One month back in the gym, so far, so good

Well, Emily's been back in the gym for a full month, and still on very light duty.  She's lost her kip and desperate to get that back, she has not performed any tumbling on the floor yet and gets cleared from the doctor on December 7th.  We'll see how it goes. 

Meanwhile Emily has grown one inch, gained about 15 lbs and her shoe size has gone from a 2 to a size 4 children's, 5 ladies.  She's really growing fast, wider in the shoulders and a little taller but I fear if she doesn't grow soon, she'll be lucky if she makes it to 5 feet tall.  She takes after her Grandma June I fear.  Both her and Kerry Anne, her cousin are going to be the shrimps of the family.

Christmas is only 26 days away!  Happy holidays everyone!

Saluting all Gym Moms...

Proctor and Gamble decided to make this series of videos, to acknowledge what we as moms go through daily to support our childrens' dreams and aspirations...

I just love this line from the below video "Olympians -  they weren't born that way, they're raised that way..."




For all of those naysayers that would like to believe that what we are doing, as the mother of a dedicated child in any disclipline is living vicariously through their child...

lets not forget ...the late night hand washing of the exhibition uniforms, the waking of the athlete, preparation of the morning meal, the early morning hair braiding, stocking the snack bag with healthy food to get her through another grueling practice... the checking of the school homework... the endless daily driving... to the gym, to the school, to the gym, back to home... and before transporting to each destination, making sure to prepare a healthy "in-transit" meal, carrying their exhausted body out of the car to bed at the end of a grueling day and asking your little champion after every practice "Did you have fun today?"




So to clarify - we as mothers dedicate ourselves to our children, fear for their safety, we are there to shore them up when they feel defeated, pray to God that we have the strength to continue in their quest whatever it may be, and cry with relief and pride that we are privileged to witness their shining moments ... no matter what path we end up being dragged down by our future medalist.  As mothers we will continue to do so as long as we live and breathe. We love them and are in awe of their accomplishments, drive and dedication.

Here's a great article  The Role of the Gymnastic Parent

Here's another great article http://voices.yahoo.com/what-takes-gymnastics-parent-537025.html

Level 6 competition season is only 5 months away!

Counting down the months left until she competes again, Emily is finally out of her hand splint and back at practice with a vengeance! This week Emily has been practicing her back handspring, back layout off the tramp; she's almost got her giant on bars. She still fears the height she's getting on the bars, but knowing this one, she'll work through that and have it perfected by April. She's also working on her front walk-over, front tick-tock on beam. I haven't had the chance to watch much of Emily's practices as I don't hang out at this gym, the parent area is too claustrophobic, and besides, I've got plenty of other things to do, like take care of my own business in between chauffering this little one, but I see the improvement in Emily's attitude and she's much happier now, enjoying what she's doing and hopefully not causing her coaches too much grief.

Above photo courtesy of Brian@ImagingB... This was Emily's second Level 5 vault at the State Meet this past December - she crashed into the vault the first time out. I wondered why, now I know. She knew the table wasn't set right from the get go. Emily trained with the table set at a 1 and then 2, but apparently her vault coach decided this day to set the vault table on 0 at the State Meet. That's a lousy thing to do to a kid and a picture tells a thousand words. So glad we've found a new home at a gym that will encourage my daughter to thrive in this sport and not hold her back. I keep asking Emily, "hey... you want to stop and do something else like soccer or softball?" Faaaaaggeddaboutit!!! She's a gym rat all the way.

