The Shakti Gymnast

A couple months ago I started Brazilian Jiujitsu. It wasn't until about a week ago that things started to make sense and I was able to spar with the guys. In this blog, I'd like to share what I've learned in BJJ and how it's helped my gymnastics. 1. Falling In Jiujitsu, there's something called a 'break fall'. Basically, when you fall back, you should smack the ground with your hands instead of curling up in a ball. The idea is to spread out the shock of the fall throughout your body, so that your entire body absorbs the shock. When you curl up in a ball- a natural human instinct- only one area absorbs the shock of the fall, which increases the risk for injury. In gymnastics, the things I learned about falling was 1) don't try to stop your fall by putting your arms down and 2) avoid landing on your stomach at all costs. After learning about the break fall in Jiujitsu, I began trying it at gymnastics: if I fell back, I would smack both of my hands on the ...

No one likes doing things that are hard or uncomfortable... with maybe the exception of David Goggins. So why even think about doing things that challenge us mentally? Why not do what makes us feel warm and comfy inside? Here are your reasons:   1. Mental Toughness is Preparation for the Future Being able to tolerate difficult experiences that challenge the mind prepares us for the future. When we complete a challenging task without breaking, we will come through being more wise about how to conquer our own mind. This also means that we will become more aware of how we react to and tackle challenges. One can then analyze his/her approach and ponder how to improve tackling mentally difficult tasks. By continuously facing difficult circumstances and building mental toughness, in the future, one can become unfazed with a task that is seemingly difficult to most. And when tasks arise that the majority are unable to complete due to being mentally weak, the person who had been prepa...

In general, most people have heard of gymnastics. It's a common sport that's entertaining to watch and fun to do. If you're looking to learn more about gymnastics, this is the read for you. This is an overview of Women's Artistic Gymnastics:  The Level System The levels for the US Junior Olympics range from 2-10. After Level 10 there is Elite Compulsory and then Elite. Levels 2-5 are Compulsory and they have set routines that all gymnasts must perform in order to move up levels. Levels 6-10 are called Optional and the routines vary, but the skill set must be in accordance with the USAG guidelines in order for the routine to start at a 10.0. Each skill is assigned a letter and the same skill can vary in letter from event to event. For example, a switch half on beam is a 'D', but on floor it is an 'C'. In order to start from a 10.0, the gymnast must have all of the skill requirements.  However, in level 9 and 10, even if the gymnasts has all of the require...

The title of this blog post may be surprising to you, as most of us athletes are told since the beginning of our athletic career that protein is the most important part of our diet. I'm not disagreeing that protein is important; it is, but it's not everything. We, as humans, don't need protein in every meal. And in my opinion, protein should be consumed wisely, as it is can affect energy levels and performance.  Disclaimer: These are all of my thoughts and opinions from past experience and what has worked for me. What Happens When You Consume Protein Protein is for recovery. After we exercise, our muscles are damaged and in order for muscle synthesis to occur in order to heal them, we need protein. When we consume protein, we are telling our body to rest and repair.  When Should We Consume Protein? The best time to consume protein is right after a workout, specifically 30 minutes after exercising, so we can let our body know that it is time to recover and repair our damage...

About a year and a half ago I started taking personal training classes to improve my strength and help reduce gymnastics injuries due to muscle weakness in my body. Now I weight train because I love these types of workouts and I have seen dramatic improvements in my athletic abilities. Skills and exercises I have not been strong enough to do in the past come easy to me now. I also notice that I know how to engage different muscle groups to help me do certain skills. I feel stronger, more aware of my body, and healthier.  In The Beginning When I first started taking personal training sessions, I wasn't really familiar with weight training. All I knew was that body builders do weight training to build muscle mass. Before taking these classes, I had back pain. It wasn't from an acute injury and I thought it was due to over-training. I had a muscle-related back injury in the past and it took me nearly four months to recover. I started personal training sessions as a way to improve ...

Fears and metal blocks are very common in gymnastics. Every gymnast gets scared to do something at some point in time, but it's the way that the gymnast handles her fears that determines whether or not she will overcome the mental challenge. There are a few things that I have come up with that had helped me with my fears in the past.  1. The People You Surround Yourself With Take a look at your surroundings. Do you feel that everyone around you is fearful or anxious? Do many of your teammates have fears or mental blocks? This may be a factor that is contributing to your fears or mental blocks.  In my gymnastics career, I have been at five different gyms, and I have noticed that the number of gymnasts who have fears or mental blocks varies. For example, at my previous gym, there was only one gymnast who had fear problems in my group. In the gym I go to now, ninety-percent of the gymnasts in my group has a fear problem. It makes me wonder if fears and mental blocks come not beca...

