"What's that? Up on the Ceiling? It's a bird, it's a paper plane...no it's an incoming rhythmic flying object!"

At SMGC, there have been times where we've had an adult come in to open workout, and practice with a rhythmic hoop or clubs. Ceilings at SMGC weren't that high, and the last time a rhythmic gymnast worked out there, one of the ceiling lights got busted.

At LASG, identifiable flying objects seems to be a regular occurrence. This includes shattered lights.

Sometimes it can be quite funny to see rhythmic objects flying where they weren't meant to go.

Last Sunday, Julia had a private with Marena. I wasn't there, but Julia told me the story. She submits the following:

Last Sunday Marena was in the gym and her daughter, Diana, was there as well doing rhythmic. Somehow, Diana's rhythmic ball managed to fly out the door, over the wall and into the the "beautiful" LA River. Marena went nuts saying things like, "Oh my god! One hundred dollar ball!" and went chasing after it, hop[p]ing the fence and going into the river to get it. But once she got her hands on the ball, she couldn't get back out of the river, so Vladimir came to the rescue with one of the bars that was under the trampoline and stuck it in the river to help pull her out.

Too bad I wasn't there to record that posterity-rich moment. Here is a clip of the garage door leading out to a view of the LA River:

Ceilings are much higher at LASG than they were at SMGC; but seeing ropes get caught on pipes and lights is quite common. It's always quite interesting to see the instructors and gymnasts put their precision and dexterous coordination to work in knocking the ropes down by using the hoop.

Here is Olga Fadeeva, rescuing one of her student's ropes from off the ceiling lights (particularly challenging, not to hit the fixture):

On an unrelated side note, Julia left today for New Orleans with her youth group to help rebuild houses damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She writes:

Each day of our trip, I will be adding new posts to my blog with stories of what we did that day to help the community of New Orleans, including pictures and videos.

While we're off-topic, Al's daughter Carol is selling leotards on ebay, leftover from SMGC. Too bad LASG students are required to wear School uniforms and not allow for more variety.