Season has almost arrived! As our first meet of the season draws near, my coach planned a real practice meet for us to show off our skills and get back into the swing of things. Unlike our other intersquads, this “meet” was at a different gym, with multiple teams from around the state, and with different judges at each event, giving us scores. Also, we got to wear our brand new, sparkly leos!
Last week, our team had a rough time working out. Everybody was on edge, including the coaches. We were yelled at every day, but that just made us do things worse. As the meet drew near, everyone was freaking out, and everyone felt like they had five tons of pressure on them.
Charity, our head coach, is very involved with gymnastics away from our gym. She is the Utah State Chair, and involved in multiple other committees as well. She wants us to look good, as much for her sake as for ours. To everyone on the team, it felt like she was putting lots and lots of pressure on us that we do well – or else!
The meet was at 8 AM on Saturday morning at the Black Diamond South Jordan gym. I was glad it was early - I could get it over with early. The whole team competed together, and as people were arriving it was obvious that we were all really nervous. My other coach, Amanda, had great ideas on how to calm us down, though, including doing yoga! It made us laugh, and that broke the tension.
The meet went well. Everybody stuck their floor routine, and we all scored in the high eights to mid nines. Vault was good for everyone who competed, but less than half of our team did. I scored a 9.1, not my best, but definitely a good score for preseason. Bars was great! There were no falls, but some things made my team and the judges laugh! Beam was what everyone was most worried for, but after such a great meet, we all had a lot more confidence.
We had a long wait before beam that we filled with yoga and telling jokes. We were all very confident going into beam, and it showed! There were only two falls, which was much better than our last practice. We impressed our coaches, and we all felt great!
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| Some of my teammates and I after the meet. We had lots of fun that day! |
This meet reminded me just how much fun season is, even though it can be stressful at times. After the meet, three of my teammates and I went out to lunch, then went shopping together. I had a great time with my team this weekend, and I can’t wait for season to start to have even more team bonding time!
