Evolution and Innovation

I cited the following in an earlier post:

It Begins with Self-Image

Of course....make sure you keep it real and not delude yourself, either....

[Not] Stretching the Truth

"Do I need to stretch before I do my super hero stuff?"

 You've seen it countless times. A group of athletes or team gathers around for the traditional ritual known as preactivity stretching. Do you know why athletes stretch? Conventional wisdom tells us that stretching lengthens the soft tissue around the joints to prepare the body for the upcoming activity and to help prevent injury. However, much of this wisdom may be a result of tradition rather than proven fact.

Consider the following story told by American Football Coaches Association Executive Director Grant Teaff. A small girl comes into the kitchen on Easter Sunday morning where her mother is preparing the traditional Easter ham dinner- The girl notices that her mother is cutting the ends of the ham off and asks her why she was doing that. Her mother said "That's the way my mother did it every Easter." Later that day, the girl's grandmother came over, so the little girl asked her the same question and got the same answer. Finally, great grandmother arrives for dinner and the little girl had to ask the matriarch of the family why the ends of the ham were cut off. The old lady smiled weakly and looked into the little girl's eyes and said, "Why honey, back then I only had a small pan in which to cook the ham- So to fit it in I had to cut the ends off."

The moral of the story: why do we continue to do what has been done for years without asking the appropriate questions? -Ken Kontor

 It drives me batty that so many of us still cling to "tradition", when that "tradition" isn't a good thing to hang on to.  As Bruce Lee believed, blindly following tradition leads to cultural stagnation and the loss of evolution and innovation.

Reading through this WaPo article on 10 Fitness myths, debunked, motivated me to do this blogpost.  I bring you myth #10:

Mentos Commercial

Doesn't that make you feel inspired to go out and buy some Mentos?  No?  How about watching Gymkata, the worst movie seldom ever seen?  So bad, it's not even good...yet somehow still transfixing...because it's so bad and so far removed from good?  No? 

I didn't think so.

On your skidmark.....get set......GO!

Seat Race:
   

And if any gymnast begs for something more challenging, how about split racing? (Hat tip:  Gymnasticscoaching.com):

Community, Caring, Family, Relationship to Others...

Coach Jason Orkowski of Gymfinity tells a moving account of his end-of-the-year team banquet.  Excerpt:

It was this last Sunday and I was struck speechless, a rare occasion for me. It was our team banquet and after dinner the girls had a few presentations to make. They honored each other with gag gifts, I was even given the best hair award (nice!).  They honored their parents for their support and they honored our one graduating senior: Hannah. Then they presented one more thing, that’s when I became speechless, I think I was too busy trying not to cry.

Read the whole thing and you might cry as well....never having met Kieran OR Coach Jason Orkowski.

Removing the Clay

"Your reputation is what you're perceived to be; your character is what you really are."

-John Wooden

Chalk it Up?!

Since Caslin's in the promo.....



Maddy Curley brings you the next great gymnastics movie:

Ordinary Athletes Rely on Talent; Extraordinary Athletes Apply Hard Work

"I wouldn't call Musashi ordinary."

"But he is.  That's what's extraordinary about him.  He's not content with relying on whatever natural gifts he may have.  Knowing he's ordinary, he's always trying to improve himself.  No one appreciates the agonizing effort he's had to make.  Now that his years of training have yielded such spectacular results, everybody's talking about his 'god-given talent.'  That's how men who don't try very hard comfort themselves."

-Excerpt from Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa

Do the deliberate practice:

Core, Core, and More Core

Core, core, and more core:





Active Flexibility:

Event Conditioning

Pirouette complex before or after bar rotation:







Beam event complex/conditioning:






Floor complex for acro:

Warm-up Conditioning

Vault:


Bars:



Beam:


 Floor:

Memorial Day

"It was not the Declaration of Independence that gave us freedom but the Continental Army"  

-Leif Babin (read his excellent op-ed)

I want to share the following- something I transcribed a number of years ago.  It typifies the quality of worth of so many who choose to serve and sacrifice; whatever their original reasons for doing so, we are all the benefactors.

The following is from a letter written in the tradition of a soldier in wartime, writing to his sweetheart back home. It comes courtesy of Michael Medved. Mr. Medved did not source the letter; and Google has come up empty. So I transcribed it myself, from his radio broadcast. I get choked up everytime I listen to it; the same way my eyes can sometimes water when I look at the American flag for too long.



