The year is 1999. A young girl is wearing a light blue Powerpuff Girl leotard and is waiting impatiently for her first ever gymnastics lesson with her friends. She gawks through the glass windows and is mesmerized at the gymnast swinging on the bars. After the quick class stretch, she takes her first steps on the balance beam and feels invincible. While her friends in the class need help walking across, she does it all by herself on the first try. This little girl was once me. This was the year that I discovered the sport of gymnastics.
They say that everyone is born with a talent. Sometimes people find it and use it in their lives, and sometimes people never discover their talents until later in life. Sometimes people find their talents and choose not to use them. I discovered that I had an inborn talent at a young age. A talent that a majority of young children don’t have. There are many common talents that young kids have such as acting, dancing, playing instruments or singing and those are all great in their own ways. However, I had a different talent. My talent was unique. I had natural flexibility to bend backwards without even grimacing in pain. I had the strength to hold myself on the bar and pull myself over at a young age. I was known to be one of the bravest little girls at school because I was the only child who could hang upside down and swing across the monkey bars all by myself without any fear. Little did I know that my talent would eventually reach new heights and I would soon be able to fly, flip, twist and defy gravity in multiple different ways. Unlike the talented child actors, singers and dancers…my talent was uncommon. I had a natural inborn talent of a gymnast.
I was born on October 26th, 1995. On that same day in 2001, I was turning six years old. That was the day that I had my biggest gymnastics birthday party at the YMCA. All of my friends from school came and we all had a blast jumping on the trampoline, playing in the pit, and being on all of the equipment. I think that was the true moment where I knew that I wanted to be a gymnast.
After taking a few recreational classes over a few years, my coach approached my mother and told her I had a lot of potential to take my talents to a competitive level. I remember my coach bringing my mother into the gym to see for herself what I can do. She made me lay on my stomach on the balance beam while grabbing the bottom of the apparatus and bring my toes to my head (and I even could go as far as touching my toes to my noes), while my mother just stood there in shock of my natural back flexibility. My coach then brought me to the floor and had me perform a cartwheel and a backbend kick-over. Finally, she had me show my mom my skills on bars, as I did a pullover and a back-hip circle. Soon after, my mother searched for gyms that would be willing to evaluate my skills in order to make a competitive team. By the age of seven, I was evaluated at Tampa Gymnastics and Dance and soon after my evaluation, accepted on a competitive gymnastics team.
I grew up in the city of Tampa, Florida, known to be one of Florida’s biggest metropolitan areas. A city full of a perfect blend of beaches, business areas, theme parks, beautiful weather, rural land areas, history, culture, and the best Cuban Sandwiches you’ll ever taste (Yes, Tampa is home to the Original Cuban Sandwich, not Miami.) A city located directly adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico with some of the warmest tropical climates in America and with a population of about 300,000 and still growing continuously. It’s also a city that is conveniently close to Orlando, so Disney World and Universal Studios are only an hour drive away. And the best part? I don’t have to deal with any of those crazy snowbird tourists. (Unless I’m driving the I-4) As someone who grew up with snowbird parents from New York, I was always proud to call Tampa my home, and to be the only one in my entire family (including my Buffalonian Aunts, Uncles and Cousins) who is a true-blooded Floridian. Tampa is where my gymnastics career began, and I represented the city with honor and pride doing the sport that I enjoyed most.
Out of all the gyms in the city, we decided that my new gymnastics home would be Tampa Gymnastics because of its great family-friendly atmosphere and dedicated coaches. It was there where I was trained how to use my talent, gained spatial awareness and learned how to control my body in ways I never knew I could.
Fast forward to 2019, and 23 year old me is now a retired gymnast. Definitely not what most would expect the ending to be, considering most non-gymnasts literally believes that we all end up going to the Olympics, even though that’s not true whatsoever. I ended up competing for about eight years and made it all the way up to level 8. I unfortunately was forced to retire due to sustaining a bad ankle injury after doing a Yurchenko on vault. (Round-off back handspring up to the vaulting table). I soon graduated high school and went on to college, believing my gymnastics days were completely over until when I was recently hired as a team coach at a gym near me. With that being said, it’s safe to say that the sport hasn’t completely left me… as a matter of fact, I believe it will always be apart of me no matter what.
There were many things that I learned while participating in the sport of gymnastics, and trust me… it wasn’t always an easy ride. Being committed to this sport is similar to being committed to an on and off romantic relationship. And I’m saying that because as I grew up with it, I had an intense love/hate relationship with it. Not so much in the beginning, but as skills became tougher to accomplish and more competitive, the sport became more and more frustrating. The competition increased and became more demanding on me. I mentally and physically couldn’t handle it anymore.
Ever since the events of Larry Nassar, I stayed quiet about the world of gymnastics. I was sickened and disgusted with the U.S.A Gymnastics Organization for the way that they handled the scandal. For those who aren’t familiar with what happened, let me briefly explain. Larry Nassar was USAG’s Team Doctor for many years. About a year and half ago, reports began to surface saying that he had been sexually abusing multiple female gymnasts while they were suffering an injury, and claimed to be doing “medical procedures” on them to help them feel better. Marta Karolyi and her husband were the team coaches, and there have been claims that they knew about the allegations about Nassar, however swept it under the rug and allowed him to continue what he was doing. All they cared about was winning the gold and they didn’t care about the well being of their own athletes. As a result, over 140 elite female gymnasts fell victim to Nassar and until very recently, spoke out about their assaults. About a year ago, Nassar was finally sentenced to life in prison, however many gymnasts are still angry that USAG allowed it to go on for so long. As a retired gymnast myself, it made me so angry that these people put gold medals as a priority over their athletes. It made me think :
“If I had ended up continuing gymnastics, becoming elite and going to the Olympics, I had high chances of being a victim of that sexual predator and the abusive coaches. That could’ve been me!”
It’s almost like not making my initial dream was a blessing in the long run… which in my opinion is slightly (excuse my french) fucked up! Because absolutely no one should be thinking that way about anything they felt so strongly towards and dedicated to. Now more than ever before, I respect the U.S.A gymnasts for putting up with all of that torture and abuse behind closed doors and still being able to win gold in 2016.
I’m deciding to write this article to finally open up about the world of gymnastics in the way that I have experienced it and grown up with it. It kind of makes me angry that this one sexual predator and the fools who previously ran USAG have tarnished the reputation that gymnastics once had. It used to be a sport of beauty, discipline and grace, and now people look at it as a sport of mental and physical abuse. The reality is, is that there are a lot of people who really don’t know anything about the sport. There are a lot of things that people don’t see. Since it’s not like all the other mainstream team sports such as baseball, hockey, football or basketball, not many people give it much thought. Gymnastics in all forms is extremely underestimated. There are many great gymnastics coaches out there, who care about their athletes and treat them like they’re their own children. The sport isn’t just about winning medals, but it’s so much more than that! People either believe the sport to be easy because they only see the recreational side and not the competitive side or they have little understanding of the gymnastics Code of Points and that alone turns them off. It’s because it’s not a simple “black and white” sport where if you have more points than the other team, then you win. People don’t like the fact that judges are the ones who determine a winner and a loser. People really don’t know how hard gymnasts actually work. They don’t understand the blood, sweat and tears that is put into one routine that is 1:30 minutes long! They don’t see the injuries, they don’t see the conditioning and they don’t see the mental frustration! All people see are pretty little girls in sparkly leotards doing flips and twists.
Now more than ever, I’m willing to open up more about the hidden side of gymnastics, and I have many things I want to get off my chest, so I apologize if this is a little lengthy. I want to discuss the intense training and what it is really like. I want to discuss the competitions and what possibly goes through every gymnast’s mind while they are performing or competing. I’m ready to talk about the psychological effects of the sport and how gymnasts (both male and female) go through fears and obstacles that they train themselves to get over. I want to clarify the rules of the sport, the points that skills are worth and how judges can see deductions while normal folks cannot. These are some of the things that people don’t see. Every gymnast experiences the sport differently, however they have all been through the same things at some points in time. Some of the experiences are both good and bad, however in the end, they all give life lessons and in the end, the athlete learns something and develops thicker skin. Here are some behind the scene secrets of the sport of gymnastics that I personally have experienced to give you some insights of what the sport is really like.
The Training Begins At Very Young Ages
So I have seen and heard some debates and conversations from people discussing the proper age to start gymnastics. Some say you should start right away and some believe that it doesn’t matter what age you start. From a real gymnast’s point of view, both answers in theory are actually correct. Someone who is 14 years old can technically still take lessons and no one will discourage them from it. However… if the goal is to eventually make elite, collegiate or olympic level gymnastics, then starting as young as two is the best way to go. It’s okay if a 14 year old just wants to come into the gym and learn some of the basics such as cartwheels, handstands and backbends, however their chances of making it into a competitive level is very slim. I am not trying to crush anyone’s dreams in saying this, however it’s just a reality check. In some sports, a person can start at any age and pick it up quickly. Gymnastics is not one of those sports. In order for a gymnast to make it to a competitive level, they have to at least have all the prerequisites in order to compete. This would include strength, flexibility and the basic skills required on each event. Normally, recreational classes for young girls ages 2–5 introduce them to stretching, developing some strength exercises and fun agility. Flexibility and strength is essential to be developed early on. Children begin competition as early as six years old. Personally, I started at seven in level 3 (skipping two levels), and people can debate whether or not even that age is too old to begin competing. There are 10 levels in gymnastics. Usually levels 1–5 are compulsory and prepare gymnasts for the big skills that they will learn in levels 6–10. After level 10, a gymnast moves on to elite, junior and senior olympic levels or collegiate if they choose that instead. Sometimes in the junior Olympic levels there are girls who are 14 years old, and aren’t old enough to qualify for the Olympics, but they have the skills and talent to qualify for it. Girls in these high levels are where U.S.A Gymnastics looks for their next future Team USA. The reason for starting at such a young age is because of how physically demanding gymnastics is and the psychological effects of it. Usually younger gymnasts aren’t as effected by mental blocks or fears (something very common with older gymnasts) and therefore they are often easier to train because they don’t understand the dangers of the skills that they are performing. A 14 year old gymnast in comparison is mentally more developed and capable of understanding the dangers of the skills. Therefore, the 14 year old is more likely to develop fears. Fear is common in every gymnast, don’t get me wrong, but typically the fear gets worse as the athlete develops. It’s important for the athletes to be confident in what they are doing because this is not a sport that can be half assed. You either give it 100% or 0%, anything in between and you will risk injury.
Coaches Can Be Brutal… But Also Someone You Trust With Your Life
To any athlete, this isn’t exactly a surprising thing. I understand that all coaches in any sport are tough. Gymnastics coaches are no exception to the rule, but their teaching styles can differ.
I’ve had many different types of coaches. I’ve had coaches who had criticized me nonstop and screamed in my face so much I’d burst into tears. I’ve had coaches who knew how to be silly but also knew when to get tough on me when I needed to focus. I’ve had the most amazing and dedicated coaches who were literally the mastermind behind many of the skills that I initially struggled with. And unfortunately, I’ve even had the coaches who have had a bit of an abusive nature… and they would often pull on my ponytail a few times if I made an error or sat on me in order to get my straddle split all the way down while knowing I was in pain. Luckily, I didn’t have to deal with these coaches for long, because my mom pulled me out of the gym immediately and put me in a better coaching environment at TGD. A coach is an important aspect to a gymnast because they can build you up or bring you down.
The relationship between a coach and an athlete is always important. However, in gymnastics, I feel the bond is even more special. There is a built trust overtime that must be established. As a gymnast myself, I had to learn how to completely trust my coaches 100% while they spotted me on a skill that I’ve never attempted before. I had to know that if something were to happen to me, they would be there to catch me. They’re the ones who must build up your confidence if you feel scared. They’re the ones who need to prepare you for competitions but also show you to have fun while doing it. They’re the ones who will catch you if you fall on any event, and even save your life. They are ultimately your third parent. I can’t even tell you how many debts I owe to my coaches for rescuing me from near freak accidents and catastrophic injuries. I put my life into my coaches hands because I completely trusted them. That is very important because without trust or a bond between the coach and the athlete, it won’t be very successful competition season and the gymnast will most like grow anxious and quit.
Injuries Are Very Common
99% of gymnasts have dealt with an injury whether it’s minor or major. The 1% who have never experienced an injury are both rare and blessed. Throughout my career in gymnastics, I’ve personally had about three major injuries and several minor ones. Overtime I’ve also developed injuries that are now permanent. When I was 10 years old I hyperextended my arm on bars after slipping off the high bar. When I was 12 years old I sustained a high ankle sprain while on floor during a competition. When I was 16, I broke my fibula bone while performing a Yurchenko vault. Those were some of my major injuries, which compared to other gymnasts, aren’t that bad. Some minor injuries I’ve had to deal with are blood rips from bars. (A blood rip is a gymnast’s way of saying “blood blister”) and I’ve gotten blood on the bars and my grips because of it.
I’ve also received multiple bruises and scrapes all over my body due to splitting the beam or falling numerous times on the mats whether it was my stomach, my back or my face (yes, I have face-planted the floor many times.) Overtime, I developed scoliosis which is considered a spine injury. While it’s not as severe as some others, this has stunted my growth and to this day I remain the same size as I was when I was in 7th grade. I’ve also developed shin splints in both of my shins and I can no longer run like I used to because of this and my fibula injury. I’ve also seen many bad injuries happen to my teammates. Injuries that while I’m thankful didn’t happen to me, they definitely scarred me. I remember a specific time when one of my teammates was practicing her routine on the uneven bars and went for her double back dismount. She ended up pulling in too close to the bar resulting in her hitting her head and falling to the mat on her back unconscious. She was only nine years old! I watched the whole thing unfold and was horrified. Her head began to bleed and she thankfully woke up but was very confused. Our coaches had to call an ambulance and send her to the emergency room ASAP. That same day, no one was allowed to practice bars. It literally scared everyone. I remember the girl’s older sister (who was also a gymnast at the time) was crying endlessly. Two days later, on that same bar another gymnast fell and twisted her arm and broke it in the process. All the gymnasts in the gym including myself believed that bar to be cursed. The girl who hit her head luckily only suffered a concussion and had eight stitches on her scalp. She returned to practice the next week and attempted the same dismount on bars that nearly killed her. This time, she landed it successfully. She was incredibly lucky (And I’m saying she was lucky because that injury had potential of being so much worse.) Some of my other teammates suffered from some back injuries in which they either needed surgery for or needed to wear a brace… and it’s crazy to think that they were only my age (14–15) at the time going through those medical issues.
I remember the day I broke my fibula bone. It was during the summer of 2012, in the month of August specifically. I went to a double practice that day. I had a practice early that morning and then one later that same evening. It was during my evening workout when it happened. I was on vault warming up Yurchenko drills. The drill was to do a round off back handspring to the vaulting table. When I took my turn everything was fine until the very end. When I landed, my ankle completely twisted and I recall hearing a loud crack as I rebounded backwards onto my back, getting the wind knocked out of me in the process. All I remember was the instant pain that I felt. I’ve never been shot before, but I swear if I could describe the pain I was feeling, it felt like someone took a gun and shot me in the ankle with it. I laid on the floor for what seemed like many minutes while all of my coaches surrounded me and my teammates had concerned looks on their faces. Coach Mike picked me up bridal style and put me in an area where I could elevate my ankle, while my other coach brought me a bag of ice. I sat there in agony watching my ankle swell up to the size of a baseball. I was hoping and praying that it was only an ankle sprain, but when the X-rays came back, my doctor told me to stay out of gymnastics for about two months. I was devastated.
