What really matters when I coach, my thoughts for today.

As I begin my search for a job in a MAG program, I was talking to one of my gymnastics mentors and the following thoughts came up.
"I really just want a job with consistent kids that I can really develop into amazing people. The gymnastics is just a bonus. It's really about the people these kids become, 90% of them aren't going to be involved in gym forever like us. But if they can develop work ethic, passion, and kindness because of how I coached them..... that's the best reward"

I do (and pay for) all of my own further education because I love what I do, and because I'm constantly learning. I want to share that.

For fun, here's my son who learned something awesome last night.
Front pike half into the pit

A note on body image

Yesterday, I approached a fellow gymnastics coach and friend to help me get back on track with my fitness and lose the rest of this weight I'm struggling with. He agreed and said that it would be motivation for him to increase his strength and fitness as well.
I said "I'm about a 40 pounds away from where I feel healthy" and with a shocked look on his face he said "What do you eat, rocks?!" I pulled up my current weight in my head and did the math and said "oh wait, I'm actually about 20-25 pounds away from where I'm comfortable" to which he replied "yeah, that's a little more believable". He believes that I can get down 10lbs in a month which would be fantastic and is going to support me through it by working out with me twice a week.
The point of this though, is that I'm walking around believing that I am 20lbs heavier than I actually am. My view of my body is still from when I had just had a baby and she is 10 months old now. If I lost 40lbs from my current weight I would be 125lbs and even at my most fit when I was a competitive highland dancer, I was not that weight.
This was a huge awakening for me. I realized that I have lost weight since Cecilia was born but the fact that I can't see that was actually a bit of a shock. So here I am. Starting this journey to be healthy. To be able to run after my kids and play more than I sit and watch. To be able to participate in a 5k and feel good about it (read:not die by the end). To be able to perform my highland dancing exam in the fall with confidence. To be able to be strong enough to spot older kids in gymnastics frequently and not be exhausted. To be able to do acro yoga with Jamie and be able to hold my own weight.
These are the goals that are important to me, not how much I weigh although my range is generally around 140lbs.
I want to be an example of a healthy, active lifestyle to all of my children so that they enjoy movement for their entire lives.

I'm ready.

Andrea

Flexibility @ Salto

I made a trip to Edmonton on boxing day for 5 days to work with Rebecca Sykes from Salto Gymnastics. I learned a lot from working with her and her girls were SO much fun to work with. I had the amazing opportunity to do some flexibility training with them for an hour on 3 of the days I was there. Rebecca videotaped some of what we did and put together a compilation.
The above video has 6 stretches and 2 flex/strength exercises.
A couple notes.
I like to the "kickout" exercise before the pike side to side because it warms up the same area. What you're watching for in the pike stretch is that the knee that is bending is going directly over the toe. The leg that is straight is pushing down through the heel and the back of the knee as well as pushing the hip out to the side. This is one of my favorite stretches, way more effective than just sitting in pike and pushing kids forward.
Bounce bounce up is great for active flexibility and strength in an area that is challenging.


The next video is mostly arms with a straddle stretch at the end. After the girls do the bridge pushes, I showed them a better way to stretch out their back instead of rolling on the floor.

Thanks for watching!
Andrea

Flexibility: Breaking down splits Part 1

Sitting in splits is probably the LEAST effective way to increase your flexibility for them. Sure, doing this repetitively will get results eventually and increase where you were when you started however, breaking down splits into smaller muscle group stretches will increase your flexibility faster.
Jamie and I (Andrea) coached the annual MAG (men's artistic gymnastics) provincial level training camp this past December. Most of what we do is a combination of active and passive stretching in each stretch to get the benefit of both.
We would get the boys to show us their splits and then walk them through a series of stretches (approximately 35 mins) and then they would try their splits afterwards. I'm going to say that 60% of the boys had a significant change in their splits, and some of those boys had HUGE change. The other 40% were already pretty flexible and saw change but maybe not as significant. When I say the word change, I'm not just talking about how many inches they are off the floor. I'm talking about how square they can sit, are their shoulders over top of their hips and facing forward? Are they tense, in pain and making the "flex face"?

This is my son. This is his "flex face"

The boys that saw huge change were blown away when they did their splits at the end of their time with us. They might not have been flat but moving into splits was easy and it wasn't painful to sit in them anymore. 

Here's the first video in our Breaking Down Splits series. The elevated lunge. Adding height to any stretch will allow the athlete to use their own body weight to increase the intensity.