" Dear Angela,

This is by far the most difficult letter I shall ever write; what makes it so difficult is that you’ll be reading it in the unhappy event of my death. You’ve already learned of my death. I hope the news was broken to you gently. God, Angie, I didn’t want to die. I had so much to live for; you were my main reason for living. You’re a jewel; a treasure. Please don’t hate the war because it has taken me. I’m glad and proud that America has found me equal to the task of defending it. Vietnam isn’t a far off country in a remote corner of the world. It is Sagamore, Brooklyn, Honolulu, or any other part of the world where there are Americans. Vietnam is a test of the American spirit. I hope I have helped in a little way to pass the test. The press, the television screen, the magazines are filled with the images of young men burning their draft cards to demonstrate their courage. Their rejection is of the ancient law that a male fights to protect his own people in his own land. Does it take courage to flaunt the authorities and burn a draft card? Ask the men at Dak To, Con Thien, or Hill 875: they’ll tell you how much courage it takes.

Most people never think of their freedom; they never think much about breathing either, or blood circulating, except when these functions are checked by a doctor. Freedom like breathing and circulating blood is part of our being. Why must people take their freedom for granted? Why can’t they support the men, who are trying to protect their lifeblood- Freedom?

WE MUST DO the job that God set down for us. It’s up to every American to fight for the freedom we hold so dear. We must instruct the young in the ways of these great United States; we mustn’t let them take these freedoms for granted.

I want you to go on to live a full, rich, productive life, Angie. I want you to share your love with someone. You may meet another man and bring up a family. Please bring up your children to be proud Americans. Don’t worry about me, Honey; God must have a special place for soldiers. I’ve died as I’ve always hoped, protecting what I do hold so dear to my heart.

We will meet again in the future. We will. I’ll be waiting for you that day. I’ll be watching over you Angie; and if it’s possible to help you in some way, I will. Feel some relief with the knowledge that you’ve filled my short life with more happiness than most men know in a lifetime.

The inevitable? Well, the last one: I love you with all my heart; and all my love for you will survive into eternity.

Your Joey "

Joseph E. Santoni (I am doubtful that I have this right; but from listening, it’s the closest I could make out; if anyone knows better, please let me know) is one of the 58,000 names on the Wall in Washington. He died less than a year after writing these words.

Sights and Sounds from Houston

Congratulations to Tony Pineda and Lora Kropp!

Groom and Bride

Bride and Groom created by Tadashi Mori
Folded by Michael Sanders
6" x 6" squares of tissue foil

Classic Bride and Groom from "Origami Made Easy" by Kunihiko KASAHARA; also with "Lover's Knot" by Francis Ow

Bruin Boys

This morning, while loafing around in the lobby at the Hampton, I entertained other guests with origami; including my paper glider:

Homeward Bound

May 31, 2010, LA Veterans Cemetary

I try not to stray too far off-topic from the purpose of this blog, which is to report all things gymnastics-related.  But so much in life is interconnected; and we all bring lessons and experiences from the really real world and apply them to who we are and how we relate it to the gymnastics world...and vice versa.


A 2009 video tribute I did:




The images I used in this one is focused on recent and current conflicts.  No matter your politics or how you may feel about these armed conflicts/war(s) and issues of foreign policy, the fact remains that throughout our nation's history, brave men and women along with their families have served and sacrificed on behalf of our country.

This weekend is meant to pay respects to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Please respect and honor them.

Self-Image and Self Perception

“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and the voice will be silenced.”
- Vincent Van Gogh

Hat tip:  Shirin

Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place on ourselves
-Kieren Perkins

Someone said to me, 'If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?' My answer was then and still is, 'If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.'  

-Marilyn Monroe

Toe Point

Some of the girls have seen this before, as I put it on my phone and had them try some of this:

Someone's getting married in the morning...

 Here's a hint:  It's not I.

I'm off to Houston to show off my dancing shoes, along with two former Bruins...


 Tony and Brian Ginsberg were real clowns in the gym.  I remember them wearing their motorcycle helmets while zipping around on the high bar.

Tony was always helpful and supportive of me, as I struggled as a walk-on who clung to the bottom rung of the ladder, where most of those at the top were Olympic and World and National Champion-caliber athletes.

For some odd reason, the one advice that has always been memorable to me was when he told me to snap my feet toward where my hands left the ground on my round-off and to punch through into my backhandspring.  Sounds basic enough; but for some reason the way he phrased it turned a light bulb on in my head.

Incidentally, he became one of Kyleigh's coaches when she moved back to Texas.

Check out the seldom-seen-anymore Russian lift on the front tuck:

Beginning of the Weekend...

Nothing wrong with barbecues, shopping at the mall, going to a movie, and spending time with family.

Just keep in mind why these things are possible.....

Strengthening the compression for Inside Stalders and Stoop-ins

What do you expect in a subjective sport?

It's all subjective; but....yeah:

Transformation

"Death is a transformation- perhaps a bit more radical than puberty...Death is not sad; the sad thing is that most people don't ever really live at all."

-Socrates, Way of the Peaceful Warrior

He looked up, greeted me, and said casually, "Joseph died this morning."  I fell back against the station wagon behind me, sick at the news of Joseph's death and Soc's callousness.

