Well I’ll start by saying…I love it! After only a month and a half this experience has taught me so much about coaching a Division 1 gymnastics team. I am getting to know the girls a lot better and how I can help them individually, including when to give them a couple moments to themselves. Having 17 girls on a team means 17 different personalities (even the twins, Brynn and Lindsey, have their own quirks and idiosyncrasies) and ways of doing gymnastics. This was new to me.

Working with the Arkansas team last year was great because I knew all the returners so I only had to get to know the freshmen. Plus I had been a part of the program for four years so I knew the system and how things worked. As a student volunteer coach, Mark and Rene welcomed my input, but contributing in a coaching role rather than with my gymnastics was uncharted territory for me. For the most part I just listened to them and observed how they handled different situations so I could learn as much as possible from the opportunity they had given me. Thus confirming my interest in coaching college gymnastics.

In Austin, I was coaching at Capital Gymnastics where I was training. Every once and a while I’d help out the level 5s and 6s if a shift needed covering, but mostly I worked with the level 4s. They were a pretty entertaining group and I had a lot of fun working with them. There were definitely frustrating times when it took 3 explanations of an assignment because the first two times they weren’t paying attention. But when you’re working with 7-10 year olds, sometimes that’s just the way it goes. It was a cool thing to help them learn a new skill and then watch their pure excitement as they made it by themselves for the first time – their kips on bars sticks out most in my mind.

I enjoyed working with the little ones and going back to the basics. Teaching proper fundamentals is THE most important part of gymnastics in my mind, because when you have the basics down, you can learn just about anything. My friend Sam Cortez, former teammate and now assistant coach at Arkansas, helped remind me of that. Growing up in New Jersey training at Northstars with Tony Gehman gave her her knowledge of proper technique and how to use it as a platform to learning more difficult skills.

Tom Farden, now at Utah, taught me the same thing. Tom was the drill king. He had a drill for anything you could imagine to remind the gymnast of the proper fundamental positions her body should be in and how that will transfer to the new skill being learned. Not only a master of physics, Tom is a ‘cause and effect’ coach rather than a ‘post-skill results’ coach. Instead of saying, “Try and stick that landing, don’t give the extra step,” he would say, “You did this in your hurdle, which caused this in your round-off and entry onto the vaulting table, thus creating this position off the table, resulting in the extra step.” Tom knew my love for the sport and saw my desire for acquiring as much knowledge about it as I could, so his coaching style taught me so much…he knew I would be a coach before I did.

When Dave’s offer came along I processed all the pros and cons I could think of if I moved, assessing everything that would change as a result. The biggest factors were my training, college coaching experience, and my happiness in life outside the gym – away from Scott. I talked with Scott a lot about what to do and he supported me one way or the other. Since we started dating we agreed that neither would get in the way of the other’s progress and success in their sport. So when he decided to move to Austin to run professionally, I had no other thought than for him to go where he’d become the best runner he could be and we’d make the distance work. And he felt the same about my move to Michigan if I knew that it would benefit my training in addition to beginning my career as a coach.

Dave was always the other half to my creative mind when it came to gym. During the summers we would have the best time…he would throw out every possible skill or combination he could think of and we’d get a laugh out of me trying it. One of our favorites was when I did wrong-way double fulls (off the rod floor) and wrong-way full-ins (off the tumble trak). I also did every type of vault family, including full onto the table back tuck off, and half on tuck front full off. Granted all of this was into the pit and just for fun, but it stimulated my thinking and I believe it partially influenced my decision to keep training post-college.

Getting back on the topic of coaching, Dave has been an amazing mentor. Having coached gymnastics for over 30 years, 20+ of them being college coaching, his banks of knowledge and resources are endless. It’s really cool to see what he has done with the team here. Before, all I saw was their jump in rankings, but now I get to see the day-to-day details and decisions he makes. As the saying goes, I’m learning something new every day.

Even though NCAA rules the allotted 20 hours per week for the athletes to train, including competition, as a coach, it is often more than a full-time job. Not only is there recruiting to keep up with, planning home meets including judging accommodations, and travel expenses for away meets, there is also the time spent discussing all thoughts, theories, goals, etc. regarding the team. Our coaching staff often converses about these topics…what we can improve and how to go about it, changing line-ups, ideas for upgrading or trying a new skill, or being smart about training to keep the girls healthy for the long competitive season.

