Childhood Obesity Abuse

So last week a coach at my gym and I were talking about the problem of childhood obesity. Then this week I read a story about a two hundred pound plus, third grader who was taken from his mother and placed into foster care. Funny how that works, but not funny about how people can allow their children to get this way. I have no problem with how the authorities handled this case. In the article it says they worked with the family for 20 months to try and get the child's weight under control. I know that there are kids that are going to bigger and even some that will have medical conditions that caused them to get that way. But from what I see that is not the norm it is the exception.
There is a doctor in the article that blames society for kids being fat, and I guess you could say that but that is the easy way out. Kind of like saying being an addict isn't your fault, yes it is. Parents are in charge of what their children to, what they learn, what they eat, everything. And blaming McDonalds for your child being so obese that they are almost certain to become diabetic, have high blood pressure, and hundreds of other health issues, is also a cop out. I'm not blaming McDonalds, they don't make you eat their burgers or fries. That parent decided to give their child unhealthy food. Now if you had a parent that decided to not feed their child everyone would be all over that as abuse, but too much food?
It's all about people taking responsibility and not passing it off on others. No person ever has to look like and A&B model, but an eight year old that weighs as much a six foot tall grown man isn't right. And any person that is fit to be a parent should be able to see that. That same person should be able to also learn about how to not stay on the same path and help their child get back to a healthy weight. I think the only way to really start to make people learn how to be healthy is to make more immediate consequences, like the possibility of losing ones children if said child was morbidly obese. Obviously the threat of life long health problems isn't doing it for most people.
I hope this lady gets hit with some serious legal problems. People around the country really need to keep an eye on this one too, because unless people start to pay attention to their own children's health and weight they may lose them.

Not cool, funny, or healthy.

Success is contagious

This is something that took me a few years to learn as a coach. There is a hierarchy to competitions in gymnastics. Many times it is said that anyone that competes earlier in a session, or in an even final, or even on your team, they would get a lower score. This was because judges were said to be "holding" the big scores in case someone better came up later on. To help battle this trend coaches would normally put up the worst athlete on a team first. This is a tough spot to be in. I was normally a first up athlete in college until I was a senior. My routines were never the hardest, but I would always hit. I took pride in my coaches putting me up first. I didn't look at it as they thought I was the worst, I just told myself I was setting the tone for the rest of my team. Unfortunately that didn't always go as plan as my teammates weren't always able to keep their end of the job. But that is team sport, you can't do it on your own and you need everyone to do their job.

Then my last year things started to get rough. We were in the hunt for an undefeated season, ranked first in the country as a team and very high on just about every event. Some of our best events was pommel horse. This event is one of the most mental events there is. If you are off just a little bit there really isn't much you can do to save it. And we were missing a lot of routines. If we hit we would be unstoppable, and we were lucky early in the year that we won without all our hits. But late in the season we were coming up against some tough competition and something had to change. Our coach Yoshi Hayasaki decided that we were going to reverse the order of the athletes and put our best guy first. Boy was he pissed! But it worked, the first meet we made the change was also the first meet we hit all our big score guys. And the scores were at or very close to where they were supposed to be. Right then I should have taken note of what I was seeing. At the time I was coaching optional level gymnastics, but I was just not able to put the two together.
Later I started to mess with putting an athlete here or there up first that I knew was going to hit. But then I would go right back to putting my weakest athlete up. I guess I thought I was "hiding" my weak kids in between stronger ones. It never worked though. Then last year it finally hit me, I was going to make my lineup from my best hitter to my worst hitter. The kids, who I am sure had figured out how we were making lineups before, were a bit confused at what was happening. But our hit percentage started to shoot up. And in my opinion that is the most important thing for my kids. It is what I and they have control over. I can't control judges and their inability to see skills and connections correctly. So I don't even pay attention to it. The only meets I watch scores are state, regionals, and nationals. Other than that it doesn't matter to me. This is when our season really started to take off. For the last three or four meets of the year we had so few misses I really only remember two. That is somewhere around fifty routines with two misses. That is HUGE! And all because one kid hit their routine, and then the next kid hit theirs, and so on and so on.

Already this year I am seeing it again, more and more. We play little games with the girls to get them ready to compete. We try to put as much pressure on them as we can to simulate competition. And even in the gym I am seeing kids starting to hit one after another.

