The Lakeshore boy’s gymnastics team, which last year competed as Level 6 team, split into two teams this season, Level 6 and Level 7.   Geremy, Michel, Jacob and Victor were advanced to Level 7 while Brett, Cassiel, Mitch, Harry and Raphael are the Level 6 team.

Level 7 Team - In the Lansing, Michigan meet

So far, the teams have attended three gymnastics meets; one in Grand Rapids Michigan and Cincinnati, Ohio in the month of December 2011 and in Lansing, Michigan in this month of January 2012.  In general, the teams did very good!!!.  On the first competition, in Michigan, the Level 7 got first place and the level 6 placed second.  Individually, Geremy, has obtained the first place and the second place all-around in two of the Michigan meets.

Level 6 Team in the Lansing, Michigan Meet

All of our boy’s have obtained medals but we still have a lot of work to do.  The next competition is in Cincinnati, Ohio on January 28th.  Both teams have been working hard looking forward the next three competitions and the Ohio State Meet.

Geremy, Second Place All-around

In Cincinnati with John Roethlisberger

Visiting the middle of the world, Ecuador, is always nice and pleasant. It is very good because all my family and friends live there and also because the nice weather and the many things and places you can do and visit.

El Panecillo, located in Quito

This summer vacation, couple friends from the USA and I visited, Cuenca, Macas, Puyo, Baños de Ambato and Quito in Ecuador.  The trip started in Quito, which was our entrance point to Ecuador.  Quito is located at the northern part of Ecuador and it is a beautiful city surrounded by snow capped mountains.  We arrived in Quito at 11:00 pm and stayed the night at the Finlandia Hostel; this is a very nice place to stay when visiting Quito.  The next morning, we took a local 45 minutes flight to Cuenca, which is located at the southern side of the country.

Once in Cuenca, we had a super breakfast with delicious bread, which Cuenca is very famous for.  Also, by coincidence, we had the opportunity to see the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, in his weekly address to the country.  He was at plaza 9 de Octubre.  Later on, we went to a soccer game, where the professional city team, “Deportivo Cuenca”, beat 3 to 1 to Independiente, a team from the Quito…YEAH!!!.

City of Cuenca

In general, in Cuenca, we visited: Cajas National Park, where we had a good lunch at this restaurant called “Las Dos Chorreras”, Gualaceo, where we went to the market and some of the shoe stores, Chordeleg, where we checked some jewelry stores, and also we travel to Inga-Pirca, where we visited the Inca ruins.  In downtown Cuenca, we went for drinks and music at “La Parola Bar”.  Of course, we also visited the museums and churches of the city.

Inca Ruins called "Inga Pirca"

The next stop was the Ecuadorian rain forest.  We drove from Cuenca to Macas.  On the way there, we saw the biggest hydroelectric dam located in Guarumales and also we had a good lunch at this little town called Mendez.  Once in Macas, we visited Parque Recreacional, and the radio station called Voz del Upano.  Of course, I played a good basketball game with my good friend from Macas and a very good dinner at this beautiful resort located in the middle of the jungle.

The next destination was Puyo, where we visited an orchid park.  This was a tour of 3 hours looking at all the beautiful plants in the middle of the forest.

Orchid in Puyo

 Baños the Ambato is always a very nice place to visit when in Ecuador.  We had a blast going down 25 km in bicycles and on the way we saw waterfalls and the beautiful landscape.  It was cool to go down to the Pailon del Diablo Falls, and go behind the fall throughout a cave on the rock.

Quito was our final destination, here we visit the Equatorial Line, and we went up on the cable cars called el teleferico, which takes you from 2500 m. to 4000 m of elevation.  Also, we visit the Quito center where all the churches and museums are located.

Ecuador is a nice place with nice people, which is always good to visit.

Italo   

Pailon del Diablo in Baños de Ambato - Ecuador

Waterfalls in Baños de Ambato

Cajas National Park

Cajas National Park

Pailon del Diablo - Ecuador June 23, 2011

The Level 6 boy’s gymnastics team had a very good competitive season this year.  In general, the team participated in 6 Meets during this season, in which they were champions in Youngstown, 3^rd in Cincinnati, 3^rd at the Blaine Wilson in Columbus, 4^th at the Arnold in Columbus and 4^th at State meet in Columbus.

In the State meet, celebrated at the end of March, four of our gymnasts were able to classify to compete at the Regional competition that took place this past April 15, 2011 in Columbus.  The Region 5 gathers the best gymnasts of 5 states: Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan.

Victor, Brett, Geremy and Michel at the Regional of Gymnastics 2011

Congratulations to all of our team, Dima, Jacob, Michel, Victor, Raphael, Cassiel, Brett and Geremy for their effort at the competitions as well as at the gym.  Gymnastics is a very demanding sport which required consistency, discipline and many, many hours of training a week.

Also, I would like to congratulate to Michel, Brett, Victor and Geremy for classifying to the Regional and a special congratulations to Michel for obtaining first place all-around at state championship and the third place at the Regional championship.

