Parents First taste of competition

[gymmutti]

Today my daughter participated in a mock meet with her club to show the girls in the developmental program what they could look forward to if they continued on and made team. Her club doesn't begin competing until Level 5, so she performed the Level 4 routines at the meet with the rest of the girls on pre-team (17 girls). I was worried because my daughter is a perfectionist and while she loves gymnastics, she wasn't so sure about competing. Well let me tell you, she is hooked! She had a great time and did very well. This was part of the evaluation to determine who would move up to the next level of developmental or onto the team. She started on vault and did a very good job - coming in 4th. On bars she missed her front hip circle (which she still has not gotten consistently) - but despite this, she came in 3rd - beating out several girls who did make their FHC - so I was impressed. I think she was thrilled that she kept her legs together on her squat on. On beam she was doing great and then fell on the split jump which she rarely misses - but got right back up and finished - coming in 5th. Floor was beautiful but fell on her ROBHS which really upset her. Considering she has only been practicing a running ROBHS for 1 week without a spot - I was just amazed that she didn't balk and connected the two. She ended up coming in 7th. When they announced all-around she got 2nd place!!!
She has only been on pre-team since June and I am just so proud of how much she has learned in the last 6 months. She has been wearing her medals around all night and beaming. I asked her what she thought of the meet and whether she would like to do more and she grinned, "Oh yeah!" I'm so glad she had a positive experience and learned that making mistakes is not the end of the world.

 

[Shelovesthebars]

I'm so glad she liked it and had fun. Sounds like she will be moving up to level 5.