Finally, I was able to speak.  "How did he die?"

"Oh, very well, I imagine," Socrates smiled.  "He had leukemia, you see.  Joseph had been ill for a number of years; he hung in there for a long time.  Fine warrior, that one."  He spoke with affection, but almost casually, without a trace of sorrow.

"Socrates, aren't you upset, just a little?" He laid the wrench down.

"That reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago, about a mother who was overcome with grief by the death of her young son.

'I can't bear the pain and sorrow,' she told her sister.
'My sister, did you mourn your son before he was born?'
'No, of course not,' the despondent woman replied.
'Well then, you need not mourn for him now.  He has only returned to the same place, his original home, before he was ever born.' "

      -Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, pg 137

World Record: Pogo Stick Backflips

Well....about a week ago in "World Records You've Never Heard Of,", nor cared about, we have a new pogo stick backflipping champion:

 according to recordholders.org, the record was previously held by Fred Grzybowski. In 2011 at the aptly-named Pogopalooza in Costa Mesa, Calif., Grzybowski backflipped 11 consecutive times.

Enter, Dmitry Arsenyev, apparently in France:


If you check his YouTube channel, you can see he has some level of gymnastics background or trampoline skills (like other extreme sport-types).

I would think that if you are able to do them at all, doing more than 15 shouldn't be an obstacle, so long as you have the room to do more (and he clearly had room for more).

Apparently there are high-performance pogo sticks available (ain't just for kids anymore!).  And you can do crazy (or stupid, depending on perspective) stunts like this:




Wow...you can make a contest and become a record holder in almost anything.  Can't wait to see the most consecutive forward rolls on a treadmill in under a minute happen anytime soon.  Maybe I'll go do one in a row tomorrow morning, and be crowned the first undisputed record holder in that event?

Relaxed Strength

 Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

-Zen saying

During one workshop when Remi was struggling with her giants prior to State Championships, Wade suggested she purposely relax her legs and be sloppy so she can really open her hips and feel the pull of gravity help her on her tap.  I've talked to gymnasts before about the same thing.  Remi was so disciplined in maintaining good form and body tightness, she had a difficult time being sloppy and just "letting it all hang out"; letting all of her lower half muscles simply shut down.

In Aikido, there is a training test called "unbendable arm".  When first exposed to it- and spoken of in esoteric-mystical terms about "ki/chi" and "life energy" by some teachers- it seems like a parlor trick; especially when performed for the sake of demonstrating to an audience, like a vaudeville act.  

I couldn't really find a good YouTube video that I liked.  But in brief, what happens is this (you can try it yourself with a partner):

Photo credit:  Oscar Ratti

Have your partner stand in front of you, close enough that you can place your wrist on her shoulder.  Now make a clenched fist and think strength as you tense up your arm (slightly bent).  Have your partner put her hand in the crook of your elbow and start pulling down.  Resist as hard as you can.  What happened?  Were you able to keep your arm from collapsing?

Now, shake out your arm and be relaxed.  Extend your arm out and rest your wrist on your partner's shoulder again (and again, held slightly bent- not locked out).  This time, don't make a clenched fist (make sure your facial muscles and neck muscles also remain free of tension); instead, imagine water flowing through your arm, like a hose.  You can even point one finger (or extend all fingers) toward the wall and imagine the water flowing out toward the wall.  Keep your intended focus on maintaining this flow of "energy" as your partner begins to pull down on your arm; the more she pulls down on it, the more you stay relaxed, but with an increase of power in the flow of energy through your arm, balancing out the pressure your partner is applying.

How did it feel, the second time?  Was it easier or harder?

Done correctly, the second time should have been easier to resist than the first.  The arm should be nearly unbendable when relaxed the second time; and very difficult and "weaker" the first time, when tensed.

The explanation is as follows:

Dancing with Gravity: The Human Body Blade

Figure 9.3.  Comparative examples of retaining proper shape under stress:  (1) oscillating elastic ruler; and (2) inverted phase of a Backward Handspring.

FUNDAMENTAL TUMBLING CONCEPTS

1.  Dynamic Tension

     Tumbling not only involves moving into and out of specifically timed body shapes in the skill series, but also requires maintaining an active (dynamic) tension in the muscles on both sides of the body to render a quasi-elastic property of the total body unit.  To develop the concept, example 1 in figure 9.3 illustrates the reaction of an elastic ruler when held vertically at one end and moved quickly back and forth.  Observe its reactionary bowing, a bending under tension- precisely what the gymnast should attempt to achieve throughout a tumbling sequence.

     In example 2, note the shape similarity between an oscillating ruler and a gymnast during the inverted phase of a Backward Handspring.  The idea here is to maintain a dynamic tension throughout the body as it moves through its intended shapes.  Establishing active muscle tension on both sides of the body provides for more efficient momentum transfers, improves movement time within and between each skill, and renders an all-around smoother flow throughout the tumbling performance.
-Pg 197, Championship Gymnastics, by Gerald S. George, Ph.D.

