TSNY Trampoline classes

Trampoline classes at a trapeze school sounded like THE BEST THING EVER to me. I love trampolines. And I love flying trapeze. So when I had a work trip to an area with a TSNY, after I booked my flight the first thing I did was book a trampoline class. (And trapeze class second.)

I didn't know quite what to expect in this trampoline class, but given my history with trampolines—well I was just hoping it was fun.

The day of, I met the instructor. I told him my goal was to have fun, that I'd never even been on one of these fancy Olympic trampolines before but that I'd spent a lot of time at the trampoline park. I don't think he was expecting much from me.

My class was three people. Me. A girl who had done trampoline as her college PE (that sounds amazing) but was out of practice and a lady who was an instructor at TSNY and was working on cool flips.

Since there's only one trampoline, we all took turns.

The warm-up was to bounce up and down and stay in the middle. And the trampoline was a lot bouncier than I'm used to so this took some calibration. I also use my arms to balance me and the teacher was standing to my side, so he had to move before I could do this. Once I got the hang of that (and staying in the middle, not bouncing off to the side), we practice straddles, pikes, seat drops and back drops. I think the teacher was surprised I could fearlessly do a backdrop.

We tried cradles—back to front. And I'd never been taught the right way to do a lot of these things, so he had to show me where my hands should go etc. But I got back to front and front drops—he was pulling a mattress in front of me.

And then he decided I should work on backflips.

I have never been brave enough to do a backflip. Ever. But I was feeling brave. So we decided to go for it.

And Rich is the best spotter ever.

He would jump with me, count to three, and then I'd try to jump back so my shoulder would land on his shoulder, with my back and butt in a straight line with my shoulder.

After a few rounds of that, I'd try to get up and over. And he'd kind of push me so I'd get in the right—back and over.

And I had the same problem as with my front flips. Not waiting. And rotating too fast. My flips were all rotation. No height.

But I started getting them. And I was so SO CLOSE. I was pumped.

I went back to the hotel and sent the video to my adult gymnastics instructor. And I was high as a kite on adrenaline for a few hours.

Almost doing a backflip when you've been terrified for years is amazing. And that was some amazing spotting.

I ended up taking THREE trampoline classes in three days while I was in D.C.

I came back the next day and took a class with a gymnast. I wanted to get my back flip. Only the second teacher couldn't spot that. I was so disappointed. She had me working on front drops and cradles. And I am not good at them and don't care to do them.

My last day in DC I took another trampoline class after flying trapeze. Another class with Rich. I needed to get my backflip. This class was also three people. Another girl from the flying trapeze class—who used to live in Athens and work at UGA. And there was another lady who worked at TSNY in NY.

The instructor was working on cradles, which is a back drop, and you go up like for a front drop but rotate over so you land on your back again. I can't do the rotation. I think it's all about waiting and getting enough height in the air. I have enough power in my drop but can't.

The other girl really wanted to learn net tricks for flying trapeze. She was working on back drops. They are so scary and hard to learn.

I wanted to work on my backflip.

(Thanks Nadia for the video) 

I didn't quite get it. Either it wasn't as good as a few days ago (or I was tougher on myself. The first time I was so thrilled just to be making progress, so not as tough on myself.) And then I worked on front flips. I don't know how to land them. I was trying to stick the landing. Like on a mat. But with a trampoline you just bounce. Haha. That's what I learned.

I love these classes and wish I could find one in Georgia. I found a gym that does have trampoline classes—but more for kids. I messaged them and they told me about their open gym. Not interested.

Verdict: Trampoline classes—LOVED. Need in my town.

Bringing a GoPro to Tumbling

I got a GoPro for Christmas. I am beyond excited.

I thought I'd play with it this week and take it to Wednesday night tumbling.

I took it out of the box (which was actually super complicated and I had my husband do for me). And here are a few things about a GoPro

1) No viewfinder! You can't see what you're shooting. No one told me this!
2) You can synch it to an iPhone or iPad to control it or show you what you're shooting.
3) It's super tiny, but tough.
4) Accessories. You will spend a fortune on it.

I got a $30 pack of accessories from Amazon including a chest harness and head mount. I got the chest harness out for tumbling. Here's me doing a flip with the GoPro on my chest. I actually do two flips. I think it's super cool how I can see my feet and the camera must know I'm going to make the landing.

Here's a video of my front tuck. It's not the best because I'm still learning the GoPro. And the coach is right, my flips are low! Seeing it helps so much.

The downside of playing with the camera is that I wasn't very focused on working on my back handspring. I was a mess. Next time, I should work on what I want to work on and just get the camera out for 10 or so minutes. Then I won't be such a mess.

Next time, I want to try cartwheels and flips with the camera on my head. Or maybe put it on one of the girls who can really flip!

What else should I do with the GoPro? Any ideas?

Hopefully you'll see more (and better) videos later this year.

Adult Tumbling

I brought my camera to tumbling class this week.

This is me working on a bridge kick over.

I usually start kicking over from higher up and work down to one pad. This is the kick over from two pads. (It's easier when you start from higher up and have more leverage to kick over from). I can get to one pad after about 10 minutes.

