My Sport

     I am a gymnast, have been for almost 11 years. I started when I was about two when my mom and I did a "Mommy and Me" class. I instantly fell in love with the sport and I have loved it ever since. Along the way I have had many successes and many, many failures. This is a hard sport, no matter what people say. Even when they say differently you know for a fact that there is no way that they are able to do any of the skills that you do on a daily basis at practice.

     Bars is my favorite event. Out of the four events; bars, beam, floor, and vault, I like it best.  Not because I score the best on it, because that would be floor. Bars is all about power. I can let loose and just go hard. My routine is only about 20 seconds long, but it consists of 11 skills all preformed to the best of my ability. I have always loved bars. In the lower levels (3, 4 & 5) it was because I scored the best on it, but bars has always come easy to me. Now that I am a level 8 it is because everything I do on bars feels right, like I was meant to do it, and that is how I want to feel on every event.
      In the past year I went to regionals. As a level 8 I can go to regionals, but that is as far as I can go. If I was a level 9 I could have gone to westerns, if I was a level 10 I could have gone to nationals. But I am only a level 8, and I was a not very good level 8 last year. It was my first year of level 8 and every one was a little supprised that I had made it to regionals. I did not place or get any where close to placing. Even though I did terrible in that meet, it was still a great experience. Earlier that year I was questioning whether I should move back to level 7 because I didn't have all my skills as a level 8 and I had no confidence that I could do well because I was doing so badly in the previous meets. I have two coaches that work with me the most and one of them was not fully on board for me to be a level 8 in the first place. But my other coach persuaded me to become a level 8 and to keep being a level 8. I have her to thank, because if she hadn't told me to keep at it I would never have been able to go to regionals.
      There's a reason google says gymnastics is the hardest sport. Gymnastics is 90% mental and 10% physical. I love gymnastics because of what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it. Like the other day, I just got new grips (basically a piece of leather that helps you to hang on to the bar) and I was afraid to do my giants (a skill where you are straight and swinging all the way around the high bar). I was scared to death to do them and I had been working on doing them again for about 3 weeks. I was getting pretty frustrated with myself because I wouldn't go for my skill, but when I finally went for it, it was the best feeling in the world. You do gymnastics for those moments. You feel on top of the world, and nothing is going to stop you from getting to that feeling again.