This weekend the Twisters team staff had the pleasure of making the trek up to Reno to attend congress, where the national staff unveiled and taught the new compulsory routines. Our journey started on Thursday morning when we met at the gym, packed up the Twisters van, and made our way to Rocklin; Ericka's parents live there and they were taking care of the kids for the weekend. Not only was it a nice stopping point but my mom was also able to make her way over so I was able to spend a little bit of the afternoon with her! We went to lunch with everyone then to the mall before heading back and continuing on our way. Once we finally made it across the border and into the city, we found our hotel and checked-in. We registered for the event and had our first of many large meals before heading up to bed; Annie and I got to room together so we had a good time staying up and talking for a little bit.
The venue was one I am very familiar with due to the fact that I competed there for more years than I can remember and it was interesting to walk in as a member of the "other side" (aka coach vs gymnast). Morning #1 was all about the level 5 floor routine. At first we watched someone perform it and then we were up and dancing around ourselves, attempting to pick up on all the new dance. It took about three hours but we got it down...Cat and Ericka got it quite easily and will be the ones in the gym that everyone should look to, but the rest of us held our own. Level 5 beam took up most of the afternoon, along with vault and bar conditioning clinics. By the end of the day we were exhausted and almost fell asleep over our food at dinner, but somehow managed to rally and ended up staying out with some of the other coaches we ran into. Annie and I even made a late-night milkshake run...we gave up on trying to eat well early on so figured we might as well.
Morning #2 came too soon and with coffee in hand, we were back in the hall ready to face the level 4 routines. It was just like the day before, though luckily a little bit easier because each routine builds off the other so we had an idea of what we were doing. In addition to paying attention to everything going on around us, we had our own in-house stuff to attend to so we also held a meeting in Allan's room to discuss certain upcoming deadlines. All these new responsibilities I've assumed are a bit overwhelming but it's a fun learning process. I like playing a larger role in the development of the program and look forward to all that will be thrown my way.
Tired and ready for bed, we still had to go through some more lectures before dinner and sleep. This morning we had the opportunity to hit the snooze button a time or two and then after a couple of hours discussing levels 1-3 we decided as a group to head out early, woohoo!! The workshop wasn't scheduled to end until 4pm but we were drained and needed to get away so we left around 10:45am and arrived in Rocklin for lunch. It was nice to see the light of day after spending so many continuous hours indoors and we enjoyed the ride, listening to music and trying to unwind. We picked up the kids and continued on our way home, arriving around 4:45pm. Walking into the door of my apartment never felt so good and now I'm planning on heading to bed early before getting back at it tomorrow morning! As of right now there are so many poses and musical notes floating through my head that I can't keep them all straight, but seeing the girls do these routines all summer will act as a constant reminder of what they're supposed to look like. It'll be interesting to see how this season unfolds for gyms around the country...September here we come!
No comments:
Post a Comment