This morning was Abby's Championships for this season of gymnastics! She had a great competition, but if you'll bear with me, I'd like to give you a little background that I haven't shared before...
This has been an interesting year of gymnastics for her. She repeated her level this year to try to really perfect her necessary skills needed, specifically her nemesis: uneven bars. There were some ways that this year was fun. She worked with a very small group of girls that were also repeating (small group equals getting to know each other well!), but in some ways it was tough because they were all a couple of years younger than her because many of her friends moved up a level. Uneven bars have continued to be really hard for her, but she seems to pull it out at most meets and complete her skills. At our last meet, however, she had a really rough time and it was one of her worst meets. She left not feeling good, and not liking being on competitive team at all. -ready to quit for next year.
This didn't really come as a surprise because we've been debating what to do next year for months. We know that gymnastics is something that Abby likes, but she isn't going to be an elite gymnast. She is a hard worker, but she's doing it for FUN. That all said, moving to 8 and 12 hours of practice a week just isn't something we're willing to do as a family. There are too many other things for a 8-9 year old girl to do other than gymnastics (family, school, homework, church, friends, other sports, etc.) Not to mention, that is how you make a little girl like Abby hate gymnastics, and that's not why we're doing it.
The first practice after that bad meet I mentioned? Her coach approached me about a new competitive team they are creating that they think will be a good fit for Ab. Instead of compulsory routines, it will be optionals, or what USAGym calls Xcel (Bronze level). I researched, Matt and I talked, I met with the Head Coach. -and we're in. Abby is sooooo excited! She has a renewed excitement for next year and we feel like it is an answered prayer. The practices aren't going to be insanely long (only 4 hours a week) and she'll be with girls her age.
Sooooo, fast forward to today. This was her last meet before her new team. And it went awesome. She did great. Last year, she placed last or almost last for everything. Not this year!
(They place you only with girls in your age group)
(Abby's in the white jacket- she's the only one from our team in this age group)
(Abby's in the white jacket- she's the only one from our team in this age group)
9th on Vault
7th on Uneven Bars!!!!!
(Abby and I kept eye contact while they were calling all the place before they got to her, and her eyes got bigger and bigger every time it wasn't her. She thought she'd be last place! I cried.)
8th on Balance Beam
6 on Floor Exercise
8th All Around (all four scores added up)
My gymnast
No comments:
Post a Comment