This group of girls is really something special. With the staff’s passion, enthusiasm, and effort to give them as many tools as we can come up with, they see their hard work from pre-season paying off, the fun in not just winning, but in improving every day and seeing that being reflected in their scores. They are beginning to believe they’re capable of some really amazing things this season. I feel blessed and am so thankful for the opportunity Dave has given me to be a part of their growth – working through and learning from the failures to make the successes that much more meaningful.

We’re home for two straight weeks, hosting Bowling Green this Sunday, Jan. 29th and University of Illinois-Chicago the 5th of February. Two away meets will follow, where the team will travel to Eastern Michigan Feb. 11th and Illinois St. the 17th. I will unfortunately miss the Illinois St. meet because I’ll be down in Texas for the WOGA qualifier. I’m sad I won’t be at the meet but I’m excited to get back to competition myself!

Thanks for following my blogs, and stay tuned for an update of my own training!

Luckily I had a driving partner for most of the trip up here. My brother’s best friend and basically my second older brother moved to Austin about 2 months before I left. He enthusiastically accepted my request as a trip buddy and after a sad goodbye for me, away we went! We made a pit stop in Fayetteville so I could see all the friends I miss so dearly at Arkansas and were on our way to Chicago. We stayed at my uncle’s that night, Mike flew out of O’Hare the next morning, and I finished the quick drive to Kalamazoo a few hours later.

Getting into town was a little surreal. It was a Sunday so there was no practice, and the team were the only people I knew – and not very well after only a 10-day trip 2 months past. I drove straight to the apartment I found online, signed the lease and got the keys, and started unloading my jam-packed car while waiting for my roommate to walk in so we could meet for the first time. I had all sorts of emotions going on.

My roommate Kristen turned out to be awesome. We got along immediately and are both very grateful things worked out so well. My first official practice with the team was the next day, and the following few days were a blur. Coaching the girls, getting my own practices in, getting temporary parking passes…and tickets, trying to get in the system as an employee, not being in anyone’s system, (I still have yet to be in the system to get a WMU ID). Whew! What a week.

It wasn’t long until things got worked out and I began feeling much more settled in this town I knew very little about. I joked with my family and friends that I knew a total of 4 streets in Kalamazoo – the ones taking me from my place to the gym, to the grocery store, and back home. That was true for the first 2 weeks I was here until I flew back home for Christmas. Since returning, however, I have discovered a natural foods store, a coffee shop to read at, and yesterday I went to the mall with my roommate and her friend! So I’m getting out and about a little bit more and will continue to explore as the weeks go on

Stay tuned for Part 2…Coaching the Bronco Gymnastics Team!

The basics:
–1 banana
–4 medium-size strawberries OR 3/4 cup frozen fruit of choice
–2 heaping spoonfuls of yogurt (I go for the greek yogurt to get a little more protein)
–1/2 cup juice of choice, OR milk/milk-substitute, OR water, OR coconut water (my option)
–1-2 Tbsp. (or to taste) nutritional yeast*
–1 tsp. bee pollen*

*You can find these at your local health food store. Nutritional yeast will be in the bulk food section, and you may have to ask where to find the bee pollen because I’m not sure of what section it lives in.

My current additions:
–Couple generous shakes of cinnamon
–1/2-1 Tbsp. organic tahini** (for calcium, healthy fats, protein, B-vitamins, and vitamin E)

More options:
–1-2 Tbsp. (or to taste) Peanut butter**
–1/2 Tbsp. honey for a little added sweetness or 1 tsp. vanilla extract for a little flavor
–1 raw egg (if you’re feeling adventurous!)
A couple tips to keep in mind if you’re wanting to watch your sugar, fat, and/or calorie intake…

–If you want it a bit sweeter, choose either flavored yogurts OR a little honey, NOT both. Vanilla yogurt is super tasty but has a lot of sugar, even in the low- and non-fat options. Or go for the original yogurt which has minimal sugar and you can add a little honey.
–If you choose fruit juice, this also has quite a bit of sugar, so just keep that in mind when choosing yogurt and option of adding honey
**I use organic tahini (hulled sesame seeds) as opposed to peanut butter because although it has a bit more calories and fat, it’s the healthy unsaturated fats your body needs, and also tends to have less sodium, carbs, and sugar, and roughly the same amount of fiber and protein. Some organic peanut butters are similar to tahini in the sense of the unsat. fats, but not all, so make sure to check the label. Whether you go with the tahini or the peanut butter, try not to add too much as that’s where the calories and grams of fat add up. Not to mention tahini has quite a distinct taste, which is bitter in comparison to peanut butter. You may be able to find organic tahini and peanut butter at your local grocery store, but if they don’t have these options then the health food store is the next place to look.
–I use coconut water rather than fruit juice because it has fewer calories, fat, and sugar, plus many added benefits. Zico coconut water has a couple different flavors including citrus, pineapple, and now chocolate, because the original has an interesting taste to it, some people like it, others not so much. Click on the link to see all it’s benefits!

