Gymnast For Life

Bending backward over a 4 inch wide plank, 4 feet above the ground. Bangs and thuds as someone runs down the Vault runway. This is what my afternoon’s consist of, from 4:30 to 8:00 3 days a week. I started doing gymnastics when I was barely two years old, so that I could jump around and not get injured. This sport challenges me daily, and I enjoy every minute of it.

I started gymnastics when I was very young, with a small class and learning basic stuff, like forward rolls and cartwheels and handstands. In 2nd grade, I tried out for the competitive team and made it! This meant that I had to spend 3 and ½ hours 3 days a week after school working out with the team so that I could be ready for competition. That was the end of my free time. Its a good thing my other passion, reading, can be done in the car! My first competition was in the fall of 3rd grade and it was exciting to compete for the first time. Even though I had fallen 3 times on the beam and not even competed bars, it inspired me to work harder so I could become better. And I did! Just the next year in 4th grade I made it the State Gymnastics Championships and won 1st on Floor and Beam! This meant I was the best in the state of Oregon on Beam and Floor. It was such an amazing experience on top of the podium and knowing I had won that I decided that I wanted to win State again next year. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, but in 6th grade I made it to State again and I won all the events! This year I made it to State again as a Level 5 and won 1st on Floor and 2nd on beam.

Gymnastics is a very challenging sport. Gymnasts at my level have to compete 4 events, Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise. Vault is where you run down a runway, jump off a springboard, and flip over a table. Bars is where you swing around a low bar 5 feet off the ground and a high bar 8ft off the ground and do flips off of it. Beam is where you tumble and leap across a 4 inch wide piece of wood 4 ft above the ground. Floor is where you tumble across a spring filled floor. Each event you compete you are judged, and the judges give you a score out of 10, subtracting points for incorrect skills or technique. The highest score I have gotten is 9.85, at the 2012 State Meet on Balance Beam.

 I am a perfectionist. I try hard every day to make whatever I am doing be perfect. It challenges me mentally and physically on a daily basis to go bigger, higher, faster, and try harder. The hard part comes when I am not perfect. Because I still struggle on bars and strength conditioning, my weaknesses push me to become better. 

This sport has helped me grow in many ways, and given me good traits like determination, focus, and resilience. It has also taught me good life lessons, such as getting up when you fail, and believing in yourself. Because of this sport I have no social life outside of the gym, and have no time to do fun activities such as going to the beach. I come home exhausted every day and am constantly faced with challenges of balancing homework and school. Someday I am going to have to chose between the two, but I can only hope that it doesn’t happen for a long, long, time.