What Does Quality Over Quantity Mean?  I have heard this saying a million times. I'm sure most people have heard this saying at least one time in their life. It's a pretty straight-forward saying and it means what it implies: the quality of work that you do is more important than the quantity of the work that you do.  For example, I can make ten bar routines at practice with sloppy form that score a 8.0-8.5, go to the meet and hope that I can get a 9.0 on it. Or I can make one or two clean bar routines that score 9.0-9.5, go to a meet and know that I can get at least a 9.0 on it. What you practice is what you will perform . Practicing quality over quantity is what you will get at a meet, and vise-versa. The beauty of this practice is that the mind and body will start getting used to doing quality routines, so at some point I will be able to do 10 routines that score a 9.0-9.5 easily. Then maybe I want to raise my bar and start saying that a "quality" routine scores hi...

A few weeks ago, I walked into my sister's room to talk with her. We have evening discussions a couple of times a week, so this isn't an unusual event that occurs. Since we are both serious about our sports, our discussions tend to be about our sports and how we can optimize our practices. This time, we discussed some of the quotes that were on her wall. They are all positive quotes that are motivating and encouraging. I noticed a new one that was right above her desk that said, "Think discipline, not motivation," and I was confused about it. A few weeks before that, we were talking about how we can get motivated to do everything, even things that are mentally challenging for us. Naturally, I said that we just have to find a way to like everything we do. But sometimes, there are things that are just not fun to do even after doing it for a long time. For example, going in a freezing cold pool of water, doing isometric holds for conditioning, getting up early at 5am eve...

I have always been big on goal setting in nearly every aspect of my life. I think that comes from having parents who are big on goal setting and continuously set goals, big or small, to better themselves. In gymnastics, I am the most adamant on goal setting and set short and long term goals. I feel it is the one area in my life that I know exactly what I want to achieve and I know exactly how to get there. In other areas of my life, like what I want my life to be like 20-30 years from now, it is kind of fuzzy. I know in general what I want, but I don't know exactly what I want and I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to get there.  When I goal set in gymnastics, I set weekly, monthly, and yearly goals that are in-line with my long term goals. I also keep track of my progress by writing down what I do at the gym every day. I feel that by logging everything I do, I tend to take more turns at the gym and try harder to complete those weekly goals, because I know that I'm going t...

The sound of "vegan athlete" always scares people for some reason. Actually, "vegan" in general scares people. Most people question if I'm getting enough protein and calories to support my intense training. I make sure to get enough protein and calories by eating beans, nuts and nut butters, protein shakes, lentils, and oats. And sometimes my "snack" will be an entire meal. I just listen to my body. If I'm feeling hungry, I eat and I will keep eating until I feel full enough. I allow myself to eat whatever I want as long as the food is vegan and low in sugar.  Why are you vegan?  I'm vegan because I feel like I have more energy with this lifestyle. I was vegan up until 12 years old, and then started eating animal products because I felt like that was what I needed to do in order to gain weight. Thinking about it now, I realize that I was having a growth spurt and just needed to eat more food! I remember that I used to sleep a lot when I was on ...

I'm sure a lot of gymnasts have heard their coaches tell them at a meet, "Visualize what you're going to make your routine look and feel like before you compete."  In the compulsory levels, I didn't really know the reason why my coaches were telling me that, but I did what they told me to do and most of the time, I performed how I visualized I would do in my head. In the beginning optional levels, I still visualized, but not nearly as much as I used to in levels 4 and 5. As I decreased the amount of time I spent visualizing, I saw a decrease in my performance at meets; I realized that I was not as confident and prepared as I should be going into my routines. In the beginning of last year, my sister recommended I read  Extreme Focus by Pat Williams and Jim Denny to help me learn some tricks to help me tap into my fullest potential. As I read the book, I began applying what I learned to my gymnastics and saw a dramatic increase in my performance, efficiency, and...

I feel that having the right mindset in sports and schoolwork is my key to achieving success. Here is a list of the qualities of my personal mindset in gymnastics and school: 1. Positivity.  On days when I feel the most happy to be at the gym and practice my skills, I notice that my gymnastics improves dramatically. I am able to do the skills I was having a hard time with in the past and do harder skills with ease. These days used to happen pretty infrequent for me until I started practicing daily gratitude and positivity. Now I have infrequent "bad" days! Even on these "bad" or tired days, I try my best to stay positive. I notice that when I am able to get past these days, I only get stronger the next day.  2. Focused.  When I am focused, I get into this state of what I call "flow." Before I enter this state, I must embody positive emotions and feelings. I then focus that energy into what I am doing and enter into the flow state. When this happens, ...

  This is what I write in my Goals book sometimes. It is for my skills and how many I did without help or did without falling. First I write the date at the top, then I write the event and then under it I write the skill. I put the word hit and miss and keep track when I do an event.  For example if I do a vault without any help or do a routine without falling I put a mark under "hit". If I do an event and fall or make a mistake, I mark it under "miss".   These are my goals for every event and this is how I write them. On the bottom there are some questions that I have to answer about why I am doing gymnastics and what is my favorite part. I keep a book for goals so I can keep track and not lose them on individual pieces of paper.  My coaches write in my book about what I need to work on and what I am doing good.  Usually I give them my book on Friday and...