Training tonight was awesome.

Training tonight was so awesome. It was a great session where I got lots of good quality work done. And I was feeling pretty good as well because I finally got that MASSIVE assignment finished. Blimey. Took me three weeks to do.
1st go was 20 s/s, ending with HO. Not generally something I can do well, or stand up, because after 19 somersaults you're just so darn dizzy. And normally I do all the somersaults tucked, because then you start applying the systematic principles of correct phasing - and it works.
Well, today I did it differently. A lot more straight somersaults; the first 12 were on the cross :D and it was all great. I had a bit of a floaty set up for skill 20, but still better (and not dizzy) than usual. Then skill 19 I did a b/s T...to seat drop!!! Goodness. It was so funny. I don't know what happened, other than I got tired :D

Next lot of goes were based on set work. I really was just jumping quite well today. I got my first 3 controlled; I did some FANTASTIC b/s T-crash dive, ballout 1/2s. The ballouts had heaps of height, they were up, tucked and kicked, and I have plenty of time to stand up properly at the end. Yay :D

I finished my 100 straight baranis today. I did 45 today. I really had learnt the right feeling, especially because 90-100 was when I was quite tired, and I just didn't lift up, not even rolling. They were just lazy saults. My legs were killing from all the work. But I could feel how 90-100 were typical of the rudis that I do. Not enough effort.

So I'm now onto barani 1/4 turns (full half/front cruise drills), undesignated amount (until they're great). Ooooooh, they're so annoyingly tough. The first one I did, I completely missed the end of the straight barani (spotting), and just did a full twist front. I did two goes of 10 each; at about no. 6 each time they would start to be perfect drills, perfectly twisted and spotted, with arms in the right spot every time. So I have to do plenty more of these, because they're not quite consistent enough. I don't mind spending lots of time working on this because I know how important it is that I have great rudis and that I'm driving the process.

After that I went and did my double pikes onto a mat in the pit. It's been a good idea to do this - although I can do them on the tramp, Belinda won't let me, and I was originally poo'y about the idea. However, now that I've done them onto a mat, I can clearly see her point. I was annoyed too, because training skills into the pit - there's only so far that you can go with them to improve, and then you need the contact and feedback of the trampoline. I'm game to do them: it's just I know the first 5 would be kind of icky.
Anyway, so my coach suggested I do them onto pit mats. I remember being terrified to do double tucks onto the mat (and I would balk at 1 1/4!). The first few on Monday just FLEW. Overrotated, rolled out, almost on the other end of the pit - into the wall. That's about 3m of flying. Now that's fantastically fine if you're a WAG tumbler, but not on a trampoline. I've stood a variety up.
I learnt two really important things though:
1) Belinda was talking to another teammate about doing triples, and the importance of really consistent technique, just phasing each section right. She said to imagine your arms go up, and hit a brick wall - they can't go back any further (Takeoff position in all somersaults is to 12 o'clock). Then it's your toes that lead the sault. That really stood out to me, because it'll remind me constantly to wait, stand up, and not overreach in my take off (especially for the dbl pikes).
2) The other thing was something I learnt in my prelim jumps. My dbls had been travelling a lot, and rolling out - because although I had a straight takeoff and my arms were up, my bum was back. And if you're bum is sticking out, you're going to over rotate. And fall backwards. I tried and tried to correct. Then when I was jumping, I thought - "If I'm jumping in a straight shape now - I need to feel this shape when I take off". And I applied that, and it fixed everything up straight away. My doubles didn't move more than a metre - perfect for pit tramp. So so so so much better. So now I'm going to practice that.
It makes a lot of sense to - sometimes you just need the 'click' moments and then everything works.

Also finally put a press and set to my arabians/arabian 1 +3s...need to make that skill consistant, because sometimes they fly too far. I'm still anxious about making sure I'm spotting everything correctly and completing the turn rather than getting enough somersault initiated.

Strength too - blimey, I was buggered all throughout training today (sore legs!). It was nice to be tired :D Strength was only a basic complex (4x10) but it was nice to be able to do something and not feel like I was completely dying. Arms killed, though.