My rib is just frustrating right now. On the first of the year I was doing some kickovers off my wrong leg and I was so twisted in my spine that the torque rebroke my middle rib which had not really been a problem. Over three weeks it got a lot better and I then it appears I rebroke the lower one. My concern right now is that there is immense pain (like a break) on the rib to the back. It has never been a problem a before and now it is hurting when I turn and it hurts to cough. It is almost like I have three broken ribs at the moment. I am in Australia and was going to be competing in the Commonwealth Invitational but had to withdraw last week as I am not able to get my back fully flexible.

I am down here for fifteen days and while I am working on splits and other techniques and visiting my friend Anne-Marie Telford and helping the gymnastics camps I am jsut not getting the progress I was expecting.

Being hurt is so depressing for an athlete. We LOVE to train and not training at 100% just takes energy and is so demotivating. The good news is that I have brought my mini beam here and it is the same height as the stage in Clintons training room while I am here watching World Leader Videos I will be able to work a lot on beam handstands and beam back walkovers. I know I am going to love owning the Back Walkover skill on the beam. It is just a matter of time irregardless of the injury.

Oh well back to coaching the 7 years olds as they learn basic beam skills. Go Heroes!!

Since I finished training with coach on Friday I have been working out down the gym. I may have hurt my rib again although Doc things it may be just muscular next to that location. I am amazed by the conditioning my body has undergone in the last year. When I am injury free I automatically kickover on the first kickover of the morning and it is getting easier and easier to do. I can tell within six more months I will be able to lean back and slinky at any time of day or night.

I am heading over to Australia tomorrow to work with some specialists down there for three weeks on part of my conditioning so I am interested to see what results I will get down there. As my abs open more, my back gets stronger and more open and my shoulders continue to open I can see I will get to the point where Back Walkovers on the beam will be easy Maybe it is six months away as well, but doing these stretches every day is certainly altering my body permanently. It is also altering my posture. I have to be conscious of not slouching because the back is soooo flexible and the tendency is to lean back. Not until I look in the mirror do I realize how out of vertical alignment I am. (Front to Back).

I can now do kickovers, slinkies, front walkovers in airports too which is exciting and keeps me entertained. Soon it will be Back Walkover with the leg raised and slinkies with either foot. In a year it will be Back Walkovers on the beam and Back handsprings on the beam followed soon by Back Tucks.  

I am having one more session with coach in the morning so I look forward to the training and reporting back on my incredible results. Go Heroes!!

I was up early and off to train at LA Fitness for an hour and a half before training with coach. I was able to do a little stretching and then bridged and kicked straight over. This is now three mornings in a row that I have been able to stretch a little and then do 3/3 kickovers. Why is that important? It is telling me my body conditioning is going great and the body is getting used to doing all the stretching and is building muscle memory and is not taking so long to warm up. It also tells me that if that is where it is when I first start then I am fully warmed it is in even better shape.

I did 5/5 Uplinkies (L-2) with no double kickovers which means I am ready to start on Upslinkies (L-3) which is where I was before I hurt my rib. I also did some front limber kickovers and back walkovers before leaving to go and train with coach.

I started doing tumbling with coach. We quickly worked up to back tucks and at a certain point he said go for it Bobbie and I went for it. I did five of them and they were not pretty but I landed on my feet 4/5 times I just need to punch up more rather than going back like a back handspring. We also did work on Front Handspring directly on the floor. Again coach set me loose and while I did not make it I went hard at 8 by myself which I am proud of.

We then worked on Standing Buck Tuck which I need to eventually be able to do on beam. Again got to punch up higher. U used to be able to do this before knee challenges and committed to getting back there and making it as part of my standard warm ups.

Lots of progress on bars with Clear Hip Circles. I even suprised coach as my kips are getting stronger allowing me to do an immediate cast. Lots more work to go but I like it when I can exceed coaches expectations for the day.

We then went on to leaps and hops which I need more assistance with especially on then beam. Finally I did some Back Extension Rolls which are looking great followed by Beam Handstands which were not the best I have done and again it is about continually going at it and suddenly you get results.

I just came back from my massage with Hector. He is incredible and I love getting massages with him. He does a lot of thai massage and deep tissue and spends two hours working on my body so I am looking forward to training tomorrow and seeing results. Loving Life. Go Heroes!!