It is amazing how success, and even failure, seam to be contagious. Just like the cold or flu. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. It takes a tough kid to get the team off on the right foot, but it takes an even tougher kid to get you back on track once you fall off. This will be my game plan this year, and I am hoping    that the worst part is trying to figure out who is better at hitting their set.

There is a video of my alma mater's gymnastics team. These guys make my college team look like juniors.

Competition and Focus

Competition focuses goals and doubles efforts to achieve those goals. I am not unlike others who over state their position at any one time. I like to think I am better than I may actually be sometimes. Competition helps me to open my eyes to where I actually am.

I say this because this last weekend was my team intra-squad. And things went really about as good as they probably should have. But that doesn't mean I was happy about it. I need to win, and not just for myself. I need to win for these kids. They have a lot of time, effort, and money on the line. They are all working very hard to make their way to college teams. If they have anything less than a great year, it could be tough for this to happen.

For the most part the girls did great. Most events I feel like we are ahead of schedule and things are looking good. My toughest event is bars and we have been working very hard to increase the difficulty level of the girls. It is happening but it is slow going, and it makes it tougher to be consistant, and to get everything done every day. Another issue I am having to work with is a large team. I have never had so many high level gymnasts all at the same level and at the same point in their training. It is a good problem to have, I just have to get better at keeping the kids moving.

Our first real meet of the year is in Bloomington, IL at the Horton Invite. The last few years we have gone to the Justin Spring Invite. It was a very good meet, in a great building, and we had a lot of fun. We just could not find enough competition for our athletes. We won just about everything, and while that is nice it wasn't because we were dominant. It was more because we were the Goliath in the room. I don't like to be in that situation. I have always wanted to be on fair terms with my competition, and didn't like teams that would go to small meets to beat up on the little teams. We were now that team and I wasn't okay with that. I remember the Horton Invite from my days in Champaign. It always seemed that there was some good competition there. I guess we can always try elsewhere next year if we don't find it in Bloomington.

This weekend was also the first meeting of Quantum Mesa Cycles. Most of the team was able to make it and we had a great time. I ordered a bunch of pizzas, people brought their own beer, and I tried to get though the drudgery of rules and policy as fast as I could so we could have some fun. After we all kind of got into talking to each other, sometimes in smaller groups, other times as a whole. People were also trying on fit kit items. It was funny seeing guys and gals trying on items as small as they could fit into. Some guys liked it a little more than others I think. A few of us ended up staying pretty late, 10pm I think. After a few guys from the west part of the state stayed at my place for the night. In the AM we had a 60 mile ride in the St Charles, O'Fallon area of the STL. The weather sucked, and it was cold, but I think we had a great time.

I am too excited about next season. The thought of it has been a huge carrot at the end of the stick for me while I lift weights, or push though a few hours of tempo riding. My only worry is that I do too much too soon. It is sort of funny how often that comes up in cycling. Almost like people tell you that so they feel better about not training, I don't know. I do know that if I am ever going to catch up with someone faster than I am, I better be going twice as fast or twice as long, or I will never catch them. That was something I learned in gymnastics and it served me well then.

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the start of the competitive year for my girl's gymnastics team. It is a pretty big deal for our lower level athletes, especially our level 7 girls. It will be the first time they do their new optional floor routines with their own music and their own beam routines. Bars ends up being pretty compulsory still as well as vault. The reason we do it is to get the cob webs cleared out for the girls and how to compete. We bring in a couple of judges which makes it feel more like a real meet and a big group of parents come in to watch.

For the girls I work with (level 9 and 10) this is really just a reminder of what competing is like. These kids are some of the most worried about tomorrow. As they came up through the ranks of the team they had always had an easy time of competing at their highest ability. Now at this level though, that doesn't happen. Getting used to this is tough. It has been a struggle to get my girls to understand that it takes time to peak and the time to do that is almost 6 months from now. My assistant coach and I have been trying to tell these girls that we just expect them to try hard and be good roll models for the younger kids. We know what is going to happen tomorrow. It is going to be a tough day for our highest level kids. It is funny that I feel like our kids are looking better than ever but we are still not ready to kill it this weekend. I guess if we were, I might be a little concerned. One of my athletes is going to do her last year's bar routine this weekend. Her new routine isn't quite ready and I want her to have something to do. So when I told her, she thought about it and said she couldn't believe how easy that routine was, and how last year she thought it was supper hard. It's fun to be there when the girls have thoughts like that and I hope that she starts to look at other skills like she saw her old routine.

