as Al puts it. Octagons and PAC-Men are good for body-shaping and hand-spotting is good for manipulating and reinforcing desired positioning. But the zipline makes it easy on the spotter and enables the young gymnast to be somewhat self-sufficient, and get in the numbers. Repetition is the mother of all teachers, even in the absence of constant nit-picking and spoon-fed corrections.

I think Lauren's first RO BH was done this way, before I had her try it on the platform into the portapit, with a spot. I think it accelerated the process. There is no "one size fits all", of course, but when Al introduced this method over the summer to some summer campers, we had several of them acquire their RO BHs by themselves, shortly thereafter.

Lauren's first time trying RO 2 BHs:

We only just started working on the level 4 routines for about a month, now, after spending the past year on level 5 elements, when we worked on them at all. The change is due to the fact that LASG does compete 4's. Lauren is the number one student when it comes to routine acquisition. It may not be polished, but even just the fact that she has it memorized, for how little time we've actually devoted to it, and that she can do all the skill elements says a lot about how much Robyn, Heather and I wish we had a dozen more like her.

Lauren performing Level 4 floor, after class for her mom:

I believe that Lauren's actually one of the rare students we have who has done her gymnastics homework, and watched YouTube vids of the level 4 routines, coupled with a good memory, and an interest. Lauren's only been doing gymnastics for about a year; I think she moved up to intermediates in the summer...maybe before...'ll have to look that one up.

I remember moving her up, based upon her maturity level more than her skill level at the time.