<3GymGirl<3
Gymnast
Beware this is kinda long
Last night at my first gymnastics lesson ever....................
The place I go to is not a real gym, it's basically three coaches and three assistants that come from a gym up north, they use the school district's gymnastics equipment, and it takes place in a grade school's gym. So everything is pretty low key and they didn't have the bars set up today. I don't mind though because I'm still just learning the basics of gymnastics. Actually, I think I did very good: my walkovers have good form, I'm pretty flexible, and cartwheels and round-offs come easily to me. It's just that I really don't know the very basics of gymnastics. For example, most people “learn†how to fall before they do something, well last night we were doing a drill where you do a handstand and then fall flat on your back as straight as a board, I could do the handstand but I absolutely could not fall down without curling up and doing a handstand somersault. And it was just other things like that you usually learn when your little like how to do a hurdle when vaulting* that I couldn't get.
*By the way when you hurdle for vaulting do you just swing your arms from down by your side to up above your head or do you swing them in a full circle and then up by your head?
We started with a 10-15 warm-up/stretch session. Then we broke up into 3 groups (I think it was based on age, but I'm not sure) My group went to vaulting. First we went through the process of a hurdle, but we didn't do that for long cause obviously I still don't get it. Then we did donkey kicks and handstands dropping to flat back. After those drills we vaulted, most kids worked on front handsprings, I started with squats and forward rolls which honestly was boring but necessary. Later we moved on to beams and warmed up by walking backwards on tiptoe across the beam with round-offs at the end. Then we worked on jumps and turns. (which was good, I just need a little help with form) When we got to the floor we didn't have much time left, but we were able to get through cartwheels, jumps, round-offs, and practice back handsprings down an incline mat with a spotter. (I just did a back extension roll, I'll be doing handsprings next time)
A little background- I started liking and doing gymnastics since second grade (I'm now in 7[SUP]th[/SUP]) but I had never taken a lesson until last night. I absolutely love gymnastics and I will probably go to Lake Owen Camp this summer. (if I can save up enough money)
If you have any advice, questions, or comments just reply