I was going to be training with coach today and because I somtimes stay over in Poway with Clinton now I am half an hour drive from San Carlos LA Fitness. I woke up at 3:20am and showered and went to stretch at LA Fitness for 90 minutes before working with coach from 6:30am to 9:30am. I stretched and had a great time and kicked over on all three initial kickovers meaning my back is in great shape. I love it. I then did 5 front limber kickovers as well as 5 Upslinkies (L-2). Overall I had a solid warmup and headed over to coach.

When I arrived, coach said my new leos had arrived. I was so looking forward to them and was going to save them as a reward for my next big breakthrough. Coach said I thought you would change into one and then he said. Go change Bobbie-Sue. No excuse needed. I picked my favorite which is purple and gold. I love it. Here are the six new leotards from Alpha Factor.

Coach loves the bottom right. He said he enjoys watching his girls get new leotards. It is like getting a new screensaver on his computer. A novelty!!! Thanks Coach.

We started off doing tumbling. I had quickly went to Round Off-Back Handsprings-Back Tucks and was getting close to doing it without coach but did not quite make it. I will make it tomorrow. (It is still a little cold in the mornings while training as well!) We then worked on Front Handspring and Front Handspring Stepout. Coach has total confidence for me to do them by myself but this is a technique where I have hurt myself 7 times so I am a little cautious even though my new is strong and has not had the slightest problem. I did three by myself but landed on my but each time. At least I went for it. Same for Front Handspring Stepout. Progress. Still Progress.

I then went to bars and worked on baby giants. A couple of ugly ones but also a couple of much nicer ones. This is a lot about confidence. Also takes a toll on the body. I love doing it and again making progress.

Off to vault where are working on perfecting the Level 6 Vault. I am doing it on the Level 5 setting which is what coach wants me to flip it on. Why? Because I need that level of height to be able to do the following vaults. I can already flip it in setting one but the following includes twists and tucks and I need greater height. I can do the vault of the minitramp well but it has to come off the springboard. I did some good vaults and finished with three good ones. Sprinting full speed and than launching yourself into the air. Progress. Progress.

Finally we did some work on floor including leaps and hops followed by beam handstands. Again I am making some great progress but it is steps rather than big leaps forward but it all counts and after lots of sleep tonight it is going to be a great day tomorrow. I can feel it in my bones. Go Heroes!!

I went to train at the Poway gym near Clintons place for the first time with him. (We just finished a meeting). As soon as I entered one of the girls recognized me from a meet from when I was a junior and the other lady behind the counter was ah welcome Bobbie-Sue we all heard you were coming to join us. Jamison come on over and welcomed me and they took an updated picture and I went to stretch.

Clinton went off to play basketball and I went to stretch. I could hear the murmuring while I was walking in but I am used to that wherever I go. I only had a couple of cheer girls come over and ask for autographs but I am used to that as well. Well the first bridge I did I kicked over on which is great news about how the conditioning of my back is going.  If I can stay this flexible or more it is going to be great. There is not as much mat space as in San Carlos which is a little challenging as I need lots of workspace to do my kickovers etc. It might be easier early in the mornings where there are less people around.

I worked away and did 3/3 kickovers and then two triple slinkies followed by Front Limber Kickovers and some handstands and some split work. I was only there for a short space of time but I know I am going to be able to feel very comfortable there. One lady Jennifer came up and introduced herself. She said ‘Can you stop being so flexible!! You are maing me feel very old!!’. I said it is meant to inspire!!! I am looking forward to making lots more gym friends here as I train regularly.

I get to train with coach for the next four days and am aiming to be doing Round Off Back Handsprings Back Tucks tomorrow without coach spotting and working on Layouts on the tumble track as well. Lots to get worked on before I go to Australia and get to compete in the Crown Invitational. Many of Australias best gymnasts will be there including Lauren Michell. It will be great to spend time with her after her World Win on Floor.

Time for sleep. Big day tomorrow. Go Heroes!!

My friend Clinton Swaine recently moved to Poway and I spend a lot of time over with him as I on faculty for Frontier Trainings. I have a guest room set up over there when I am working late with him. I recently decided to join the LA Fitness in Poway so when I am with him I can train in the morning. I went over to see the gym and I went in and sat down with Jamison at the desk. We began talking and he looked at me, looked on the computer and saw my photo when I joined the San Carlos gym and he said your the famous Bobbie-Sue. I mentioned how did he know. He mentioned he had followed gymnastics for years and he remembers seeing  my picture that spread virally around LA Fitness when I joined.

