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.  

Kate, the gymnast

I cannot believe that a whole month flew by without a post here!  All 3 kids went back to school and I ramped up at work and in my volunteer work and life has just been full (trying not to use the b- word).

I hope to post back to school pictures and some other things from summer but I had to post this first.

I don't write much on here (at least I don't think I do) about Kate's gymnastics.  She trains 3 days a week for 3 and 1/2 or 4 hours a day year round.  They never take time off and sometimes train on or around holidays even. She works out Christmas week y'all! She goes straight from school to the gym on MWF and does not get home until 8p.m.  She misses a lot of playdates and some parties and sleepovers but she LOVES it.  She honestly would not have it any other way. She never complains about going to practice or the physical work.  She tumbles all over our house all day long.

One day this summer I was bemoaning the fact that Kate quit ballet with a friend.  I love watching her dance and I want her to be well rounded.  Kate overheard me and piped up saying ,"But Mama aren't I so lucky that I found my passion already at 8 years old?!"  And I said, "Yes, Kate.  Yes you are!"

So gymnastics is different than the sports the boys play because you work and train ALL YEAR for just 4 or 5 (maybe 6 if you go to regionals) meets a year.  And the meets are all in about 6 weeks time.  That makes each meet kinda high pressure.

So, Kate's first meet of this year was yesterday.  She has been working on her routines all summer long.   She was so excited.

They got new competition leotards and warm ups again this year.   They are quite sparkly!

All these are I-phone pics.  I really wanted to just watch Kate and not be behind a big lens.  So, I did not bring my big camera.  I am kinda regretting that.  Also, I asked Harry to videotape.  His battery went dead in the beginning of Kate's floor routine.  I REALLY wanted that video most of all.  Oh well.



{Kate and her friends before the meet}

Kate's first event (and her favorite this year) was beam...



She did great.  She scored a 9.525 (and that was with a deduction for overtime--when they ring the bell).

Next was floor.  She went 1st for her team and I could see that she was a little nervous but she did really well.  I hate that we only got the very beginning on video.



Kate scored a 9.4 on floor and landed a perfect round-off back-hand-spring!

Next up was vault...



Kate scored a 9.4 for vault also.

At this point I thought..wow she is doing well but I was not paying a lot of attention to all the other gymnasts scores.  I was really just watching our team.

Their final event was bars and this is their team's toughest even this year I think.  It might not look hard but they have some tricky new skills (a shoot through and a front hip circle cast).  I hate when they do bars last because they are so tired and bars requires a lot of upper body strength and energy.

Kate was most nervous about the bars.  In practice, she sometimes falls.  Her bar routine was really good but she did not 100% stick her landing causing her to get a 9.3 (which is still really good).



This level is a little different from last year in that there are age groups and placement.  That means, if you place in an event, you get a medal.  If not, you don't get anything.  I had low expectations because Kate did well last year but we never really kept track of placement.

During the awards ceremony they began with vault.  They called Kate to the podium for 3rd place!  We were THRILLED! Last year, Kate really struggled with her vault.  Next, they announced bars and she won 2nd place!  Again, we were shocked and thrilled.  Kate's little face was BEAMING.  Then they announced beam and Kate won 1st place!  I could not believe it.  I was so surprised.  The next event announced was floor and again Kate won 1st place!!  Finally, they announced the all around winners and Kate won 1st place for her division. She had a 37.625!  I was completely overcome with JOY.  It was so unexpected and so thrilling I cannot even put it into words. She got two gold medals, one silver and one bronze.  The trophy was for 1st place all around.



Harry was super zoomed in hence the pixelated poor quality of these shots.









I wish you could see her face better in these she was so overjoyed.

We don't focus too much on winning with Kate.  I want Kate to try her best but there are tons of little girls out there all trying their best, all working hard and training for long hours. Sometimes Kate thinks everyone else is better than her.  Sometimes she doubts herself so this was the best confidence booster for her.

Kate's teammates rushed around her to see her trophy and congratulate her. It was very sweet. I was so shocked and shaking with joy that my photos are just awful.  I was so unprepared.



With her amazing coaches.



Harry was so proud of his little sister.  I loved seeing that!



Will had a prior commitment but he was super proud of her too.

And finally, Coach Andy with Kate and another friend who finished 1st in her age division.