I am THIIIIIS close to getting a bridge kick over from the floor. I still need a tiny push from Megan or Helen (in pink in the back).  And looking at this picture, I need to get my arms straighter under my shoulders and not bend my elbows.

Here's my bridge. I was showing Lindsey the difference between arms below your shoulders and arms angled out. It's hard to open up your shoulders to get that straight angle, but it makes bridges and easier.

The thing I like about tumbling is the more I work on it, the more flexible I get. Now, I can do a back bend no problem. I couldn't a month ago. And I like to think I get a little better every week.

Flips…
I'm still working on my flip. I don't feel like there's a lot of progress, but I'm getting closer, I know it! I have to do about 10  bad flips to warm up and then I get some flips closer to landing. I saw some of the photos about me not going high enough and the very next flip I did higher. Next week I'm going to take over the tumble track and try flipping on there. I think the footing with the run, run punch and trampoline confuses me. I think the tumble track might be simpler. That or get the high mats out again. I must get this!

Bad flip. Much too low and too open. I landed on my butt, which is better than my head.

Almost flipping

A tumble track is a long trampoline runway. This is not me.

It's been another week of tumbling classes and I think I'm making progress towards my flip. Almost there.

We'd been flipping onto a huge pile of mats—to work on getting UP. At this class, the teacher got a mini tramp and we were jumping on to waist-high mat. I didn't think I could do it at first and thought that I needed to work up to it. After a few runs I got it. Run. Hit the trampoline hard. Jump high. Hands up. Hands down, hips over, ball up and reach for your knees and try to find your feet. And don't put your hands out behind you like you're breaking your fall. It's a reflex. Everyone does it. It's also a good way to break your arms.

Flipping is like getting the right combination in the lottery. It's about getting everything together all at once. If I get a good jump off the trampoline, I open too early and land up my butt. If I don't get a good jump, I get a nice rotation, but didn't get the height to land on my feet. One of the coaches told me I was making progress and that if the mat was lower, I could have landed it. She told me to go practice on the tumble track. And the first few attempts were a disaster. I didn't get a full rotation, or I fell forward or didn't get enough height. Then, there were a few almost flips. I came so close to landing on my feet. I told coach to watch me one last time and I ALMOST LANDED IT. It was low, but my feet were on the mat and I stepped backwards twice….and into the hole between the tumble track and the mat. The hole that I'd just told another girl to close up after she flipped. Embarrassing!

"Are you okay?" she kept asking me.

I think she thought I sprained my ankle. I was a little dazed but only my pride was hurt.

I think that if I ever do flip, I should do something to celebrate, since it's such a big goal. I want a Go Pro, but that's big even for Christmas. Maybe we'll just have to go out to eat. I need to think of something. Any ideas?

Adventures at Skyzone

I've wanted to go to Skyzone since I heard about it a year or so ago. A giant trampoline gym? Yes please.

The closest one, however, is more than an hour away. Friday I was in Gwinnett to have my car looked at. On a whim, I typed in Skyzone on my iPhone map to see how far away it was. Five miles. I really needed to get home to feed my cats, walk my job, and let my friend get something she'd store in my garage out. I was tempted though.

I was leaving the service center and the guy told me not to take my usual route home. He said there was a bad wreck. I took that as a sign I needed to try Skyzone. (So I called and had my neighbor take care of my pets and to tell my friend I'd be home later.)

I drive to Skyzone. It's in a giant warehouse in a business park. There was plenty of parking. You go in and fill out a waiver on their computers, then wait in line to be checked in at the front desk. I signed up for a 30 minute jump. It was $10 + $2 for some orange grippy socks. (I thought the socks would be annoying. I barely noticed them). They give you a sticker to put on and then you go jump for your allotted time. Mine was 6:30-7 p.m. 

There were some quarter-opereated lockers to put your stuff in. There's also a concession stand. There were a ton of trampolines. I didn't know where to go. There were some trampolines near a foam pit. (The lines looked long.) There were two dodge-ball courts with 8-12 year-olds jumping madly over pads. And there was the giant trampoline court. It had vertical trampolines on three sides and was probably 3x the size of Aerofit. These trampolines had a lot of little kids (toddlers with their parents) and some 5-8 year-olds, but not a lot of older kids. That's where I went. An employee in an orange polo shirt gave a group in front of me directions, and I followed on the trampoline. I went to a relatively unused corner and tried to figure out what to do. There were kids just running and jumping. No one was doing tricks really. 

I jumped across the trampolines. I think they were a tad bigger than the Aerofit trampolines, and there were some narrow tumble track looking trampolines. The trampolines felt different than the ones at Aerofit. They weren't sprung as tightly. I tried a butt drop and had to really concentrate to get it because the spring wasn't the same. I saw a kid flipping over the pads so I tried a cartwheel. And it's actually easier to flip here—because of the spring in the trampoline. I tried some round-offs and one-armed round-offs. I ventured over to the wall—which isn't lined up exactly. One vertical trampoline might be behind two regular trampolines. I tried some back bounces and supermans. They still felt different so they weren't as effortless and but totally doable. One other kids tried a back bounce into the wall, but I was mostly the one one doing tricks. (I couldn't do a backdrop hand stand. The trampolines weren't tight enough to get my arms under me.)

