The Gymnast

Part 4

"Hurry up and get your grips on!" Hazel yells. 

I sigh. All she seems to do is yell at us. Luckily, we have Brody on bars. He's the nicest coach we have. He's 67 years old, and he's such a nice person. He always encourages us to throw hard skills even if we have bad form doing them.

Brody walks over to the 8 of us putting our grips on. Grips are things that gymnasts put on their hands when they do bars to help them hold the bar (hence the name). 

"Okay girls, once you have your grips on, I want you to follow this list," he says, motioning to a piece of paper on a red mat. I can tell he wrote it from his signature sloppy cursive handwriting. 

I finish putting my grips on first and go to the list. The first thing I have to do is a set of three glide kip cast handstands. I've been doing this skill for a few years now, so I finish on my first try. I do straddle handstands, taking advantage of my flexibility. By the time I finish my handstands, everyone else is already working their bars.

Next on the list is three kip cast handstand into half pirouettes. Only the level eights have to do them since the girls on level 7 don't have a pirouette in their routine. A pirouette in gymnastics is different from one in dance. In gymnastics, a half pirouette is turning a half circle in a handstand. This skill is harder than the first thing since I only started working them this year, but since I already warmed up kip cast handstands, I get it on the first turn.

Now I have to do three free hip handstands from a glide kip cast handstand. In a free hip, the gymnast drops from a handstand, but makes sure she drops to about a foot away from the bar. Using this momentum, the gymnast pushes through her shoulders up to a handstand. I'm really bad at free hips, so I ask Brody to spot me on them. He helps me, and I finish on my second try since the first try was barely up to horizontal.

Next on the list is to do my high bar twice. My high bar is a kip cast handstand, two giants, and a flyaway. I kip on the high bar and launch into a handstand. I stretch out, watch the low bar and tap my feet right below it. Then, I tap my toes again at the ceiling. That's a giant. I do this twice. Then, I use that power to launch my feet to the ceiling and let go of the bar. I flip over once in a layout, then stick the landing. I repeat the whole thing one more time, then move on to the last thing on the list.

The last thing I have to do is two full routines. My routine is a glide kip cast handstand, half pirouette, glide kip cast handstand, free hip handstand, kip cast squat on, jump to high bar, Kip cast handstand, two giants, and a flyaway. I do two routines, then two more since I have leftover time. 

Finally, Brody says, "Good job, Ana. Those were some good routines. Just make sure you point your feet in the dismount."

I nod.

A moment later, he turns to everyone. "Nice bars girls. It's time to get ready for beam. You have Jill on beam,"he announces. 

We all take off our grips and prepare for beam.