Writing the Routine

Count down to my first competitive gymnastics meet (in over 17 years) is on!  - D-day is February 23rd!  So it's about time I start cranking out some routines ---- (well actually - it would be CREATING some routines.)   It shouldn't be too hard, right? Beam would be a great event to start with, so I thought -  just string a few skills together with some fluffy dancie moves in between.  So, I jumped on the high beam to choreograph and just stood there motionless - like a student with writer's block - like a pen on a blank sheet of paper. "Oh man - now whatta I do?"

Time to mentally regroup.   Now at this point in my adult life- I have more experience in writing papers than creating beam routines.   So why not would tackle it like a writing assignment: outline, rough draft(s), final manuscript. 

So, I  started out with outlining my  "requirements" for my assignment.  In level 7 beam - (short hand - in layman's terms)  I'm required to do:
1) full turn on toe - 360 degrees
2) Leap or jump in 180 degree split
3) 2 acrobatic elements connected (like cartwheels, back walkovers, front walkers)
3) 1 acrobatic (tumbling) element with flight - hands and feet have to be simultaneously off the beam - aka - airborne - example would be back handspring, front handspring, dive roll.
4) Dismount with a salto (I have to flip off the beam :)

......all this with 100+  more details in less than 1:20 - ha,ha - no prob.

Breaking it down like this made the almost alien task for my adult mind quite a bit simpler - a good thing! I've been able to piece my outlined requirements together.  Now, I'm working on rough draft edits - and boy, are there some edits needed - but that is where the fun lies - in the discovery  of what works, what doesn't work, and what may work - one day.

Here is a sneak peak of my mount - it's a press handstand to a planche.  (It needs technique work as noted in the video---but it's all a work in progress - --fun work! )

I must confess that creating the beam routine requires some much needed mental stretching and chance to create and do.   Getting the opportunity to be athlete and artist  - that is what is so fascinating and alluring about gymnastics.  Going at it a 2nd a second go around - may even be better than the first!

Note:  Floor choreography to come - Jan. 27th - with help from a professional dance instructor -  artist and friend - I can't wait to share about that experience!!!

Habits: Their Immortality Exposed

I'm reading a great book right now -  The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg.  With neuro research, he has shown that habits never really disappear, because they are encoded into the structures of our brain.  These habits are forever  "inhabitants" of of grey matter - lurking there and waiting for the rights cues and rewards.

What a bummer!! - especially,  if the habit is bad -(wonderful if habit is good.) Unfortunately, the brain cannot tell the difference between the good and the bad habits. This is not so great news for the 2013 New Year's resolutions -  they are pretty much sunk - dead in the water - their fate - hopeless.    It also explains why we as a society continue to self-destruct with unhealthy behavior habits and continue to treat our bodies like landfills even when we know these habits are detrimental and noxious.  Ahh, but there is a glimmer of hope does it exist -  we can  re-wire this neuro circuit by disrupting the cue - routine (HABIT) - reward cycle.

I'm finding this to be true as I come back to gymnastics.  The same habits that I had training as kid are resurfacing.  If I heard it once, I heard it a gazillion times - "Get your head in!" I was the queen of the"turtle head habit" (haha) - I would stick my head out on everything!  Giants on bars, full twists on floor,  backhandsprings on beam, - it didn't matter.    Just this week, Kenan was helping me with back walkovers - and sure enough, - the head goes out.  Then, press handstand mount on beam - head goes out.  My front handspring vault - head goes out.  I have no clue why!? - but will blame it on HABIT.     So my focus will be some re-routing these movement habits and concentrating on drills that me eliminate them.  The drills will be like cues in the habit cycle - to influence the routine (skill) which results in the reward (correctly performed).

Fun stuff for sure.  So darn you  Katy Perry - it must be true that "this is a part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me."  ( no bad habits ever extinguished - we have to re-route the mental circuit for change :) )

A little vid - of the backwalk over progress - lots to go!

Duhigg, Charles (2012-02-28). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business