If you give the smoothie a try with no honey, no fruit juice, and just original yogurt and it turns out to be way to bland with just the natural sugars from the fruits, then start out making the smoothies with fruit juice, honey, and/or flavored yogurt and slowly ween yourself off of the extra sugary items one by one! Just make sure to watch your sugar intake the rest of the day

I hope you give it a try and enjoy it! And if you come up with a new addition please let me know, I’d love to try a new twist to my daily kick-start.

http://www.wmubroncos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=24140&SPID=1915&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205345957&DB_OEM_ID=4600

I also wrote a blog for Bekah’s “Get a Grip” Gymblog talking about an average day for me up here in Michigan. Here’s the link to that as well!

http://getagripgymblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/day-in-life-of-casey-jo-magee.html

I mention on there that I drink my power smoothie every morning so later today I’m going to get the recipe up for that in case anybody wants to give it a try!

And yesterday afternoon I did an interview with Anne Phillips from Gymnastike and she posted the first part already.

http://www.gymnastike.org/speaker/2202-Casey-Jo-Magee/video/538816-Casey-Jo-Magee-moves-to-pursue-Olympic-Dream-and-College-Coaching-at-WMU

She’s awesome! I’ll give a more lengthy blog this weekend talking about everything going on with me up here in Michigan. Gotta get going to practice now though! Hope everyone has a great day!

http://www.youtube.com/user/caseyjomagee?feature=mhsn

The Basics

There were two teams of ten – 5 women, 5 men. Each team put up 3 men and 3 women on each event, and there were 6 events total. Floor was first, then uneven bars with still rings, next was a relay-style rope climb, followed by balance beam with parallel bars, then vault, and we finished out the show with men’s high bar and women’s single rail bar.

So here’s how it went: a gymnast from one team would perform a skill and someone on the opposing team had to match that skill. Two referees then decided which gymnast did it better and their respective team got the point. First team to ten points won that round and the team with the most round-wins won the overall competition. If it were to come to a tie at the end of 6 rounds, it would go into a sudden-death “release-off” as we finished on bar events with many possibilities of release moves.

Now if you noticed, I said two referees…giving the possibility of a tie for the point. In this case, the decision went to the VIPs in the crowd. After an instant replay of each gymnast was shown the VIPs had 10 seconds to cast their vote on a clicker and the calculated results were then shown on the screens.

Ice Ice Baby!

I was on the victorious Team ICE!!! Along with myself, the women on Team Ice were Susan Jackson, Samantha Engle, Kylee Botterman, and Taylor Seaman. Team Ice men were Chris Brooks, Jonathan Horton, Andrew Elkind, Steve Legendre, and Joey Hagerty.

We competed against, I’m sure you guessed it, Team Fire! The women were Hollie Vise, Erin Davis, Brittnee Habbib, Jana Bieger, and Jessica Gil. Team Fire men were Brandon Wynn, Justin Spring, Danell Leyva, Sean Townsend, and Wes Haagensen.

Quite a list of names isn’t it?! And everyone was awesome. We all had a blast working together to make the show memorable and as amazing as the idea itself.

Lucky Me

The opportunity of being a part of Evolution couldn’t have come at a better time. The list of athletes to compete had been known for a few months…except for me. Originally, Chellsie Memmel was scheduled to compete but unfortunately after tweaking her shoulder at the Visa Championships the weekend prior to Evolution she withdrew. Major bummer for her, IGC, and everyone looking forward to seeing her there, but it gave me an amazing opportunity to be a part of history in the making.

The show was scheduled for Saturday and I received a call Monday night from Susan Jackson asking if I had plans for the weekend. I said no and then she proceeded to tell me otherwise. Briefly told me they were in need of someone to take Chellsie’s spot in a skill-based competition in which I’d get paid. Getting paid to do gymnastics in a fun setting with some of the best gymnasts in the country and NOT competing full routines?! Heck yea! Sounds like my kind of weekend! It definitely lightened my mood after being disappointed with how Visa Champs went and

Wednesday morning I was on a plane en route to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania – home of the world-renowned International Gymnastics Camp – for what would soon be one of the best experiences of my life. I met awesome people and made some new connections and great friends.