Tomorrow is also a big meeting for Quantum Mesa Cycles. The team has grown a lot since we first formed it a couple months ago but we are still within our goal of being a small elite team. When we agreed to basically become the Mesa Cycles team we said that we would invite most of the old Mesa team. That is how most of our growth has come over the last few weeks. The best part about it though is that we picked up all people filling categories, age groups, or disciplines that we did not have people in.

Everyone is really excited about the meeting though and we are planning to do an easy training ride on Sunday morning. Not everyone will be at either get together, but most people will. And when you are working with so many people, it is hard to expect perfection. I'm excited to see everyone, and meet the new members.

This is going to be a great year for both my gym, and my race team. Pretty cool that both are kicking off tomorrow.

Could this be the year for Illini Gymnastics?

I had the chance this weekend to watch a couple hours of the Illinois Men's Gymnastics team Wow was it amazing. I always forget how much a difference it is between JO and NCAA gymnastics. NCAA gymnastics can also be looked at as international level gymnastics. Two of Illinois best athletes right now are on the US national team. One just came back from world championships. I don't know that there is a single guy on that team now that wouldn't mop the floor with the best of the best from 10 years ago. It is amazing how these athletes just continue to get better and better. Skills are learned in half the time, the men seem to be getting bigger as well. At 5'8" I was one of the tallest on my team in 2005, now I would be average at best. I don't know why they are getting taller, generally the smaller guys do better. But these dudes look like football players.

The practice I saw guys were putting together what looks like about a third of their routines. Some guys were doing full sets already but they were not polished. This is early in the year to be looking this good, but better to be ready and back off than just trying to catch up. My old teammate and friend Justin Spring now leads the team as it's head coach. The University did a brilliant job when they decided to go with Justin. He was an amazing athlete and lead our team as our top gymnast and even a team captain. For a guy who had all he needed to be great on his own, Justin was the guy always looking out for his team. He impressed me over and over with his selfless attitude. Justin could have floated through his college career training when he wanted, competing all around to make his scores look better for his chances internationally.But he gave up those chances so that our teams score would be even better. Now he is not only in charge of the competitive future of this great team, but also it's traditions, which he takes very seriously.

For a few years the Illini have been making it a tradition of coming so close to winning a national championships. While I was there twice we came in to the NCAA championships ranked number 1. Both times we won the first day of competition, but when it all came down to it, we couldn't finish. Since 2004 that has been a recurring theme. Almost every year the Illini has been highly ranked and every year we just barely miss out on the big prize. Justin is getting close though, he wants it so badly. Everyday he sets himself to the single goal of bringing the championship back to Champaign. It is amazing the talent that he has brought together with the little money that men's gymnastics gets. He has a way of getting people to buy into an idea, or a dream. And you want nothing more than to be part of whatever it is that he is "selling". But he isn't pitching you, he just wants you to share in the excitement and see what he can see. I know that Justin will bring the Illini a gymnastics championship, he will most likely do it multiple times. It would be great though if this year was the year.

Champaign Bound

Going up to Champaign this weekend to see some old friends and take some time off of training. A lot of my old teammates from school will be there and it is Illini vs Michigan this weekend. Illinois fans like to think that his is some big rivalry but really Michigan generally just kicks our ass. Funny how we see it as a rivalry but you never read about Michigan thinking that. They look more at Ohio as their big rival match up each year.

I am going to lay off the weights this weekend also. One reason is because I will not be near a gym that I belong to, and another reason is I am really tired and sore. This week was supposed to be an easier week in my workout schedule but for some reason I feel just as sore or tired. Next week is some really tough lifting and I want to be able to really go at it hard. I have been off the bike a lot too and that is not feeling too good. Really missing it. I don't feel like I am losing any of my endurance or power, just miss whatever endorphin shot my body gives me from riding my bike long and hard. The weather has also not been very helpful in the bike department either. It is getting really cold and I just have not been able to get excited about riding the trainer for hours. Last year I could put in some long rides, 3-4 hours, on the trainer but I dread it this year.

