Gym Notes: Joanna Saleem
December 20, 2006 09:05 AM | General
December 20, 2006
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| Joanna Saleem |
With finals week over and the team out of town, things seem to have finally slowed down long enough for me to review the wonderful accomplishments that have happened over the past few weeks. It is hard to believe that we are only eight practices away from our first home meet! With that said, I believe that this is the most prepared our team has been for the beginning of season. The team is really focused on the goal of doing consistent gymnastics, and they have really stepped up to the challenge of starting the season with a solid first meet.
Looking around the gym last week, I saw some really cool things being done, despite the stress of final exams. Jaime Gold and Heather Izer are doing some really nice yurchenko layout full vaults, with Jaime also doing some nice 1.5. Heather has made some fairly dramatic changes to her form on vault and beam this year. She is also making floor routines, with her new tumbling passes, which is really nice to see. Freshman Shelly Purkat and Kiersten Sporeke are both working hard to get their vaults ready for season.
I am excited to see how well the team is doing on vault this early in the season. Janáe and Erica are consistent with their yurchenko phelps, and Tynisha is doing her hand front-pike half much cleaner than she has ever done it in the past. Mehgan Morris is having a lot of success with her new yurchenko ½ on front tuck ½ vault. There is a lot of potential for this team on vault.
We have been doing a lot of different style beam workouts this season. The team has responded well by performing with confidence. They seem to be handling the pressure situations really well, and are showing improvement in their form. The level of difficulty is higher this year, with a lot of the team doing triple flight and other new D-level acro elements.
I am really excited to see that Janáe moved her hects over to the double rails and caught her first two! She has made great strides with that skill, and everyone is excited for her! Amie Bouchier also started doing some exciting things by doing her triple flight on the high beam.
Our team is doing more than preparing for the first meet; they are working hard on upgrading their routines for later in the season. They continue to have fun and are doing a great job of bringing energy into each workout. I can’t wait until we all get back from the break.
I miss not seeing everyone in the gym, and I really like my Secret Santa!
