Off the mats, on to the page
Toolbox
By Tom Haley Herald Staff - Published: November 28, 2008
PROCTOR — Jilted by the sport she loves, Proctor's Laurie Gallus has turned her energy from competing in gymnastics to serving it as an author and inventor.
Gallus has written a book titled Flip Outside the Box, a work depicting creative women's gymnastics elements. She also has a patent pending on a training device called the trampoline balance beam.
But back to the part where the 48-year-old Gallus believes she has been unfairly shut out of competitive gymnastics. In a sport where women have been thought to be past their prime after their teens, she became the Vermont state champion at 34 years old in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise. She took the silver medal in the all-around that year.
But she said that is when things began to get complicated. Parents did not think it fair that their daughters had to compete against an older woman. She began to run out of gyms that would allow her to train and compete in the serious fashion she wanted to.
She trained for awhile at a gym in South Glens Falls, N.Y., then at age 38, resorted to living in the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire for six months where she trained five days as week, with her husband Gary visiting her on weekends. Then she trained at a facility in Rochester, N.Y., at age 39.
When that didn't work out, that was it.
Facilities training gymnasts were for young people. She was given excuses, she said. The proprietors and coaches told her they were afraid she would get hurt. The truth, she said, was they felt it a waste of time to be working with an older gymnast.
"I just gave up and said that I was going to put my heart into this book," Gallus said.
"I love the sport too much to just drop it. I had to do something with the sport."
That something was to self-publish the book with money she had saved for four years from working at Proctor-Pittsford Country Club.
The book is a series of drawings depicting original elements for the balance beam, floor exercise, uneven bars and vault. Constructing them was a painstaking process. She performed each element in front of her window, studied the reflection and then made the drawing.
Gallus had watched with admiration when Olga Korbut weaved her Olympic magic with original moves.
She was in awe of Nadia Comaneci with her new and sensational routines in becoming an Olympic hero.
"Her beam routine was phenomenal and very different," Gallus said.
But then she felt all that originality went out of the sport.
"The sport has stagnated, in my opinion, since Nadia," Gallus said. "They all really look alike."
Her answer? The book. It is her plan for this title to be the first in a three-book series.
She attempted to have the book published, but all the publishing houses only wanted to talk with her if she had an agent.
She finally paid Morris Publishing in Kearney, Neb., to do the job.
During the foreword for the book she writes:
Gymnasts need to strive to be different, thus setting themselves apart from the rest of their competitors. It is this author's sincere desire that the gymnastics elements illustrated in this book will aid in the development of original routines and encourage artistic expression and creativity. If that be the case, this book has served its purpose.
I commend coaches that desire for their gymnasts to perform unique and artistic routines. If we continue to explore new possibilities for expressing personality through gymnastics movement, our sport will grow and flourish.
Nobody is more qualified to evaluate such a book than a gymnastics judge. Castleton's Gail McGann is the judging director for Vermont and a nationally rated judge. She flies to the four corners of the country to be an official in college gymnastics meets. Her schedule the last two years has taken her to places like Stanford, Michigan, Georgia and Penn State.
"Her drawings and descriptions were very good," McGann said.
"There were some that were kind of wild. Some were kind of difficult for the high school gymnast. Others were very doable for the high school gymnast.
McGann feels there are routines in the book that would give accomplished gymnasts a definite edge.
"They were very different and very artistic. They could be real eye-openers for the elite athletes," McGann said.
"The only thing I would have done differently, and this is probably hindsight, is to suggest to coaches and gymnasts in the book's forward to contact their regional director about getting point values assigned to the routines.
"Overall it was very good."
Gallus is a maverick in a sport where so much of the emphasis has been on youth. There was an article about her in a 2003 issue of Inside Gymnastics titled "This Mom Still Loves to Do Gymnastics."
And although her days of competitive gymnastics might be behind her, she still has a small gym with all the equipment built onto her home in Proctor.
"I'm obsessed. I admit it," she said while showing off the home gym.
"They laughed at me," she said of the reaction to most to the pursuit of her dream well into her 40s.
"I wanted a gym where I can still go and do the sport. Why can't I train as hard as a kid?"
Completing the book was an accomplishment, but selling it is quite another. Gallus knows it might be difficult to find a market for a book that is so specialized.
The book will be advertised in the holiday gift guide of Inside Gymnastics magazine and people can find out how to order it on the Internet at flipoutsidethebox.com.
The book isn't her only attempt at contributing to her sport through avenues other than being an athlete. She and Gary have built the trampoline balance beam and have a patent pending on the apparatus.
"It is a balance beam that bounces, making the training easier," she said.
The patent process involved plenty of work, including making a video that shows young gymnasts training on it.
"We've gone through all the hoops," Gallus said.
She explains the beam event is overdue for this invention.
"The floor exercises put springs in the floor in the 1980s and the vaulting horse changed shape the last few years. Every event has evolved except the balance beam," she said.
"I am trying to revolutionize gymnastics. It has been stuck in a rut too long.
"We checked with a patent attorney in Albany and he said there is nothing like it in the world."
Jack Welch is now the patent attorney for the apparatus, assisting them with the licensing and marketing of the invention.
"Unquestionably the device is a remarkable departure from the present art of the balance beam," Welch said.
He said it enables "gymnasts to greatly improve their technique on the balance beam and their acrobatic undertakings by the inherent elasticity that is built into the device."
Welch said he is very happy with the initial enthusiasm it has received.
The Rutland attorney said he has been impressed by what Gary and Laurie have brought to the project.
"They are very creative," Welch said. "Laurie has been a very talented gymnast and Gary is very talented with machining and carpentry."
Laurie Gallus still feels she has much to contribute to the sport as an athlete, but at age 48 her detractors in that area are many. They have caused her plenty of frustration.
They also might have done her a favor without intending to do so.
With her career as a gymnast at a dead end, Gallus might have found the road that will take her to a place that will make her legacy one of the great contributors to the sport.
That road is paved with uncertainly and lined with speed bumps, but the destination signs are becoming clearer.
Contact Tom Haley at tom.haley@rutlandherald.com
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