Her game, taken seriously.

New here? Start with how it works

• How gymnastics scoring works — every routine is two scores added together: a difficulty score that grows with the skills she attempts, and an execution score that starts at a perfect 10 and takes deductions. That one frame explains most "wait, she fell and still won" moments
• How the women's pro basketball game works — four 10-minute quarters, a 24-second shot clock, a slightly smaller ball than the men's game; the WNBA and the college game share the shape
• Volleyball's moving parts — rally scoring (every rally scores a point), sets to 25, and the libero: the defensive specialist in the different-colored jersey
• Fastpitch softball — seven innings, underhand windmill pitching, a tighter field than baseball; the same family, a different game

Ask Luka for any of these in full — explainers are his stock in trade, and current-season facts (schedules, rosters, standings) he gives only sourced and dated, never from memory.

Follow along, together

• Watch-together picks — the week's game worth gathering for, posted to the Board with the storyline that makes it matter
• Learn Her Game thread — the weekly ritual: one thing you learned about her sport this week — a rule, a skill, a player's story — posted by whoever learned it
• Newcomer questions, no eye-rolling — the room where "I don't know what a libero is" gets a straight answer and a good game to watch it in

Her Game lives on the Board →

Cartwheel → roundoff → handspring

The tumbling progression, in plain words — what each skill is:

• Cartwheel — the sideways rotation, hand-hand-foot-foot. The first tumbling skill most kids meet
• Roundoff — the cartwheel's athletic cousin: hands down the same way, but the feet snap together in the air and land side by side with a rebound. It exists to turn running speed into backward power
• Back handspring — the backward flip onto the hands and back up to the feet. The gateway skill of floor tumbling — a roundoff flowing into a back handspring is the foundational pass the whole sport builds on
• And around it — walkovers (slow, controlled, flexibility-driven), the kip on bars (the swing-and-rise that gets her up onto the bar), tuck vs layout (knees bent vs body straight, mid-flip), and "sticking the landing"

Each step exists because the next one needs its power or its body shape. Luka can walk you through any sport's vocabulary the same way — just ask.

How the ladder works

• Levels — gymnastics runs a numbered levels ladder (plus a parallel track for gymnasts who compete without the full-time commitment). Placement is the gym's call after an evaluation, and moving up is about clean basics at the current level, not about age
• Tryouts — softball, volleyball, soccer, and cheer all run the same shape: evaluation sessions, coaches sorting by current skill and coachability, rosters posted after. Your job in tryout week is logistics and calm
• What to budget for — the categories, honestly framed: class and tuition fees, team and meet/competition fees, gear that gets outgrown on schedule (leotards, grips, shoes, gloves, bats), and travel as the level rises. Prices are each club's to state — this room names the categories, never an invented figure

“Cartwheel 101” — Planet Gymnastic Staff Page, on YouTube

Luka's watch-for: the hands. They land one at a time, on one straight line — hand, hand, foot, foot. Her body passes through a wide straddle handstand; that shape is borrowed by every skill that comes after. And watch the finish: a lunge, facing back the way she came, hips squared. A sloppy finish here becomes a sloppy roundoff later — which is why coaches are picky about this one.

• Start — lunge, arms up by her ears
• Reach — first hand down, in line with the front foot
• Over — second hand follows on the same line; legs kick over in a wide straddle
• Land — first foot, then the second, back in a lunge

Ask Luka about this skill →

“Round Off Tutorial (Adult Gymnastics)” — Tyson Edwards, on YouTube

Luka's watch-for: this coach's tutorial is filmed for adult learners, which makes it the clearest look going at what a roundoff actually is. It's a cartwheel with the ending changed: halfway through, the feet snap together in the air and land side by side — then watch the rebound, chest up, bouncing up and back. That bounce is the entire point. A roundoff is a battery: it turns running speed into backward power for whatever comes next. If the feet land behind her, the power leaks forward and dies.

