Sircey's Ya Ya Birthday

This was done back in early April, after I had already left LASG a week earlier.

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.

Saturday Successes

This is Akasha from March 14th (I think the first time she did two in a row was the previous Saturday):



Akasha and her sister Ashana will be taking a break for a session or two, and last Saturday was her last. I'm sure they will be back.

This is Lauren from last Saturday:

Revving up for Another Academy Meet

Last Friday, Erin did a private to gear up for the Academy Meet on the 29th. She's done well on it, considering she comes only once a week and began the advanced/pre-team class this session. She also didn't start acquiring the level 4 floor routine until a few weeks ago.

A few of the team girls decided to check her out (you can tell she's distracted by that):

She does a right-leg round-off, but when it comes to preparing for the chasse, her inclination is to always step with the left leg. Just needs more drilling. (I often incorporate bits and pieces of the level routines into the floor warmups, across the floor as cyclic patterns, including elements of the beam routine).

Where's Abby?

Oh! There she is:



She's been missing her Saturday classes for her Wildwood School Theater rehearsals of Les Miserables, in which she plays the part of Cosette. "Castle on a Cloud", I think, was the first song that made me curious about the rest of the musical. I remember my dorm neighbor had the Broadway Cast album. It was interesting, but foreign to my tastes. Then I think I saw the actress who plays Cosette in the Los Angeles Company appear on the Tonight Show to sing "Castle on a Cloud". After that, I borrowed and listened to the entire album and was hooked.

After moving out of the dorms and getting an apartment with Michael Chaplin, Scott Keswick, Terry Notary, I would still play the musical. Chainey Umphrey would be over, playing Japanese Nintendo video games with Keswick and after initially knee-jerk rejecting it, they soon became hooked on Les Miz as well. We eventually bought tickets to see it at the Schubert.

Abby's mom was kind enough to supply Robyn, Thea, and I with tickets to Friday night's performance. The show was stellar; I was really impressed. And Abby really shined!

A Few Highlights from this Week's Advanced Class

A few Tuesday gals:

Helaine:

Thursday...


It's not the first time Naomi's done round-off backhandsprings on floor; but she hadn't done them on floor in a while, and this week seems more confident and more consistent; using mats, she was even starting to snap-up off her hands, rather than just curling up and letting her feet fall over.

Erin's first day doing her round-off backhandspring on the floor without mats:

Note from Mom:

Erin was sooo excited to do the backhandspring without a mat. She said it "felt good, like a roller coaster ride." I asked her again if she wanted to do the meet [Academy Meet coming up at the end of the month]. She said "I'm shy, but I want a gold medal."

Naomi's the only senior student this Thursday; the other girls observed her going through the level 4 floor, to get a sense for it:

Getting Erin to try two in a row on trampoline:



Maiya experienced doing backhandsprings for the first time by herself yesterday:



Maiya mentioned that she misses Anna.

"Cosette" Does Her Round-Off Backhandspring

Last Saturday Abby made some progress:

She's only been coming once a week, practicing for a school production of my favorite musical, Les Miserables. Abby asked me to post this up, of her singing her role:



Robyn and I are invited!

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.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Erin, one of Al's jr. advanced girls who moved over into my Thursday advanced/pre-team class made this card for me. Thank you, Erin!

I passed out some origami beating hearts on Thursday, and gave one to Isaac; for some oddball reason, he just couldn't stop laughing and making it beat....

Thea, his sister, knows how to make it now; she's made it to origami library meetings about 3 months in a row, and is getting better and better at folding and flipping.

Happy New Year!

Looking forward and looking back...


December 23rd was Robyn's last day with LASG. What can I say about her? Hopefully, 3 videos, plus one more in the works, says it all.

She's been my mainstay partner with the SMGC intermediates/LASG Advanced (Pre-team) level girls, for what feels like forever, but which amounts to probably a 2 year (however long ago she started at SMGC) work relationship.

Being without her while she was still here at LASG (for various reasons, such as enrollment level on Thursdays) prepared me a bit for being without her on a permanent basis. But it still leaves you with an emptiness inside; like someone walked away with the best corner of your heart. In the short span of a month, 2 coaches and one gymnast I care about have left the gym. Life is like that.

These 3 videos are bitter-sweet. Robyn's Christian, so somehow it seems almost fitting that my song choices come from a Christian rock band I only recently heard of.

