Nice to see the thread has been resurrected! Here's a few from the past few meets:
From Livermore CA:
This meet everybody started on the “wrong” end of the beam. I prefer faces, but sometimes you have to make due.
From Visalia CA:
Finally after two years of beam routine-going-wrong (falling), Hannah made a complete routine (no falling) at a competition! I was so happy for her and I didn’t care what score she got….just so happy she finally kicked the monkey off her back! Come to find out she placed 2nd for the beam routine to boot!
We had a meet this past Sunday. It was fantastic, and my lucky little girl took 1st place in the all-around (she is a level 4, this is the first time she's taken 1st place).
We had a meet this past Sunday. It was fantastic, and my lucky little girl took 1st place in the all-around (she is a level 4, this is the first time she's taken 1st place).
Congratulations! Level 4 seems o long ago! My daughter should be Level 6 in January.
Where are you located? I met 'austinado16' last season.
Your daughter doesn't use grips for the bars? Ouch....
Can you believe it? We actually purchased the only brand that the "new" head coach would allow, right after last season. Then we were told she (and other L5's) couldn't wear them because it was causing the girls "to lose their skills." Instead of allowing the girls to train with them this entire past year...which was what we'd been told would happen...the girls were told they couldn't wear the grips at all. When I asked what the heck was still going on, just a month ago, I received a tursely worded email from the "new" head coach telling me that she doesn't allow her (L7, 8, 9) girls to wear them either, because they cause more rips than they prevent. None of which is actually true, and all of her girls do in fact wear grips. The only ones still not being allowed to wear them are my daughter and her pal (in the above poster).
Needless to say, this and a dozen other major issues have wrecked what was once a good gym and we're leaving as soon as this season finishes. In fact, if it weren't for my daughter, we would have been gone a month ago. We've gone from being the team that won Zones last year, to watching the girls get last place as a team, and finish out in the 7th, 8th, 9th+ place overall, if not worse. This "new" head coach has just systematically destroyed the L5 and L6 teams. The gym's owner will do nothing to stop her.
Conversely, the boy's teams have absolutely no interaction with this new head coach and are as excellent as they've ever been, as are the ACRO and Cheer teams. Same with the L4 team which is 100% new girls this year. They just placed 2nd as a team at the Edge meet.
It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen, and we're taking our business elsewhere asap.
Can you believe it? We actually purchased the only brand that the "new" head coach would allow, right after last season. Then we were told she (and other L5's) couldn't wear them because it was causing the girls "to lose their skills." Instead of allowing the girls to train with them this entire past year...which was what we'd been told would happen...the girls were told they couldn't wear the grips at all. When I asked what the heck was still going on, just a month ago, I received a tursely worded email from the "new" head coach telling me that she doesn't allow her (L7, 8, 9) girls to wear them either, because they cause more rips than they prevent. None of which is actually true, and all of her girls do in fact wear grips. The only ones still not being allowed to wear them are my daughter and her pal (in the above poster).
Needless to say, this and a dozen other major issues have wrecked what was once a good gym and we're leaving as soon as this season finishes. In fact, if it weren't for my daughter, we would have been gone a month ago. We've gone from being the team that won Zones last year, to watching the girls get last place as a team, and finish out in the 7th, 8th, 9th+ place overall, if not worse. This "new" head coach has just systematically destroyed the L5 and L6 teams. The gym's owner will do nothing to stop her.
Conversely, the boy's teams have absolutely no interaction with this new head coach and are as excellent as they've ever been, as are the ACRO and Cheer teams. Same with the L4 team which is 100% new girls this year. They just placed 2nd as a team at the Edge meet.
It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen, and we're taking our business elsewhere asap.
That's insane. I don't think our coach allows level 4 to use them, but they're allowed past level 4. Sorry for your daughter, but hopefully you can find a better gym....soon.
We seem to be hitting all the same meets this season. We just did the Edge Gymnastics meet as well.. What are your meets the rest of the seasons? We have a home meet at Technique (Discotech) followed by Halloween Jamboree in Oroville. Then nothing until Level 4 States at Technique in December.
We only have 4 more, 2 at our home gym (our annual meet in a week or 2), and then the Halloween meet in Clovis (maybe I'll see Hikin' Mike again?) and then Zones held at our gym. The state meet in Union City the weekend before Thanksgiving will be our last.
Looks like you were at Edge on Sunday morning for the L4's? Nice shots BTW.
We only have 3 more, 2 at our home gym (our annual meet in a week or 2, and then the Halloween meet in Clovis (maybe I'll see Hikin' Mike again?) and then Zones held at our gym. Then the state meet in Union City the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Looks like you were at Edge on Sunday morning for the L4's? Nice shots BTW.
