Gymnastics Training

For the past few months, Ryan and I have been going to Lawrence Gymnastics Academy to work on some fundamentals of body movement and basic "swinging" skills. So far we've gotten a lot better at a lot of things, ha. The first time we went, we had absolutely no idea what the heck we were doing. We jumped on the trampoline a little bit, swung on the bar, and did some flips into the foam pit. Now it's a whole other story! Coach Hays gave us some direction and workouts for us to do while we're in there and I tell ya, gymnastics is no joke. To anyone who ever excelled in the sport, props to ya. My body can hardly handle half of the things we do in there. But we've gotten to where we are doing giants on the high bar (with the sleeve bar of course), we can do all kinds of flips on the spring floor, we can do kips on the bar, a few random things on the rings and some just plain dumb tricks in there. Our first mission when we started going was to be able to do a giant. If any of you do not know what that is, it's where you swing all the way around the bar 360 degrees. What we once thought was an impossible feat, we have now mastered and moved on to more challenging tasks. Our goal, in doing this type of training was to gain more of an understanding of body awareness, control, and balance. Coach thought it would assist in our vaulting and I couldn't agree more. We've benefitted greatly from these skills and look forward to continuing our gymnastics training throughout the year. The purpose of the giants are to learn how to swing a hollow body upside down. It takes a specific group of muscles and exact timing on the bar in order to successfully swing 360 degrees. Here is a video of my first time successfully getting the giants!



This was a couple months ago, so I apologize for the delay. I've gotten better at them since then and can now go forwards when I want to and backwards when I want to, unlike in that video where I accidentally went backwards before I went forwards, haha. Here's another trick we learned how to do. Yea yea, I know it's on the chick bars but it's fun as hell to do! We call it the monkey swing, but I couldn't tell you what it's actually called, if there's even a name for it. But if I've learned anything in gymnastics, there's a name for everything.



Here's another cool thing I learned how to do. Very basic and not impressive to anyone athletic, but it's fun for me! It's a "front full" I think. It's just a front flip with a full turn and a half. It looks like I used the trampoline in this video but this was just from the spring floor. Whenever I use the trampoline, I pretty much jump into the wall... I don't have a whole lot of control yet.



My latest goal is to be able to spin around on the pommel horse. It's one of the most difficult things I think I've ever attempted. I dont know what it is, but I have the most trouble on this apparatus! I've almost gotten to where I can spin all the way around once, but not quite yet. When I get this, I'll definitely post a video cuz it'll be a huge accomplishment for me! I feel so close but so far from getting it. This concludes today's update, but there's a lot more to come! I'm so behind and have a lot to catch you all up on! I'm excited to write, but I just got so busy and overwhelmed with everything these last few months that time just flew by. I'll do my best to provide you with a few more updates within the next couple weeks so you don't forget about me ;)

If I don't update again before Christmas, have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year! I hope you got to visit with your family and friends a little bit. I'll finally be able to catch up with some old friends from high school tomorrow night since I haven't been home in a year. Lookin forward to it! Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a goodnight!