The Fighter

I have wanted to put together another montage for a long time. Here it is.

I have had a lot of problems trying to share this video, but I think this will finally solve it. I hope everybody enjoys it. Please share it if you do!

What I Have Been Doing

Okay… So I wanted to share some stuff that has been going on in my life.

First of all, I am now married. We decided to go to the courthouse on March 8th and get our marriage license. That evening we found out that the grandfather of one of our athletes was a pastor. He came into the gym and signed our marriage license during practice. I had to take a precious ten minutes out of my vault workout to get it taken care of. Sarcasm… If you cant tell. We both just wanted to get it done so it worked out well.

I became a member at the local golf course and I have been playing really well so far this year. Along those same lines, I am beginning to start teaching golf lessons in the mornings. My days regularly consist of golf in the mornings, afternoon workouts with my level seven boy, and then evening workouts with the girls with private lessons before and after. The golf lessons have been really fun for me so far and there has been a lot of positive feedback already. I am really hoping that it will take off. I am completely sure that I have a lot to offer as a golf instructor and there isn’t really anybody around where I live that teaches.

Other than that, it has been business as usual pretty much. The kids were very successful at states so far. A level eight barely took second, a level nine did the same, the other level nine finished third but won vault with a really impressive layout yurchenko. My boy that I coach in the afternoons everyday had a fall on pommels and still won all around by three full points. He won vault, floor, and parallel bars. He barely took second on hight bar.

I just finished up a really exhausting weekend. I worked Friday evening with my threes and fours and then jumped in the car and headed off to Kalamazoo, Michigan for boys regionals. I got in after one, after a six hour drive, and got to sleep about two. I got up at six-thirty to get ready for the day. My boy, who I thought had a legitimate shot at winning regionals, looked average on the first five events. Especially compared to what he is capable of. Last event was pommels find he finished with another stupid fall on his kehr. I had to leave at eleven-thirty to make the four hour drive to Indianapolis, Indiana. My boy finished up ninth with a fall. He would have been fourth without the unnecessary mistake. The drive was really stressful. I had to be at the meet in Indianapolis at three-thirty. My iPhone took me on a terrible route. I went through every small town in Indiana, it seemed. I finally got onto an interstate. I ended up walking into the meet right on time. My second year level nine was first. She did well on floor. She did great on vault, but was underscored slightly. She had her highest bar score ever, which is her weakest event. Beam was shaky, but good. She finished with her highest all around score ever at 37.125. I thought for sure she was a lock to make nationals. My friends all thought so too. When thinks shook out, she got jumped by a couple kids and pushed down to the first alternate spot. There were a couple of kids that deserved to jump her and a couple that were very over scored. I was so high, emotionally. I thought she was a lock to be my first national qualifier. After she got pushed down to the first alternate spot, I completely crashed. After the bad day with my boy at regionals and being so close to nationals with my second year nine… I was shot. Not to mention exhausted. Luckily, I didn’t have to be back at the meet until almost noon the next day. I got food with the wife and was asleep at eleven. I woke up a little defeated still. We got ready and went to the meet. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high, but I thought that if my first year nine hit her routines that she would make it to nationals, and possibly win. We started on bars. Great routine, but not her best. Beam was shaky, but okay. Floor was good. One of her highest scores. It came down to vault. Hit a good vault and make nationals. There was a possibly of winning vault as well. I told my girl the situation and she understood. Warm ups were good. We did our usual routine. She was in the middle of the order. I was really confident going into her competition vaults. As she came down the run way, I quietly murmured the cues to myself. Everything looked good, but the layout yurchenko stalled in the air and she landed short. My initial thought was the health of my girl. Her ankle took a good shot. I asked her if she was okay and she said yeah. I questioned her several more times about it and she continued to confirm that she was okay. I told her that she needed the best vault she could possibly do and to make sure she did it. I told her to be aggressive and make sure it was great. I was a little nervous this time around. As she ran I looked for any signs of a limp, but there were none. I went through the cues in my head again mentally, even though it has no effect on what my athlete does. She went up and over the table and this time she snapped from the big arch to a hollow as she blocked, like she should. No stall, no short landing. Just a big layout yurchenko to her feet. Big step back. 9.375 was the high score in her age group and my girl was the last girl to go on vault in her age group. The scores flashed, 9.4. She won vault. After everybody finished, she was second all around with a 37.425. My first national qualifier and my first regional event champion.

I could go on and on about the weekend because it was awesome. Both girls did amazing and I am so proud of them both. I am a little sour about my second year nine not qualifying outright to nationals, but that wasn’t her fault at all. She did great. I am also disappointed in my boy, but his career is basically just beginning. He will be a level eight or nine next year and he is only twelve. Many years to come and many meets ahead. All in all it was great. Something I will never forget as long as I live.

We also had some set backs recently. My little superstar level eight made a really dumb decision on vault and broke her pinky, ending her undefeated season early. Side note, have you ever seen a two step piked yurchenko? I never wanted to… But I did. Somehow she got it around to her feet before she fell forward and caught herself with her pinky. To clarify, she stopped running and then restarted and did a piked yurchenko from two steps. I thought for sure she was going to just do a timer, but she flipped. Back on track… Shorty after the pinky incident, my best level six broke her hand in two spots on a back walk over. Later that week one my nines rolled her ankle pretty bad and sat out a meet just before states. Way back in November I had a level five dislocate and break her elbow on bars. Needless to say, it has been a tough year with all of these things, not to mention Andrea.

Back to the good things… And the reason I felt the need to post on my blog. Last week the cast came off my level eight, last week the cast came off my level six, my level five is preparing for states. My boy began his optional career today and my nines are beginning their preparation for nationals. The other two level eights have regionals in several weeks. We have had two previous state champions rejoin our gym after quitting for a year. One will be a five this year and one with be a six, barring any set backs. We have had two promising kids switch to our gym in the past several weeks. On top of all of this, we have been working a lot on skills for next season. My “first generation” of kids are now beginning their level seven season. My boy starts his optional career this week. We are looking at having three level nines and two level tens next year. We have been working on so many fun skills in the gym. Even the level fours have been working hard on kips, front handsprings, and vaulting over the table. There is lots of energy and excitement in the gym!

I am really excited about this summer as well. I am changing the routine this year. Instead of spending lots of time coaching at Woodward, I am spending three weeks working camps in the region and one week at Woodward. I am working at Kids Are Tops, Perfection Gymnastics School, and Mid Michigan Gymnastics. I will spend a week at Woodward this summer because I want to make sure I go back every year. I have gotten so much from my time there and I want to try to give back as much as I can. I will hopefully be working the Ohio Optional Clinic and I believe I will be presenting at the Ohio Congress again this year.

I can’t help but think about how lucky I am. I have been so blessed in my short career as a coach. Five years into this adventure and I am so much further than I ever thought I would be. To be accepted by my peers is amazing. To have so many people ask me to work their camps and offer jobs is completely humbling and flattering. I am blown away all the time at the amount of support I receive from everybody. Last weekend was definitely no exception to this. I am not sure what I have done to deserve everybody’s love and support, but I do know that I am going to keep trying make good on everybody’s good will.

This year has been amazing, and equally difficult, for me. I can’t believe that it is almost over. It seems like yesterday that I watched Andrea get another huge, bloody rip on bars. She always ripped right before a meet. She had her first level seven meet that Saturday. She always told the girls that it was her good luck charm. To have the kids do so well all year is more than I could ever ask for without having to deal with all of the things we have had to deal with.

