I remember when I was studying History about Neil Armstrong and the quote ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. For me I make lots of little stepsevery day and the more I train at the gym the more I improve. I may not have a breakthrough or even may be less than personal best, but every back bend assists in conditioning my body so that the big breakthrough days can happen. For the last couple of days I have had more challenges doing Upslinkies and have not done one off the three panel mat since I hit 5/5. I also realize how much the chiropractor makes in having my body in peak form.

I have also been working on the sidesplits and I had no idea it was going to take me this long to get them. The body is SLOWLY complying with all the stretching and I have to realize that this is going to allow me to get there and stay there with this technique. Every day that I stretch I am reminding the muscles that they will be needing to do that on a regular basis. I so look forward getting the point I can sit in front of the television for fifteen minutes (watching a biography video) in the sidesplits. It is a vision I have and commitment will get me there.

Here is todays result

Most people do not realize what they can achieve in the long term with consistent, planned training. I have also put out that I will be able to do a handstand for five minutes. I will also be able to walk around on my hands like I do on my feet with complete control.

I also want to rebuild vertical leap for my leaps and jumps. So much conditioning to do but the results keep showing up in what I am doing.

It is amazing with the principle What I Focus On Expands. When I drill a skill down at LA Fitness within a short number of weeks I start getting such better results. My challenge is hours in the day to train and wear and tear on the body. My handstands are looking good already and getting more consistent now is the time to take that rigor to the beam which is what I am doing with my mini beam.

Look forward to training with coach for the next three days. I am sure there will be more to report….Go Heroes!!

I have doing a study of George S. Patton, Jr and one of his biggest philosophies is that we will never take the same ground twice and we will keep advancing. How does that relate to what I am doing. I have my big objective. Liberate the GOLD medal. I have lots of enemy in between where I am and my goal. I have skills that I must conquer which leads me to this topic. Just because you can do a technique does not mean you own that technique.

I went to the gym this morning and almost kicked over on my first bridge. That means with very little pre-stretch I can almost kick over straight away. That says a lot about the quality of the conditioning of the body. I did my three kickovers and then went to Upslinkies. I got all five on the two panel mat but they were tough and some involved double kicks to get over. I then made zero on the three panel mat. Yesterday I got 5/5 on this previous;y impossible skills and today 0/5. Part of me was disappointed but part of me also knows that I need to keep doing it so that it becomes automatic. Part of the challenge of big breakthroughs is that the weight of expectation is suddenly on you to do it again. You have pre conceived ideas and add more pressure on yourself. I know that in time this will become consistent.

Also by doing the Upslinkies it is making all my other back work so much easier. I now do 5/5 Back Limber Kickoves every morning. The back is so much more open after the Upslinkies that these are getting effortless. I then did my Tumbleweeds (Front Limber Standups). I need to these so it becomes consistent and in better form. This is important for Front Handsprings which is one of the few remaining challenges for Level 5 Floor.

I then worked on Back Walkover as part of the routine and did 5/5 although I did have to double kick on the last one which is unusual. I then did 5 beam slinkies on the floor and got two of them going over smoothly. I then did back bends onto the minibeam and stuck all five. This is a new and critical process for me of getting used to going back and knowing my hands will be on the beam and have a solid grip allowing me to go over.

It is SOOO much harder to do handstands and back walkovers in the beam position than in the normal floor position. I love my coach. This mini beam is going to make such a difference and speed up the skill acquisition. Coach and I are now going after this skill aggressively and a lot of it is getting comfortable trusting to be balanced and go backwards over the beam.

I then worked on handstands and made great progress. I was able to get 8/10 up to count of at least 1Z. I then did my best on pirouette handstands as well with much better form and then did 30 handstands on beam. I am beginning to fall in love with this and now I can do it on the minibeam I can be really aggressive and go for it and feel more comfortable.

I then did my two sets of 21 pushups as requested by coach and my goal is to increase it by one each time I do them until I can do two sets of 100. Finally I made more progress on Sidesplits.

There may not seem to be much progress but the body is slowly getting more comfortable getting there and the goal is to get the point where I can go straight into the splits and sit there for 15 minutes. It is an aggressive goal but I am going to keep working towards it. I also was thinking today that I want to be able to walk around the gym on my hands and come down when i want. I am talking five minutes on my hands and I am strong enough to do it. If I can get there it means my body is so strong and all the techniques on floor, beam and bars will be so much easier.

Another huge day or progress and am so looking forward to training again tomorrow and then three days with coach with week. Loving Life. Go Heroes!!!

After a great day with coach yesterday and seeing Doc (Dr Michelle Binkowski) I was sooo looking forward to training this morning. Doc did a lot of work unlocking muscle on my right side over my ribs and getting deep into the scar tissue. There is a lot of it and it has glued up my side and means I have all this crunching every morning and keeps my spine rotating.

