Every Path....One Stone at a Time....

I'm in the process of uploading some skills kids worked on this past week.

Here's a clip of Alizeh, working on her backhandspring, yesterday:

Will continue to update, through the course of the day. Right now I'm piecing together all the clips from Al and Teri's junior-advanced class, as they practiced their backhandsprings and round-off backhandsprings toward the end. They've been practicing it quite a bit on the floor, using a panel mat to lunge and initiate their round-offs, off of; but Al decided they might have some change of success, if they had a softer surface, so he took them up to the pit draped over with crash mats.





Thea's been twisting for longer than she thinks she has. I've got video of her doing backs with a full at least from 2 years ago on trampoline.

But last Saturday, she just started doing half-twists on the regular floor, after getting consistency on the strength of her layouts.

Erin's been doing really well. Here's her full-and-a-half last Saturday:

More often than not, I have kids who are physically "ready" to try a skill without a physical spot. And as Yefim likes to say, "What?! You chicken? C'mon, chicken...go!"

It drives me nuts when, instead of going even harder when they're scared, they timidly go less aggressive....they need to learn the meaning of "gambatte". I realize the importance of mental preparation as well as physical; of nurturing emotional preparation. But sometimes, you just have to kick 'em in the pants for their own good and spoon-feed them some guts. Or they'll never learn to cope with fear management.

Fortunately, Perry isn't one of those kids. She only just started doing round-off backhandsprings on the crash mats last week. WITHOUT PERMISSION (!!!!), she did a couple on the floor by herself, at the end of class this past Tuesday.

Perry's biggest problem is she's fearless. I know she's got some smarts in her though, as she's asked for spots. But once she's got some sense of a skill, and possibly an overestimation of her abilities (I yelled at her a week or two ago for trying a backhandspring by herself just as she ate the mat), you have to reign her in, and make sure she doesn't do something stupid.

Confidence can sometimes be 99% of succeeding in a skill. But I'm not sure I can trust her judgment....but it's hard to "punish" her and be too upset, when she's successful and when you ache to have more kids like her that are willing to throw the training wheels off and try something by themselves without the hint of the possibility of failure in their minds.

"Those who think they can, and those who think they can't are (oftentimes) both right"

I think she'll be a kid who, when I tell her she's ready to try something, she'll believe me, and just do it.

and hopefully I'm not the kind of coach that'll tell her to jump off a cliff without a parachute.

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.