Boys’ Practice Saturday — The boys’ team practice will be shortened on Saturday, March 7, to be 9 a.m.-11 a.m. as the Level 8s have a meet at noon. Candace will need to leave for the meet so practice will be slightly shortened.

State T-Shirt Orders — T-shirt orders for Girls’ Xcel State, Boys’ State, Girls’ Level 6-10 State and Boys’ Regionals are due soon. You can pre-order at the GymTreasures web site if you have not done so already. There will be a limited amount of items for sale at the meet itself. Personalization and bling (for girls) will also be available at the meet site. The following are the links for t-shirt orders:

Boys’ State
Girls’ Xcel State
Girls’ Level 6-10 State
Boys’ Regionals

State Team Dinners — As per our tradition, we will have team dinners for each team prior to their state championship meet. The boys and Xcel will have their dinner on Wednesday, March 18 at 8 p.m. at the gym in the dance room. Xcel practice that night will start begin early at 5 p.m. and go until 8 p.m. for both Silver and Gold. Boys should plan on staying that night the duration or come a bit later for those who leave early.

The meal will be catered from Fazolis (most likely … if not, we will cater Noodles). Gymnasts should bring nice clothes as we tend to make this event a bit dressy.

The cost is $10 per gymnast. A $10 charge will be added to each gymnasts account this month. Please advise if your gymnast will not make it.

The Girls’ Level 6s and Level 8s will have their team dinner on Thursday, March 26 at 8 p.m. Details have yet to be worked out for this but we will likely have this at Noodles on 124th and Capital in Wauwatosa. We will confirm details as they become available. With it being such a large group, we will have to develop the details a little more. The cost for this will be determined as we have a better idea of what we’re doing as a group.

Updated Xcel State Schedule — There was an error on the lone Saturday session with Xcel Gold gymnasts on the schedule recently published. The schedule on the blog has been corrected. The schedule below is correct for the Saturday session for Christen and Stephanie:

SATURDAY, MARCH 21

GIRLS’ XCEL GOLD – Christen, Stephanie
Arrive – 11:40 a.m.
Stretch – noon
Meet Begins — 12:15 p.m.
Awards — 3 p.m.

The complete Xcel State meet schedule is available here.

State Meet Schedules — For easy reference, the state meet schedules are available here:

Girls’ Xcel
Boys’
Girls’ Level 6-10

AAU Nationals Venue Change — The AAU Age Group Championships will still be held in Las Vegas, Nev., June 10-14, but will no longer be at the Riviera. The new venue will be The Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. The Riviera was purchased by the Las Vegas Convention Center and will be closing in May. The Westgate will honor the $49 midweek/$89 weekend rate that the Riviera was offering and will continue to offer it through the duration of the meet.

Honestly, this is a HUGE upgrade. The Riviera was a dump and the Westgate is much nicer (having stayed there this summer). The Westgate is slightly off the strip by about two blocks, but it attached to the Monorail, which will make travel up and down the strip significantly easier.

A very tentative schedule has been posted and is the following:

Wed., June 10 — Registration 3-8 p.m.
Thu., June 11 — Registration 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Girls’ Levels 1-4, Xcel Bronze, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
Fri., June 12 — Registration 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Girls’ Levels 1-5, Xcel B-S-G, 8 a.m.-7 p.m.
Sat., June 13 — Registration 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Girls’ Levels 5-9, Xcel S-G,, Boys All Levels 8 a.m.-9 p.m.;
Sun., June 14 — Registration 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; Girls’ Levels 6-9, Ladies All Levels, Boys All Levels 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

More information on the competition is available here:

http://image.aausports.org/dnn/gymnastics/2015/agn/2015AGNEntryPacket.pdf

We have started a new conditioning circuit this month.  We have seen some dramatic improvements in strength and flexibility with the gymnasts who are really working to do the correct shapes and positions.  Here is a copy of the conditioning as requested by several gymnasts, so they could work on it at home.  (Parents, feel free to give it a try!) Click the link below for a .pdf version to print out.

Conditioning Plan for Spring 2015