Hey, new here!

[TDiver]

Hey everyone,

Just thought I would say this board is amazing, and tell you a little bit about myself.

My name is Tori and I am 16 years old from Tennessee and did gymnastics for 13 years of my life. I went through many injuries (3 surgeries) during gymnastics and after being out for a year I competed as a level 10. After my last meet this year I was having really bad back pain and decided it (with a little help) was time to be done. Thankfully I had been diving a little bit off and on since the age off 11, so I had something else to turn to. I now spend once a week in the gym and dive 5 days a week twice a day. Even though I am done with the sport, I love it and will start coaching most likley when I finally get the time.

Well That's about it for me. I can't wait to meet everyone!

Thanks,
Tori

[gracefulone]

Hey, nice to meet you!

[gymnastmomof4]

Hello. We are from Tennessee also. my daughter is 7 and is competing level 5 this year. We would love to hear from you.

[Ingymmom]

Hi Tori & welcome - you sound like an incredibly talented gymnast! I hope diving gives you much satisfaction & success... I am mom to a gymnast (5) and to my 2 fab boys (14& 12) that love the trampoline and recently joined a pre-team program. I am ALSO a big fan of Tessa Pama.

[TDiver]

Thank you all so much for the welcome! Gymnastmomof4 it is cool that we are from the same state.

Ingymmom, Thank you so much and yes Tessa Pama is an incredible gymnast!

-Tori

[Blackie6]

Just wanted to say "welcome" to the CB. I am mom to a new level 4. She is 6 yrs old and just loves the gym. I honestly don't know who she gets her conditioning "bug" from because I hate to excercise...she thinks it's fun. She is a late sign-up on our comminity pool dive team this Summer. She loves the water but not liking the dives right now. We all thought she would be a "natural" but for some reason she is scared. I even told her today that the wonderful thing about diving is when you do fall or mess up it is only into the water. When you fall off the beam it's onto the floor, LOL! She hit the water once on her back and it stung so I guess she can't get over that but her 9 yr old brother loves it and is not scared. maybe once she gets over it she will like it as much as gymnastics. There aren't too many clubs here with a dive team though...mostly swim teams so we haven't had alot of meets yet. Anyway, nice to meet you and hope to see you around, I'm sure that your years of being a gymnast will be a great source of knowledge for us new mommies!

[gym law mom]

Welcome Tori!! I have a just turned 11 yo who is working L8 stuff right now. She has also expressed an interest in just trying some diving to see if she would like it. I had to remind her divers are taught to land on their head while gymnasts are "supposed" to land on their feet

As a parent I certainly welcome your insight on gymnastics!!

[gracefulone]

I know you're into diving now, but have you ever thought about pole vault? Neither did I, butnow I'm the best at my school. It is very easy for gymansts to be good at it; the more gymnastics the better the vaulter. 7' is a pretty decent height and I made it at my first meet(one week of practice). I'm level 6 training seven. My friend Danielle was level 9, then did highschool, and she made 10'. Just a thought....

[TDiver]

Gracefulone,

I was actually on the track team for my high school last year (my father is the track coach so it worked with my schedule a little) and I was going to pole vault, but they never got the pit out! I was really excited to learn it, but now with my back and such my dad says he doesn't want to teach me until it is better. My dad went to Olympic Trials twice in Polevaulting so I really wanted to try it. Sadly, my diving coaches are not going to let me do track this year.

Sounds like you are doing great with it and good luck with your gymnastics and pole vaulting. I think it is good to get into more than one sport when your younger so you are more open to different things say if something happened with gymnastics, even if it is just for the summer or once a week. Gymnasts usually excel at most sports, so that helps a lot!

Gym law mom, If your daughter shows some interest in diving you should let her give it a try if ever allowed. And about the head vs feet thing, it was hard with certain dives for me, but at gymnastics I never landed on my head because of getting confused. I did land on my feet instead of head at diving quite a few times though, but not everything is to your head. My gymnastics coaches didn't like the whole idea at first but the past 2 years they thought it was great that I was excelling at more than one sport.
-Tori

[gracefulone]

Oh ok. Sometimes it can be hard on your back. I didn't even want to vault. The vault coach addressed the entire girls' track team and was like I need girl pole vaulters-see me if you're interested. Nope. Sprint coach-Kate, what do think about pole vault? Nope. Jumps coach-Kate pole vault might be for you, you can jump really well plus you're a gymnast. Nope. Three strikes you're out, right? Definitely not. The jumps and sprint coaches talked to our head coach about possible candidates. Before I knew it, the vault coach came up to me saying, Kate, you're coming with me today. Apparently, I'm a natural. At first I hated it. I really just wanted to jump. (long/triple). But slowly I started to like it, then love it! I don't even jump or run anymore(I did the 4 by 200 all through indoor, and part of outdoor) I even practice during the summer, and weight lift three times a week.