CHRISTMAS!

One year for christmas, I wanted several things, I mean as kids don't we all have millions of things on our lists and probably get like four or five of them at the most? Well, I told my mother that I wasn't gonna tell her what I wanted because Santa was gonna get it for me, well this was when I was about 12 years old and yeah I pretty much knew already that Santa Claus couldn't be real, but I still wanted to believe it ya know? Well anyways, I got a present that year that I will never ever forget, I told them to get me something good, but I wasn't gonna tell them what that might be so they would just have to figure it out. Well, my parents probably got me what i thought at the time was the coolest present ever. On Christmas morning I came to the tree with my mommy and daddy and little sister Kate who was at the time about 6. Well Kate got this cool little fake computer thing to play games on (her big present) and I had opened what had appeared to be all of mine, and didn't have a big present this year. I was bummed to say the least I mean when you are twelve years old, your super excited about Christmas, and opening your presents. Afterwards, I just sat there while Kate was playing with her new toys, wondering what I had done to not get a major present this year. A little while later my mom said "Sarah come here." I said okay and walked to her. My dad jumped out and covered my eyes, and walked me down the stairs, and into the playroom. He counted to three and uncovered my eyes. Sitting in the middle of my playroom floor, was a balance beam that my dad had stayed up all night christmas night and many weeks before building for me. I was so excited, I GOT A BALANCE BEAM, and even though that was already pretty great next to it was two mats, they had also gotten me! I was extremely excited, and felt guilty about wanting them to get me a real present! But I was just a kid, I didnt know that was down there. So for the rest of Christmas day, me and my little sister held imaginary gymnastics competitions in my basement, pretending first me being the gymnast and her the judge, then flipflopping positions. It was a ton of fun and to this day I still have the balance beam in playroom, in my basement, at home.

Random things my team and I do and say at gymnastics practice:

1.       I do not feel well enough to be doing that today coach; please don’t make me do it?

2.       Coach, can I skip the balance beam today, I’m dizzy? Did you just say the D word?

3.       I am to hyper to participate.

4.       You know what we should do today at practice, practice in our Halloween costumes!

5.       Young gymnast: May we run? Coach: Yes! Older Gymnast: Okay, sit down and do not move.

6.       My hand is bleeding under the skin, look how cool this is, it moves!

7.       I do believe that all gymnasts are weird.

8.       Laugh hysterically when we break a bone, or in a lot of pain!

9.       Eat chalk.

10.   Sweat a lot, then lie on the mats and leave body prints.

11.   Have fun together making up funny floor routines, to random music!

12.   Torment Coach Josh (: [BEST ONE]

13.   Hey coach can I go take my meds?

14.   Me: It’s like two hundred degrees in here! Coach: Actually it’s not its, 60 and I’m freezing!

15.   They lied to me they told me that Giants were jolly and green, not scary!

16.   O my gosh, look at my leg its already bruising! COOL!

17.   Why didn’t I get a bruise, no fair!

18.   I forget my routine: /

19.   I really could use some sticky buns right now! (glue that stops your leotard from riding up)

20.   All that I’m after is a life full of laughter, as long as I’m laughing with MO!

Frustrations

Last night at gymnastics practice I became very frustrated. To the point of tears and I have not been to that point in forever but last night it was just too much to bear. After coming back from my surgery and time off I have had a little bit of a hard time getting back into doing some of my skills. Last night I could not for the life of me do a full twist. Well this really got to me, not because no I cannot do the skill. Because yes it is a hard skill to do, but the part that got me was this is a skill I have been doing since I was about eleven years old and I have been competing since I was thirteen, and what all of a sudden I do not remember how to do it. That frustrates me a little bit, well okay I’m lying that frustrates me a lot. I tried really hard to not let it get to me, but I finally got to the point where I just lost it, which is never good because it throws off your whole night at practice. I finally got it back into gear and continued tumbling, no I never actually got that skill completed last night but I was able to get myself into check so that I could complete other tumbling passes and work on my floor routine. In gymnastics sometimes you just have those days when you are off and cannot do something, and I just think sometimes its better to move on and not dwell on that for the rest of practice.

Being Exhausted.

You know that feeling where everything is beginning to slow down, and you just do not think that there is any possible way that you have enough energy to get everything done? Well welcome to my life, ha-ha. Often times I am up to all hours of the night trying to complete the homework that I get from my various honors and AP classes, but I probably wouldn’t be if it didn’t have to do with the fact that I am so devoted to gymnastics. I have gymnastics practice three to four days a week depending on the time of year. These practices last from directly after school putting me home around 7:45 or 8, almost every school night a week. I get to the point where exhaustion takes over and I just cannot do anything else. This weekend was a great example of how I can be exhausted and still have things to do. On Thursday I had school and had a lot of homework but thank goodness it wasn’t due until Monday right? Well I mean that’s kinda what I was thinking, but it ended up back firing. I had gymnastics Thursday night and decided I would do the Thursday homework over the weekend, well I had a church retreat this weekend and we left at 4:30 after school on Friday and got home on Sunday at 4. I thought that I would have plenty of time, but when I got home I was so exhausted from staying up late and doing back to back activity at the retreat. I ended up staying up till 11 doing homework last night when I needed to be in bed probably honestly closer to 9. Sometimes I wonder when my body is just going to say that is enough Sarah, STOP and TAKE A BREAK! But so far it just hasn’t really happened, so I guess until it does I am going to continue doing gymnastics like I do, and love!