Recovering from that injury was a difficult process. After spending two months in a boot, I had to go to physical therapy every day after school. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do this for long because my mom couldn’t afford it anymore, so my healing process was to be done at home. I would often go into the gym and condition my body to keep it in shape, and the only event I was able to practice with a taped foot was bars. Eventually my fibula bone did heal but it wasn’t the same. Running on it was still painful because it was weak. My whole body in general just felt expired. It was after that awful injury that I made my final decision to retire from the sport. While I was very upset about it, I knew it was the right decision for the sake of my body. To this day, I still have pain in the same foot I injured horribly years ago.
Not ALL Of Us Go To The Olympics
As much as I wish this wasn’t true, it is. Not every gymnast that you come in contact with is an Olympic Gymnast, so please, for the love of God people, stop asking us those dumb “Are you going to go to the Olympics?” questions. It’s extremely annoying! And it also proves how little people know about the sport of gymnastics.
Do all really good singers become famous pop stars? No. Do all theater performers and actors go to Hollywood or Broadway? No. Do all dancers go on to become professional backup dancers? No. Do all hockey/football/baseball/basketball players get drafted into the NHL/NFL/MLB/NBA? No. Do all soccer players go to play for the World Cup? No. So it really boggles my mind that people believe that every gymnast they come in contact with will all go to the Olympics… I mean it honestly makes me laugh, that’s how ridiculous it sounds.
First of all, in order for a gymnast to be able to go to the Olympics, she has to be willing to make the sport of gymnastics her number 1 priority. People really don’t understand the intensity of Olympic Gymnastics Training. Olympic gymnasts train for hours, every single day. They are on special diets. They have to leave their families for about six months in order to attend Olympic Training Camp. It’s a bit similar to a child going off to the military minus the guns. There is also the process of selecting the gymnasts for team USA. Out of all of the talented gymnasts out there, only four will be allowed to compete in Tokyo in 2020. That is 4 girls out of about 600 elite gymnasts across the country who are willing to compete in order to make it there. If there is one thing I know about USA Gymnastics, it’s that they take the Olympics very seriously. The United States is known for the amount of dominant and talented gymnasts that they produce, and they do not want to ruin that reputation. They have the best coaches with the most well-kept training centers for athletes all over the nation. At State, Regional and National competitions for the elite levels, there are many olympic and college recruiters who are looking for the most talented gymnasts. They absolutely will seek out the best of the best for their upcoming team. This means that they will select four top notch women who can dominate all four events, not just one. Technically, there may be three new faces on Team USA in 2020, since it might be obvious that Simone Biles may have a guaranteed spot, however she still has to compete against the others in order to earn her spot back on the team.
With that being said, it is extremely difficult to make Team USA in Women’s Gymnastics and the chances of your one gymnast friend making the team is probably very slim. She might have better luck earning a college scholarship and doing collegiate gymnastics instead, which is what most gymnasts do if their Olympic dreams don’t pan out. Some Olympic gymnasts end up doing both the Olympics and College (Madison Kocian), but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Gymnasts often get annoyed when people ask if they have Olympic plans or worse, they assume that they will end up in the Olympics. I remember when I was in middle school, I had one friend who kept telling me how she couldn’t wait for me to compete in the Olympics so she can brag to everyone that she knew me before I became famous… I hated it. I mean, I suppose I should be flattered because she felt that I was that good of a gymnast to make it to the Olympics, but it also proves that she didn’t know the reality of it. It kind of puts a lot of expectations on my shoulders if you think about it.
I’ll tell you guys the truth, not every gymnast wants to go to the Olympics. I know…that’s shocking right? You would think that is every gymnast’s dream, but it’s actually not. Not every gymnast wants to put up with that amount of pressure and intensity in competition. Not every gymnast is willing to leave her family behind for the sport. Not every gymnast wants to go through the hardcore training that it takes to become an Olympian. Not every gymnast wants to be on special diets for a sport that they will end up retiring from in the next couple of years. To some, a gold medal isn’t worth that much to them. Some gymnasts just do it for the close friendships, the awesome tricks that they learn, and eventually they can be done with it and be proud of what they accomplished in the sport.
That’s is just the reality of it.
Gymnast’s Receive The Dumbest FAQs
I’m not sure how many other gymnasts have experienced this, but I personally got this a lot. In fact, I got it too much. The moment people found out that I was a gymnast, they immediately proceeded to ask me the dumbest questions that I’ve ever heard in my life.
There was the obvious and annoying “Are you going to the Olympics?” question that I received so much, I made a completely separate segment about it in this article about how incredibly annoying it is. (See above.) However, there were a few others that just made me give these people a huge “What the fuck?” face. Here are some of the stupidest questions that real people have asked me the moment they found out I was a gymnast.
“Cool, you do gymnastics? So are you… like good?”
First off, I want to know how the fuck anyone would be able to remotely answer this question. No matter how I answer this question, I feel like the answer would be foolish. Am I good? “Oh my gosh! Yes! I am sooo amazing! You should totally come watch me at my competitions. I’m like so good at gymnastics.” OR “Nah… I completely suck at this sport…” How the hell can someone genuinely answer this stupid question?
As for the person who literally asked me this…
I don’t know, dude, why don’t I show you a skill and then you can decide how good I am!
“Can you do a cartwheel?”
Um…yes? I can do a cartwheel. It’s kind of necessary for me to know how to do one… I can do a lot more than just a cartwheel too. You know… I can do a cartwheel on the balance beam. Oh, and I can do a cartwheel with no hands too! It’s called an Aerial, but you normal folk wouldn’t know that. But besides cartwheels, I can also do a lot of cooler skills like back tucks, round-off back handsprings, full twisting moves, kip cast handstands with giants and pirouettes on bars, gainers on beam, Yurchenkos on vault…. oh wait… you don’t know those skills? Huh, I must not be speaking English anymore… sorry! Well incase y’all didn’t know, a cartwheel is actually one of the most basic skills in the sport. Many of you tend to think it’s one of the hardest. If you get hurt doing a cartwheel… well damn… this sport really isn’t for you.
“Can you do a flip?…Can you show me?”
*Rolls eyes* This is literally almost as bad as the cartwheel question. I’m saying almost because at least a flip is somewhat more advanced. It’s still a stupid and annoying question though. The answer is yes, I can do a flip. Most gymnasts learn how to flip by the age of 9. And for your information, we gymnasts like to use the term “back tuck”. That is the technical term for a backflip. Secondly, for the people who just want me to drop everything that I’m doing and to show them a flip, you do realize that I can’t just do one on command, right? Like if I’m in school and there is a bunch of people around, doing a flip does not seem like a good idea… If you really want to see me in action, stop by my gym, and I’ll show you more than just flips.
“Isn’t Gymnastics…like really easy?”
Well I suppose that I might make it look easy, but I guarantee that if you tried it, you would definitely answer your own question. This question and sometimes statement is often super annoying, because people will generalize something by the way that it looks without even trying to do it themselves. It drives me nuts. People who make the generalization that this sport is easy have got to be very ignorant. Believe it or not, some people don’t even think gymnastics is a sport at all. Some people think it’s like dancing and cheerleading. People who really have the audacity to say these things are the same people who wouldn’t make it through a full day of a gymnastics practice,without crying because they’re in pain or they’re too thin skinned to take harsh criticism from coaches. I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s the hardest sport, because all sports are hard, however it is considered one of the hardest sports in the world, and it is scientifically proven. Don’t sit there and tell me that you think doing a back tuck on a 4 inch piece of wood that is 5 ft off the ground is easy… don’t you even dare.
“Why do you guys wear bathing suits?”
I’m not even kidding, I’ve had a person legit ask me this question and I nearly spit out my drink laughing. The lack of knowledge that people have on this sport just kills me. For those who don’t know, they’re called leotards. It is not a bathing suit. The material that it is made of is completely different than that of a bathing suit. Secondly, why would anyone even think that we wear bathing suits? Leotards have rhinestones on them! I’m not sure if bathing suits have those. Oh my gosh, that has to be one of the funniest questions that I’ve ever received.
“What are the gloves for?”
This is a bars question obviously. And people normally refer to grips as gloves because they don’t know the term “grips”. To answer the question, they’re used to maintain a strong grip on the bar. You know… so we don’t slip off and fall to our death or get really injured.
“Do you have to walk across that log thing?”
The log… Ha! That’s funny! It’s called a balance beam. And to answer the damn question, yes, I walk across it all the time. I’m a pro. As a matter of fact, I can do a lot more than walk across it. I can tumble forwards and backwards on it too, along with some graceful dance moves.
“What’s that powder you put on your hands?”
It’s chalk. A special chalk that gymnasts use to absorb sweat. It’s gross, it feels weird and it gets all over you. It gets in your hair, your eyes (that burns a lot), all over your face and body, and for coaches it gets all over your clothes. You will do a lot of laundry. It also has a way of getting all over the floor. Keep a vacuum handy.
“You’re a gymnast? Cool! So you can do the rings and stuff?”
This question was honestly just funny, but at least this person knew one of the events, even if it was for the wrong gender. Rings is an event that is for men only. Women do not compete this event. So, no. I do not do the rings.
Competitions Are Intense
“Football = 4 downs, Baseball = 3 outs, Tennis = 2 serves, Gymnastics = 1 chance!”
In gymnastics, anyone can win during anytime and it doesn’t matter who you are or what team you’re on. I’m going to go a little off course for a second and mention another sport that is relatively the exact opposite of gymnastics. I like to watch hockey. I’ve been to many Tampa Bay Lightning hockey games in the past. I’ve been going to games since I was six years old thanks to my dad who is an avid hockey fan and my boyfriend is actually a collegiate hockey player. I see the intensity of the game, the smack talk that the players say to each other back and forth, the brawling, how they work together as a team and the atmosphere of the game. Everything about hockey and the competitiveness of it is different than gymnastics. In hockey it’s team vs team and gymnastics is competed individually while contributing to the team. In hockey, if a team loses it is on everybody and in collegiate gymnastics if a team loses it can be solely on one gymnast who didn’t point her toes or fell on the balance beam. In hockey, the athletes love to smack talk to each other meanwhile gymnasts keep it classy (while secretly hoping the other girls make errors in their routines). And then there is an obvious difference of hockey being a winter sport while gymnastics is a summer sport, however that is beyond the point. I think the biggest comparison when I watch hockey playoffs or regular season games, people can often tell who will win or lose. Sometimes people are wrong if a team pulls an upset, however most of the time hockey is an easier sport to make bets on. Gymnastics is completely unpredictable. Depending on how the gymnast is feeling could effect her performance. A gymnast can have the best day on one event and completely fuck up her last event which will result in her losing the gold medal. In both hockey and gymnastics, competition is high. However, I’m going to go off on a limb and say that the pressure that a gymnast has to endure during competition is a little higher than that of a hockey player.
For me, it didn’t matter how many times I’ve competed or performed and it didn’t matter how many times I’d nail my routines during practice. No matter what, I always felt nervous before every competition. I would even feel nervous during my mock meets which are only pre meets before competition season, so they never meant anything. Anytime I would be in front of a crowd or in front of judges performing any of my routines, I would feel physically sick to my stomach. As I increased in level, the competitions would get bigger and there would be more lights and cameras, and that would often make it worse. I remember the emotions that I felt as I waited for my turn to compete on the balance beam. I stood there waiting anxiously for them to salute me. I remember being on the beam with all eyes on me, my heart pounding out of my chest, my palms sweaty as hell and the only thing that went through my mind was “Don’t fall off, take it one skill at a time and stay tight.” I think I was often unconsciously holding my breath for the full 90 seconds that I was up there, because every time I’d get through the routine I’d finally take a deep breath and feel lightheaded and often feel like I was going to pass out or vomit. I don’t think I could’ve controlled it, I think that’s just how nervous I was. The 90 seconds on beam often felt like an eternity.
My nervousness on balance beam could also be contributed to the fact that the event just wasn’t my strong suit. I was a gymnast with a lot more energy and power and beam is all about grace and controlling the power that you have during tumbling skills. When I competed on floor exercise, it was like night and day. I was confident, I was having fun and frankly I didn’t think about the judges or the score. (Okay, I did but I didn’t let that effect my performance whatsoever) The point is, when I was on floor, I was just in my element. The pressure was still intense on me, but because of my confidence it didn’t nearly effect me as much.
While the pressure during competition is heavy, so is the competition in itself. Every gymnast is amazing and the stakes are extremely high, so it’s essential to put on the performance of your life. I remember I was competing at 2011 Regionals in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the first time that I wasn’t representing my gym or my city but I was representing my state as a whole! I was on Team Florida! Only a few girls were selected to compete for the state and I was so excited to have qualified for the team. Another teammate of mine from my gym named Sarah, who was also one of my best friends, also made Team Florida, so we travelled to Charlotte, North Carolina together to prepare with the rest of Team Florida. While we were great teammates and best friends, we were also slight rivals when it came to competition. Her and I competed in the same level, the same age group, and we were always neck and neck with each other. If I didn’t win first place all-around, it was her. If she didn’t win first place all-around, it was me. One time, we were so neck and neck that we literally tied our all-around score (which is extremely rare) and we both won first place. It was kind of funny. Considering we were on the same team, we didn’t know who should take the trophy home. To this day we still look back at that tie and laugh.
Anyways, while we were in North Carolina together, we quickly befriended the other gymnasts on our team. We were preparing to compete against not just girls from Florida, but gymnasts from Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Before the competition started, Team Florida had a pool party back at our hotel. During this time, Me, Sarah and two other girls named Sydney and Nikki were just having the time of our lives and not even thinking about the meet until the next morning when we would be competing at 8am.
On the morning of the competition, Sarah and I were, once again, neck and neck. This is where every little deduction counts in competition. Someone can beat you by .1 tenth of a point and that would be the difference between first and second place. I specifically remember from Regionals 2011 we were on our third event which was the floor exercise. It was the last competition that I would be competing my Moulin Rouge Floor Routine. Sarah performed her jazzy “Zoot Suit Riot” floor routine before me and scored a 9.575 out of 10, a very difficult score to match. I was the last to perform. In order for me to win on floor, I had to perform a flawless routine and score higher than a 9.575. The pressure was on me. But you know what was weird? I wasn’t nervous at all. Okay, maybe I was a little nervous because it is nerve wracking to perform the one thing I’ve been practicing nonstop in the gym for months, and that one moment is the time it really mattered. Plus everyone was watching me because all other events were done with their competition. However, I was also very relaxed. Before the judges saluted me, the only thing that I was thinking was to go out on the floor and enjoy the very last time that I would be performing my floor routine. I just wanted to go out there and have fun, no matter what the score was in the end. I gave the judges a performance of my life! When I was done I remember going to my last event with Sarah, which was vault. While we were warming up, she had a look of pure shock on her face. Her mouth was hanging open wide. I said to her, “What’s wrong?” and she looked at me and said “Dude! Look at your score on floor!” I turned and that’s when I saw it. I scored a 9.6 out of 10 on floor, beating Sarah by .3 tenths! That’s the highest score I’ve ever received on that event and I was just stunned. Scoring a 9.6 on floor at Regionals is not an easy feat! My dad recorded the whole thing and the video footage of this exact moment is seen below.
After that shocking moment, I could tell that Sarah wasn’t extremely happy after I beat her on floor. She tried to joke with me about paying me if I let her beat me on vault. I told her “Nah, I’d rather have a medal.” and laughed it off. I could tell she was being serious though. I ended up winning first on all events except vault and placed first all-around. That is definitely a competition that I will never forget. However, this is just an example of how intense competition can be. And even though it is lighthearted, it is also taken very seriously.
Preparing For Competition
The preparation before competitions were always hectic. Usually we would all get our competition schedules before the season would begin. Every week before the competition was always crazy. It was important that I would be present at practice every day before the competition, and if I had a lot of homework or a test, I’d be shit out of luck.
