The FUNdamentals

[Antione Hoefflin]

As soon as his team of elites had finished training, Coach Hoefflin set about getting the gym ready for the clinic he had offered to run for the students who were interested in learning the fundamentals of gymnastics: the beams were moved closer to the wall - and banked mats under them so they could still be used by beginners without a big drop should they over-balance - and he brought out the low beams. He left the uneven bars as they were, the students would only be practicing tricks on the low bar today. He stacked mats up behind the vault tables so that there wasn't such a drop off the table. As well as using the floor exercise area, he would also make use of the trampoline that ran almost the length of one wall, ending in stacked mats for the dismount - so that the students who were confident with handsprings could work on combinations.

He then headed into his office and came out with a clipboard, the paper under the clip was blank, he would add the names of the students that arrived and include what they wanted to work on while they were here. He had also invited his small elites to come in and help out, but he had given them the option to decline should they have better things to do with their time before they returned for training that afternoon.

Once a group of students had arrived, he addressed them. "For those who don't know me, I am Coach Hoefflin. I've been doing gymnastics for as long as I could walk, and I guess I fit into the category of if they can't do, they teach. A slip from the rings at the Sydney Olympic Games quickly ended my career." He arched his eyebrows. "Right, enough about me. What I want to know is what you all want to get out of today. Yes, I could teach you something on each apparatus, but it would probably be better, if you only want to focus on one thing, that my assistants and I, help you work on that."

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina smiled as she reached into the drawer of her dresser devoted to Derecho's things, "What do you say, dog? We could go to that gymnastics thing." She pulled out the blue leash and collar set, embroidered in white to read simply 'Service Dog'. There was no point to forcing the dog to remain in his full harness if all he would be doing was laying there while she did whatever the coach had them doing. For times like that, the alternative came in handy. Yes, just maybe, Sina had too many things for her dog... What with his full body coat, for crowds and times where she wanted to deter drive-by petting, his normal harness, and the many other options Sina had.

But they all fit neatly into the one drawer, so Sina could justify it to herself. After pulling her hair up into a high ponytail, she checked her outfit of a fitted shirt and shorts in the mirror. Maybe not the leotards that gymnasts actually wore, but the shorts provided slightly more stability for the CGMS... Although it was lumpishly visible. Shrugging, Sina ran a hand over it, then turned to Derecho, "Come here, dog." She fastened the collar around the dog's neck, "Look sharp."

After locking the door behind herself, Sina left the Blue Ribbon house and made her way back towards the gymnasium. She'd tried to make a habit of at least showing up for half an hour every day, since the cheer studio didn't seem to be locked normally after all, and had passed by the gymnastics area as a matter of course... Although she hadn't poked her head in yet. There had always seemed to be people doing things when she passed by.

But this time, she pushed the door open and stepped inside. Since she'd stuck herself in her room, knowing she would be exercising, Sina wasn't too worried at the moment. After looking around at the studio, she spotted a bench that ran along the wall, similar to the cheer studio, but at the same time... She glanced at the floor, where she would prefer to work. Gymnastics wasn't quite as easy to keep track of as equestrianism, and she didn't know how tightly the coach ran his ship. Finally, deciding she could always just leave if it wasn't working, Sina walked towards the end of the bench, where it stopped furthest from the door, and looped Derecho's leash around the end, just enough to where it would look secure. After asking the dog to relax, and stay, she left her backpack next to him, and then headed towards where the coach was standing.

As the coach, Coach Hoefflin, did his introduction, Sina listened, surprised to hear that he had been an Olympian, although not because she doubted his abilities. They always seemed so mythical, like they couldn't really exist. But here was one, right at her school. As he asked about what they wanted to work on, Sina spoke up, "Floor skills, specifically combinations and aerials." Because wasn't that where she needed the most work? Sure, trying anything else would be fun. But she could do that afterwards, too.