Emily's Birthday and new skills

Emily turned 11 years old yesterday. She's been attending gym school since January 3rd and tells me that she's finally getting back her upper body strength. She's thrilled at learning all the new skills. She's finally learning her bar routine while using her grips which is something that I and her previous coach went rounds about more than once. I don't know anything about Gymnastics, but it was really obvious that my daughter was not getting the training or conditioning she needed to perform a compulsory bar or vault routine. Emily's been at a few gyms by now. She started out at Gymnastics Unlimited in Thornton in their tots tumbling class. She then spent some time at 5280 Gymnastics in recreational and pre-team. Emily spent her Level 4 and 5 compulsories at TIGAR Gymnastics. She had a great Level 4 record with 2 All Around Wins and did very well on Floor and Beam in Level 5. The difference in her training at Level 5 seemed to be attributed to a coaching change for Bars and Vault during her Level 5 season. She's now in the Gym/School Program at Gymnastika and is spending 6 days a week there. Emily still holds the Olympic dream in her mindset. She's 11 and so far has been truly dedicating herself to this sport for the last four years. Everybody keeps telling me that she's a "natural gymnast", whatever that means. I just know it's all a crap shoot at this point, but I still have to support her as her parent. If she continues to fight through the pain, strain and training she will succeed. There is no doubt in my mind. I pray every day that she remains injury free and I can direct her into a stable future once her gymnastics dreams are fulfilled. I keep on looking at the business models for this industry - I don't see a great big profit margin in any of it, unless you're cranking out cookie cutter Olympians like WOGA or the Karolys. I believe in Gay and Alexi and I know their training is top notch. They have produced a few National Team and Olympic Team members in their own right. Time to start a non-profit for this little gym and these small teams. These girls are going places and they'll need the funding to pull it off. I need to figure out how to get the community support behind this little Gym Group. TOPS training, which was a big push at TIGAR - I was told that program was started so that the young talent wouldn't get lost in a sea of poor coaching. That kind of made alot of sense to me. Well two days until Tim Tebow and the Broncos meet up in another playoff game. Go BRONCOS!

Merry Christmas! Another fee is due.

Medal display rack, courtesy my sister Jean.

Yes, sometimes you look at the situation and grit your teeth so as not get too frustrated.  Two days ago I went to the front desk of my daughter's gym and asked "Am I paid up for all of the upcoming meets, or should I anticipate any other fees?"  My answer was "No, you're good."  I took that as yes, I was finally on top of things...   NOT!!!!

No sooner did I rest, thinking I was able to go out and purchase Christmas gifts.... then last night I received an email.... "$115.00 in additional fees for the Coach's transportation to the (out of State meet)  are due before January 1st."

Well, ain't that just a wake up call!   This is a new gymnastics studio.  I understand that they are still in a learning curve, but...  I can't be the only parent in this situation - there is no way on earth that I'm going to be able to come up with that amount in such a short time without sacrificing either food or utilities...  so I wrote the gym back, begging for mercy, and a payment plan.

 So far this month I've forked out:

$190.00 for Level 4 training tuition    -  went to Gym
$110.00 for the State Meet this weekend for Coaches fees   - paid thru Gym
$125.00 for private lessons - paid directly to Coach
$ 30.00  for State Championship wearables - paid through Gym  (didn't HAVE to do this.. but then my daughter would feel left out...)
$   5.00 my fee to get into the State Championships to watch my daughter's performance.
(watching my daughter compete... absolutely priceless!)

and it's only the 9th of the month...

In all fairness, I doubt seriously that the Gym owner is making a huge profit, most of the money goes to paying the staff, facility costs and overhead expense.

It does appear that the Coaches live a lot better than we do - but then again these people live at the gym and rarely spend quality time with their own families and I know my daughter's coach has a child  a little younger than my daughter's age. Every weekend during the competition season (which is usually 9 months out of the year) the coaches give all of their time either in  private lessons, or teaching a class or attending a meet with their team.

What Svetlana's done for Emily is worth far more to me than the money I am spending... The ADHD/Asperger's meds ran over $200 a month and Emily was slowly becoming dependent on synthetic mood altering preparations.  It's an expensive sport, but... my daughter's behavioral issues are all but gone at this point and there's no need for medication.  We have three more exhibition meets after the State Championship! I just hope my pocketbook will hold out.

There seems to be no help for the weary.  Well, God willing,  I can continue to have her in this sport, as she has already proven that she's a contender, I know that sooner or later she'll get sponsorships and some of the financial weight will come off of me, but until then I keep my fingers crossed and pray for a way to keep this all together. Wish me luck!