Unfortunately we go on vacation for three weeks starting October 13. So we're done this Saturday. She qualified for Zones, but can't compete due to the vacation. :cry
Unfortunately we go on vacation for three weeks starting October 13. So we're done this Saturday. She qualified for Zones, but can't compete due to the vacation. :cry
, "Unfortunately we go on vacation for three weeks"
Tell you what, send me on a three week vacation, I'll cover for you, and you can got to the meets.
We just got back from Diablo Gymnastics in San Ramon, CA for the Sock Hop Invitational 2010. This was our first time at this event. Lighting was average…! The floor was out of the way and I didn’t feel like climbing stairs to take pictures, so I watched. The vault is usually out of the way, but in this gym, it was accessible….so I got some shots this time.
This is going to be our last meet for the year. We’re going on vacation in less than two weeks, so we’ll miss the rest of this year’s meets.
Hannah’s scores: Vault 8.350 (4T); Bars 8.525 (8); Beam 8.425 (6T); Floor 8.975 (1); AA 34.275 (4). She also got an award for ‘Good Sportsmanship’. Not sure who gave her the award, but it was nice!
Here are a few from the Clovis Academy Gymnastics Jack-O-Lantern Jamboree. This is a favorite every year because athletes, coaches, and judges all dress up in costume.
I put together "Little Red Riding Hood" costumes for the girls, including baskets filled with a bunch of snacks, halloween party favors (scary teeth, rubber spiders, etc) and treats, and I made "Wolf dressed as Grandma" costumes for the 2 coaches. It was all a surprise as we kept it pretty top secret, and just handed the girls and coaches their costumes on the morning of. The girls had a blast and our one good coach who chose to wear her wolf costume, won best costume.
Tried a different angle on the bars this year, and was happier with the results. I also played around with the F-stop on my 85mm and 50mm primes to see if more DOF might give me better results. I don't know if it'll show up here as I'm usually not happy with how my photos look once I've resized them to 800 pixels wide, uploaded to photobucket, and copied the IMG links here.....but, they look much better than last season and are printing out really nice. \
My daughter came off the high bar and I caught this shot as she succumbed to gravity.
Here's one of her best friend during Floor:
This past Friday evening we had a little in-house thing so I tried a new angle on the vault. I wound up giving the girls 8x10's of these today:
Well, our season is officially over. We left our gym of nearly 6 years, the morning after the Zones meet. Immediately joined the other gym in town and had 10 days to prepare for the State Meet.
Our daughter wound up having a great time at State, and in 10 days of regular training in the new gym, with real coaches, she improved her All Around score by more than 1 point, bested 3 of her 4 season best scores, took 2nd on Beam, and her score helped her new team earn 9th out of 47 teams. She's been nothing but smiles since the day we transfered over to the new gym, and I feel like we cut out a cancer from our lives.
Here are a few shots from State, and a team poster I just finished. I don't know what my major malfunction was on floor, but I was OOF on most of the shots....and I wasn't much better on Vault, even using my tried and true "focus on the end of the vault table and then take thumb off the button" technique.
1
Todd, nice job on the poster. Even the State images are so much better than last year's. Sorry to hear about the technical difficulty on floor and vault. Were you able to verify if it was operator or equipment error? That has happened to me more than once, and it was operator's error.
Congrats on joining the new gym. Gymnastics is really an individual sport and a whole lot of hard work, but being part of a good team makes it so much more enjoyable.
My kids are no longer in gymnastics but doing dance now. Luckily, college gymnastics season starts next month. I'll enjoy watching the UCLA championship team compete and get my trigger finger back in action.
Cuong
"She Was a Little Taste of Heaven – And a One-Way Ticket to Hell!" - Max Phillips
Cuong, I was using my 28-70/2.8 on floor and there's something going on with the USM in it, and that makes the focusing slooooow. I need to send it in, and now that season is over, I can. But also, operator error. Sometimes in the heat of the action I'll forget to keep using my thumb to focus. So that's probably what happend on floor.
Vault is another story. I think I set the focus point on the table, and then hit the thumb button without thinking about it because many of the shots have the wall signs in focus. Not the first time I've grabbed a wall with the focus. Bummed me out though because I was using one of my primes, so the Vault should have looked like Bars and Beam.
Yeah......gymnastics. We had a strong tight team last year and the girls loved each other. That was all destroyed this year by a core of those girls moving to L6 where they did terrible, languishing under the half-a$$'d coaching of the newly hired "head coach." and then those that remained in L5 or who moved up from L4 to L5 were destroyed through a combination of bad coaching and then the head coach picking out certain girls to be her special pets.
