Dedication.

If I could say one word that is something that I have learned from the sport of Gymnastics, it would be DEDICATION. There is so much to say about how much of your time, your life you have to give up to practice enought to be good at this sport. I would know because for the last ten years of my life, I have chosen to give up little things like high school football, and basketball games, going out on all Friday, and some Saturday nights, for practice and competitions. Now I am not saying that I don't enjoy Gymnastics enough to not want to do it all over again, because by anymeans I would ive it all up again. But if you really want become good at it, it takes a lot of hard working hours in the gym. My daily schedule 4 days a week is being out of the house from 7:30 am to getting home around 8 pm. These are long days spent in school, then driving to gym, then doing three or four hours of gymnastics, then driving home, when I'm dead tired, and then having to my homework. But if you love it the way I do, it is truly worth it!

A GHOST GYMNAST!!

On a rainy night, in late October, a gymnast was carefully practicing, and putting the finishing touches on her floor routine. The coach decided to trust the gymnast and left her alone at the gym. She was down to her last tumbling pass, she began to run and all of a sudden she heard a crack of thunder that threw off her concentration, as she flipped she knew something had been wrong from the beginning she messed up, not making the second flip all the way around she landed on her head and snapped her neck. Since the coach had left her there all alone, she laid there and died slowly. The next morning the coach arrived at the gym to find the car still there and the gym unlocked. Since the gymnast was supposed to lock the door when she left the coach began to get chills and her hair stood on end. As she walked into the building she saw her prized gymnast laying on the floor, rushing out to her she realized that she was dead and had been for a while. The coach wept at the sight of the poor girl crumpled on the floor. As the days went on after the incident, the coach couldn't help but to feel as if she was not alone, as if she was being watched from a far in the gym. One day as she was leaving she felt the room get very cold, as she began to leave she felt the air around her go with her as she walked. A little spooked by these activities she began to run, but no matter how fast she ran she couldn't escape the feeling. When she finally arrived to the car she looked in the window and saw her reflection. Pausing to look further at herself, she realized that she was not alone in the reflection next to her was Lexie, her gymnast she had found days before. Scared, she looked around as if to find Lexie alive again standing next to her. But no one was there. When she looked back in the window Lexie was gone. A little shaken, the coach got in the car and went home. The next morning she came back to the gym. When she arrived there, written in the mirrors of the gym in chalk, was a message that said, "If only you hadn't left me!" The coach, was stunned, she couldn't talk or move and the other gymnasts and coaches didn't understand the message. The coach finally admitted to leaving her alone in the gym, Lexie feeling as if the coach felt guilty enough, wrote another message this one said, "I will go now, but promise me one thing, that you will always from now on take your coaching position seriously and take care of all the other gymnasts." The coach terrified, and filled with remorse agreed and forever more until the day she quit coaching never let a gymnast out of her sight at practice. THE END!

What's right for you?

An important part of gymnastics, and i guess sports in general is knowing your limits. Even when other people, friends, coaches, and parents push you farther then you think you can. Often times we push ourselves to be better, and skinnier. Prettier, or what ever we think that we need to be. I am not very good at saying no to a coach or a teammate when they ask me something to help or show them something. I got hurt about 3 months ago I was sick and in pain but I decided to keep practicing anyway. I got dizzy and fell off of the balance beam and severely sprained my ankle. My coach asked what happened and when I told him. He explained to me that I never should do something on a four inch wide beam when I am dizzy and honestly when I think about it now then it kinda makes sense. haha. But it works the other way around too. A girl in the Olympics in 1980 was about to start her floor routine when her coach told her to add a second flip at the end of her routine, she thought I am going to be too tired but he told her to do it anyway. She didn't have enough stamina or power and didn't make the flip all the way around. She landed on her head and her spine snapped ending her gymnastics career forever if she had just followed her instincts she would have competed another day. This is a perfect example of how you need to know your own limits, and go by them because no body but you can tell yourself what is a good or bad idea.

Exclusion.

Gymnastics is an extremely hard, challenging sport! Well I mean I guess I would call it a sport but there are many people that do not consider it a sport because it doesn't have exact rules for somethings, and the judges base the scores on their own opinions not something that can be the same everytime. Every gymnasts routine looks different in every judges eyes. So often times gymnastics gets excluded from the sports category.

Also gymnastics gets excluded from some people thinking that it is inside it's not a hard sport there is no way that you can sweat that much and so forth. Boy is that a lie. We are often getting sick or passing out from the heat inside the building because most places we practice are made out of massive metal buildings that attract heat. The buildings often get so hot that they do not cool down even with air conditioning on. Other buildings like the old gym that I went to do not even have air conditioning to cool it down. There are days that we practice because there are no laws saying that you cannot practice gymnastics when it gets to a certain temperature like the outside sports it doesn't occur to them that inside can be just as hot, and dangerous so often times gymnasts get put through the most grueling workouts possible.

NO PHYSICAL ACTIVITY! :(

In a life style which is always go go go, like mine, taking two weeks to sit down and do absolutely nothing it is rather boring. I had surgery last week and the doctor said no conditioning or practicing for two weeks. Well it lasted about 3 days before I felt well enough to want to do things again, and as time went on I did more and more. But as a gymnast my coach told me that I must let my body rest. So I did what they said and listened, and well you know it's kinda funny but you feel much better when you sleep the right amount of hours and listen to doctors orders. I was really bummed when it came to missing two weeks of gymnastics practice, but I found out with the help of a good friend and coach that I can do things at home like watch routines, pick out music, and other things that would further my gymnastics career without putting too much stress on the stitches and scabs in my body. I am feeling much better now and will be back to gymnastics on Thursday!

Coaches and Friendship

Some of the best coaches are ones that you can connect with. I know that my coach is probably one of the best friends that I have ever had. We can finish each others thoughts and sentences, often times we bicker and argue because we are so much alike that we cannot stand how long we have been around each other. But other times he is just that person that I need to talk to, when everything is going so haywire and I am extremely overwhelmed. His name is Josh. Josh is my coach and has been for about four years. We have been through much of my gymnastics career and through most of the biggest obstacles that I have overcome. Two years ago I fractured my back, Josh how ever worked with me for long hours figuring out how to stay healthy with my eating habits, and how to do conditioning (workouts specific to parts of my body) to keep me fit without straining my back. He also helped me surpass the frustrations that were present when I started practicing again after almost 3 months of nothing. But don't get me wrong he isn't just a coach. He is my best friend, we have talked about everything from school to boys, and he has been there for me all the way. He gives me advice when he knows what to say and when he doesn't have any comments he just sits there and listens as I rant and rave about everything that has and will probably go wrong. This week I am having my tonsils removed and once again my best friend will be sitting in the waiting room with my mother to make sure that when everything is said and done that I am okay. Josh will get up early and go with me to something that is going to be hard on my gymnastics career. We are going to sit and research music for my routines, and work on my gymnastics from my house instead of the gym. He is very dedicated to helping me achieve my goals as a coach, and on the way I happened to find the best guy friend that I could ask for.