How Gymnastics Changed My Life

MY callused feet hit the mat and pressure shoots through into me. Like lightning, the energy runs in through my arms and down into the mat below me. A sense of relief floods over me as I salute the judge almost subconsciously. I walk off the mat and can feel my teams and coaches warm embrace in the air. I nailed it. Gymnastics has always been a huge part of my life and holds a special place in my heart. I once read something that describes my love and passion for gymnastics. It goes along the lines of this… “Gymnastics is like a drug. Its killing your body, but you keep coming back for more because it’s so addicting.”…. Every gymnast understands. We have a love hate relationship with the sport, but we can’t imagine our lives without it. It is part of me that I will never be able to get rid of. I have had my fair share of struggles with gymnastics. Setbacks that I am still going through, but that I will not let take over me. I was torn apart from my team, forced to go 2 ½ years without gymnastics and once I got it back, something happened that I almost let take over my long sought after

So far in my life I haven’t really had any memorable experiences to share, but I know that Gymnastics has been a big part of my life. I have been doing gymnastics for about 10 years. Been doing competitive gymnastics for at least six years and have joined USAG league three years ago. And can I say it has been a GREAT part of my life. A major lesson in life I have learned in this sport is to never give up and be confident. It sounds a little cheesy but I have learned that if you just put your mind to it you can accomplish lots of things. Once I came to high school, I had expected it too be a lot worse then I had imagined but I have enjoyed it so far. The people are nice and since Northwood is very small I’ve gotten to know lots of amazing and

Wednesday, April 7th, 1994 started out like any other day, I was attending Jr. hHigh sSchool, in St. George Utah. As a I was a young 12 year old girl that was obsessed with gymnastics, I breathed it, studied it, and lioved it. Gymnastics was my Life.! I daydreamed about competing in front of hundreds of people, lights dimmed down, the spotlight right on me as I performed each skill I worked so hard at perfecting each day at practice. I would picture myself going over my routines, every step, every pose, each body positions, how I’d present myself, f . . . . everything. I wanted to be a college gymnast.

My level five year at gymnastics was problematic and an overall frustrating year. I wanted to quit. The gymnastics meets were difficult because I had a slim chance of finding success in this demanding sport. I sat my mother down on my living room couch and told her this. She, being the kind-hearted mother she is, told me that she understood how competitive a sport like this can be. I agreed, but I knew that to give up too soon would not be the best solution. Reaching my goal of obtaining a first place award on an event would not be easy, but I convinced myself that I had to try. For a ten-year-old girl, I possessed a great deal of motivation, and my teammates knew that. No matter how low my scores were, they always believed in me. Attending

I wouldn’t be in this place if it weren’t for gymnastics, I highly love gymnastics and It really makes me work hard for the things I want to happen!

When I was 9 years old, I started this thing called competitive or all-star cheerleading. My goal at the time was to make it on a level 5 team and compete at the World Championship. Within my first 5 seasons I had a lot of trouble with my tumbling, which prevented me from moving past level 4. Before my sixth season I switched cheer gyms. My parents believed in my goals so much that they drove me an hour and half to and from practice two to three times a week. Within my first year at Tribe which was my new gym, my tumbling issues never got resolved. That left me on a level 3 team where I never believed I was good enough. The next year I was again put on a level 3 team. Now in my eighth season I was put on a level 3 team yet again. I wanted to quit, but my coach showed me that tumbling did not define me and allowed me to fall in love with the sport all over again.

Athletics had not always been a flauntable aspect of my life as they are now. In grades 1-4, I was uncoordinated and far too lanky to produce and store any muscle. I often ponder about what changed in the fifth grade, for I became very agile and have exercised almost every day since the beginning of that year. I did not pick up the sport of swimming until the seventh grade and I cannot imagine myself not swimming, not only as a source of exercise but as a source of pure pleasure.

Everyone remembers that one place, that one place that instantly makes you feel good, that one place where you can completely act like yourself. For me, that one special location forever remains Texas Best Gymnastics, in McKinney, Tx. What I always adored was practicing with my team.I began competing there at the age of eight, and I competed my last competition shortly after my thirteenth birthday. However, even though I no longer spend half my time at the gym like I used to, it still invokes the same effect on me. Now that I stepped away from competing for a few years, when I look back on how stressful it seemed, I can still see all the wonderful memories I created. More than anything, I see what a wonderful impact the gym had on my life.