Leading by Example

A mother crab criticized her son for walking sideways, whereupon the son asked his mother to show him how to walk straight. Of course the mother crab was unable to walk any straighter than her son, and soon apologized for criticizing what she herself was guilty of too.

A woman once came to see Mahatma Gandhi.  Desiring an audience with him, she waited in line for the better part of half a day with her son at her side. When at last it was her turn to speak to him, the woman said, “Mahatma, please: Tell my son he must stop eating sugar. It is ruining his health and his teeth; it affects his mood and makes him hyper. It is bad for his energy level in gymnastics.  Every time he has sugar, I see the change in him and there is nothing I can do to stop him from eating it; and the more he has, the more he craves.  He’s a good boy, but when it comes to sugar, he becomes lazy and a liar; I'm afraid it will ultimately ruin his life. Please, Gandhiji, tell him to stop.  Everyone admires you so much- including my son- that he will do anything you tell him to do.”

Gandhi looked at the boy for the longest time as he cowered there, trying to hide in his mother’s sari. Finally, Gandhi broke the silence and said, “Come back to me in two weeks time.”

Two weeks later the woman returned with her child and once again waited in line for hours before finally it was again their turn to see the Master. “Mahatma,” said the mother. “We have returned. We came to you for help with this boy and his sugar-eating addiction; and you asked us to come back after two weeks.”

“Yes, of course I remember,” said the master. “Come here, child.” He motioned the boy forward.

The boy, at the urging and prodding of his mother, disentangled himself from her sari and stepped up to the Mahatma who reached out, putting his hands on the boy’s shoulders and pulling him in close. He looked the boy squarely in the eye and said, firmly, “Don’t eat sugar,” then released him.

The bewildered mother thanked Gandhi profusely; and then as her initial fluster wore off to be replaced by irritation, she challenged, “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?!” She was flabbergasted. “WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL HIM THAT TWO WEEKS AGO?!?!”

“Because,” replied Gandhi, “Two weeks ago I was still eating sugar.”

Cultivate Good Habits in Gymnastics Life

“ Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters. ”

— Nathaniel Emmons

Put another way (the quote under the Header of this blog):


Every time you let yourself practice a movement incorrectly, you’re increasing your ability to do it wrong.
-Dan Millman, The Warrior Athlete

It is quite often the case, that form follows function.  In gymnastics, if you have good form, there is efficiency in motion.

The previous two posts involved the candlestick shape.  Candlestick straight jumps is one of those basic exercises that is easy for gymnasts to be tempted to cheat at and not be mindful of proper shape, form, and effort.  There should be one, streamlined shape and not a series of body segmentations.

Take your basic handstand, for instance.  If your body structure were a series of blocks, which shape looks more efficient in balancing.  Stacked directly on top?  Or multiple segmentation?

Which has more structural stability?  A, B, or C?

Desired handstand shape (check recent post on handstands)

You are what you practice.  If you give sloppy, lazy effort, you'll get sloppy, lazy results.  If you give 100% perfect effort in practice to relentlessly aim for perfect shapes and form, then you will have good shapes and form, even when you're not thinking about it.  It will have become a habit.  A good habit. So every time you practice a movement correctly, you will increase your ability to do it right.

You get what you give.

There is perfect justice in the universe

-Chic Johnson

Aside from the bent left elbow, note the uniform "scooped/dished" shape?  Head neutral?  There is no arching over the top on that giant.

One more thing to keep in mind:  Creating good habits isn't limited to just developing physical consistency in the quality of your gymnastics.  It applies just as well to creating good habits in life, period.  Physical endeavors should hone the mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the warrior-athlete.

“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

–John Wooden

Candlestick

One of the basic gymnastics position shapes that can never be over-stressed in importance:





Athletes sometimes have trouble getting into a good candlestick position from the floor, due to tight neck muscles.  Don't forget to stretch those neck muscles!

Related:
Variety:  That Spice of Life
Rock and Roll with Candlesticks
Release skills for high bar and uneven bars 
Swings Front Peak Height Candlestick

Variety: That Spice of Life.....

I believe it's important to have a routine regiment that the team is familiar with so that they can jump right into it with little time wasted when it comes to conditioning.  That also makes for consistency and measured progress.

It's also important to periodically "change it up" and add variety to alleviate boredom.

Here are some conditioning variations for the basic candlestick jumps:

The Japanese are Sooooo Weird....

....in a good way, of course:



Here we have vaulting:


About the show:

"Masquerade" is one of the most popular TV shows produced by NTV Japan. People from all walks of life participate in the contest to present their unique performances. In addition to preparing their own costumes and props, contestants exert themselves physically and creatively to bring forth their best possible performance. We hope you enjoy their brilliant works.