I keep promising more updates and I have been wanting to, I promise! I have tons of ideas and I will have more time soon. It is hard to have time to type things up with golf in the mornings, workouts with my boy in the afternoons, and workouts with the girls in the evening. Not to mention my new wife, trying to workout, and all the other things I do in life. I have a lot of stuff in my head that I need to get out, so… I will be working on it!

Inspiration

I don’t believe it talent. I believe that we are who we are because of how we are raised, for the most part. That is a whole other post by itself.

I believe in out working, out smarting, and preparing for anything.

I love this video. When I first saw it I immediately linked it to Facebook. I haven’t ever been a huge fan of Will Smith, but this made me think… “He gets it.”

Sorry for the bad link. I got it right this time.

Sunrise

I woke up this morning angry, frustrated, and disappointed. These emotions quickly were replaced with confusion… I forgot about the time change. After I realized that my smartphone was smarter than me, I went back to being frustrated and exhausted. Yesterday was tough, to say the least… And six in the morning has never agreed with me.

I got ready and took off in my car. I was headed to a meet in the pitch black darkness of the morning. I continued to brood and steam as I drove for the next forty-five minutes… And then… I looked in my mirror.

I saw no headlights, no darkness, no problems, no frustration. I saw the beginning of the sun rising. I began to think about how beautiful it was. Quickly all of my emotions changed. My thoughts did as well.

I realized that this could very possible be the last time that I ever get to see the beauty that is a sun rise. I realized that every day is another chance to get it right, to get better. Every day is another chance to live beautifully. I remembered that we aren’t promised anything in this life and to appreciate everything you have and make the best of every opportunity and situation.

It is amazing how something so simple can change your attitude completely. I just wanted to share this experience with any potential readers.

Quick Thoughts

I have a ton of things I needed to get out of my head in out into the world. Here they are.

Education is not an option. It is a requirement. Not just gymnastics. Nutrition, psychology, kinesiology, exercise physiology, teaching, coaching, and everything else that is related to our sport. Can you ever get too smart? Can you ever know too much? Uhm… No! So keep looking for new information, training plans, ideas, and anything else you can find to help make you a better teacher, mentor, coach, and person.

Use your brain. Just because somebody said it or did it, doesn’t mean that it is best or right. Not all information is good information. You have to filter what you see and hear. For examples, I got a ton of information from a congress this summer and I set up a bunch of drills everyday. The kids did the drills really well, but I found that their vaults were getting worse. They were getting really good at doing all these drills and not at vaulting. I cut all the drills out and had them do their vaults and a couple drills that simulated the actual vaults. Since then, our vaults have gotten much better.

Organization is not a good idea. It is necessary. Every rotation, every day, every week, every month, every year, and even years down the road. You have to be organized. I don’t want my kids to get bored by doing the same thing, but I want them to know the plan for the event, day, and week. They should know what is expected of them and how they are going to get to where they need to be. My kids all know the rotations each day, the length of the rotations, and how we will work during the rotations. Most of my kids even know what the other groups are going to do as well. We are consistent and we are organized.

Having a plan isn’t something you do when you have time enough to think about it. Failing to plan is planning to fail. See above. Planning and organization make everything so much easier. Every kid, every skill, everything. It all needs to be planned. And after you have a plan, you need need to have a backup plan. And the backup should have a backup plan. There are so many uncertainties in this sport. Plan it out and then have backups. Follow your plan, but be flexible enough to adjust as needed.

Strength, flexibility, and basics are the most important thing in gymnastics. I believe that pain is weakness… If it hurts, it is weak and needs to be strengthened. Many injuries come from a lack of strength and/or flexibility. Every muscles and joint needs to be strong and flexible. Also… For me, bad basics is bad gymnastics. Period. Bad basics usually lead to some sort of injuries as well. Put a lot of time and effort into strength, flexibility, and basics and I am certain you will see better gymnasts and better gymnastics.

Scary gymnastics should result in at least a five point deduction. Coaches should be fined… Or maybe thrown out of the meet. I understand the occasional silly mistake, but kids should not be allowed to continually practice or compete scary gymnastics. For instance, I saw a girl do a really, really horrible tucked yurchenko vault. She nearly missed the landing mat entirely. Her next turn she did one of the prettiest layout full twisting yurchenkos I have seen. She messed up and it scared some people, but she obviously didn’t do scary gymnastics all the time. That same meet I had to tell my kids to turn away and not watch the other team warm up or compete their events. Scary doesn’t begin to describe what these girls were allowed to do. Dangerous comes to mind. Hideous does as well.

If you teach “chuck it” gymnastics, you should be chucked off a bridge. That is kind of harsh, but I really hate the whole “chuck it” mentality. There are a few “do it” skills in gymnastics, but there are no “chuck it” skills. For example, double fronts. Especially into pits. There have been many times that I have given kids instructions on how to do double fronts into a pit, what they will feel, and what they should avoid. I have then said… Do it and then we will talk about what you need to change and do better. These kids have all had the ability to do double fronts into a pit and they have always been successful on their first try, as well as every try after. I have always made sure to give them as much information as possible before they try it. “Space for your face” is a concept I always teach. I tell them to spread their knees a little bit so if they hit their feet first they don’t smash their face on their knees. I have never had a kid “chuck” a skill, but I have had them do some skills to get the fear and nerves out of the way. On a side note, I believe that pits and resi mats have helped to further the whole “chuck it” mentality.

I could be wrong, but I don’t see any of the best coaches in the world saying they don’t spot. Get your hands on the kids and work with them. I am really curious to see if I am wrong about this. Every great coach I have ever met or seen has spotted, or at least been able to spot. I believe it creates trust and helps create a bond with the kids. I don’t mean you should always spot or that is all that is important, but I do believe that it is a huge tool that should be in your tool box. I know a few coaches that don’t spot at all. I know a few coaches that don’t spot on certain events. I also know coaches that spot everything, all the time. I have a previous post about spotting that I think you should read if you are interested in spotting. Simply put… I believe you should know how to, when to, and why to spot. And be able to do it!

I don’t believe that injuries are okay, ever. Aside from the random freak, uncontrollable accident, most injuries can be prevented. I said before that strength, flexibility, and basics can prevent a lot of injuries. I believe that proper organization and planning can help as well. Knowing your kids, reading their body language, and communicating with them will help also. Chucking skills is never safe. Allowing scary gymnastics to be practiced or competed is asking for injuries. There is so much that goes into keeping your kids safe and healthy. I get really tired of hearing people say that it is just the sport or shrugging and saying… “What are you gonna do?” I do think that there are some random, freak accidents that will happen in this sport and any other sport. But if your athletes are strong, flexible, have good basics, are mentally conditioned and prepared… Don’t you think they will tend to be healthier?

Just because you have been coaching gymnastics forever or you coached one or two good kids, that does not mean you are good. I believe that you are only as good as your worst kids. I read that after winning a world all around title, a coach and athlete both said that they knew they were only as good as their next meet. I absolutely loved hearing that, especially after winning a world all around title. At the risk of over sharing my thoughts…. I want to have a kid sweep every event in all around and event finals in the Olympics. I want to have an entire Olympic team come from my gym. I have lofty goals and they are probably out of reach. If I ever do reach them… Then I have to repeat! My point is this. I have met tons of coaches that hang their hats on what they have done in the past. I have respect for previous accomplishments, but what have you done lately? Keep putting everything you have into your athletes and your staff. Always try to get better and make your athletes better. No matter what you have done in your career, there is always something more you can do.

If you are in this sport to make money, you are in it for the wrong reasons. I believe that you can make a good, maybe even great, living in this sport. If money and profits are the main concern, I don’t believe you will be successful. Focus on your plan, organization, and coaching the kids. I am willing to bet that you will start to see more profits when you have a good plan, organization, and good coaching.