Well, in the present, you see a whole bunch of gymnasts, revolutionists, and billionaires being interviewed. In fact, this year, the worldwide event of the Olympics is coming up, and you see a whole bunch of pro athletes there. You might be wondering, “How does this have to anything with never giving up?” If you’ve seen interviews of people like that, you would’ve seen that they never gave up. Everyone has bad days that sometimes, they just want to quit. I saw a Gabby Douglas movie once that was based on her life story, and she wanted to give up gymnastics once. I was surprised. But today, she is still doing gymnastics. She pushed through and achieved her

“From holding in our urine the whole day, my friends and I felt a great sensation from releasing. As my friends and I pee together, the officials from the Peninsula Athletic League watched us like an hungry bald eagle staring at it’s prey. As they stared, I thought to myself is this what we are always going to do, pee in front of the officials?” This moment was very awkward, but fortunately for me I could “go” while others couldn’t handle the pressure to “go”. I can remember this moment clearly since it was the beginning of my life changing for the better.

At the age of three, my parents decided to put me in gymnastics. I excelled immediately and became a provincially ranked gymnast until the age of fourteen when I shattered my ACL and meniscus in my knee which required surgery. While my gymnastics career was cut short, I learned a great deal of skills that I carry with me to this day. Primarily, exceptional self-discipline, time management, and balance (metaphorically and physically). During my peak, I was training between 25-36 hours a week.

Using my old experience and old habits I had become just as good or even better than before. As I was on the freshman team for gymnastics, I had brushed off the rustiness from the break that I had taken. Even though the sport is as not tough and rough as club, I still felt the rush that I did before. As I take the skills and lessons that I learned from club gymnastics, I still work just as hard and have just as much fun. As freshman year continued, I started to remember the habits and the reasons why I loved this sport. With a different coach and new teammates, I still felt at home. Jumping back onto the equipment was like riding a bike, even though I was a little rusty at first, I will always remember what was taught to me. Throughout freshman year I have improved and grown potential that I hope to apply later in life and later in gymnastics. I push for new skills and moves every day, but most importantly the sport makes me feel

Socrates once said, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” When I was seven years old, I had the opportunity to take a leap of faith that could change the rest of my life, by this one decision. My leap of faith happened to be joining a new sport, volleyball something I have never done and leaving gymnastics a sport I have done for years and was really good at. At this time, I had no clue if the outcome was going to have a positive or negative impact on my life and if I was even going to like volleyball. The only thing I knew was my emotions and the fact I was super excited, nervous and sad. Transitioning from gymnastics to volleyball was upsetting because I was leaving my gymnastic

At 13, four years is an eternity. The days after I finally mastered my elusive full, I lamented the waste of four precious years. Yet today, I understand that in those years, I gained not just a handful of new, more elaborate tricks, but rather, two crucial character traits. Gymnastics taught me commitment, to not give up after the first failure, and especially not after four years of failures. Gymnastics taught me perseverance, to push through the exhaustion of a six-hour practice, especially when your soul is about to leave your body in exhaustion. Gymnastics taught me to commit to a goal, and to persevere, no matter how trying it may be. Because nothing beats the feeling of pride that comes from finally breaking through a wall, finally feeling the air under your wings as you fly through the

At the age of three my parents decided to put me in gymnastics, I excelled immediately and after a couple months I entered into the pre-competitive program. My love for gymnastics continued and I became a provincially ranked, high level gymnast until the age of fourteen when I shattered my ACL and meniscus in my knee which required surgery. However, my years of gymnastics taught me a great deal of skills that I carry with me to this day. Primarily, I learned exceptional self-discipline, time management, and balance (metaphorically and physically). Gymnastics is exhausting on the body and the mind as you need total cohesion of both to excel. During my peak, I was training five hours per practice, upwards of five days a week and during the summer I would train six hours a day, six days a week. Gymnastics taught me that if you want something badly enough you will work as hard and as long as it takes to reach your goals. After shattering my ACL I pushed to continue training and I competed in my final competition and was the provincial champion on the bars event for my age category. I refused to let this surgery end my career. Six months after the surgery, I joined a competitive cheerleading team who I competed with for three years. Cheerleading was very different for me because it required all of the skills I had learned from gymnastics and on top of that I had to learn how to work with a team. I believe gymnastics is a huge part of who I am and has helped me to become the