They Call Her "Ita".....

....but that's not her name. It's Elvira Villa. And she goes by "Ita".

Ok, I may just live long enough to regret this....

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:

Saturday Success

After about a session in Ita's pre-team, Isabel Berliner starts to discover her backhandspring capabilities. From last Saturday:

LA Lights Holiday Invitational 2008 (Level 4s)

These are Ita's pre-team girls, plus the developmental level 4's who moved up over the summer (Emma, Sofie, and Grace came out of our SMGC intermediates/LASG advanced class). It was their first meet, and they did really well.

Grace is so shy, it's amazing to see her actually out there competing and performing. When she was with me, I had the darn'dest time getting her to remember anything resembling even parts of a routine. Strong and talented kid; but her habit and nature is more to do this all day long:

She always said she wanted to move up to team; but I think that was to be around Brenda and Keli, two older team girls. A strong kid with good-looking backhandsprings almost immediately, Hamest invited her to be on team earlier in the year. Mulan went, but Grace wasn't mentally ready. But around summer, she actually became serious about it.

Grace first came to SMGC from Broadway during summer camp in 2007. She hated being pushed in her stretching, and they did that a lot at Broadway; they do that a lot at LASG too, but she can take it now.

Grace:



I've known Emma since she was 6 or 7; she took a break, then came back a couple of years later. Another very strong, talented kid. Rather fearless on bars (she made my heart drop when she said, "hey look Michael", then did a mill circle on the high bar), she could do pullovers from the high bar right away, and started making kips prior to summer. Sloppy as all heck, you'd never recognize her now after only a couple of months on team.

Emma:




Sofie was with us at SMGC for quite some time as well. It's gratifying to see that she's hung in there and made it to team. I'm always happy when any of our gymnasts make that big transition to the world of competitive artistic gymnastics.

She had her round-off backhandspring on floor before moving up to team, but somehow lost it. I thought that maybe she had gotten sloppy on them, so that the coaches told her not to do it. But that's not the case. Sofie told me she lost it.

I'm sure it's still there, somewhere....

Sofie:




I've always liked Gracie. She and her sister Janie came to SMGC during summer camp in 2007 and had a great time. I thought we'd gain them in the Fall, but they returned to JAGS. When SMGC closed down, they came looking for us, and arrived at LASG. She went straight into Ita's pre-team class, tried rhythmic, then in the Fall, returned back to artistic.

Gracie:




Alejandra picked a very tough sport for her. But her love for the sport has made her determined not to give up. Through hardwork and perseverence she's made it to level 4 team. She has come a really, really long way in just a few months. She went from someone whose feet barely left the ground more than a couple of inches in a backhandspring, to someone who got her round-off backhandspring and has even done some standing ones.

Alejandra:




Tatiana's on pre-team with Ita, but comes on the days that I don't help Ita with her pre-team class. I always see her and her father around, though.


Tatiana:



Alexa's the kind of girl that boldly holds her head high and tells the world, "I'm beautiful, and people love me!" Really, thre's no lack of self-esteem in her bearing. She acts like she's in a beauty pageant. You can see it in her glance as she's walking out to do her floor routine.

Alexa:



Sarah's undoubtedly Ita's top student. She's so talented....she had never done a back flip on trampoline before, and within five minutes was doing them by herself with a very nice tuck. The team really wants her.

Sarah:



The "A-Team":



They were minus Miriam, who injured her ankle earlier in the week. They were on their own rotation, and I missed much of their routines as I was shadowing the "B-team" and pre-team girls.

Levels 5-9 also competed, and if I get around to it, I'll put their routines up as well.

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.

Hannah's Thursday Private with Ita

Probably the first LASG kid who befriended me from day one when I began helping Ita with her class, Hannah is shown here training in a private with coach Ita.

Ita was horrified by her "yelling" and "shouting" at Hannah, when I played the video back to her. I think it's the "hearing your own voice" kind of effect. Really, this is rather mild, what's in the video. Her kids are desensitized and used to it.

So I hope she'll forgive me for uploading this video. It's for Hannah's family.




I think it looked pretty good; Ita says it's about 50% of what she wants out of Hannah.

Besides her private today, Hannah took class, and it looks likely that she'll be doing her round-off backhandspring in Sunday's fun meet (yay!).