The 4th video in the works is more fun, a little uplifting, showing off Robyn at her silly best. For now, you might want a tissue box handy....





I like the description one YouTube commenter left for the song in the above video: That if you have a positive attitude and outlook on life, it will spread; and if it keeps spreading, it might end up coming back around to you, when you are down. What goes around, comes around, round and round...



These videos are dedicated to Robyn, and the kids who love her, and whose lives she brought warmth to.

*UPDATE*
The fourth video is complete:



I think I put in about 10 hours worth of editing. The song choice is one that Robyn suggested I use for a video. So fitting that I should use it for her video.....which totally reeks......


....of awesomeness!

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:

Level 4 Floor Example

For my advanced girls, here's random video of Veronica during a private with Hamest, today.



*Update* October 12, 2008 Sunday

Here is Alejandra during a private with Ita. Alejandra was moved up to level 4 team over the summer and worked hard to bring her skill level up to speed. She wins the "most improved award", in my book:



She struggled for soooo long to get her backhandspring. and here she is doing her round-off backhandspring on floor.
Use these as a rough template of the floor routine.

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.

Quote of the Day

"That's too girlie!"
-Nava Lewine, age 7, resistant to learning the level 4 floor routine, because of the dance elements. August 26, 2008

Quote of the Week

"I can do a handstand for a minute....I just can't prove it."
- Nava Lavine, age 7, advanced class
August 5, 2008

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!

"I'm doing the best I can"

Malaika just kills me. She still lacks a certain maturity, but we moved her and Anna into the advanced class toward the end of last session because their Monday class was filling up with kids below their skill level, and I want to keep them challenged. The first day they tried out the advanced class, I think they both had breakdowns. I know during conditioning, Malaika started building up a straw house of resistance to the class; later on, each had crying moments where they said "I wanna go home!". Can't remember what Malaika's issue was, but Anna got bumped; actually, if I remember that day, we had a number of girls dropping off from getting hurt. It was a weird day.

Malaika is physically coordinated and talented, but seems to operate on half a brain, with the other half on auto, along for the ride. She is soooo inconsistent. She is capable of front handsprings, but each one is so different, I don't think she really understands what it is she is doing. Also, there's a depth perception problem, where she (and she's not alone) can't consistently pace her approach, so that her hands go in the same spot each time (whether on round-offs or fronthandsprings, mounters/flysprings). She also doesn't understand how to tighten up her muscles (or, shows a lack of caring as much as comprehending) so when she lands....well, let's say she has some of the oddest landings I've seen from fronthandsprings; I think the strangest being one over the pit, where she had good push off her hands but her feet still landed in front of her, and she sort of did a back gainer out of it, bouncing off her feet, and plummeted to her head into the foam pit, not onto the mat, meaning she went off sideways after landing rather than staying in a straight line).

Anyway, the kid has talent. This was her yesterday, doing a round-off backhandspring from a step (it'd be disastrous from a run):

She squeezed in that second backhandspring, because she wanted to. I told her "no" when she asked to do two in a row; but then, I said the same thing when she asked if she could do her round off backhandspring by herself. That's because of the quality of her round off (there is no quality there). I let her do her standing BH after her round off, and she eventually made the connection of the two skills all by herself. I know she's got self-preservation sense and won't try just anything, though. So I guess it's nice that she is not afraid to try things when she feels mentally attuned to what she's doing. I'm sure it helped to have her other 3 classmates doing skills: Georgia doing RO BH; Nava doing two in a row; Maya doing RO BH to back tuck.

I've been getting on her case a lot, not accepting behavior and brain farts that I let her get away with in the beginning and intermediate classes. Her favorite defense tool these days is to hang her head and say, "I'm doing the best I can". Initially, it worked on me a few times, and I eased off from coming down on her so much. But then, I started catching on, that I think she's using it as an automatic fail-safe, fall-back line. She's probably been told that anything is acceptable so long as you're putting in your best effort; so whether she's truly trying to do her best or not, she says that phrase as an automatic recourse when she just wants you to get off her back. I think she used to tell me "Give me a break, I'm only 6 years old."

Hmmm...Maybe she's using more of her brains than I've been giving her credit for?

Weekly Round-Up

I've focused heavily on tumbling, neglecting some of the other events. In part, it's because primetime at LASG means it's crowded and equipment-swapping and floor navigating is a challenge. I also feel that a lot of these girls just need to get stronger, and tumbling is one of those skills that requires a lot of major muscle groups.

