WAG First Nationals

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gymisforeveryone

Coach
Judge
We will be leaving for Nationals tomorrow. These are my first Nationals as a coach and I'm a little bit nervous, but also super excited. We have three girls competing, one junior and two seniors. These are the first Nationals for the junior girl, the seniors have already a few national comps under their belts. Last year they did super well and as a club we got the first medal ever on seniors.

This season has been rough for everyone. The girls have fought back from severe injuries, had fear issues and devastating disappointments at competitions. Now they are all, thank God, injury free and doing ok.

Today we had the last full practice before the comp. They will only have a quick touch on the equipment tomorrow before we leave.

And oh wow, that final practice was full of emotion. It was a battle for every one, at first it seemed like nothing worked, they fell and fell again, did have very rough time on some surprising skills that they have had for a long time. They made it to the last hour of practice, when the oldest one all of sudden started to cry, almost hysterically. And I can tell you that I have never seen her cry, except the two times when she has got severely injured. She told me how scared she is of falling off the beam on her beam series and injuring herself. She had a long cry, and we talked. I promised that she can scratch beam if she will feel like this again tomorrow. But at the end of practice, she was ok again and told that crying helped a lot, and that she could tell how she feels and how she has felt since she injured herself the last time.

Then I had a quick conversation with the junior girl, and she was fine, a little bit nervous and quiet but still pretty positive. Then I took the other senior girl to the side, because she had been so hard on herself on beam. She spent almost two hours on the beam, refusing to stop practicing until she was happy about her routine (which would be never). She was beating herself for falling on a certain (easy) skill over and over. I had a very long talk with her about goals, expectations, her perfectionism, her struggle with fears and overcoming them, her mental state right now and how she has progressed so much at handling disappointments and failure over this past year. When the conversation went deeper, she started to cry as well. I told her several times, several different ways, how insanely proud of her we are and will always be, no matter what happens at that one competition. I think it was an important conversation, and I'm so happy that she trusted me to tell all those things that were on her heart and that she had so hard time telling me about.

I hope that it all cleaned the air and made the girls feel and remember that it's just one competition and that we will always love them and be proud of them, no matter what they do. And I also think that it was important for them to feel like they are allowed to feel broken, hurt, scared and insecure sometimes and those are very accepted feelings. Gymnast are so often so tough that they don't allow those feelings on themselves.

They all left home looking happier than what they looked when they arrived to practice and I count that as success.

Wish us luck! I hope that we will come back with many awesome memories.
 
Best wishes to all of you! Sometimes I think a bad/nervous/messy practice just before a meet is a good thing to get all of the nerves, emotions, tears, and mistakes out of the way before the actual meet. Just a space to relieve some of that tension that has been building up and to remember that they will be fine.
I hope that, regardless of results, this is a very positive experience for everyone!
 
What a beautiful post. I'm sure your conversations with them today went a long ways to releasing some of the stress and restoring self-confidence. I hope all 3 are able to enjoy their moment this weekend regardless of what happens in the routines. Good luck to all of you!!
 
Oh wow, what a great weekend it was!

The AA competition was also the qualification to the finals. Our junior girl had her comp on Friday and she rocked it! She finished 3rd on floor AND vault so qualified to the finals. The bars and beam didn't go so well, she fell twice on both but we didn't care, because she accomplished her goal which was one spot on the finals. This was her second time competing her double on floor and oh wow, it was gorgeous! Sky high and beautiful landing. Her other passes went really well too. Her vaults were powerful and high and she almost stuck them both. She finished 4th on vault and 8th on floor on the finals. Her vaults were top notch and she only missed the bronze by 0,01! On floor she maybe had put too much pressure on herself, because she started to realize that if she only does her good basic routine she will get the medal. Her routine was beautiful, but she fell on her third pass. She has never messed up that before, so it was a big disappointment for her, but we got over it celebrated her awesome debut on the big arenas.

