Every Path....One Stone at a Time....

I'm in the process of uploading some skills kids worked on this past week.

Here's a clip of Alizeh, working on her backhandspring, yesterday:

Will continue to update, through the course of the day. Right now I'm piecing together all the clips from Al and Teri's junior-advanced class, as they practiced their backhandsprings and round-off backhandsprings toward the end. They've been practicing it quite a bit on the floor, using a panel mat to lunge and initiate their round-offs, off of; but Al decided they might have some change of success, if they had a softer surface, so he took them up to the pit draped over with crash mats.





Thea's been twisting for longer than she thinks she has. I've got video of her doing backs with a full at least from 2 years ago on trampoline.

But last Saturday, she just started doing half-twists on the regular floor, after getting consistency on the strength of her layouts.

Erin's been doing really well. Here's her full-and-a-half last Saturday:

More often than not, I have kids who are physically "ready" to try a skill without a physical spot. And as Yefim likes to say, "What?! You chicken? C'mon, chicken...go!"

It drives me nuts when, instead of going even harder when they're scared, they timidly go less aggressive....they need to learn the meaning of "gambatte". I realize the importance of mental preparation as well as physical; of nurturing emotional preparation. But sometimes, you just have to kick 'em in the pants for their own good and spoon-feed them some guts. Or they'll never learn to cope with fear management.

Fortunately, Perry isn't one of those kids. She only just started doing round-off backhandsprings on the crash mats last week. WITHOUT PERMISSION (!!!!), she did a couple on the floor by herself, at the end of class this past Tuesday.

Perry's biggest problem is she's fearless. I know she's got some smarts in her though, as she's asked for spots. But once she's got some sense of a skill, and possibly an overestimation of her abilities (I yelled at her a week or two ago for trying a backhandspring by herself just as she ate the mat), you have to reign her in, and make sure she doesn't do something stupid.

Confidence can sometimes be 99% of succeeding in a skill. But I'm not sure I can trust her judgment....but it's hard to "punish" her and be too upset, when she's successful and when you ache to have more kids like her that are willing to throw the training wheels off and try something by themselves without the hint of the possibility of failure in their minds.

"Those who think they can, and those who think they can't are (oftentimes) both right"

I think she'll be a kid who, when I tell her she's ready to try something, she'll believe me, and just do it.

and hopefully I'm not the kind of coach that'll tell her to jump off a cliff without a parachute.