So we are leaving for our old stopping ground soon. I better get moving or Katie is going to kill me. I am pumped to see my old friends. Really wish we all lived closer together but that is life right?

I'm out!

Haters are always gonna hate

So there is this blog that I read all the time. It is by a guy named Steve Tilford. I don't know how I found his blog but I read it just about every day and get pretty bummed when he doesn't write. I have never really met Steve either, I guess I am just a creepy internet stalker, fan, dork, or whatever. I have been to a few races that he has done and seen him race a few times. I have seen his dog Bromont a few times and am just as big a fan of him as I am of Steve's. I don't even know why I am a fan of Steve's really. I really like his writing I guess, and reading about the life that he lives. He travels around a lot and races. He visits a lot of great people and stays in some in some amazing locations. I also like to read about his views on the world of cycling. He has been around for a long time and I like to learn as much as I can about sports I am obsessed with. My only critique about Steve is he can read a little negative about his own racing, even when he wins. I don't know why he feels bad about how he does but I have noticed he seems to be trying to be a little more positive.

So Steve wrote these two (pt 1, 2) posts about domestiques, racing in the USA and in Europe. I didn't have a problem with what he said about the subject but there were some people that were not happy about it at all. There were some that even attacked Steve and his racing because of what he thought. His view on the subject is that too many people are giving up their chances at success to do thankless work for others. He worries that people that were attracted to the sport for it's independent attributes, are being asked to do something not suited to their talents. He is very harsh on large Pro Continental teams in the US that use very Euro styles of racing in the US to try and win races. I have never been in nor seen a race unfold like he talks about, but I think if they are happening like he says then yeah it would suck. Pretty much he says that these super teams ride so fast at the front that no one else in the peleton has a chance. There are too many of them and not enough of everyone else. Lowering the number allowed riders from each team would really help that problem. He also talks about the length of races in the states and how we have nothing over a week. This is true and thinking about that today, it will be very hard to grow a race to over a week and gain ground on the TdF, Giro de Italia, and Vuelta. Those races have been around so long. They could grew from nothing into something, where as a 3 week long race in the states would need so much more start up money. I think the Tour of California has a great chance, the Tour of Utah, and the old Coors Classic could also get there as well.

For those not in the know, a domestique in cycling are guys that do all the hard work for the leader of the team for the whole race. Then at the end of the race the team leader jumps out and wins. It is kind of like linemen in football. Those guys work so hard but no one ever knows who they are, their paychecks are chump change compared to running backs, and quarter backs. But without the linemen the QB would be fucked. Well same in cycling. The problem is that in the US a lot of these guys never learn how to race by doing these jobs. By the time the race really starts these dudes are so tired from riding as fast as they can for four hours, the race is now up the road and they are limping to the line.For guys in my level of racing you don't generally see racing like that. It is hard to do a lot of planning in races, especially with out being able to use a radio to talk to other teammates. That is something different about my team, we are a group of guys that want to put in some domestique work for each other. Not because that is our goal in life, but because we know that the work we put in for a teammate we will get in return.

The thing I don't get though is why these guys get so mad about what Steve has to say. He is right that the only way to learn how to win is to try and win. Young guns that are working their way over to Europe need the experience of trying to win races to learn how to win. Riding on the front of a pack all day long wont do that. But riding on the front can also be a great feeling for some people who share in the joy of a team win. I think there is the best of both worlds. I think you need to learn to ride hard, race harder, and compete smart. To be a great competitor in just about all sports you need a cocktail of talents, abilities, and experience. Without all that you just might not have what it takes.

Someone to look up to

My gym had a very famous athlete come by tonight. Her name is Bridget Sloan, and she was the 2009 world champion. That was when she was only 16 years old! She graduated this last spring from high school and after next year's Olympics she will be starting school for the University of Florida Gators. The last few years have been really tough for this amazing athlete but she is determined to train hard and give the 2012 Olympics a serious go.

It was great to give the athletes at Gym Centre the opportunity to meet such a great athlete. Talking with some others during the event, people were talking about how great it would have been to have someone like that come into their gym at a young age. Maybe this visit lights the fire in the heart of one of our young athletes.

