Nope! At least not on our team! Even though the kids are off to Nationals, we like to take a different approach. The level of intensity is just normal, if not lesser even. We keep the practices fun, happy, and enjoyable. Some technical focus on tiny little details, but no major changes or brutal strength/conditioning sessions. The athletes already know what to do, their bodies are already conditioned, and they’ve already mastered their art. They’ve been ready for awhile! So no amount of last-minute cramming or conditioning right now is going to help their performance at the competition, so instead we focus on having (1) fun, (2) learning new skills, (3) experimenting, and even (4) working on future routines for next season and beyond! A happy and healthy athlete performs much better than a nervous and tired one.
Here is Jack practicing Level 6 this week…..wait a minute, shouldn’t he be practicing hard on Level 5 right now? What gives! Let’s just sign him up to compete at L6 this week instead. 🙂