New Skills

Gymnasts never get a break. Even after our season is over, we don’t get any time off. In fact, during the summer, we have longer workouts. So, what do we do in all this time? We work on new skills!

Working on new skills is both fun and scary. After months of doing routines, it is a nice break to be able to work on something different. But, these new skills are often scarier than they are fun until you get the hang of them. 

One of the new skills that I’m doing is called a jaeger. If you would like a technical definition, this gymnastics terminology website is a good one! When done correctly, they look beautiful, easy, and not as dangerous as some releases. But, they are very scary to learn.

This is a video of Shawn Johnson competing on bars in the 2008 Olympics. The first release move that she does is a jaeger. 

Video Courtesy of: YouTube

The first day that I started to work jaegers, I was terrified that I was going to hit the bar. My coach told me that people work for months on being able to be close enough to the bar to catch it, so there was no way that I would hit the bar. I trusted her, and did three decent jaegers that were far away from the bar.

However, on the fourth try, I was trying to make a correction, but instead of doing it correctly, I pulled into the bar. I whacked my heels and Achilles on the bar. This was very painful, especially because I’ve never had any Achilles pain before.

When doing most release moves, you wear heel pads to help protect your feet if you hit the bar. My coach didn’t think I would need them, but she was wrong. She found a pair for me, though. Thank goodness!

After you crash, you have to pull yourself together and do it again before you leave the event. This was no exception. Throwing another jaeger was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done.

The next day I was sore but ready to go! They were much better, and I almost caught one of them! Here are two videos.

This jaeger was pretty typical for me.

I almsot caught the bar on this one! You can see how at the end I bent my arms. My coach got mad at me for not catching it so she tried to throw a mat at me......

My coach really wanted me to catch, so on my next turn I tried to get closer to the bar so I could grab it. But, I was a little too close. I pulled in a lot, and I landed in a straddle position on top of the bar. As a result, I got huge bruises on my calves, and I must have whacked my elbows on the bar because I had a deep cut on my elbow. 

This scared me more than hitting my feet did, but I got up and did another jaeger, which was a long way away from the bar. Since then, I have done jaegers a few times, but I haven’t done them in the last week because of a nagging back injury. 

I am nervous to go again, but I know I will. Crashing is part of the learning process, but in the end it is all worth it. No pain, no gain, right?