Whatta (Satur)day

First off, happy birthday wishes to Mindy! It looks like you and Baby Girl T will not be sharing the same birthday afterall... :-(

Today started off bright and early with the 2007 Georgia Gymnastics Coaches/Judges clinic at Roswell Rec. It was a very full day, jam packed with incredible clinics put on by some of the most experienced and accomplished coaches i nthe state. To say that I learned a lot would be a huge understatement! I picked up great tips and drills on beam (great job, Elena!) and floor (Pam was amazing!), got some very good suggestions on how to get the girls OVER the bar on their kips from Dana, and Shawna was able to get some good vault info for us from the judges seminar. Thanks to the organizers for putting this on for us today - I can't wait until the next one! Actually, we have the Region 8 Congress here in Atlanta in just two weeks so there is more to come very soon. I can't wait to share all I learned with the girls. It is undoubtedly going to help us tremendously!

Being in such a cool gym, of course I was eyeing the strap bar and tumble trak into the pit the whole day... My chance finally came when everyone left for the dinner break in the evening. It was my time to sneak on the equipment and see what I could still do after almost 20 (YIKES!) years. I was able to get the giants around relatively easily on the strap bar, but boy, I felt like I was on a roller coaster - my body and head are not used to circling around like that anymore. The dizziness set in after just a few giants and I was ready to get off. I guess I'm not as young and agile as I may think...

But my nauseating experience on the bar didn't keep me from jumping in with the younger girls tumbling on the tumble trak into the pit. With my flexibility (actually, complete lack thereof!), tumbling with backhandsprings were out of the question. But I was fairly confident I could tumble right out of a round-off so off I went... Started off testing the waters with a layout and without much effort landed all the way over on my back in the pit. Time to twist!

Next turn, I tumbled a round-off into a full into the pit and once again without much effort made it all the way onto my back. Was a double full in the cards? "Why not?", I figured. Again, I easily completed the twist and landed on my back-maybe I still have (some of) it after nearly 20 years!

I briefly considered attempting a double back, but figured I was better off not pushing my luck. The double full was enough to satisfy me for the day! I did want to do something forwards, and figured a double front presented only a very small amount of risk, and since I'd done them into the pool last summer, my confidence was up. I did two and made both easily - even knew exactly where I was in the air! (Master's Gymnastics- here I come!) I should have the opportunity to play in a pit and on a strap bar when I go home in a few weeks (Boz, are yo uready for me? Time to pick up where we left off!), so the training will continue again soon... :-)

Midway through today's clinic, I headed off to Sandy Springs for little Karen's first birthday party (how did she get to one so quickly??). How appropriate that it was held at a preschool gymnastics facility. I see a bright gymnastics career in her future! Just look at her face while we were sitting on the beam together - she loved it! Leslie, you know you have a coach when she's ready!!

My body was exhausted from the long day, so how appropriate that we had scheduled our couples massage (wonderful engagement gift from Todd & Kelly!) for tomorrow. Can't wait!