The Sun'll Come Out....Whenever!

Well, I don't know how she talked me into this....

But here's a birthday video for Robyn. Not the video I had envisioned for the song (it was supposed to be saved for an Abby and Sofie video- but some video files are having codec issues, and I can't unlock them); but hope it brings a smile to Robyn's heart, anyway.

And for the record, that was not me filming Robyn's butt (although I take responsibility for including it in the video- it's clean and cute...I mean the footage is clean and cute)!

Maya, had the camera, and was filming. Mischievous kid.....

Happy 26th birthday, Robyn!

She has the Strength of 12 Ordinary Mortal Men

Happy 12^th Birthday, Thea! A day late for you; a day early to say it to Robyn.

I didn't really have a video planned at all, but decided today, to scrap one together.

Thea's family made the decision for a change in gym environments, this summer. Overall, she's at peace with the difficult decision of leaving her coach(s) and teammates for the sake of her own growth, opening a new chapter in her gymnastics journey.



I decided to narrow the focus of this video on body-shaping for bars; and also the special role Al has played in training her.

He invested time in "further down the road" skills, planting seeds of L-grip giants, Germans, pirouettes, front giants, and stalders, among others. She's already done inverted giants in the strap bar as far back as 2 years ago, just from starting out with swings, back and forth.

Although I am no longer her coach, I've been sneaking in extra time with her, after practice, to maintain some of the drills she's been doing with Al, including lots of one-arm balances for bar pirouettes, including pirouettes and blind changes and different grip changes.

I'm also trying to help her maintain and improve her strength at doing presses- which seems on the decline (strength for handstand presses aren't stressed over at Broadway).

Knobby knees, bent arms, and posture continue to pose a challenge to her.

Right now, Thea is learning new things and is happy.

One, Two, Three, Four....Fifteen!!!!

I've had the hardest time thinking of music for the footage I have of Francesca, to tell a story. Since I knew her birthday was coming up, I decided to go with the germ of a video idea I had of her and her teammate, Courtney. I wanted to play with a long cut with a camera fixed in place, so I could make images disappear and also blend to create ghost images.

The Saturday I took the long clip (Oct 11, 2008) of these two doing giants on bars, Julia said putting the camera on them was good, because that was the most giants they had done in a while. The editing toward the end is a bit rushed, due to crunch time, but I think it still works.

Happy sweet 15, Francesca!

Coaches don't let coaches coach drunk...or something like that

Text messaging while driving isn't the only danger we face....



Hey, just think of it this way: Could be worse....they could be texting while coaching at the same time.

Cell phone technology has revolutionized our society...not always for the better. I remember back when kids wore fake pagers as a status symbol. Today, who carries around pagers? Now I see kids sporting around their iphones and Blackberries; and I'm not sure the diseases inherent in frivolous cell phone usage outweighs the benefits of having them at all. Of course, by no means are kids the only ones abusing the privilege of the technology.



I think we're still learning how to process and manage today's technological wonders smartly and responsibly.

Disclaimer: Lest I get any coaches into trouble, just keep in mind that the "propanda/agenda" video makes it look worse than it is. (It's called "story-telling).

*08/10/2009 UPDATE* (Welcome Gymnastics Coaching readers!)

Update: 08/26/09

New cut:

The Song of Erin

Well, this was kind of a spontaneous video....and abstract!



I wonder if Erin has any Irish blood in her?

Happy Birthday, Erin!

"The Song of Erin will rise in our hearts again"!