The team would be required to practice routines nonstop. We had a set goal for each event to make 25 perfect routines by the end of the week. The routines would have to be to the coaches liking, and if they were disappointed or they caught some big “major” deductions in their eyes, they wouldn’t count the routine. Sometimes, our coaches would try to challenge us and say “make five in a row or start over.” Usually they weren’t that tough unless we had States, Regionals or Nationals coming up.
Our team had a big white board with all of our names on it. Everyday during the week before competition, we would have to tally our routines and make sure the coaches watched every single one. We would have to make five perfect routines on each event everyday. By the end of the week, we should all have a total of 25. If for some reason we couldn’t make our routines on one event on a Monday, then we would have to make 10 on Tuesday, which was never good. Stress levels were often very high and my teammates and I were always tired after every practice.
The conditioning would be a lot harder as we would be required to do a 30 leg lifts in a row, rope climbs in a pike position, and other intense workouts to give our bodies more endurance for floor routines. I don’t remember one time where I came home during a competition prep week and I wasn’t exhausted… Unfortunately, I had to make time for my homework, tests and projects which were always a pain in my ass. I felt like I couldn’t catch a break.
The Morning/Day of Competition
On the morning or day of the competition, I would spend my time doing many things. As I said before, I was always very nervous before competing, so I would often be very shaky, sweaty, or just have constant butterflies in my stomach that wouldn’t go away. As the time would get closer to the meet, the faster my heart would pump and the more anxious I would get.
If I had a competition in the middle or later in the day (and depending where exactly the competition is), I would often be listening to music. Music would often calm my nerves down a lot. I would also be drinking a lot of water, and probably tapping my foot anxiously. That’s often why I sometimes liked morning competitions better, because I didn’t spend all day anxiously waiting for the competition to start. Most of the time we would be driving to the meet itself, so I would just be in the backseat of the car listening to music and calming my nerves down. Once we would get there, I would go into the bathroom and change into my competitive leotard with my warmup on over it. My mom would sit me down somewhere and do my hair into the usual double french braids into a tight ponytail, followed by a lot of hairspray. Finally, she would put in my red, black and white frilly scrunchy. Then, makeup would follow suit. The process to get ready took up to about an hour.
On the morning of the competition, I would wake up very early, take a shower, eat a healthy breakfast and do the same process, minus the listening to music. Mornings of competition would normally be a lot quicker compared to evening competitions.
The Code of Points Rules
One reason I feel many people don’t understand gymnastics (and probably don’t care to understand it) is because of the rules and the language. I will admit, gymnasts use different lingo for everything that they’re doing and it’s pretty much a language that only people in the Gymnastics Community can understand. And there are very specific rules that apply to each apparatus as to how the gymnast must compete and what skills he/she can or cannot perform. Whether it’s the skill names, the rules of the sport or the point system, things can be very confusing. Well, I’m about to try my best to reveal it in order for normal people to understand what we’re saying and how the sport is judged.
The basic terms that people should be aware of is the Code of Points. In gymnastics, more specifically in the more advanced optional and elite levels, there is a code of points that a gymnast has to follow to meet the requirements of the level they are in. This can get very tricky because in the optional levels you can have your own routine and put in any skill that you desire (that you’re capable of), but the skills can vary in difficulty. Skills are placed into alphabetical categories that tell judges the difficulty of the skills and the amount of points that should be deducted depending on the skills performed. They are: A skills, B skills, C skills, D skills, and E skills.
Level 7 & 8 are the first advanced optional levels. The gymnasts start at a 10.0 Start Value provided that they meet the requirements. The requirements are five As and four Bs at level 7; C/D/E skills are illegal and if performed the gymnast will receive a score of 0.00, with the exception of C-level circling elements to handstand. (cast, clear hip, underswing, stalder — with or without half pirouette) In all JO levels, there is a deduction of 0.10 for each missing A-skill, 0.30 for each missing B-skill, and 0.50 for each missing C-skill (while C’s aren’t required at Level 7 or 8, they are required at levels 9 and 10).
The special requirements at Level 7 are:
Vault — gymnasts have a list of vaults which they can choose from, all of which start from a 10.0 and are in the “Group 1” category of vaulting (handsprings without saltos), and the vast majority perform front handsprings.
Bars — one bar change; two B-level circling elements (clear hips, underswings, and stalder); and a dismount of at least A value
Beam — series of two tumbling elements with or without flight; an acrobatic flight element; a leap or jump that requires 180º split; a full turn; and a dismount of at least A value.
Floor — a tumbling pass (3 or more flight elements) which includes a back layout; a connection of two forward acro elements, one being a salto; a dance series of two elements, one being a leap or jump requiring 180º split; and a full turn.
The special requirements at Level 8 are:
At Level 8, four As and four Bs are required; Cs are permitted and would receive B credit, and D/E skills are illegal. The special requirements are:
Vault — gymnasts have a list of vaults to choose from; most of them are handsprings with turns, but tucked and piked Tsukaharas are allowed. Common vaults and their start values:
handspring, 9.0; handspring full, 9.4; half-on, half-off, 9.1; tucked Tsukahara, 9.8; and piked Tsukahara, 10.0.
Bars — one bar change; two elements of B value, at least one of which must have flight or turn, and at least one of which
must be a circling element; and a dismount of at least A value
Beam — series of two tumbling elements, at least one with flight; dance series
of two elements, one of which is a leap or jump requiring 180º split; a full turn; and a dismount of at least A value
Floor — a tumbling pass
with two saltos; three different saltos within the exercise; a leap or jump that requires 180º split; and the last tumbling pass must include
a salto. In all J.O. levels, there is a deduction of 0.50 for each missing special requirement.
Level 9 & 10
Levels 9 and 10 incorporate bonus points; Level 9s start from 9.70 and earn bonus from connection only, while Level 10s start from 9.50 and can earn bonus from both connection and extra D/E’s (however, the gymnast can not earn all of her bonus from either connections or elements; a maximum of 0.4 can be earned in either area). The Value Part requirements at Level 9 are three A’s, four B’s, and one C, whereas the Level 10 gymnast is required three A’s, three B’s, and two C’s. Below are the connection values for Levels 9 and 10 — remember, Level 9’s can only get bonus from C skills, and even if a skill is a D or E, its value is still lowered to “C” when calculating bonus points. For example, a B+D dance connection on beam would earn a total of 0.30 in bonus at Level 10 (0.10 for the D and 0.20 for the connection), but the same connection at Level 9 would be considered a B+C and therefore only earn a total of 0.10. All connection values are those IN ADDITION TO the bonus earned from D/E skills (0.10 for D’s, 0.20 for E’s).
Bars:
Level 9
C+C (both with flight or turn) = 0.20
C+C (one or neither with flight or turn; must be different elements if neither have flight or turn) = 0.10
Level 10
C+C (both with flight or turn) = 0.10
C+D (C does not require flight or turn) = 0.10
D+D (or more difficult) = 0.20
Beam:
Connections of dance elements or an acro element plus a dance element:
A+D/E = 0.10
B+C = 0.10
B+D = 0.20
C+C = 0.20 (if both elements are different)
C+C = 0.10 (if both elements are the same)
Connections of acrobatic elements:
B+D/E = 0.20
C+C or harder = 0.20
B+E = 0.20
B+B+C = 0.10
Floor:
Connections of dance elements or an acro element plus a dance element:
C+C — 0.10
B+D — 0.10
C+D or harder — 0.20
Connections of acrobatic elements:
A+C or B+C — 0.10
A+D or harder — 0.20
C+C — 0.20
This is the behind the scenes information that most people don’t exactly understand to the full amount, and unless you’re a gymnast, a coach, or a judge, it’s very hard to communicate these rules to normal people.
The Events
In every form of gymnastics, there are sets of events that athletes must compete. In Women’s Artistic Gymnastics there are four events. Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise. Each event requires a specific athletic strength.
Vault
Vault is the first of the four events in Women’s Gymnastics. For this event, an athlete needs two main components: Speed and Power.
For some, this event can be intimidating because you are required to run full speed towards a stationary object.
Many may not notice this, but if you look down on a vault runway, right next to is a white line that is the same length. This is the measuring tape. Once a gymnast has a consistently long, fast and powerful run, it is important that the run is measured so that they know exactly where to begin their run in proximity to the vaulting table. This is to ensure that their stepping isn’t messed up and they can have a good, clean, powerful vault every single time. For my vault, I always started from 65 feet away from the vaulting table. In order for a gymnast to get their precise stepping and measurements, it takes a lot of trial and error. Every gymnast has a different running measurement.
The springboard is also an important factor in this event. The board can fit up to seven springs and the more springs the board has, the less springy it is (as weird as that sounds) The board must have a minimum of four springs for a gymnast to vault, anything less than that is extremely dangerous. The amount of springs a gymnast can vault with is determined by how powerful she is on the event. I vaulted with five springs and sometimes six springs in the board, because whenever I vaulted with four springs I would often go too high and not even touch the table. (In other words, it was too springy). Another thing that people should keep in mind is the distance from the board to the table. The board should often be at least a foot away from the table with the hurdle line at least two feet away from the board. For round-off entry style vaults such as Yurchenkos, it’s a rule to have a yellow safety zone mat around the board. Without one, the gymnast is at a high danger risk.
The table also has a height setting. Smaller beginner gymnasts will start vaulting on a table set at the height of 0 (100 centimeters). As their vault increases in height, it is up to the coach to decide how high to raise the table. The more powerful vaulters (from levels 6–10) usually are capable of vaulting on a setting of 4–7 (7 being the highest vault setting at 140 centimeters). I personally vaulted on a setting of 5 (130 centimeters) during competitions, however sometimes during practice my coaches had my setting raised to 6 (135 centimeters).
Believe it or not, vault is also the most dangerous out of all the events, as it historically is the event that recorded the highest amount of injuries. At one point in time, F.I.G actually had to make adjustments to what used to be called a vaulting horse after a series of catastrophic accidents and even a death. They changed the apparatus to be a table for safer protocol. Coincidentally, vault is actually the apparatus that is responsible for my fibula injury, although worse injuries have been recorded by this event.
The reason why vault is so incredibly dangerous is because the event is so quick. Everything in this event has to be done precisely and consistently. The run has to be so accurate, the hurdle has to be long and powerful, the gymnast has to hit a specific area of the board in order to get the correct amount of height and airtime, hand placement on the table has to be very precise, the timing of the block has to be exact and basically your body has to be in very specific positions at the right time. Timing is key on all events in gymnastics, however it is crucial on vault. One mishap or misstep can throw an entire vault completely off and even risk injury to the athlete.
Uneven Bars
The uneven bars is the second out of the four events in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. This event is all about core and upper body strength. It is considered the hardest event to advance in out of all the other events. This is because multiple female gymnasts have a weakness when it comes to purely using their upper body strength throughout an entire routine, and many others find the event scary, and rightly so. It’s very easy to get disoriented on this event as it involves a lot of continuous upside down movements.
Like vault, this event involves a lot of spatial awareness and having a good sense of timing. From the bar exchanges to the release skills to the swings to the pirouettes and the dismount, there is a lot of different techniques that a gymnast has to think about while performing this event. The Uneven Bars involves a lot of gravity defying movements starting from the giant swings and leading up to advanced release moves. In a giant swing, a gymnast’s body has to make very specific positions at the perfect time in order to get enough momentum to get her body around without falling back. Not to mention, female gymnasts have a low bar to watch out for and if they fail to make the right body position, they can absolutely smack their feet against the low bar at a fast rate, and that hurts a lot.
Throughout the years, bars has gone through many evolutions. Back in the 80s, gymnasts were not performing the big skills that you see on TV today. Instead the bars were set extremely close together and gymnasts would often perform skills that involved wrapping their body around the bars instead of swinging around them. This isn’t seen anymore.
Chalk is extremely important to have on this event. The chalk’s purpose is to make the bar less slippery and helps absorb the sweat on a gymnast’s hands and improve the grip. Many people believe chalk helps reduce rips, which is actually not true. If anything, chalk can create more rips as its purpose is to create friction for the gymnasts to prevent them from slipping off. Doing a routine on an un chalked bar is not safe, and it is recommended that coaches put plenty of water and chalk on the bar before any gymnast performs. What people should know about the chalk is that it’s not the chalk that most people would think of. Gymnastics chalk is not chalk you can take outside and draw on concrete with or draw on a blackboard with. This chalk is made out of magnesium carbonate (MGC03) and it is very powdery. This stuff can get into your eyes, your face, your hair and all over your leotard and body. It’s very sticky and gross and it’s easy to get covered in it after spending just a few minutes on the event. I would always come home from practice covered in it, and even after I would take a shower, I still felt like I had chalk on me. Water is also important with the chalk because it makes the chalk harder and stickier, creating a less slippery bar.
Like vault, this event also has specific settings according to the gymnast’s preference. The bars can be set from 4 to all the way out (7). The setting 4 is the closest distance that the high bar and low bar can be at, the setting 7 is the furthest distance. The height of the two bars vary between gymnasts depending on how short or tall they are, however keep in mind, if a bar is too high or too far away for a gymnast this can effect their exchange skills from low bar to high bar (and vice versa) causing their form to break, which isn’t good in the long run. It is up to the coach to decide what to do at that point. As a level 7 and level 8 gymnast, it was mandatory for me (in my gym) to have the bars set to all the way out. This was a requirement that my gym set for everyone in order to take out the stress of risking injury and adjusting the bar multiple times. Unless a gymnast was extremely short, all gymnasts were required to train on an “all the way out” setting.
It is also crucial to make sure that the uneven bar equipment is tightly secured at all times. There are four tensions on the bar to loosen in order to change the bar setting, and if the tensions are down that automatically loosens the bar. No gymnasts should be performing or swinging on them while the bars are loose.
Balance Beam
The balance beam is the third out of four events in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. It is known to be the scariest event out of the four. The balance beam is set five feet off the ground, 16 feet in length and is 4 inches wide. The wood is covered by a leather material to make the beam bouncier and softer for gymnasts to perform on. The main components a gymnast needs to have on beam is: Grace and Balance.
This is an apparatus in which being a dancer can help a gymnast. If a gymnast were to take ballet training, their dance skills and balance on the balance beam would improve incredibly. Ballet skills are heavily applied to the balance beam. It is on this event where gymnasts learn exactly where their center of gravity is and how to work with it in order to keep themselves in a straight line while tumbling. Gymnasts can train their body to stay in the same position in order to keep their balance. Hip movements is usually the biggest factor that cause gymnasts to lose their balance. If a gymnast doesn’t keep her hips completely square to the beam, she will have potential of falling off. Athletes must be strong and engaged on this event. One loose muscle can result in losing balance.
Many beginners (who are often afraid of falling) like to look down at their feet because it gives them comfort. This is wrong. A gymnast’s chin should not be on her chest while on beam. Instead she should be looking up and at the end of the balance beam. What many beginners don’t know, is exactly how gravity works while on this event. It is essential for a gymnast to have her chest back and chin up. If she is looking downwards, her chest will slouch downwards, and when the chest is pointing down, guess where gravity will take you? That’s right! Down! You will fall down! If her chest and chin is up, gravity cannot take her down.
While doing tricks, it is important to feel the beam out. While doing any skill on beam, a gymnast must look down the beam to see where to place her feet or hands. Certain advanced skills involve blind landings which can be freaky at first, so it’s important that she really gets to know that balance beam well so she knows exactly where her body is landing.
