How I got here: 6

How I Got Here: Alex and Injuries

The first time I met coach Alex, it was my first summer at Capital.  It was also Alex's first year coaching gymnastics in America after moving from Ukraine where he was a coach to a group of boys.  That summer was particularly rough.  Not only was I getting used to being at a new training facility, one of my new coaches had a short temper fuse.  The smallest things would get him yelling: talking, being scared of attempting skills...  He was one to not hesitate to kick you off of practice for the remaining time of whichever event you happened to be on with him.  For a pre-teen and young teen, it was really intimidating at first.

My mom was always big in setting me up with private lessons.  I generally dreaded attending these since it was just me and my coach alone for an hour.  On one of two days a week I did not have my regular four-hour practices.  Working on skills that scared me to pieces.  The only benefit I can see from them as I reflect on my private lessons now is that it built a great rapport between myself and Alex.  I began to trust him to make sure I wouldn't fall when he was spotting me on new skills.  Likewise, you could say that I became one of his favorites.

Being a favorite became especially useful as I got older and he became my head coach, overseeing my bar routines, vaults, tumbling skills on floor, and conditioning exercises.  At competitions, it was nearly always just me and Alex.  He helped me with roughly 75% of my competition preparation, and it was nice to know that at least one of my four coaches truly cared enough about me to see the hard work pay off and share in the victories (or stand by in the rough patches).

Coach Alex always watching in the background

The word gymnast can be synonymous with injury to many people.  Injuries are essentially an unavoidable aspect of throwing your body around in ways most of the population does not.  Add in dangerous equipment, and you've got a recipe for a potential disaster.  Yes, new gymnasts generally spend the first part of the careers learning to fall safely, but as the tricks get bigger, so does the risk of injury.

Ankle sprain, circa 2001

I was lucky.  Up until 2004, I had never had a major injury.  There was only a handful of ankle sprains, maybe some sore wrists and knees, and a couple of jammed phalanges, but nothing that took me out of practice for too long.  My broken ankle was the first of my teenage injuries, and keep in mind, I was one of the healthier gymnasts to compete.

One time, I was tumbling on floor and my knee did something weird.  I think it may have been a minor sprain.  There also was that time when I was working on front giants on strap bar.  I managed to slip out of my straps, fly across the gym, and take the brunt of my landing on my elbow.  I didn't have full range of motion in my elbow for a few weeks, so I think it was only a sprain, but what really nagged me and eventually became a driving force to stop gymnastics was a combination of two things.

After being a high school gymnast for three years (in addition to club gymnastics) and routinely practicing and competing on sub-par equipment, namely floors, I developed shin splints in my right leg.  Around this time, my back began to hurt a lot for unknown reasons.  I began sitting out most of practice due to hurting too much to practice.  Gymnastics was no longer worth my time.

Only a few more days left to support me in becoming a Top Dance Blog finalist!  Show your support here!

Goals: Fix fancy jump in reel 3rd
Days till NANs: 169

Solo dress designs

Lately, I've been a little bit obsessed with designing solo dresses.

A lot of my designs are inspired by gymnastics leotards I see.  After being a gymnast for a large chunk of my life, I can't help but to pull inspiration from these designs.  Many of the leotard designs you see at a competition are asymmetric designs and flashy with rhinestones.  As such, I have always wanted an asymmetric solo dress since before they were the thing to have. (How hipster of me.)

It's my secret goal in life to see these designs turned into cloth-and-rhinestone physical beauties.  Especially for other dancers to wear.  Any takers from dressmakers?

(Note: all dresses are watermarked with my tumblr URL because a) that's where I've been posting them, and b) I don't want them stolen.)

Goals: Practice Friday and Saturday since I've been in Cedar Point the past few days and there's a feis this weekend
Days till Os: 137

Inspirational #13

Need inspiration? Watch this video, copy down the words. (disregard the gymnastics if you want.)

A little blast from the gymnastics past. Tweeted by Nastia Liukin earlier this week.

Goals: Stamina

Days till Os: 69

How I got here: 5

How I got here: Capital, Level 8

My first year of level 8 had its ups and downs. On the positive side, I began to get over fears I had dealing with certain events. I also finally began throwing my signature no-fail vault I had been working on ever since my time in Arizona. By the our state championships, I had also done well enough to represent Virginia in the Region 7 all-stars competition, which is kind of like the B-team for regionals.

