Gymnastics: Muscle Pains

Posting for two weeks in the post, but that’s ok because the main part is the same. Same coaches, same arrival and pretty much the same departure.

Coaches: Zach, Damir and Randy
Arrival: 12:15pm (Yikes!)
Departure: 2:00pm

The Classes:

Last Week

This week really stood out for me. It was the first time I heard Zach tell me I did something correctly. No, I don’t mean like: “The kick was good, but watch the knees, don’t bend them until here.” kind of thing. He says that to me weekly. It is how he encourages people. Other class members have considered him to be cold and too strict, but the advantage of living through a few decades is you meet all types of people and learn to get along with them. However! This week, I successfully did two — TWO — good dive rolls! He complimented me, told me I did good then told me I could work on handsprings again!  This excited me and made me feel really good. That is another advantage to having a strict coach. If you can get along with him up to that point, his good opinion is weighted more.

Zach isn’t the only coach I have. Damir generally does the warm-ups, gets me well stretched. I was happy he was back this week and he added a few other conditioning moves. I am not sure why he changed it up so much, but I am happy about it. I used my abs more than previously and I wish I could remember which things helped more.

Randy usually runs the drills and runs the beginner’s portion of the class. I am not in the beginner’s section. I am a floater. Zach runs the intermediate group and Damir helps. When we move from handsprings to backflips, then I truly float. I still cannot jump backwards, though the pain is slowing diminishing from my knee. Instead I started working with wedge practicing putting my hands down for the backward roll. Normally, I am roll over my shoulder and I can’t keep my left arm back. I usually have to reach down. Working with wedge is helping me to practice that.  My left arm and shoulder are killing me.

This Week

After a warmup, not so great as last week, I had a great time! Not only did I do well on my Dive Rolls, but I am getting better at Handsprings. I guess the slow build that Zach kicked me down to is helping alot. Now I have to concentrate not just on kicking fast, but losing the left arm plant (my left arm is taunting me!!!!) but I also have to stop twisting mid-air when I DO succeed in powering over the top. After a satisfying time when I ended up trying to vault my twisting legs and such over a ‘tootsie roll’, we went to back flips.  Or rather, they went to backflips and I worked on my backward roll again. I was off balance. After doing several backward rolls trying to get my left arm down pr0perly, I walked the balance beam. Usually a simple task for me. This time, I kept falling off. Guess I need to recenter too.

Today my left arm and shoulder are killing me again.

Tags: gymnastics

Newsarama.com : Keanu Reeves to Star in Cowboy Bebop

Newsarama.com : Keanu Reeves to Star in Cowboy Bebop.

Now I feel a little weird. My first reaction to this was “No! Why?!” Then I realised what I thought. When did I go from being a Keanu Reeves fan to agreeing with popular opinion? If I ever find out, I guess I will post that info too.

My co-worker is both a Reeves fan and a fan of Cowboy Bebop. She says she has no problem with this set up. I am just worried a little bit. As someone said in the comments, he is good as long as he doesn’t have to show any emotion. Again, not always true. I thought he did a decent job of being emotional in several of his films. Even some that didn’t do well as whole movies.

Meh. who am I to judge. Mebbe he has learned something in the last few years or something LOL I mean, they say he is a fan of the series. I would love to see him succeed at re-creating Spike Spiegel. Now I wonder who will play the other roles….

Tags: anime, cowboy bebop

Gymnastics: First Post

I have decided I need to keep a record of my gymnastics. I am losing track of what happened when and I want to be able to keep track.

Up until now, I have been attending gymnastics at Chelsea Piers. Usually once a week on Wednesdays at noon. I will probably add more details later about Chelsea Piers gymnastics programs, but right now I just want to get on with today.

Coaches: Zack and Randy (Damir was absent)
Arrival Time: 12pm (mostly ontime)
Departure Time: 1:30pm

The Class: Today it was a more or less typical class. Since there were rock climbers today, the floor was reduced in size. The warmups and stretching were short. Since Damir was absent, the group only broke into two teams. There were about even Beginner and Advanced Beginner.

However, today my injury was more that usual. I strained a hamstring and spent my time in alternate muscle group conditioning. I found there are a lot of movements that use that blasted hamstring.

Tags: gymnastics

GSUSA: “Go for the Gold”

LEADER: Whatever Became of….

This is a nice article about Gold Awardees of the past.  I would write more at the moment, but the fact is I don’t really have the time. I would like some feedback about Girl Scouting and The Gold Award in general though. Is there any0ne out there willing to share?

Tags: Gold Award, LinkedIn