What do you ask your team at the end of the day?

Typically, at the end of practice, we line the girls up.  And typically, aside from other discussions and comments, the stock one we ask is, "What did you accomplish today?"  Or, "What were you most proud of?"


I think I'm going to adopt these 3 questions and try it out for a while.  May last a week.  A month.  May have permanence.

The Power of Belief and Being Part of a Team

Via Proactive Coaching:

A man became lost while driving through the country. As he tried to read a map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn’t injured, his car was stuck deep in the mud. Seeing a farmhouse just down the road, the man walked over to ask for help.

“Clyde can get you out of the ditch,” the farmer said, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the haggard mule, and then looked back at the farmer, who just stood there nodding. “Yep, old Clyde can do the job.”

The man figured he had nothing to lose, so the two men and Clyde made their way back to the ditch.
After the farmer hitched the old mule to the car, he snapped the reins and shouted, “Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Clyde!” With very little effort, the lone mule pulled the car from the ditch.
The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule, and asked, “Why did you call out all those other names before you called Clyde?”

The farmer smiled and said, “Old Clyde is almost completely blind. As long as he believes he’s part of a team, he always gives his best.”

Something About Elana's RO BH Layout

Like other kids, she encountered a mental block on something she does easily...when she does it.

From 2007.

Happy Birthday, Elana!

Happy Birthday, Keli!

On January 21, 2008, Keli showed up to work out. She was the only one (it was MLK Day).

"Fall down 7 times, get back up 8."
-Japanese proverb

Happy Birthday, Keli! Here's to posterity and a memorable moment in your life.

"Chances"

I've had "video-maker's block" for a while; but this is for Erin and Julia, who gently nudged for a new video.

I've got songs I want to do; but just can't seem to figure out what gym to use it for, what era, what level program, what person.....

Plus, I just don't have time to sift through all files for the perfect footage fit. This vid took me all of 3 hours at the most, I'd say:

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!

The Song of Erin

Well, this was kind of a spontaneous video....and abstract!



I wonder if Erin has any Irish blood in her?

Happy Birthday, Erin!

"The Song of Erin will rise in our hearts again"!

Catastrophic Success?

Julia came in to help participate in Sircey's birthday party, today. Before the party, she did a standing back flip by herself after a couple of spots from Yefim; then did a layout on bars! To my knowledge, she's done neither before, by herself.

Pretty good for a non-workout day.


*UPDATE* Julia's comment in this post made me decide to post a clip the device she brought up. Coach John is a master manipulator of this and uses it regularly. Between Yefim and I operating on different pages from the book, we come close to "decapitating" Sircey against the top bar (Yefim thought I was ready to bring her down, when what I was trying was John's method of swinging the rider under the high bar).

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.

Julia's Epic Fail Moment

This happened on February 5th. She really gave me a scare, but was none the worse for wear. Looked hyperextensively pretty bad, though.

I first learned about the phrase "epic fail" from Julia.

Aside from this video, I'd like to publicly say that Julia is the most thoughtful and considerate human being on the face of the planet. Catastrophic success, right there!

Thanks for sending me the video message! It made my life!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Julia started doing giants by herself a while ago. This is from today:

If you haven't read it before, check out Julia's story. She's a great kid.

What do we need to do? Time you two with a calendar?

Of course, many skills often aren't acquired by anything less than on a calendar timeline.

It's funny how some skills come quickly, and others- no matter how seemingly simple- seem to take forever.

Unless you want to sit through 15 minutes of failed attempts, I suggest you don't watch.

Dramatic music for the drama...

Talitha Gonna....."Backflip.....Cartwheel..."

Talitha's only 7 (at least in much of the footage, as she just turned 8 last month). Cute, playful, talented, she's a muscular dynamo.

Robyn's been giving me song suggestions, and this is one of them.

Oops....did I forget someone?

Actually, I didn't.