Check out some other videos.  This one isn't so much humorous as it is well-choreographed.  Here's one involving rhythmic gymnastics.  Meh...

This one, however, is pretty clever:



Matrix Pong is the well-known one.

Hat tip: HuffPo

Johnny Carson tries a V-Seat and a Straddle-L

Photo taken from the book "Kurt Thomas on Gymnastics"

Johnny Carson will always be the king of late night comedy.

Apparently, Kurt Thomas had appeared 5 times on the Tonight Show.  I"ve never seen any of those appearances. I also have never seen footage of Dick Cavett appearing on the Tonight Show to do a pommel horse routine (He's a former Nebraska state champion).  But I remember seeing this Tracee Talavera (12 years old?) appearance in "Best of Carson" repeats:

What is Your Genius?

A well-known quote:

"Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” 

–  ascribed- rightly or wrongly- to Albert Einstein

In today's WaPo, I came across the following book review for "The Spark:  A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius", by Kristine Barnett:

Barnett tells the story of her son, Jake, who at age 2 received a diagnosis of autism. (Autism is one of several disorders that have been redefined in the DSM-5, the revised bible of mental disorders, to be released this weekend.) As most parents would, the Barnetts relied on special ed teachers provided by the state (they live in Indiana) to guide them.

At age 3, Jake was enrolled in “life skills” classes in hopes that he might learn, as Barnett says, to “tie his own shoes at sixteen.” Often, though, Jake was so absorbed by other things — shadows on the floor, plaid patterns on clothing and, especially, alphabet flashcards — that he couldn’t be persuaded to attend to the lessons. At the beginning of “The Spark,” Barnett describes a chilling comment made by Jake’s special ed teacher on a home visit, after insisting that the boy leave his beloved alphabet cards at home: “We don’t think you’re going to need to worry about the alphabet with Jacob.” In other words, she didn’t think Jake would ever learn to read.

That was the moment, Barnett recalls, that she decided to buck the “experts” — she almost always uses that term derisively — take Jake out of special ed classes and homeschool him in an environment that would “lean into his passions.” Jake got alphabet cards galore, as well as maps (another passion) and puzzles. Barnett managed not only to mainstream Jake into kindergarten, she also did the same for many other autistic kids in the learning center, Little Light, that she ran out of her garage.