I so wish I could film down at LA Fitness but they have issues. This morning I got down there at 6:30 and went to work. I almost kicked over on the first bridge but decided to wait until the second. What this tells me is the back is getting conditioned so it requires less stretching now to do basic kickovers. I think it might be another month o two and I should be able to do kickovers immediately ANYWHERE. Tehehe. Watch Out. Then it will be slinkies everywhere.

I then went straight to Level 2 Upslinkies. I decided after yesterday to bypass off the 1 panel mat and go straight to two. I did 5/5 and then did 5/5 on Level 3. OMG such massive progress. In a week I am going after Level 4 to see how it feels. This progress is amazing.

I then did 5 Front Limber Kickovers beautifully as part of the routine followed by 6 Tumbleweeds (Front Limber Stand Ups) Then I did five beautiful Back Walkovers as part of the routine as well. It is just amazing watching the progress and how effortless it is becoming. Just a while ago all these skills were dream like and on my wish list from Santa and now they truly are easy.

I then worked on Slinkies on the beam. I did backbends onto the beam but just did not have the confidence to kick over yet. Slinkies are off both feet. Back Walkovers are off one (more balance required). Soon. I should have done 5 on the floor first. When I did that I made huge progress and got 3/5 over. Soon this too will be become automatic and give me so much more confidence on the beam.

After that I worked on handstands and the beam handstands were mediocre but it is a starting point for me to get my hands on my mini beam and train. I know huge progess is inevitable with focused training and tracking all progress.

After I worked on the sidesplits. I did great progress and did my personal best there. It is really great to visualize myself getting down and then getting to a point where I can stay down and then go into the splits without a lot of warming up. It is inevitable and necessary or what I need to do for Level 6 where I need to do 180 degree splits in the air.

I was sharing with some of my friends down the gym and my goal is to get better every day in every way. Bernie who is 77 said Bobbie I am just working at not sliding the other way. (He works out 6 days a week). I ended up the day with 8 Breakthroughs Before Breakfast. I love starting the day this way.

I feel so blessed and look forward to reflecting in a years time when everything I am doing is so effortless and obvious that I have difficulty fathoming I was challenged by it. Who knows what tomorow has in store. All I know is I am excited. Go Heroes!!!

I love Gymnastics because it is a quest for the impossible. I remember when I began training again two years ago on my path to Olympics and my back was so out of shape I could not even do a backbend or a kickover. The ideas of it was can I ever climb that mountain again like when I was a junior. A year ago I could just do it. Now I do 40-60 a morning. Since then I have been working on making it harder by going uphill with what I call upslinkies. Recently I had been pushing the envelope doing Upslinkies onto the one panel mat and was getting good but had never gone up two panel mats. Ten days ago I was able to start going up two occassionally. A week ago I went to test one the three panel mat and it felt months away.

Well this morning I felt great and was nailing everything even with the rib and decided to go for the three. I nailed the first one on the first attempt. OMG!!! I then did 3/5 What a difference. Ten days ago I thought three might be a major challenge now I have my sights on four panel mats. I know it is still a long way away but then miracles happen. What Upslinkies do is they increase my kick strength and open my upper back further so that when I come to do my normal back work on the floor it becomes effortless. I LOVE it.

I was working with coach today on Back Walkovers on beam and have started the pieces coming together. Now with my minibeam there is a direct and realistic change that by the time I return to work with coach in March this technique will be working on the beam with coach barely spotting. Amazing. It takes so much discipline to go after these techniques and knowing that ‘Once Impossible, Now Easy’. Back Walkovers are the lead in to Back Handsprings on beam and that to me is where we start talking major skills. There is a big skill jump to being doing back handsprings on beam and this separates the pack and moves me into Level 7 which is Optional routines.

I also worked with coach on Back Tucks. This technique is one I was doing 2 years ago but hurt my knee REALLY badly and it slowed me down for 18 monts. I was back doing it with coach on the floor spotting but it will not be long before I am doing them again down at the gym without coach spotting. Eventually this skill will also go to the beam.

I also got to work on Front Handsprings this morning as well which has twisted my knee 7 times. Today we were doing them on the floor and getting closer and closer to not needing coach. It will be a while yet but the fear has gone and I am attacking the technique. Eventually I will be doing Front Handspring – Front Tuck on beam at higher levels. Talk about the need for precision.

Also worked on Front Tucks as well and am doing it off the springboard and it is coming together. Soon will be off the floor and then as part of the level 6 Floor routine. I was also doing Back Handsprings which are getting better and I will break through this as well. Little distinctions are coming together.