• Run and hurdle — the short, quick step that loads the skill
• Hands down — placed like a cartwheel, one then the other
• Snap — feet join in the air, land together
• Rebound — up and back, chest tall, ready to connect

A power skill — learned on a spring floor and mats, at her coach's pace.

Ask Luka about this skill →

“How to Do a Round Off Handspring Drill | Gymnastics” — Howcast, on YouTube

Luka's watch-for: this is the famous connection — roundoff flowing toward a back handspring — broken down the way gyms actually teach it. Watch the drill's shape: roundoff up onto a mat, then dropping backward onto another mat, over and over. Nobody is flipping yet. They're teaching her body that backward is where the momentum already wants to go. Notice the soft landings everywhere — deliberate, and why this stage takes weeks, not a day.

• Roundoff onto a raised mat — land tall
• Drop backward — onto a mat stack, arms tight, feet together
• Repeat with less pause — the two shapes grow into one motion
• The full connection — mats, a spot, and her coach's say-so

Ask Luka about this skill →

“How to Do a Back Handspring | Gymnastics Lessons” — Howcast, on YouTube

Luka's watch-for: watch the first drill, not the flip — jumping backward onto a mat and landing on her back. The whole skill is trust aimed backward. Then the bridge snap-down: pushing off the legs and snapping to her feet is the handspring's second half, rehearsed alone. When the full skill comes, watch the arms — straight and locked by the ears. Bent arms are how heads meet floors, and the coach in this video says the same thing about the spot that this room says below.

• Jump-back drill — backward onto a mat, landing on her back
• Bridge snap-down — the second half, rehearsed on its own
• With a spot — over a mat first, then on the floor
• Solo — only when her coach calls it

The safety line, plainly: this is the skill this room is bluntest about. A back handspring is learned in a gym, on mats, with a trained spot — full stop. A parent never spots one from video confidence; spotting is itself a trained skill. This video is so you can follow what she's working on — not so anyone practices it at home.

Ask Luka about this skill →

“How Gymnastics Scoring Works — 15 Minute Guide Explained by a former Judge” — GymnasticsHQ, on YouTube

Luka's watch-for: a former judge walks the two numbers you've been staring at in the stands. Difficulty (D) builds up from zero — she earns it with the skills she attempts. Execution (E) starts at a perfect 10 and only goes down: every bent knee, flexed foot, and step on a landing is a small subtraction, and a fall costs a full point. That's the answer to the car-ride question — “she fell, how did she still win?” Her D was high enough to absorb it.

• Guess the D — what did she attempt?
• Watch the E leak — steps, splits, wobbles, in tenths
• Add them — that's the score on the board

Ask Luka to walk a routine →

How a video earns its place here

Every video on this shelf comes from a coach, a gym, a federation, or a teacher the sport itself trusts — and was checked before it went up. Luka wraps each one in the layer above: what to watch for, the steps in words, the safety line.

Want one on a skill that isn't here? Ask Luka. If a reputable video exists, he'll surface it right here with his notes around it. If it doesn't, he'll tell you that instead of handing you junk — and he'll explain the skill himself, in words, the way this page does.

Ask Luka for a skill →

What she's into, explained straight

The music on repeat. The show the whole group chat is watching. The book series with the waitlist at the library. The slang that arrived this semester. The fandom with its own lore, events, and vocabulary. Ask Luka what any of it is — what it is, why it lands, what the words mean — and get a genuine briefing, in plain language.

Always respectfully. Luka explains her world the way he'd explain a sport to a newcomer: seriously, because it's serious to her. Never mocking, never dismissive — that's not a style choice in this room, it's the rule the room runs on.

The dinner-table test

The point of the Translator isn't trivia about her interests — it's one real conversation tonight where she gets to be the expert and you get to actually follow. Learn the vocabulary, ask the second question, and let her correct you. Kids remember who took the time.

Ask Luka to translate something →