That achievement alone would be extraordinary, but here’s the kicker: The Barnetts discovered when Jake was a little boy that he’s a math and science prodigy. Turns out, he has an IQ higher than Einstein’s. At 3, Jake was arranging hundreds of crayons in the order of the color spectrum; a few years later, he memorized pi to the 200th digit and could recite it forward and backward. At 9 he began working on a theory in astrophysics that, according to those who can understand it, may put him in line for the Nobel Prize; at 11 he started college. Last summer, at 12, he became a paid university researcher in quantum physics. And, yes, Jake can tie his shoes.

~~~

Barnett’s woman-warrior battle — initially, against her husband’s wishes — to defy the experts and unearth Jake’s personality and potential is inspiring. Parents of children with developmental challenges, as well as those blessed with normally functioning children, will take away a lot from “The Spark.” After that disastrous visit from the special ed teacher, Barnett asks her husband the key question: “Why is it all about what these kids can’t do? Why isn’t anyone looking more closely at what they can do?” Surely that insight speaks to all types of learning situations.

The Einstein quote is about bucking the "one-size-fits-all" system of education that tries to conform the student to fit the system.

As Bruce Lee noted,

"Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system." 

 By way of analogy, I recall (I think it was in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do) the story of how a one-legged martial artist gained a reputation as an undefeatable martial artist.  Soon, he had many students flocking to learn his style of fighting- which involved standing on one leg!  So now you have all these two-legged students "handicapping" themselves by standing on one leg, trying to fight like their teacher. 

Bruce Lee didn't want to create carbon-copied versions of himself in his students.  He didn't want followers.  He wanted thinking martial artists who were there alongside him to research and explore and be their own unique selves, realizing their own unique potential.  Imitation, after all, is pale in comparison to the original artist; so why be another Bruce Lee?  Be yourself, and find your own inner genius.



It's important to discover your "inner genius" and know what the God-given talents are that you were gifted with.  But if you also happen to be a fish who wants to climb trees (not one being forced to do so), do be realistic about it; but don't let your natural limitations stop you from going after your dreams.

Finally, a couple more allegories:

A long time ago, when the animal creation was being differentiated into swimmers, climbers, fliers, and runners, there was a school for the development of the animals. The theory of the school was that the best animals should be able to do one thing as well as another; and if there was an apparent aptitude in a given animal for doing one thing and an apparent inaptitude for doing other things, the time and effort should be spent upon the latter instead of the former.
If one had short legs and good wings, the attention should be given to running so as to even up the qualities as far as possible. So the duck was kept waddling instead of swimming, the pelican was kept wagging his short wings in the attempt to fly. The eagle was made to run and allowed to fly only for recreation, while maturing tadpoles were unmercifully guyed for being neither one thing nor another.

All this in the name of Education.

Nature was not to be trusted in her make up of individuals, for individuals should be symmetrically developed and similar for their own welfare as well as for the welfare of the community. The animals that would not submit to such training, but persisted in developing the best gifts they had, were dishonored, called narrow-minded and specialists, and special difficulties were placed in their way when they attempted to ignore the theory of education recognized by the school.

No one was allowed to graduate from that school unless he could climb, swim, run, and fly at a certain prescribed rate. So it happened that the time taken by the duck in learning to run the prescribed rate had so hindered him from swimming that he was scarcely able to swim at the prescribed rate, and in addition he had been scolded, threatened, punished, and ill-treated in many ways so as to make his life a burden, and he left school humiliated, and the ornithorhyncus could beat him either running or swimming. Indeed, the latter carried off the prize in two departments.

The eagle made no headway in climbing to the top of a tree. Though he showed he could get there just the same, the performance was counted a demerit, as it had not been done in the prescribed way.

An abnormal eel with large pectoral fins proved he could run, swim, climb trees, and fly a little; he was made valedictorian.

I believe the following is attributed to Professor Amos E. Dolbear of Tufts College:

When the animals decided to establish schools they selected a school board consisting of Mr. Elephant, Mr. Kangaroo and Mr. Monkey, and these fellows held a meeting to agree upon their plans.

“What shall the animals’ children be taught in the animal school? That is the question,” declared Mr. Monkey.

“Yes, that is the question,” exclaimed Mr. Kangaroo and Mr. Elephant together.

“They should be taught to climb trees,” said the monkey, positively. “All my relatives will serve as teachers.”

“No, indeed!” shouted the other two, in chorus. “That would never do.”

“They should be taught to jump,” cried the kangaroo, with emphasis. “All of my relatives will be glad to teach them.”

“No, indeed!” yelled the other two, in unison. “That would never do.”

“They should be taught to look wise,” said the elephant. “And all of my relatives will act as teachers.”

“No, indeed!” howled the other two together. “That will never do.”

“Well, what will do?” they asked, as they looked at each other in perplexity.

“Teach them to climb,” said Mr. Monkey.

“Teach them to jump,” said Mr. Kangaroo.

“Teach them to look wise,” said Mr. Elephant.

And so it was that none of them would yield, and when they saw there was no chance to agree, they all became angry and decided not to have any animal schools at all.

Forbes offers its own adaptation of "the animal school fable".

"We are born princes and the civilizing process makes us frogs"

-Eric Berne

Bottomline:  Know your strengths and weaknesses and develop them accordingly.

And as gymnasts, don't be afraid to question your coaches when they are teaching you "monkey" climbing skills, when you really are a fish at heart.  You might be misdiagnosed as an overshoot gal when a pak salto is really your thing; it might be a better investment of your time to develop your front tumbling and twisting skills as opposed to forcing you into back twisting that has never felt natural to you.  Unless you really have a passion to get a tkatchev, consider your body-type and natural physical and mental abilities might actually have you inclined toward jaegers, instead.