I was told once that it didn’t matter what you said or did to kids as long as they made nationals. Take a second… Digest that. Think about what that statement really says. I can verbally, emotionally, or physically abuse kids as long as they make nationals? I can have them vault or tumble onto hard surfaces when they are exhausted, even though I think it is dangerous? I can have them do skills that they aren’t ready for or haven’t had proper instruction on? I can sit on my ass and drink coffee while three groups work unsupervised? No… Everything you do matters. Every day. Results are a product of the process. There are so many things wrong with that statement and that mentality.

I might just be young and naive. I might just be idealistic. It is entirely possible that I am way off the mark. But I believe that the status quo in this sport isn’t where it should be.

More Memories

I wanted to share this video on my blog for everybody to see.

This was the routine that earned her a state title on bars. By no means was it perfect, but it helped the team win bars and helped them take second overall. I can’t remember ever being more proud of her than this day. I remember the feeling when she landed her flyaway. At the time, I choked back the emotions as each kid successfully landed. I was so proud of her and those girls for everything they did all year. I told Andrea’s mother that after I watched this video it brought all the memories back to me. All of the work we did together to get to this point.

The really sad realization that hit me at some point last night was that this was the last routine she ever competed. We finished on bars on this day. That was her last salute, the last high five that I gave her after a competition routine, and the last time she got to experience what she loved to do so much. There were many more high fives and memories in the gym and at camp after this, but this was the last time in competition. Around twelve hours before she was set to compete her first level seven routines, she was involved in the accident that took her from us all.

I am going to keep trying to acquire videos of her. I almost have enough pictures to put another montage together. To be honest… It has helped me to have the outlets that I have. The Blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… I have been able to memorialize Andrea for myself and everybody else and it makes me feel so much better to be able to do that.

Just A Little Update

First of all… I wanted to share a photo with everybody. The letter I got tattooed on my arm was great and I knew I wanted it, but I also knew I wanted to add something more. I had tons of ideas but nothing seemed to fit. Finally I decided that I wanted anybody to that saw it, even at a glance, to know that the tattoo was a memorial for somebody. This is what I came up with.

I feel like it is pretty self explanatory. Andrea Bailes meant the world to me. I said recently in conversation that she was one of the kids that kept me sane in the gym. Her effort, focus, and desire were never in question. When I asked her to do something, I always saw something change. It might not have been right or perfect, but there was effort to change and improve. Always. I might add more tattoos in the future, but they will all be much more easily covered.

The other thing I wanted to share is that I have tons of ideas for articles in the near future and I am going to get back to typing soon. Between the accident and all that surrounded it, the trip to Texas, our first meet, Christmas, and New Years… It has been non stop. I wanted to get the information out that I got from Texas and I did that. I oddly felt relief when I hit publish. I think I just needed to get that out of the way. I feel recharged and ready to go now. Anyways… more posts coming soon! Tons and tons of ideas are swirling in my head. Be on the lookout on Facebook and Twitter. Also be sure to check my YouTube channel because I am going to keep posting drills and other videos there. You can find links to all of these at the top of the screen.

What I Took Home From Texas

I must admit that I have been pretty selfish recently. I have a whole new perspective on life, coaching, and gymnastics and I have kept it to myself. I got so much information in Texas and I haven’t hardly shared it. But… I am changing that. I will try to put everything I remember into this post.

To be honest, there were no ground breaking drills or ideas that I saw or heard. For me, simply being in the same gym as the top fifty eight-ten year old gymnasts, their coaches, and the National Staff gave me a lot of what I needed to become a better coach. It was more of the attitude that I saw that I needed. The respect, the air in the gym, the way everybody acted. All of it was different than I had ever seen before and I liked it.

For me, the number one thing I took home was a conversation I had with two coaches about another coach. It was a positive conversation about how awesome this coach was. One of the people I was talking with told me that this coach would observe, think, and then give a drill. This coach would not talk about why or what or even really explain. The coach would just set something up and tell the gymnast to do it five or ten times and then have them try again. The idea was to isolate the issue and set something up or give them something to do to give the gymnast the proper feeling to correct the issue. I am sure for some people reading this, that idea will sound like common sense. It was like getting smacked in the face with a bag of what the hell to me. We talked about this further and one of the coaches said that it didn’t really matter if the kids understood what or why or how but that they had the right feelings. I had become really good at explaining and trying to make the kids understand, but I had not done a good job of breaking things down and making sure that the kids had the proper feelings.

Another big thing that I took home from camp was something Valeri told the gymnasts every day. “Listen to your coaches, they will make you great. Make changes, that is how you get better.” Valeri also told the gymnasts and coaches that they should strive to get back to the Ranch as many times as possible and that when the athletes made it back they should make sure they showed improvements from trip to trip. I liked that Valeri preached these things to the gymnasts. These are all things I firmly believe and I have preached to my athletes. I also left the Ranch with a burning desire to make it back there as many times as I possibly could in my coaching career.

As far as information, I will start with the events and then go to some specific people and what I got from them. As far as drills go, I am going to try to video my kids in my gym and post the drills to my YouTube channel for all to see. I might try to explain some of them here, but it would be much easier to just show everybody instead of typing it all out.

There was not a lot of vaulting at the Ranch. The first day there was one rotation of vaulting drills in the evening. There next two days the evening vault rotations were actual vaulting. There wasn’t a whole lot of information I got from vault but I wasn’t really looking for a lot while I was down there. Vault is a strength of mine. I will video the drills and post them this week for this event. The work and talk was almost all about the round off and the whipped back handspring up onto the table. I went away from camp feeling pretty good about vault and what I was already doing with my kids. I have videos of vault drills and some of my vaulters in my YouTube channel already.

On to the bars. First of all, the National Staff was looking for these athletes to work on in-bar circling elements and swinging pirouettes. Front giants were worked on a great deal as well. These kids are mostly level seven, eight, and nine so these are pretty normal skills for those levels. A huge chunk of the bar work outs were spent on developing and perfecting these skills. Two major points of emphasis were invert giants and the drop styles for in-bar skills. Nobody came right out and said to only use the drag drop technique for pike stalders, or stoops, but they basically did. One coach did say that the stoops needed that delayed arch and snap to get the feet through and still have enough rotation to circle the bar and get back out to handstand but that there were no other skills that required the drag drop technique to do well. The coach said that all other circling skills could be accomplished simply by doing a stretch drop, like stalders, toe hands, toe ups, toe fronts, ect. Somebody asked about the one foot at a time technique and that was quickly shot down. The National Staff seems to want the stretch drop for all skills besides the stoop circle to keep things clean and pretty. Inverts almost had a whole rotation just for them each day. They did this in their bar drills rotation. They did a lot of floor bar work on the higgins and the grip itself, as well as some work on stalders, toe hands, stoops, and other pirouetting. These were all kind of the usual floor and floor bar work that everybody has seen before. Nothing ground breaking, aside from the attention to detail that was paid to the body shapes and pressure on the bar. There was a huge emphasis on all of the girls and coaches to work on inverts. Several staff had athletes grip the bar in under grip and do a dislocate, also more affectionately known as a skin-the-cat. This puts the hands in the eagle or el-grip. Side note, I have never heard a solid definition on what eagle grip, el-grip, or inverts are and whether or not they are the same or different in any way. I would like to see something of that nature. Back on track, if the athlete could show the dislocation and could put their hands into the grip on a floor bar they would then try a handstand in the grip against a wall. I will talk more about this later in the post. I came away from bars at camp thinking that I needed to work ahead a lot more. We had not done a lot of work on front giants, pirouettes, stalders, endos, toe hands, or stoops. We definitely had not done very much work on inverts. Since I got back from camp I have started work on all these skills and I will continue to do so.