Coach Italo

Michel - Bronze Medal all-around in the Regional

Italo and Michel at the Regional

The Lakeshore Gymnastics Level 6 Boy’s Team participated on the 2011 Blaine Wilson Classic of Gymnastics this past February 20^th.  The team did very good on this competition, in which they placed on the 3^rd place.  Michel was the all-around champion at the 12 years old and up category and also, all of the Lakeshore gymnasts got medals on all the gymnastics events.

Lakeshore Gymnastics Third Place at the 2011 Blaine Wilson Classic

Now, the team is training hard for the new Columbus meet, which is the Arnold Gymnastics Challenge.  This competition will take place this coming March 5^th and many teams from the State and out of the state are to be attending.  The gymnasts are enthusiastic and ready to compete.

Good luck Tigers!!!

Coach Italo

Lakeshore Gymnastics at the 2011 Blaine Wilson Classic

Blaine Wilson and Raphael

Blaine Wilson, Cassiel, Michel and Italo

Blaine Wilson, Brett and Italo

The Lakeshore Gymnastics Level 6 Boy’s Team will be participating  in this month of January in two gymnastics events:  this coming Saturday, January 15 of 2011, in Youngstown at the Gym Jammerz Classic and on January 29, at the Winter Fest in Queen City, Ohio.

From left to right: Victor, Brett, Italo, Cassiel, Geremy, Michel, Jacob, Dima & Raphael

The team has been training for these two events.  Nevertheless, the training work during these coming weeks is aimed to the Winter Fest Meet due to the long Christmas and New Year break that the  team had, which did not help on the gymnastics continuity of the team.

In general, the team re initiated gymnastics practice this past week and the kids have been catching up with the conditioning level that they had before the break.  During these coming weeks the team will be practicing the routines in all the events and also trying to perfect the gymnastics elements required on the level 6 compulsory routines.

Coach Italo

The Level 6 Lakeshore Gymnastics boy’s team placed third, this past Saturday December 11th, 2010, at USAG gymnastics meet that took place in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Six teams from different places in Ohio participated on this meet.  Lakeshore obtained the third place with a total of 249.3 points.  The second was for CTCO with a total of 249.8 points and the first place was for Olympia with 259 points.

Michel and Geremy from Lakeshore placed second and third place, respectively on the all-around.  While Jacob, Cassiel, Brett and Victor obtained several medals on all of the events.  Raphael, who is the team expert on the pommels, was not able to perform on the pommels and the rings because a mechanical malfunction of his father car’s obligated him to get to the meet late.  He competed on the 4 other events without warming up.  He was a real warrior!!!

Here I’m attaching photos of the meet.

Coach Italo

From left to right Italo, Jacob and Brett before the competition

Lakeshore Gymnastics Team

The team with the third place trophy

Geremy and Michel at the all-around

The gymnastics team is ready for the first test of their gymnastics training, which will be this coming Saturday, December 11th.  This last Saturday, the kids worked on all the routine events.  Even though, there is still more work to do on keeping the legs straight and maintaining the toes pointed, the gymnasts have been able to get all the gymnastics skills of the routines.

Here is a video of this last Saturday, December 4th Training.

Coach Italo

The Lakeshore Gymnastics, Boy’s Level 6, team has been consistent on the training during the months of October and November; this compared to the summer time, in which the gymnasts took so much vacation time.  The consistency at training during these couple months has started to give results on the gymnastics skills that the kids perform.  Thus for example, couple gymnasts, Michel and Brett have been performing double back tucks on the tumble track and also on the floor, Jacob got his giants on the high bar, Victor has a good front-hand-spring on the vault,  Dima & Geremy have their back and front giants on the high bar, Raphael got his back-up-rise on the rings and Cassiel has made a good progress on the high bar, p-bars, rings and pommels, he is the best on hand presses.

Here, I’m attaching a video of the gymnast training on Saturday

Coach Italo

This video shows the effort that is needed in gymnastics in order to perform a double back tuck skill.  The most important thing is to be consistent.  This means to practice regularly, do the conditioning, and repeat and repeat the skill until the gymnast can perfect it.

In this video, Brett, a level 6 gymnasts from Lakeshore gymnastics, is performing several times a double back tuck skill using a tumble track.

Enjoy

Italo

The Lakeshore Gymnastics Level 6 boy’s team has been working on the skills and the routines of the 6 events of gymnastics, floor, pommels, rings, vault, p-bars and high bar.   In general, the kids are able to perform all the gymnastics skills needed on the routines.  Now, the team is working on putting all those skills together in a complete routine at each event.  In addition, they are trying to perform those routines with elegancy, so they eliminate possible score deductions for bended legs or the lack of pointed toes.

The new members of them are working hard in order to complete the routines by the end of this month of November.  They have done an amazing work in getting all the new skills.  These new members are becoming real specialists on the gymnastics events such as for example: Raphael who is amazing on the mushroom, Cassiel who has elegancy and strength and is an expert on hand presses, Geremy who is a strong gymnast, whose gymnastics progress has been of 100%, and Victor who is getting strong on rings and the p-bars.

On the other hand, Michel, Brett, Dima and Jacob, who competed last year on the Level 6, are training perfecting the routines.

Let’s see how the team does on December.

Coach Italo

See the team training on Pommels, P-bars and the Trampoline