Know thyself, and abide in that state.

The Handstand

You can tell the quality of the coach by watching basic skills....Like the shape of a handstand.





Another good tutorial:



 And if you have time for it, one more:




The inclined handstand for conditioning is great for training/strengthening body tension on handstand bails and tumbling:






Previous post of note:  Saving Handstands.  Check out the clips of Eddie Umphrey's method of conditioning the handstand shape for bars.

Related:
Modified Handstand Drill
Hollow and Tight Arch Changes (Wiggles)

Resolute Purpose in Being

When you sit, sit; when you stand, stand; but whatever you do, don't wobble.

-Way of the Peaceful Warrior (from a zen saying)

Abigail (2012?)

Choices

 “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”
― Carlos Castaneda

The battles we fight are on the inside.   We have choices:

"...your mind, not other people or your surroundings, is the source of your moods.  That is the first lesson."
-Socrates, Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, Pg 65

We dig our own graves and make our own beds.  Where we find ourselves in life is a result of choices we make along the way.

 On a construction site in the Midwest, when the lunch whistle would blow, all the construction workers would gather together to eat their lunch; and, with singular regularity, Sam would open up his lunch pail and exclaim, “God bless it!  Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches again!?  I hate peanut butter and jelly!”

     This went on day after day; and as the weeks passed, his coworkers grew irritated by his irrational behavior until one of them finally went up to him and said, “Well fer crissakes Sam…if you hate peanut butter and jelly so much, why don’t you just have your old lady fix you something different?”

     “My ‘old lady’?!  What do you mean my ‘old lady’?”, Sam asked, looking perplexed, “I’m not married.  I make my own peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.”
-Paraphrased from Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman

How many of you are good at allowing your buttons to get pushed?

It may seem as if various wrongs in the world are the source of our disturbances- but if we examine our habit patterns very closely, we see that mental resistance-to-the-stream-of-life is the seed of our discontent.  My wife and I returned from a trip to find that our car had been stolen.  It would have been very easy to blame the car thieves or the circumstances for any upset we might have felt- but it was too obvious that our own reaction to one of life's little surprises was actually causing turmoil.  This reaction was in the form of preoccupation with thoughts about what had happened.  In seeing this, we were able to take responsibility for our own compulsive reaction and stop blaming circumstances for our disturbance.  Car thieves could only steal our car; it was our own obsession with problematic thoughts that could upset us.  We decided not to let them get the better of us and we gave those thoughts "no mind."  That evening, we were laughing, ready to see what turned up next.
-The Warrior Athlete, by Dan Millman, pg 44

Getting upset might be a natural reaction.  Staying upset eventually becomes a matter of choice.  Do not become overly preoccupied with the negative if the negative does not lead to the positive.


Let it go:

Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

“Come on, girl,” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. “We monks can’t be near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”

Sometimes the right decision means not following the rules. The important thing is to act, then let it go and move on.

Will you train hard at practice today, giving your best effort?  And if things outside of your control results in a "bad" workout, what mood will you preoccupy yourself with?

The choice is yours....

Safety rolls: Blending with Gravity and Harmonizing with the Earth

Sometime in college, I caught a movie called "Above the Law", which featured Steven Seagal showcasing the art of aikido:


 Fortunately, meeting Mark Mikita and Dan Inosanto and becoming a senior student under them cured me of both Seagal and (to be gently disrespectful here) aikido, for reasons I will not get into on a gymnastics blog.  (Side trivia:  For those of you who know Mikomi, his dad was also one of my teachers at the Inosanto Academy).

I still love the opening scene in this movie.  When watching the video clip, check out the falls performed by Haruo MATSUOKA when he absorbs irimi nage ("clothes line" technique) two times at the beginning; plus the ukemi rolls by others.  If nothing else, aikidoka know how to fall gracefully.

In a sport like gymnastics, falls can happen quite frequently, whether from a flubbed bar release, missing a footing on the beam, over-rotating a vault, or bailing in the middle of a tumbling pass while already airborne.  It's imperative that gymnasts- whether competitive or in a rec program- are taught how to fall "properly".  Most situations are predictable, and you can pre-plan how to take a fall; others are not so anticipatory.

By teaching specific technique, hopefully what happens is the concept and principles behind the techniques are absorbed, educating the mind so that these pre-rehearsed techniques are adapted on the spot to apply to unique situations that weren't specifically trained for.  Essentially, becoming a spontaneous innovator during the unexpected, and landing with as little harm as possible to the body.

Did I lose you, there?  That's okay. Just re-read and decipher.  

This is a fair and brief explanation of the side (shoulder) roll commonly seen in aikido and jiujitsu:


The body should spiral from opposite shoulder to opposite hip.  Once you have the coordination of it down from kneeling, try it from standing.  And once that's been mastered, comes the fun part:  Getting airborne and diving:



For gymnasts, as practical application, instead of being "attacked" or pushed from front or behind, just relate it to gymnastics:  You're off balanced coming out of a flip, about to take a spill.  How do you save yourself to land unharmed?



Further interest: 
Ukemi-More than just falling 2 
Aikido Ukemi: Meeting the Mat 
Aikido Ukemi and other (Advanced) Techniques

You are Your Own Best Coach

 "Follow me, and you'll lose yourself; but follow yourself and you'll find both me, and yourself."
-Jesus (distorted from Matthew 10?)

The Buddha:

said that you are your own best teacher. He told his followers not to take anything he said on faith but to try it for themselves and see if it was useful on the path toward the transformation of suffering.

Although these quotes speak to a larger, religious-philosophical issue, I'd like to extrapolate one aspect of their meaning, and apply them to the following context:

Gymnasts are their own best coaches; stated another way:  People are their own best teachers:

you are your own best teacher and learner.