We went from winning Zones last year to not even placing this year. Tough to watch talented girls waste a year of their lives in the hands of a head coach who doesn't know what she's doing and spends 99% of her time texting on her cell during practice, and a team coach who literally doesn't even know what she should be teaching. All while the gym's owner is running around repeating the mantra, "We know what we're doing. You need to trust me. We don't want the girls to peak too soon. It'll all work out."
Congratulations to your daughter. She looks great in the pics above. Gotta love gyms where there is a wood floor - reflects some very warm light helping the skin tones look like skin vs. chalk. Even being soft, your floor pic is nice, showing her defined leg muscles.
My daughter (level 4) has her state meet this Sunday. It's at the University of Denver, which historically has had great lighting but I've heard they switched out the lights for some reason and I've been told to be ready to be disappointed. I just upgraded my body to the new Nikon D7000 and matched with a 70-200 f/2.8, with a 50mm 1.8 prime for when I'm too close. I'm still building the lens set for gymnastics, but I hope to get some good shots this weekend. Was at the gym last night and will go back tonight to practice with the new camera - being a rookie this new camera has a lot of buttons and settings that I've never had to (or been able to) use before - and I like it! I'll post some practice pics later.
Anyway - congrats on a great season. Even having to move gyms, sounds like your daughter felt the success of a good year.
Thanks for the kind words. It's been fantastic to see her truely enjoying "her" sport again. To me, that's what it's all about. 3 of her old teammates from L4/L5 had already moved to the new gym. Another 4 have joined since! On top of that, the coach who helped her be a State Champion in L4 is the coach. So we have almost put the entire original team back together, and I'm looking forward to see what they'll do.
Last Friday I built a holiday parade float honoring the team and their success this past season. It was a lot of fun and the girls were beaming.
Looks good Todd! My daughter qualified at Zones, but due to our vacation, she couldn't compete so no State meet for her. We have a meet in Las Vegas in January. My daughter is thinking about quitting after that meet. I hope she continues, but I can't force her to continue if she's tired of it.
Comments
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
CC welcome, as always.
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
From Livermore CA:
This meet everybody started on the “wrong” end of the beam. I prefer faces, but sometimes you have to make due.
From Visalia CA:
Finally after two years of beam routine-going-wrong (falling), Hannah made a complete routine (no falling) at a competition! I was so happy for her and I didn’t care what score she got….just so happy she finally kicked the monkey off her back! Come to find out she placed 2nd for the beam routine to boot!
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We had a meet this past Sunday. It was fantastic, and my lucky little girl took 1st place in the all-around (she is a level 4, this is the first time she's taken 1st place).
Congratulations! Level 4 seems o long ago! My daughter should be Level 6 in January.
Where are you located? I met 'austinado16' last season.
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We were in Dublin this past Saturday, at "Edge." It was another beat down for Levels 5 and 6 as we "bask" in the light of our "new" head coach.
Here's a few of my gal....
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
Your daughter doesn't use grips for the bars? Ouch....
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Needless to say, this and a dozen other major issues have wrecked what was once a good gym and we're leaving as soon as this season finishes. In fact, if it weren't for my daughter, we would have been gone a month ago. We've gone from being the team that won Zones last year, to watching the girls get last place as a team, and finish out in the 7th, 8th, 9th+ place overall, if not worse. This "new" head coach has just systematically destroyed the L5 and L6 teams. The gym's owner will do nothing to stop her.
Conversely, the boy's teams have absolutely no interaction with this new head coach and are as excellent as they've ever been, as are the ACRO and Cheer teams. Same with the L4 team which is 100% new girls this year. They just placed 2nd as a team at the Edge meet.
It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen, and we're taking our business elsewhere asap.
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
That's insane. I don't think our coach allows level 4 to use them, but they're allowed past level 4. Sorry for your daughter, but hopefully you can find a better gym....soon.
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Looks like you were at Edge on Sunday morning for the L4's? Nice shots BTW.
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
Unfortunately we go on vacation for three weeks starting October 13. So we're done this Saturday. She qualified for Zones, but can't compete due to the vacation. :cry
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Tell you what, send me on a three week vacation, I'll cover for you, and you can got to the meets.
Keith Tharp.com - Champion Photo
We just got back from Diablo Gymnastics in San Ramon, CA for the Sock Hop Invitational 2010. This was our first time at this event. Lighting was average…
This is going to be our last meet for the year. We’re going on vacation in less than two weeks, so we’ll miss the rest of this year’s meets.
Hannah’s scores: Vault 8.350 (4T); Bars 8.525 (8); Beam 8.425 (6T); Floor 8.975 (1); AA 34.275 (4). She also got an award for ‘Good Sportsmanship’. Not sure who gave her the award, but it was nice!
