LILLY SQUAD NOTES

JANUARY 15

Jessica and Eva, I'm so excited about the two of you being selected to compete in Texas this weekend. I won't be travelling with the team, but I know that Lois, Nick, and Dan will take good care of you! If you need some good old Soyon-lovin', just give me a call!
Jess: you're ready, girl! Last week you showed us you can compete with anyone at Topo, and now it's time to let the whole country in on the awesomeness that is our very own Miss Atler!
Eva: you're ready, too. You've done an awesome job since the intersquad. I can see it really fired you up; everything is looking crisper and cleaner.
I absolutely cannot wait to read the meet reports! The world is going to be drooling over Atler and Volatil (and maybe one or two other Topo girls as well!)

For the rest of you, training will continue as usual. Since Nick and Dan are travelling to Texas to help Lois, we're getting girls from Tiger Squad, Crystal Star and Kelly Phillips, to train with for a few days. Let's show them what an awesome squad we have!

Also, to the five of you who aren't going to Texas: don't be too worried about it! We five coaches sat up late into the night stressing over who to send. Understandably, TFG doesn't want us sending twenty athletes; it is after all, their invitational. We really wanted to keep it to twelve athletes. Thing is, so many of you have been going all out these past few days that it was almost impossible to choose who to send! Don't let this get you down; let it be motivation to be even better prepared for the next invitational, which is coming up very soon! If you're feeling blue, come see me and we can talk about it.

Hugs,
Soyon

JANUARY 11

Jess, Marina, Dominique, Vada, Eva, Jenna, and Madison:
WELCOME TO THE LILLY SQUAD!!

I am so excited about working with all of you! I know that I've already worked with everyone some on beam and floor, but now I get the seven of you ALL to MYSELF!!...Well, for a few hours a day at least :)
Anyhow, I hope you're all as excited about Lilly as I am! We are one of the two squads lucky enough to nab seven gymnasts rather than six which will give us an advantage when we go up against the other squads. It also means that we better capable of spreading LIILY cheer throughout the gym and putting the three "other" squads to shame!

Okay, so maybe I'm getting a little bit carried away :?)
Seriously, though, ladies, as you've probably noticed, I am a firm believer in the power of a positive training environment. Topopolilly is a fabulous gym with lots of talent, and things could get very competitive around here. If we aren't careful, we're going to end up with a situation where everyone is competing for herself and only herself, seeing even her closest friends as competition. If we want to avoid that, we're going to have to work at it! Let's train ourselves to support one another. Even if you secretly wish the girl next to you would fall, make yourself cheer her on, give her a hug, tell her she did a great job if she did. I think you'll find that it's fun to pull for other people and have others pulling for you. In twenty years when your gymnastics career is over, you'll remember those moments when you stuck a dismount and your teammates erupted in cheers behind you. That's an awesome feeling I want every one of you to have the opportunity to experience!

Okay, I know I've been rambling too long! One last thing: If any of you ever need anything at all, with gym or with school or your family or some guy, or even if you just want to say hey and make me feel loved, come see me! Call me up or come to my office or hike on over to the house if you want. I'd love to hear from you.

Much Love,
Coach Soyon Klacie

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Individual Notes, regarding the intersquad and general workouts:

Eva, you're doing a great job! You've improved so much in just over a week, I think you're well on your way to returning to your competitive form.
I'm loving your Tsuk double back vault! That's going to get some big scores (and it'll get even more bigger scores when you keep your legs together during the half on)! Dan wants to start focusing more on your layout Cuervo, so I'll let him work that up and we'll keep the Tsuk in top shape. I feel like you're getting more power every day as you regain your strength and endurance.
Bars is coming along. I'm not great with all the technicalities behind your bigger release skills, so I'll let you and Nick figure all that out. What I would love to see from you on this event is even more polish. I know that right now you're just trying to get the routine flowing, but I can see bars becoming a really fabulous event for you. You have beautiful lines and a great sense of swing. Your extension and form is already very good, but I think you can actually stretch it out just a little bit more and really make the routine sparkle. Think Chinese!!
On beam, we still have lots of work to do, but it's coming along! I feel the same about this event as I do your bars. You are a fabulous beam worker, one of the best I've worked with. I would just love to see you take it to the next level, of perfection. Some of the skills in your routines, like your Yang bo and your leaps, that you do well, and you'll absolutely get full credit for, but that could be just a little more...perfect, I guess. Something that fans want to watch again and again because it's so beautiful. As you work on relearning your skills and getting them consistent, I want to work with you on learning to do them with perfect toes, perfect legs, hands, relaxed arms and shoulders, huge height...the whole works! I think you're up for the challenge.
Floor. First of all, we need to get the tumbling down. I know you're slacking off on your dance because you're thinking about not killing yourself, and I suppose this is reasonable. I think it might be a good idea to train your tumbling and dance separately for a while. I don't want you to get in the habit of slacking through your dance. As for tumbling, be sure to watch your form in the air. I want to see knees together and toes pointed!
Overall, Eva, I'm looking forward to working with you! It looks like you'll be one of the leaders not only for Lilly squad, but for the gym as a whole. I love your energy and enthusiasm, and I hope it's contagious!

Domi, everything seems to be coming along very well! You're one of the youngest gymnasts here, so I'll be focusing on some different things with you. You're already throwing some very difficult tricks, and Coach Lois wants to make sure that you (along with some of the other newer and younger gymnasts) are doing everything with proper technique. Try not to get frustrated with me or with the other coaches as we work with you and help you fix things that could turn into problems later.
I'm really excited about working with you, Dom! You've got a lot of talent and potential. You have a very real passion for this sport, and I hope you don't let go of that! It's got to be hard for you to be away from home; don't you hesitate to come see me if you need anything, sweetie!