Erin put me up to this, as apparently Julia told her, "He's put everyone's routines up but ours." So we intentionally conspired to leave her out of the previous routine post as an EPIC inside joke.



Julia's been hassling me, btw, about Facebook. She "friended me" and indignantly says it's rude not to friend people back. I don't use Facebook. I have an account in case I feel the nostalgic urge to look up old college and high school friends (I borrowed Coach Dan's myspace account to do this before, as I don't have a myspace). But I don't "network" on it; I don't use it. I have all these friend requests I've been hesitant to respond to, because I don't quite know what it's all about.

My favorite radio station has been running a program ad, with excerpts of Hugh Hewitt, who's been on the cutting edge of internet technology (including blogs) and is now into Twitter, expressing the same bafflement. It's a pretty funny ad as he asks, does he "just friend EVERYBODY?" Why?

I caught this program clip, too, that reflects and expresses perfectly, the Facebook dilemma:

At the risk of embarrassing Julia, I'd like to highlight and underscore again, what a good person she is. This is the kid who went to New Orleans last summer with her church youth group to help rebuild homes for those who suffered loss during Katrina and Rita.

A couple of weeks ago, Julia gave me an unexpected card:




I think what might have triggered this was an inadvertent admission that I wasn't being paid to help Nika, as Julia wondered if she was taking my time away from teaching a private to Nika (I was helping both her and Julia- who got "thrown out of the house", so came to watch Erin work on her floor routine- out at the same time on a Sunday).

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.

LA Lights Holiday Invitational 2008 (Level 5s and 6s)

Talitha:


Brooklin:


Nazeli:



Crislin:


Jesse:

"Happiness is Always Near"

One of the things I've been into checking out while searching for certain songs, are cover versions. There are tons of covers uploaded at YouTube by your average joe, and by your extraordinary janes. Seriously, YouTube and similar internet sites are great exposure for "undiscovered" artists and talented people who deserve record contracts, stunt gigs, and wider reknown. David Choi is one such artist I stumbled upon a month or two ago. I subscribed to his YouTube channel and received a notice this morning of a subscription update. Just one listen to his new song (free, downloadable mp3, btw) changed my mind about doing any kind of music video from last Sunday's LA Lights Holiday Invitational meet.

Pretty easy on the ears:





David Choi's webpage.

His bio.

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)

Happy Thanksgiving! (Sorta!)

I've known Keli for 5 or 6 years, at least. For some time now, I'd look over at her and notice her doing more sitting than gymnasticking; or looking pensive. I guess it was predictable: Last week she clued me that when this session ends, she was done. She wasn't progressing, and her mind wasn't into it. Tuesday night after Robyn and I were done with our advanced class, she sat down with us and announced it was her last day.

Most of the footage in this film was shot that day:



Keli leaving makes me sad in a way similar to what it felt like to have the gym close down. Same with Gianna (I didn't even know she quit within a session at LASG, until weeks later). I know that it was probably her time to move on; but it's still always sad to have a chapter close; especially when things end on a note like this. She just felt she was wasting her time and her parents' money if she wasn't going to get better and pursue gymnastics in college.

I hope she treasures her memories and the skills she did manage to develop through gymnastics. I remember trying to talk her into moving up to team for a couple of years before she finally left the intermediate level nest. It seemed like her excuse had to do with money; but when I mentioned it to her dad one day, there was no indication of that and she moved up shortly thereafter. It was like he didn't know she had an interest.

I miss the beautiful young woman she almost is ("almost", not because she isn't beautiful, but because she's still breaking out through her teen years) and the scrawny little booger she once was (not that she wasn't always beautiful back then either).

She says she will pursue pole-vaulting. Maybe she can come in and workout once in a while, since p-vaulters do a number of the same conditioning exercises as gymnasts.

I'm thankful for the memories you've given me, Keli- good and bad! Whatever you do, I wish you the best of luck and hope you always celebrate life to the fullest. Viva la vida!

Level 4 Team Floor Routines

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