I had a look around the gym with him and I mentioned that I am going to be training regularly, early in the morning and said I do a lot of back flexibility work and need quite a bit of space to do my work. He said that that are excited to have me training there and he will make sure it will work. The gym is much larger and more open than San Carlos. I used to train in the abs area that was a little isolated so I got to see all my regular friends there now it is is one big open space. It will be very interesting to see how it goes down.

I am frustrated that I only trained twice with coach this week and one of them was when I was exhausted and so was very ineffective. My back is getting stronger and I am back doing 5/5 on the Level 2 Upslinkies and I know it will not be long before I can go off the 3 Level panel mat as well.

I have been having a week off to let the rib fully heal and it is feeling very good. The separated rib which was playing up a little as well is much better as well. Overall getting ready for four more incredible sessions with coach and I know I am going to have some major breakthroughs. Go Heroes!!

I had a great morning stretching. My rib is doing Ok and I did 4/5 kickovers off the 2 panel mat and then did 5/5 FLKO (Front Limber Kickovers). My rib started hurting so I did not do Back Walkovers. I then went to focus on Handstands and while my normal handstands were he same as normal I am making a LOT of progress on Handstand Pirouettes. I really got to feel the difference of having a tight tusch in the ease of pirouetting. What a difference. I did my best ever pirouette and lots were so much more controlled. I also did many great beam handstands and they are looking better and tighter as well.

The exciting news for me is I am getting myself a balance beam so I can train on it at home and focus on getting dramatically better results. I am even contemplating getting a complete set of bars at home as well. There is a new park where I am going so I get to do a lot more sprinting drills there as well. I love sprinting. For a period of 12 months I could not run at all and it is was very frustrating not be able to take the brakes off and run and full speed.

I love being healthy and being able to do all four apparatus and having my minibeam at LA Fitness and Full beam at home means I should be able to make massive progress on beam.

I am very excited that I will be working with coach again on Tuesday and my plan is to be able to do Round Off-Back Spring-Back Tuck without coach spotting me and then start working on Round Off-Back Handspring-Layout. I also want to work on Standing Back Tucks and be doing them on the floor again without coach. I was doing them two years ago and then hurt myself which set myself back. The exciting thing is I am going to be doing that on the beam at some point this year and then it will be Front Handspring-Front Tuck.

Giants will be on their way again soon as well and I am getting closer to putting together the entire Level 6 Beam Routine. Level 6 Vault which is probably the first Level 6 trophy I will get is getting closer and closer and Back Walkovers on the beam continue to draw me to them. I do so much back work every morning and I was reviewing footage with Doc (Dr Michelle Binkowski) and we could see the massive improvement in five months of deliberate focused stretching. I also need to focus more on Sidesplits, Press and Pirouette Handstands.

What a journey it has been since I declared for the Olympics in January 2009!! I have made a decision that if for any reason I fail to make the London Olympics I am going to declare for Rio in 2016. I am focusing on Rio but it is great knowing that all the skills I build on will allow me to use it as the base to build on for Rio.

I am so blessed with what I get to do and cannot wait to see what comes next. Loving Life. Go Heroes!!

I have been spending a couple of days taking it easy to let my rib heal so that when I train with coach again in a couple of days we can go full out. The rib is coming along nicely. This morning I did my usual back stretching again and I could not feel anything from the rib which is great. I did my three kickovers followed by 6/10 Upslinkies (2) and then 5/5 FLKO and4/5 BWO.

This was good progress and lets me know I can push even harder coming up on Friday. Then I went to handstands and made some great progress on Handstand Pirouettes and then on beam handstands I know there is a long way to meet my goals. The progress consists of lots of little steps. When I am in that handstand the form is looking solid which is great. I did my longest beam handstand ever today. I count through the alphabet and got to 2C (once I get to Z I start again!!)

I am training with coach in five days and am so looking forward to it. With the rib fully healed and the knee solid I am planning to be doing front tumbling on the floor as well as doing Round Off-Back Handspring-Back Tuck on the floor. I LOVE spending time with coach and these long stretches are just frustrating but they allow me to heal and come back stronger.

I recently received my cover for American Cheerleading after we won the National Championships for the third time in a row.

I am also taking a lot of great supplements for Muscle Growth and Muscle Recovery which is allowing me to train longer and have better performance throughout the entire training time. I can see me getting to a point where I will be able to hold much longer handstands soon as I keep learning more and more distinctions.

