Back at Gymnastika!

 After that horrendous knee injury, and over 4 months out of the gym and on crutches,  Emily's back with her friends over at Gymnastika!  I had her at Highland Hills and hoped she would want to stay there a little longer because it's not such a far drive, but the moment the doc released her, she begged to go back to Gay Lindsay's.  She loves her coach.  Even though the ortho doc hates girls in gymnastics, Emily has other ideas as to what she wants to do with herself.   Emily's  been working beam and bars and  working hard on conditioning.  It won't be long before she's back in competition form.

Gabby Douglas Wins the All Around Gold!

and her old gym whines about losing "their" champion...

Gabby's Mom owes Excaliber money
Gym owners are truly a strange breed.  With the money that they could reap from new clients, they really shot themselves in the foot with this whining.

I salute you Gabrielle Douglas not only for helping your team win Gold,  but for being the first African American woman to win the All-Around Gold at the Olympics!  Congratulations to Natalie Hawkins  (Gabby's Mom) and Gabby's siblings for making the sacrifices to help get her there.  Congratulations to Liang Chow , you are a great mentor.  Not only have Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas achieved their Olympic goals, but they have also been given the strength to handle themselves under the spotlight because of the confidence that you helped instill in them both.  We can't wait to see all of the champions when they come to town for the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions - 2012

Meanwhile:

Emily has been fighting through Osgood-Schlatter's disease for most of the summer, so we've opted to take a month off of hard training as she's in far too much pain to continue her 26 hour a week regimen.  It's really close to competition season, but I'd rather she made it to adulthood without tearing out both knees.  Sorry, but it's a Mom Thing.   There will be a life after Gymnastics, and I'd like to make sure she gets there without a Handicap Placard. She'll keep up her conditioning at home and we'll re-evaluate at the end of the month.  It was hard to tell Gay at Gymnastika that we were taking a break, but I feel it's the best thing that Emily can do for herself right now, and the pain is causing her to realize that it's best to take it easy for a couple of weeks until this recent growth spurt is over with. Competition can wait awhile.  It disturbs me to see so many taped ankles, knees and wrists in this sport.

2012 Olympics - Go Team USA!

Emily and I spent this morning searching for news on Team USA girls.  What a shock to find out that Jordyn Wieber did not qualify for the Individual All Around final.  More news at http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Olympics/2012/0729/Olympics-shocker-Jordyn-Wieber-US-all-around-gymnast-fails-to-qualify

Well, as Michael Phelps just discovered, 4th place is not where anyone wants to be.  My heart goes out to Jordyn, her coach and her family.  She's worked so hard, she's still the World Champion. 

We will continue to root for the ENTIRE US TEAM.  Personally I just love Ali Raisman's Floor routine and music, as for Gabby Douglas - she really can fly on the bars! It will always be a team effort and we'll be rooting for them to win gold!

Our men's favorite is John Orozco.  He's such a nice kid and has such great heart. We'll be cheering him on this evening.  Emily and I have decided that we're going to go watch the next summer Olympics in 2016.  Rio, here we come!

UPDATE ON EMILY'S STATUS
Emily's new skills are:
Kip, cast, handstand, three-in-a-row, on Uneven Bars
Front walkover, tik tok on the high beam, without a mat!
Emily's coach tells me that when she performs a twist, Emily knows exactly where her body is at all times while tumbling.  Emily's a pretty good tumbler I have to admit. The first time I saw her do a back layout, she took my breath away.  I was shocked at the air that she got. 

Saluting all Gym Moms...

Proctor and Gamble decided to make this series of videos, to acknowledge what we as moms go through daily to support our childrens' dreams and aspirations...

I just love this line from the below video "Olympians -  they weren't born that way, they're raised that way..."




For all of those naysayers that would like to believe that what we are doing, as the mother of a dedicated child in any disclipline is living vicariously through their child...

lets not forget ...the late night hand washing of the exhibition uniforms, the waking of the athlete, preparation of the morning meal, the early morning hair braiding, stocking the snack bag with healthy food to get her through another grueling practice... the checking of the school homework... the endless daily driving... to the gym, to the school, to the gym, back to home... and before transporting to each destination, making sure to prepare a healthy "in-transit" meal, carrying their exhausted body out of the car to bed at the end of a grueling day and asking your little champion after every practice "Did you have fun today?"




So to clarify - we as mothers dedicate ourselves to our children, fear for their safety, we are there to shore them up when they feel defeated, pray to God that we have the strength to continue in their quest whatever it may be, and cry with relief and pride that we are privileged to witness their shining moments ... no matter what path we end up being dragged down by our future medalist.  As mothers we will continue to do so as long as we live and breathe. We love them and are in awe of their accomplishments, drive and dedication.

