gymnastic season

Some of Kate's teammates and one of their coaches, Coach Andy!

At this level (4) Kate's competition season for gymnastics is from the end of August until about now.  She practices 4 days a week, 52 weeks a year though.  With the exception of Christmas and Thanksgiving, they always have practice!

Kate trains about 16 hours a week in the gym.  She misses a lot of play dates and time with friends.  Most of the time that does not bother her but at the end of competition season, she starts to feel it. This is about the time of year that she gets overwhelmed.  Honestly this girl LOVES gymnastics but she is not super competitive.  She would do all of the training even if there were not meets or medals.

Last week was our  District Champs where Kate advanced to South State.  And this weekend was South State in San Antonio.   If you do well in that, you advance to State.

I probably should have done multiple posts along the way on the various meets but I have not had time.  So ---fair warning there will be too many videos and photos here but I am squeezing the whole season into one post;)

This season has been interesting.  Kate has had some of her highest highs and some of her lowest lows too. I would say that last year Kate was pretty consistent on all of the four events.  This year, Kate has two great events and two she struggles with.

I'll start with the good.  Kate rocks the beam.   Her highest score was a 9.825 and that landed her her on the top 100 list and she holds the record at her gym for highest bean score now. I so wish I had videotaped that one but of course I did not!  I think the fact that we have a beam in our front hallway has something to do with her success on the beam.  She says the beam is her home:)

Until yesterday, Kate had won 1st place on the beam at every meet this season.   The other parents at our gym started calling her "the beam queen."  She has looked beautiful on the beam all season (until yesterday). Yesterday the gym was freezing and the girls were nervous.  Kate did not give her best beam performance.  Usually she is rock solid.  Here are some photos and video of her beam this season.


Beam Galveston Meet 2015 from Kim S on Vimeo.

She is in the way back on this one and it is a little hard to see...

IMG_8300 from Kim S on Vimeo.


Her next best event is the floor routine. This is my favorite event to watch Kate compete.  The beam sometimes makes me too nervous. But watching her on the floor is like watching her dance. She is so graceful.  Kate has won 1st on floor and tied for 3rd a few times.  Her highest score on floor this year is 9.7.  Yesterday she won first place again on floor in the South State champs with a  9.6  That was very exciting.

Here are her videos of her floor routines.


Floor at Stars 1st place 9.7 from Kim S on Vimeo.

The one above is the one where she got  a 9.7

The one below has no music....


IMG_8295 from Kim S on Vimeo.


And some floor photos...

Next is bars.  Kate has done ok on bars but not great.  In past years she has done well on bars so we cannot figure out what is going on. She knows what she needs to do to get higher scores but it doesn't always happen. The best she has scored is a 9.0

Here is one of her bar routines..I think it was her first of the season.

Kate Bars meet 1 8-23-2015 from Kim S on Vimeo.


Some bar photos...








Finally, the vault has given Kate a lot of trouble this season.  Similarly the best vault she has done is  9.0 (6th place).  She works really hard at vault and bars but for some reason she is not improving the way she usually does.






Kate has so much fun with her teammates.  She truly loves these girls.  They have become some of her closest friends.  They have a lot of fun at the meets and at practice too.  We hosted a Halloween party for the team last week since many of them missed Halloween due to South State State champs. I'll post some photos of that later.

They cheer each other on and I have not seen Kate ever get jealous of her teammates. In fact, Kate almost did not qualify for state this week. It was touch and go and even though she was not sure if she was going to make it, she was THRILLED for her teammates who made it. She did end up making the cut but she was fine ether way.



Our triple threat. These three swept 1st, 2nd and 3rd a few times on floor and beam:)

So that is the summary of Kate's gymnastics season.  She has one more meet in the Dallas area in a few weeks for State Championships.