Be on the Lookout…

for the release of the DVD of Evolution coming out this fall. Also, a “Making of Evolution” DVD will be released this coming spring of footage filmed the week of the show. Brent Klaus has big plans for this brilliant idea – the biggest hurdle now is getting it out there and well-known so sponsors pick it up and the future of professional gymnastics can progress as he and many others envision.

To peak your interest and appease your appetite as I hope I’ve begun to create, here are a few videos from the show and what’s to come…

Show Opener

Teaser #1

My side flip on beam against Brittnee Habbib

The final skill performed by Chris Brooks against Sean Townsend to lock in the win for Team Ice

Whew…what a long and somewhat tiring week that was, and it flew by. Quick summary: the seniors had 7 practices and 2 competitions in 5 days, so you could say they kept us pretty busy. The practices generally alternated between the auxiliary gym and on the competition podium. The auxiliary gym gave us another place to practice when the men were on podium, and vice-versa; though it had brand new equipment on brand new (so quite stiff) mats on concrete, so that tended to be the lighter practices for most girls.

One of the auxiliary practices was really frustrating for me. I was having a hard time maintaining my focus on beam and as a result was all over the place. It didn’t take me long to figure out what my deal was, and the next practice on podium was much better so I felt more confident going into the meet.

An interesting thing about the Covergirl Classic and Visa Championship competitions is that because they are broadcasted live, they want to showcase the superstars, so they have event personnel with ear pieces standing behind the judges to give them the go-ahead to raise the flag for the gymnast. If this happens, that gymnast may be the only one competing at that time. This way they can decide who the cameras and audience are focusing on. It’s a pretty cool thing, although it could add pressure if you allow it, knowing everyone’s eyes are on you. The competition also takes longer this way, so if you’re last on an event, you could be waiting around for a while, which happened to me…

Night one I started on vault, and I’m not going to lie, I was nervous. With four of us competing vault we had 2:00 minutes total (30 seconds per girl) for our one-touch. I was up last in our group and the 2:00 minutes ran up before I had time for a second vault, which has never happened to me. So on top of the added time due to the showcasing aspect I mentioned above, I had only done one vault in the 45 or so minutes from finishing warm-ups to when I saluted the judges. Heeere we go! It went well though, so I was happy with it and ready to shift my focus to beam – my pride and joy…uh huh.

After finding my concentration again after that rough auxiliary work out, I was pretty calm and ready to hit a great beam set. I didn’t compete bars as I had only qualified for beam, floor, and vault. I kept going over my routine again and again, walking through my choreography and saying my verbal cues in my head. I was ready. I started off alright, was remembering to breathe, keep my focus, and stay calm, but I got to my series (round-off layout) and for some reason, it felt like my legs buckled on my round-off. I knew I wouldn’t have the punch and rotation for the layout to land on two feet, so in that split second I reverted back to my old layout step out which I could do in my sleep, hoping to be able to save it, but it was too late. I was off the beam before I knew what happened. Ugh! Come on!

Finished up all right, almost fell on my triple turn but saved it, had an okay dismount. I was honestly slightly more surprised than upset, it happened so fast that I just couldn’t believe it. But then I figured I probably got a half-second ahead of myself, was thinking about the layout before I finished the round-off, and that’s all it takes. So I was a little frustrated but tried to let it go and move on to floor.

Floor was okay, almost stepped out of bounds on my double pike first pass, landed the 2 ½ a little awkwardly at the end, but stayed on my feet and saluted. I know my leaps are majorly lacking flexibility, and I don’t think my triple turn was completed either, so I lost quite a bit in execution for dance as well as landing errors. Floor I think is the most frustrating event for me in terms of the elite scoring. Yes I do need to work on my leaps, and it’s no more apparent than when I lose .3 for each…over half a point on two leaps! Rough. And I’m not a fan of sticking tumbling passes either. But, no point in complaining and wasting my energy on things I can’t change! Just something to focus on improving these next few months.

Overall, I wasn’t thrilled with beam and my floor score being rough with low difficulty and lots of execution deductions. Though this gave me motivation to come back on night two determined to redeem myself. I saw it as a second chance to prove that I was good enough to be there and can compete with the best in the country, specifically on beam (as that’s my only event that currently has enough difficulty).

