It’s been a while since my last post. I’m still going every week. I spend about two-thirds of the session working the Mushroom trying to improve and the other third stretching and conditioning. Working on the Mushroom is a lot more tiring that you might think, especially when you keep falling off! After about 6 attempts I have to rest for a minute or two. What is best is if I work with someone else, that way not only can you critique each other but you get a rest while the other has their turn. My goal was to get it by Xmas but my best so far is 3 complete rotations. I’m not put off though, the elephant lift took me a lot longer to get than I first imagined but I did get it eventually. If I stick with this I am certain that I will eventually get it.
I know I haven’t written anything for a long while but I’ve still been going to gymnastics. The thing is I didn’t really have anything new to write about. I can now repeatedly do the tuck press to handstand that I wrote about previously, I’ll have to get some video. The thing is, I now have something new to write about. We have a new toy at gymnastics, something that I have been asking the club to get for some time. This is called a mushroom and it is a prep for the pommel horse. I start my journey now and hopefully I’ll be circling round it before too long. So far I can make one complete circle, be great if I can master simple circles by the end of the year.
I came across this video while looking for some examples of the Elephant lift for a friend. I feel that I should be able to do this without too much effort as I can already do the Straddle Press to Handstand (Elephant lift). I had a few goes at gym on Monday and managed to pull it off a couple of times. I’m quite chuffed as it looks really good when done slowly and under control like in the video. I am going to try to get some footage of myself doing these moves to add to this blog. Next step would be the Pike Press to Handstand but that’s much more difficult.
I struggled to do standing back tucks the other night when I used to just reel them off. I think it’s because I have practiced them much lately as I’ve been focusing on other things. On the flip side I managed to do round-off flick flick across the floor which I’ve never managed before. At least my elephant lift is still strong. I need to make serious attempts to improve my box splits as this will help me no end, this is my new focus.
I now have my level 1 award. The most difficult task in getting this one was cartwheels on the beam. It was pretty hairy and I fell off several times. I had to stick 2 out of 5 attempts and didn’t think I was going to get it but it all came good in the end. So that’s it now, the next goal would be the bronze award.
I decided to get something to show for my years of hard work so have started going for some awards. They not only give me something to keep but a focus for my sessions. This is level 4 and is pretty basic (I did it in 10 mins) but there will be more to follow and they will get more difficult.
I know I haven’t written anything for a long time but I am still grinding away. For a long time things were very static but I’ve started moving forward again lately so there is news to share. Stay tuned.
Yesterday I travelled to London to watch the Men’s Gymnastics Team Final at the North Greenwich Arena. When I set out I was thinking to myself, “If this all goes well we could get a Bronze medal”. The lads from the GB team didn’t disappoint and we won that medal, our first in over 100 years. I don’t think I can put into words what it was like to be there and watch our team doing great things in front of a home crowd. The floor routines were just amazing and barely a foot was put wrong. It seemed as though we’d won the Silver for a while after Japan’s Kohei Uchimura fell from the pommel horse (his final piece of apparatus). An appeal led to Japan’s score to be adjusted upwards putting them in the Silver medal position and pushing us down to Bronze. It’s still an amazing achievement for our team though and a great day for British gymnastics.
I’ve not been updating this blog lately, a combination of being very busy and not having much new to say. Elephant lifts are going well and I can usually crank a few out per session now. I recently had a complement from one of the coaches who thought it was amazing that I could get to where I am now in just 2 years having never done Gymnastics before. Makes me feel proud in myself. I’ve been spurred on now to try something else so what I am now going to aim for is (I don’t know it’s name but it’s the second position you can see on my banner picture). This will require a lot of strength in my triceps so every day I am going to do some exercises at home to get those muscles built up. I will obviously keep on with the Elephant lifts too as I don’t want to go backwards. I’ll try to keep up to date on here with how things are going.
The wannabe gymnast 