There’s nothing like having a breakthrough. Last night’s was in tumbling.

Sometimes when you are learning new skills, your body just doesn’t get it until you start working with a new coach who explains everything in a different way and a lightbulb goes off inside your head and your body magically understands. As my new private coach Garry likes to put it, “It’s not rocket science, it’s biomechanics!” 

Garry gets mad at me when I change my technique and this happens when I over think my skills. I will perform my skill perfectly then I will go and do it again but it will be different and I change something with my body. I’ve been told a lot lately that I have a tendency to change my technique and I wasn’t sure why. This has been completely frustrating. One small mess up can lead to a torn ankle. So why do I change my technique? Because I over think my skills.

In athletics, the body works on muscle memory which is stored in the cerebellum. So, when I go to tumble and I start thinking too much my blood flow doesn’t go to my cerebellum with all my muscle memory. The blood starts flowing to the thinking part of my cerebral cortex. When that happens, my muscle memory becomes useless. A great video by Dr. Greg Wells on Divers at the London Olympics explains this here.

Now I just trust that my body is going to do exactly what I trained it to. So far this has lead to massive breakthroughs and a huge smile on my coach’s face. 2 private practices with Garry and I’m already confident in my skills and improving my technique.

Last week’s workouts were A LOT of cheer. I don’t hate it but I miss running. Although, now that we are officially on The Road to Worlds, it’s hard to get too upset about it.

9/8
Cheer: 4 hours of choreography

9/9
Cheer: 5.5 hours of choreography

9/10
Rest Day 

9/11
Cheer: Tumbling & Stretch

9/12
Rest Day

9/13
2 mile run 

9/14
Rest Day 

Miles: 2.5
Hours of Cheer: 11.5
Burpees: 66