As the World Spins

Let us reflect on Summer 2010.

Accomplishments:

• I've choreographed four floor routines so far. A slow pace, but I'm pleased with the quality.
• We all survived the team trip to the local water park.
• Amy broke a growth plate at gymnastics camp, Colleen her ankle when running to her cubby. They have since recovered.
• Our new squad of IGC girls is rocking: huge improvements in flexibility and basic skills. Back handsprings occurring on floor, tumble track, and trampoline. Solid attitudes and hard work.
• The Level 5's and 6's make Coach P. shake his head several times a practice.
• Though he did get involved in a deep discussion of sleep habits and debated the pronunciation of "vocabulary" with them today.
• Several of the girls are entering junior high school. Channeling Joseph Conrad: The horror, the horror!
• I've had a couple of gym-related items published! They're under my real name. Call me Hannah Montana.
• Angie Baby visited WOGA, home of Nastia Liukin. I hyperventilated vicariously through her.
• The jury's in: photo with Marta wins.

Of glaciers and galaxies

It's safe to say I keep my vocabulary spiced and ready to go.

"That was as fast as a glacier," I say to one girl after her roundoff.

"What's a glacier?"

"It's a huge chunk of ice that moves about one inch every thousand years." I'm not sure if this is scientifically accurate, but her eyes widen. "Speed up your roundoff!"

Later I use the word "spacey," a normal term, and Colleen perks up. "What does that mean?" she asks as she flips her long ponytail over her shoulder.

"It means your head's in outer space," I say with hand gestures.

"Ohhh. I can see that!"

Quite honestly "spacey" is the perfect word for Colleen but I keep that to myself. She's seven. There's a chance she'll grow out of it. (Or not.)

And yesterday, while assisting Mariah with the Level 4 beam dismount, I explain that I'll only spot her if she does a decent handstand. "Otherwise it's too much yankage," I say, referring to when her feet don't get over her head and I have to pull her body from one side of the beam to the other. I proceed into an inspirational talk of kicking one's legs and attaining proper positions.

A pause.

"Yankage?" she says.

Obfuscators Anonymous

I have the itch to complicate. I hear complex music and I want to hit every beat, rise with every ascending violin.

It's exhausting.

The girls untangle my webs. In fact, they cut right through: "I can't do that," they'll say when I create a dance step. Or they'll look at me with a mix of panic and fear. Take it down a notch, I know.

Thing is that I hate floor routines where the gymnast moves slowly and hits a few poses while the music plays frenetically. We've all seen this. Good music deserves a good routine. But good music + awkward performance = cringe.

So I'm trying to compromise. Do-able dance that still looks decent (I hope). After they've tapped out the required tumbling and dance, there's still so much music left...

But it's easier elsewhere. I step onto the beam next to Kasey's. "Follow me," I say.

Clean poses. All the elements. Flicks of the wrist (I like to say, "Ping!"). Get off the beam.

My mind is clear: Keep it simple.

Emeline, you will love this routine

And she's from Guatemala, which is even more awesome:

Seeking the One

One ring to rule them all...

Or, in less Tolkien terms, the one who will rise above.

"I just want to coach one good gymnast," Coach P. says one afternoon while the girls break for water. The gym is busy today: small children dive into the pit, other children swing on the rope and hang upside down on bars, and inevitably some little girl cries.

One good gymnast is enough, he says, to inspire the other girls. To serve as an example. A girl who practices and competes at a high level.

"Who do you think it'll be?" I say.

He shrugs. "Some days they work hard. Other days they don't."

Coach P. has in fact worked miracles on the young Level 4's. The most spastic among them now have roundoff-two back handsprings on floor and back tucks on tumble track. Some still cry, but the parental complaints have slowed. They see that the girls are getting good. Or could be good.

The quest is on.

Rest Assured

My dad made mention of a Division I college gym team seeking an assistant coach. I Googled for funsies and found that the position offers not only "excellent" benefits, but life insurance. Life insurance! I forgot such a thing existed. Division I doesn't mess around, dead or alive.

Poker face

Gymnasts learn not to break. Smile for the judges but don't you dare let them see you cry. Commentators and reporters refer U.S. national champion Rebecca Bross's intensity in competition as though this is something new. I can think of few gymnasts who emote genuinely in competition.

What about their coaches?

"I don't need to watch the routines," my dad said when I competed in college. "All I have to do is look at your coach's face to know what's going on."

