Merry Christmas to All!

Seeing this post from Rick, I thought I'd share the following which I made up and would recite during warm-ups, adding a bit more to it each day and refining:

"T'was now 1 day [first time I started saying this in the gym, it was 10 days before Christmas] before Christmas and all through the gym,

The gymnasts began stirring, feeling mighty fit and trim.

Their grips were all hung by the lockers with care,

In hopes that Coach Kort soon would be there.

Thea lay snuggled all warm in her bed,

While visions of her overshoot danced in her head.*

And Amy in her Bruinwear,

And I in my Santa hat,

Had just settled down,

On the cold, cold hard panel mat.

When out on the Tumble Trak there arose such a clatter,

That I sprang from the panel mat to see what was the matter."

That's about as far as I got by camp's end.

Last year during winter camp, I had a bungee cord around the midsection of my gymnasts as they ran sprints, so they could drag me along. And I'd holler, "....to the top of the roof, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all!" I also made up substitute lyrics then, but don't remember what used.

Merry Christmas!

*I would randomly select a kid's name to say along with whatever skill I associated with her.

After a successful workshop today...

I like these two top-rated comments:

"I'm an athiest, I think Tebow is overated as a QB even though he "wins games". That said I don't get the hate for him. Because of religion? So what he has every right to believe what he does, he doesn't shove it down our throats the media is doing that. Because he's subpar? He's not that bad there's far worse. How about people judge his character for once? Just watch this damn clip he's a genuinly nice guy. Meanwhile the NFL is full of douchebags and a-holes who don't get nearly as much heat."

"LOL...I think it is funny how all of these atheists are watching this video and making this about religion...if you hate Tim Tebow, why are you searching YouTube videos for him? Obviously the man is impacting your life in someway."

Meet and Greet with the Bruins

Super Action Heroes was the theme of this year's Meet the Bruins, with gymnast fans encouraged to dress up as super heroes.

Audience participants tried some of the exercises that the Bruins do:




With Pauley Pavilion under construction, this season will see the smaller venue Wooden Center packed tight. Should be a high octane atmosphere of blue and gold.

Also blogging:

GymnasticsCoaching.com

Front tuck as a run-by on vault

The problem with having gymnasts do run-bys where they hurdle off the runway is that a number of kids will tend to slow down as they near the hurdle line. Having them do a front tuck instead, with the table on their vault height setting, encourages the gymnasts to accelerate all the way to the hurdle without fear of crashing into an immovable object.