Inside competitors

Sometimes the worst competitors are the ones on you team. The people that make you the maddest and the most competitive may be from people that you see every other day. But for me it's just a little bit different, see my gym is split into two different sections, one in henderson and one in madisonville. The only gymnast at either of the gym that is any where near my level is a 14 year old named Logan. She is one level behind me but her coach often pits us against one another. She often is quite hateful. I find sometimes the hardest competition to deal with is the one that is in your own gym system. I feel as if they should be focused more on beating other teams then beating a person on their own team.

Honest Feedback.

Sometimes I feel like no matter how hard I try I am not good enough for coaches, or parents, or teachers for that matter, if I make a comment, that no matter how good I meant it to be it's taken badly, telling people what I think of something has always been what I am good at, now I may be wrong but I would have thought that they would want the truth the unsugercoated version, when I tell a coach that I do not like the routine that we have been working on, and hey that skill just isn't gonna work out for me, or when I tell my family that I have been having a hard time with how this and that have been working at the house, and when I give teachers feedback on whether or not I liked an assignment or not. Now I always have the attitude that I would want someone to be honest with me, even if I would not like what they said. I would rather someone say you look big in that leotard then tell me I look great and hear them later talking about it or see myself and know that what they said was a lie. So I mean maybe I am wrong but I am going to stick with the opinion that honesty is the best policy.

How young is too young?

A big controversy in many countries is how young is too young to begin thinking about college plans for big sports plans and so forth. For gymnastics we have been talking about this alot lately. I feel as if yes there is a way to make it to much for such a young person but at the same time if you start gymnastics or I guess start trying at gymnastics too late in life, it is now very difficult to get a scholarship for it when you are competeing with some girls that are extremely good, and serious from a very young age. I believe though that it should be fun and not all just competition and being so strict on your body you get burnt out. I know a little girl named Mckayla, she is 8 years old and is at the same level of competition that I am. Now in my opinion that is too young. Her whole entire life is in the gym, yes she is good, actually she is great, and will very likely be one of the faces that you see of the Olympic team years down the road, but at the same time I can't help but to think, well if she even does it for that long and doesn't get burnt out on it too soon. This little girl is eight years old, she knows that when she becomes older that she wants to be a level ten gymnast and get a full ride scholarship to University of Georgia. Now not to discourage her, or her hopes and dreams, but that is ten maybe eleven years away. That is the same amount of time that I have been doing gymnastics now and I am going on 17. I do not know where I want to go, all I know is that I hope to get a scholarship as well. I just think that because of the fact that her mom is the coach that she has been brought up in the gym and has never known or had a chance to experience the life outside of gymnastics, and if she keeps going the way she is, then unfortunately she never will. I don't want to tell her to give up that dream just yet but there are many things that she will have to go through first such as middle school and high school where you are introduced to dances, games, driving, and of course you wake up and realize that no the opposite gender isn't just as gross as you had always thought. I am thankful that I go to a gym with good coaches, who love me, but they also realize that sometimes I have things in life to do outside of gymnastics and they are okay with that, I just hope that all of those young gymnasts out there are doing it because its what they want, not their parents or their coaches, and they have fun with it, and the day that it is no longer fun, is the day they should realize they are competing for the wrong reasons. I hope that they stay in it because many gymnasts stop their careers in high school and many never get to see the joys and competitive spirit of college gymnastics. I think that coaches really need to understand that you cannot be making those big time decisions about what level you want to compete, what college you want to attend at age, eight and nine, and I hope that they keep in mind that gymnasts like little Mckayla, need to have a chance to experience other aspects of life other then just the inside of a gym.

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY :D

Best Friend Tierney.

This blog is going to be completely devoted 100% to my best friend, Tierney Barr. :) Over the years, we have been through a lot together, but a fond memory that I have is the first day we ever met. We were four years old in a class at Owensboro Gymnast. We were the only kids in the class with a lot of energy to run around and of course drive the teacher insane. We giggled and it was friendship from the very start. This friendship continued from preschool, to elementary school, from little kid classes to the team program. We were on the team together at Owensboro Gymnast for about 8 years until she decided to quit competing. I then went to a different gym, but we still remained friends, from age 4 til age 12 we spent almost every day or every other day together at some point or another. But as time went on, she quit, i switched gyms, and we saw less and less of one and other; when we did have time to see each other however it seemed like nothing had changed we were still the crazy, loving best friends we had always been with the hilarious inside jokes, that may or may not have been appropriate. The scary movies she loved and I absolutely hated... and many more things. But now we are both sixteen and have both begun driving, and we BOTH work teaching gymnastics to little children at Owensboro Gymnast together. We have begun to find time to spend with each other more and more, and I must say that I am happy neither of us has gotten to mature to actually have any fun. We work out before teaching on Mondays and often share a text or phone call, but most importantly of all I know she has my back if I ever need and I would hope that she knows it works either way around, because being best friends doesn't necassarily mean that you are unseperable it means that you can be seperated but when you have time to be together it is like nothing had ever changed! And man am I ever grateful for that first preschool gymnastics class that gave me the friend of a lifetime!