On the inside : We Have A Gymnast

My daughter is a gymnast and people don't quite understand what that means. She misses out on things because she is in the gym practicing. She spends most of her free time at gymnastics, or practicing at home. She loves the sport. If she didn't we wouldn't waste our time with it. People don't get it. I have encountered many people who think we "make" her do the sport. You really think I want to disrupt my life for gymnastics, a sport I knew nothing about until recently? My daughter has shed many tears, has fallen on beams, off bars and ran and didn't land correctly on vault. She has slipped and fallen on her head learning back handsprings and she has ripped her hands, smashed her toes, bruised her legs all in the name of this sport. She loves it. It's her passion. I saw it early on when she was about 4. I knew this was going to be her thing. She started to become obsessed with perfecting her cartwheels and forward rolls. She would pay particular interest in how people would land their feet after a one handed cartwheel. She would come home talking about gymnastics and spent half her days in a hand stand. She loves it.

As we have started a new journey into a whole new gymnastics world I have really seen her come out of her shell as a gymnast. Practices are a lot more grueling than they had been previously and she is nailing skills she wasn't even attempting before. She is starting to really FEEL the movements instead of just doing it. She's been at her new gymnastics place for a month and my the difference you see in this child. She looks like a completely different gymnast and I've had a few people even tell me this. Bad habits are breaking and she is gaining more confidence. She doesn't get discouraged because other girls can do the shoot through and stride circle perfect every time. She always says, "I'm a different person and a different gymnast and I'll get it in my own time." She is right. She is different. She is exceptional in my eyes and while she is not placing first or even really placing in meets yet, we know she has the ability to do so. Her first competition was super rocky, and her second she looked better and had way more confidence (but she scored lower). The third competition she actually placed 5th on floor out of 9 girls in her group! It was thrilling to see her hard work for the past month paying off. She was grinning ear to ear and she was beyond excited for her medals! She scored a whopping 32.050 compared to the 29s she had been scoring at the previous meets. We have been so impressed by how much she has grown as a gymnast here recently. I expect great things from her if she continues to practice hard, try and wants to keep moving forward.

We have 9 more practices til the next gymnastics meet and she is bound and determined to run faster for vault, nail her stride circle and shoot through every time on bars, have a higher handstand, handstand dismount, and jump higher on beam, and perfect her floor routine and clean it up. She has set goals herself and I cannot wait to watch her continue her growth and stamina!