I didn’t spend a lot of time on beam but I did observe from a distance as much as I could. There was a great deal of emphasis placed on the split handstand the one rotation I did spend directly on beam. The rest of the time I watched a lot of work on doing skills up onto and off of panel mats. There was a lot of work on connections. One particular line I saw went like this. On a panel mat, split handstand step in, layout step in off the panel mat, handspring step in, layout step out. There were a couple variations of this that I saw. I was encouraged to be creative with beam as much as possible. The kids worked on all kinds of different stuff. Tammy Biggs was on beam the entire time. If anybody wants to know what to work on or how to work beam, search for lectures or YouTube videos from her. Another point of emphasis I remember hearing a lot of in warm ups, beam, and dance was the switch ring leap. I heard over and over again that this skill was the highest valued dance skill and should be developed over years, beginning when the kids were young. So… Work on the switch ring leaps and be creative in working on skills and connections for beam.

For me, there weren’t any big things on floor that I came home with from camp. For anybody else, I think this could be huge. Trampoline and Tumbling has it figured out. Let me quickly tell you what they worked on and then I will come back and explain this in more detail. There was a lot of work done from a stand or a power hurdle. I was pleased to see this because I had recently started doing this a lot. For example, power hurdle front handspring, front tuck or power hurdle, round off, handspring, handspring, whip, whip. This brings me to the next point of emphasis, whips! They started these on tumble track and then took them to the rod floor. One whole section of floor work outs was dedicated to these things. The other section of floor work outs was tumbling into a resi or on the floor. Part of the time this section was used for drilling round offs and front handsprings. Quick note, somebody asked a few staffers if they liked the punched front layouts from a run for tumbling passes. There was no definite no, but the feeling I got was that the National Staff would rather see front handspring, front layout, front layout instead of run, punch front layout, front layout. Just an example. I will talk about the drilling I saw when I talk about Neil Resnick. I felt pretty good about tumbling and twisting after seeing the kids at camp and seeing what the National Staff worked on.

Let me elaborate on what I said about Tumbling and Trampoline. It was said numerous times by Valeri and Neil, as well as a few other staffers. Tumbling and Trampoline has it figured out. Tumbling first, in my own experience as a tumbler I did a lot of work on standing round offs, standing handsprings, and power hurdling. I remember doing standing one, standing two, standing three, and even standing twenty-two handsprings. We had contests to see how many handsprings we could fit in on the rod floor (short) and to see how few we could fit (long). The majority of our focus was on distance with speed. We worked on punching through the toes and flicking off of our finger tips. We worked on over rotating our round offs, handsprings, and even whips. We worked on throwing the arms as hard as possible backwards as we punched through our toes in whips. Valeri said that power in tumbling comes from distance with speed. Not slow distances, but distance with speed. Obviously it has to be tight, but it needs to be long and fast. When you have the long and fast round off and handspring, you then have all of that power available to block into the high skills such as a double back, double full, or even just a layout. Valeri talked a lot about this when he spoke about floor in the gym and in his lectures. Almost all of the drills or ideas that Neil presented on floor were things that I had done or seen in my own career as a tumbler. These same principles can be turned around and applied to front tumbling as well. Trampoline, in my opinion, is completely and totally under used in gymnastics. The National Staff reflected these thoughts as well. I can’t remember ever learning anything on the floor besides maybe a rolls, handstands, cartwheels, and round offs. I have twisted up to four times front and back, I have done triple backs and quadruple fronts, and the biggest single skill I have ever done was a triple twisting double layout. I say that only to say this, I learned how to do all of those things on a trampoline or off of a trampoline into a pit. Going back to what I said was the number one thing I brought back from camp, I had one coach that was very good at giving drills or breaking down things into small pieces and giving them to me. For example, this is how I learned a half in, half out. We started by reviewing stomach drops and back layouts with a half twist. I then did layout with a half and landed on my feet and then bounced to a stomach drop. The most critical step was turning this into a back layout with a half twist directly to my stomach. I was given careful instructions to only land on my stomach if the flip was right. If the flip was off, I was to turn an extra quarter to my side or half to my back. We did these for some time. The next step for me was to go over to a double mini into a pit. I did the layout with a half off of the double mini and when I saw the pit I just tucked over to my back. I got good at doing these and then I turned that front tuck out of the layout half into a tucked half out. This process took some time, but not really all that long. The big thing was that I had been taught to twist well. If you want more information on twisting, refer to my article on twisting. Quick summary on this, standing round offs, handsprings, and front handsprings are great things to work on as well as back whips, front whips, and forward bounders. Try to work on speed and distance and over exaggerating the shapes. Use the trampoline! Build the air awareness of your gymnasts! Teach them all the landing positions on trampoline. Teach them how to twist late and break things down into small pieces, like the way I learned to do a half in, half out.

And now for some of the people that made camp so amazing. All of the National Staff are amazing but I gravitated towards three of them. Tom Forster, Neil Resnick, and Valeri Liukin were exactly the mix of people I needed to see in the gym working. Tom was extremely enthusiastic and he worked his ass off the whole time. He was also pretty hilarious when he wanted to be. Neil was absolutely amazing at breaking skills down. He gave a ton of drills that could be used for any athlete at any level to help make them better at doing little things right to make the big things easy. He was great at giving the athletes the proper feelings at the proper times instead of explaining away. He was also pretty funny. Valeri was quiet and observant. Everything he said and did seemed to be measured and calculated, in a good way. He was not very loud. He would walk over to a gymnast or a coach and talk with them. He was also funny at times, but that was more with the coaches and outside the gym. These three men created a perfect blend for me, in hind sight. The enthusiastic, hard working Tom. The creative, thoughtful Neil. The quiet, measured Valeri. Seeing these men work with the athletes, interact with other coaches, and interacting with them myself just made sense to me.

I will start with information from Neil. He was on several different events while I was down there. He gave a lot of drills and it would take forever to explain all of them in print properly. I will try to summarize it here and then post the drills in video form later. The first event I saw Neil on was bar drills. He had the girls working on drag drops and stretch drops on the floor and on floor bars. He had the girls doing endo and stalder positioning on the floor and against a wall. He worked on higgins, blinds, and the usual level eight pirouettes from a cast. El-grip was worked on and the girls that could do it without pain did el-grip handstands against a wall. There was nothing crazy or new done, but the principles were all great. Work on the floor and on floor bars first. Get them in the positions and teach as many skills as possible low to the ground. The next event Neil was on was the actual bars. He gave drills for all the skills the girls were working on, it seemed. It was amazing how every little problem he saw he could isolate and fix. He usually tried first by asking them to fix the problem or telling them what to do or feel. If this didn’t work, he would set something up or have them do something to give them the proper feeling and almost every time the problem was quickly corrected. That type of problem solving was amazing. The girls did front and back giants, pirouetting of all kinds, and in-bar element progressions and skills. Neil was more of an observer in this rotation as opposed to the bar drills rotation, where he did a lot of teaching and shaping. One of the biggest things he did do was call all the coaches over and show a drill. I will video this and share it later, but I think I can explain it pretty well here. Standing on the floor the girl reached up and grabbed the bar in a hollow shape. The position looked like the down swing of a tap swing, baby giant, or giant just under the low bar. He would then have the athlete relax and drag their feet behind them on the mat. The athlete is now hanging under the bar in a huge, exaggerated arch position. The second time the girls did this drill they were encouraged to press their chest and shoulders open as far as possible and slide forward from the hollow to the arch as far as they could. The next step was to put the athlete in support on the bar and cast to horizontal. The coach would support the legs and shape the gymnast. They would then push back from the bar in a hollow and go all the way down to the floor. When their feet touched the ground in the same hollow position they were in before they would press forward and downward with they chest, shoulders, and hips and slide to the arch. If you can picture it in your head, it kind of looks like a spotted beginner baby giant that uses the floor for reference instead of the low bar. The reason this drill was given was two fold. The first was fixing the kids that “false grip” the bar. On the way down in the giant, girls often reach over the bar to either slow down the giant or so they can feel like they have a better grip. This action creates slack in the body and eventually will lead to peeling. The kids can’t do this in the drill from a horizontal cast. The other reason was to reenforce the hollow and arch shapes and transitions needed to do a giant, as well as the timing. Side note, I think everybody can probably tell now why I don’t want to explain all the drills here in print. Back on track, Neil was on floor next. He had a huge array of drills for tumbling. The general gist of what was being worked on was what I talked about earlier. Neil did a lot of work on speed and distance, as well as alignment, in round offs and handsprings. He did lots of standing front handsprings, back handsprings, and round offs. He did power hurdle work as well. Everything from sideways cartwheels on a line to power hurdle, front handspring, fly spring. It was fast paced and awesome. Neil was great and I learned so much from him. Videos to come.