Without overdoing the details of night two, if you saw the results, you’ll know it was not only not better than night one, but worse. I was more than unhappy. Two falls on beam, first event, I still have to do floor which I know isn’t my strong point and then vault which even if I do the best full-twisting yurchenko of my life, I’m still already down 1.0+ from the girls throwing double twisting yurchenkos and Amanars. Not to get down on myself or anything…just being realistic. So floor was roughly the same, I felt like my landings were better but my score didn’t show it if they were, and vault was the same.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed. Yes, it’s okay to be nervous at a competition like that which I’ve never been in before, but I had expected more from myself and it was really upsetting for it to end like that. After a day or so of decompressing I had accepted how things turned out. I was more motivated than ever to get stronger, get fitter, and get better. I know I have a lot of things to improve and that I can increase my difficulty, which is good! Because I know am capable of it!

Soon to come…

A post about IGC’s Evolution!!! And goals/plans for the next few months.

The Austin Life

I cannot claim being a Texan because I will always remain an Oregonian at heart, but I wouldn’t mind saying I’m almost an Austinite. Having yet to take advantage of the “Live Music Capital of the World” aspect of this fabulous city, I have already fallen in love. The food is amazing (seriously, everywhere I go), the people are eclectic and friendly, and the gym I’m training at couldn’t be more perfect for the goals I’m trying to reach.

The community here is all about being healthy and active. With as many natural and organic grocery stores and restaurants as not, eating healthy here is made easy. Many restaurants have a “Gluten-free” menu upon request – side note: I’m not allergic to gluten but it’s great that the option is made available to the growing population that is – which I think is pretty cool. A couple of my favorites so far are Torchy’s Tacos – aaamazing tacos with fresh grilled meat, veggies, and a variety of homemade salsas, and Bouldin Creek Café with a delicious tofu scrambler or 2 eggs over medium on toast or a bagel – I’ve heard their omelets are tasty as well.

The daily dose of vitamin D the sun provides offers a great excuse to go outside and exercise. The beautiful and lush Green Belt is a seemingly endless nature preserve encompassed by running/hiking trails with tree-cover to shade from the blazing sun, a creek perfectly placed for a quick dip when even in the shade the 100+ temperatures become unbearable, and natural rock walls for the avid climber or interested passerby. It is a super bicycle- and running-friendly city – most main roads have bike lanes and paths are easy to come by with popular picks like Shoal Creek and the Town Lake loop. And running stores like Rogue Equipment make joining a running and core program a fun activity to look forward to each day rather than the common “ugh, do I have to go work out today?” attitude.

Capital Gymnastics and Officially Qualifying

Training with Barry Hyder at Capital has been amazing. His knowledge of the sport and easy-going demeanor are exactly what I need at this stage of my sport. Sharon Bunch is one of the upper level coaches and often works with us on beam and floor. Well educated and very helpful, she has a great sense of humor but makes sure you get your work done. Jason Jarrett, son of Jim and Cheryl who founded Capital Gymnastics runs the gym. I coach with him in the afternoons and his passion for the program and helping young girls reach their potential in the sport they love is evident every day.

I’m progressively getting stronger and building up endurance I lost in the transition of finishing the Arkansas season as the volunteer coach, graduating, moving down to Austin, and adjusting to a different training regimen. I have only myself to blame for the valley I slipped in to slightly, but you can’t have peaks without valleys, right?

I’d have to admit that I’ve already had a couple peaks since moving… finally passing the compulsories officially made me a senior international elite, having retroactively qualified optionally for the Classics. Then last weekend at the American Classic I got the 3-event score necessary to qualify for USA Visa Championships! I qualified on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. I still have one more chance at the U.S. Covergirl Classic in Chicago to get the all-around score to be able to compete uneven bars as well, but without the pressure of still needing to qualify at all, I just plan to compete as best as I can, make improvements from last weekend, and have fun! Isn’t that why I’m still doing this crazy sport anyway?