On the not-so-positive side, I wanted to quit the whole sport all together, but mom said no, her reason being that I didn't have anything active to do; I wanted to start Irish dance classes and be in marching band. As for why: maybe it had something to do with the fact that my coaches were Russians. You do not mess with the Russians. They yell. They're cold and hard. They don't care that you're scared. And why? Because they know you can really do it. All you need is to be screamed at a bit, just enough to get scared and start crying. There's no room for wimps or BS in their gym.

In the summer between both my level 8 seasons, I began working in a new group with a new coach who would push me on to greater things. (But more on that later, he deserves his own post.) Under his tutelage, I certainly improved and picked up new skills faster than with my previous coaches (weekly private lessons didn't hurt either). With his help, I ended my season my winning vault at our state championships and qualified for the actual non-all stars regional team. That was all fine and dandy until a week before regionals. I was working on a new tumbling pass. I broke my ankle. I was done for the season.

Goals: work out tri-weekly

Days till Os: 120

How I got here: 4

I know I haven't updated this story in a while. If you're not up to date, or just started reading (hello!), read these first:

Beginnings

Desert Lights part 1

Desert Lights part 2

How I got here: Capital, the beginnings and Level 7

Shortly after I watched Lord of the Dance for this first time, I moved from my home in Arizona to where I am now in Virginia. With that came a whole new climate, a new school, and most importantly a new gym.

The very first time I walked into Capital Gymnastics NTC, I was scared and intimidated. My little gym in Arizona only had a women's program. This new gym not only had a women's program, but also men's, cheer, and tumbling. I was amazed at how big the facility was, and how much equipment and people it could hold. It felt so foreign and strange to me. This gym meant serious business.

Among the lines of serious business: the coaches. My very first impression was one of fear. They all spoke Russian. They all had accents. They all seemed so harsh and unforgiving from the outside. The first coach I met was Tatiana. My coach Neela wrote her a letter of recommendation about me and possibly my family. She invited us in, wanted to know what skills I was working on, and sent me to a group with other girls working towards level 7. Her demeanor was serious, and one of having other, more important things to do, though we were treated quite nicely.

Also along the lines of serious business: my new teammates. They all seemed so focused. They all were so good, so strong. I soon discovered this tough, serious demeanor was only a front. They were just goofy kids like me, only they couldn't show it for fear of being sent to climb the rope, or even get kicked out of practice.

That first summer there was probably one of the most difficult for me. Not only was I getting acclimated to a new gymnastics environment, but I was learning new level 7 routunes, trying to figure out how not to get yelled at by the newest coach Alex (more about that later). By the end of the summer, though, I did have my stuff together and was ready for my first season as an optional gymnast. I was slowly but surely becoming more athletic, powerful, and polished. That season was right at the beginning gymnastics heyday: I loved what I was doing, I was having fun, and my life was going great.

Level 7 highlights reel

Vault: As in Arizona, I was a pretty strong vaulter.

Bars: By far my weakest event. While my teammates were learning giants, I was still trying to get over my fear of fly-aways. By the end of the season (which is when this clip is from), I got them, and my score improved by a whole point.

Beam: Aside from mental issues, my beam routines were improving. Check out my face after I see my score. This was probably the highest I'd ever scored on this event at that time. Note the disbelief.

Floor: Definitely my best event. I was a strong dancer and tumbler. (Irish dancers pay attention: I was doing birdies long before I was dancing!)

Goals: Get hornpipes smoother

How I got here: 3

How I got here: Desert Lights part 2

As a level 6, things started to get more serious. I began taking weekly private lessons (which continued through my gymnastics career) with my regular coach, Kim, as well as USAG judge, Neela Nelson. My privates with Kim were to help with my basket-case brain. At the time, I was so terrified of fly-aways, and for good reason (so I thought). I had hit my feet on the high bar on a fly away once, and then refused to do it until testing day to move up to level 6. I also battled with my nemesis, the beam, fighting to regain my back walkovers after having a terrifying experience of flat out missing the part where your hands are supposed to land on the beam.

It was Neela that really got to the nitty-gritty (especially with dance on beam and floor) and helped me have a successful level 6 season. From her, I went from a so-so beam and floor girl to a more polished gymnast. She expected nothing less than perfection from me, but did so in a way that wasn't harmful to my eleven year old brain.

