Super Epic Floor Music, Or: Getting Back in Touch With My Inner Nerd

Dude. How did I fail to require that one of my girls use THIS as floor music?

Or this: lassos, boulders, and Harrison Ford, oh, my!

I was also advised to check this out. Makes me think more of figure skating music, but it's still lovely.

Thanks, Academy!

Born This Way

Ah, and as the girls age closer to middle and high school, the cattiness begins.

We have a squadron of new girls, strictly IGC. Emily is a little younger than the rest of the group. She's flaky. Marches to her own drummer. All those metaphors. Genuinely a good kid who wants to make others happy, though.

The other girls didn't pay much heed to Emily until Gail started in. At first it was the little things. "What are you doing?" she'd say to Emily whenever Em unwittingly cut ahead of her or took an extra turn, all huffy-like, all "You don't know what you're doing." I made a mental note to talk to Gail about her 'tude. She tends to be 'tudey anyway, Gail does. She's 10, but she will be a delightful teenager, I'm sure.

Then McKenzie joined in. McK's a generally laidback, happy-go-lucky sort of girl, which made her open annoyance with Emily surprising. I can also see that she's the cool kid of the group; all of the girls want to be her friend. So if McK's picking on Emily, you can bet that Gail feels encouraged to continue.

"I finished!" Emily bounces over to me, hair flapping in her face.

"She didn't really do all of her handstands," McKenzie says, looking perturbed.

"Yeah, Emily, I'm only on my third one," Gail says. Her 'tude face is set.

"Why don't you girls worry a little less about Emily's handstands and more about your own?" I say.

At the end of the rotation, I take Gail and McKenzie aside. Look, I know Emily is younger than you, and sometimes she gets in your way, but that doesn't mean you can be mean to her, I say. They nod and nod.

It happens another time. My boss has a talk with the whole group. Emily, in keeping with her character, is perfectly oblivious the entire talk.

Will it happen again? Probably. Am I ready to lay down the law? Yes. Get those parents on the horn. You can be frustrated, and you can get a little annoyed, but if you're going to be mean, you can get out.

College Lite

One thing I learned from college is the power of a group of screaming and cheering girls when the pressure's on and you're standing in the corner for your last tumbling pass. You may want to die. You may only think of collapse. But with that wave of sound, suddenly this is possible.

Thus I insist my girls cheer for one another, namely our older girls. (The Level 4s are still getting the hang of the whole, "Wait, is this the warm-up or the real competition?" thing.) I don't mean half-assed clapping. I mean names called out, shouts of "C'mon!" and "You got this!", wild applause even if the routine sort of sucked.

It's 9:30 pm and the girls are finally competing floor three long rotations. "I want to hear all of you," I say as the first girl salutes the judge. "You need to wake up these people."

And they do. They clap, they cheer, and after Kelsey's back tuck, they're all shouting, until I realize that Grace, who stands next to me, is just making loud noises without words, until I look at her and we both start laughing.

Whoa!

Back from hiatus!

Just like our friends from New Directions.

Why the absence?

1. This whole "real job in accompaniment with coaching" shenanigan.
2. Things are going well at the gym.

In regards to the latter, I feel like I'm in a groove. There's always much to learn. But right now my methods are working. Routines look sharper, new skills are underway, scores are breaking into the 9.0's. Lately, no one has broken herself. ::knocks on guitar for good luck::

Could this mark a new era for Level 4 and Rising?

Let's find out.