Okanagan Athletes Are Keeping Up!

We have just arrived home, following a gruelling weekend of trial events. It was the first of two trials to Canadian Nationals, and the only trial event for Western Canadian Championships. From our club, four athletes qualified to Team BC for Westerns. Now they will prepare for the second trial event to qualify for Nationals in a few weeks.

As you know, I coach a team of artistic gymnasts ranging in age and level. However, for a majority of this program I have been focusing on the Canadian Junior Olympic level 9 and 10 athletes in the train to compete and train to win stages. These athletes are able to qualify for Team BC for Nationals and Westerns.

For fun, I will use video analysis for some critical thinking and evaluation. I am going to build off of my last post, so if you have not read it, I will quickly fill you in. I spoke about, going back to the drawing board, in order to creatively come up with a solution to a performance gap. The gap was on the uneven bars, we had to relearn a different release skill and change the planning of the sequence of skills. The coolest part about this decision was that it came from the athlete. She was determined to make it work.

One of my goals for KIN 598 was to apply certain interventions to the YTP that would help qualify my athletes to Team BC. We focused on dance and performance on the floor and balance beam. We have also been doing tons of psychological preparation. I built some early season preparation competitions in to the YTP that helped produce stronger results. Playing around with all of my new found knowledge has brought many ideas to the table. 

I am going to use this post to decompress from the event and use the videos to improve our performance for Provincials to qualify for Nationals. 

In my previous post, I reflected on how Jenna needed a score of 34.00 to qualify for Team BC. In our early season competitions, we were not on our target. After some hard work, we were able to hit a 34.125 all around in Abbotsford this past weekend. This was our benchmark score to qualify for Team BC. So far she is on the team for Westerns and she is in a great position for Nationals. Some fine tuning and proper planning will hopefully bring the whole plan together.

We started the competition on the bars and that was probably in our favor. Jenna was well prepared and ready for the event.

This video is on the Uneven Bars. With this routine Jenna scored a 7.85 out of a possible 9.6. She had 1.75 in execution and composition. The new routine was able to produce a strong start to the meet and a score that was good enough for the qualifying event. We were very happy with this routine! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT3kKtv8wRc&feature=youtu.be

Now that Jenna is gaining some confidence with this routine we will work to clean up the technique in the cast to handstands and the height of the dismount.

The next video is Jenna’s beam routine from the same event. She scored a 9.025 out of a possible 10.00. She received 0.975 in execution, composition and artistry. She also stuck this routine and was credited all skills and connections.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCr-P-ALWqw

We will work on the leap series. She needs to be more split in the skill. If I was judging her I would take at least 0.15/0.2 for split. We will also work on the presentation and artistry. 

We will focus on the landing of the dismount and endurance throughout the routine. She probably lost 0.05-0.1 for squat, 0.1-0.2 for a large step. However, I will always encourage my athlete to make a smart choice at the end of a routine to stay safe.

On the floor, we have been working through the second tumbling line for Jenna.  She is able to clean it up in practice and correct the technique, but it is still inconsistent. The rebounding action between the two layout skills is tough and she is not able to complete the second skill. This is due to a lack of power at the end of the routine and technical skill to finish. Floor is the longest event and challenges the anaerobic system. Here she scores an 8.7 out of 9.9 losing only 1.2 in execution, composition and artistry with a fall. Falls are worth 0.5. So there is potential on this event for a higher score. This was also her third event in the competition and she is still increasing her strength and stamina.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqaVDviSPio

If she can stick the last tumbling line she will also have a higher Start Value, so she could potentially be evaluated out of a 10.0. We will build this in to the current cycle to help her accomplish her goals. 

 The last event she competed on was Vault, where she scored an 8.55 out of a possible 9.7. Here she has 1.15 in execution. The judges credited the value of the higher difficulty vault, but took the deduction for piking down the layout 0.1-0.2. She also performed one more vault as the athletes are allowed to compete two vaults.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EqPsu7nRMU&feature=youtu.be

We will work on the round off approach for vault. There needs to be some improvement on the angle at which she starts the rotation for the round off. Recently, Jenna was practicing a drill and it was helping her to majorly improve her rotation in the salto at the end, but actually I bet it is the entry to the skill that is affecting the height off the horse.

This is an image of Simone Biles, in the hurdle as she approaches the vault for a yurchenko two and a half twist. It is a paused image from a youtube video (I have attached the link).

 Simone Biles (2016) 

As you can see my athlete is lacking the same approach angle between the torso and right front leg. My athlete is also in a different level, but it demonstrates the effect I am going for.

I would also like to mention the we qualified a Junior Olympic Level 9 to Team BC for Westerns. Her name is Vanessa and she a phenomenal athlete. I am very proud of her accomplishments and dedication to her team.

The next few weeks will be very exciting. My personal intention is to prepare myself mentally for the challenges that lie ahead. I will remain focused. I will manage my time. I will collect my thoughts, release as much positive energy out as possible and put my head in the game. The team is ready. We just have to keep working the plan.

Growth mindsets and lifelong learning is what it takes us to the next level. For me, every single year of coaching has built into the next. I want to be a coaching pioneer, always turning over a new leaf, exploring, keeping it fresh and exciting. In order for me to stay calm, I just remember to let it come from my heart. 

Please feel free to leave a reply!

Cheers,
Jesse