Week 4 - Preparing for our 1st Invite

I hope this finds everyone well. I don’t know about the rest of you but I had a very relaxing holiday break. I hope all of you did as well. We are starting Week 4 off in a good spot!

Floor Routines:

Everyone has a floor routine and they are starting to really get the dance and timing of the routines locked down. Next up is to start working their tumbling and jump passes into the routines. This is where cardio and endurance starts to really come into play. The better someone’s endurance, the better the skills, the better the routine. I will be pushing endurance and cardio in our conditioning even more.

Beam Routines:

Wednesday we spent most of practice working beam routines. While still in the early stages, everyone is getting down all the pieces that need to go into their routine so next up is actually locking in the routine. That will be a big focus this week.

Bars Routines:

Bars is in a similar spot as beam. There’s still lots of routines that need to get locked down and this will also be a big focus this week.

Vault:

Many of the girls have committed the vault they want to perform. A handful are required to pass the safety and competition thresholds before the vaults could ever be competed so this week will be a chance to start working to cross those thresholds. Reminder - 10 in the pit landed safely crosses the safety threshold. 10 on the competition vault and matting landed safely crosses the competition threshold.

Other Safety & Competition Thresholds:

Other skills that will be required to pass these thresholds are giants on bars, a bail / overshoot release move on bars, and any full twisting on floor. When the skill is on bars, floor, or beam, the safety threshold is 10 on the floor done safely and 10 full routines done with that skill included. Remember this is to ensure the safety of the gymnast and also ensure the skills they are performing are done with confidence.

In thinking of what this week looks like, here’s the overview of the week:

Practice Times This Week: Monday (7-9 PM) Tuesday (5-7 PM) Wednesday (5-7 PM) Thursday (7-9 PM) Friday (5-7 PM) Saturday (7:15 AM - 5:00 PM in Wisconsin Rapids at Lincoln High School, Competitors Only) Overview of the week: Monday: Bars Routines, Vault, Open Gym Tuesday: Beam Routines, Floor, Open Gym Wednesday: Floor Routines, Open Gym Thursday: Mock Meet for All Saturday Competitors (anyone competing must execute routines) open gym for all others Friday: Bars Routines, Vault, Open Gym

Saturday: Wisconsin Rapids Invite (see below for more info)

WI Rapids Invite: Our first invite is Saturday! Crazy! Here is the timing for the day: 7:15 AM - arrive at school 7:30 - leave school and head to Dunkin’ Donuts (send your girls with money if they want something from Dunkin) 7:45: hit the road 9:45 - arrive at school 10:00 - coaches meeting for me / girls will get in comp Leo’s and warm up with Carol 11:00 - meet starts 3:00 PM - meet ends 3:15 - stop and get food (send girls with money if they want to get food on the way home) 5:30 - get back to memorial The line up for who will be competing and who are alternates will be sent out Monday night. I determine who will be competing based on two big factors. The first is start value and difficulty of a routine (every girls routine has a start value I calculate for them to help them know where they stand). Second but just as important is the consistency of the routine or gymnast. This incentivizes the girls to work their routines and skills diligently to give themselves confidence in what they are doing. Finally, I am very open and transparent to the girls about line ups so I encourage them to talk to me if they have ever have questions. Even if they want to ask ‘why wasn’t I picked for this competition’ I highly encourage they ask me. I will always have an answer :) Back to meet stuff - We will take 2 minivans up to the meet. Once we know how many competitors we will be bringing up, we will offer any extra spots to non-competitors and do a random draw if there are more people that want to attend than seats. If anybody wants to drive along behind us in their own car (or carpool) they are welcome to. There are 8 rounds in the meet - we compete 1 (floor), 3 (vault), 5 (bars), 7 (beam). In case anyone is curious on my thoughts about our first meet, I am excited! This invite is one of the earliest meets of the season and I think of this meet as a great ‘get the jitters out’ meet. While I wish I could take the whole team with, taking a portion of the team will allow a good handful of the team to try out their routines and get a sense of how scoring is going. I also appreciate this early meet because I get great insight into what the judges are seeing and it allows me to learn and tweak everyone’s routines based on the feedback and scores we get. Housekeeping Items: This last week was a week of even more progress! Almost everything random and junky has been moved out of the gym. The 2nd vault runway was installed. The new beam cover for the low beam has arrived! I investigated the shakey beam and have some ideas to fix it (no promises). Things on my to do list: Recover the low beam. Tinker with shakey beam. Jason Deli Sign Up: Don't forget to sign up for Jason Deli boxes. That’s all for now! As always, reach out with questions :) -Danielle