A balance beam routine is required to be 90 seconds max. Anything over that time and a gymnast will be deducted for it. Often during competitions, there will be a person timing the routine, and they will let the gymnasts on the beam know that they have 10 seconds to dismount the beam. They will often say “10 seconds”. During big Championship style competitions, gymnasts will hear a loud beep that let’s them know they are at the 10 second mark.
Balance beam is never a sure event. Even the best gymnasts can screw up and fall on this apparatus. (Simone Biles messed up on this event during the 2016 Olympics.) No one is ever guaranteed a metal position here.
Like bars, chalk can also be used on balance beam, however it is not mandatory.
Floor Exercise
The floor exercise is the last event of the four events in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. Out of all the events, this event requires a lot more endurance, energy and power.
On the floor, the gymnast must perform a combination of backward and forward tumbling passes along with dance sequences. Around the floor is white tape. If a gymnast were to tumble outside of the white tape, she is out of bounds and judges will take a huge deduction off for it. Therefore, it is important that the gymnast learns how to control her momentum in her tumbling passes.
Floor routines have to be 1:30 minutes long maximum. This is the required time for the highest level of gymnastics. Often for lower level gymnasts, floor routines will be 1:15 minutes or less. In the lower optional levels (level 6) gymnasts are allowed only two tumbling passes. In level 7, three passes are allowed but not required. In level 8, three passes are mandatory. In level 9, 10 and elite, the gymnast must have four different tumbling passes with different skill difficulties.
A gymnast must have a high endurance for this event. It is by far the most exhausting and most draining out of all the events in gymnastics. People may not think that performing a 1:30 minute routine isn’t that big of a deal, however if you add in several tumbling passes and nonstop dancing, your legs will feel like jello by the last tumbling pass. I usually saved my easiest tumbling pass for the last pass because I would be exhausted and out of breath by the end of the routine.
The Skills
Everyone knows the obvious handstand, splits, back bend kick-overs, back handsprings, cartwheels, etc. There are so many skills in gymnastics with weird Russian style names, it’s easy to get very confused. And the higher the level, the more weird the names seem.
In gymnastics, every basic skill will lead to a more advanced skill overtime. (For example, A cartwheel eventually will turn into a powerful round-off. A back bend kick-over will eventually turn into a back walk-over. A back walk-over will eventually turn into a back handspring/back handspring step out. Back handsprings eventually turn into back tucks/back layouts/ layout step outs. On bars, a glide swing eventually will turn into a kip cast. A cast will eventually turn into a cast handstand.)
The most important skill for any gymnast to master is the Handstand. This skill is a key component to everything you do in gymnastics, whether it’s Womens, Mens, Rhythmic, T&T, or Acrobatics. If you don’t have a proper handstand with the right body shape, you will struggle in this sport. It’s as simple as that. Handstands are used on every event and almost every skill includes the handstand position. Vault, Bars, Beam & especially Floor.
Prerequisite vault training includes:
- Running — The most important part of the vault is the run so it’s essential to learn how to run properly. The faster the run, the more powerful the Vault will be. Lower level gymnasts must learn proper running techniques. Gymnasts must sprint on their toes and push forward while using their arms for power. As a coach, I often encourage the gymnasts to begin the run slowly and accelerate their speed as they approach the board. Often times, gymnasts will sprint fast in the beginning and begin to slow down as they approach the board which will result in a less powerful vault. The gymnast must learn how to accelerate her speed at the perfect time and control her power down the runway.
- Hurdling (Pre-Flight) — The vault entry is extremely important. Gymnasts must learn to arm circle swing (arms swing back behind them while approaching the board). Gymnasts hurdle with one foot and punch the springboard with both feet. Chest should be back on the board and not leaning forward. If they lean forward they will most likely jump forward and not upward resulting in them diving towards the mat/table. It’s important for a vault to have a lot of power and airtime. Good punching techniques can help with this.
- Punching —No, not punching with your fists! Gymnasts punch with their toes. This means they have to learn how to hit the spring board without bending their legs. If they bend their legs then the gymnast will be jumping into a vault, which will actually slow them down. A vault needs to be fast and have the perfect timing in order to land correctly. You may think that your toes can’t do that, but they are actually very strong muscles that can be worked on if given proper punching training. Punching is also essential to know on Floor.
- Blocking (Contact with the Table) — Literally shrugging your shoulders while in a handstand. Blocking is about turning horizontal momentum into vertical momentum for better and higher flips. Blocking is what a gymnast must do with her shoulders as her hands hit the vaulting mats/table in order to propel their bodies into the air. The gymnast must not bend her arms to push herself off the table, this will result the vault to go downwards and not upwards. And if this happens, she could sustain a back injury. Blocking is super important. Shrugging the shoulders will lift the gymnast into the air so she can get enough height to either land or add a salto skill. (Salto is another name for flip/tuck skill)
- Hallow Body Shape — If you got on all fours and attempted pushing your back to the ceiling and your belly in, this is a Hallow Body Shape. (It’s the opposite of an arch.) This is a shape that a gymnast will need for all events. On vault, it is the shape a gymnast must be in during her handstand flat back on a mat or front handspring vault for levels 5–7. Legs must be straight, toes must be pointed and she must be squeezing her body in order to land perfectly.
- Landing — Gymnasts should learn how to control their momentum and power. They must learn how to stick their landing. A proper stick includes bending the knees, arms out in front, chest up and not forward.
- Falling — Yes, gymnasts must also learn how to fall on every event. It’s inevitable that a gymnast will fall many times during practice, so it’s important to teach them safe ways to fall without risking injury. The safe way to fall backwards is criss crossing the arms on the chest and landing on the back. Gymnasts should not throw their arms behind them while falling. While it is second nature to try and catch themselves, trying to stop momentum by throwing the arms back is actually extremely unsafe. (I learned this the hard way when I hyperextended my arm after falling off the high bar at age 10)
Prerequisite Bar training includes:
- Pullovers — this is one of the most basic skills on bars. In order to master the pullover, you must learn how to hold yourself on the bar using only your arms. Chin must be to the bar, do not throw it back. Bring your toes all the way over with straight legs and pull up.
- Front Support Shape — In this shape a gymnast must be pushing against the bar with straight arms. She must have a hallow body position and her toes must be directly under the bar. Her belly should not be resting on the bar. Instead the bar must be at her thighs. Her shoulders must be over the bar. If her shoulders are not leaning forward then gravity will force her backwards.
- Cast — A beginner skill on bars in which a gymnast must push against the bar with straight arms and lean forward into a pushup shape. This is a core skill that will graduate into a cast handstand in the more advanced levels of Uneven Bars. The cast will also help the gymnast become more comfortable in leaning over the bar. While this seems like a very unsafe and scary feeling, leaning forward actually helps the cast get higher. If she doesn’t lean forward and instead pushes her shoulders back, then she is pushing away from the bar, and she will just fall off.
- Back hip Circle/Front hip Circle — A forward and backward motion on bars in which a gymnast maneuvers her body around the bar while staying in a tight hallow body shape. She must be looking at her toes the whole time and not throw her head back. She must also learn to not pike around the bar because this is not the correct shape and encourages bent arms, which is a no-no. Front hip circles are a lot more difficult to train compared to back hip circles, however both skills help the gymnast get adjusted to hand shifting, which is needed on more advanced swinging skills.
- Glide Swing — This is a building skill to a Kip, which is an extremely difficult bar entry swing. In order for a gymnast to accomplish the kip, proper glide swing techniques are essential. Gymnast should have a hallow body, toes in front and stretching out her body so she is not touching the floor.
- The Glide Kip — This is a more difficult and common bar swing entry that all gymnasts must learn in order to advance in gymnastics. The skill takes a lot of core and upper body strength to master. As I said prior, proper glide swing techniques will ensure a stronger swing for the kip. The gymnast will glide swing and bring her toes to the bar. From here, she must keep her arms straight and shift her hands, maintaining a tight hallow body. My coach once told me it was like “pulling up your pants.”
- Tap Swing — This is also a building skill that will help develop stronger swings on the high bar and eventually lead to a more advanced optional skill called the Giant Swing. Strong tap swings will also lead to strong and high dismounts from the high bar.
In this swing, the gymnast must use two different body positions. A hallow and arch. On the downswing, a gymnast must have a nice tight hallow body shape. When she is directly under the bar she will then tightly arch her body. Finally on the upswing she will hallow her body once more. This skill is all about timing and getting the body in specific positions at the right time. Once the gymnast masters this, she will be ready for Giant Swings.
- Giant Swing — A more advanced skill for optional gymnasts, this skill is a building block for multiple other skills such as dismounts and release moves. The giant swing is all about making the proper body shapes at the right time in order for her to successfully defy gravity. Failure to master the precise body positions at the right moments can result in the gymnast potentially kicking the low bar with her feet. To prevent this, she must have this skill completely mastered on a single rail bar before putting it in between the uneven bars.
- Forward/Backward/Eagle Grips — On bars, there are many different ways to grip the bar. The most common is of course the forward grip. However, in my opinion it’s never too early to start training backwards grips and eagle grips. Backwards grips are only performed while doing a forward giant swing. (I know that sounds extremely convoluted) Even though it is a more advanced skill, it’s good to get the gymnast adjusted to many ways of gripping the bar. When she eventually begins to learn the skills she needs with backwards grips or eagle grips, she’ll be more prepared. I also strongly recommend that gymnasts learn how to grip and re-grip the bar while practicing tap swings.
- Dismount/Flyaway — As a gymnast advances in levels, she will eventually learn how to dismount off of the high bar. The most common beginning dismount is a Tuck Flyaway. In this skill, the gymnast must be able to have a strong enough tap swing in order to get her feet pointing upwards. When her body hits this angle, she must let go of the bar and rotate in a tuck position until her feet land on the mat. Timing in any bar dismount is essential. The gymnast has to know the proper time to release the bar in order for her to get enough height to rotate and land properly. If she releases too early, she will most likely flip low to the ground and land on her knees/stomach. She also can’t pull her knees into the bar as she could risk a head injury.
Prerequisite balance beam training includes:
- Relevé walks/Pivot Turns/Kicks — These are all important dance elements that help the gymnast adjust to balancing on the beam while on her toes. They are also used as building skills for future turns and leaps.
- Jumps — Straight jumps, tuck jumps and split jumps are the three main beginner jumps on balance beam. During all jumps, a gymnast must have, what I like to call “puzzle piece feet” where her dominant foot is slightly in front of the other. This will make it easier for her to land on the beam during any jump sequence. After mastering the basic jump skills, she can then move on to more advanced jumps such as: sheep jumps, wolf jumps, straddle jumps, and ring jumps.
- Tee Lunges — Simply the entry into any forward or side handstand skill. When a gymnast attempts her handstand, she must make her body a seesaw. As the arms go down, her leg goes up, eventually kicking into a vertical handstand. As she comes out of the skill, she must also tee out of it.
- Mounts — A mount is a way for a gymnast to get on the balance beam. It’s not necessarily a skill because there are many different and creative ways that a gymnast can get on the balance beam. They can include springboards to jump on the beam or front tuck on the beam. They can press handstand onto a beam, or keep the mount simple with little dance elements. However in compulsory levels, the mounts have to be trained in the same ways.
- Handstands — It’s important for beginning competitive gymnasts to master a forward and side handstand on the balance beam. For forward handstands, she must put her hands in a butterfly hand placement in order to properly maintain a strong grip on the beam. For side handstands, butterfly grip is not necessary.
On both handstands, her head must be in and her arms must cover her ears. Sticking the head out will encourage an arched position, which is gross.
- Leaps — All beginner gymnasts must learn a proper leap on the beam. In level 3, the leap must be at least 90 degrees. In the upper levels, leaps must eventually hit 180 degrees. While landing the leap, the back leg must be up and not touching the beam, chest should be back and chin should be up showing presentation. Arms are strong by your side while your front knee is slightly bent and absorbing the landing.
- Turns — For lower levels, gymnasts learn heel snap turns and half turns on releve. She must learn proper dance technique in order to do this. Arms are either out in front or up in a crown. She is either in coupe (toe to ankle) or passe (toe to knee) with her knee in front. Eventually, in higher level gymnastics, if the gymnast masters a half turn on the balance beam she will advance to a full turn.
- Cartwheels — With proper handstand technique and a beautiful cartwheel on the floor, a gymnast eventually needs to learn a cartwheel on the high beam. In order to do this, she must turn her body to exactly where it needs so she can land on the beam. The gymnast must look underneath her armpit to where she will place her foot. Cartwheels should be long and stretched out. Cartwheels on beam also ensure straighter round-offs on the floor.
- Back walkovers — While this may be a little scarier for most gymnasts to accomplish, it is actually a much easier skill compared to the cartwheel. With good back walkovers on floor, a gymnast can then begin to work them on the balance beam.
- Back handspring Step out— As she advances into the upper levels of gymnastics, a back handspring on the high beam is required for level 6 and up. She must have mastered this skill on the floor first before attempting this. Hand placement on a back handspring is much different, as the gymnast must place her dominant hand slightly in front of her other hand in order to catch the beam. Doing a back handspring with butterfly hands is too risky and could result in her hands slipping off, which would not be pretty.
Prerequisite Floor training includes:
- Handstand Forward Rolls — In this skill, the gymnast must hit a tight vertical handstand shape and lean forward into a candle stick shape in order to roll properly and safely.
- Back Extension Roll — Pretty much the opposite of a handstand forward roll. The gymnast must roll backwards into a candlestick shape and shoot her feet up into a handstand.
- Round-off — The most important skill in any tumbling pass is the round-off. It is the skill that will give a gymnast the power and momentum into any flight skill that she desires as long as the round-off is done perfectly. A great round off takes a long time to perfect and requires a lot of body shapes to be hit at a precise time. One being the run and hurdle which comes before the actual round-off itself. A proper round-off involves a block from the shoulders and stretching the body out to avoid piking down. Round offs must land with the chest back and not forward. If a round off is landed with the chest forward a possible back handspring after it would be difficult to throw and slow down the rhythm of the tumbling pass.
- Standing Back handspring — Before a gymnast attempts her first back tumbling pass (a round off back handspring), she must first master both skills separately. The gymnast must also know a back bend, back bend kick-over, back limber and back walkover before attempting this. In a back handspring, a gymnast must first begin with her arms tightly up by her ears. Her arms must be strong and prepared for her to catch her when she jumps back. As she jumps she must swing her arms and push through her toes, straightening her legs as she jumps backwards. (Notice how I didn’t say jump upwards, this is a common mistake beginning gymnasts make. Jumping up and back would result in an under cut back handspring and this is dangerous as she could potentially land on her head.) The gymnast must reach back and block through her shoulders and engage her core in order to stretch out the skill.
- Round off back-handspring — Connecting these two skills together creating a beginning back tumbling pass. The key component to this skill is the round off. If it’s not perfected or mastered, the gymnast will not have a good back handspring and potentially hurt herself. Continue to drill the round offs as much as possible.
- Standing Back- Tuck — While most people call this skill a backflip, it’s proper name is actually the Back Tuck. A gymnast must not attempt this skill until she has mastered a proper back handspring and round-off back handspring. It is also important that she learns a standing back tuck first before she attempts and round-off back handspring back tuck. For the back tuck, the gymnast will begin just like she would if she were doing a back handspring. She must swing her arms and jump up and NOT throw her head back! Throwing the head back is extremely dangerous in this skill DO NOT DO THIS! My technique for this skill was spotting something on a wall. As I would jump, I’d continue looking at whatever I’m spotting until my body was completely rotated. This usually helped me get the height I needed to flip in the air.
- Round off back handspring back tuck — With a beautiful round off back handspring that has a nice and high rebound from the floor, the gymnast must train punch and sets in the air to train her body to get the height she needs to flip. This goes for any back tumbling pass. As she sets her body in the air, she can then get enough height to be able to rotate and land properly. (This is a level 5 skill and should not be attempted without proper equipment and coaching.)