Gymnastics has famously excitable coaches: Who can forget Bela Karolyi's "you can do it" as Keri Strug prepared for her second vault at the 1996 Olympics? On the men's side, Yin Alvarez has the penchant to go berserk after his son's routines.

When do you turn it off? When should you?

During the college years, which were wracked by the expected dramas of 18-to-22-year-old life, our coach often sat us down to say, "Keep it out of the gym. Leave it at the door."

I believe in modeling behavior for one's athletes and students, and I think all of my coaches were guilty at some point for bringing "it" into the gym. Bad break-ups, pettiness with co-workers, depression and anger. We knew it, even if it was never stated overtly. The youngest kids felt it. Something was off in our small universe no matter how hard we tried to do well.

When I was a senior in high school, I parked at the gym before work and checked my voicemail. Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to neglect said mailbox. But I listened this day to a voicemail in which the dude I was dating broke up with me. I called him back and tears and "but can't we just talk about this in person?" ensued. Then it was time to teach preschoolers.

"What happened to your eyes?" asked a plump girl with pigtails.

"Allergies," I said. "Let's do forward rolls."

TFLN, Gym Edition

This is too good to pass up.

(716): The story about him having a girlfriend changed real fast when he found out that I was a gymnast

Keeping It Classic

The energy of the crowd is unreal. It's not a dancer's routine, not an exercise in elegance and aesthetics, but...you'll see.

La mano de Dios

Choreography is all about marking territory.

Two summers ago I made up a routine for a younger girl in the gym. Our coach usually choreographed but she was too busy. I went to grad school and later saw the girl at a competition. Our coach had changed the routine, she said, "but I liked your version better." She seemed sincere.

I've seen this many times. The tweak of a pose, the switch of arms and legs, the removal or addition of passages. You can call it revision from more experienced coaches, and surely that's so, but I call it imprint. The coach's hand at work, a hint of the preferred flavor. I bet a girl who began at one gym with one routine could rotate through several gyms and return with a routine hardly like the one she started with.

Would I do the same? I haven't been faced with it yet. So far our routines are homegrown and no girls have switched into our gym from optional or IGC levels.

You ask again: Would I do the same? Truth be told, most likely. Yes.

To hold one's body in place

Yesterday, I taught my oldest Level 4/5 to date. My dear twenty-two-year-old friend Beth and I went through the beam and floor routines in the grass. She just started/was thrown into coaching team and "needed to learn the routines from someone besides a seven-year-old." I pointed to the tree and the glass objects hanging from the line. "Those are the floor corners," I said.

"Can you press play?" she called to her father, who stepped into the jacuzzi and looked at us with amusement. Drizzle fell.

The last time Beth and I did floor routines was less successful. In college I made up her routine, including a minor dance move that I thought was simple. I was wrong. It ended up with me holding her head in place and Emeline nearby saying, "Look up NOW!"

At the end of yesterday's session, we both had dirt on our feet, grass on our shorts, and general confusion of left versus right. "At least you didn't have to hold my body in place this time," she said. A win, indeed.

Light as a feather

Spent last night in Connecticut at the senior womens' finals with some of the girls from my high school gymnastics team. This included: watching the actual meet, peeking into the VIP tent, pursuing Alicia Sacramone on the sidewalk, chatting with Mary Lee Tracy, and best of all, scoring a group photo with Marta Karolyi. Great success!

Whilst watching the USA men

"As a coach, you don’t just get the message across. You are the message." - Justin Spring

Live Blog: Nationals, Day I

(As opposed to Dead Blog?)

Rotation One:
-Kytra Hunter's tumbling is insane. A smile appeared during her routine, which you don't see much of these days.

-Tim and Elfi make a big deal of Mackenzie Coquatto staying on beam. She's very shaky. I feel as though if you state, "I'm going to finish in the top three" at senior nationals, you should be able to handle beam.

-I like Mattie Larson. She looks half-asleep. Her beam routine was the sads.

-I also like Alicia Sacramone's hair. No sads.

Rotation Two:
-All this "it's her title to lose" talk around Rebecca Bross reminds me of the Vanessa Atler bars drama. I'm not a huge Bross fan, but calm yourselves, commentators.

-However, her beam routine is pretty sweet. Very confident. Great pointed toes in the Arabian. A little to be desired in the sheep and switch ring. Overall, good stuff!

-I remember the meet at Brown when I beat Alicia on floor whilst she was in NCAA. A.k.a. the day she didn't compete floor.

-I love the sparkle motion on Alicia's leo. NICE layout and switch side. Also like the body wave-ish steps. Holy save on the dismount.