First Place on the Floor Routine!
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Congrates to Hannah for 4 solid scores and a special award. Way to go!
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
I'm still using my 70-200mm f/4L lens (beam, vault, awards). I used my 50mm f/1.8 for the bars since I was 15 feet away.
I even used my 300mm for the Walk-in, but I didn't post them. I think I used everything except my 17-40 this time...
Thanks!
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We just had our last meet of the season with States not until December. Here's a video I made to get the girls ready for States:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rev8bxMkkM&hd=1
Cuong
Here are a few from the Clovis Academy Gymnastics Jack-O-Lantern Jamboree. This is a favorite every year because athletes, coaches, and judges all dress up in costume.
I put together "Little Red Riding Hood" costumes for the girls, including baskets filled with a bunch of snacks, halloween party favors (scary teeth, rubber spiders, etc) and treats, and I made "Wolf dressed as Grandma" costumes for the 2 coaches. It was all a surprise as we kept it pretty top secret, and just handed the girls and coaches their costumes on the morning of. The girls had a blast and our one good coach who chose to wear her wolf costume, won best costume.
Tried a different angle on the bars this year, and was happier with the results. I also played around with the F-stop on my 85mm and 50mm primes to see if more DOF might give me better results. I don't know if it'll show up here as I'm usually not happy with how my photos look once I've resized them to 800 pixels wide, uploaded to photobucket, and copied the IMG links here.....but, they look much better than last season and are printing out really nice.
My daughter came off the high bar and I caught this shot as she succumbed to gravity.
Here's one of her best friend during Floor:
This past Friday evening we had a little in-house thing so I tried a new angle on the vault. I wound up giving the girls 8x10's of these today:
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
Our daughter wound up having a great time at State, and in 10 days of regular training in the new gym, with real coaches, she improved her All Around score by more than 1 point, bested 3 of her 4 season best scores, took 2nd on Beam, and her score helped her new team earn 9th out of 47 teams. She's been nothing but smiles since the day we transfered over to the new gym, and I feel like we cut out a cancer from our lives.
Here are a few shots from State, and a team poster I just finished. I don't know what my major malfunction was on floor, but I was OOF on most of the shots....and I wasn't much better on Vault, even using my tried and true "focus on the end of the vault table and then take thumb off the button" technique.
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3
4
5
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
Congrats on joining the new gym. Gymnastics is really an individual sport and a whole lot of hard work, but being part of a good team makes it so much more enjoyable.
My kids are no longer in gymnastics but doing dance now. Luckily, college gymnastics season starts next month. I'll enjoy watching the UCLA championship team compete and get my trigger finger back in action.
Cuong
Vault is another story. I think I set the focus point on the table, and then hit the thumb button without thinking about it because many of the shots have the wall signs in focus. Not the first time I've grabbed a wall with the focus. Bummed me out though because I was using one of my primes, so the Vault should have looked like Bars and Beam.
Yeah......gymnastics. We had a strong tight team last year and the girls loved each other. That was all destroyed this year by a core of those girls moving to L6 where they did terrible, languishing under the half-a$$'d coaching of the newly hired "head coach." and then those that remained in L5 or who moved up from L4 to L5 were destroyed through a combination of bad coaching and then the head coach picking out certain girls to be her special pets.
We went from winning Zones last year to not even placing this year. Tough to watch talented girls waste a year of their lives in the hands of a head coach who doesn't know what she's doing and spends 99% of her time texting on her cell during practice, and a team coach who literally doesn't even know what she should be teaching. All while the gym's owner is running around repeating the mantra, "We know what we're doing. You need to trust me. We don't want the girls to peak too soon. It'll all work out."
But I'm not bitter!
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
My daughter (level 4) has her state meet this Sunday. It's at the University of Denver, which historically has had great lighting but I've heard they switched out the lights for some reason and I've been told to be ready to be disappointed. I just upgraded my body to the new Nikon D7000 and matched with a 70-200 f/2.8, with a 50mm 1.8 prime for when I'm too close. I'm still building the lens set for gymnastics, but I hope to get some good shots this weekend. Was at the gym last night and will go back tonight to practice with the new camera - being a rookie this new camera has a lot of buttons and settings that I've never had to (or been able to) use before - and I like it! I'll post some practice pics later.
Anyway - congrats on a great season. Even having to move gyms, sounds like your daughter felt the success of a good year.
Last Friday I built a holiday parade float honoring the team and their success this past season. It was a lot of fun and the girls were beaming.
Here's a little movie of it....
Canon 7D... Canon 70-200/2.8L IS... Canon 28-70/2.8L... Canon 135/f2L... Canon 85/1.8... Canon 50/1.4... Canon 28/1.8
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