Back Walkovers..... Again

Boo’s coach told me today that she had an outstanding practice. They “fixed” her handspring vault and now it’s fantastic. And she worked on front handspring step outs on the floor and improved them a ton. She also got her punch front tuck much higher and worked standing back tucks off a panel mat. But the really big news today is the back walkover on beam. She did a private lesson after practice and within twenty minutes the coach had her doing the back walkover all by herself on the high beam with only the wrap around pad. Boo was grinning ear to ear! I think she finally rounded a corner with this skill today. She’ll have one more private lesson on Thursday that will hopefully “seal the deal.”

Flip Fest 2009- Handstand Contest

I forgot to mention one of the "best parts" of camp. Boo won the handstand contest for her age group (there were fifteen or twenty 7-year-olds)! Her prize was a t-shirt. She thought that was really cool.

Flip Fest 2009

Boo had a fantastic time! She talked on and on about all the fun wonderful things she did: the ropes course, the campfires, the fireworks, s’mores, swimming in the lake, Dance Night, Skit Night, singing “God Bless America” at karaoke, and on and on and on. And that doesn’t even touch on all the great gymnastics this week!

She worked on a ton of new skills including tsuks on a cheese mat into the pit (she even flipped them!) for vault and standing back tucks into the pit for floor. She also worked on front handspring- front tucks on floor and clear hips and baby giants on bars. On the low beam, she worked the back walkover-back walkover combination and even did some back handsprings (with plenty of mats stacked on both sides of the beam). But the big news is that she got her front walkover on the low beam! The coolest thing ever was watching her work with Nastia Liukin on the front walkover on beam and seeing Nastia cheer and give her high fives when she got it! It was amazing! Boo was grinning from ear to ear. She had an absolutely wonderful week and is already looking forward to next year. Thanks, Flip Fest! You guys ROCK!

One more...

Boo got her back tuck at practice today! Yet another new skill! This child just continues to amaze and impress me. This new gym was a great move. She is improving by leaps and bounds and really loving it. It’s so wonderful to see her so excited and happy. Practice tomorrow and then on to camp next week. Fun stuff!

Fly Away!!!

Boo had a good day at the gym today. She got her fly away dismount on bars! Woo hoo!!! She’s only been at the new gym (and thus only been working on the fly away) for six days! Needless to say, she is very excited. She also did her clear hip-drop kip-cast squat on-jump to high bar connection for the first part of the bar routine. Big day today! So now there’s just the back tuck on floor and the back walkover on beam and she’ll have all her level 6 skills (although they still need polishing). She’s hoping to have everything by the time she comes back from camp at the end of next week. So far she’s been focusing on level 6 but she does have a couple of level 7 skills, too: the front tuck beam dismount and the front handspring-front tuck combination on floor. She’s also working on the front walkover on beam.

On an interesting side note: I think Boo may be one of the youngest level 6s in our state. The only other two 7-year-olds I know of are both about a month older than her. Pretty cool but will also make for some stiff competition come meet season!

First Day

Boo started her new gym today and she really, really liked it. She’s already made friends with the other 7-year-old in the group. The two of them are the youngest by about a year and a half but even the older girls were nice. She said the coaches were great and helped her a lot. They even spotted her on several flyaways! She did a bunch on the low bar and then did three on the high bar. She says that was the best part of the whole practice.

Of course, we can’t seem to have a day without drama around here. At home this afternoon, Boo was walking from the front yard to the patio and missed the step up. She smashed her shin on the edge of the concrete patio and ended up with a huge goose egg. The real problem was the amount of pain and the fact that she couldn’t put any weight on it. So, off we went for x-rays. Luckily, the doctor said it’s just a really deep bruise but no fracture. Whew! Motrin, rest and ice and she’ll be good as new. As for practice tomorrow, the doctor said to see how she’s feeling in the morning. She, of course, is saying that it feels much better and she’ll be fine to go to practice. LOL. Guess we’ll see in the morning.