Back at Gymnastika!

 After that horrendous knee injury, and over 4 months out of the gym and on crutches,  Emily's back with her friends over at Gymnastika!  I had her at Highland Hills and hoped she would want to stay there a little longer because it's not such a far drive, but the moment the doc released her, she begged to go back to Gay Lindsay's.  She loves her coach.  Even though the ortho doc hates girls in gymnastics, Emily has other ideas as to what she wants to do with herself.   Emily's  been working beam and bars and  working hard on conditioning.  It won't be long before she's back in competition form.

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!

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.

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!

One week before USAG Colorado Level 4 State Championships

I feel like I am starting this blog at the end, but really it's a beginning.  This was Emily's first year of competition in the world of Gymnastics and it proved to be pretty exciting so far. 

Emily has been diagnosed since birth with a myriad of disorders... sensory integration dysfunction, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD.  I don't particularly believe that any of them fit her, I do believe that medical and school professionals like to place labels on kids that have no creative outlet for their energy. It seems to me that some kids just need more exercize than others.

Emily is extremely bright, but can frustrate easily and is a drama queen beyond compare. She needs a release for all of her pent up energy and gymnastics became the drug to control her ADHD without medication. She's no longer taking any medication for her 'disorder'. She takes gymnastics. It seems to be working better than any drug has so far.                      

Emily is currently 9 years old (almost 10) and a level 4 gymnast as of this posting.  She is attending TIGAR gymnastics in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.  Emily started in recreational gymnastics at the age of 3 at the urging of one of my friends who had kids already in the sport.  I took her out of it when she was 4 due to financial difficulties.  Being a single parent, competitive sports are financially draining. When things got better for me, I put her in Steven Oliver's Mile High Karate at the age of 5.  This proved to be a big mistake. 

Emily, a true competitor, was quite good at Karate - so much so that she got the taste for trophies and kicking butt... leading her to hold the title in my family as the only child (not just girl) to be placed in detention in FIRST GRADE.  I had to figure something out to do with this kid to get her under control.  Second grade bullies learned valuable life long lessons about picking on first graders that competed the Karate circuit.  I put Emily back in recreational gymnastics at the age of 7.

Emily's Level 4 season so far has been alot of fun to watch.  I know very little about this sport. I couldn't tell you at this point the names of the moves that she performs, but I can tell you that Noelle, her team mate who is younger, has many more girls competing against her in the junior group and is up against some pretty tough talent. Noelle is such a work horse.  She and Emily share private practices with their coach Svetlana. It just amazes me how all of these children can commit everything they have to reach their goals at such a young age.  The third of this little group is Megan.  She's struggling to keep up with Emily and Noelle, and she did qualify for the State Championships in the last meet.  Megan's the underdog and we're all rooting for her to do well at State. She's a fighter and the tiniest of the three.  I can't imagine this little group without her. 

It's been a long road from training to competition and these little ones have worked so very hard.  I wish them all the best of luck.

Here's a list of Emily's  individual results this year prior to the State Championships:

Premier Gymnastics  2010 Showdown Level 4 Senior results  9/25/10

Vault   9.300   (tied for 3rd)
Bars    8.750   (11th place)
Beam  9.000   (5th place)
Floor   9.300   (tied for 1st)
All Around 36.350  (3rd place overall)
Emily qualified for State at this first meet.  It was a great start for her.





Adrenaline Gymnastics - AGA 2010 Rocktoberfest Level 4 Senior Results 10/2/10 

Vault   9.050 (5th place)

Bars    8.500 (11th place)

Beam  8.500 (9th place)

Floor  9.050  (4th place)

All Around 35.100 (5th place overall)

Emily wasn't happy with 5th overall.  She learned that she was going to have to work harder to get where she wanted to be. She still qualified for State with the all around scores.

Encore Gymnastics - Encore Fall Feista Level 4 Senior 10/9/10

Vault   9.100

Bars    9.100

Beam  7.800

Floor   9.450

All Around  35.450 (boy I'm lax here, need the printout..)

Emily was first on Floor exercise, being at the top of the podium really made her day.

CGI Gymnastics - Autumn Classic - 11/13/10
Vault  9.200
Bars   8.250
Beam 8.600
Floor  8.500
All Around 34.55 (another one I need the printout for)
This was Emily's worst meet yet.  She was emotional and cried throughout every event. (I had her on her ADHD meds for this meet... I've since eliminated them completely)

Airborne Gymnastics - Airborne Classic - 11/12/10

Vault   9.300

Bars    9.150

Beam  9.075

Floor   9.100

All Around 36.625

This was Emily's best meet and the last one of the season prior to State Championships.

Good luck Emmy Mae! I am so proud of your commitment to this sport.  Love Mom