It was really cool to see these young kids eye's light up when they saw this girl that really is a very down home type person. I have met a good amount of elite women over the years and most are very shy. I don't know if it's because they are in the gym too much and don't socialize enough or what. Bridget though, was a great speaker. When we offered her a microphone she said she would be fine without. Her speech seemed like she knew what she was going to say, but it wasn't like she had a set speech. She was also great when it came to answering questions from our kids as well. They were very clear and she did a great job of keeping all her answers very positive and let the kids know that hard work could help with any problems they might have.

There were lots of great gymnasts and other athletes that I looked up to over the years. Ryan Sandburg, second base of the Chicago Cubs was the first. Then there was Michael Jordan, Ned Overend, Hans Rey, John Rothlisberger, Blane Wilson, Ivan Ivankov, and even now there are still athletes that I look to for inspiration. I don't look to them like I used to when I was a kid, but in some cases I get just as giddy as I used to.

I hope this kids enjoyed the experience. Sometimes I don't know, they can look unimpressed but inside they are going crazy. As long as one kid got a big kick out of it, it was worth it.

Time for bed, I hope it is nice tomorrow, I would like to get on my bike for a while. Been lifting weights a lot and I miss being out on the road.

Bridget talking to the kids. They filled the entire 40x40 floor exercise area.

Love what you do, and do what you love.

This seems like a redundant phrase, but I don't really think it is. Loving what you do to me is loving your job. Not many in the world are able to say that they love their job. I am one of those few. I have a great job working in sports. I have always wanted to be involved in sports. As soon as I learned as a young child that you could do such a thing, I knew that was for me. Admittedly my first choice was to be a professional baseball player, but alas it was not meant to be. My 4'8", 12 year old body was not a sight that coaches wanted to see in their batting line ups. So into gymnastics I went, and almost as soon, I knew what I would spend my life doing. Again my dreams have changed over the last 10 years of coaching. At first I wanted to be an elite coach and own my own gym. Then I thought about being a college coach. But now that I have landed at the St. Louis Gym Centre as the girl's team director and head coach, I can't imagine going anywhere else. It is a great place, filled with people that all they want to do is coach gymnastics. This is not just a step on their ladder of life. I have been to many gyms where it is a revolving door of people just looking for a pay check. But the Gym Centre is more like a family. Many of the people there have been there for more than 10 years. They grew up there and now work there. I would be considered an outsider by their standards. But they welcomed me in almost three years ago and both the program and I have grown in that time. I have learned a great deal about myself, and the program has matured. I did not start this transformation, but I helped it continue. There was a great linage of coaches before me that started this climb, and like Issac Newton said, I stand on the shoulders of giants.

With all that said my passion, my drive, my "thing", is no longer gymnastics. When I was a kid, all I could do was gymnastics. Shit, I ate chalk once because I wanted so badly to be part of gymnastics. Now it is cycling, more specifically road racing. I have always been a competitive person. And early in my coaching career my life depended on the lives of very young children. Their goals, ambitions, triumphs, and failures, were all my own. An athlete's failure at a competition was taken as an insult to me. My mood depended on the outcome of a workout, or a competition. My self worth road on the whims of prepubescent girls, and their "stage moms". I was a fierce competitor myself and could only understand those that thought just like me. Anyone else was in the way and had to go. I had no time for them and their weakness. As I got older, and understood more about the business of gymnastics I chilled a little bit. But it wasn't until I started to ride that I was able to start to let go a little bit. Some gymnastics purists out there might think that this is sacrilegious. But it wasn't until I could let my self worth detach from the lives of these kids that I started to feel better about my life.

My bike is my outlet, and second to my wife it is what I love. Granted my job comes before my bike, but sometimes that line can get pretty fuzzy. Especially in the summer. Without this outlet though, I would not be a coach today. I still find it hard to be a coach even with the outlet of riding a bike. So without it I would have driven myself crazy. Probably destroyed my marriage, and burned a lot of bridges in the gymnastics world. With my bike I am able to let go at the gym and not let athletic shortcomings come between athletes and I, like they have in my past. No longer are falls off an even insults to me, but just falls that need to be worked on. I am able to see that there are more things that just the four walls of the gym, and that helps me to keep kids in my program.

I know that I am one of very few people that thinks they have just about everything they could want in their life. And I think that I am a very lucky person to be in this position. I worked hard to get here but I would be lying to myself if I didn't think that I met some people in my life that have been huge in my career and life.

