First meet of the year

Luke's coach was absolutely right - having Luke do level 4 again was a wonderful decision. He was confident and placed 2nd overall in his age group (out of 7 boys), and all but one of his events were in the top three. He won vault. It was also encouraging to see the growth from last year:

Floor - 14.2 (2010), 13.4 (2009)
Pommel - 13.5 (2010), 7.2 (2009)
Rings - 14.5 (2010), 13.9 (2009)
Parallel bars - 14.4 (2010), 10.0 (2009)
High bar - 14.1 (2010), 13.4 (2009)
Vault - 15.1 (2010), 13.9 (2009)

* Video will go to full screen - just click on the 4 arrows on the bottom right below the video *

I'm watching Luke's gymnastics class today - a couple of weeks ago he was invited to join the Future Stars group. This is a developmental group for USA-gymastics. Coach Doug invited two of the six year olds to practice with tem even though they are a couple years too young to compete.

Luke is by far the least skilled in the group so far, but he is realy fortunate to be in the it because Doug is incredible and it's only a handful of kids so he gets lots of coaching.

He's doing a round off back handspring now and he's doing back tucks on the trampoline. The handsprings have scared him, and today he's definitely bonked his head on the landing more times than I can count, but he's making progress - he just did a couple of them with his legs together and pretty body position (and a safe noggin'!). We'll have to decide in August if he's going to keep coming to Future Stars during the school year. I hope so, but it would make four practices a week and a tired kid.

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/pages/men/pages/overview_futurestars.html

Luke's state gymnastics meet

Not a good meet. Luke was unfocused and with a terrible coach, and we saw inconsistencies in scoring. He was out of uniform 5 out of 6 events. I'm more upset than he is, especially following a series of irritating experiences this week with the booster club.

St. Louis gymnastics meet

Good trip! Luke was supposed to go with Poppa, but when it was time to leave he burst into tears and refused to go, so I went with them. Luke perfected his car-sleeping technique, and had his first (very, very exciting!) jump on a trampoline-bungee cord gizmo at the mall. Oh, and there was a meet, too!

This photo of Luke's run to the vault isn't particularly memorable, but his two practice runs sure were -- on both of them he jumped in a crazy drunk frog position and landed on his stomach. Coach Jim had him take a third trip down the runway, and pointed at his feet as a reminder before his competition run. That one, fortunately, went off without a hitch.

Vault 13.9, parallel bars 12.3, high bar 10.5, floor 13.9, pommel 9.4, rings 14.4.... judging not terribly consistent meet to meet we're learning, since other parent also noticed scores lower across the board on some events and higher across the board on others.

Chicago gymnastics meet

Tired & happy little boy after the meet

Talking with the judge after his rings routine

Coach Jim spotting Luke on rings

Luke's team watching each other on the floor routine

Parallel Bars

Luke's 2nd meet - meet was beautifully organized and run, with about twelve teams of little boys rotated through six events smoothly and pretty quickly. Rich and I agreed that overall Luke had a few more little bobbles but he was still very composed and was happy with his performance.

Vault 14.7

Floor 13.2

High Bars 12.4

Parallel Bars 12.9

Rings 12.4
Pommel 8.0

First gymnastics meet

Luke had his first meet this morning and really enjoyed it. He said he was a little nervous, but he looked so composed. All of the little boys were so cute!

Here are his scores (no idea how they work exactly - will have to check online): floor 13.40, pommel 7.20, rinkgs 13.50, vault 13.90, parallel bars 10.00, and high bar 13.40.

Gymnastics

Luke's a level 4 now - that means that he's on the competitive team. He's thrilled! He practices 9 hours a week, with a group of about ten boys who range from 7 to 13 years old. It's fun watching how supportive the boys are of each other and his primary coach, Jim, is fun to watch while he works. Tonight they had team photos (hm, wonder if some of you will see those at Christmas??), and he put on his official uniform for the first time - white pommel pants and a black step-in, which is basically a leotard worn under the pommel pants. He also has nice warm-ups and a tiny pair of white shorts. His first meet is in Louisville Dec. 6, then he's in Chicago Dec. 19, and St. Louis Jan. 9 - 10. He has a total of 7 meets. He's a funny kid - very relaxed at the idea of competing and performing.

Luke's gymnastics practice

• run & chasse around mat
• stretch
• lots of handstand work - Luke struggling to get legs high enough to stay balanced
• straddle press into a headstand, then into a front roll. These looked great!
• stations on parallel bars with Coach Brandon: swings and dismount over side; supporting body weight with legs perpendicular to torso; creeping up incline bars; knee hangs with pull up on uneven bars & drop into foam blocks. Luke's upper body strength compared to his peers very apparent here.
• high bar stations with Coach Jason: big swing with hitch on high bar; pullover mount with spot from Jason; sideways creep across high bar; upside down vertical hangs from low bar into body position work on dismount
• calisthenics with exercises chosen by tossing the cube - V sit-ups, jumps with 360 spin, bridges, push ups with clap (he can almost do these - right foot hops when he claps!)
• finish with some playful jumping on the trampoline and a flip into the foam blocks

Monday tends to be skill focused, Wednesday afternoons are a mix that includes some gymnastics-based games, and Thursdays are primarily conditioning. He has serious hand calluses. In the next level, they start using grips for bar work. I think he's going to miss the extra practice when school starts. Last week I asked him if practice was good, and he said, "No Mom, it was GREAT."