- Leaps — Like balance beam, leaps are important dance elements in a floor routine. Upper level gymnasts perform more advanced Switch Leg Leaps and Tour Jetes.
- Turns — Also like balance beam, turns are important dance elements in a floor routine. Arms should be up by her ears in a crown and her toe should be to her knee while completely on releve.
The training in gymnastics is all about body positions, timing, core strength, and repetitions. As a gymnast continues to condition her body to make the same body shapes repeatedly for every skill, she will be one step closer to advancing to a harder skill and a higher level. It takes a lot of time, patience, practice and talent to master these skills and every gymnast advances at a different rate depending on how her body can adjust to the conditioning.
The Secrets to Perfecting A Great Handstand
As I said previously, a handstand is the key skill to everything that you do in gymnastics. Literally! This skill is pretty much a dominant factor in all other skills in gymnastics. For Vault, girls need to learn the handstand flatback which is a developmental skill for a the front handspring on the vaulting table. This skill passes through a handstand shape. Cartwheels, back bend kickovers, back walkovers and back handsprings all pass through a handstand position in some way, shape or form. On bars, a mastered handstand is necessary for strong swings, cast handstands and (of course) backwards and forwards giants which both pass through a handstand shape. On beam, girls learn to not only balance a handstand, but they have to do other floor skills on beam that involve passing through a tight handstand shape. The handstand is the key to everything in this sport. So with that being said, it’s very important for beginners to really master this skill before they attempt anything else.
There are many people in the past who have asked me things like, “Your handstand is so good, how do you do that?”, “How do you keep your balance?”, “How does your body stay so straight?”, and “How strong do you have to be in order to hold a handstand for a long period of time?”. It looks really simple, but in reality it actually takes a lot of practice. In order for a person to have a really good handstand they have to know the correct body shape, they need the shoulder flexibility, and most importantly, they need the strength to hold themselves on their hands. A lot of people believe that I’ve always had a perfect handstand, but in all honesty, even mine took me years to accomplish. Even as a Level 5 gymnast, my handstand wasn’t perfect. I was capable of kicking up to vertical, however I could only hold it for about 5 seconds… maybe 10 seconds if I was lucky. Today, my handstands have improved so much, I can easily kick up and hold it (without walking) for about a minute. I can also walk forwards and backwards on my hands without falling for a long period of time. But trust me… this didn’t come easily, it took a lot of training. But, I’m about to reveal to all of you non gymnasts out there the secrets that you need to know in order to perfectly nail this skill.
The Strength
The strength needed for a handstand is in the upper body, core and gluteal muscles. Every muscle in your body has to be completely squeezed in order for you to keep balance. This means your belly shouldn’t be sticking out, your ribcage should be engaged, and your butt should be squeezed so tight, that if I were to try and pull your feet apart, I wouldn’t be able to do it because you should be squeezing that hard. A lot of stretching and body conditioning should be done before attempting your first handstand. Pushups, sit ups, V-ups, and pull ups/chin ups should work well. (Be sure to really stretch your wrists before attempting one, as they will be holding up most of your body weight.)
The Body Shaping
When most non gymnasts and beginners try a handstand for the first time, their bodies normally take the form of a banana shape. I call this the Banana Handstand, and it is the worst possible way to try and do this skill. This means that the head and stomach stick out while the toes face horizontal instead of vertical. People also tend to have bent legs and sloppy feet. This is incorrect form and it should not be trained in this way, as it encourages arching and bad posture. Having a big arch in your back will not help with the balance and people will also place too much weight on their shoulders which is what forces them to make this shape in the first place.
When a gymnast is first learning how to do a handstand, a coach will often have her practice her body shape against a wall. They will use a technique called “Walking Up The Wall”. In this drill, her stomach must be facing the wall (not back against the wall) while her feet slowly climb the wall into as far as she can go into a handstand. Her body is in a hallow body position. Many beginners first learn the L Handstand in which a gymnast’s body is at a 90 degree angle with their backs completely flat. As they progress in the shape, they will soon gain enough strength to walk their hands in closer to the wall to push their bodies up more. In this version, the gymnast is shrugging her shoulders (pushing her armpits up) to take the weight off of her shoulders and opening her shoulder angle more.
Notice in this man’s shape, the big differences. In banana form, his back is arched, his toes are not pointing to vertical, his head is sticking out, and he has all his weight placed on his shoulders causing his shoulder angle to break. Compare that to the right side, where his toes are pointing to the ceiling, his stomach is in and his ribcage is completely engaged, and he is pushing through his shoulders to make it easier for him to hold it. Perfect!
Balancing Techniques
Out of everything someone will learn from a handstand, balancing is the most difficult thing that will really take awhile to learn. It will probably take a person to do 1,000 handstands before they begin to develop a sense of balance. And of course, more strength training too. One secret that I have that helps me balance is knowing exactly where to place your weight in your hands. One mistake many people make is they put all of their weight in the palms of their hands.
Here is a little secret that helped me keep my balance… instead of putting my weight on my palms, I put my weight on my fingers. I’m really serious. People don’t think that their fingers are strong enough to hold their entire body weight but they can. Now, of course I’m not saying people should kick up to handstand without placing their palms on the floor. Your hands have to be flat. But you can use your fingers to grab onto the floor and dig them into the ground, helping you keep a better steady balance.
If you use these tips and continue to practice the handstand, you will soon be able to balance the handstand and maybe even advance to walking on your hands too. Trust me, that is super fun to do. Especially in public places!
Righty vs Lefty
Most people probably don’t know this, but gymnast’s usually favor one dominant side of their body. This is extremely different compared to many other artistic sports such as figure skating and dancing because a majority of them train athletes to use both sides of their body. However, gymnasts will always tumble on the same side of their body every single time. Personally, I was a righty. My right leg was always dominant in every skill I performed on every event. I turned on my right foot, I hurdled with my right foot, my right leg split was more flexible than my left leg, I tumbled in the right direction, I leapt with my right leg in front, and in my twisting skills, I had to drop down my left arm in order to twist right. Other gymnasts might prefer their left side instead, however it all depends on the gymnast. Unlike figure skaters and dancers, there are no gymnasts who can use both sides, as one side will always be weaker than the other.
Now, I’ve actually seen this many times during practice and as a coach. Just because someone can write with their right hand does not mean that they are a righty in gymnastics. There are many lefty gymnasts who write with their right hand and vice versa.
Usually a gymnast can determine which side their most comfortable with during the early stages of training. I knew immediately that I was a righty when I found it easier to do a cartwheel on my right leg compared to my left. Not to mention, my right leg split was easier and a lot less painful to make compared to my left split, which just told me my right leg was more flexible. For all beginning gymnasts who are wondering why one side is easier than the other, this is completely normal.
Choosing Floor Music
When a gymnast reaches a certain level, they have the freedom to select their own music for their floor routine. This may sound easy, but it is actually a process. A gymnast has to consider that whatever music she selects, she has to really like it. Once the music is selected and she is given choreography, that is her floor routine for at least two seasons. It’s important for her to be listening to different types of music to get a feel of what she envisions for her routine.
Every female gymnast has their own style on the floor. Some girls are powerful and prefer their routine to have more tumbling elements. Some girls are dancers and prefer to add a lot of dance elements in their routines. Some girls like different types of music and the music has to match their style and personality. For all the power tumblers and weak dancers, a fast-paced and upbeat music style might suit them better. For gymnasts who have a strength in dancing more so than tumbling, they may prefer slower music with violins. It all depends on the style of the athlete. When performing a floor routine, the gymnast in not only showing her skills to the judges, but is essentially putting on a performance for the audience. She has to be able to get the audience engaged in her routine, and in order for the audience to be engaged, she has to be enjoying herself while performing it. One person described it as,
“If you were in a movie scene, what role would you play, put it to music and then portray that scene on the floor.”
Of course, not all floor routines are from movies, however that is the analogy that is commonly used.
After the gymnast selects the music, they hire a choreographer for a day and then… that’s how floor routines are born.
I dreamed of having my own routine since day one, so of course when the moment came of selecting my music I was super hyped. I already had some ideas for my music in mind. Most of my teammates received “hand-me-down” routines from previous gymnasts who performed them.
I remember Jazmine had “Gypsy Rhapsody” by Bond (Arabian Style music), Kathryn had “Jumpin Jack” by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (Jazz Style), Sarah had “Zoot Suit Riot” by the Cherry Poppin Daddies (Swing style), Angelina had “My Boyfriend’s Back” by the Angels (Bubblegum Pop Style), Gabby had “Up Is Down” from Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack (Movie style), Tia had “Black Betty” by Ram Jam (Country Rock Style) and Quinn had “Jazz Machine” by Black Machine (Jazz style). The only ones who specifically chose their music (and wasn’t “hand-me-down”) was Angelina, Tia and Gabby.
But I didn’t want a “hand-me-down”, I wanted something completely fresh and different from the others. For some reason, I remember the music that really appealed to me was the instrumental version of the Ghostbusters Theme Song, “National Treasure Suite” from the National Treasure Movie Soundtrack and two different instrumental Madonna songs, “Music” and “Die Another Day”. All songs were very upbeat and techno style and I could just really envision myself tumbling to all of them. So for me it was a tie between those four.
Well, it ended up being none of those…
My first floor routine was “El Tango De Roxanne” from the 2001 movie musical Moulin Rouge. The movie stars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. I’ve never seen the movie and in all honesty, I didn’t initially choose the song. My coach actually heard it first and she pulled me to the side after practice one day and made me listen to it and told me she thought it was a perfect fit for me. At first, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t think the music was bad, but at the same time, I wouldn’t say I was a huge fan of the whole Spanish tango vibe. She loved it for me because she knew me to be a gymnast who had a lot of dancing talent, and she liked the idea of me dancing to a tango style routine. While it wasn’t exactly my musical taste, I trusted her judgment and went with it, because at the end of the day, I wanted a routine that would be different and would help me score big on floor.
The coach who selected the music was the same one who choreographed the routine. I won’t lie, she gave me a lot of tricky dance elements. I had to be very dramatic because the music was dramatic. There was one part where I completely stand on my toe knuckles for a long period of time… and to some people that’s probably considered not normal. I finish the routine with a big finale of a barrel roll turn.
At first, I wasn’t a big fan of my own routine because I still was hooked on my own song choices. However, all of my other teammates seemed to love my routine because of the dance elements. They especially liked the barrel roll and the ending pose.
My coach loved the way I performed the routine and everyone thought the music matched my style and personality. I remember my best friend and teammate Angelina saw my routine for the first time, and the first thing she said to me was, “Oh my gosh! That is SO perfect for you! Ms. Alexis knows you so well!” I was just thinking, “What? Seriously?” because I felt like it wasn’t me at all. Of course, I was just a 13 or 14 year old and all I wanted to do was dance to something trendier, like Madonna and Ghostbusters.
However, one thing I didn’t realize at the time was that choosing floor music isn’t about choosing music that appeals to your ear, but it has to appeal to the gymnast as a whole. While my music taste was more upbeat, the tango style music matched my personality and dance style better. I guess back then I didn’t realize a whole lot about my own personality or dancing technique, but my coach saw it and so did my teammates. I was the only one on my team with a Tango style routine, and I guess that in itself was different from everyone else’s upbeat jazz styles.
As I kept competing it and experimenting with it, I began to enjoy it more. And when I looked up the scene my music was from, it made me appreciate the style. The scene is actually extremely intense so as a gymnast, it was my job to kind of recreate that scene by using dance and gymnastics elements. The last time I competed it, I think was the highest score I ever received.
Good thing I didn’t choose my music at that time, because if I did, it probably would have been a really cringy routine. I’m not saying that any of that music I listed initially isn’t good floor music, it just didn’t match my style.
Listening to my coach was definitely a good call.
When I got my second floor music, it was a lot more rock/Irish style. It was called “Shipping Up To Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys. That was another difficult routine. For one, it was very fast paced and secondly the dance elements were trickier. I took a bit of a risk with that one because it was the complete opposite of my first routine, however I was still able to pack it in with a lot of cool dance moves that kept people’s attention.
All in all, both of my floor routines were very fun to perform.
Conditioning, Stretching, And More Conditioning…
Can you imagine a four hour conditioning session? Well… it’s not fun. There are many things that people won’t tell you before you decide to join competitive gymnastics, and conditioning sessions is one of them… Like I stated before, every gymnast experiences this differently, however at my gym, conditioning was enforced all the time on every single event. During normal practice hours, gymnasts are required to condition both before and after practice. Usually in the beginning the conditioning would consist of a lot of cardio, abs and leg/butt workouts. After practice, conditioning would consist of a lot more upper body strength and back workouts. This is what the schedule was like during the school year. During the summer, the conditioning sessions became even more intense. Every Friday morning, we would have to be at the gym by 9am to be ready for our morning run. (This was awful for me because of my asthma plus Florida summer humidity was just not a good combination) After our 2 mile jog, we would meet behind our gym where there was a soccer field. There we would do 10 suicide sprints in the hot sun! Oh yeah! It was great! (NOT) Once we would all get inside to change into our leotards, I would be sweating profusely. After that, we began our warmup with a light stretch and then quickly begin our four hour conditioning session. We would condition on all four events, spending an hour on each event. Every Friday during the summer I came home feeling sore. And it wasn’t just because of the conditioning.
After our conditioning session, we would spend the rest of practice working on our flexibility. In gymnastics, you’re required to have one of your splits all the way down otherwise you can’t compete. Once you have it all the way to the floor at the compulsory level, coaches will make you do over-splits. Over-splits are when a gymnast or dancer attempts to do a split on higher elevation in order to stretch their muscles beyond 180 degrees. I remember them making me stretch this at age eight and I would be in so much pain I would cry.
Eventually in advanced optional gymnastics, we had to stretch our over-splits and straddle splits on the beam, which was never fun. However, I did prefer the stretching to the conditioning.
Along with all the splits, we stretched our backs and shoulders to the max. Bridges are something that every single gymnast does in their warmup in order to stretch out their back and shoulders simultaneously. It is also a stretch that trains the body to adjust to certain body shapes gymnasts need to make in order to have good tumbling techniques.
Body Imaging & Eating Disorders
I’ve personally never experienced this issue during my time as a gymnast, however that does not mean that these kinds of things don’t happen. As a matter of fact, I think gymnastics, dance, and cheerleading may all have the same issues when it comes to an athlete’s diet.
In gymnastics, and especially for women, athletes are going through many developmental changes in their bodies. Girls begin to get their periods, they get cramps, they begin to develop breasts, they get moody, their hormones are going crazy, they get hungry frequently and often while that happens it’s sometimes difficult to maintain good eating habits. It is up to the athlete to try and watch the calories that they are taking in and burning while they are practicing. In this sport, it is recommended that the athletes stay at a specific body weight and to be slim, and for some gymnasts this can cause eating disorders.
Luckily, I never developed an eating disorder from gymnastics. As a matter of fact, I think I was quite the opposite. I used to try to eat a lot before practice because after practice I would usually be starving. I was never really worried about my body weight because I knew gymnastics helped me gain a high metabolism. I only recall I think one time there was a day that I was really overworking myself. I didn’t eat lunch that day at school because I was doing homework in order to make more time for gymnastics practice, and to top it off, I forgot to eat a meal before practice started. So I didn’t eat anything that day since like breakfast which was at 6am. During that practice, I was on beam and just feeling so dizzy and lightheaded, but I kept pushing myself to continue. My coach pulled me to the side because she noticed something was really wrong with me. I must’ve looked pale or something. I told her that I wasn’t feeling well and that I felt like I was going to pass out. She asked me if I needed water, and I told her that I hadn’t eaten anything all day. Right away, she took me out of practice and gave me money to buy myself something from the snack bar. I sat out of practice for a good 30 minutes eating a bagel with cream cheese. That was the last time I did something like that…
Overtime, gymnasts will develop a lot of muscles and most of the time when they weigh themselves, their muscles put on the extra weight, however they will believe it is fat. The moment that I retired from gym, I actually believed that I was going to gain weight. In reality, I actually lost weight! I went from being 102 Ibs as a gymnast to 95 Ibs after I quit. My theory is that I had lost a lot of my muscle mass.