Overall it was an amazing day and it is under Episode #120 if you want to see the footage although it may be a couple of weeks before the footage is in BobbieSue.TV

I also went to work with Doc (Dr Michelle Binkowski) who is my incredible chiropractor and she was working very deep into the muscles, breaking up scar tissue which will allow me to do even better tomorrow. Now she has a much better feel for this area we are going in a with a lot more with elbows deep into the tissue. It hurts but I know the benefits on the othe side and am so looking forward to training tomorrow and am expecting even more breakthroughs. Loving Life. Go Heroes!!!

I was vey excited about getting down to the gym today. Coach had given me a list of new exercises to do as part of my strength conditioning. My back is getting so flexible that he has given me work to do on my core to stabilize it while I keep getting more and more flexible. I interspersed those with my back work this morning. I was excited when I did my first bridge because it felt really strong and open after Doc worked on me yesterday. I then did three kickovers in a row. The rest of my workout did not meet my expectation. I feel short on a lot as my rib caused a jabbing pain in my side.

I turned up to work with coach a little disheartened. We started on vault and I did five bad vaults and was very frustrated. Coach had a supportive word to me and I worked through it and finally hit my stride and did two of my best vaults to date. Progress amidst the rubble. I then spent the next two hours doing beam work. Cartwheels were just not happening but handstands are getting better and better which is very exciting for me.  We did turns and leaps and also some wok on Back Walkovers which is one of my next bis steps on beam. Even with the rub I was able to do a Back Walkover on floor and coach was ecstatic. We then did spotted back walkovers on beam and again coach was excited about the progress and now I have my mini beam I am going to be able to train that so the next block in March we will be doing that on the high beam.

Very excited to go and train tomorrow. I went down and got some more supplements and protein powder today to keep supporting my intensive workouts. Need to support my body as it takes me to Gold.  Off to rest and then off for an evening session. I love my life. Go Heoes!!!

After not training with coach yesterday and allowing my rib to heal I was up at 5am and down at LA Fitness at 6am training. I did three strong kickovers followed by five upslinkies off the one panel mat and then five up the two panel mat. This was actually the second best I had ever done even taking into account the sore rib. What that tells me is I am on the verge of some huge progress. I also did five Front Limber Kickovers effortlessly. The upslinkies make such a difference to opening up the back.

I then went and trained with coach. We started on vault and it took a little while before they were clicking but I did some of my best vaults to date and was consistent which is great. We then went to work on bars and started working on giants. We went to casting and did some of the best and tightest casts close to 45. It is great watching it get stronger and higher because eventually I will be going to handstand as part of Level 7.

Coach and I then sat down and talked about conditioning and strength training. He gave me a long list of things to work on to improve my core strength to reduce the twisting as my back gets more and more open. He told me I have to do that before I do my back training so I have a big incentive to get to my mack work which I love.

We finished on beam and did some ok work on beam and a lot of it is just time on the beam. We did a lot of leaps and turns. There is nothing like being on the apparatus. Overall it was another solid day of training and my rib is doing great meaning that tomorrow I get to push really hard at tumbling and everything else planned.

I finished by going to Doc and she did lots of musclework on my shoulder, and adjustments. My back is feeling strong and straight and I am so looking forward to getting down there and having an amazing day. Go Heroes.

A couple of days ago I was stretching down at LA Fitness and my body was really twisted as I had not had a chance to visit my chiropractor Doc. I pushed really hard and refractured my lower rib. I had finally got to the point where I was healthy, my knee was strong and suddenly I am back in care again. It is so frustrating and the tears flowed.

Doc adjusted me yesterday and untwisted me but did not realease all the muscles around the rib to protect it. This morning I got up and felt good. I was supposed to be training with coach at 6.30 to 9.30 and went to LA Fitness at 5am to stretch before hand. I was doing great and was releasing all the tightness and gradually the pain of rub resurfaced. I had done a bridge and then three clean kickovers and then did three upslinkies but stopped because I new that if I trained with coach in the cold of the very early morning with the rub I would have problems so I did what I hate doing and that is to cancel my time with coach. Every time I have trained with him and been really frustrated, sad or hurt it just complicated so it was time to head off to bed and cry……

Having just got up and having gone for a walk outside I realized what a beatiful day it is so I am going to rest and can’t wait to play full out with coach tomorrow. Tomorrow is a brand new day. Go Heroes!!!!

Thanks to rebreaking my rib yesterday due to my body being twisted I had to have a hard look this morning about what I was going to do. Part of me was like go back to bed but I knew there is no way I could face the rest of the day without training so I was down at the gym at 7am. I felt much better after I had showered and got to LA Fitness I started working on my back. Sure enough the familiar pains started coming back after doing three kickovers.

I had to decide what to do. My usual plans were totally derailed as if I kept pushing my back I could do further injury. I therefore started work on handstands. I did some great handstands and then began working on beam handstands and side handstands using my minibeam that coach got for me for Christmas. It took me a while to get a feel for it but one I did it began to work. I only had one sary moment because even though it is a low beam directly below it is concrete. Not good to connect with fae or wrists.