Here's a great article  The Role of the Gymnastic Parent

Here's another great article http://voices.yahoo.com/what-takes-gymnastics-parent-537025.html

May Flowers... new skills

Emily has been working on getting her Giant. Still pretty fearful, but she's almost there! She's been able to swing to handstand on the parallel bars, which Gay says takes a good chunk of the fear factor out of the equation, but still Emily's tensing up with fear when working on that skill. I just found out that my cousin Glenn Olson has been chosen as the head chef at Olympic Village for the Summer Olympics in London! I hear he's a wonderful chef. I haven't seen him in 35 years. Wow, that's a long time and we were all just kids. Thank God for Facebook. Emily was in the talent show at her Elementary School this past week and she performed a modified balance beam routine which she ALMOST crashed and burned at. She threw two tricks on a 2" mat that I had NO IDEA she decided to put in that routine. When she rehearsed her original routine, it was performed on 8" mats. I did not know until she went to perform that the mats were switched out, and by then she was in the middle of the routine. Thank God she didn't get hurt.

Level 6 competition season is only 5 months away!

Counting down the months left until she competes again, Emily is finally out of her hand splint and back at practice with a vengeance! This week Emily has been practicing her back handspring, back layout off the tramp; she's almost got her giant on bars. She still fears the height she's getting on the bars, but knowing this one, she'll work through that and have it perfected by April. She's also working on her front walk-over, front tick-tock on beam. I haven't had the chance to watch much of Emily's practices as I don't hang out at this gym, the parent area is too claustrophobic, and besides, I've got plenty of other things to do, like take care of my own business in between chauffering this little one, but I see the improvement in Emily's attitude and she's much happier now, enjoying what she's doing and hopefully not causing her coaches too much grief.

Above photo courtesy of Brian@ImagingB... This was Emily's second Level 5 vault at the State Meet this past December - she crashed into the vault the first time out. I wondered why, now I know. She knew the table wasn't set right from the get go. Emily trained with the table set at a 1 and then 2, but apparently her vault coach decided this day to set the vault table on 0 at the State Meet. That's a lousy thing to do to a kid and a picture tells a thousand words. So glad we've found a new home at a gym that will encourage my daughter to thrive in this sport and not hold her back. I keep asking Emily, "hey... you want to stop and do something else like soccer or softball?" Faaaaaggeddaboutit!!! She's a gym rat all the way.

Starting Level 6, new skills, new coaches, new gym.

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.

Xtreme Aerials, three weeks before Level 5 State Championships

Tonight we attended the Xtreme Aerials Fall Classic in Lafayette.  Emily placed 6th all-around in her division which did not please her.  She wants all 9's for Level 5.  I've been told by other moms that she's doing really well, but she's not happy.  She wants to be the best, and is not happy with her record in this Level 5 season.  I think she's done really well - she doesn't.  I'll be reporting in during State.


So here's Emily's scores since the start of this season, there's only one more event - that's the State Championships on December 10th-11th.  They are scheduling the girls in different flights based on their highest meet all around score.  Emily's highest all-around score for this season is 36.1 at the TIGAR Cartwheel Carnival.

9-18-11 Aerials Fall Festival, Colorado Springs.
Vault 8.45 (6th),  Bars 8.05 (5th), Beam 8.95(2nd), Floor 9.0 (2nd) All Around (3rd)  34.45

10-01-11 TIGAR Cartwheel Carnival, Wheat Ridge
Vault 8.75 (7th), Bars 8.6 (8th), Beam 9.4 (1st), Floor 9.35 (1st) All Around (2nd)  36.1

10-15-11 JUDGE'S CUP  (This was disastrous - Emily was coming back from a wrist sprain and basically only conditioned up to this point)
Vault 7.75 43rd),  Bars 8.4 (27th),  Beam 6.7 (she fell three times) (66th), Floor 8.875 (22nd)  All Around 31.725 (57th)  This meet was a reality check for Emily. She now realizes that she can't take 10 days off resting an injury and then jump into a meet head first with virtually no practice.

11-12-11 MILE-HI Salute, TIGAR, Wheat Ridge (this was supposed to have been a Savage Meet)
Vault 8.5 (5th),  Bars 7.95 (?),  Beam 9.15 (1st),  Floor 9.4 (1st),  All Around (2nd Place) 35.0

11-20-11 XAG Fall Classic, Lafayette
Vault  8.65 (13th),  Bars 8.4 (2nd),  Beam  9.425 (2nd),  Floor 9.475 (1st),  All Around (6th Place) 35.95

TIGAR Gymnastics Cartwheel Carnival

Emily's first 'home meet". She did well for her second meet of the season. Scores were Vault 7th place with a 8.75, 

 Bars 8th place score 8.6,

 Beam 1st place with a 9.4

and Floor 1st place 9.35.

She placed 2nd All Around. I've put her videos up on YouTube. We did not film the awards ceremony as I was running concessions throughout the entire meet and my soon to be son in law stood in for me as videographer. He did a GREAT job with my lousy little Vivitar cheepo video camera. Here's the YouTube of her floor routine: and here's the video of her beam routine: http://youtu.be/iSSqBPatWIc

2010 Level 4 Colorado State Meet Details

Hosted by Jet Gymnastics on December 11th and 12th 2010.
It will be held at Denver University's Hamilton Gym  located at 22011 E Asbury Avenue, Denver, CO 80208

There will be two sessions on Saturday
Session #1 seating at 8:20 am. Award ceremony will be at 12:00pm.
TIGAR Level 4 teammates Kate, Violet, Maddie and Noelle are in this age group 7 & 8 year olds

Session #2 seating at 5:35pm.  Award ceremony will be at 9:00pm
TIGAR Level 4 teammates Megan, Joslynn, Audrey, Rylee, and Jaylyn are in this age group. 8 year olds.