-Nice vault from Kytra.

-In the other room, my mom listens to "Bad Romance."

-Great double layout from Mattie. Really nice lines in her tumbling. High energy in the dance. Lol @ the strut before the last pass. Much better than beam!

-Aly Raisman's beam routine: shrug. A bit close to the beam on the dismount.

-Briley Casanova wins for the best name. Nice 1.5 turn with leg at horizontal on beam. Aaaand she's off the beam. Is it just me or do her toes flex up with her running steps? Ahh, I was a frequent offender of that.

-Vanessa Zamarripa with the old school geometric designs on the leo. Oof, fall on the full-twisting split jump. Great dismount -- stuck 2.5 twist.

Rotation Three:
-The crazy side of Alicia has settled down, a.k.a. the YouTube videos of her punching guys at parties?

-Oh, Bridget Sloan, that leotard. Yikes.

-She does, however, seem like a lovely person.

-Not particularly moved by Sophia Lee, but her music is interesting.

-I like Mattie's super casual hair. Good vault.

-How does one define an "international look"?

-Like the split jump out of Aly's first pass. Great triple full. She needs sass, stat. I feel like she's slightly off the music...not hitting the undertones.

-Nice Hindorff from Kytra. Very clean routine.

-Not really into Vanessa's choreography. However, at least it can be called choreograhy, as opposed to most of the other girls.

-I bet Lilia approves of Rebecca's first pass. Her choreographer needs to treat her kindly next time around. Eeks. Looks less confident here than on beam.

Rotation Four:
-After the Subway debacle on MIOBI, I cringe whenever Nastia opens her mouth on national television.

-Good vault from Aly. Not as grand as Alicia's will be, I wager. That better not be considered a stick.

-I love Kim Zmeskal.

-Chelsea Davis looks so young. Not like I'm one to say such things. The term "coming out party" is silly. Classy leo. I watched the Texas Dreams workout video the other day and was enthralled. SAFE. Kinda looks like she could be Chris Burdette's daughter.

-I'd like to see Mattie win. That would be cool. She is TINY. Good bars.

-"Texas just crushes everybody." - Al Trautwig

-Lots of empty seats. Maybe we'll be able to sneak to the lower levels on Saturday night!

-I like that Bross saved the stick on her vault.

-I wonder if Alicia will venture back to floor exercise ever? Not impossible.

-Damn, she attacks that table!

-Two fingers = double-twisting Yurkchenko?

-Indeed! She must be psyched.

-Must not have been fun for Bridget Sloan to compete in the last rotation. More aggressive than usual in her dance. Eeks -- comes right off in the layout step-out. Marta is not pleased, I'm sure. I thought Tim just said, "She needs to get help." He actually said, "Healthy."

-I wonder if I can obtain a piece of WOGA apparel.

Aaand we're out.

metagymnastics

About one-third of my girls realize that gymnasts exist outside of our team. They know who Shawn and Nastia are beyond the name on their leotard. Some can even drop other names.

The rest need a nudge.

"You have a homework assignment," I say. "You need to watch Nationals and next week tell Coach P. and me who your favorite gymnast was. And you need to tell us enough so that we know you actually watched it."

Easy enough.

The girls nod and talk about channels and times. Grace looks confused. "I don't know how to find it."

"Look it up online," I say.

"My computer is broken."

"Didn't you say before that you were watching YouTube?"

"That was on my iTouch. It doesn't have Internet. It just has WiFi."

"That is Internet," Natalie and I say in unison. "Go onto Google," I say.

"I only have Firefox."

Maybe not so easy.

Present Time (PT)

Much of this blog is background and context. What's going on now?

On the summer schedule, the levels come in at different times. Coach P. has the honor of being there for every practice. I split time with the older Level 4's and the 5's, and with the new USAIGC team. On the one hand, we're putting all the older compulsory girls in IGC. On the other, we have a USAIGC-only team that's never competed before. In the fall, they'll all practice together.

The USAIGC girls are behind the 4's and 5's. For the most part. There's one whippersnapper cranking out back walkovers on the low beam. And another girl who miraculously dropped her split from about ten inches off the ground to two. As a group, they're energetic and hardworking. I like this. So does Coach P. I think we can make something happen.

..

Dear Fran,

Play your cards right and maybe you too will conquer the mill circle!

Please, a little less drama!

(If you know what that line's from, I salute you!)

Now the quest is on to find cute, upbeat floor music, preferably no longer than a minute -- there are only so many epically long routines for non-dancers that my imagination can conjure!