A16-year-old employee with a whistle in his mouth came over to my area. I bounced over and asked him what his best trick was. 

"Probably that," he said to my butt drop. I was disappointed. The employees at Aerofit are the ones with the best tricks. They're also more enthusiastic than these kids who just give the little jumpers dirty looks. (Teach them a new trick!)

I jumped around some more and worked on some toe touches, back drops, flagpoles, whatever I could remember. I was having fun. By myself. No one ever comes to the trampoline park by themselves, but why not?

Finally a different employee (with whistle and orange polo shirt came over) and asked if I was doing a workout. I told him I was just playing. I asked him what his best trick was and he said a full. I was much more impressed with that, though he did not demonstrate. Apparently, he's a competition cheerleader. And we chatted about me not being able to flip. He suggested the foam pit. I decided to brave the lines and give it a try.

I stood in line with 4-year-olds who just dove into the foam pit. It was mostly really little kids. There was a 6-7 year-old who looked a little lost who was giving me weird looks. And there was a 12-year-old girl who seemed to be there with her toddler brother. They dove, I worked on my front tuck. I didn't have anyone to give me pointers on form, but I tried. And had a blast.  

I'm just a big kid at heart. Skyzone was super fun to visit. I'm glad I went. I'd go back again (especially with a  friend)—if only my car was working…..

Gymnastics at the age of 31

I took my first gymnastics class at the tender age of 31.

I've wanted to be a gymnast since the first time I saw gymnastics on TV. Shannon Miller, Dominic Dawes, Dominic Moceanue. I grew up wanting to be just like them. To flip. To fly through the air.

And since I saw gymnastics on TV, I've been asking my parents to take gymnastics. I begged then. I'm flexible. I can put my feet on my head, do a split! I'd be so good at that, I insisted. My father said there was no place near our house to take gymnastics. I told him my friend was ranked first in the state on floor and she took gymnastics in the next city. Then he said gymnastics was too expensive.

And it was. And I'm sure my parents didn't want to schlep me 45-minutes one way to take gymnastics, pay for leotards. And then have my siblings all want to try different sports.

So I took measures in my own hands. And tried to learn handsprings on my own. In my hard, rocky yard.

My best attempt was a round-off with a twist. I didn't know what I was doing. This was before the days of YouTube. Had I had Youtube I probably would have broken my neck, arm or both.

For years, I tried to flip. I landed in the springs of the trampoline we finally got. My sister could flip. I still couldn't. I watched in high school as the cheerleaders learned to flip. I still couldn't. And for a while, with college and silly distractions like a career and pets, I forgot.

When I turned 30 I caught the workout bug. I started going to the trampoline gym every day. I watched everyone else flip and remembered how much I wanted to flip. I should be able to do that, I thought. Only, I tried for months and months. I could rotate—and then land on my back. I put my hands down. I couldn't get my feet over my head. I watched new people get a flip in two visits. After much frustration, I decided to try a real gymnastics gym. One with mats and trampolines and pads and pads and pads.

My husband thought it was the worst idea ever. Gymnastics at the public rec center. Of course I went.

The class was $10. I figured I could try and see if I liked it. What's the worst that could happen? (A: A group of cliquish high school cheerleaders smacking bubblegum and all doing back tucks perfectly.)

But actually, the class that night was six women—all around my age, of varying abilities: A yoga instructor with amazing arms. She was working on her front tuck (and nailing it.) An aerialist who was working on her back tuck with two spotters. There was a science researcher working on her back walkover.

But before all of that, there was the warmup. Laps around the mat. (I could do this!) There were handstands (I only crashed to my back once) and forward rolls and backwards rolls (and a mat because I couldn't do them.) Then, there was another mat when I couldn't do a bad-hand cartwheel. (I can do an awesome one-handed cartwheel.)

Mostly, I kept up with the class. I didn't crash and burn. I did almost miss the mat on a front tuck attempt. I over rotated and went flying around the room a little. And yes, everyone saw it. I should have done a big gymnastics smile with my arms to the sky. But alas. I didn't. My worst critique was "that's how you break arms."  Apparently I tuck my arms under me fetal style when tucking when my arms should go to the side.

I tried a handstand fall and ended up doing a front layout (landing on my back on some pads). The point was landing on my hands, so of course I just rotated around and never touched. That pretty much summed up my night. I wasn't clearly the worst. I was in the thick of it. Mostly, I wasn't that weird uncoordinated new kid. Someone even called my flexible. (And then a few minutes later the instructor told me to work on my shoulder flexibility as my shoulders aren't over my hands in my bridge.) But maybe they'll think of me as the new girl—who could climb the rope and do a front layout on her first visit. (They don't need to know I was working on my tuck.)

All in all I survived. I don't even think I have any new bruises.

I would have liked to flip but it was fun to play on the equipment. I'll probably go back, but I'm already worried about my arms.