Meet Jitters

Today was my first competition of the season. Isn’t it a little late for season to start? Well, I have not been competing this year, and was not planning on competing at all, but at the last minute I decided to compete at this local meet. The meet today was in Lindon, Utah, about an hour away. It was a smaller meet, but it was nice to start off my season. But being the first meet, I had a lot of meet jitters. The night before I literally went to sleep at 8:45, knowing I would be awake super early. And I was right, I woke up at 5:30. On a Saturday. Because of this, I had seven hours until my meet. Seven hours for me to fret. Seven hours to freak myself out. The time dragged on. And on. And on. And on.

Post-Meet Dinner

So, after everyone competed, we went out to dinner. My team goes to this same meet every year, so we have continued a tradition. This was the fifth year in a row that after the meet my team and I went to Buca Di Beppo for dinner. Buca Di Beppo is a family size, Italian restaurant. It is flat out my favorite restaurant. Ever. I have so many memories there and the food is delicious. Other than the food itself, I love the ambiance of the restaurant. It is old fashioned with red carpet floors, red and white checkered table cloths, old black and white pictures all over the walls, and unique statues. There is something new to see everywhere you look. 

Image Courtesy of Hispanic Lifestyle

To split between eight girls, we ordered three pasta dishes and a salad. Now maybe you can imagine just how big the portions are. Eight teenage girls who just did gymnastics for about four hours...we were pretty hungry. We didn't even finish any of the pastas! Everything was delicious! This trip to Buca Di Beppo is so special to me, it was all I thought about the whole month before the meet, making sure everyone knew the plan. So concluding the day with the tradition of Buca Di Beppo with my team was something to distract myself throughout the day.

Full of Blocks of Foam

The dirty, pungent, itchy thing full of blocks of foam. You never know what is down there: socks, bandaids, food, and of course the dust, dirt, and dead skin. When you land, the contents fly into your nose, eyes and mouth. Yep, sounds delightful. It is like looking at a ball pit you played in as a child thinking, “Why in the world did I ever enjoy this? Nasty.”

But…..

The fluffy, injury free, life saving thing full of blocks of foam. Like landing in a cloud of comfort. You can land on your head over and over, and get right back up and try again like it never happened. 

For example...yes, this is me.

So, how can I be describing the same thing? What is this revolting yet glorious “thing”? Three words: the foam pit. 

Image courtesy of Firestorm

 The pit is the life-saver for all gymnasts. You can chuck almost any skill imaginable, and come out perfectly healthy. Well, other than the contents you inhaled when you landed. Truly, the worst outcome is getting stuck head first and needing your teammates to dig you out. 

But…after a certain amount of time, the foam blocks get packed down, calling for a fluffing. This means the whole team jumps in the pit and starts throwing all of the blocks out until you reach the bottom. The job of fluffing the pit fits my initial description: nasty. The pit is about eight feet deep and contains one thousand blocks, all of which must be taken out. As you get closer to the bottom, the grosser it gets, as the small items weave their way through to settle down there.

No matter how many points I make on how horrible the job of fluffing the pit is, I have to admit, I do enjoy it. It is a time where my teammates and I can talk about things other than gymnastics. We come up with games to play or blast the music and sing at the top of our lungs. Some of the younger girls try to build tunnels in the foam, and us older girls help them since we are pros from doing the same thing forever ago.

One activity we do to entertain ourselves while emptying the pit is to throw all of the blue blocks on one side of the pit, and black blocks to the opposite side. Then once the pit is empty, we push all of the blocks in, and the two colors of the pit are divided in half. 

Foam Art in 2010 (sorry its kind of blurry!)

During the process of putting the blocks back in, someone always ends up getting pushed in with the blocks, and sinks all the way to the bottom. It is always interesting to figure out a way of getting them out without getting stuck yourself. And when all of the blocks are put back in and we have finished admiring our masterpiece, everyone wants to jump in. We jump off the bar, or throw the little girls in just to have them get stuck again.

Another time we really enjoy the pit is during sleepovers at the gym. When you are younger, it is the first place everyone wants to sleep. Looking back to those past sleepovers, I still don’t understand how I could ever sleep in there. Maybe because it is warm and makes you feel safe when you are little? Well, maybe not, since there is always the rumor of the pit monster. It is also the go-to hiding spot for the little ones when we play night games. And of course you can use the pit and the area surrounding it to make an exceptional fort.

So overall, the pit is the best invention ever. It is life saving when you are doing skills, and a good time to bond with the team when it calls for a fluffing. So to whoever invented the pit, I give you a round of applause. You are a genius. 

The Gymnastics Movie of All Time

Every single gymnast has seen the movie Stick It. This movie is one of the closest representations of a gymnast’s life and captures the intensity of gymnastics. It has the drama of an everyday teenage girl, a lot of humor, and is quite inspiring to gymnasts. 

Cover

The main character of this movie is former gymnast Haley Graham. She was once considered one of the most talented gymnasts in the US, but walked out of the World Championship in the middle of the finals, costing the American gold medal and making her one of the most hated people in gymnastics. When Haley gets in trouble with the law, she is forced to go to the elite Vickerman Gymnastics Academy to learn discipline, honesty, integrity and teamwork.

Image courtesy of Flash Games

Throughout the movie, there are many scenes describing a gymnast’s life. One of my favorite quotes from the movie is:

“Gymnastics tells you no. All day long. It mocks you over and over again. Telling you you're an idiot. That you're crazy. If you like running full-speed towards a stationary object, vault is for you. If you like pealing pieces of skin the size of quarters of your hands... bars is for you. Because the only thing more fun than rips, is when your rips get rips. It's super sexy. And floor, are you serious, I mean who doesn't want to parade around in a leotard getting wedgies and doing dorky choreography? It's delicious. If you like falling, then gymnastics is the sport for you! You get to fall on your face, your ass, your back, your knees, and your pride! It's a good thing I didn't like falling... I LOVED IT!” 

-Haley Graham

Although this movie is about gymnastics, it is not just for gymnasts. Besides the fact it is hilarious, it is relatable to other people too (although it is mostly for girls). It gives a positive message of pushing through and overcoming obstacles, and to stand up for what you believe in. But these messages are shown in their own unique way.

Whenever I am with my team, this is our go-to movie; I have seen it about fifteen times and it never gets old. I know every single word to this movie, so if you have not seen it, just come to me and I can narrate the whole thing for you.

gymnast terminology:

“stick it” : plant the landing with proper technique and no stumbles

Nutrition for the Athlete

As a child, you basically eat whatever is put on your plate, but as an athlete, you realize at some point you need to take control of your own nutrition to achieve optimal performance. We were lucky enough at Black Diamond to have Shannon Doleac come to our gym. She was a University of Utah gymnast in college, but is now a nutritionist. As children, most of us learn to eat lots of fruits and veggies, but there is way more to eating healthy.

Eating healthy can improve performance, energy level, recovery from injuries and health. Shannon’s rules to building a healthy plate are:

1. Protein- serving of protein one to two times the size of your palm in thickness and circumference
2. Fill half of your plate with vegetables
3. Add about 1/2 a cup of starchier or mild vegetables (sweet potato, yams, potato, white rice, etc) and/or fruit
4. Add natural fat- for oils and butters, a thumb size or two and for avocado, nuts, olives cheese, etc, a small handful

Image courtesy of Fit Day

Now here comes the geeky, science-y part of food. In building your plate, you must have protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Proteins are important for building, maintaing and repairing tissues and immune health. Carbohydrates are important for fueling muscles for energy. Fat is important as a slow-burning energy source, cell structure and absorption of some vitamins and minerals. We also have to make sure the food has MACROnutrients (vitamins and minerals).

During Shannon’s visit, the first activity we did was differentiate the real, whole foods from the processed foods using pictures. Then we compared the two. What seemed to occur during every comparison was the color of the food. The real foods were much more colorful than the processed foods. THEY LOOKED DELICIOUS, and you know what they say, “eat the rainbow!”

Image courtesy of Life Tastes Good

The four main points Shannon made during her visit were:

• choose a variety of real, whole foods
• choose the naturally colorful foods (eat the rainbow)
• focus on the creating a healthy plate with the right amount of protein, carbohydrates and fat
• hydrate

So if you are an athlete, nutrition is crucial in attaining optimal performance. For good ideas, Shannon has tips and recipes on her website.

It's a Gymnast Thing #2

Handstands. Handstands at the beach, handstands on a hike, and even handstands at a gas station. The signature mark of a gymnast. If you are a gymnast, you can’t help yourself. Everywhere you go have the urge to do a handstand, a flip, or something gymnastics related. And, of course, you must take a picture. If you were to look through my phone, about three-fourths of my pictures are handstands or flips. Which means you will now get to enjoy the journeys of my handstands.

This picture is the most recent and one of my favorite handstand pictures. It was in Hawaii during Thanksgiving break, and my mom and I went to a beach near our hotel to watch my uncle surf. In between waves, we spelled out the words ‘believe’ with pieces of lava rock we found on the beach.

These pictures were from this summer in Lake Erie. On this vacation, I did a lot of gymnastics on the beach, and of course took many pictures. I could not choose between these three pictures, so I decided to use them all. So, I have my backflip, side-ariel, and bridge on a paddle board.

This picture is from Running With Ed in the Spring. A few girls from my team formed ‘Flipping For Ed’. In between each leg of the race, there are rest stops, and at each one we took a handstand picture. This one is my favorite and is at the Utah Olympic Park.

In the winter, we went to California for a competition, and after the first night of seeing a gorgeous sunset over the ocean, I was dying to get a silhouette handstand picture in front of the sunset. So, the next night, two of my teammates and I took a bunch handstands and leap pictures. Jamie is on the left, I am in the middle, and Gen is on the right.

Also this winter, we went to Arizona for a competition. At our hotel, there was a huge fountain. My mom knows how much I love my handstand pictures, so she suggested to take some in front of the fountain. One night, we went after dinner and took some good pictures (the splits on the edge of the fountain), and the next day after my competition, we went and took some more in my competition leo (the bridge). 

This picture is from three years ago when my team went to Idaho for a competition. This is still a favorite picture of mine. These two teammates and I love photography, and during this trip we took many creative handstand pictures. We had just finished competing and were on our way to dinner, but took about an hour getting back to the car in what should have taken about ten minutes. We took some detours because we kept thinking of more pictures to take, and when our parents finally thought we were out of ideas and were about one minute away from the car, I came up with a great one. So I gave my mom the instructions on exactly how to take the picture, and we three girls ran into the parking garage. I took the first level, Sam R. the next, and Sam B. the third. We each made sure we were in front of the window, but next to the stairs so they were not in our way. We counted to three and did a handstand, hoping our parents got the picture from outside the parking garage. 

All of these pictures are just a few from my many handstands, and there is no doubt I will have many more handstand pictures in the future. 

It's a Gymnast Thing #1

Most girls get excited over new clothes or shoes and wait for compliments on how cute they look, but guess what gymnasts get excited over…thats right, new leotards! When you get a new leo, you walk into the gym with the same feeling you have when walking into school with a new shirt. You say hi to all of your teammates, and just wait for them to notice. And of course, they notice right away. I mean, you only have so many leos, and your team is with you five days a week year round, so they are bound to notice. The very first thing they say to you is “Is that a new leo?!”, and you reply, “Yes!”, and they reply, “Oh I love it!”. So even though we get excited over new leos for practice, there is one leo that makes us stop in our tracks. It makes you nervous and excited at the same time. This leo, is the competition leo.

