June 8, 2011:Afternoon: Biked to another building onsite to drop off some papers and came back. Total: 2.7 miles.
Evening: Swing dancing + class.
June 9, 2011: Gymnastics gym.
New things are happening here; my preferred style of training is to pick one or two things I want to work on, zone in, and keep hammering away at them until I get them where I want them to be (or I get tired - which can actually take a fairly long time, most nights). This generally results in progress, but it tends to take a long, LONG time. New idea (based on
this video and the advice of a friend who knows much more than I do): Train more frequently, but in smaller bursts, i.e., don't do more than 10 reps of a skill at a time. The idea is that if you imprint GOOD, solid reps in your muscle memory, you learn faster than if you trick/practice until you crash. I decided I'm going to give this technique a month, maybe a month and a half, and see where it takes me. If it works, I'll keep going. If not, I'll go back to what I was doing before.
- Warmup: Joint stuff, balance beam.
- Threw a few front tucks on the tumble track. Landed on my feet about 50% of the time. Stepped off the mat weird once (it wasn't even a landing after a flip!) and twisted my foot/ankle; I think I broke up some scar tissue rather than actually injuring myself, but that HURT!!
- Learned that I can still put my foot behind my head if I want to (b-boy friends, ftw - I haven't done that since I was a little kid!).
- Handstand practice. I hit that equilibrium point most tries, but then fall right back out of it.
- Walked my hands down a wall into a backbend a few times.
- Practiced cartwheels, trying to start and end with my feet on a line of tape on the floor. Hit it a few times, but my second foot tends to land facing sideways, about 4-6 inches to the right of the tape.
- Messed around with some preparatory stuff for tricks; I don't really intend to do a lot of tricking in the near future, but the prep work looked like fun.
My favorite: Stepping toward the trapezoid-shaped foam block, planting my hands on the edge, and twisting around in midair (I think it's supposed to help with b-twists...or something like that). - Worked on my boxing stance, and transferring momentum from my hips to the rest of me. I feel kind of silly swinging my arms and slapping stuff, but you gotta learn the basics before you can do anything else!
- Stretched some; probably should've done more.
Notes on the new training technique: This REAAAALLLYYY goes against the grain with me, but I did notice that it changes my mindset, if nothing else. If I know that I can't do anything more than a few times, I really have to focus on getting the most out of each attempt. I also need to figure out a conditioning routine, or something, that I can do so I don't end up sitting around so much each time I finish with a skill.
