Raising the bar at Apollo
Jason Hornick/News & Messenger
Apollo’s first Level 10 girls team includes Megan McDonald, left, Kristin Blades, Jenny Antosh and Paige Krall
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By Dave Utnik
Published: September 14, 2008
Sweat mixed with chalk as the reigning Level 10 state uneven bars champion adjusted her grips, took a deep breath and prepared to try another dismount.
Krall had already conquered a series of handstands on the low bar — the first phase of a one-hour training session on her favorite event — and she was determined to complete the final element of her routine without over-rotating.
“I want to do that one again,” she said. “I can get it.”
At this point in the club season, repetition is a priority for every Apollo gymnast, even state champions. Combinations and high scores will come in time. That’s the way head coach Ken Anderson has it all planned.
In September, practice is all about perfecting individual skills and then piecing them together into a medal-winning routine. Anderson refers to it as “periodization” — a carefully crafted work-out schedule that is the foundation of Apollo’s first Level 10 program.
“You don’t go from skills right to a full set,” said Anderson, who came to Apollo from MarVa-Teens two months ago. “You just gradually introduce more and more so when it comes time to do a full routine they aren’t overwhelmed. You break the routines into parts and then you gradually start putting the parts together.”
Krall’s routine features some fairly extravagant parts. There’s a Jaeger release move, a shootover and a full twist double back pike dismount. Even by Level 10 standards, these are diffi-cult skills that require hours of preparation and hundreds of flips into the Styrofoam pit.
“There are requirements at every level,” Anderson said. “They have to have certain things in their routines and if they meet all the requirements then their start value is a 9.5. That leaves them five tenths that they have to get in bonus or combinations.”
For Krall, who joined the Apollo team two weeks ago after reaching Level 10 at Capital Gymnas-tics National Training Center, uneven bars is the pinnacle event of her all-around routine, though floor exercise is something of a specialty as well.
She has won two Level 9 state championships on the floor and the 16-year-old Westfield High School junior also finished fourth at the 2007 national championship meet. With Anderson’s help, she hoping to make it back to nationals again in early May.
“I love being here. The gym is such a great place,” she said. “I heard about Ken coming here and I really wanted to join. I was a little unhappy with gymnastics at Capital so I thought I’d try to go somewhere new and start over and really love gymnastics again.”
Anderson has a history of helping elite level gymnasts achieve their goals. The former special education teacher and Temple University gymnast has worked with Olympians Dominique Dawes and Elise Ray as well as world champion Courtney Kupets during an illustrious coaching career that began in Cherry Hill, N.J.
“It’s awesome to represent your country in an international competition,” said Anderson, who was Kelli Hill’s assistant when Dawes competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials and the World Champi-onships in 1996. “Worlds was actually more fun than the Olympic Trials. We trained for an entire week so we got to watch the Russians, we got to watch the Chinese. It was neat to see the way they do things.
“But I’m not really setting my sights on the Olympics. That’s like the ultimate dream,” he said. “For the upper level kids my goal is that each one can get a college scholarship. I think that’s a more realistic goal to focus on. At the lower levels it’s just to enjoy success at the level they’re at and then move onto the next level. I’ve always said the better one kid gets the better everybody gets. They kind of pull each other along.”
That dynamic already exists at Apollo, where the fledgling Level 10 squad features three na-tional meet qualifiers: Jenny Antosh, from Churchill, Megan McDonald, from Osbourn Park, and Krall. Battlefield junior Kristin Blades and North Stafford’s Megan Melendez are former state meet participants.
“We want everyone to notice Apollo,” said Blades, who is in her first season as a Level 10 com-petitor. “I want to get all the new skills I’m learning so I can have a really good all-around. That would be awesome. And, since I’m a junior, I really want to get a scholarship and I want to make it to nationals.”
And that is why Anderson is here.
Since he was hired as Apollo’s first Level 10 head coach, the optional program (Levels 7 through 10) has grown to more than 30 gymnasts.
“It just seems to be getting larger week by week,” he said.
The opportunity to train with Anderson is a significant draw. Gymnasts are now driving from as far away as Rockville and Virginia Beach to be a part of the team.
“He’s a really good coach. It’s great to be able to work with him at this really nice gym,” said An-tosh, who began training with Anderson as a Level 9 gymnast in Rockville. “Everyone here is so nice.”
Antosh, who placed seventh on floor exercise at the Level 9 Eastern National Meet in 2006, be-lieves the hour-long commute from Maryland is worth it. She wants to compete in college next season and training at Apollo can help her accomplish that goal.
Many of Anderson’s former gymnasts have excelled at the collegiate level. Kelly Moran, a Level 10 Maryland state champion on vault and floor, was a star at Brown University, while Stephanie Sullivan, who won regional titles on floor and beam, and former Maryland all-around champion Stephanie Ortiz both competed at Penn State.
“I didn’t really plan to be a coach. When I first got out of college I was teaching as a part-time job and one thing just led to another. I started out at Cherry Hill in New Jersey and the team just started getting better and better. I sort of just fell into it.”
He discovered gymnastics in similar fashion.
During his freshman year in high school, he happened to walk past the gym and saw someone tumbling on the floor exercise mat.
“I said, ‘I have to do that.’ And that was that,” Anderson explained.
His tumbling days are over now, but Anderson is still creating champions in the gym. Apollo’s first Level 10 club competition in front of judges is scheduled for Oct. 26. That gives him almost six weeks to piece together routines with the help of assistant coaches Elizabeth Pulkownik and Gienek Pulkownik.
“One of the reasons I came here is because the facility is world class. Hopefully we’ll be able to do some things here,” Anderson said. “It’s beautiful. It has state-of-the-art equipment with in-ground pits.
“It’s very exciting. They had two coaches here already who were doing a good job. Now, it’s three of us doing it together.”
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