There will be three sessions on Sunday
Session #3 is seating at 8:20am.  Award ceremony will be at 12:20pm.
TIGAR Level 4 teammates Anissa, Ileanna, and KK are in this age group 8 and 9 year olds.

Session #4 is seating at 1:05pm.  Award ceremony will be at 5:00pm. 
TIGAR Level 4 teammates Emily, Emma, Kierya, Tess and Tessa are in this age group 9 to 11 year olds.

Session #5 is seating at 5:40 pm. Award ceremony will be at 9:00pm.  TIGAR Level 4 teammate Grier is soloing in this age group for 11 years old and up.  Team awards will follow the awards for session #5. 

GO TIGARS!!!!!

One week before USAG Colorado Level 4 State Championships

I feel like I am starting this blog at the end, but really it's a beginning.  This was Emily's first year of competition in the world of Gymnastics and it proved to be pretty exciting so far. 

Emily has been diagnosed since birth with a myriad of disorders... sensory integration dysfunction, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD.  I don't particularly believe that any of them fit her, I do believe that medical and school professionals like to place labels on kids that have no creative outlet for their energy. It seems to me that some kids just need more exercize than others.

Emily is extremely bright, but can frustrate easily and is a drama queen beyond compare. She needs a release for all of her pent up energy and gymnastics became the drug to control her ADHD without medication. She's no longer taking any medication for her 'disorder'. She takes gymnastics. It seems to be working better than any drug has so far.                      

Emily is currently 9 years old (almost 10) and a level 4 gymnast as of this posting.  She is attending TIGAR gymnastics in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.  Emily started in recreational gymnastics at the age of 3 at the urging of one of my friends who had kids already in the sport.  I took her out of it when she was 4 due to financial difficulties.  Being a single parent, competitive sports are financially draining. When things got better for me, I put her in Steven Oliver's Mile High Karate at the age of 5.  This proved to be a big mistake. 

Emily, a true competitor, was quite good at Karate - so much so that she got the taste for trophies and kicking butt... leading her to hold the title in my family as the only child (not just girl) to be placed in detention in FIRST GRADE.  I had to figure something out to do with this kid to get her under control.  Second grade bullies learned valuable life long lessons about picking on first graders that competed the Karate circuit.  I put Emily back in recreational gymnastics at the age of 7.

Emily's Level 4 season so far has been alot of fun to watch.  I know very little about this sport. I couldn't tell you at this point the names of the moves that she performs, but I can tell you that Noelle, her team mate who is younger, has many more girls competing against her in the junior group and is up against some pretty tough talent. Noelle is such a work horse.  She and Emily share private practices with their coach Svetlana. It just amazes me how all of these children can commit everything they have to reach their goals at such a young age.  The third of this little group is Megan.  She's struggling to keep up with Emily and Noelle, and she did qualify for the State Championships in the last meet.  Megan's the underdog and we're all rooting for her to do well at State. She's a fighter and the tiniest of the three.  I can't imagine this little group without her. 

It's been a long road from training to competition and these little ones have worked so very hard.  I wish them all the best of luck.

Here's a list of Emily's  individual results this year prior to the State Championships:

Premier Gymnastics  2010 Showdown Level 4 Senior results  9/25/10

Vault   9.300   (tied for 3rd)
Bars    8.750   (11th place)
Beam  9.000   (5th place)
Floor   9.300   (tied for 1st)
All Around 36.350  (3rd place overall)
Emily qualified for State at this first meet.  It was a great start for her.





Adrenaline Gymnastics - AGA 2010 Rocktoberfest Level 4 Senior Results 10/2/10 

Vault   9.050 (5th place)

Bars    8.500 (11th place)

Beam  8.500 (9th place)

Floor  9.050  (4th place)

All Around 35.100 (5th place overall)

Emily wasn't happy with 5th overall.  She learned that she was going to have to work harder to get where she wanted to be. She still qualified for State with the all around scores.

Encore Gymnastics - Encore Fall Feista Level 4 Senior 10/9/10

Vault   9.100

Bars    9.100

Beam  7.800

Floor   9.450

All Around  35.450 (boy I'm lax here, need the printout..)

Emily was first on Floor exercise, being at the top of the podium really made her day.

CGI Gymnastics - Autumn Classic - 11/13/10
Vault  9.200
Bars   8.250
Beam 8.600
Floor  8.500
All Around 34.55 (another one I need the printout for)
This was Emily's worst meet yet.  She was emotional and cried throughout every event. (I had her on her ADHD meds for this meet... I've since eliminated them completely)

Airborne Gymnastics - Airborne Classic - 11/12/10

Vault   9.300

Bars    9.150

Beam  9.075

Floor   9.100

All Around 36.625

This was Emily's best meet and the last one of the season prior to State Championships.

Good luck Emmy Mae! I am so proud of your commitment to this sport.  Love Mom