The number one thing I took from Tom Forster was what he spent a ton of time teaching and fixing. For swing handstand, half turns and blind changes he wanted to see the girls slide their post (support) arm in. I have seen this done in the drop phase of a giant and I hate it. I had never noticed it in the upswing portion of a giant and once it was pointed out to me it made sense and I loved it. I will tell you a story about two little girls to illustrate this change. There were athletes that were having a really hard time with the swing handstand, half turns and blind changes. This was not because a lack of good giants, ability, or instruction. Tom had the girls do some sets of giants with spot. As they shifted to the top of the bar in the upswing, he had them slide their post (support) arm under their nose. They would then put it back in the normal position and repeat. When this became easy, he added a quarter turn. As the hands shifted to the top of the bar, the hand would slide under the nose of the athlete and the child would turn a quarter turn and push out of the bar. The quarter turn was to happen on the way up and the coach would catch them before or at the handstand and hold them and then they would turn back into a normal handstand and repeat. After doing this with these girls for a few turns, they moved onto the swing handstand, half turn. It was amazing to see. A few times they went back to just sliding the hand in or doing the quarter to make sure the movements and the sequence of them was correct. The slide in must happen as the shift occurs and the giant must be strong enough that the athletes experience a sort of weightlessness as they shift. The arched “I hope I make it” giants won’t really cut it. I have a level seven boy in my gym that has had a pretty hard time with the swing handstand half turn in the high bar routine. Just this week I took him through this and was a miraculous change. He was doing this skill with a really huge, ugly arch and a big leg separation. He also had a problem with getting his weight shifted over to the left. The skill always appeared to be falling the wrong direction. We did a couple sets of giants to just make sure that he was being aggressive and that he was kicking his feet up as hard and as high as he could. I spotting him on a few sets of giants where he slid his left hand under his nose as he shifted and rose to handstand. We then did this same thing with a late quarter turn. After he was comfortable with where he was and what to do, we moved onto doing the quarter turn with the hand slide much earlier. After a couple turns of this we were doing sets of quarter turns and ending with a blind to the front giant grip. The difference between what he was doing before and what he was now doing was incredible. We went on to do some pretty good giant fulls for fun at the end of the work out. The leg separation, the arch, and the appearance of falling the other direction were all gone. By sliding his left hand under his nose, he could just turn. There was no large distance that he needed to travel any longer. This works… And it works really, really well. I asked my young athlete what he thought about it and he said, “I was really confused in the beginning. I had no idea what you meant or how to do it, but I get it now. It is so much easier now.” There were some other things that I saw and heard that I liked, most of which I will need to video to share instead of try to explain. For example, some front giant drills and some stalder and toe hand drills. I just remembered one other point of emphasis. Tom worked on it on bars and Valeri talked about it in his lectures. The coaches wanted a “hect tap” for front giants. I already knew that they didn’t want straddle front giants, but they emphasized this as well when working on front giants with the girls. The “hect tap” is how Nastia could do all of those amazing pirouettes and dismounts. From a handstand, the athletes should stretch away in an arch. Just above the low bar the athlete will sit back into a pike position. This allows the athlete to then kick up in the front giant. I think of it, and explain it to my kids, as the exact same things as back giants, just reversed. The hollow, arch, kick becomes an arch, pike, kick.

And now on to Valeri. There was so much I took from him. He walked around the gym during the practices and would talk with coaches or work with gymnasts as he saw necessary. I talked with him some about inverts and styles for dropping in to skills. We had some small interactions here and there I tried to stay as close to him as possible, without getting awkward, so I could hear what he was talking about. The main things I took from him were in the two lectures he gave to all the coaches. I want to give some interesting points that he made and then talk about what he showed and emphasized on the events. He started the first lecture by asking, “What is good? What is the future? What is good to me?” He showed some things that he thought were good. They weren’t just good… They were pretty much perfect. The point was “my better is better than your better”, if you remember that old commercial. Valeri also said, “Work ahead, plan ahead, it takes time to develop the skills.” He said that you have to know what the kids are going to do. He went back and said that he knew that there were many moving parts and that you never actually knew what the kids would do or how they would do it, but he still maintained that you have to know what the kids are going to do when they get to that junior or senior elite level. He also said, “Who said it was going to be easy? It is hard. It always has been hard. It always will be hard.” There was some emphasis put on taking time and doing things right and never trying to take short cuts. One of the biggest themes that I got from him was over exaggeration. He said that if you start with 100%, by the end you will have more like 25%. He said that was a good number also, that usually it was more like 10%-20%. What he meant by this was explained by a short talk about vault. He said he taught Rebecca to basically pike on the vault board into her yurchenko. He showed a video and when he stopped it at board contact, Rebecca was basically completely vertical and almost all the way straight. He started with a huge, exaggerated pike and it worked itself up to the right position. Now… He wasn’t endorsing teaching kids to pike on the board and neither am I, but I understand the principle. It is just like John Geddert teaching a “coiled” board contact with the back extremely rounded and the arms at horizontal in front of the gymnast. They now have all of that shape to unload into a huge, fast whipped handspring. After this he went on to talk about vault more. Again, I am pretty comfortable with vault so I didn’t take many notes on this. He showed some videos of drills and vaulting up hill as well as some twisting vaults from Nastia and Rebecca. One cool thing he said about front-front vaults was that the front handspring into the table should basically be a fly spring, which I completely agree with. Find a slow motion video of Alicia Sacramone’s front-rudi vault if you want to see what I mean.

From here he went on to show videos of sets of skills on the low bar. He said, “Bars are not done on the high bar. They are done on the floor, floor bars, and the low bar. Then you get to get up on the high bar.” He showed sets of kip cast handstands, cast handstand pirouettes, toe handstands, clear hip handstands, stalder handstands, and stoop handstands. He showed some strap bar work, including stalders, stoops, front giants, and even invert giants. He said that you just put your hands in under grip on the strap bar and do a dislocate and then start swinging. Continuing on bars he showed videos of perfect back extension rolls in a row. He said, “Here. This is is bars!” He went on to show a floor complex for bars. They did long lines of rolling and pirouetting. Things like extension roll to blind, front roll with a pike up to half pirouette, and repeat. The changed this and made them stalder and endo rolls as well. Showed a video of a girl doing stoop back extension rolls too. I had never seen that before. The next thing was a handstand against the wall, which is really basic but ever-so important. He showed eagle handstand holds also. He then showed things on the floor. It was really impressive to watch a girl hold a handstand, do a full pirouette with two hand placements, and then lock out and hold a handstand again. He showed a Higgins, a blind, a giant full, a full through a Higgins, and everything else you can think of including the Ono and Healy. Everything he showed fell off the wrong way. For example, the girls did kick to handstand, blind change in handstand, and fall to their back. He showed videos of all of the different pirouettes in this fashion. It was pretty impressive to see blind fulls, healys, and onos done in this fashion on the floor. He finished his bar talk by showing some videos on releases and transitions but we were running out of time and there wasn’t a ton of discussion or elaboration on these topics.

