Just Malaika's Imagination

This video is from Malaika's birthday party last September 2nd. It was a lot of fun to work, given the number of kids I knew (former SMGC students) who attended but don't get to see anymore.

Lilly, I think, was shocked to see Teri and I, and disoriented by our presence at LASG (I can't remember, but she said some "funny" and "curious" things about the gym switch, and why we left). I seem to recall her expressing some irk and ire, as though holding me accountable to SMGC's closing.




When we were at SMGC, at the end of her class, Malaika used to always ask me to make her a paper airplane. It was kind of a ritual, like when I used to come in and share my breakfast with Anna.

Madison's comment about the haunted maze in the video's closing credits can be better referenced and contextualized by clicking here. I should revisit that updated video, and prefix it with this clip of Madison, talking about it.

It took me 8 months to get around to doing this video. It just kind of happened accidentally while sitting in front of my computer, Friday morning, perusing my music library files as well as going through video files, looking for pictures to send to those who appear in them. Less than 24 hours later and....whalah! Video made, wrapped, printed!

I miss these kids and am grateful for being able to preserve some of the memories!

Malaika's currently been fencing, and loving it!

Closing Out on a High Note

I've known Anna since before she was in diapers, when her mom Kimberly was teaching SMGC team while pregnant.

I've watched this kid grow up in the gym; it used to be a morning ritual for me to come into SMGC with my breakfast and she, when she was about 2 or 3 years old, would abandon her mommy-and-me class to come have some of my eggs over-easy and hash browns and sausage. Feeding her was a good investment on winning her affections....and it kept my weight down by losing half my breakfast to her.

I think when she was about 4 or 5, she told me she was going to marry me; now that she's a couple of years older and wiser, she'd probably laugh hysterically at how silly she was.

SMGC closing was a difficult adjustment. It was a second home where she more or less had free reign. LASG was not home, but a formal place to visit. Early on, during the transition period, Kimberly told me how they drove by the old gym (just around the corner) and Anna cried, and the reality of it all then hit Kimberly as well. A number of SMGC kids still express such sentiments of loss of their old gym.

Thursday night was Anna's last day in class. Her family is moving to Riverside. LASG was kind enough to allow her family to enroll her in three weeks of this 8 week session. Anna and her family will be missed.

Back flips are one of those extracurricular skills that are fun to learn and do, but which aren't necessary for her skill level. On Anna's last day of class, on the second round of trying them, she landed two by herself.

What's a Little Competition Amongst Friends?

Anna and Malaika are good friends...and as often as they might root for each other, they just as often are competing fiercely against each other, whether it be for the affections of Malaika's little sister, performance in gymnastics, or national politics (Kimberly described them as having some pretty funny conversations talking about the election and the candidates).

Thursday's advanced class has turned into a mix of senior students, and young newbies who aren't quite up to speed. Robyn handed off the noobs to me the last half of class, and I spent time working on their backhandsprings, mostly from a conditioning standpoint, just to get them to do the numbers.

Anna and Malaika can both do their standing backhandsprings on their own, although it might make some coaches feel like they are witnessing fingernails on a chalkboard. Not a pretty sight. My hope was that the physical conditioning benefits would outweigh any reinforcement of bad technique through doing the repititions. I basically focused my attention on the 3 who didn't have their backhandsprings yet, and just gave Anna and Malaika numbers to do, on their own. When they finished the 20 I assigned them, I wasn't done with helping their classmates yet. So I told them to do 30 more. At first they didn't like that. But once they got into it, and Anna got to 50, Anna wanted to do 30 more. Of course, Malaika wasn't going to let her get away with doing more than her, so Malaika also pursued 30. At 80, Anna decided 80 wasn't that far off from the magic number of 100. I told her she gets bragging rights if she gets to a hundred and would have something to tell her parents about. She was all for that. The girls were alternating off, doing 10 each. But all of a sudden, Malaika wanted to get to a hundred before Anna did. Anna didn't like that at all that Malaika was taking more than 10 turns (at this point they were in the 90's). By the time class was over, I sent Anna to go join the other girls when she finished her 100. It took some effort to get Malaika to leave when she got to 100. She was really afraid that Anna did 110 and I had to do a lot of convincing that Anna only did 100; of course, Malaika still wanted to do 110 so as to top Anna. I forgot what I said now to convince her to go home, but it wasn't easy to get her to stop. Normally, it can be like pulling teeth to get them to "hang in there" and keep working toward the end of class. After 2 hours, these two often get cranky. So I was happy they maintained energy and enthusiasm to the "bitter" end.

The following is a quick video I pieced together. A couple of faces are missing from the vid, for which I apologize. But for the most part, most of the advanced girls are represented (we're working to change the name of the class to distinguish it more as a pre-team group and not the regular LASG advanced classes). I think this is the song Robyn was telling me about. So this is another video for her:

Tales of the Weird..."What's that smell?"

Do you smell what ______ is cooking?

