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"!

A Tale of Two Erins: Excerpts from Academy Meet

Just a couple of things: This is Erin, who just moved into level 4 advanced/pre-team. She hasn't done the routine for very long; and had a private the previous week on it. Last Thursday we combined with Ita's group and spent almost the whole time cranking out repetition.

What's funny is, I think Erin knows the routine a lot better than Gael (the girl she went up with) and yet Erin can't help herself but look over at what Gael is doing. A number of kids do this, and it really throws off their self-reliance. Unless they really are stuck, all it does is throw them off- especially if the other person is stepping with the opposite leg.

What I did notice about Erin's routine are the areas of improvement where she's been having difficulties. I could tell she'd been practicing (apparently, since the Meet, she's been still practicing the routine). She made mistakes other than in the areas where she had been having problems before. So she really did her homework! When we had our private, things she kept messing up on from habit were:

1. Stepping with the wrong leg for the lock, turn, chasse
2. Adding the step kick prior to her handstand to bridge kickover.
3. Turning on the correct leg in the right direction after the quick switch prep for the turn.
4. Doing a rebound right away after landing her backhandspring.

Her dismount was good, even though she didn't hold the pose at the end and was ready to walk off the floor.

~~~

Erin (...er...the other Erin) did part of her level 9 bar routine. She's still working on her shoot-over, but I think this is the first time she did it without a coach standing there (actually, I think she did it the day before, as well), and showed some signs of improvement.

LA Lights Holiday Invitational 2008 (Level 7s and 9s)

Thea missed bars because she's still nervous about the dismount. She slowed down her giant, and fell off; even after getting back on and completing the routine, you can see her trying to control the descent.

I think she had only been doing this full routine about a week, prior (did some decent routines during practice, the week before).

Hadn't seen her floor routine, either until about a week ago. She was ahead of the music and kind of got lost toward the end. Still needs to learn dance, as well as more familiarity with her routine.

Thea:



I was in a bad spot to film Erin's floor. Missed her and Nik(k)i's beam.

She hasn't done giants since summer. Weird mental thing, since she's been doing them just fine, prior.


Erin:




Nikolina hadn't done a full floor routine until the week before the meet. It's her old routine.

Both she and Erin only started focusing on paks for the upcoming meet.

Nik(k)i:



That about wraps it up, folks.

Erin Tsuking it at UCLA

I remember how badly Erin seemed to be struggling on tsukahara drills a year ago. She just seemed so slow and mushy on her block.

Well, here she is at gymnastics camp last week:

Congratulations, Erin!

Read her post.

Let's Do the Twist

This was a fun edit. Mixing footage from SMGC and LASG, from 2005 through to this past week.

Say hi to Erin's new blog.

Little Darlin'.....

It's been a long time since I made a video of Erin, even though she's been a mainstay (out of everyone who's left from SMGC, she's been around the longest) and someone who really appreciates these videos. I think the very first video I made was her doing level 5 beam, when I discovered Windows Movie Maker.

I've discovered that those I've known the longest are becoming the hardest to make videos for. The problem lies in an accumulation of video clips to sift through, as well as imperfect organization on my part. Sometimes, I don't know whether to store a clip under a person, or during a time period (summer camp, winter camp, etc) for easy retrieval.

Erin is a Beatles fan. She's also a very happy camper (I have always loved her laughter!) who likes happy songs. I'm already at work with her next videos (which should have more recent stuff).

This one waxes nostalgic like the last post. The part in the video where she doesn't really seem to be doing much of anything in her floor routine? That was some strange improv concoction she goofed around with.

The video is comprised of footage from 2004 and 2005...which is why she looks so small, cute, and fuzzy funny.

Well.....she still looks like that.....just a few years older.

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.

LASG Summer Camp Open House

Last Sunday, LASG had an open house to drum up interest in summer camp. World Wide Acts was there, with their Circus Art; and Donna was there to promote her Fame Performing Arts program, which includes dance and acting.

Her daughter Nika is training level 7 at Gymnastics Olympica. I taught Nika her first backhandspring when she was around 5 or 6 years old. I've stayed friends with her and her mom over the succeeding years.

I've always felt she and Thea, who is also training level 7, would be perfect teammates for one another. Sure enough, they hit it off and were inseparable. A really good match.

Experiencing the "big skills": Erin and Thea can do double backs....

....just not by themselves (Haha...April Fool's! Ok, ok...that was lame).

During Winter Break (December 27, 2007), I put Erin and Thea in the spotting belt to experience tumbling double backs. They actually did pretty well (they've done doubles in the belt on regular trampoline before).


Erin Gelfat:


Thea Obrist:



This is Thea January 4, 2008:



I like the way she lands off the mat and onto the floor, then immediately jumps onto the safety mat:

Thea asked to try some one more time, a couple of weeks before the gym closed down; but her tumbling is inconsistent and that day she was off (I even "dropped" her on her head on one of them- my fault...sorry Thee).

In "The Zone"

Video featuring 3 current Level 7 gymnasts. Some of the footage stretches back to when they were still 6's.

Oh...and plus a usual round of suspects in overall weirdom to bookend the vid.

Erin's Theme (Level 6 beam routine)

Level 5 Beam (obsolete compulsory)

This was one of my very earliest experiments; maybe my first video: