Think Spring 2011

I haven't posted much about my own personal gymnastics so I figured that's what I would do tonight. These last two months have been crazy; so many ups and downs in the gym. My own desire to continue on in the sport that I fell in love with 17 years ago had nearly been extinguished less than a month ago. I didn't even know if I was going to be able to continue on through the rest of the season. For the first time in my life, I actually felt ready to move on. During the past couple of months, I've felt like I've been stuck. And not so much as in 'gymnastics skill-wise,' it's more of a feeling of not being able to grow up. Normally, life does that for you. You get kicked down and you grow wiser, you go through puberty and grow 3 inches taller, (and wider) and you face things in life that ultimately make you grow up. I've been through it all, and yet for the first time in my life, I was given the choice: Remain in a world of childhood or get out of it, begin a career and grow old gracefully. I know I'm not an elite, whose making money to come back and conquor setbacks. I know I'm not going to get a college gymnastics scholarship; or even be a college gymnast. I am solely living in this sport for the pure joy of it. I came back to finish what I've started and that's what this one season is all about.

This season I conquored fears. Fears I've dealt with for years. I re-learned a whip 1/2, punch front pike on floor. I re-learned a yurchenko and even plan on competing it at the next meet. I mastered flyaways and easily do them by myself anywhere, and I do double back flyaways as long as a coach is standing by. I no longer have any fear of these skills that gave me so much trouble for years.

This season was about forgiveness. My past coach, Michelle and I had gone through many years of difficulty, disagreements and disputes. When I left 3 1/2 years ago, for a new gym, I never thought we would find peace in each others presence. I never thought I would ever come back here, to this home. And when she invited me back, 6 months ago, I didn't know how long we could work together. Things have changed within the past month. She is no longer at this gym, but I know that we have both forgiven one another. I have made an past-enemy, a friend.



A dream I had had for many years, came true this year. Norm and Laurie both stepped back into the gym and it has been incredible having them as coaches. It has been something I have wanted since I was a level 6, and for the first time in my life, I can officially say that they are my coaches.

I have watched my teammates grow up. I trained with them when they were all level 6's and I was a level 9, 5 years ago. Now, they are currently level 9's with me and it has been such an incredible experience. I have never been this close to a group of gymnasts in my life. The only time I can compare this experience to, was being at GGC 2 years ago. But even that can't compared to how much I have learned to depend and support these girls! And all the girls, level 4 through 9, have made this experience this year the coolest one I've ever had!



Today marked the annual 'Think Spring' gymnastics meet.
In 2001, as a level 5, it was here, at this meet where I would earn my first gold medal in the sport of gymnastics. How ironic because I never won Think Spring again... until today.

I didn't know how today would play out.
I knew I had missed gym on Monday, that I had left early on Tuesday, that I had struggled on Wednesday and that I would have one of the best practices I can ever remember, on Thursday.
I knew that my endurance hasn't fully been there, that minor injuries were nagging me a bit, that I was struggling daily to just go into the gym and that my skills had been so-so.
I knew that I currently didn't have a vault. That I hadn't done a full floor routine in practice, or a full bar routine with the straddle back to toe-hect combination.

What I did know was that I was painting my nails, black and red, for my final home meet. That I was going to have fun and do my absolute best. And I knew that this was just one more test for the final meets to come this season.

I was surprised then when I managed to connect my series and stay on beam. I had a few mis-steps. I missed my leap, jump combination and my dismount was sloppy. I got a decent 8.55 and tied for first with teammate, Tamara.



We went in a strange order. Instead of going to floor next, we headed to vault. I knew I just wanted to get this event over with. I did one warmup front handspring and one competition front handspring. 7.675...Ugh
Kelsey and SB took 1st and 2nd on this event.

Bars was next. This was a testing event to see how I dealt with nerves. To make matters worse, I didn't have time to warm up a second straddle back, toe-hect since I didn't make it on my first warm up. When it was my turn, I planned in my mind not to do the toe-hect, although there was also a notion in my head that perhaps, because of all the bad straddle backs I had done in practice and in warm up, if I just held my feet together and waited to let go, maybe I would do a phenomanal one. It was just my luck. I hit the straddle back handstand and pulled my feet on the bar, one at a time to complete the toe-hect. Unfortuantly, I wasn't in the greatest position out of the toe-hect and even though I pulled a kip out of my a$*, I didn't have enough momentum to cast. Good god, it was one ugly cast. Not even horizontal, yet I managed to get a giant out of it. I didn't think I'd make it over on the giant, but I did. I felt myself turn in my blind 1/1. It felt sloppy. And then another slowwww giant into a double back that peeled off rather early. I pulled in tight and my feet managed to find the floor. I was so surprised I had managed to stay on the bar. Sheer grit! They gave me a rewarding 8.75, and the wrong sv. A 9.8 instead of the 9.9 it was supposed to be. Oh well, I was still 'overly' happy with the score I had recieved for such a sloppy performance.

Floor was last and by this time, I was wondering how far behind my teammates I was. I actually figured that Sb and Kelsey were way ahead because of their vault scores. I had the joy of getting to be the last competitor in the gym. And for some reason, I was really nervous. My routine was interesting... My dance wasn't great, I was stumbling around. My tumbling passes felt weird. On my second pass, my front handspring, front layout, front pike, I forgot which foot to start with, so I picked one and somehow did a fricking sweet pass. When I landed, I planted my feet into the ground and didn't budge. My legs felt like jello going into my last pass. And I have no idea how I made the back full without tripping going into it! 8.8.


I was ecstatic with the day but I still actually figured I was in third place. I didn't care though. I was just thrilled to have competed with such vigor and joy in my last home meet! And as nervous as I had been going in, was as joyous and relieved as I was going out.

We received our awards and then Norm was suddenly on the microphone making a speech. Something about a special announcement. And suddenly he was telling me to go to the awards stand and telling the crowd that this was my final home meet. My head was reeling. I vaguely knew what was going on but I couldn't believe it. It was 8 years ago when I watched my idol, Jenny Ehlers, getting the same speech and standing on the podium to recieve flowers as a senior in highschool. 8 years later, I couldn't believe I was living this moment, only I had already graduated and experienced a similar feeling at a gym, far from home. I stood there, grinning stupidly. And then Coach Rachel brought up a mini-plaque to me
and hugged me as she gave it to me.
Thinking about it makes tears come to my eyes, but during that moment I was too surprised to cry. As I stepped from the podium, there were suddenly girls surrounding me. Little Katia, a talented level 6, came to me first and flung her arms around me, asking me why I was leaving. I tried to explain but too many other teammates were wrapping arms around me.
I felt a sort of feeling I had never imagined. There was such a powerful force of energy coming from all of the girls around me, a love I had never experienced. It was a precious moment to say the least.



And as I stood there with my awards, medals and ribbons alike, I thought back to the day I wore my first gold medal around my neck. Back then, standing at the top of the podium meant I got to be the best and that I had won a materialistic award. Today, it meant that I have spent the last 9 years working through sweat, blood and tears to hold a dinky circle of metal. Today reminded me why I do gymnastics. It's not for the chance to be number one, it's not to see what level you can get to or how many skills one can attain. Gymnastics is about learning to love, to respect each other, to see silver linings in the dark, dreary days of training. It's a sport where obstacles make you stronger and falling down means getting back up. Gymnastics teaches so much and it has helped me grow wise in my short life span of 19 years.

I couldn't be where I am today without my team family; my teammates, my coaches, my parents, team parents and friends. I could not be here without all the people who supported and believed in me, but likewise, I would not be here if it weren't for the closed-minded people who tried to pull me down, to make me give up and stop trying. I have to thank them all. But honestly, I have to thank my team for making my last year, the best one!

It seems I've come a full circle... A circle with no beginning and no end.

Born For This...Kelsey Morris

I met Kelsey Morris early in 2007, I housed with her during a summer gymnastics camp at Leading Edge Gymnastics Academy. At the time I hadn't any idea who this dynamo was or what she would accomplish in the next few years. I just recall her being very friendly, energetic and an extremely powerful gymnast in the gym. Although she was a couple of years younger, we would both began our first level 9 seasons that year.

She would come away with many wins that year, to top it off, she ended up finishing her prestigious season with two event titles during the Western Nationals and would just miss taking the all around spot by .05. She would instead settle with a second place finish.

It would not surprise many when she headed into her next season as a level 10 competitor. However, finishing in the top 10 at her first nationals might've turned a few heads in her direction. Not to mention, she was also competing in the same session as Kayla Williams, who would later be named to the 2009 Worlds team and would capture the vault title; but Kayla Willaims would not win vault during JO nationals in 2008, Kelsey Morris took that title.




It seemed there was much in store for this talented athlete. Going into her second year as a level 10 she would capture vault and floor titles at regionals but would come up short during nationals, placing two spots lower than she had the prior year and placing on only one unlikely event. A 6th place finish on her weakest apparatus, the balance beam.

Nonetheless, she headed into 2010 with high hopes. She would win both state and regional all around titles, going into Nationals she seemed poised to finish in the top three but on her final event, the balance beam, she had an uncharastic fall that would prevent her from even finishing in the top 10.

Late in 2010, however, Kelsey Morris would sign to Boise State University with a full ride scholarship.

Her gymnastics career has been filled with ups and downs, but gymnasts, judges and coaches of Region II would argue that she is possibly the best gymnast in the region. She is a gymnast with a talent and drive few can compare to in this addictive yet unforgiving sport, and at 17 years old, she still has a few more years in gymnastics to impact us all!


http://www.broncosports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9900&ATCLID=205040442

http://www.gymdivas.us/profile_morris.htm

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20101123/SPORTS/711239848/1004



Kelsey trains at one of the top level gyms of Region II with some of the top coaches in the nation.

I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for this gymnast!
Good luck Buff!

Elite Bloggers

Kyle Shewfelt, Canada's '04 Olympic floor medalist wrote a blog post that really resonates with what a lot of people in the world are feeling right now.

To read more follow this link:

http://www.kyleshewfelt.com/

Leap of Faith...

It's amazing the type of people you find in your area, in your sport, that you had no idea have a physical disability. More inspiring is the people who don't let anything stop them.

Lola Walters, of Black Hills Gymnastics is legally blind. Not only that, but she is already a level 6 competitive gymnast. At 11 years of age, by gymnastics standards, that makes her quite average. However, this makes her achievement HUGE! There are hundreds of other 11 year old, level 6's that don't have a disability and are not even at her ability level.

Her accomplishment has put her on national news. To hear more about this incredible story, click the link below or watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-pFngGnBe4

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

Not much is going on that I know about in the gymnastics world at this present moment, but in only a few weeks, the JO gymnastics competition season will be under way!

This year will be the first in two years that I will once again be at the very first gym I grew up in for the first 16 years of my life. I am excited to once again be training and competing there. And for the first time at this gym I will get an level 9 team to compete with! I am fired up and can't wait to start posting footage of this season!

More to come in a few weeks...
:)

Cirque Le Masque

Last night I was thrilled to get to experience a fantastic performance by cirque! It was the second one I had ever seen live. The show was captivating and exhilerating, not quite as incredible as the first one I had seen, but still a performance I will never forget!



Over the past few years I have thought about following a career path toward performing in a circus-like atmosphere, mostly due to the fact that I have been training my whole life in a gym. Since gymnastics is something I want to be doing my whole life and the chance of me getting to do so is not very likely, then why not follow a similar dream? However, getting the chance to follow such an epic career is going to have to take some sacrifices. Unfortuantly, there is nothing nearby that would allow me to learn any form of circus acts. Plus performing in the circus is definintly no easy task in any way, shape or form. In other words, I'm gonna have to want it more than anything! And another issue will be the injured wrist I've developed that wont seem to heal.. :/

We'll see where my life leads. For now I am content with gymnastics training, coaching and being a barista. Maybe one day I will write a fictionalized story about the circus too. :)

Life has no limits!

"Chalked Up"-Have you read it?

Lately I have been busy reading the book, "Chalked Up", a memoir of gymnast, Jennifer Sey. Not only is the book an honest reflection of how elite gymnasts had and are still being trained today but much of the story mirrors my own life. The way Jennifer writes of her personal struggles, partially caused by outside influences and partially by her own personality, brought back some of my own heart-breaking memories growing up in a gym.



As a child, gymnastics was what I did for fun. I never could seem to get enough of it; I always wanted to be in the gym. There is nothing compared to the feeling of flipping off of a 10 ft. bar and landing as soft as a cat on a mat beneath, the magic in being able to stick a dismount from a four inch wide, 4 ft. tall beam, the feeling of springs beneath you, throwing you high into the air. Everything about gymnastics is both exhilerating and yet terrifying. It is definintly the most captivating sport for any dare-devil child, but gymnastics is no longer defined by women. Once you hit puberty and learn that the body is not as limber as it was as a child, gymnastics becomes something different altogether. For some, it can become a nightmarish sport of eating disorders, constant training, injuries and addiction. Even though I never reached elite, or even level 10 for that matter; the psychological, emotional and physical issues Jennifer writes of, have all been a part of my past and still linger with me to this present day.

There is one anecdote she writes of, at the beginning of part III, in her memoir that particularly tore at my heart. The reason soley being that I too, have felt exactly as she did in my own life. In fact, I am still recovering from my own personal experiences of being a high level and considerably good gymnast, to literally feeling as though I had fallen from the face of the gymnastics world. Her story writes of returning to one of her earlier gyms, somehow still holding onto what was left of her Olympic dream yet inside she knew that there was no way of recovering, both mentally and physically, to get her back to where she left off at. She discusses her struggle with trying to remain thin at that time as well as feeling her own personal desire of continuing gymnastics thwarted by everything she has been through.

The short three pages of this peice of the story also sums up exactly the way I felt after my first initial wrist injury in the year, 2008. Both she and I will forever have a deep wound in our lives, the realization that nothing went as planned and we can never go back to the way things were. She couldn't let go, like I wouldn't let go. The desire to be the best was much to great, etched in both of our hearts and minds. Erasing it continues to be a struggle in my life, as I'm sure it is in her own. The difference I think is that even though both of us remained sucked in our addiction to the sport of gymnastics, she eventually let go when she realized she couldn't go back. I cling to the sport still, at first it was to solidify in myself that I could get back to where I left off at. Now that desire has left, I have come to terms with my heart and my body. I cannot go back to the way it was, but I can still have fun in gymnastics. I know now why I fell in love with gymnastics. It wasn't soley to become an Olympic athlete or to be the best, instead it is that incredible feeling of being able to do what so few can do, the joy of flying through the air, denying gravity of it's existance for a brief moment. Gymnastics is the one peice of heaven that I can hold on earth during my lifetime and I'm gonna hang on to it for as long as I can.