All in all, some gymnasts can develop eating disorders in this sport, so it’s important to encourage a healthy balanced diet and not the mentality of skinny and fat.
There is A Lot of Traveling And Sacrifices
During competition season, you pretty much live out of a suitcase. Every single weekend (or sometimes every other weekend) a gymnast will be traveling to different cities and states. If you enjoy traveling around the country, then being a gymnast might be a perk. However, if you’re a student-athlete, this can get difficult to balance with your studies. This is often why some gymnasts prefer to be homeschooled or take online classes. However, I personally wanted to experience life outside of the gym and be more socialized with my peers, so I balanced school with gymnastics. It wasn’t easy though. My daily schedule normally went like this:
5:30am — Wake up, take a shower
6:00am — Get dressed, brush teeth, put on makeup
6:30am — Eat breakfast
6:45am — Finish homework or study if any.
7:00am — drive to school
7:30am — arrive to school, socialize among friends or study/finish homework
8:00am — School starts
8:00am-3:00pm — Classes, tests, lunch, socializing, etc.
3:15pm — Change for gymnastics practice (while at school)
4:00pm — Drive to gym practice
4:30pm — Do homework/study for tests before practice begins
5:00pm-8:30pm — Gymnastics practice
9:00pm — Arrive home, eat dinner & take a shower
9:45pm-11:00pm — Begin/Continue Homework
11:30pm-12:00am — Go to bed
I remember being very stressed at practice knowing that I would have two tests to study for the following morning. I would usually have to do my homework during lunch at school in order to make time for gymnastics practice after school. I got home around 9:00pm at night and would eat dinner, take a shower by 9:30 and would begin my studying at around 10:00, which by that time I would have very little energy. When it was the week of a competition, my schedule would be even more hectic, especially if the meet was located out of state and depending on what time I would be scheduled for competition. Sometimes competitions would be held on Friday mornings in another state, which would require me and the other girls to travel the day before. This would mean I’d have to miss two days of school and do make up work for after the competition weekend. For example, my very first travel competition was located in Columbus, Ohio in 2008. I was only 11 or 12 years old at the time. I was scheduled to compete on a Saturday morning, however me and the other girls booked a flight on Thursday night. That Thursday at school, I left my fifth period class early and headed home to change and grab my suitcase and competition gear. By 4:00, my father and I drove to the Tampa International Airport where we met up with my teammates at the Gate. We were set to board the plane by 5:00 however, our flight was delayed because of the snowstorm that Columbus was experiencing at the time. We took off by 8:00pm and landed by 10:00pm. While it was fun sitting with my teammates on the plane, we were all a little tired from a long day. We originally wanted to go snow sledding the moment we arrived, however the flight delay and bad weather changed our plans. It was just my father and I in a hotel room since my mother decided to stay back home in Florida. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to support me, but the flight tickets were too expensive for three people. My friend and teammate Jazmine ended up staying the night in our room that same night that we got off the plane. I can’t remember the exact reason as to why she spent the night in our hotel room, however I do remember that both of us were very tired from a long flight and ended up going to bed as soon as we checked in. On Friday the next day, Jazz and I went to the competition to support the level 6’s and optionals and on Saturday was the day that I (and the rest of my team) were scheduled to compete. In the meantime, my best friend from school, Tabitha (who was also a gymnast but couldn’t attend the competition due to her being in a lower level than me) texted me the homework for the classes that I missed. That Sunday morning the team and I travelled to Ohio State University to watch our coach, Maalika, compete in her collegiate gymnastics competition.
The amount of makeup work I had was astounding, and it took me the entire plane ride home that Sunday night to work on it. That Monday morning I was exhausted because I had to go back to school even though I literally just got off an airplane and was running on about 4 hours of sleep at that time. I begged my parents to allow me to skip another day because I was so tired. But they didn’t want me to miss another day of school so I went that morning. I also had to take a makeup test after school that same day which sucked!
This is just one of multiple examples of what travel competitions were like. I often did have fun with my teammates during the awesome trips to multiple cities such as Columbus, Ohio, Atlanta, Georgia, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Charlotte, North Carolina, Dallas, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee and many others.
Now, of course there were also many plus sides to travel competitions. Even though they brought a lot of stress on me when it came to my academics, I genuinely loved travel competitions for many reasons. For one thing, it gave me a chance to really bond with my teammates. (As if going over to each others houses and spending 3 hours everyday during the week together wasn’t enough.) Traveling with them really feels like something very special. I remember specifically during the Atlanta competition I was extremely tired from the long drive from Florida and just crashed onto the hotel bed when we arrived. We drove straight through and got caught in one of Atlanta’s worst snow storms. We ended up arriving there at around 2am. The following morning, my best friend and teammate Kathryn came right into our hotel room, curtesy of my parents who let her in. I was still asleep and my parents thought it would be funny to have Kathryn and her sister Mackenzie jump on my bed to wake me up! Needless to say, I slapped her in the face thinking she was my dad. LOL! She was like that annoying twin sister that I never had. Another one of my best friends Angelina, travelled with us to give support even though she suffered from an injured foot the week before and was unable to compete. And once again, Sarah was there to compete with me side by side. Whether we were instate or out of state, we always made it a tradition to go out to eat, hang out and celebrate after a competition, and that is exactly what we did after the competition. After we all changed out of our leotards, we played in the snow for a few minutes. Then we all went to Angelina’s hotel room, watched a movie and just enjoyed each other’s company. It’s just bonding that we normally can’t do while we are in practice.
Traveling with your team is like touring the world and going on vacation with your second family, while also doing your job. It’s similar to a business trip if you think about it (but way more fun!)
My Favorite Competition
I get a lot of people who like to ask me which competition was my favorite one during my entire gymnastics career. That’s a good question. I’m willing to bet that a lot of gymnasts have a favorite competition of theirs. And if not a favorite, then at least a very memorable one. Truth is, for me, a enjoyed many of the competitions that I participated in. It would be very difficult for me to choose a favorite. While I had many good and bad meets, all of them came with a good memory to look back on. Many of my favorite ones would have to be the travel competitions, however many of the local ones resonated with me as well. I’ll try my best to explain most of them to the best of my ability.
December 15, 2005 — Level 3 State Championships (Tampa, Florida)
This one resonates with me for multiple personal reasons. For one, it was my very first State competition and I was extremely excited for it. On another note, it was also a very sad time for me. About five days before my very first state competition, my grandpa passed away and I was very saddened by his death. It was just really horrible timing. My parents were raised in Buffalo, New York before they relocated to Tampa in the 80s, so my grandpa’s funeral took place in Buffalo. To top it off, the funeral was planned on the same day as the competition so I had to decide if I should fly up to New York or stay in Florida and compete. Well… I ended up staying in Florida. I know… people are probably going to think I’m the worst person ever, but in all honesty, I think my parents preferred me staying behind and doing what I loved to do. I think they thought that the competition would distract me or something. After all, I was only like 8 or 9 years old at the time, and my parents thought I was too young to deal with the loss of a close family member.
So, my parents both flew up to New York, leaving me in the care of another gymnastics team mother and a close friend of ours for a long time. I stayed at my friend and teammate Emily’s house for a full six days, including school days and the competition, which we both competed together.
Looking back at it now, I kind of wish that I went with my parents to see my grandpa one last time. I feel like I never truly got any closure from his death. But I also believe that grandpa would’ve been proud of me for doing what I loved to do. I tried to do my very best at that competition, hoping that I was making him proud. I wanted to win for him.
In 2007, my grandma passed away and that time I attended her funeral. I didn’t want to miss something like that again.
February 8, 2008 — Capitol City Classic Level 5 (Columbus, Ohio)
My very first travel competition in Columbus, Ohio. As I’ve already explained, this one is memorable for this reason alone. To me, it was a lot of fun to experience traveling with my friends. I feel like that is something that not a lot of kids get to experience. It was also really funny seeing all of them react to snow while we were there. Luckily for me, I’ve seen snow before due to the many Christmases I’ve spent in Buffalo, New York. Not many of my teammates could handle the snow for long though, and I’m the same way. However, they did have a lot of fun building snowmen, throwing snowballs and making snow angels.
One thing that I recall from the competition in particular was that the meet was held in a warehouse or a small gymnasium that was on the Ohio State University campus. I remember that the AC was turned on while it was snowing outside which made absolutely no sense to me. All I knew was that, I was freezing. When I was up to compete on the balance beam, I was shivering, and it was so hard for me to try and keep my balance while my body was having a natural reaction to the cold. I also think that right after this competition, I got really sick due to the quick climate change from Florida heat to extreme cold in Ohio. That is typically how my Floridian blooded body reacts when I’m in any weather that is below 60 degrees.
February 14, 2010 — Atlanta Centennial Classic Level 7 (Atlanta, Georgia)
Another memorable travel competition that I will never forget. This one was also one of the weirdest competitions that I’ve ever participated in. Let me explain from the beginning. I got out of school early that day to get ready for the drive to Atlanta. (This time, none of us flew because…well… it’s Atlanta, Georgia and driving there would only take about 6–7 hours from Tampa) The drive there ended up taking about 12 hours due to (once again) the bad snow weather that Atlanta was experiencing. Georgia isn’t even notorious for having a lot of snow, however of course during the time that we all drove up there, we ran into black ice on the road which caused a bunch of heavy traffic. We left for Atlanta around 3 or 4:00pm from Tampa and arrived in Atlanta at around 2:00am. I was sleeping in the backseat of the car for a majority of the time we were stuck in traffic, and by the time we finally got to the hotel, I quickly changed into my pajamas and went to bed.
The competition in itself was also very strange to me because of it’s location. You would think that a big city such as Atlanta, Georgia would host a huge gymnastics competition at a large venue…right? Nope! The competition was held inside of a hotel in one of the large ballrooms. A ballroom! With chandeliers!! I mean like… what the actual fuck?! The ballroom was very dim and the lighting was awful. While I was warming up on bars (which was directly below one of the chandeliers) I was legitimately worried that I was going to kick the chandelier while performing my bar routine. It was blatantly obvious that whoever planned this meet was not thinking thoroughly about the location nor the dangerous hazards of it, as if the tricks that we were performing weren’t dangerous enough!
Besides the weird location of it, I had a lot of fun with my friends on this trip, which made it special in the long run. I also recall that we won first place which was also memorable.
March 26, 2010 — USA State Championships Level 7 (Daytona Beach, Florida)
This was my first Level 7 State Championship. This meant a lot to me because once a gymnast hits level 7, they are then competing with the top notch dogs of gymnastics. Level 7 is a difficult level to compete because it is full of girls with a ton of talent and not everyone can win. It was no longer a “everyone gets a participation medal compulsory competition”, it was a “only the top 5 girls made podium and everyone else goes home award-less” type of competition. The competition was incredibly intense in the meet and the judges were looking for every reason to deduct from all gymnasts. It was held in Daytona Beach, Florida in March, so the weather was amazing. In my session, it was only me, Kathryn and Angelina representing our gym from Tampa. I ended up placing 5th in the State. Not my best, but it was okay for my first States as a level 7 gymnast, and I was happy that I actually made podium.
After the competition, Angelina, Kathryn and I (and all of our families) went to Bubba Gumps Restaurant, a restaurant inspired by the movie Forrest Gump. (I’m not sure if anyone else has been to this restaurant or if it is located anywhere else in the United States, but they had the best shrimp I think I’ve ever tasted. The place is quite popular in Florida, especially near the beaches.) We eventually changed into our regular casual clothes in the bathroom and ate our food to celebrate post States and how we could all then relax for a little bit before practice that upcoming week. After dinner, we decided to walk the beach boardwalk and the pier which was outside of our hotel. Sarah and another girl on our team named Kenya wanted to join us. We were all walking arm in arm together. Eventually I fell behind them a little bit because I was walking and texting (go figure). Since I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, I ran right into this skateboarder on the boardwalk. He looked as if to be a lot older than me, and he also had another friend with him. He first apologized to me and helped me up and then immediately began to flirt with me. I was only 14 years old at the time, but he must’ve assumed I was his age or something. He proceeded to ask me how old I was. I said “I’m 14…?” I’m pretty sure I sounded creeped out. He then seemed shocked and said “Woah, seriously?! You’re really hot for 14!”. Soon my friends came to see what was going on. This guy didn’t stop flirting with me though, and he continued to pursue me right in front of my friends. Angelina seemed to think that the boys were cute and didn’t really care about how old they were. She told me I was lucky to be catching the eyes of older men. I tended to slightly disagree with her, because it made me feel uncomfortable. When I turned to leave, these two 18 year old boys began to follow us and they even invited all of us up to their hotel rooms. I was floored at the amount of balls that they had to be able to ask that right in front of all of our dads, who by the way, eventually had to step in and tell the guys to leave us alone. Other than that scary event, I quite enjoyed being on the beach with my friends and competing my first level 7 State Championship.
February 17, 2011 — Excalibur Cup Level 7 (Virginia Beach, Virginia)
This was another really fun and memorable competition. This was the competition in which I scored one of my highest all-around scores in my career as a gymnast. It was also really memorable because the whole team (all levels) got the chance to participate, so everyone got a chance to bond as a whole.
Traveling there wasn’t as much as a pain in the ass compared to the other travel competitions in the past, even though it was a longer drive. (Yes, we drove there to save money on flight tickets) I think it may have taken us a full day to drive there. I’m not sure… I don’t remember much about traveling there. All I do remember was what happened when we actually got there. I recall, the whole team gathered in the lobby of our hotel playing the Wii and Just Dance. It was quite hilarious watching the coaches play Just Dance, and I played a few rounds with my friends too.
I also remember that there was another gymnastics team in the same hotel that we were staying at, and they thought it would be funny to throw some banter at us before the competition. They were called the Georgia Allstars all the way from Atlanta, Georgia. They tried to be intimidating and even throw in some insults saying that we were low level gymnasts and that we had no chance at beating them. Our team got back at them by putting posters that we made all over their hotel doors that said “Georgia Allstars Suck”. We eventually saved the banter for the competition to see who would really win in the end. (P.S. We beat them by like .5 tenths)
Out of all my meets, this one had to be my personal best. I scored as follows: Vault: 9.400, Bars: 9.45, Beam: 9.300, Floor: 9.525 and a very high All-Around score of a 37.675 out of 40. I took First place!
This was also a competition (like all others) that my teammates and I really got to bond. The competition ended at around 6:00pm so Kathryn, Angelina, Sarah, Mackenzie and I were all just starving and ready to eat. We (and our families) all went out to dinner together, it was like a huge party. After dinner, the night was still young so we all decided to walk around and explore the city. It was super funny because we all decided to stay in our leotards and medals during the whole thing, so we all made jingle noises when we walked around. Everyone was starring at us. And of course, we all went to the beach the next morning. We didn’t go into the water though because to our standards, it was too cold.