I guess I decided to write this post tonight because today actually wasn't the best day at work. I have had worse, and there have been much better. But today was different, today might not have been great but it was a day things were getting better. And even on a bad day, I still have a great job. I still have great people that work for me, that love their jobs, and they want the same things that I want. I still get to be a coach, and I was once told by a great man that I look up to very much. That "being a coach was one of the greatest things you could do in your life". I knew it when he said that, and I am grateful for it today.

Mtn Biking and other stuff

So I don't know what happened to my last post, must have been lost in the magical internet void.

I was able to do some great mountain bike riding this last week I have not been mountain biking for over 2 years. Well thats not totally true, I did do some down hill mountain bike riding this last summer in Sundance Utah, So I should say it's my first time doing cross country mountain bike riding. And it was awesome! I don't have a bike to do the job so I borrowed one from the best bike shop in the city, Mesa Cycles.Chris from Mesa took me over to the Lost Valley trail another trail down the Katy Trail. Lost Valley is supposed to be a beginner trail. It is about a 5 mile loop I think, with some great single track and a good amount of fire road. I think the the single track in Lost Valley was really fast and had some really great technical points especially at high speed. After a loop there we traveled about 4 miles down the Katy Trail to another great spot called Matson. This set of trails were much more difficult with a lot of elevation change, huge rocks to traverse, and trees so close to the trail I was sure I was going to be taken out a few times.There was a very large steep hill that we had to climb to get to Matson, and I swear it had to be over 20% grade.
I was just amazed at the condition of these trails, the people that spend a lot of the free time working on them do a great job. I really should find some time at some point to help them out. I have always wondered how these guys and gals go about creating these trails. The lines that they take through the woods are just amazing. One of the areas we went though at lost valley was like the trail was just hanging onto the side of a steep hill. It would have been quite a chore to create that part of the trail.

I also took my wife Katie to ride at Castlewood on Sunday. We did about 10 miles and she was a trooper. Her bike is not really made for real off road riding but as long as we go slow it works fine. It is just heavy and more set up as a gravel path mtn bike than the one I was riding. She had a few tough spills and was a little upset at certain points, but she made it all the way to the end. I was really proud of her. She has been working really hard to try new things and be really involved in my cycling. After we were done we started a fire in one of the pick nick areas in the park. We brought some things to make smores, hung out for a while, and had a really nice time.

Castlewood is a nice ride but I think I liked the newness of the new locations. I also just don't think I am into mtn bike riding as I used to be. Don't get me wrong, it was really fun, but I think riding on the road takes the cake for me still. Just the speed, the easy of being able to walk out the door and ride, and everything else about the culture.

Life otherwise is going well, I just turned 30 a few days ago. My wife says I am now old, joke is she turns 30 in just a couple months too. It's funny how young I still think I am though. Most of the time I still think I am a teenager or a young college student. I still look pretty much the same as well. More facial hair now but that is about it. It's my goal to be 90 and look like I am a 50 year old. That is if I live that long, I have a history of long living people in my family as well as cancer though soooo it's a crap shoot. One day I hope to be good enough on the bike and old enough to start competing for masters nationals and maybe even worlds some day.

One thing that I don't get about riding a mtn bike is why the position? It is very un-aerodynamic. Maybe it was just the bike that I was on, as it was a demo bike from Specialized. I guess they are set up for the average joe instead of more of a racer. I also don't understand the super wide handle bars though. When I was a kid we would cut our bars down to something like 20". The idea was you could get though more narrow areas. From what I can gather the bars are wider now for leverage. But with the gearing on the bikes I don't know why you need to torque on the bars so hard. Whatever, if I ever buy a mountain bike again I will make it more my own like I do with all my bikes. The one new thing I really like, which isn't really new at all, just new to me, is the rear suspension. Wow does that make a big difference. More traction, more comfort, more everything good. Maybe it does add a little weight that not having it wouldn't but the smoothing out of your ride which then would save you energy could more than make up for that.

Got to leave for work now, coaching is going really well for the most part. This is the doldrums of the season for gymnastics. No more working new skills, working a lot of routines, which is really hard, but not competing yet. This makes everyone a little crabby some times. Most every day though I am really excited about getting into the gym and working with my kids. The kids have really come a long way and it is great to see them grow.