Coach Sideshow Energy and Enthusiasm

There's been at least one occasion where I honestly did the snoopy dance around the gym out of unbridled enthusiasm for a gymnast's performance; and there's been another time where I  spent months of time and care in fixing a level 7's layout flyaway, that when the fruits of labor finally revealed itself, I broke down on one knee and Tebowed.

Justin Leary's video is brilliant:



 I should do that one of these days for kicks.  The girls love it when you do some of their floor dance. 

Now if that were only done at a real meet...especially that kind of energy and excitement at a level 3 or 4 meet.

I promised our optional team that if they raised a certain amount of money each for our pit fund,  that our head coach would do each of their floor routines (he hadn't agreed to this and fortunately for both of us, the lofty goal was not met).

Reminds me of this:

Our level 6's hit beam team at a meet (all of them stuck and pulled 9.3's to 9.6's) and we promised to get up and do the beam routine ourselves. Heather and I replaced the BWO with a cartwheel and Zac replaced it with a handstand. The girls coached us, timed us, and judged us :)

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

So Amy and I got left behind to handle both compulsories and optionals (those who didn't go to San Jose) last Friday.  I had to turn down an offer by a parent for extra tickets, although I probably could have gone to Saturday's men's finals.  I couldn't get a hold of Chainey (whose been living in San Jose) until Sunday evening.  I ran into Art Shurlock at the movies a couple of weeks ago and Art said he was going to Trials and meet up with Chainey; but apparently that didn't happen.

I wasn't sure that I was really enthusiastic enough over gymnastics to make a 6 hour drive for a 3 hour event on Sunday; only to trek back the same 6 hour drive immediately after so that I could make it back in time to teach team camp this morning (and apparently to blog about the experience, also).  But that's what I ended up doing, with a bit of nudging by others; plus seeing so many FB friends talking about going.


Videoing wasn't really allowed, so......shhhhhh (this is for non-commercial use):




Rick links to a great tribute video to Nastia.  The gymnastics fans in attendance really rallied around her in a show of support after her struggles. 









I left before announcements were made for who made the women's team.  Glad I did too, because with the confusing one-way streets and everything (like my GPS out), it would have taken forever to leave the parking lot and figure out the right way to get onto the freeway onramp.


It was fun and worthwhile.

I'm going to need a nap later today, however.

And lots of coffee.

UCLA vs. Utah Season Opener

Well, I wasn't planning on going to this. But somehow ended up doing so. I took Thea to it, straight from practice, followed by an hour at the monthly origami meeting. We missed first rotation.

I hadn't been on campus in well over a decade, and to a UCLA meet in probably over 15 years. Things certainly looked different. But I somehow felt at home, seeing familiar faces and the fans.

The energy in Pauley Pavilion, especially on the floor, during Bruin floor routines, was electric!

Besides some other alumni, and seeing Coach (Art Shurlock- whose number Chainey needed, since Chainey wanted to invite him to his induction into the New Mexico Hall of Fame), I also got to see a lot of friends in the local LA gymnastics scene. Thea and I had friends from JAG, friends from LASG, friends from All Olympia, friends from Broadway.

Thea and her Broadway friends were sitting directly behind Nastia and afterward, she was telling me about how excited they all were, how Cydney touched her hair and was never going to wash her hand again. Thea was also thrilled that Waller remembered her name.




























Related:
UCLA – Nastia Liukin Summer Camp
Megan Marsden – Utah co-head coach
college gymnasts more entertaining than elite
Utah Gymnastics – new website
Utah Gymnastics removes provocative photo
gymnastics memoir – Unfavorable Odds
UCLA Gymnastics Over Utah
Miss Val Before the 2010 Season Opener
Choreographing UCLA Floor Routines

Thanks for the plug, Rick!

Chainey on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

Don't remember what year, but I think Chainey was about 14 or 15 here. When we were in college, I lived with him and his younger brother Greg for 6 and 5 years, sharing an apartment; we used to show this to everyone and would laugh so much. Mr. Rogers is completely innocent...but some of the things he'd say, taken in the wrong context from our inappropriate college minds, had us rolling on the floor laughing.

Chainey did get an invite back to Mr. Rogers, sometime while he was still in college; I think I have that somewhere as well and will upload it too, if I find it.

*UPDATE* Found it! It's on the same VHS tape as this one was recorded from. I'll upload it tonight and add it here.

*UPDATE II* Here it is:

Part One:


Part Two:


It looks to be that episode 1684 was done in 1995, so I think Chainey was done with undergrad (I graduated in 1993 and I think Chainey was done by '95), but still training. I think we finally parted ways in 1999, when we had to move out of our last apartment place. He found an apartment with his beautiful future wife and I found one with my deranged psycho ex.


A while back when I was checking YouTube to see if anyone had uploaded this stuff (still looking for the '84 Men's Olympic Team on Diff'rent Strokes, so if you find it...), I discovered this gem:



Mr. Rogers popping, waving, moonwalking....classic!

Also blogging:
The Neighborhood Archives

Additional:
A Tribute to Augie

Elfin Personality and Charm

I posted 2 years ago on my favorite female gymnastics star, Oksana Omeliantchik (my preferred spelling). It is extremely difficult to find good quality video of her. Here is one footage of her from the 1986 World Sports Fair Tokyo. Again, it is her expressiveness that really shines through in her floor routines. When she performs, she wears her personality on her sleeve.

Here's a comment I left on the YouTube site, 5 months ago:

I distinctly remember watching her 1985 World Championship routine on ABC Wide World of Sports. I became an instant fan, because when I watched her, she had such a vibrant expressiveness to her performance. It was just such a joy to watch her facial expressions! She didn't just go through the technical motions. Her whole personality came through in her presentation.

Oksana possesses one of those qualities that you just can't really teach: innate charm and an infectious personality. What can be taught, is how to act...how to deliver presentation on stage. Gymnastics is a subjective sport, so presentation and being a performer- exposing one's personality for an audience- makes one stand apart from the "just-going-through-the-motions" competitors.

Oksana Omeliantchik

I've been searching for this for ages; I actually have a copy of the 1985 World Championships, as televised on ABC, but it's on beta...and I no longer have a betamax video player. So by accident, while checking a comment left by someone about my videos, I noticed that some people have been posting videos of Oksana Omeliantchik's routines.

To this day, she remains my favorite female gymnast. Most gymnasts look rather wooden and too technical in their floor routine and in the choreography...like everything is just filler for the tumbling. But Oksana is extremely expressive in showing off her personality (if the video quality were better, you could see her facial expressions and infectious, elfin smile), and the choreography fits it like a glove. Her tumbling, at the time, in 1985 was extraordinary- and even seeing it today, the combinations in her passes are beautiful to behold. Sometimes I'll watch old tapes, see a transition move or skill, and wonder, "I miss that." Because many routines sometimes get built around fulfilling the code of points- so that what was at one time original sets a trend, so that they begin looking like carbon copy routines and combination skills that everyone else is doing.

Both videos are of the same floor routine at the 1985 World Gymnastics Championships. The first one is not great in quality, but is from the ABC telecast; the 2nd looks to be from a personal camcorder (but I could be wrong, since I found someone else had uploaded the same exact footage), but the picture is clearer- lacking the close ups, though.

Bonuses routines of her on the other apparatus are below.





Bars:



Beam:



Vault: