Free E-book! Pause for Play: 0-3 months

This FREE e-book is filled with great bonding activities to stimulate sensory neurons, vision development and muscle development for babies aged 0-3 months. These age-appropriate activities are tried and true by Coach Casie, in fact, my funky little one still loves to do Tongue Fun and she's approaching 1 year already!


Pause for Play:0-3 months is here for you and totally free with a tweet or post to facebook!

Gym Organization

In our gym we have those awesome shelving units from IKEA, not to mention there's one to my left as I type this blog post. Attempting to keep our gym clean has been a struggle to say the least. Things have gone lost, glasses stepped on, phones misplaced... Many times if stuff is just put on a shelf, they somehow disappear into thin air! 


Now if things were put into a box on a shelf, perhaps we could keep our belongings safe while having a sharp clean image. With the high expectation of the gymnasts to have perfect form and clean routines we also want our training environment to reflect our performances. If we can keep our gym clean and organized, we can focus on our training without tripping over each others belongings or worry about where things are in the gym.


I've recommended to my team(s) to bring in their own boxes. They can have their own space & fill it with their hearts desires. To be fully prepared for anything that might happen in gym here is a sample list of what a gymnast might need in her cubby:

-grips

-wristbands

-gloves

-athletic tape, pre-wrap

-wrist, ankle or knee braces

-extra leotard

-extra gym shorts

-extra hair bands/clips

-hairspray

-tampons/sanitary pads

-ankle weights (ALL team members MUST have their own)

-water bottle

-deodorant

-Chapstick 

-a picture of their favorite gymnast!

Here's Mine:

The original "Flying Squirrel"

What other things would you keep in your cubby or gym bag?

Virtual Gymnastics Curriculum

Hands down, this has got to be the most exciting thing I've found at Congress this year! Smart Moves and Fun & Fit Gymnastics have teamed up to be the first in the world to provide something I've been waiting for...the ability to access gymnastics coaching curriculum and lesson plans from a phone, tablet, laptop or print outs instantly!

The Recreational Curriculum includes

• Proven Online Year-Round Progressive Gymnastics Curriculum
• Pre-school to Pre-Team Gymnastics classes
• Stored in an Easy to use Lesson Plan Management Platform
• Fully Customizable lesson plans <--- this one I LOVE! I've seen the works and it's great I would be able to upload my own held true plans.
• Consistent Instructor Support and Training <------ the way it's set up I would learn from each days planning.

PLUS

• access to your Lesson Plans in combination with pre-loaded curriculum
• State of the Art Ability to Share and Protect your Teaching Records!

BENEFITS

• Virtual Access to your Teaching Team on the Gym Floor
• Reduce Training Time
• Improve Instructor Performance
• Confidence in Smart Moves proven "Fun & Fit Gymnastics" Drills and Skills

Expected launch date is sometime in October of this year. I can't wait to get my gym started. I love a clever way to use technology to enhance gym time!

Give them an email at:

enquiries@smartmoves.co.nz, tell them Coach Casie sent ya. 

Rips

Picture Show: USA Gymnastics Congress & Olympic Trials

Morning Fitness with USA Gymnastics

 Bright and Early

 Registration

 Yep, Certified & gotta super star!

Local restaurants getting in the Olympic spirit. I loved the Tripple cheese back flip panini. 

The cutest little play mats for Barbie I've ever seen. Barbie was taking a nap.

 Tumbl Trak - I wanted EVERYTHING!

 Good to see America's 1st Amendment still holds strong at the entrance of the Olympic Trials.

 Beautiful!

My view!

Why thank you!

 My new friend Kelly from Canada won the Big Raffle and a voucher from Snowflake Designs. I know her girls will look good next year!

 Entrance to my hotel

The HP Pavillion

 Outside the Trials

P & G let me paint my pinky blue to raise awareness and to stop Bullies 

There's Coach Casie - upside down again.

 Did I mention I love Indian food?

Making signs to cheer on the hopefuls 

Facepainting 

 And the team is......

Goodbye San Jose!

Tip to Motivate More Turns

Tired of yelling, "GO" down the vault runway? Here's a little voice-saving tip to get those lines moving fast.


To help me gauge how many successful vaults we did today, each gymnast was allowed to draw a part of a smiley face on a mat. Thinking we might get someone to complete a full face, I was totally surprised to see how fast these ladies were taking their turns. In 20 mins, we had all girls working on stuck landings because our shapes in the air were corrected and repeated over and over. I think each girl had over 20 turns!!

 

Some days we just have to be a little creative, just like them.

Packing up from USA Congress

I had to buy a new bag to get all these goodies home. Lot's of great stuff from Tumbl Trak, Gibson, USA Gymnastics, Garland Activewear, Floor Music Express, Carolina Gym Supply and Dollamur Gym Supply!

Can't wait to get home and try all of them out!