A new competition leo is something you get only every two or three years, so it is a pretty big deal. Just yesterday, we received our new competition leo. It was the end of gym, and we were stretching when Joy, who works at the front desk, walked into the gym holding a bag with a hanger. Even though the contents of the bag were hidden, we recognized the shape of it. Immediately, we jumped up. After waiting for about three months, it had finally arrived. 

New Competition Leo

Our coach reluctantly let us have a look; knowing she wouldn’t be able to control our excitement. We all gushed over the leo, and went to try it on. “Oh, it looks so good!” The eight of us crowded into the bathroom to admire the design in the mirror. Some of the new recreational coaches walked by giving us odd looks; they had never experienced the arrival of the competition leo before. After taking in every detail, we ran into the gym and did handstands and back-handsprings to test the quality of the material. Finally, when we were satisfied, we took them home in wait for our first competition.

A Week Full of Pranks

On Friday of this week, it was our coach Bryce’s birthday. Bryce has only been coaching at the gym for a few months, but the team already has plenty of inside jokes and humorous moments with Bryce. He is twenty-four years old, is in the National Guard, and is super buff. For his birthday present, we decided to fill his locker with a bunch of objects. If you saw his locker, you would think we just threw a bunch of random objects in there, but every single one of them had meaning. The biggest object was a homemade diagram that had trees with bow ties on them, a plastic smurf and a plastic tiger. It also had some grass and rocks to make it look like a jungle. So, what in the world do trees with bow ties, a smurf, and a plastic tiger have to do with gymnastics? Well, I guess it really doesn’t, but let me explain a little. This whole scene was based off of a phrase Bryce said about one of my teammates. “She is like a wild tiger in a civilized jungle.” Well, that is not weird at all. The trees with bow ties represent the “civilized jungle” and the tiger represents my teammate. Now the smurf. Whenever my teammates or I say something comical or bizarre, he doesn’t smile, he smirks. So for the smirk we put a smurf in the scene. I am not sure how we came up with a smurf for a smirk, but it works. We also put in a candle, hair gel, a stopwatch and some other objects. I will spare you the time of explaining all of these.

We did this prank on Monday, since this was the best day for everyone to be able to participate. This was going to be our only prank, but then some of the other coaches spread a rumor that we were going to pull a prank on him everyday this week. Of course we had to take the opportunity.

Day two was not as good of a prank because we did not have time to prepare, so we just wrapped his locker with pre-wrap (something gymnasts use under athletic tape for injuries, or for headbands). Day three was a glitter attack. This story comes from the day our team did the ice bucket challenge. All of us wanted to get Bryce wet, but we never did. But after practice was over, on the way out, one of my teammates, Patrisha, snuck up on Bryce and covered him with glitter. So this prank was a re-creation of that moment. Our head coach Katy asked him to get something out of her car, so we hid outside by the door and as soon as he walked out, we threw glitter all over him. For the rest of the day, we kept finding paths of glitter throughout the gym, and Bryce had glitter all over him. The next day he came in he still had glitter behind his ears literally.

Prank number four was the best prank. When gym was over, Katy took Bryce to Maxwells with some other coaches for a birthday dinner. While they were gone, we decorated Bryce’s car with car paint. On the windows we wrote things like “just married” and “baby on board” and “off to Paris”. Remember, Bryce is twenty-four, in the National Guard, and super buff, so to have this written on his car is hysterical. We had some issues with this prank. Bryce must have heard about it, so he hid his car from us. We spent thirty minutes running around trying to find his car.

Just one window of his car.

The last prank was on Friday, Bryce’s actual birthday. At the end of practice, we brought out a cake for Bryce. But he couldn’t cut the cake, so we jokingly made fun of him by saying “are you not strong enough Bryce?” Finally we told him that the cake was a block of ice with frosting on top. Then we brought out real cupcakes for everyone to enjoy.

This week of pranks was very successful, but now we need to make sure we live up to the same standards next year!