I have been working on building series of Back Walkovers over the last 6 weeks to assist me in doing it on beam. I need to improve the speed at which my hands get to the ground after starting to leave back. It takes a lot of confidence to be able to do this. For a loong time I was focusing on Slinkies where you start on both feet and lean back and then kick over. It was my dream early on to do be able to an Octoslinky. 8 in a row. Surely enough over time I broke through this and then Decaslinkies.

When I move to Poway in January I had a much larger area to do a series and it is then I started focsuing on 12. Done. 14. Done and then did 16. I then began focusing on Back Walkover series rather than Slinky series. Next day 6 Back Walkovers in a row. I was stunned. That was 10 days ago. Today my back felt REALLY good and I thought me let me see if I can go for 20. Just let’s see.

I did my first pass of 12 which is the most ever for an initial pass. Then I did 20. I sat stunned. I rested. I drank and I thought let me go for another 20 in a row. Done. Wow. To give you an idea up until then the maximum done in three series was 33 (8,9,16) I just did 12,20,20. My back is opening up to such an incredible level.

What is the key you ask? It is definitly conditioning and doing it repeatedly. I am do back bends onto my beam. Holding the beam in back walkover hand position is MUCH tougher than doing it normal style. It has a much bigger impact on the upper back as well. I do ten back bends onto the beam and then count to 60. While upside down on the beam in bridge position it feels like you are about to break in two. Every part of you is at full stretch. It does not feel like you make much progress each day but what it is doing is building the conditioning and that happens slowly allowing such massive breakthroughs. A breakthrough is a reflection of the work done the previous day that allows it to happen.

When I was in Australia and training with Georgia I was close to doing Beam Slinkies by myself with just a little spot. When I get back to training with coach I am going to be VERY interested to see what progress I have made since I have been away.

My goal now is to go for 30 in a row and then once I know 20 is a given start time trials to see how fast I can them and time it. It is amazing watching the bodyh change and grow and keep getting better. I know it is jus a matter of time before I am doing Back Walkovers on the beam by myself and that will be a huge day of celebration when I do my first one without coach spotting. It will happen. Go Heroes!!!