That's a really helpful way to look at it. I'm kind of her middle child because I'm an older girl, but she has that "older girl" relationship with another one of my older teammates and then she has that playful relationship with the younger ones, so sometimes I feel like "Where do I fit?" But we...
I love my coach. She's understanding and my kind of funny and she really cares about us. Sometimes, even though I have a strong relationship with her, I feel bad because she seems to be closer to the more social, slightly younger girls on my team, but when I step back and think about it, I know...
I use Velcro. The buckles have always seemed like a hassle to me. Some people say that their Velcro wears off and they have to find other ways to get their grips to stay, but that hasn't happened to mine and I've had mine for more than two years now. They were about $40.
Sadly, I've never tried palm grips. I started straight of with dowels. I really love them because the dowel helps my grip (no pun intended) on skills where I feel like I may fly off the bar.
Most of my team uses Ten-O and we all love them.
After I got grips, it took about a week before I was...
I remember when I was working them, it really helped that my coach would remind us to keep our thumbs together. That helped.
It will probably be easier for you if you stretch your shoulders (that was a problem I had, however I don't do them anymore because of my lack of flexibility in my back).
Destira is a nice place to look. They're affordable and nice. They also have really cool, cheap mystery leos, and it's fun if you and a group of friends all get them and see what you end up with. My team had a lot of fun with it. :)
Since I'm taller I find it easier to straddle but I also like to pike. For castaway kips or kipping out of skills, I pike.
I prefer doing a pike kip out of skills because I don't have very flexible hip flexors and I've pulled them on the straddle before, even if my height makes it a bit more...
On bars, I'm working on giants and layout flyaways.
On beam, it's BHS on high beam.
On floor I'm working on FHS FL and adding a tuck or pike.
On vault I'm working front handspring fronts, but that's just into the pit for now :)
I got most of the basic bar skills the first times I tried (pullover, back hip circle, etc) and my kip came pretty quickly, after about a month after starting conditioning and practicing them. Front tucks and FHS also came easily.
Getting a straight arm kip just takes time. One day it'll click :) It may be helpful to work on strength and try to focus more on the timing of your kip.
It's currently beam, probably because it used to be my weakest event and I've recently gotten a lot better on it. All of my teammates think I'm weird because I'm far better on bars.
Off the top of my head, I have:
• grips
• grip bag
• extra leo
• extra scrunchie
• hair ties and ponytails
• a few dollars
• water bottle
• ankle brace
• back brace
• knee brace
• goal notebook
• 2 EOS lip balms
That's quite a bit more than I assumed I'd have, lol.