March 21, 2011 — Tim Rand Invitational (Coral Springs, Florida)
This competition in general was just amazing because of the time I spent with my team. As I said before, when you’re a gymnast you spend a lot of time traveling every weekend to different places. This meet in particular, I remember carpooling with three of my best friends and teammates, Kathryn and Sarah. On our way to the competition, we were just relaxing in the back of Sarah’s mom’s Hummer and jamming out to every song that played on the radio. We sang many songs, however I clearly remember us singing “Raise Your Glass” by P!nk because that song was extremely popular at the time. Even though I don’t remember much about the meet, sometimes it’s the little things like this that really end up sticking with us.
June 16, 2011–Southeast Regional Championships (Charlotte, North Carolina)
I’ve already explained the reason for why this one resonates with me. This was also my last competition before moving up to level 8 the next year. (See “Competitions Are Intense”)
Coping With Mental Blocks & Fear
I mentioned before that gymnasts, especially those who are in their teenage years experience fear. I wanted to dive into this a little bit more because many non gymnasts actually believe we’re not scared of anything, when in reality that’s not the case. A gymnast is just really good at pretending like they’re not afraid of the skills that they’re doing. The truth is, we are actually very aware of the skills that we’re doing. We definitely know that every time we walk into the gym, we have a high risk of coming out with an injury, or worse not at all. (Which there have been some deaths due to gymnastics. Don’t believe me? Look up Julissa Gomez, Elena Mukhina & Christy Henrich) Yes, we’re definitely aware that what we do is very dangerous. Fear is actually a huge factor in why many gymnasts quit the sport. That’s why coaches try their best to eliminate our fear and encourage us to gain confidence and believe in what we can do. The truth about gymnastics is this: the sport is 90% mental and 10% physical. That’s right. This sport literally will mentally fuck with you. Because one day, you will be able to do a skill completely fine and then the next day it can be gone like you never have done it at all. And when that happens it is so frustrating. I can’t even express how frustrating it is unless someone out there has personally experienced it. I can’t tell you how many tears I’ve cried due to one stupid skill or being afraid of something that my body can physically do but my mind believed I couldn’t. There was one time when I was I think 13 or 14 years old, and I was training my back handsprings on the balance beam. When I was on the low beam I made it every single time. When my coach told me to put it on the high beam, I was deathly afraid! The beam didn’t look high while standing on the ground, but when I was standing on it and getting prepared to do the skill, I couldn’t do it. My palms got sweaty, my heart was pumping, and I began to overthink everything. Suddenly the beam, which was only five feet off the ground, felt like it was higher than that. I began to think of everything that could happen if I dared to jump backwards on a 4 inch wide piece of wood. What if I didn’t catch the beam and landed on my head? Or what if I psyched myself out in the middle of the skill? I think those were my biggest fears. I stood there for about 10 minutes before my coach began to get frustrated with me. She would not let me leave beam until I did at least 5 back handsprings on the high beam by myself. She was going to make me stay on beam all practice if she had to, to get me over my fear. When I got back on the high beam, she spotted me for a few and kept telling me that she wasn’t doing anything and that I had it by myself. What eventually made me go for it was changing my thought process. Normally it would give me comfort in knowing that she was standing there even if she didn’t touch me. What I had to do was give myself a type of placebo effect. I convinced my brain to imagine my coach standing beside me even though she wasn’t. Thinking in that way slightly made me less anxious. I then tried not to think too hard about it and count to three. On three, I would throw it. Soon it was over. I did my back handspring on the high beam by myself with no spot. I was scared for no reason. None of the scenarios that I built in my brain actually happened. I figured that if I stood there for as long as I was, then I would overthink it and build the fear even more. Often times, not thinking about things too hard is essentially how to beat fear. The same situation happened while I was learning my tumbling series on the beam for level 8 (which was connecting 2 back handsprings together) Out of all of the events, I personally felt like I experienced my worst fear on the balance beam. As I said prior, the event just was not my strong suit at all. It was the event that I hated with a passion. I always wanted to compete beam first at competitions just so I could get that event over with. Some gymnasts experience more fear on bars because they feel like giants are scary. Others are afraid of vault or floor. It all depends on the gymnast.
As weird as this may sound, it seems that the only way to really do gymnastics without the burden of fear is to not think too hard about what you’re doing. Sometimes you just have to do it. Test the skill out without thinking about it too hard. I mean, you should still think about what you’re doing, however if you overanalyze the skill, that is when fear will creep into the mind. You can’t let that happen. With this being said, it’s safe to say that in my adulthood, gymnastics has taught me how to face my fears and eliminate my anxiety. Many people in life tend to jump to the worst case scenarios or conclusions too quickly, so instead of just doing it (whatever it is that they are afraid of or uncomfortable doing) they avoid it like the plague. This is overanalyzing a fear, and this is some of the things that normal people have trouble overcoming. These are some of the good life skills that gymnastics can ultimately teach people.
You Will Fail
It’s inevitable… in gymnastics you will fail. You will fail many times. You will fall on your ass over and over again on the same fucking skill and it will hurt like hell. It will really put your patience to the test. Gymnastics will say,
“Let’s see how many times it will take for you to fail before you decide to give up.”
But that’s the thing, you have to learn to not give up. No matter how many times you fall on your face, stomach, back, knees, or groin…you have to do it again. Failing in gymnastics will absolutely make you feel awful. Struggling with one skill is enough to bring down a gymnasts confidence. But a gymnast must learn how to keep going. They have to learn to get over the hump. They have to learn how to believe in themselves when faced with adversity.
A gymnast can have a really bad day on an event, whether it’s during practice or a competition. If she makes a big mistake, or she falls, or she doesn’t properly execute a routine, she has to learn to move on and to not let it ruin her day on the other events. There were many times in competitions where I would fall on beam or bars and while I would be upset in the moment, I’d have to quickly wipe away my tears and prepare for the next event like nothing happened.
I also remember when I was 13 or 14 years old, I struggled to get my giants on bars. It’s not that I was afraid to do the skill, I just couldn’t make it over the bar. It was extremely difficult. I fell over and over and over again. It took me a whole year to get that skill. I frustrated every single day practicing that skill, but the day I finally made it, I think was one of the happiest moments of my life. That’s the moment that gymnastics taught me to never give up.
However, it take awhile to make the giants more consistent. That alone took a lot more practice at hand. I recall that the week I finally made my giants I had an upcoming competition. It was actually the USA Regional Florida Team Qualifiers, so a bunch of gymnasts from all over Florida were competing to make Team Florida. I made my giants just a few days before that competition, and my coaches thought it would be a good idea to put them in my bar routine with only a few days of practice. Well, that just spelled disaster for me…
For one thing, I was so nervous to compete my brand new giants that I almost dropped out of the competition all together. But my coach didn’t allow me to. She wanted me to try to make Team Florida because she knew I wanted to be on it, and she didn’t want a new skill to intimidate me. I reluctantly decided to compete, but I still knew that my giants weren’t consistent enough yet to put in my routine. Regardless, I listened to my coaches. Of course, when I got to bars and did my new bar routine I fell on my giants. I began to cry because I knew that was going to happen, and I was afraid that would ruin my chances of making Team Florida. I was actually very angry because I felt like I was set up to fail. My score was a 7.6 on bars because of the huge fall. In order for me to make Team Florida, I had to perform nearly flawless on the other events. There was no room for error. I felt like my confidence took a big blow because of Bars. My coach pulled me to the side and told me to forget about everything that happened on bars and put on my “big girl panties.” She said I needed to get my mind in gear for the next event because even with my big error on bars, I could still have a chance of qualifying. In the end, I ended up making a comeback in the competition and I had an all around score of 36.525. In order to qualify for the team I needed to be in the top 5 All Around, and I made it getting 3rd place.
The point is, I was afraid of failing and it happened. However, even if you fail on one event you have to learn to finish the competition strong. During Regionals that summer, I competed my giants again, and this time I had more practice and more consistency, so I was a lot more prepared for it. I ended up nailing my Bar routine during Regionals and that was when it really mattered.
Gymnastics is NOT Just For Girls
There seems to be this myth that heavily weighs down on the sport of gymnastics. People think that it is just a girl’s sport. Really, gymnastics is not gender specific. I think it’s awful that people believe they can’t sign up their little boys for gymnastics classes because they’re afraid of judgment from other people. Earth to everyone! There is a thing called Men’s Artistic Gymnastics and the men who compete in it are literally the strongest men (and hottest) that you’ll ever encounter! At one point I even wanted to date and eventually marry one. (Although, that didn’t really pan out for me since I’m currently dating a hockey player instead. LOL) Because I feel I’ve been speaking mostly about Women’s Artistic Gymnastics, I’m going to take a bit to honor the men. Male gymnasts are very strong, probably stronger than female gymnasts considering most of their events require 10x more strength than women events. There are six events in Men’s Gymnastics and they share two events in common with Women’s Gymnastics. Their events are: Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar. All of their events require strength and agility meanwhile in comparison Women’s events require more grace and power. The only Women’s event that would require a lot of pure strength is the Uneven Bars. In the U.S.A, Men’s Gymnastics isn’t as popular as it’s female counterpart. As for the reasoning behind this, there can be a lot of them. For one thing, I don’t think the media covers Men’s Gymnastics as much, resulting in poor attendance. It would be similar to a women’s college basketball team not raking in as many fans as a mens college basketball team. Without the media’s help, people just won’t show interest. Another reason can be because it’s not as entertaining as women’s gymnastics. Since women can engage an audience with her floor music and put on an amazing performance or look extremely graceful while tumbling down a balance beam, I think this intrigues people more compared to seeing a strong man display his strength on a pair of rings. U.S.A Gymnastics also just doesn’t give much attention to their mens team than they do with their women’s team. I can’t help but feel that in other countries, Men’s gymnastics might be more popular. It’s easy to like any team in any sport if they win, right? Well, ever since 1996, the U.S.A Women’s Gymnastics team has consistently dominated the sport and has won gold on numerous occasions. To this day, the United States is one of the biggest nations to produce some of the best gymnasts in the world. (Simone Biles, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Luikin, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Weiber) They rank high up there along with other dominant gymnastics countries such as Russia and China. The U.S.A Men’s Team hasn’t won gold since the 80s, so this could also be a factor as to why people in America pay more attention to the females.
When it comes to both Men’s and Women’s gymnastics, people would probably be shocked to know that they’re actually very different from each other. Not just because the events are different, but even with the events that they share, the scoring is different, the rules are different and the tumbling styles are different. For example, for the Floor Exercise women have to compete with floor music. The routine is 1:30 minutes long and anything over is a deduction in the score. The music can be anything of the girl’s choosing however lyrics are not allowed in the music. If there are lyrics in her floor music it is I think 3 tenths of a deduction. (Which is a huge deduction to take that is really unnecessary.) Women also require a lot of dance elements in their routines such as leaps, turns and jumps. Men on the other hand do not use floor music. Instead they compete at least four different tumbling passes and display skills that require more strength rather than dance. On vault, men and women compete on the same vaulting table, however men usually have the table at a higher height compared to the women. Men also compete more difficult vaults than women do. Women will most of the time perform Yurochenko style vaults better than men because their center of gravity is lower and it is easier for women to compete these types of skills. Men often perform more front-double tuck style vaults and Tsukahara double backs because their center of gravity is higher. There is also a major difference in the grips used for bars.
Women’s grips are worn with wrist bands and can come in both buckle or velcro. (Mine were size 0 double buckles) They have two holes for the middle and ring fingers and a dowel under the holes. Women solely use grips for the Uneven Bars.
Men’s grips are worn the same way as women’s. They are worn with wrist bands and they also come in both buckle or velcro. The big difference is that Men’s grips have three holes for the index, middle and ring fingers. Their grips also include a dowel underneath the holes. Unlike women, who use their grips for one event, men use their grips for the Still Rings, Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar.
Both grips require chalk, water and a grip brush to be applied to them before a routine is performed.
You’ll also notice that Men’s grips seem to be a little wider compared to Women’s grips. This is because the bars that they use is a medal bar rather than a wooden bar. Therefore, the bar is thinner whereas a Women’s bar is thicker. As I said prior, both grips have dowels under the holes. The dowel helps both gymnasts maintain a strong grip on the bars. They must stay on top of the bar at all times. If the dowel of the grip is not on top of the bar, then the gymnast will slip off and hurt themselves. (This is how I got my first injury after slipping off the high bar and hyperextending my left arm.)
The reasoning behind why male and female gymnasts have different events is based on the different body types of men and women. For example, women tend to be more flexible than men, so it would make sense for them to have more grace and dance elements in their routines compared to men. And women don’t have the muscle mass that men do, so they would struggle a lot more on the rings and pommel horse. Although it would be entertaining to see a man compete on the balance beam, it would not be fun for him if he happened to split the beam…ouch! I mean…that freaking hurts when us girls do it, so the pain would be so much worse if a boy did it.
Do You Have To Be Short To Be A Gymnast?
Many people ask this question. And it’s a fair question to ask considering the stereotype that all gymnasts are short people. Let me just set things straight. I, myself am a short person so I fit into the whole stereotype like a glove. I’m 4'll, I have small feet (size 3 in children’s shoes and 5 in women’s shoes), I have small hands, I was born in a family of short people, and I weigh only 95 pounds. As a 23 year old woman, I get mistaken for a 15 year old everyday and when I’m out drinking at the bar with friends, security will always I.D me. I’ve had many people tease me for my size and I’ve also had a lot of people think my shortness was cute, mostly taller men. So when I tell people I used to be a gymnast, a lot of them normally nod their heads and think that it would make sense for me to be one. While it does help a gymnast to be short, you don’t necessarily have to be a short person in order to be able to do it. Being short only helps a gymnast because they are much lighter in the air so therefore they can flip much higher. They also have a lot of benefits when it comes to power and balance. However, I have seen many tall gymnasts too. They’re just as strong and just as talented as short gymnasts. So the myth that you can’t do gymnastics unless you’re a certain height or weigh a certain amount is completely false. There is no certain body type that a gymnast needs. The only thing I would say is that the gymnast has to be eating healthy. They need a lot of nutrients, proteins, fruits, vegetables, no candy and a lot of water everyday. They should have at least one healthy snack before practice. As long as the gymnast is at a healthy body weight, then it doesn’t matter how short or tall they are.
Unfortunately, Not Everyone Can Be A Gymnast
As I said in my intro, I was born with a talent. Gymnastics is not for everybody. Just like how not everyone can be a professional actor, singer or dancer. If they could, I’m sure many people would be making a living off of Hollywood right now. There are many things that I tried besides gymnastics that I realized I wasn’t that good at. For example, my best guy friend Jack was an actor. He loved theater, movies, music and he was just a huge film junkie. He probably has seen every classic movie. Our school was putting on the musical production Grease and Jack actually got the part of a huge role. He portrayed Kenickie Murdoch. He invited me to the show and I saw it, and he was phenomenal. After the show, he tried to convince me to audition for a role in their next production.
At first, I was like “I don’t know… I’ve never acted before. I don’t know how good I would be at memorizing lines and portraying a character… blah blah blah” Basically, I was nervous about getting stage fright. He still encouraged me to give it a try and even made a joke saying “You perform in front of people all the time on a balance beam and handle the pressure just fine! You’re not afraid of doing a backflip on a balance beam but you’re scared of acting and memorizing lines?” And of course, I was like “Yeah, he has a good point. What the hell, I’ll try it.”
So I actually gave acting a try. I auditioned for a role in the Christmas play called “A Christmas Carol”. I think I auditioned for the role of Ghost of Christmas Past, but really it doesn’t matter. Of course, the director didn’t give me the part, probably because I wasn’t that good. I wasn’t hurt by it though. The people chosen for their roles definitely deserved it more than I did. But the point is, it just wasn’t my niche. And that was okay. I fully accepted that. Jack even gave me comfort in it and said, “At least you gave it a shot.” And he was proud of me. Meanwhile, he got the part of Jacob Marley, to which I gave him full support. Just like how I supported him in theater, he supported me in gymnastics. Him, me and Tabitha (a girl who went to school with us and also did gymnastics) carpooled together, and sometimes Jack would come into the gym and watch us practice. He would also go to our local competitions every now and then, which was something I appreciated a lot. While Jack would joke around telling me I needed to work on my acting skills, he often praised my athleticism, something that he wished he had more of, considering he could barely do a cartwheel when he gave it a shot.