Valeri’s talk about floor was pretty interesting and impressive. I think he took this opportunity to show off a little bit. He started by talk by saying that the power in tumbling comes from travel. He talked some more about it and this was where he endorsed the Tumbling and Trampoline ideas that I spoke of earlier. He then talked some more about exaggerating everything, specifically the hollows and arches in tumbling. He talked about over rotating round offs and making sure the feet were in front at the finish of the round off as examples. He then said something really interesting to me. He said, “Front handsprings don’t block, they roll.” This made no sense to me until he showed a video. I will have to video this and share it in that manner, but basically he said that front handsprings need to whip over so that they maximize the travel. I have done a lot of work with my kids on this since being home and it has changed the way they front tumble completely. The next interesting thing Valeri said was that he only had his athletes tumble on the hard floor when necessary, like just before a meet. He said they do a lot of work on rod floor and tumble track. He showed videos of girls doing fly springs all the way down a rod floor and front layouts (or front whips) all the way down the rod floor. He then showed the same front layouts in a row ending with a front full. He said that he really liked having his athletes finish the turn with something more difficult. I forgot to put this in the information on bars, but he had the girls end some of their sets of clear hips with a clear hip half pirouette. This same principle was applied to floor as well. He said he also liked to put the twist in the beginning and showed a video of a girl doing front handspring, front full, and front layouts all the way down the rod floor. He then clarified what he thought a front layout was. He said it is not a front layout, but a front whip. He said he wanted to see the front whip start with a strong aggressive throw forward and upward and leave the floor in a hollow before the legs whipped over into an arch. He said that this did a multitude of things, but specifically he said that it enabled the athletes to make in flight adjustments. He said if they just arched off the floor they were basically stuck with what they already had, but if they did the whipped front layout they had the ability to adjust if needed. I was happy to hear this, because these were my thoughts on front whips as well. As Valeri moved on he started talking about twisting and he showed something else that I loved. He said that everything goes through the half and he showed a girl doing a front full. You could very plainly see that in the front full the girl looked back over her shoulder at the floor almost until her feet made contact with the floor. He emphasized the importance of this repeatedly. This theme continued as he began talking about back tumbling. He first showed girls doing back handsprings all the way down the rod floor and ending with a really long back layout. He said he liked the long layout because it showed the power the girls had. They could easily block it into a double back if needed. He then showed back whips down the rod floor and ended in another long layout. The power was extremely obvious. This is where things got really impressive. He started showing combination tumbling. It started simple with a round off, handspring, one and a half, to front layout and ended with something in the range of a two and a half to front double full. He also showed a front handspring, front double full, to front one and a half. As I try to remember, it sticks in my mind that he might have showed the same pass ending in a front two and a half, but I am not certain. There was a lot of twisting and flipping going on. He kept emphasizing how the girls spotted the floor over their shoulders and the distance in their tumbling. You could see all the things he talked about before in the tumbling the girls were doing. The over exaggeration, the rolled front handsprings, the whipped front layouts, spotting the ground, the power gained from working on distance. It was all there and it was really impressive.

So… I know there is a lot of information in this post and I know it is huge, but I wanted to give everybody the opportunity to learned what I learned at camp. What you do with it is up to you. The application of knowledge, wisdom, and experience is all important. I will work on videoing more drills and progressions and put them in my YouTube channel as soon as possible. A couple things that I want to highlight in this post… I came back from camp encouraged to be creative in my problem solving as a coach. I am trying to talk less and give the kids the right feelings more. I am happy with what is going on with vault in my gym and I am a little more solidified in what we need to do. On bars I learned a lot, but the biggest thing was the hand slide for pirouetting. Also… Seeing the kids go through the progressions and learn skills so quickly on bars was awesome. I feel like I have a better understanding of what, why, and especially how. On beam I was encouraged to be creative and work ahead more. Have them do all kinds of things so they get comfortable. Floor was probably the biggest thing for me. I was reminded of what I did and how I got good at tumbling and I have a much better picture in my head of what to do and how to do it.

I really hope this post helps. I have put a lot of time into it. If anybody has questions or needs clarification on something… Feel free to ask! Merry Christmas and have a fun and safe New Year’s Eve! Happy training!

Perspective

I want to share something with everybody. Friday, November 18th, 2011 started like any other day for me. There was nothing particularly special about my morning and early afternoon. I remember that I drove to work alone because my fiancé rode to work with her mother early that day. They were cleaning and setting up for the in house meet we were going to have the next morning. I had grabbed Red Bull and had my music blaring in the car. Work was normal on this day, except I had my two level nines come in because they had missed a day earlier in the week. All the gymnasts did pretty well and I did a private with a little one afterwards.

We got in the car and headed back home. My fiancé and I got sushi, which we both love and don’t eat very often. When we got home our favorite show, Fringe, was on the television. I posted to Facebook, “Sushi, Fringe, my warm house, and my beautiful fiancé. Content.” The day was a good day. I love Red Bull and I love blaring my music in the car as well. I was completely happy and content with my life. I had everything I could ask for in life.

I got a text message a little bit later in the night. It said, “Did you hear about Andrea?” I replied that I had not and I asked what happened. A few minutes later I received a call. The voice on the phone said. “Andrea was in an accident… … She didn’t make it.” I will never forget this moment in my life. I will never forget my thoughts, my feelings, or any detail of this exactly moment in time. It is burned so brightly into my mind that there is no way I could ever forget it. The sniffles that I heard on the line, the long pause in between the two sentences, the look on my fiancé’s face, and the reaction I witnessed are all so vivid.

I turned to Facebook, like I usually do. A quick note on this before I continue with my story. I watched a video about social networking sites that changed my perspective on them. What happens to your Facebook or Twitter when you are dead? What will it reflect? I have come to view these as kind of the story of my life and not just a way to keep up on gossip. This, sadly, has been proven by the Facebook page of Andrea Bailes. Back on track, my next post read, “I feel like I am going to puke. This is something I never wanted to experience in my career as a coach. I am numb. I can’t believe this happened to one of the most amazing girls I have had the pleasure of knowing.”

The point of this story is perspective. Friday, November 18th, 2011 was a wonderful day and I was so happy with where my life was and where it seemed to be heading. In the blink of an eye my entire life changed, as did the lives of many others. I will never be the same. In the past four weeks I have learned more about life than in almost twenty-five years of life.

I have done the most difficult things in the past four weeks that I have ever done in my life. I have had to tell little children their friend was dead. I spent about four hours typing up the post about Andrea, which was much more difficult than anything I have ever done. I had to carry her casket. Most recently I had to coach a level seven session without her. All of this has changed me, especially as a coach.

Life is fragile, precious, and short. In an instant your whole world can be flipped upside down. Count your blessings and make the best of everything that you do.

The Karolyi Ranch Trip

This has been the best trip of my life. Charlotte was amazing and fun and I got a lot of perspective while I was there… But this was just incredible. I didn’t think about this at the time, but these were the fifty strongest, most talented children in the country that were between the ages of eight and ten. I wish I had the stats, but I know that there have been a lot of National Team, World Team, and Olympic Team members come out of TOPs. Potentially, I was going to get to watch the future World and Olympic Team members. These kids were amazing. Out of all the amazing kids there were some extremely impressive children that stood out over the rest. Those kids are ones I will be keeping an eye out for in the future.

