Play Hard….Finish Strong

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!!!

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