Well, just like how acting wasn’t for me, gymnastics is the same way for others, just like Jack! Some people aren’t born with flexibility or strength, and yes while you can still develop all of that over time, it doesn’t mean you’ll have the mental toughness to be one and it doesn’t mean that you’ll be good at it. Some people just have a natural talent for it and others do not. Some people are not athletically inclined and have better vocal talent, music talent or acting talent and that is all amazing in their own ways! As I said from the get-go, everyone has a talent in something. Some people discover it and for others it takes awhile.
Luckily for me, I discovered that I had natural flexibility, strength and power at a young age, and I rolled with it. What I needed to work on was how to control it, and gymnastics helped me with that tremendously.
As a coach, I’ve seen many kids who are afraid to be upside down, they lack back and shoulder flexibility, or they just flat out can’t do a forward roll. And that is okay. This sport is not for everyone. Don’t take it personally. There are so many talents out there that people can excel in. If gymnastics doesn’t work out for you, there is always dancing, art, music, singing, karate, figure skating, swimming, etc. It may take awhile to find your niche, but once you discover it, use it and reach for the stars!
The Other Forms of Gymnastics
There are many forms of gymnastics. Artistic, Rhythmic, Acrobatic, and Trampoline & Tumbling (T&T). The most popular form of gymnastics is Artistic, which was the form that I have experience in competing in. Although, I don’t know what it’s like training in the other forms, I do want to give them some recognition. Rhythmic gymnastics is more of a dance form of gymnastics. It uses a lot more of dance technique and there is absolutely no tumbling, bars, beam or any apparatuses that people are used to seeing.
Rhythmic only uses the floor and they use five different apparatuses: Rope, Hoop, Ball, Clubs and Ribbon. Rhythmic gymnasts typically are extremely flexible, more than the average gymnast. They must be able to toss and catch different apparatuses while performing basic gymnastics skills. They must also learn how to dance and hold a ball with their bare foot. This form of gymnastics is way more popular in European countries than in North America. Like Artistic Gymnastics, the Russians dominate heavily in the form as well. Rhythmic also has a group event where five different athletes must work together in order to catch the apparatuses and dance cohesively. Unlike other gymnastics forms, Rhythmic is gender specific to only females in the Olympics. Males are not allowed to compete.
There is also acrobatic gymnastics. In this form, partnerships of gymnasts work together and perform figures consisting of acrobatic moves, dance and tumbling set to music. The focus in this form is strength, poise and flexibility. They can compete in pairs and groups and in both Men, Women and Co-ed. A Women’s pair consists of two females and a Men’s pair consists of two males. A co-ed pair consists of one male and one female.
Finally, there is Trampoline & Tumbling (or as some say “Power Tumbling”) Power tumbling is similar to artistic gymnastics in the sense that the same skills are included, however they use different equipment. There are three apparatuses: Trampoline, Double Mini Trampoline, and Rod Floor. All of the events are, in a sense, based for tumbling purposes, however with a lot more power than that of a regular artistic gymnast on a normal spring floor.
No! Cheerleading Is NOT The Same As Gymnastics
This has got to be one of the most annoying things anyone can say to a gymnast.
Person: “Omg, that was so cool! Are you a cheerleader?”
Me: “No… I’m a gymnast.”
Person: “Oh! Hahaha! Same thing!”
NO! They’re not the same thing at all!
I don’t want to bring down any cheerleaders out there, because their sport is just as dangerous as ours and they deserve respect in that regard, however these are two completely different sports.
I can name a lot more differences than similarities between the two of them. Of course, the two sports definitely can go hand in hand, but that doesn’t make them the same. I hate to say this, because I know many cheerleaders might be offended, but a gymnast can easily transfer from their sport into cheerleading without a whole lot of problems. If a cheerleader were to transfer from their sport to gymnastics, it would be a lot harder for them. And I’m not trying to compare the two, but that is just a fact.
There are many things that make these sports different from each other. For one thing, cheerleading is a TEAM sport and gymnastics is individual. Cheerleaders focus more on stunting and pyramids and gymnasts focus more on tumbling and dance. Cheerleaders wear shoes and gymnasts are barefoot. When it comes to tumbling, gymnasts focus a lot on proper tumbling techniques and body shapes to prevent injuries. Meanwhile, cheerleaders don’t focus a whole lot on the technique of the tumbling. As long as you can throw it and land it, they don’t give a shit about how sloppy you look in the air. The way cheerleaders learn to tumble is very unsafe in my opinion because they don’t know how to punch and set. (Which basically means punching up with your toes and setting yourself in the air to get enough height in order to flip on an axis.) They just throw their heads back which is a huge no-no in gymnastics. Every time I see cheerleaders tumble, they’re very low to the ground because they never learned the punch and set techniques.
Gymnasts also wear leotards and scrunchies while cheerleaders wear uniforms, bows and pom poms. As I said before, a gymnastics floor routine is 1:30 minutes, a cheer routine can consist up to 5:00 minutes for competition. I’ve had many cheer friends in high school, we always had these discussions.
Trust me people… these are two different sports. I’m not saying one is better than the other. They both are equally pretty hard and dangerous, but they’re definitely not the same.
The Equipment Needed
I’ll make this one basic. If you want to be a gymnast, here is what you will need:
Grips with wrist bands (any color) — needed for bars
Wrist guards (optional) — needed for floor & vault
Leotards and Competition Leotard — normally practice leos are short sleeved while competition leos are long sleeved
Trunks — a special under garment worn underneath a woman’s leotard to cover her you-know-what.
Butt Glue — a spray you put on your buttocks to avoid wedgies.
Lube — for rips and hard calluses on bars
Tape — to tape any injury you have for support. Many gymnasts use this for their ankles.
Spray bottle with water — usually supplied by the gym to wet the grips
Sports Bra — Should either be white or tan. During competition be sure the bra is completely hidden otherwise it is a deduction.
Grip Brush — also provided by the gym to roughen the grips and absorb the chalk.
Deodorant — for obvious reasons
Hairspray & Glitter — during competitions hairspray is a must. Hair must be tightly pulled back. No hair must be touching the equipment or it is an automatic deduction for safety purposes. Glitter is optional and often used for show.
Makeup — for certain forms of gymnastics such as Rhythmic, make up is needed for the performance.
Scrunchy — because you’re not really considered a gymnast without one.
Team Tattoo — often used in Collegiate Gymnastics on the face.
What’s In My Gym Bag?
For practice, I usually brought obviously my leotard, sports bra and trunks. I also brought flip flops, my homework of the day, lip balm, Gatorade and a snack. I would often have an extra change of clothes to put over my leotard for after practice. Usually a pair of Soffe shorts and a Gymnastics T-shirt.
For competitions I always brought my competition leotard, black, red or tan trunks (depending on the color of the competition leo), my lucky tan sports bra (I was superstitious), my competition warmup (included team jacket, pants, scrunchy & flip flops), a water bottle, snack for after the competition (because I was always hungry after competing), makeup, deodorant, grips and wrist bands, tape (just incase I got a rip or other injury), my inhaler (I was always out of breath after competing and usually got light headed), hairspray, and butt glue.
Friendships That Last A Lifetime
It’s pretty true that when you’re a dedicated gymnast, you don’t get much time to socialize with your school friends. You miss out on parties, you miss out on hanging out at the mall, you miss out on football games and sometimes you miss out on homecoming and prom. When I was a gymnast, I can’t tell you how many times I was invited to parties that I wanted to go to, but had to say no because I had practice and a competition. It sucked. I can’t tell you how many times boys would ask me out on a date and I had to decline because I had no time for boyfriends as a teenager. I think I’ve only been to a few homecomings and it was the one where my close guy friend asked me to be his date and I said yes.
Jack was a year older than me, however we pretty much grew up together. Going to the same Elementary school, Middle school, car pooling together and going to rival high schools, he understood my busy schedule when it came to gymnastics. Whether he liked me as more than a friend, I will never really know, however he did ask me to be his homecoming date and I obliged. We never really had a romantic relationship even though his mom really wanted it to happen. Although he has always remained a great friend of mine and has always supported me in gymnastics. He even used to tease me a lot when I had injuries, especially ones that included a boot. (He called me peg leg and crippled LOL.) I think other than this moment, this was the only time I considered going on a date. I didn’t have my first romantic relationship until I was 17 years old, which is I guess kind of pathetic. But, I was always too occupied with gymnastics to focus on boys for the most part.
While gymnastics took away a lot of my social life with my peers, one thing it did give me is lifelong friendships. I’m an only child, so my teammates were like my sisters to me. After practice, we would always go over to each others houses and go swimming, do homework or just hang out and enjoy each others company.
We also travelled together, we had sleepovers, we practiced together, we went shopping together, we saw movies together, we went trick or treating together, we went on vacations together, our families were all close together, we texted each other constantly, we supported each other during competitions, and we were always there for each other. No matter what. If one of us was upset or crying, we would all give that person comfort. Sometimes we would even bicker amongst each other as if we were actual siblings. I remember this one time I got injured during a competition and I was crying for two reasons. 1. I couldn’t compete and 2. I was in a lot of pain from my injury. My teammate Angelina came over and sat by me and held my hand, giving me comfort and support. That was when I knew that this sport gave me really good friends that no one else could say they were lucky to have.
I remember during the summer, my family and I would rent out a hotel suite on St. Pete Beach in Tampa. Every year, we would bring Sarah, Kathryn, Mackenzie and Angelina. Usually my parents would have their own room and we would share our room. While the adults would be drinking and partying on their own time, we would be gossiping in our rooms, or in the pool or doing gymnastics on the beach. We would often look at cute boys and often be approached by boys as well, which we always found funny. While we weren’t doing that we would prank call people or play ding dong ditch, which was always Angelina’s favorite game. We would also go to a restaurant on the beach called Crabby Bills and grub on seafood, something Floridians love to do. Then we would go night swimming or we would walk along the beach. The next morning we woke up and walked down Gulf Boulevard to get Henna tattoos. It was a very fun vacation that was much needed for all of us.
To this day, it’s safe to say that I’m still close friends with these girls. We all ended up going to the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, so that is ultimately how we still maintained in close contact. While in college, we were all hired to be coaches at our same gym in order to train the upcoming team for competitions. I won’t lie, it was pretty awesome to coach with my old teammates and teach a new generation of TGD gymnasts.
Quitting is Harder Than It Looks
For all the non gymnasts who made it this far in the article questioning why I just didn’t quit the damn sport when I felt scared or abused by my coach, the answer is simple. It’s hard to quit. There were many times I considered quitting, but then thought, “What would I do with my life without gymnastics?”
When you do something for a very long period of time, it becomes apart of you. It’s your identity. It doesn’t matter if you’re a gymnast, a dancer, an actor, a singer, a football player or any other athlete. Gymnastics was essentially a big part of my life. How can I give something up like that? It’s all I ever knew since I was a little girl. My grandparents both died knowing me as a gymnast. All of my school friends came to my competitions to support me. My entire family was so proud of me for everything that I was accomplishing in the sport. It didn’t matter how frustrated I was with the sport. I would continue to push myself every single day and fight harder to get through everything. All of the pain, all of the mental toughness, all of the injuries, everything.
It finally took my body to tell me that it was time to retire. I was in denial about it. I didn’t want to quit. My mind kept saying that I could keep going. My body on the other hand was experiencing pain all the time. After my fibula injury, I couldn’t run as well as I used to. I kept feeling these sharp pains in the same ankle that I injured every time I put the maximum pressure on it. My back and bones were cracking all the time as if I was an 80 year old woman.
It’s true… a gymnast’s body will peak at a certain age. (This is also why starting young a better for this sport.) Normally around the age of 18–22, a gymnast will retire. I retired at the age of 17. After I retired, I went through a slight depression because I felt like I had lost a huge part of my identity. I was no longer “Brittany the Gymnast”, I was just “Brittany Cravatta”.
So quitting? It’s definitely easier said than done.
The Final Result?
So… to all the people spreading around nonsensical rumors about the sport, saying that it has no purpose, it’s only for short people, or that it’s a girls sport… you’re all wrong. To all of the people who have turned their backs on U.S.A Gymnastics because of Larry Nassar and believe that the gymnasts should too…I understand. But, you know what? Why should a gymnast allow some monster to stop them from doing what they love because of his gross fantasies? And all the gymnasts who are still fighting on will always need support from their fans. So even though U.S.A Gymnastics is a huge fuck up, doesn’t mean you should stop supporting the gymnasts. They were the victims in this situation. Don’t let one guy taint the whole sport of gymnastics, because at the end of the day the sport is still amazing and the athletes are among some of the most talented in the world. Looking back on everything in my experience as a gymnast, I’ve definitely had more ups than I had downs, and all of the sacrifices I had to make was worth it in the end. My room is full of so many medals, banners and trophies that my mother wanted to throw some away. I told her,
“No! I worked hard for every single medal that I won, I would never consider throwing any of them away!”
I wasn’t the 2011 and 2012 Southeast Regional All-Around Champion for no reason. I wasn’t 1st in the State of Florida for multiple years for nothing! And there is no way that I went through all of that pain, all the injuries and all of the mental frustration for absolutely nothing.
There was no way I was throwing any of it away. Those medals represent not only a champion, but being able to push through everything. All the stress of balancing gymnastics and school and still managing to maintain high honors and a 3.75 GPA. All of the pain, all of the bruises that I got everyday, and the blood I shed from rips on bars. None of it was for nothing. Every gymnast goes through this and all of them should be respected for it. I’m willing to bet that a football player or hockey player wouldn’t last 15 minutes of gymnastics conditioning or stretching.
There is not one thing that I regret from this sport. If anything, it teaches a lot more than just how to flip and twist in the air… it teaches many valuable life lessons. How to get over fear, how to take harsh criticisms, how to gain thick skin, how to overcome obstacles, how to compete with peers, coping with pressure, how to be committed, how to fail and how to not give up after failing over and over again. No doubt about it, I think any sport can teach life lessons, but there is definitely no other sport out there that will mentally screw with your mind like gymnastics will. For all of the gymnasts out there who are currently in training, or collegiate, or elite, or Olympic level, just know that you are all badasses. Boys definitely don’t want to mess with a girl who does gymnastics, she will definitely beat them in a push up competition, arm wrestling and anything you can name under the sun. I know… I’ve shocked many of the boys at my school with my strength. (And I mean by doing 75 pushups with no sweat.) I’ve even had one girl try to put me down because I was a gymnast. I was like 13 years old at the time and getting changed for P.E in the girls locker room. One girl saw my six pack and had the nerve to say,
“It’s not normal for girls to have six packs.”
At first, I didn’t know what to say to her. I was just hurt by her words. I remember, I went and told my language arts teacher about it because it was bothering me. And I told her right in front of the whole class. A boy stood up and said,
“Girl, don’t listen to her, she is just jealous. Girls with six packs are sexy.”
The whole class laughed and agreed with his comment, which ultimately made me feel better at the end of the day.
The point is, gymnasts deal with those types of judgments all the time. And frankly, I’m quite tired of it. They work hard, they make huge sacrifices and they don’t even get paid for it like an NFL player or an NHL player. They do it because they genuinely love it. That is what makes them such great athletes.
That is the hidden life of a gymnast.