Just as there is a big difference between a teacher and an educator, there is a gulf between a student and a learner. The basic idea of a teacher is one who tells, instructs, and informs in an effort to help students learn. And while there isn't anything wrong with this role and set of activities, the concept of "educator" goes beyond teaching.

The word educate denotes leadership. It literally means to lead forth, to draw out, and to bring out of. Applying the concept of being an educator means that the great educator would lead students to new knowledge and understanding.

Similarly, there is a substantial difference between students and learners. Students are individuals who get taught. But learners are more actively involved in the learning process. Learners have active curiosities and take initiative.

While it may seem that this discussion only applies to the educational process in school, nothing could be further from the truth. This discussion goes to the heart of making you a leader and productive person throughout your career and professional career.

Never forget, we live in a fast-moving world where only three things are for certain: (1) rapid change, (2) continuing knowledge explosion, and (3) increasingly complex relationships that are more difficult to maintain. To cope, let along achieve in this environment, everyone faces the possibility of becoming obsolete if they don't keep learning.

Lifelong learning isn't a luxury; it's a necessity. Being a lifelong learner is your only way of coping with rapid change, knowledge explosion, and complex relationships. No matter what field you enter, you must forever be a learner, or you will get left behind.

Every gymnast acquires knowledge.  The most significant of which is acquired through the process of researching her own personal experience.  The gymnast might be spoon-fed information by a coach; but the true depth of understanding comes when the gymnast goes out and puts that information into action.  The most important feedback comes from the gymnast's self-awareness of what she experiences within her own body.  If she learns from her experience, then she has successfully taught herself.

Being able to articulate and impart knowledge to others as well as absorb it in herself, makes her a teacher. 

If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man how to fish, you've fed him for a lifetime.

-Popular saying attributed to Maimonides, a Chinese saying, and a variety of other sources.  In other words, no one really knows.

Suzanne Bentley (I have no clue who this person is):

In dance we are generally thought, and taught, to ‘train’ ourselves and others: learning and passing on information to perform our specialised activity. But what if we worked to ‘educate’ ourselves or our students as well, in the Latin sense of the word educere: to build the person, to draw out their latent potential? Create thinking, sensing, inspired and empowered dancers? What if we could also empower and uplift ourselves with this process?

Coaches exist in sport, in business, in life (life-coaching). They are skilled in guiding, a caring collaborator who sees what you cannot necessarily see. They empower you towards progress. They ask the right questions and give you tools to help yourself, instead of giving answers. They start from the basic standpoint that you are your own best teacher.

 How do we gain more coaches in the gym?

It's pretty much a given case that the gymnasts will outnumber the coaches. In some instances, it could be a 1 to 50 coach to gymnast ratio.

The way we change that ratio is by developing each gymnast to become her own best coach, and a coach to her teammates.

This is efficiency.

 It only makes practical sense to train gymnasts to be their own best coach; and to coach each other. This includes learning to spot one another.

Yesterday, Al Fong posted an exercise to help gymnasts with their awareness of maintaining tight knees on those giant taps.  It  incorporates teammate spotters:




 And from Mary Lee Tracy:




Bruce Lee didn't want followers.  He wanted his students to be thinking, creative individuals with discerning minds who could research their own experience, absorb what is useful, and discard what isn't.  My teacher Mark Mikita told me I should be able to teach him something about the Art, through the lens of my own personal experience and unique perspective.

The symbiotic relationship between student and teacher then?  The distinction?  It dissolves.  It blends.  

In life, we are ever our best (and worst) student and teacher.

If you, as a gymnast, are waiting around all the time to be told what to do by your coach and spoon-fed your gymnastics knowledge, you're going to have a very long wait; and you are going to make very slow progress.  Please be more ambitious than this.  Do yourselves a favor and be your own best teacher.

This Moment

Where are you?

No, really: Where are you?

And how's the water?

"It's about the real value of a real education which has (almost) nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with simple awareness...hidden in plain sight"

-David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College

 About the video:

In 2005, author David Foster Wallace was asked to give the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. However, the resulting speech didn't become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of the best life advice we've ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.

We made this video, built around an abridged version of the original audio recording, with the hopes that the core message of the speech could reach a wider audience who might not have otherwise been interested. However, we encourage everyone to seek out the full speech (because, in this case, the book is definitely better than the movie).

You'd be amazed at how much you notice when you pay attention; and how much is missed, when you don't.

A Zen student asked his roshi the most important element of Zen. 

The roshi replied, "Attention."

"Yes, thank you," the student replied.  "But can you tell me the second most important element?"  And the roshi replied, "Attention."
-Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, Pg 91

Real living is never routine.  There is always something new if you are paying attention.  There are no ordinary moments.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. 

- Marcel Proust

Ending to the movie, Way of the Peaceful Warrior:

Socrates:  "Where are you, Dan?"

Dan:  "Here."

Socrates:  "What time is it?"
Dan:  "Now."

Socrates:  "What are you?"

Dan:  "This moment."

Tammy Biggs- Core Strength and Body Sculpting

From the 2008 USAG Region 1 Congress:

Neil Resnick: Twisting the Yurchenko

At last year's National Congress:

Neil Resnick: 2012 National Congress Intro to Yurchenkos

Two Wolves

An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life."A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy."It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret,greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment,inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope,serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy,generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."