Hand Springs

Here are a couple of videos of Claire practicing round-off back hand springs at gymnastics. I like the first one because if you watch closely, you'll notice Claire's shoulder muscles sort of pop out when she lifts her arms out. Ok, so maybe that sounds braggy or vain but mostly I think it's amazing that a 7 year old can have muscles like that.

My other reason for liking this is simply because of the experience I had with Claire. Claire was eager to see it so I showed it to her. I noticed at the end her coach was making this gesture with her hands. I asked Claire what that meant. She said, "Oh, Coach Megan is telling me that I slide
my one hand and I'm not supposed to." I hadn't noticed that in the video--I just thought it looked good--so I went back and watched it, and sure enough her hand slides.

Claire went on to explain the her other coach had her chalk her hand so when she finished she could see where her hand slid. Then Claire set up this make shift representation of a mat so she could show me what she should do. It was a fun conversation.

The last one simply shows her showing her handspring to her teammates. She was quick to point out that her hand slid and she didn't sqeeze her legs together. Again, things I didn't notice--I was too impressed she could flip over by herself and not land on her head. I admit, I loved watching it. Next Thursday I'm hoping to get a film shot of her running one. Claire told me to bring my camera "all the time" so she can see what she looks like. She even wants me to film her around the house to make sure she's straight in her handstands, etc. She is a gymnastics nut with some perfectionism thrown in there.