I then did some side handstands and they were OK and I certainly know I will be able to do a lot more going forward to the point I fall totally in love with them and they are like kickovers.

I also did some work on the sidesplits and am back pushing my edge again. It is going to be a gradual process and a lot more than I would like, so I need to be patient and keep doing it every day.

Overall it was a  solid mornings performance. I had five breakthroughs mainly in using the new minibeam coach gave me. I can now see dramatic improvements in this area going forward which will be great to allow me to work on back walkovers on the beam with a real beam. The good thing about gymnastics is there is always something to work on.

I will breathe….let my body do some healing…see Doc tomorrow and keep working around the injury until it heals again. Oh well. Go Heroes!!

I was so excited to go to the gym this morning and work out. I took my minibeam with me and was there when it was opened. I got to work I can tell my body is not in alignment and I was not able to see Doc for the last week after all the intensive training with coach I am putting a lot of pressure on my body with all the giants on bars and tumbling on the floor and stretching down at LA Fitness. I had lots of sleep so strength was not an issue but with my body so twisted I finally kicked over on the fourth attempt. Hmm that means I am very twisted. I know my back is flexible right now it is a case of my body fighting against my body when it is not in alignment.

I then went and started working on slinkes. I did a quad slinky, a pentaslinky and an octoslinky which is a great start to the new year. I then began work on Kickovers off my weak leg and this is where I had a challenge My body was so twisted that when I went to bridge my body felt very contorted as a result it put a lot of strain on the spine and ribs and On the 9th Kickover I think I either pulled a muscle or refractured on of my ribs. I can feel that familiar stabbing feeling I have not had for months and it scares me a little.

I kept training and did 5/5 Front Limber Kickovers which were fantastic and then did work on handstands. I did lots of awesome handstands even with the rib and then did jumps on my beam. This is going a great area for me to focus on. Then after Straight Jumps and Tuck Jumps I then worked on sidesplits and forward splits both ways. I need to get these for my jumps and leaps in higher levels.

Just frustrating to be hurting so early into the new year. I am going to pushing hard this year and at 21 with age against me and all the new skills I need to aquire I need to make sure I can train injury free as muh as possible but know that it is a possibility. I am off to ice, rest and cry and then mentally prepare to go down and train again tomorrow.

Every day is an adventure and as long as I can keep my eye on the prize then I can remember the adage…This took will pass…….Go Heroes!!!

Well today is the final day of 2010. How are you spending your last day? I was up at 5:00am so I could have a full seven hours sleep and was done at the L.A. Fitness training for 2 hours before going off to train with coach. My body felt great this morning and after all that rest I knew I was going to get some solid results. I did my kickovers at LA Fitness, folllowed by Quad and Penta Slinkies meaning it will not be long before I am back to Octo and Deca Slinkies. I did my Front Limber Kickovers 5/5 and then Back Walkovers and did 5/5. I was also able to work on Handstands and did my longest ever beam handstand. This is going to be so much easier now I have Coachs little beam he gave me to take down to LA Fitness.

I arrived at Elite Gymnastics with coach and it was cold. I mean see your breath cold. We started off doing vaults and did a great job. Coach was very impressed and I did some really good ones off the 7 setting which is as high as it goes. Body shape is straight and now working on the shoulders staying open throughout the vault.

We then went to bars and got to do some casting. Casting is a critical skill on bars where you push up from front position eventually into a handstand for Level 7. It is a lot of work and positioning and not a natural move at all although it looks effortless at the Olympics. In previous episodes of GOLD I have been working on it and gradually getting better and better. We need it now so we can get the momentum on the strap bars to go for Giants.

Giants are when you see the gymnast swinging all around the high bar. They take a lot of work and timing to make them work but are fundamental for high levels of gymanstics. They are part of Level 7. I went to the strap bars and am making great progress in making the shapes and form and getting closer and closer to vertical as I swing through. In the next seven classes with coach there is a strong chance I will make my first giant.

We then went to beam where we did solid work drilling the basics. Overall it was a great solid training session with no spectacular breakthroughs but moving all the skills further along. I love it watching the incremental progress.

I was given the draft for my new Magazine cover on Gymnastics Insider. Still a couple of small changes but looks great.

2011 and is going to be an amazing year and for me it is sooo nice to finish the year on a strong footing. No injuries. Healthy and ready to tackle the new year. Are you finishing strong for 2010 ready to go full speed ahead into 2011? Most people seem to ned ramp up time to hit the stride. I will be in LA Fitness tomorrow at 8am (That is when they open!!) and train for four hours with lots of breakthroughs coming. I am soo excited. Go Heroes!!!