We got to go to a gymnastics practice. Alex has moved up to level 8 this year. It’s considerably different from level 7. Level 7 was required moves with extra credit for bonus moves. Level 8 is open to a lot more skills. I don’t think any of them are required.
Alex has a lot of new moves, but they’re not polished yet. Here he is practicing on the pommel, working on traveling the entire apparatus, and the handstand dismount.
Alex, pommel practice, level 8.
On the floor, every tumbling run includes something new. There are twists pretty much added to every flip.
Alex, floor practice, level 8.
The twists happen so fast, it’s hard to count rotations. It’s not smooth yet, but exciting to watch.
Roman has been the primary guy that coaches all the boys. While we were there watching, he introduced us to the new coach they just hired to work with the level 8 kids, Alex Somethingveryrussian. He pronounced the name for us several times to no avail. (Svitlychnyy. Way too many consonants. Not enough vowels.) Okay then, coach Alex went to the Olympics in 1996 and again in 2000 at which the teams won bronze and silver. That’s Alex’s new coach. It looks like Alex is going to get a lot more direct attention. While we were watching the pommel, we watched Coach Alex catch Alex’s legs and walk him all around the pommel, explaining what should be happening, where his balance should be, where his shoulders should be, what his hips should be doing, what it should feel like, at every stage of the process. It was way cool.
We get to go watch an invitational meet in five months. Houston in February. That should be fun.
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