For those of you unfamiliar with the scores necessary to qualify to USAs, I will try to clarify. The all-around score (which I’ll be trying to get) is a 54.0 – this averages to a 13.5 on each of the four events. If you wanted to qualify on any three events, the score is a 41.25 or 13.75 average. The two-event score is a 28.0, so an average of 14.0 on two events is needed. Basically, the fewer events you do, the better you should be at them. My scores last weekend were:

Uneven bars: 11.6 – not good at all, lost 1.0 for falling, and the rest of my routine was totally thrown off

Balance beam: 14.6 – good, now I just need to reach that 15.0+

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlwnK4OMnK0

Floor exercise: 13.25 – definitely needs improvement; need to clean up some landings and increase my difficulty

Vault: 14.0 – good score for a full-twisting yurchenko, but I need to get a 1.5 twist which is worth more and can only be landed if the pre-flight (or entry onto the vaulting table) is improved

All-around: 53.45 – only 0.55 away from the all-around score I needed even with a terrible bar routine. Three-event score for vault, beam, and floor: 41.85

All I can say is I am SO extremely excited about qualifying for USA Visa Championships -- the best showcase of the nation’s top elite gymnasts…and I get to compete with them! They are being held in St. Paul/Minneapolis August 17-20th. The men compete on Wednesday and Friday and the women compete on Thursday and Saturday. Very exciting!

Thank EVERYONE for the amazing support you have given me in this journey I have undertaken. I honestly can’t begin to explain how much it helps keep me going when I’m having a rough day or wondering if my goals are too lofty. But you all make it worth it, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I want to give a special thanks to Robby Edwards who wrote this article and all the people at the U of A who helped put it together, it really meant a lot to me! Arkansas Razorback Gymnastics

I also want to thank Anne from gymnastike for featuring my beam after winning the event at the American Classic last weekend. You’re amazing Anne! I sincerely appreciate it! Gymnastike Feature

P.S…I’ve been told they are looking for a few more senior elites to be considered for the U.S. Team to compete at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in October so I’m going to put my pedal to the metal and work as hard as I can to impress the National Team staff these next two meets and who knows what’ll happen?! It’s a fun and motivating thought anyway

WOGA Qualifier

I imagine many of you have seen the videos of my bars, beam, and floor from the qualifier that were filmed by staff at the meet. I will post the links for those of you who haven’t seen them, and I also just uploaded my bars and beam that my coach Mark filmed for me. He wasn’t able to get vault, and floor came out blurry, but the quality is better on the one already posted anyway.

I was nervous again. Not as much on vault and bars, but definitely on beam. I think I was slightly shocked I made my mount and then could not settle in for the rest of the routine. It wasn’t so much that I actually made the mount, because they had been going well in practice, but competing it for the first time was a rush. And since I was off balance but managed to hold on, I had a little bit of a “Oh, wow, what now?” moment. Funny thing was that my triple turn which had probably been the most inconsistent in training was the most solid skill of the routine. Now I just need to relax, and let all the other skills be normal.

The atmosphere was quite serious, like the other elite sessions I’ve attended, so I did my best to just have fun and enjoy being there. I had a long talk with my dad afterward about what I can do to simulate what a meet was like while I was on the team at Arkansas. It won’t ever be the same, for obvious reasons like being a lone competitor, but one suggestion he gave me was to try interacting more with the girls I rotate with. Cheer for them, give them high fives after their routines, little things that they may or may not notice but will keep my spirits up. I always make it a point to learn their names and cheer for them, but I think I’m going to give his advice a try and be more involved with them (while not breaking their concentration, of course). And who knows, maybe they will have more fun too!

Bars:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH15VsuCL60

WOGA posted video

Beam:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMnyqUDUC_E

WOGA posted video

Recent and Upcoming

Before the qualifier I had been training with the Ark team during their practices. Since then, however, I have been training separately. The change was made to better take advantage of my “volunteer student coach” position and help out more in their workouts. Training by myself can be a little lonely, but I don’t mind too much. The hardest part has been lack of consistency. I’ve traveled with the team all year, but post-season traveling is longer than regular season. For SEC’s and Regionals we traveled Thursday-Sunday, and for NCAA National Championships last week we left super early Wednesday morning and got back late yesterday morning.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, by any means. I am extremely happy and thankful for the opportunity to continue helping out the team and traveling with them. Just for my own training purposes, consistency is of course ideal. I considered last week my last “break” until the qualifier in July. I am definitely feeling the lost hours of sleep and inconsistent eating patterns from the course of the 6 day trip.

I graduate from the University 3 weeks from this Saturday (I can’t believe it’s SO soon!) and after that I am moving down to Austin, TX to train with Barry Hyder at Capital Gymnastics. I am super stoked about the move -- to beginning a new chapter in my life!

I intend to go to a compulsory competition at the end of May, and then pass optionals at the July 2nd qualifier at the National Team Training Center in Huntsville, TX. I will write up some shorter blogs more often over the course of the next 2 and a half months to keep you all updated. Thanks for reading! Another post with a few more training details soon to come!