Pooh Bear's assistants got a chance to watch practice again during the last two Sundays and are happy to report that the team is focused, injury-free, and having fun as they tumble and fly through the air with relative ease! Floor exercise routines have especially been a lot of fun to observe as new music and dance moves are being slowly incorporated by Dana and Sarah to reflect each gymnast's particular style. It is really cool to see how Sarah and Dana can punctuate a routine at a key moment by merely changing one particular step or arm movement the gymnast makes. They really have a knack for their craft!

Lexa is dancing to new music and wins the smile-a-mile award during practice for sure! She has added difficulty to her passes with a front 2 ½ twist and two layouts to a punch front. She is currently practicing a double pike and a double layout dismount off the bars. Whitney is working all-around and is showing powerful vault runs and appears to be poised to "shake up the line-up" on bars, beam and floor with the amount of difficulty she has brought with her to T-Town. Take for example her two release moves, a reverse Hecht (Tkhatchev) and a piked Jaeger on bars coupled with a double layout dismount; add a beam routine with a punch front mount and a double pike dismount; mix well with a floor routine highlighted by a double pike and a double tuck and...well, you get the picture. Mandy was consistently hitting her bars (two release moves) and beam routines and has her new floor passes down (2 ½ twist and a front double to a ½ tuck). Natalie was practicing a floor pass that none of us can recall seeing in collegiate gymnastics As best we can describe, it looks like a front 2 ½ twist to a pike punch front! We will check with Sarah for confirmation.

Lissy is working both a double tuck and a double pike on floor with new music and Alexa, Raegan and Andree all showed excellent dance skills along with powerful tumbling.

Look out for Dara on vault, bars and beam this year. She is showing a great deal of intensity, focus and determination on the beam, with good results. Her leaps are showing very good amplitude and her flight series is executed now with more confidence and finesse. Alexa has an incredible full-turn straddle leap while Robin is doing a three jump combination that looks nifty! Gina was showing her regional championship form on the beam despite an earlier breath-taking fall from the bars (and we do mean breath taking!) that caught her by surprise. Krista's ankle appeared much better as she worked the bars (practicing a tuck double front dismount) and beam with renewed confidence while Natalie, Andree and Raegan were consistently executing their punch front mounts onto the beam.

Gwen experienced a scary moment during a vault practice run when she appeared to slightly trip, apparently resulting in some swelling with one of her ankles. She iced and elevated it for approximately 25 minutes before moving on to work the bars. She was observed to be in fine spirits at the end during conditioning work on the treadmill, stairstep and air cycle machines as she called out encouragement to teammates.

The team will start finals on Monday, December 14th and will have voluntary practice time in the gym throughout the week before heading home for the holidays. Practice resumes on Monday, December 28th at 12:30 p.m. Merry Christmas to the team, coaches, and training staff! Excite Night is just around the corner!