Life is fabulous and it just keeps getting better…..Go Heroes!!

After yesterdays training I went to work with Doc who spent 90 minutes in deep tissue massage and working on my body. Later last night I also got to spend two hours with Hector my Muscleworker who does a lot of thai massage. I fell asleep mutiple times I was so exhausted from all the training and having this little downtime.

When I woke up this morning I was expecting some great results and went to LA Fitness. However I could still not get 100% of Level 2 Upslinkies. I ended up getting 50% and identified the problems a lot more. I now realize why it has been so tough. With my middle back so tight on the right side and the left side so flexible that when I push back the right cannot get over easily and so the body bends to the left and the arm is under pressure and starts to bend losing power of strength to kick over.

I did 5/5 front limber kickovers although some of them I doublekicked. I did some nice handstands before heading over to Elite Gymnastics to work with coach. We started off on vault and did some great work and made more progress on my current vault. Much tougher coming back to the springboard after being used to the mini tramp but getting back there with momentum again. Then went to bars and did lots of kips and casts and then squat ons to Long Hang Kips. Did not make them but is is a new combintion on already ripped hands and all three rips, reripped.

We then went to beam and I did five routines. They were ugly and I did not stick a handstand but coach was happier with the form and the time is still coming back. Very different doing techniques versus all of them in a routine. It is the integration which is the challenge.

Finally we went to do tumbling and did some work on Front Handsprings and Front Handspring Stepouts on Tumbl Trak but i just did not feel I could do it on the floor so we went to back tumbling. I started with Roundoff and then RO-Back Handspring and then RO- 2 BHS and finally for the RO-Back Handspring-Set which is getting ready for Back Tuck. We have been close before but coach did not feel they were strong enough. Today I was tumbling tighter and stronger so we decided to go for it and I ended up doing three good ones. And I will be doing it without a spotter soon and then we can start on Layouts which leads to Layout Fulls and then Double Tucks. So exciting and so great to be healthy and able to attack the routines  on each apparatus. Vault, Bars, Beam and Floor today. This will be episode #123 of GOLD on www.bobbiesue.tv when it is edited.

So excited to train again with coach.  I will be stronger, faster and in even better shape by then. Go Heroes!!!

Was up at 4:30am this morning and down at LA Fitness. I worked for about an hour doing back flexibility training to prepare for coach. The kickovers were OK and then I went straight to Upslinkies (2). I missed the first onw but then got the next four in a row. I moved up to Upslinkies (3) and it was tough but I made the fourth out of five. It means I will be doing them again soon. I will probably get 3-5 of them tomorrow and within a week I will be surprises if I get less than four in a morning.

I then went to train with coach. We started on vault and I blew away coaches expectations in the first five vaults and met his goal. We then dropped the table to the fifth setting and back to the Springboard. So my goal now is to get great form and be able to vault off this setting with the springboard. Once that form is done we will be able to take away the mats and I will be moving to completing my Level 6 Vault. The vault is same as Level 5 only it needs to be off a higher setting and be even tighter form.

We then went to bars where I am currently working on Giants. This is where you swing entirely around the bar. After a couple of swings coach encouraged me to go for it. We went into action but I just could not get the swing high enough but at least I attemped it. We will get this soon and not long after that I will be doing them regularly on the strap bars and then off to the high bar. Very Exciting.

We then went to the floor for tumbling and I did OK although it was always Tighter Bobbie! or Faster Bobbie! It is great to be doing it on the floor again though and I know we will be doing Round Off-Back Handspring-Back Tuck on the floor shortly as well. I ended on an ugly pass as I went to think mid-pass. VERY DANGEROUS!! It is drill the skill and let your body take over.

I finished with handstands on the beam and got my best handstand on the beam with coach. He was very excited and this is where the training on the minibeam is really beginning to show. Give me another 30 a morning for six months and see how good those handstands are going to be.

I then went back to LA Fitness but when I went to stretch my back I was so exhausted from four hours of training that my body did not want to play. Instead I went to handstands and huge distinction. I started being able to walk on my hands. Instead of simply coming down from a handstand I was able to walk back and stay in the handstand.  I then was able to do pirouette handstands and get a much greater understanding of this technique and beat my personal best by a LOOONG way. I love it and am so looking forward to doing more handstands with this new distinction.

Tomorrow is another big day with lots of possibilities. Can’t Wait. Go Heroes!!!!