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.

Malaika's Bad Day(s)

Malaika's a 6 year old princess whom I have known since at least 2004; maybe longer. She's a pretty strong, coordinated kid in the junior advanced program...pretty athletic; but this video isn't about that.

It's about those breakdown moments in the gym, which aren't unique just to her (remember: videos don't tell the whole truth!). But she certainly does have them, in dramatic fashion.

One of the "best", was when teacher Lilly quit suddenly, leaving Al to teach the junior class. Malaika let loose with the waterworks. Even though she knew Al, she was carrying on about how she didn't want "no strange man teaching me!" Al was short on patience for that sort of nail-on-the-chalk-board drama that day, and I thought he was going to tear his hair out or send Malaika packing. I think she eventually did join the class.

She is an extremely funny kid, crammed full of personality and oddball sayings. It may seem odd and cruel to capture a person's worst moments in life; but this video was made with love and affection; and somehow, recording the drama in a little kid's life can be something that hopefully even Malaika can look back upon and laugh at (or perhaps recognize how ridiculous some of her moments were, and...um...cease and desist, and not carry on so in the future? Yeah, right....).



I did receive Stacey's (Malaika's mom) blessings on this project, at least 2 years in the making. I just had to include the closing credit footage in its entirety; it was worthy enough to stand alone as a clip. Somehow, like the clip of Anna smiling with the orange in her mouth while Malaika is in misery next to her, seeing Malaika crying from a collision in the mommy & me class, contrasted to the summer camp girls singing along to "If you're happy", just seemed deliciously funny to me.

But maybe that's just me.

Here's to posterity and "bad" memories made good!