Before I take you through the whole weekend I feel like I need to publicly acknowledge the people that made this possible. I am sure there were a lot of other’s involved but I know that Kittia Carpenter of Buckeye Gymnastics deserves a huge thank you. I realized while I was at the camp that she is in charge of education for Ohio and she helped to implement this program that allowed me to go to the Ranch. Without her, I would probably have never been able to go. Nina Dent needs another huge thank for for everything that she does for Ohio and for myself. All of the other committee members that have made things like this possible get another thank you. There are so many people involved in this that made it possible and I wish I could thank them all individually. So… If you had any part in me being able to go to the Karolyi Ranch… THANK YOU! I am going to do whatever I can to pay you all back by sharing the information and helping to make Ohio and Region Five the best that we can make them.

Also, I need to quickly apologize. I want to make sure that I give everybody as much of the experience as I got. This will be a long post. I think I will go back and post something about the drills I saw on each event and the things that the National Staff were emphasizing and want to see everybody working on in their own gyms. This post will be more about the trip and the experience. Information will follow. If you only care about the drills and information then you should probably just skip this post and wait on my next one. We were told that they didn’t want videos of the Ranch on YouTube, so I will video my kids doing the drills in my gym and put them on YouTube at some point. That will be a huge undertaking, I believe. I will do this in time.

So. Day one started with a pretty normal travel situation. I got to the airport at a good time and met Kittia and Michelle, another Buckeye coach. We chatted about things for a while as we waited for Jamie to arrive. Jamie was also picked to go to the Karolyi Ranch. Before Jamie got there, the smallest little sniffling girl showed up. Buckeye had an eight year old made the TOPs A Camp and she was leaving her family and going on her own for the first time. We all talked for a while and Jamie showed up pretty quickly. We went through security without a hitch and went to wait at our gate. My new little friend was still pretty upset that she was leaving her parents and going with her coaches so I tried to lighten things up for her and began to joke and play. She quickly started to go from sniffles to exceptionally witty (especially for an eight year old) comments. We boarded the plane and were on our way pretty quickly.

The flight was smooth and I spent some time and energy making sure that the little passenger was in better spirits, but I mostly used the time to listen to the most awesome playlist I had ever created and relax. The past few weeks have been the most difficult of my life and I, selfishly, needed to just close my eyes and feel the music and let all my worries slip away. Before I knew it we were descending into the airport in Houston. We quickly got our luggage and headed to get a rental car. We said goodbye, for the moment, to Michelle and our resident eight year old comedian. So you all know… She was now eighteen and she would be aging a year every day she was at camp. We quickly jumped in the rental and took off. We had about an hour drive from Houston to the Ranch. We stopped and got supplies and lunch at a gigantic super center about thirty minutes from the Ranch.

I have always seen pictures that athletes and coaches have posted about the roads to the Ranch, but you just have to see it to understand it completely. The Ranch is about fifteen or twenty minutes away from any real civilization. The dirt roads look like something out of Wrong Turn, if you have ever seen the movie. At night it is worse. Trees on either side and just dirt and gravel. My excitement began to grow as we got to the dirt roads. It quickly faded after about five minutes on them. Then I got excited again only to have it fade away. It seemed to take forever for us to get there. Finally I saw a glimpse of the mythical National Team Training Center. My heart leapt. It hit me. I was at the one and only. I was at Bela and Marta Karolyi’s Ranch. We checked in and go everybody’s stuff into their cabins. We had to be in the gym not too long after that. I changed and headed up to the gym.

Walking into the gym was amazing. I have pictures of the cabins, gyms, and some of the animals and surrounding area. I will post those in the near future for everybody to see. Anyways… I went into the gym. I promptly spotted a friendly face in Enrique and went to say hello. We talked for a minute and he introduced me to Sean Golden and Tom Forster. I had seen these two present at congresses and seen drills and all kinds of stuff from them on YouTube and such, but never actually met them. I was already humbled and extremely excited to get to meet them. My friends and travel companions from Ohio came in the gym shortly after me and then another familiar face popped in. Courtney from Youngstown was attending the A Camp as well. I went over to say hi to her and then waited. Out of nowhere, Valeri Liukin walked in. I had no idea that he was going to be at the camp and neither did anybody else, from what I could tell. The National Staff, including Valeri, assembled in a small office area and talked. The kids were lined up and spoken to about what was going to happen. They were going to test physical abilities this evening.

The girls started to learn the National Team Warm Up and then began their testing. The kids tested everything without much of a problem. The casting and pressing were most impressive to me. There was a quick stretching period afterwards and then we were all dismissed. We headed to dinner afterwards. The food was unimpressive this night, as well as every other meal. I honestly didn’t expect much though so I guess it nearly exceeded expectations. I know I was thankful for the food at the other camps I had been to after a few meals. After dinner I was looking to go find people to meet and talk to. I was with Courtney, Michelle, and Jamie. We heard that that there was a coach’s lounge room, but it was locked. We went to the Clubhouse and sat and talked for quite some time. Gary Warren came into the Clubhouse after a while and asked what we were doing. We told him we were just hanging out because we couldn’t find anywhere else to go and that the lounge room was locked. He said he had unlocked it and there were coaches in there. I, being the social butterfly, immediately said we should go over there and we headed that way. Michelle and I ended up going without the other two and hanging out for a little bit.

I have had so much practice with these situations that this one felt pretty easy. I walked into a big strange room with a bunch of people I had never met or seen before and said, “Hey! What’s up!? I’m Matt!” Everybody seemed to size me up and then greeted Michelle and I. I quickly found out that they were Tumbling and Trampoline coaches and I took the opportunity to tell them that I had, terribly, done Tumbling and Trampoline for many years. They had a camp at the same time as we did. I was happy to see them there. Side note, I think that a huge problem with Artistic Gymnastics is the lack of information and perspective they could get from Tumbling and Trampoline. Those athletes are the best flippers and tumblers in the world. Why the hell wouldn’t we try to copy what they do. This would become a huge theme for myself and those coaches throughout the weekend. Much to my pleasure, and the pleasure of the Tumbling and Trampoline coach’s, a lot of the National Staff emphasized looking towards those athletes and coaches for direction on flipping, twisting, and tumbling in particular. Valeri Liukin and Neil Resnick were the two that were the loudest supporters of learning from the Tumbling and Trampoline athletes and coaches.

I decided to call it a night and headed back to my room. I had yet to meet my room mate and I wasn’t really expecting to see him when I opened the door. The last thing I expected was to see a woman sitting in my room when I opened the door. I looked at her and then quickly looked to my left and saw a man sitting on the bed. I introduced myself to both of them and found out that the woman was visiting and the man was my room mate, obviously. The man looked extremely familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I found out that they were also Tumbling and Trampoline coaches, but they both coached Artistic Gymnastics currently or previously. I think the conversations we had this evening will stick with me more than anything else at the Ranch, besides maybe one or two things. I was hit in the face with a heavy, hard bag of why the hell didn’t I think of that many times on this night. Little drills and little things these coaches said felt like getting smacked in the face in a good way. I found myself thinking that I should have thought of that or I should have remembered that.