She has another meet this coming weekend and we hope she has another great day.  I will be bringing fully charged cameras this time;)

"Meet"ing Mary Lou Retton (kate's 2nd meet)

So, it is meet season.  Gymnasts train all year for a very short meet season.  I feel like I want to post about each meet but I am not sure if I should.  I really want to keep a record of how Kate does her first year.  I think that at some point she will want to look back and know how she did in the beginning.  However, I am sure most of you will be glad when the end of October comes and the meets are over;)

This past week the meet was at our downtown convention center. It was quite a set-up.  I did not bring my good camera and I really regretted it.  It was a very open set-up with much better light than the last one.  Harry was my videographer.

Kate's team getting ready for warm-ups.

Love this totally out of focus "ghost" picture of Kate running, smiling and waving during warm-ups.

Kate's started on the vault (which is by far her hardest element).  Apparently for vault, you need to run really fast.  Kate slows down when she gets to the Springboard.  She gets afraid.  The night before the meet, she did a perfect vault at practice (I was told) and her team was so happy for her.  She did not repeat that on Saturday.  She did okay and got a 8.1.  We did not get video of it as it was located at the back of the arena.

Then, they went to the floor.  Kate did well on the floor.  She got a 9.0






After the floor, Kate's team moved onto bars.  It is so funny because Kate really struggled with the bars when she first joined the team but now they are her best element.  She loves the bars because she feels they are the most challenging. Her team was so tired by now that many of them struggled to even get up on the bars.  I was worried a bit.  She ended up doing great and earned a 9.4!  That was the highest score I saw on the bars the whole session and top score for her team!

Finally, they moved to the beam.   We were sitting right in front of the beam.  I was so worried that she was going to look at us and wave or get distracted.  But she did not.  She stayed in the zone totally focused. All of our girls were kind of shaky on this final apparatus.  Their muscles were fatigued.  Typically, Kate does very well on beam.  Last week, she got a 9.4.  This week she did well but she was shaky a few times.  She got an 8.5.





What I am most proud of is how hard Kate is working and her determination.  She told me before the meet that she was going to get ALL blue ribbons (9's).  In the end, she got 2 blue (bars and floor) and 2 red (beam and vault).  But she was SO happy!! She does not know her scores and I think that is great.  She feels good about herself and that is the whole point (for me anyway).

Aside from watching Kate shine, the highlight of the meet was meeting Olympic Gold Medalist Mary Lou Retton!!!  Mary Lou gave each girl their medal and she presented the awards.  Our team placed 2nd out of 12 teams in this district qualifier!  We were very happy.

Mary Lou Retton giving Kate her medal.

Missed her arms up...slow old camera!

Mary Lou was so gracious and sweet to the little girls. She looked at Kate's scores and told her how good they were. Kate had NO clue who she was but we told her and then showed her video when she came home.  I was tickled pink to meet her as I have always admired her talent.  She lives here and I have seen her around town before.  In fact, we went to the same doctor office when I was pregnant with Harry.  She looks great.  She actually looks like she has barely aged since her Olympic days!

After, the awards, Mary Lou Retton signed autographs for the gymnasts.

She also auctioned off a signed competition leo and her signed wheaties box for charity.  It fetched $3,000.    BTW-- she was the first female ever to be on the Wheaties box.  First female US gymnast to win gold all around and score a perfect 10!

And to answer a few question--- 

Several people asked me on fb and in person if I get nervous watching Kate.  The answer is not really (surprised?!).  I am not too concerned with her scores at this level.  I want Kate to have fun and feel good about herself.  I don't think about or worry about her getting hurt either which is weird for me because in the past, I have been a bit of a worrier in life.  This past week, I was a little nervous when she was on beam right in front of us but other than that, I just enjoy watching her and don't feel too anxious.

Someone else asked me to explain the levels.  I don't completely understand them myself as we are really new to gymnastics.  This is what I know... at our gym...you typically begin at a level one. Kate was in level one for just a month but most people are there for about a year.  Olympic competitors are level 10 and very few people ever make it there.  Your level is determined/earned based on your scores in official US gymnastics meets and your ability to master specific moves.  Kate is a level 2 and will be a level 3 just after these meets.  So, she is a beginner. Her routines are compulsory meaning that all level 2's all over the US do the exact same routine for every apparatus at every meet. So, even though Kate can do more advanced moves she is not allowed to do them at this level in meets.  I believe at level 5 the routines are optional meaning you can choose your moves and more difficult moves earn more points.

If any of that is not correct, feel free to let me know in comments:)  UPDATED:  Doreen provides a better description in the comments:)

I promise to post other stuff aside from gymnastics soon but between back to school and work all I have time for is gymnastics right now!