Then competed the seniors. Our senior girls did awesome job! The older of the two did absolutely fantastic job and finished 8th on AA, 9th on beam and 5th on floor, so qualified to the floor finals. Her goal was not to fall on any event and she didn't, so she was super happy for that in itself. The final spot was just the cherry on top of the cake. The other senior girl did her best beam routine of the season, but she doesn't have full difficulty jet and she fell once, so her placement wasn't high, but I was still the proudest coach! She's super hard on herself, and I was proud of how calmly she took the fall and everything. On floor she was trying to play it safe on her front pass and under rotated her salto, so almost fell but fighted to stay up. Otherwise her routine was beautiful! But of course, she was super disappointed after the routine. I let her have her moment, but after a while I just simply told her how proud we are anyway and that she's allowed to feel sad and unsatisfied now, but that those feelings will pass and she will be able to see herself the way we see her. She maybe listened, maybe not, but I let her be and didn't force her to talk.

Then we had finals today! And oh boy, it was an exciting competition! My heart is still beating fast! They did their routines in the reverse order so she was the 4th to go. She did a beautiful routine with very little mistakes (a few steps on the landings and a little low chest on her last pass landing) but still managed to score almost one full point higher than the others. The 4 final girls were good and the margin between them was super tiny on the AA comp so we were almost given up the hope of a medal. But then on of the girls almost fell and crossed the side line... And one beat our gymnast by 0,2, and the other by 0,1. So she was 3rd when the last girl went on the floor. She's the top gymnast in our country, so we were sure that she will win hands down. And her routine was beautiful, until the last pass that she had an uncharacteristic fall! So that meant that our gymnast won bronze on on floor!

I can't tell you how happy I was. Of course I felt bad for the favorite, who kind of should have won, but this time our gymnast was better! She was SUPER HAPPY! We all just kept hugging each other, crying and celebrating. Oh boy, this is a great sport! I'm so happy for this gymnast, because she has had a horrible season, missed over half of it because of injuries. She's the most hard working gymnast I have EVER met. A lovely person that everyone loves. I have never heard a bad thing said about her. I don't know if she will end her career here or not, but what ever she does I will support her decision. She has done so much for the conspicuousness of our tiny club, for the team spirit and for the practice culture that we can never thank her enough for all of that.
 
Thank you both! I'm still learning, but the girls take it really well. Their other coach is leaving now that the season is ending. I hope that I can handle it all by myself.

Today was a wonderful day. The medal girl had her graduation party and we were all at here home celebrating. It all made me feel so emotional. Her mom was so proud to show all the guests the video of her routine. And she looked so beautiful and grown up in her graduation dress. Made me feel old, lol :D We took some fancy team pictures all together. These are the memories that you can make nowhere else
 
Wow, I'm a little teary! :eek: :oops:

But such is the great and beautiful unifying quality of sport! It brings us all together and we all root for each other. There is nothing on earth that can match the relationship of an athlete and coach who have been through it all, thick and thin.

I loved reading your post and updates. It warms my heart, and I feel renewed and rejuvenated! I'm going to take this feeling into the gym with me. Thank you! :D
 
Wow, I'm a little teary! :eek: :oops:

But such is the great and beautiful unifying quality of sport! It brings us all together and we all root for each other. There is nothing on earth that can match the relationship of an athlete and coach who have been through it all, thick and thin.

I loved reading your post and updates. It warms my heart, and I feel renewed and rejuvenated! I'm going to take this feeling into the gym with me. Thank you! :D

Thank you so much! Your comment made me feel so proud of my girls again. And happy about the relationship that we are building with them. It's not always easy to work with teenagers, but they teach and give me so much! This club and this team is so unique, I have never been part of anything like this before. This has everything to do with the fact that the girls have stuck together for so long and gone through so much. When they started, the gym literally had no floor, no vault boards with springs and the beam was from the 1970s. They had an old school coach who let them play almost entire practice and who sometimes didn't show up at the meets, leaving the 12 year olds "coach" their the younger team mates. They always laugh so hard when they tell about their early years as a team. They are like a family, and their own families all root for everyone in the club. They are always willing to do what ever we ask, and more. This is not just about gymnastics anymore, this is a lifestyle for all of them. The moms and dads cry and laugh in the audience together, and they cheer so loud for every single achievement. This all warms my heart.
 
So happy Nationals went well!! You sound like a great Coach and your teams sounds very special.
 

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