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Tumbling 2nd Ontario Cup

Up highway 401 past the tri-city Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo area - up highway 401 past Mississauga and Oakville - up highway 401 past the Greater Toronto area - up highway 401 past Oshawa and keep going East! - up highway 401 ... well you get the idea.

Five and a half hours later you will arrive at a place call Belleville, the host of our 2nd Ontario Tumbling Cup.

Bright and early this Saturday morning there are some youngsters all bright eyed and bushy-tailed just waiting to get their second chance at showing off exactly how awesome their tumbling is!

I had four athletes competing at this meet but do to some inclement weather a blizzard, one family decided to not attend this competition. I had to fair the weather and 5.5hrs later I arrived in this small northern Ontario city.

Good luck to all my athletes competing - I'll see you at the competition!

More Coming Soon

Some new blogs coming soon. Been too busy to focus on writing them lately. Keep your eyes open!

Google Wave Community

So I’ve started a wave within Google Wave and what this waves job is to bring people together.

As most know, you have to be invited or “nominated” to be part of Google Wave. Most people don’t know where to begin. If you are lucky enough to know someone on Twitter or another service that invites you, then you’re set. What about everyone else? Well hopefully my wave idea will help out.

I’ve started a wave that all of my contacts are a part of and all of their contacts and so on. When they have a friend that needs to be invited they simply add that persons email to the wave. Once done, anyone that is a part of that wave with invites will hopefully pop the email address into the invite wave and BAM, nominated!

As the wave grows so does the potential for invite. The more people that are part of the wave the more names will be added to the growing list of people to invite.

The wave also contains some helpful information on how to update your profile on Google Wave.

For more information or to get your name on the list, just send me a message from one of the following services with your name, email (gmail account), your favourite networking service (twitter/facebook) and I’ll add the emails!

Twitter, Facebook, Email, Leave a Comment

Happy Waving!!!

Finger Work

Sometimes it just feels good to type. You know, just sit down in front of a computer and just put fingers to keys. I guess that would be the updated twenty first century saying as compared to "put pencil to page" or "put pen to paper". Just the thoughts in my mind are so varing with no way out. I jump from notion to notion before coming to any sort of solution about anything. Just to not speak and type out anything that comes to mind just feels, well good. So many things that need to be done and the motivation escapes me. I find myself at an impasse ... that is all.

Travel, Trek and Transportation

So recently I was just on a trip to Calgary to visit a very good friend of mine @eveningmartini. This was one of many times that I have travelled in my life and just like anything else the more times you do it the easier and less nerve rackin it becomes. I flew out there on Westjet airlines which is a Canadian airline that mainly flies within Canada and goes coast to coast. Something to know about Canadian Airlines is that they are not as inexpensive as Airlines in America. I've been told that you can travel from coast to coast in the US for around $100. To do the same in Canada it would cost you upwards of $250 one all things are considered.

After this great trip I have learned a few things that I will have to remember for next time I travel. One thing is, that it's all well and fine that I was able to watch the flights and find one that was inexpensive but that really is only one aspect of the entire travel. Too and from the airport is something that also much be considered. On this particular trip I took the train to the airport on the way out to Calgary and I took a shuttle bus on the way back from my trip. As hinesight is always 20/20, I look back now and I might have been able to rent a car for less money then the methods that I choose to take. Really exploring your options when traveling is very important. Do your do diligence and consider all angles, really consider the trip as a whole.

Other then that it was a most amazing trip Calgary is an amazing city in an amazing province. I suggest all who have the chance to go out there take it. You really wont regret it.

On Vox: Conflict Management

So it came up today talking to a friend about a situation in my personal life, that I don't seem to see all the angles in conflict management. There always seems to be more options that I never see. I hate to say that I have poor conflict management skills but maybe I do? The ability to see a situation, analyze what's happening and then come up with a solution that will hopefully benefit all parties involved.

I tend to not be able to step back as 'far' from the scenario as my friend can. Seems like I have to learning to do.

Originally posted on mikemimik.vox.com

T & T National Championships 2009

This past weekend I was part of an amazing event - I was at the 2009 T&T National Championships. I was part of an Apprentice Program run by Gymnastics Ontario that matched me up with a mentor that I would be able to shadow for the entirety of the event.

I arrived at the competition very late Thursday evening/Friday morning and got myself settled into the campus residence we were staying at. We were up early the next day for Team Ontario's training in the gym at the venue. Each Province is always given a training time for their athletes to come and practice on the equipment that is available at the competition.

Event prelims where Friday/Saturday and event finals where Saturday/Sunday and Senior event finals where on Monday. All the athletes performed was from all of the provinces and it was such a great experience to see them all together and competing.

As part of the Apprentice Program I was challenged with the task to interview two coaches from other Provinces and ask them questions and get as much information as I could. I had the opportunity to speak with a coach from Quebec as well as one from British Columbia. They had very different views and insights into questions that I had and how to coach power tumblers.

