One, Two, Three, Four....Fifteen!!!!

I've had the hardest time thinking of music for the footage I have of Francesca, to tell a story. Since I knew her birthday was coming up, I decided to go with the germ of a video idea I had of her and her teammate, Courtney. I wanted to play with a long cut with a camera fixed in place, so I could make images disappear and also blend to create ghost images.

The Saturday I took the long clip (Oct 11, 2008) of these two doing giants on bars, Julia said putting the camera on them was good, because that was the most giants they had done in a while. The editing toward the end is a bit rushed, due to crunch time, but I think it still works.

Happy sweet 15, Francesca!

Happy Independence Day!

Dedicated to Ariana's grandfather, Donald Sokol, who enjoys his 75th birthday, today!

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.

I'm Yours

This was a quick, spur of the moment video, as I discovered a new favorite song by Jason Mraz, "I'm Yours". The melody just has a certain "happy spirit" to it (at least to me). So a couple of hours later: Walla! A new LASG video.

I was torn between using the original Mraz version, or this cover, by Chris Cendana (Mispelled his last name in the closing credits- grrr!). I like the Happy Slip Cup Beat, so I opted for the latter. I don't know why I find it so uplifting, but it's my new fave until I wear out the song after a hundred listens.