After Emily's dismal State meet, we both decided that if Emily wishes to continue this quest, she needed a smaller class size, more time with the coach and more conditioning. The size of the team alone at TIGAR was reason enough to realize that the afternoon girls would be lost in the mix. The quality of training that the school program girls received during the morning practices put that squad at a definite advantage over the girls in the afternoon program, and since Beth, the owner told me the week before that there was no room in the school program for Emily, 4 days a week, we bid TIGAR Gymnastics farewell on Monday night.
After interviewing several gyms in the area, the concensus was that we needed to find a medium to small sized gym that offered a school program. We researched and found Gymnastika, which is owned and operated by Gay Lindsay and Alexei Kodria. Upon meeting with them, I feel that Gay and Alexei are more concerned with the quality of coaching and reinforcing the love of this sport. They stress the necessity for proper conditioning techniques to avoid injury. My gut told me this is a good move for Emily.
Emily has now moved to Gymnastika's smaller but much higher quality bar and vault program with Grigoriy Buchkovskiy and Alexei Koudria. Grigoriy moved to Colorado in 2010 to be closer to his family, and started with TIGAR Gymnastics. That is when Emily and I originally met him. He moved to Gymnastika during this past summer. Emily worked well with him and his son Yevgen while they were at TIGAR. Emily was heartbroken when Yevgen left suddenly just as the Level 5 season began. The girls had to adjust to a new bar and beam coach at the beginning of the season.
Even though Emily is leaving Svetlana behind at the moment and will miss her very much, Svetlana gave her a solid foundation in gymnastics that will benefit Emily's future training. Emily knows in order to reach her goal, she'll need more intensive training and conditioning with a smaller class size to improve her bar and vault routines, or face additional struggles at her next meet.
Emily knows this is the best move for her to reach the goals that she is setting for herself and she is comfortable with it. Emily has been very fortunate in her 10 years. She has been coached by some amazing people. Not only has she received some fabulous hands on training from the best in the world at TIGAR, including Svetlana Boguinskaya, now she's learning vault from Alexei Koudria, who was the senior trainer of the Belarussian National Gymnastic team which produced the great Vitaly Scherbo! Alexei has trained several Colorado Gymnasts that have reached the Olympic level. Wow, I don't know how God keeps this child on this road to glory to receive such blessings, but hey, I'll enjoy the ride... Alexei told me tonight that Emily listens to him and he likes working with her. Thank God. She's high maintenance, just like her old man was. We wish TIGAR much success, and I am sure we will meet with all of them again in the near future. I will be continuing to follow all of the girls' progress - after all, our little Utopia created at TIGAR will continue to evolve and the friendships made while there will not be broken.
Emily's been at Gymnastika for the last two days and will start in their school program after the winter break, but for now she's there for the afternoon session and truly having a blast. She's relaxed, happy and has a renewed outlook on the sport after such a dismal State meet. On Tuesday we tried her on the school schedule for just that one day. I did it to see if she wanted it bad enough to adjust her schedule. Well, she was ready and out the door on Tuesday morning at 6:50am. I couldn't get her up for regular school without being late 4 out of 5 days... I guess she's truly fixated on her goal.
More to come.. Emily's determined to succeed.
We've gone to Gymnastika. Anissa had Gay for Level 4 for awhile. I think Emily will do well there and we wish her all the best! So glad you could get in a school program in January. She'll thrive.
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