[Antione Hoefflin]

Ant greeted each student as they entered. His eyebrows rose when a girl walked in with a canine - and it wasn't the first time a student had entered with one either - he looked the girl up and down, she had good muscle tone, but not enough to be a gymnast, and too much for a dancer, so he guessed that she was a cheerleader. This thought brought a smile to his lips as the last canine who had walked in here more than a year ago, had also worked with a cheerleader. Walking into his office, he came back out with a bowl of water and carried it over to the canine and nodded his head toward the dog's human partner.

Once he'd done his greeting and listened to what the students wanted to do he nodded. He turned and surveyed his girls who were stretching."Kitchi!" He barked and gave a flicker of a smile as the girl jumped and then jogged toward them. "Sina, this is Cara-Jean." He introduced them. "Since you just want to work on your floor skills, I will have you work with Cara. She's been doing gymnastics long enough that I know she will keep you from snapping your neck." His humour didn't work very well when he didn't even crack a smile.

Turning his back on the girls he turned back to the rest of the gathered students and split them into two groups, one would work with the assistant coach and the other would work with him.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara's body was tired, she could feel it, but she ignored it. She still hurt from her last time with her social worker, and rather than wearing her team leotard, she was dressed in a black one of her own with a high neck and a tiny keyhole at the back that didn't show off enough skin to attract attention as to what had happened to her. As hard as it was, she would rather face the wrath of her coach than chance showing too much of what happened behind closed doors.

After training, she had remained in the studio when Coach Hoefflin had mentioned that he would like them to remain for the clinic, and stretched out in a corner of the studio, keeping out of everyone's way. She kept her head down, knowing that she would probably be used to demonstrate elements.

The coach's voice hit her like the crack of a whip and she jumped as though she actually had been struck. Pressing her lips together, she rose to her feet and jogged over to the where the man was standing with a girl with light orange hair - possibly too red to be strawberry blonde, yet still too light to call her a redhead. She bowed her head as they were introduced and then they were left alone.

Cara swallowed as she pressed her lips together. "What skills w-would you like to work on?" She asked in her soft voice before she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, she found that she was beginning to stutter more and more when she spoke, which in turn made her talk even less.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina nodded at the coach's greeting, noticing the muster and the smile, although she walked on without really worrying about it. Der would stay no matter what, and she knew she hadn't seen the man before... So what the point of the smile was, she wasn't sure. However, when the man disappeared into what was probably his office and came back out with a bowl of water, Sina raised an eyebrow. No argument, nothing? That was not what she would have expected from the somewhat surly-looking coach. "Thank you." She left Der with a word that it was okay to drink, pushing the bowl more towards him, before she made her way to the floor.

When she was paired up with a student, Sina nodded briefly, watching the petite girl jog over. She was an experienced gymnast? She looked more like an eight-year-old! Not one to resent the opportunity for more one-on-one work, though, Sina let no bit of her thoughts show, and instead smiled at Cara, "Thank you, Coach Hoefflin. Thank you for working with me, Cara."

After the coach had walked away, Sina turned back to Cara, "Really, aerials, and then combining things into full passes, I guess. I have trouble with anything where my hands aren't on the ground in between, I don't land them well." She had, of course, worked with Kall already, but gymnasts might see a bit more that could help her, especially since they were here to coach, not doing their own thing. "Any advice on how to go about fixing that?"

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

As she headed over, Cara could feel herself being weighed and measured and was slightly worried that she had come up as being unworthy, but she wasn't the type of person to feel insulted by this as she had been given a command and she would follow through with it.

She bowed her head at the girl's thanks, knowing that it didn't need a verbal reply. She listened with curiosity as Sina talked about what she wanted to work on and as she led the way toward the other side of the floor exercise area she was working through ways she could help the other girl. "Aerials aren't the easiest element to stick, but I have a few ideas." Although not pleased to be asked to work with someone, she would rather it be one on one like this rather than her have a group, as she was sure that this girl wouldn't mind her whisper-soft voice whereas a group could have difficulty hearing her.

