One method of spotting the level 4 dismount

Old footage from 2011, Colorado Aerials- One method of spotting the level 4 dismount, if needed:

Rescue Spotting

Jason Mortimer posted this video:




Not standing between the bars for your basic tap swing/counter swing during level 4/5 bars can result in the predictably unpredictable peel:





The following is a reprint of a post I wrote up on my other blog, from 7/12/2013:

Will she catch her Gienger release?  Or will her coach catch slow her fall?

Sometimes a gymnast will say, "Spot me." And when I do just that, get slightly perturbed when I didn't physically touch her.  "You didn't spot me!"  Ah, but I did.

 Great spotting is an art that takes practice.

There are several different kinds of spots.  Some involve actual physical manipulation on the part of the coach, essentially carrying the athlete through the correct pathway of the skill; others involve some physical guidance or assist on the part of the coach, but with the athlete doing most of the skill, herself; then there's a "shadow" spot, where the coach is there primarily as "moral support".  And should anything go tragically off course, there is "rescue" spotting.  This involves the spotter jumping in there to prevent a potential catastrophic injury from an unplanned fall.

This post focuses on the latter.

So how effective is actual rescue spotting?  What are the chances of a coach actually doing it?  Dr. Sands did a study on rescue spotting.  Here, he also defines different spotting purposes:

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Shape the Jump

Lvl4 vault rotation HS idle station

At GW, the boys pommel horse area is right by the end of the vault runway.  So I sometimes take advantage of the equipment for side stations.

Finding straight:

Can never get in enough handstand practice.

Building the Kip

This drill here is the best thing I have learned from Coach David in improving glide extensions:

All the former 3s have kipped now.  Erica was the last one to finally start kipping.  We promised te girls a pizza party, which is this Friday at the end of gym.

Marissa currently has the best-looking glide kip cast on this team:

New Level 5 Compulsories

Vault:




Bars:



Beam:


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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:

Revving up for Another Academy Meet

Last Friday, Erin did a private to gear up for the Academy Meet on the 29th. She's done well on it, considering she comes only once a week and began the advanced/pre-team class this session. She also didn't start acquiring the level 4 floor routine until a few weeks ago.

A few of the team girls decided to check her out (you can tell she's distracted by that):

She does a right-leg round-off, but when it comes to preparing for the chasse, her inclination is to always step with the left leg. Just needs more drilling. (I often incorporate bits and pieces of the level routines into the floor warmups, across the floor as cyclic patterns, including elements of the beam routine).

A Few Highlights from this Week's Advanced Class

A few Tuesday gals:

Helaine:

Thursday...


It's not the first time Naomi's done round-off backhandsprings on floor; but she hadn't done them on floor in a while, and this week seems more confident and more consistent; using mats, she was even starting to snap-up off her hands, rather than just curling up and letting her feet fall over.

Erin's first day doing her round-off backhandspring on the floor without mats:

Note from Mom:

Erin was sooo excited to do the backhandspring without a mat. She said it "felt good, like a roller coaster ride." I asked her again if she wanted to do the meet [Academy Meet coming up at the end of the month]. She said "I'm shy, but I want a gold medal."

Naomi's the only senior student this Thursday; the other girls observed her going through the level 4 floor, to get a sense for it:

Getting Erin to try two in a row on trampoline:



Maiya experienced doing backhandsprings for the first time by herself yesterday:



Maiya mentioned that she misses Anna.

"Cosette" Does Her Round-Off Backhandspring

Last Saturday Abby made some progress:

She's only been coming once a week, practicing for a school production of my favorite musical, Les Miserables. Abby asked me to post this up, of her singing her role:



Robyn and I are invited!

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.

The Happy Athlete

Just love, love, love this kid:

Just love her!

She's always laughing and smiling (except when she's not). Being in a good mood is contagious when in the presence of her infectious personality. Miriam is a perpetual wellspring of cascading laughter and quenching hugs.

She's the happy gymnast!
(Even when she's sad)

Level 4 Team Floor Routines

From last Friday, getting judged on their routines....

Level 4 Floor Example

For my advanced girls, here's random video of Veronica during a private with Hamest, today.



*Update* October 12, 2008 Sunday

Here is Alejandra during a private with Ita. Alejandra was moved up to level 4 team over the summer and worked hard to bring her skill level up to speed. She wins the "most improved award", in my book:



She struggled for soooo long to get her backhandspring. and here she is doing her round-off backhandspring on floor.
Use these as a rough template of the floor routine.

Last Chance....

The last Saturday before the Academy meet, tomorrow.


Mulan Sweeney:
In spite of all the flaws and sloppiness, I'm duly impressed by how much this 6 year old has acquired and retained, in a short span of practice.

And she's absolutely unphased about the notion of performing in front of people.



Emma Totsubo:
I could not talk Emma into doing the Academy meet. She's better prepared than her younger sister, Leah, yet it's her younger sister who is willing to go out on a limb and do the meet (and Leah was in tears part of the time, in practice today; basically, she learned her routines today, and is justifiably, understandably a bit scared....yet she's agreed to do this!).


Lauren Kelly:
Lauren was sick with the flu about a week ago, and it didn't look like she was going to be able to do the meet, anyway. I know she was very excited Tuesday night and really wanted to do the meet. I think she is supposed to have something going on for tomorrow. Yet today, arriving late to practice, she said she would be here tomorrow. She's probably the best prepared out of my intermediates advanced girls, from SMGC. Keli pointed her out today, and asked when she'd be on team.

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!).

What Our Intermediates Have Been Doing in the Gym

Here are a few clips of Tuesday's intermediate class, as an example of some of the exciting things the girls are working on. This is the last week. before we go over to LASG (our last week of the session will take place over there, to acclimate our kids to the change in environment). Some training devices we do not have at SMGC (tumbling pits), which is present at LASG; others will be missed, such as this bungee zipline:

Corynn demonstrating RO BH:

Naomi practices RO 2 BHs:

Kaitlin shows how it's possible to do 4 in a row, with a little help:

You can hook as many as 3 bungee cords (those weighing about 70 lbs or less will find themselves floating) to each side of the belt; at one cord, it supports maybe around 20% of their body weight, making them about 20% stronger than they normally are, as Al puts it. Octagons and PAC-Men are good for body-shaping and hand-spotting is good for manipulating and reinforcing desired positioning. But the zipline makes it easy on the spotter and enables the young gymnast to be somewhat self-sufficient, and get in the numbers. Repetition is the mother of all teachers, even in the absence of constant nit-picking and spoon-fed corrections.

I think Lauren's first RO BH was done this way, before I had her try it on the platform into the portapit, with a spot. I think it accelerated the process. There is no "one size fits all", of course, but when Al introduced this method over the summer to some summer campers, we had several of them acquire their RO BHs by themselves, shortly thereafter.

Lauren's first time trying RO 2 BHs:

We only just started working on the level 4 routines for about a month, now, after spending the past year on level 5 elements, when we worked on them at all. The change is due to the fact that LASG does compete 4's. Lauren is the number one student when it comes to routine acquisition. It may not be polished, but even just the fact that she has it memorized, for how little time we've actually devoted to it, and that she can do all the skill elements says a lot about how much Robyn, Heather and I wish we had a dozen more like her.

Lauren performing Level 4 floor, after class for her mom:

I believe that Lauren's actually one of the rare students we have who has done her gymnastics homework, and watched YouTube vids of the level 4 routines, coupled with a good memory, and an interest. Lauren's only been doing gymnastics for about a year; I think she moved up to intermediates in the summer...maybe before...'ll have to look that one up.

I remember moving her up, based upon her maturity level more than her skill level at the time.