Baby likes to rock it

This weekend my five-year-old niece visited from North Carolina. "Alexis has been waiting for you," my mom announced when I entered the kitchen. "She has big news."

"I'm starting gymnastics," Alexis said proudly. Then she raised her arms, reached back into a back bend, and kicked over with both feet.

I wonder if I can legally steal her for my team.

Ye of Little Faith

After the Natalie situation yesterday, Kelsey said she'd found floor music online and her mother had purchased it. It's from one of those sites that re-orchestrates music and cuts it to routine length. The problem is that often the music sounds cheesey: digitized and stripped down.

I worried.

But today I listened to a demo of the piece and then found a full version on YouTube. And what do you know? It's great!

Los molinos

As I have a private today with one of the young Level 4's, I'm researching beforehand:

Calling all maestros

Today I headed off Potential Floor Disaster 2010/11. On Monday, Natalie brought in floor music that was, well, not really music. It was more like beats with some semblance of a melody. Kind of what you'd hear at a club, but not as cool.

I tried but the creation process was labored, the dance skills having nothing to do with each other, and when I woke up at 8 this morning, I immediately kneeled on the floor to revise a section I'd pondered last night. Better, but still not right.

Luckily my boss saved me. "What do you think of Natalie's music?" she asked this morning.

"I'm not a fan."

"Yeah, it sucks," she said. "Her mom hates it, too. Let's change it."

Out of all the Level 5's and 6's, Natalie deserves a good IGC season after a disastrous first year of Level 6. But I don't want to hurt her feelings.

"Do you love this floor music?" I asked her after warm-ups.

"I like it," she said, and I think she already knew what was up.

Good. "You're a really good dancer and I think we should look for a piece that shows that off more."

"Okay." She shrugged cheerfully.

At least I wasn't lying. Natalie's tall and flexible, and when she actually straightens her legs, her leaps and kicks are dynamite. You won't find those at the club.

After running through a few ideas, I remembered Bond. My boss searched iTunes and liked what she heard, Natalie agreed, and so did her mom.

Thank you, fiddling women!

Now I call upon Friends, Coaches, Music Enthusiasts: Any suggestions for floor music? I've compiled a small collection to bring on Monday and while the girls are supposedly looking for music on their own, I like to be prepared. (Emeline, I'm looking at you.)

Rock on, tiny dancers!

Sebastian

In the corner of the gym rests a long, rounded stick. Duct tape circles in increments. A tuft of orange yarn on top. Meet Sebastian.

Sebastian came along in response to the alarming lack of shoulder flexibility in some of the girls. His purpose is simple: grasp the stick with both hands, raise it above your head and pull it behind you with straight arms, then roll it back over. Your hands hold on the duct tape markers. The closer the markers, the more flexibility demanded of your shoulders.

My boss came up with the idea of naming the stick. She thought it might entice the girls to want to use it. One practice, they scribbled their name suggestions and Greg read out loud the options. The most popular names were placed in a hat and the winner drawn at random. Sebastian won. That was my name. You can see I'm making good use of my writing degree.

Next, Sebastian was to be sent home for a week at a time with the girls deemed most dire. I believe this is when my boss added the orange yarn as hair, because the girls complained loudly. Laurel ended up taking him home, and then maybe Amy, and then at some point he was passed to a Level 3 and went underground for a while.

Now he hangs out behind the freezer. He looks forlorn. So I took him out the other day and instructed the girls to use him as one of their stations. Every little bit helps, right? And they did use him. For a bit. Then I looked up from watching front handsprings and saw one of the girls swinging him around as a sword. He can't catch a break.

Upstate Girls

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting up with two of my finest ladies. One of them, the incomparable Emeline, was my teammate in college. We were injured together (to the point where she dislocated her elbow the day I got knee surgery - is that destiny or what?), rehabbed together, ate peanut butter puddles together, and, senior year, finally competed together.

Before we took on the town, we started talking gymnastics. This led to: stretching ideas from Emeline that I'll attempt to implement on my inflexible lasses; floor routine demonstrations on our friend's carpet; and, inevitably, rolling around the floor in splits and "dramatic ending poses" that had our friend looking weirdly at us.

Emeline has found a practical outlet for her years of training. Besides coaching, she breaks hearts every weekend on the salsa dance floor. Me, well, I keep it tamer in zumba class. My forty-year-old classmates haven't fallen prey to my grapevines. But that's the thing with Em and me (Em Squared?). We're not competing these days, but we keep moving.