I met some new people who I now consider friends and networked with others. The experience was, as I believe to be unforgettable and irreplaceable.

T & T Eastern Canadian Championships - Gearing Up Con't

I managed to pack everything I needed minus a black belt. Got my hair cut so I look presentable as a Team Coach and everything! The ball started off with a gentle nudge Thursday evening as I met with my athletes and their parents at one of their houses. We ate some pizza and enjoy the company and some brief news from the television. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare before boarding so again we enjoyed our company. Both of my athletes are first time fliers as I would put myself somewhere between novice and intermediate. We did the who security thing and I got a kick out of the honesty of one of my athletes. Security Officer: Do you have any liquids with you in your carry on? My Athlete: I have some snacks and my DS. (Referring to the ever so popular Nintendo DS) I chuckled a little as it was a pretty abrupt and unexpected response. We waited for the flight to arrive and we boarded. For first time fliers they did pretty amazing! I explained how everything works; they load the luggage, we taxi to the runway, pilot talks to the tower, then we take off. Sturdy take off and sturdy landing they handled it like champs. We disembarked from the plane and wondered over to the Tim Hortons in the airport. My athletes enjoyed the snack while I got the number for the hotel and called inquiring about shuttle pickup. It was about a 25 minute wait for the shuttle and about another 20 to the hotel. We met up with the parents of my athletes and got ourselves checked in and settled in our rooms for a well deserved rest. So here I am now typing up this blog on my Blackberry, only to post it later, and I realized that the keyclicks are quite loud. Hope my roommate wasn't disturbed. More to come, stay tuned!

T & T Eastern Canadian Championships - Gearing Up

Today I will be embarking on a very significant trip for myself. The ball starts rolling for this evening when I fly into and stay over night in Toronto in anticipation for the next flight. The next flight will take me to Nova Scotia, which in itself is pretty exciting as I've never been to that province or anywhere out east at all for that matter.

Tumble & Trampoline Eastern Canadian Championships will be held in Nova Scotia this year. The qualifying athletes from each eastern province will be sending their team of athletes in their respective sport and category. I personally have two athletes that will be participating as part of Team Ontario whom I've very proud of. In addition to that I will be part of the Delegation that Ontario is sending as a Team Coach for one of the Tumbling categories. I am very honored to have been selected as a Team Coach for this event. It seems to denote my coming to pass as a 'somebody' in this sport in Ontario. In my short time as a coach in this discipline I've managed to learn a lot and become a part of the community.

I spent most of the day today doing laundry and packing what I will need for this weekend long event. We arrive in Nova Scotia Friday afternoon and get ourselves settled in. Competition is all day Saturday and Sunday. It will be a jammed packed weekend of meetings, training, competing and I am up for the challenge and experience of it all. This is my first year solo coaching the competitive power tumbling team at my gymnastics gym. A lot of what was done this year for me was repetition from years past except for Eastern Championships. I have not been to any competition higher then that of the Provincial level. Don't get me wrong, these are still Provincial level athletes competing but no longer for just their gym club, they are competing for their province! I am very very excited to be a part of it.

Wish us luck!

Hump Post Wednesday's - How do you Hump?

How do you get through your Wednesday Woe's? Whether it be to drink yourself silly or curl up with a good unexpected movie, I bet you have some way or another to keep yourself motivated and push on through to the weekend.

An American English idiom for Wednesday is "hump day" a reference to making it through to the middle of the work week as getting "over the hump." (via Wikipedia)

I myself don't find it very dismal on Wednesdays at all, I would actually say that Wednesday is arguably my most productive day of the week. From being up early and getting the day started with some encouragement, through to prioritizing and accomplishing task, then back on to analyzing and conquering some obstacles with a few lessons learned, Wednesday is packed full of activity for me.

That just might be the 'golden ticket' to get you to that place of amazement (yes I just used Willy Wonka as a metaphor). By having my day full of events and things to do, my mind very rarely wonders to things out of my control or unproductive Facebook lurking. I start my day with a smile as I work with children for the morning. The positive energy helps carry me through the afternoon, in which I am usually planning ahead to the next week and accomplishing what it is I need to get done for the remainder of the week.

Keeping ones self active with productive activities is not an easy feat. I find that breaking your day up into smaller more manageable and interesting tasks helps. To be honest, if I'm not interested in something I either don't want to do it or have a hard time focusing on it. Breaking up your day so that the uninteresting stuff is done sporadically throughout the day in between the interesting tasks, helps me keep a focus on work that needs to get done.

Next Post:
What happens if you don't have a 'hump day'? Perhaps you work a 6 day week or even a 4 day week. A new perspective of how you define your middle of the week.

See you on top of our next hump.