A backhandspring/front handspring/RO-Bhandspring is one of those skills that can be a sort of turning point in a young gymnast's life; same with getting a kip on bars.

Since so many of my advanced girls are once-a-weekers, I'd hate to take two steps forward and one step back, by skipping a week on working it, right when some are on the verge of getting it.

Georgia's one of those, who I think has suffered for it. Certain skills that we don't get around to maintaining, and it all but deteriorates. Tuesday was the first day in ages where her tumbling was consistent. Corynn did her RO BH for the first time Tuesday, without a spot.

I didn't film everyone today, but captured a few; none of them were firsts, though.

Heather and I were both missing Lauren (she mentioned Tuesday that she would be absent; she's the kind of kid who's been raised to thank instructors at the end of class, and call the gym, if she's not coming).

I took advantage of having Emma Totsubo and Alexandra Shamash teach the level 4 floor routine to the Heravi sisters, to bring them "up to speed". Perry also learned some of it, and Akasha actually made it through the whole routine to music.

Emma Shapland's been suffering from anxiety and has missed quite a few workouts. No one knows what's causing it. She tried class Tuesday, but ended up leaving; she made it through, today, sitting out only a couple of times. I spotted her on a few flyaways, then she did one in the pit.

Round-offs are still very weak on all of these girls. Handstand snap-ups are one of those drills that I think we should be doing every week.

More Backhandsprings

Sierra got bumped up this session to pre-team (without consulting me!), after Alejandra asked to move up into Ita's pre-team class. She went from not having any understanding of the mechanics for a backhandspring, to doing one on trampoline, by punching back into it:

Perry just moved up a couple of weeks ago from the previous level class. I used to train her older sister in the same class, at SMGC, before she briefly moved up to team (I believe she had to quit because of scoliosis). Their mom was one of Al's gymnasts in days of yore, and according to Al, was really good.

Today, after a bit of heavy spotting, Perry built up enough confidence to do what she was capable of doing: A round-off backhandspring by herself. A little aggressive approach can go a long way toward succeeding.

She was already bugging me about doing it on the regular floor, but I wouldn't let her because she hasn't done sufficient numbers. The one good thing about her and Nava are they aren't afraid to try. Nava did her RO BH on the floor last week, but she was more off her game today and I would not let her, until she fixed her round-off. Sometimes I forget she's only 7, as she bugs the devil out of me with her one-track requests (think Bart Simpson, asking every few seconds: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?", and that's Nava) and non-understanding of following assignments and doing progression drills as a means to her ends.

Kaitlin surprised me with her round-off backhandspring. It got better all of a sudden, after being somewhat in a rut since she returned (it's not the first time she's done it by herself, I don't think). Her sister Corynn is very close to it as well. I almost felt like if I just let her experience a few by herself, she'd do what needed to be done to fix it. But there just wasn't enough consistency there that I felt comfortable enough to allow it; although she probably would have been alright (one of the ones in the video, I only touched her after she was making touchdown with her hands).

Spotting is kind of a fine art, making judgment and sometimes split-second calls on just how much support to give them.

Georgia is so inconsistent, she's capable of RO BH's by herself (even on harder surfaces), has been doing them by herself on and off for a year, and I still can't trust her. She's just all over the board on her round-off. She did one today that flew by me, and I had to lean out, with no leverage, my arm far away from my body. I fell to my back hoping she wouldn't still try to do it; but my hand being there probably made her feel it was ok for her to go for it. So lying on my back, I caught her with one arm, suspending her in midair, like a cirque du soleil act. I just held her there for a moment relieved, but also berating her.

Thursday Advanced Class: RO BHs

Naomi first started with us at SMGC summer camp and was pretty much a raw beginner. I'm glad we let her move up into the SMGC intermediate class (which is now called "advanced" at LASG), because she has been a reliable, quiet, diligent worker. She's a kid who pays attention, because she wants to be good. I can't recall a single time where I've ever had to discipline her on talking too much, being lazy, whiny, etc.

I thought I'd experiment and try a bit of instructional in this video, to see if it helps any of these girls. I think I can draw straighter lines and better curves on an Etch-a-Sketch, but my line drawings in the video will have to do, showing a more correct body position than the ones these kids have in their round-off backhandsprings.

STRETCH THOSE SHOULDERS JENNIFER!!! EVERY DAY!!!