The Life of a Gymnast

Chapter 33: Practice Makes Perfect

CHAPTER 33:

Kip, cast handstand, giant half pirouette, overshoot…ping! 

“Ugh!”, I slap my hands onto the blue mat below, creating a cloud of chalk dust shrouding me in white.  I’ve done this pirouette overshoot a thousand time, but I just cannot catch it today.

“Mia, how about you work on something else for today”.  I nod my head in agreement with coach Bart.  I’m frustrated with this skill and I’m obviously not getting anywhere.  

I pull myself up onto the pit bar and swing into a kip cast handstand.  I’m only doing a double back timer this time, prepping myself for the real thing.  

Pulling my hips down to the bar, I’m propelling myself into a free hip handstand, giant, double back timer.  I land flat on my back and sink low into the cube pit.  I race to the chalk bucket, eager to throw the skill this time.  I feel the butterflies in my stomach, but they’re only because I’m happy to be doing what I’m doing.  

Once again, I swing into my free hip giants, and at the last possible moment, let go of the bar.  I’m careful not to pull my shoulders in; that breaks the angle and causes you to hit the bar.  I keep my legs bent and my knees tucked and land perfectly upright in the pit.  I struggle to pull myself back out, but I’m happy that I can at least do something right today.

Next is beam. I sprint to the beams so I can get the good one, the dismount beam in the middle.  I’m the first one there, so I start my assignment first.  We have to do 3 skill sets everyday.  A skill set is like a routine, just without the dance.  So it’s really just broken down to the basic elements.  I start by warming up my series on the ground.  I’ve only just gotten my handspring handspring consistently, but it takes me a few minutes to warm up.  I stand at the end of the beam and do a few timers, so just a backhandspring step through.  I take a deep breath and feel confident.  I wipe my sweating hands on my leotard and step up to the end of the beam.  I raise my hands up and take another deep breath before I go.  I feel my hands grab the beam and watch my feet come together before launching myself into the second flight skill.  I stick it; perfect.  The other girls are on beam now, warming up their skills on the floor.  I continue the skill set and do my full turn, followed by my jumps.  I do my switch leap split half and save it magnificently before proceeding onto my dismount.  I walk up to my starting spot on the beam; a little white line marked into the leather.  I do a little hurdle into a roundoff full.  I land it on an 8 inch resi with only a single step back.  Raising my hands in a mock salute, I’ve finished my first skill set before the other girls have even started.  

“Lizzy, I’ve finished the assignment.  What would you like me to work on”, I ask as sweetly as possible.  All I want to do are handspring layouts or standing tucks, but she hasn’t let me work on them in a while.  

She glances up from her phone for a millisecond to look me over.  “How about dismounts”, she says.  I nod my head, suppressing an inevitable groan.  I don’t want to dismounts; I hate dismounts!  But I do them anyways.  I’m working on a front tucked full, soon to be a layout.  I’m still in the pit to save my knees until they’re competition ready.  I do so many numbers that it’s practically second nature, and I don’t think about it anymore.  Because of this, however, I miscalculated my steps and totally missed one of my feet on the hurdle.  I came crashing into the pit flat on my back.  I groan and roll over, not because it hurts, but because it’s embarrassing. 

“Stay tighter and you won’t wipe out”, pipes in Laney.  “Oh, and watch your feet”, she says with a totally fake smile.  I fake-smile back, popping my head to the side.  “Gee, thanks Laney.  I never would've guessed!”.  That girl just gets on my nerves.  She gets up onto the beam, obviously to show off once again, and misses her second foot on her series.  It gives me a small sense of satisfaction to see that karma didn’t miss her completely.  

Lizzy calls us all over before switching events to sum up our practice so far.  She goes over each of us and what skills we still need to work on for the level we are going for.  As soon as she finishes, we sprint to the water fountain so we can get to vault first.  

A/N: guys I’m so sorry I haven’t updated in forever!  I feel really bad, but I’m trying to update more often now that schools under control.  Question: do you guys like when I describe gymnastics or just daily life?

~ Honalei