"Can you please do an aerial for me?" She asked. "It will give me some idea of where you need help." It would also give her an idea of where to start; if she needed height, they could work on the trampoline, if it was positioning, they could remain where they were, and they would work on the floor beam - which was literally a line on the floor - to help with any travelling. They could even progress to the baby beam should Sina feel confident enough.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina chuckled at the girl's comment, "You're telling me." She managed the others at least decently, she thought, then added, for a beginner. Of course everything above that level was still tough for her, but hey, she was a quick study. Hopefully there would be other semi-beginners trying out for the cheer team, although if at least some of the others were like Kall, she wouldn't worry too much about even that.

As Cara asked her to do an aerial, Sina glanced at the mat ahead of her, and then nodded, "Sure." She took a breath, forcing herself to remember what she had been working on earlier. It wasn't any different, even if Cara-Jean was watching and judging her. It was only good judging, she told herself, going to make her better. And with that, she launched herself into the motion, managing to land it, but again with the wobble and stepping out. She wasn't sure what the cause of that was, position or that she couldn't jump straight, but hopefully Cara could tell her that, and offer suggestions on what she could practice. So, once she'd regained her balance, Sina turned back to the girl, her eyes asking the question of how she'd done.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara pressed her lips together as she watched the girl do an aerial, watching every single element of the movement. She frowned a little in thought and then instantly wiped the frown from her forehead as she knew that it would be telling the girl the opposite of what she was thinking.

She glanced toward her coach, hating him for doing this. It wasn't that she wasn't confident she could help Sina work out how to stick her landings and move on to other things, she just didn't think she was the right person to do it. There were plenty of other gymnasts who actually liked talking. She pressed her lips together as she formulated what she wanted to say."I understand that a cartwheel is a prerequisite to the aerial, but they are two different things." She shook her head, her words were all coming out wrong. "Come with me."

She walked over to the mats by where the beam normally sat, and there was a solid black line on the ground, the same four inch width of the beam. "We'll see if this makes it a bit easier, with a visual line to follow." She blew out a breath and stood on the black line, bounced on the spot and went into an aerial, landing on the line. Keep your eye on the line, when you run forward, remember to do a hurdle skip just before your aerial and keep your hips straight." She demonstrated what she was saying.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina frowned as she listened to Cara's start, confused as to what the girl was trying to say, but as the girl shook her head, the redhead shrugged and simply followed. When they started walking toward the end of the floor, she was at first confused, until she saw the black line along the floor.

When Cara told her the point to it, using the line as a visual to straighten out the move, Sina nodded, "Sounds good." She watched the girl demonstrate, raising an eyebrow at the fluidity of the motion. Perhaps she had been a bit hasty in judging this girl's ability to do gymnastics... Although she still didn't look old enough to even be at Blue Ridge. Once Cara had given her her 'assignment', and then demonstrated, Sina nodded, then walked to the end of the black line.

After a moment to focus on the line, which she hadn't worked on before, Sina ran forward a few paces before she skipped and then threw herself into the aerial, trying to focus on what Cara had said. When she landed, Sina looked down, frowning at the fact that her feet hadn't ended up on the line... Or was the line not under her feet? However, she could see the point to the exercise, and after a moment, walked back to the start, glancing over at Cara to see if the girl had any comments.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara pressed her lips together as she watched the other girl do as she had instructed. She hated the fact that she had been given this job, and she couldn't understand why Coach couldn't have picked someone else, but it was pointless going over and over it in her head, she had no option but to pull herself together and try to soldier on.

She chewed on her lower lip, thinking back to her days of starting out as a gymnast, and realised that what she was doing was the same as expecting a horse to do a perfect pirouette before she had mastered the shoulder-in. "Ok, let's ignore your aerials for now." She said softly as she studied the line on the floor. "How are you with passes?" Plans were already forming themselves in her mind. I thought we could just work on getting you acquainted with the floor beam. Three of four handsprings maybe?" At least with handsprings, the girl would start with her feet on the line, place her hands down, followed by feet and so on, and the line would hopefully keep her working straight. After all, the reason gymnasts worked on the floor beam was so they could sort a move out before they moved to the baby beam and then one that was close to five feet off the ground. And then Cara could suggest that Sina go from a single or two handsprings into the aerial.