We talked for some time and then decided to go to sleep. The woman headed back to her room and I was asleep shortly after. The seven o’clock alarm came slowly on this day. I have no idea why. Every other day it came way too quickly. I went to get breakfast with and then headed into the gym. The girls lined up and were spoken to and then went through part of the warm up again. After the warm up, the girls had a short time to condition with their personal coaches. I saw some interesting things that were being done and some really impressive things as well. The girls finished up and took some time to do their over splits before they headed to their first event of the day. I decided to follow a group around. They did bars, bar drills, floor, beam, and dance. They finished up the day with a stretching rotation and then lined up again. They were dismissed to go to lunch, as were the coaches.

Everybody went and grabbed lunch. After we were all done eating, most of the Ohio coaches decided to go for a walk and explore the area. We saw some beautiful scenery. We only saw a little lizard for the longest time, but we ran into some horses on the way back to the camp. The lake and the lodge near it were absolutely amazing. When we got back I decided to go check out the Tumbling and Trampoline practice for a while before the TOPs practice started again. It was awesome to see the tumblers do their thing. I talked with some coaches for a bit while I observed and then headed down to the Artistic gym for practice. The girls lined up again and then went through another part of the warm up, including some basic tumbling. When they finished with the warm up they did over splits again and then they all had vault, bars, beam, floor, and dance to do. This practice was different. It was more of a “show me” work out. The kids and coaches were told to show the National Staff what they could do and what they were working on. They were also told repeatedly that there was nothing they could “chuck” or “show off” that would impress the National Staff. They have seen it all and it is pretty hard to impress them.

This would be the format for the workouts. They would come in and line up. After they were spoken to they would do the National Team Warm Up in the morning and afternoon. In the morning they would do some strength work with their coaches after the warm up finished. In the afternoon they would head to their first event. Both sessions they worked on over splits just before heading to their events. In the morning the girls all did bars, bar drills, beam, floor, and dance. In the afternoon they all did vault, bars, beam, floor, and dance. The mornings were used for basics and drills mostly, but they also took the opportunity to use these awesome athletes to test out new routines and skills for the TOPs testing. The afternoons were a lot more of an open workout with the assistance of the National Staff. The athletes were given some things to work on, but were allowed to work on pretty much whatever they wanted after that.

One of the best things about this camp was Valeri Liukin, at least it was one of the best for me. He was walking around and helping out in every workout. He gave corrections, instruction, insight, opinions, and just observed as well. On Thursday and Friday night all of the coaches met with Valeri in the Clubhouse to talk. It was kind of a lecture/presentation but it was open for discussion. I am sure most of you know how those things go. No matter how much the presenter says that questions and opinions are welcome and encouraged, it never really happens. Most people aren’t comfortable speaking in front of others. I loved listening to Valeri. He kept saying, “This is simple. It is easy. You have to have a plan, but it is easy!” I agree with him whole-heartedly. Gymnastics is not difficult if you do it the right way. If you come into work just to work… Gymnastics is hard. This cannot be a job. It has to be your life, your passion, and what drives you to do what you do every day. Valeri showed some amazing videos of his athletes including work on all of the events. The videos of floor were the most impressive to me. I could be wrong on the exact connections and amount of twists, but he showed a girl doing front handspring, front layout, front double full, front two and a half. I also saw round off handspring, one and a half, front full, front one and a half. These were the most impressive examples, but he showed everything in between as well. He kept saying, “This is simple. This is easy.” I believe him. The way he teaches tumbling and the way he approaches coaching makes things simple.

As for extra-curricular activities, everybody knows that coaches love to unwind. I ate more Mexican food while down in Texas than I ever wanted to. Thursday night I went with the whole group from Ohio. It was a great time and it was really great food as well. Friday night I was lucky enough to go to dinner with some other coaches I hadn’t met before. Coaches from Texas, New Jersey, Arizona, Illinois, and other places went out to dinner. I was in the presence of greatness the entire time. I watched our driver at the 2008 Olympic Trials and in many other meets. When I was little, I watched one of the passengers win the first ever Olympic Gold Medal for Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. You would never have known it though, because they were just normal gymnastics coaches that were having a good time at dinner with friends.

I need to share a funny story from this night with everybody. There are several ways to get to Huntsville from the camp. One the way to dinner the car in front of us stopped at a fork in the road. Somebody in that car wanted to take the back way. She was the only one who knew this direction. We all decided to go the way that more people knew. When we headed back to the camp after dinner we were convinced to take the back way. I was a little hesitant about this, but I wasn’t driving the vehicle. Shortly after heading down the back roads we started to lose track of any civilization. Not long after this, my phone died. Anybody who knows me well knows that my phone never dies because I am a very “just in case” type of person. I keep it charged, but on this day I had no time to charge it. I hate it when my phone dies. It almost makes me feel naked or vulnerable. Not only did I have no idea where we were or where we were going, I wasn’t driving and I had no phone or service. We continued down the back roads and they went from pavement to gravel. It seemed to take forever. The people in the car began checking their phones. Two more phones died at this time. The remaining two phones had no service and we had no way of communicating with the vehicle in front of us. Out of nowhere, we all heard a ding from the car. The gas light came on. Not more than a couple minutes after this the vehicle in front of us stopped. Everybody began to freak out a little bit. We had all been joking about getting lost or stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no cell service as we left to go to dinner. It was now beginning to look like we were going to get to experience this. The driver of the vehicle in front assured us that we only had to go back to the last intersection and go right instead of left and we would be at the camp shortly after. I don’t think any of us really believed it but we were all hoping. The minutes and seconds passed painfully slow as we back tracked. The gas got lower and lower in the car. We took the right hand turn and continued on. We all really began to question the situation just as we saw a familiar landmark. Everybody breathed a sign of relief and began to laugh and joke.

Saturday was another great day in the gym, perhaps the best for me and for a lot of the athletes. The workouts went well and everybody said thank you to the staff and went to dinner. We all met back in the gym for the cleanest cabin awards and the skit and song competition. The athletes all marched in together and were announced individually. The cleanest cabin was the one with all eight year olds. I wish somebody could tell me how the hell that happens. The winner of the skit and song competition was a dance and remix of “Sexy And I Know It” by LMFAO. It was redone to be “I’m a gymnast and I know it.” It was very original, hilarious, and very cute as well. They were asked to do an encore and they nailed it again. After this most of the Ohio crew went out to dinner one last time. We had a great time again and got back late. I should have gone back to my room and packed but I went into the coaches lounge and hung out with some of the Tumbling and Trampoline coaches again. I had to call it a night pretty quick after that and I headed back to my room. I packed everything up and headed to sleep.

Sunday morning was rough. I should have gone to sleep way earlier and I slept in thirty minutes later than I had intended, but I made it on the bus with extra time to spare still. The resident comedian, the little girl from Buckeye, was in rare form on this day. I was informed that she would be proposing to me on the plane and would use a Ring Pop as the ring. I was also informed that she was now twenty-one years old. She continued to be hilarious on the bus ride until she fell asleep. After she woke back up, she resumed where she left off. She helped me shop for a small clutch purse for my real fiancé in the airport and continued giving me a hard time about almost everything. She entertained a lot of the people waiting at the gate for their flights. We boarded the plane after a short wait and it took a while for us to take off. The flight was much bumpier than the flight in and it seemed to take forever. I couldn’t wait to get home to see my fiancé and get back to my house. When we landed I said my goodbyes to Michelle, Jamie, and the little comedian and was promptly picked up and taken back to my car. I spent some time with a good friend and my god-son in Columbus and went a shopped a little bit as well before I headed home.

I left the camp with new information, new connections, new perspective, new determination, and a much clearer view of what I needed to do and how I needed to do it. This trip was the experience of a life time and quite simply… I HAVE TO GET BACK! I want to try to make sure it isn’t a once in a life time experience. Check back soon for a post of all the information from camp, as well as pictures and drill videos! Thank you for reading. I hope you all enjoyed.