Last Thursday, during my advanced class while we were on tumbling, I smelled poo. Not flatulence; but something fierce....like someone baking brownies in their pants. Usually, if it's just gas, I might ignore it; especially if I knew which kid did it by the accompanying trumpet sound. I don't want to embarrass anyone who might be ashamed of it; so sometimes I don't draw more attention to it than is already present. But the smell Thursday night was so suffocatingly gross, I had to throw the question out there: "What in the blue blazes is that smell?!" I then got caught up with the task at hand of spotting and coaching, leaving the girls to figure it out for me as they began mumbling amongst themselves to get to the bottom of it.

I moved down to the other side of the floor to spot anyone who needed it on front handsprings or backhandsprings- whatever it was we were working on. Well, eventually I look down our makeshift runway wondering who's holding up the line as the traffic flow of tumblers stopped; and what do I see: Anna with her nose buried in Malaika's rear-end. I noticed it just in time to hear Anna tell Malaika, "I don't smell anything." Wow. Now that's friendship for ya.

Later on, I smelled the smell again. Not a clue where/who it emanated from. But someone was definitely baking brownies.

The last part of this unsolved mystery is that I also witnessed Anna, later on, holding one of those floppy floor objects (for the pre-schoolers) and fanning Malaika's tushy-bun.

Hmmm.....

Strangely enough, I have this funny clip from Winter Camp 2007 at SMGC I am planning to use in a Malaika video:

Now that I think about it, footage of Thursday's odor problem might have gone nicely with this clip.

When Competition Breeds Success

Anna did a private yesterday, having taken the session off from gymnastics. She seemed to have her mind set on doing round-off back handspring, as she asked me, "Did Malaika really do a round-off backhandspring by herself?". Apparently, Malaika had "bragged" about it. So it looks like Nikita's affections isn't the only thing they'll compete over.

Anna asked me how Malaika did it, and I said her friend simply had guts and enough confidence in her own abilities that she tried it on her own. So without even a spot or warm-up round-off, Anna did her first RO BH by herself.

It works great from a step, rather than a run, because it 1)Forces them to try to generate more power without running and 2)They have such poor judgment on where to start their hurdle when mat placement requires them to be spatial/distance-specific.

Way to go Anna!

Love Triangle (Tale of Two Sisters)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....

What am I talking about? Stacey's private on Friday morning as her little one, Nikita, had her class. Anna and Malaika were there as well, competing for Nikita's affections. They may have been on top of the world a few weekends ago, but yesterday, it was the end of the world.

Stacey wouldn't repeat this for my camera, but while she was bouncing on trampoline, she told me that she was worried that Nikita thinks Anna is her mom.

At the end of workout, it became apparent to me that Nikita must have been saying as much. I filmed her as they were about to leave, and it turned out to be very sad, very charming, with some drama. Had I known, and had I known in advance that I'd be using the song, "It's the End of the World" (Carpenters' version, since I used it in the last video), I would have filmed more- Malaika crying earier when Anna bumped her, saying she wanted to go home; and also at the end when Anna was "stealing" Nikita's affections away from her. It could have made this video soooo much better. But at the time when it was happening, I just didn't think I needed any more footage of Malaika crying (she stated to me that she didn't like her "Bad Day" video). It seemed inappropriate to capture any more of her stormy drama and unflattering tears. But now I'm sorry that I didn't for fun and posterity's sake!



I'm hoping the girls don't see this video until they are older, and above any feelings of jealousy and grudge-harboring.

I tried to get Anna to empathize with Malaika's feelings of apparent rejection as an older sister role model, by asking Anna how she would feel if one of her younger sisters were to show greater loyalty and affection for someone other than her sister. The wheels in Anna's brain seemed to turn ever so slightly...but there was no selfless Sydney Carton moment in her heart, as she said, "...but Nikita wants me..."

Tis a far, far better film that I could have made, than I have ever made before...

Happy Belated Birthday, Coach Teri!

Monday was Teri's birthday, and I know she wanted to try and stop by the gym on Monday to see Anna and Malaika, and how they've progressed. Well, she wasn't able to make it. I had meant to film Anna and Malaika give her a birthday greeting, but forgot.

Fortunately I saw them again this week, as Malaika's baby sister, Nikita, has her class Friday morning, as well as their mom, Stacey.

Happy Birthday to a great teacher, excellent professional photographer, and wonderful human being!

Her website and blog.

Anna and Malaika on Top of the World

So today, Anna and Malaika did an hour shared private backhandspring workshop clinic.

Malaika's done backhandsprings a couple of times by herself with the soft sting mat draped over the pit, a couple of weeks ago. Anna's been close to me not spotting her...it has just been a matter of consistency that keeps my hand there.

They both ended up doing their backhandsprings on different surfaces, by themselves, today. Of course we'll go back to drilling and shaping, but for now, they had a blast being able to experience the thrill of doing a "big skill" by themselves. If I remember that far back, it's an exhilerating, liberating feeling.....the freedom of flight.



I was actually looking for the Shonen Knife cover of the song for this video, but settled on the accidental discovery of my copy of the Carpenters. I grew up loving Karen Carpenter's voice.

"Sunshine Girl"

Cat's in the Food!