The highlights of my time as a level 6 was the fact that I was such an explosive vaulter (for my age, size, and level). I was working Tsuk tucks into the pit partway through my level 6 season. (This vault later on became my "signature, no-fail vault.") In truth, I was a little cocky about this, but I didn't really know at the time. One day at practice, I turned my best friend into my enemy for about a month because my coach told us to watch how the level 9s and 10s pop off the horse, I let "like me!" slip out of my mouth. Hmm, oops.

It was also during this time as a sixth grader that I was placed in a dance elective. Our culminating activity? Watching Lord of the Dance on VHS, thus sparking my interest in Irish dancing forever. It was also lucky that the dance teacher at my school's daughter was a gymnast at Desert Lights with me. Her music was an excerpt from Siamsa, and to this day, a part of me still wants that as my floor music.

Goals: Turnout stretches/drills EVERY DAY

Days till worlds: 58

How I got here: 2

How I got here: Desert Lights part 1

I will never forget my very first gymnastics meet ever as a level 3. Despite it being in my home gym, it was still one of the most scary things of my life. (For reference: this was still back in the day that USAG had two different floor routines: one for just tumbling, and one for just dance.) To this day one memory sticks out: The most exciting part for me? Was getting my rainbow ribbons. Looking back on it now, my gym was genius with their ribbon-giving. Typically 9.0+ is blue, 8.0-8.9 is red, 7.0-7.8 is white, 6.0-6.9 is yellow, and anything below a 6.0 is left up to the discretion of the gym, which in my case was rainbow. After the meet, we would count who got the most rainbows, and that girl was then the best in out eyes. After this competition, I was an old pro at these things, even though I just had one experience. I don't think I attended more than two as a level 4, but I still own the shirt, and to this day, it is the oldest shirt I still have in my possession (from 1998).

During this time, I spent most of my life in the gym out of pure love. When I wasn't there for weekly class, I was having fun privates with my coach Kim to battle my beam and bar troubles. I was an open gym regular, where I goofed off with my teammates and learned the level 6 routines. I loved being there for summer Friday practices, where we only did conditioning and dance for two hours, before playing a gym-wide game of capture the flag toilet paper roll. The gym was my life, and I had no problem with it being that way.

As a youngster, I moved up through the levels quickly (probably because of all that open gym...). I didn't spend more than a year in level 3, 4, or 5. And all that competition? Yeah, it didn't really mean much to me. I was more focused on getting my 9.0 or above on floor so I could change my ending pose. But I'm not going to lie, I did savor my first first place finish ever as a level 5 at my favorite meet (Winter Sun Invitational). Winning just wasn't the most important thing for me at this time.

Goals: Mentally prepare for Inishfree feis

Days till worlds: 59

How I got here: 1

Inspired by my friend and fellow blogger Courtney, I am going to tell you a tale. A tale about a princess, a dream, and her (sort of) happy ending. Just joking (kind of). I AM going to let you know why it is that I started Irish dance so late, and how I was able to succeed so quickly at this new sport, despite starting as an "& Over" dancer.

How I Got Here: Beginnings

I was signed up for gymnastics classes as a youngster, like most other little girls, and I was so excited for it. I don't remember much about my first classes (hey, I was under the age of 4), but there are a few poignant moments that still stick in my memory. I won't forget walking into the YMCA in Fremont, NE and seeing the absolutely enormous equipment for the first time. I won't forget the first time they lifted me up to the low bar and I scooted my way across. Or the first time I was set on the high beam and wouldn't move until my coach held both my hands (my basket-case brain is something we'll get into later). And then there was the performance we did for the nursing home behind my grandma's house. We set up our mats and we performed how well we could climb over them and do somersaults down the cheese mats.

By the time I was five, my family and I moved to Arizona, where I was enrolled in gymnastics at a community center. It was a non-competitive gymnastics and dance academy, where I also took ballet classes as well as tumbling. Since we didn't compete, we did local exhibitions (some outside in parking lots) and a big annual company production of Mary Poppins, where I was featured as a tumbling chimney sweep. I also made fast friends with one of our instructors and also had a little foray into partner acrobatics just for fun. I was having the time of my life.

After being at the community center for two years, I began to surpass the level of the older girls in the class and my mom decided it was time I enroll in a gymnastics club. At the age of six or seven, I started in a level 3 recreational/compulsory class at Desert Lights Gymnastics. Going from a small academy that only focused on tumbling, to a full-on gymnastics club was so cool to me. I walked right into that two-roomed warehouse-turned-gym, and my jaw dropped. There were two floors, and three sets of uneven bars, eight beams, and many trampolines and this really awesome thing called the pit! I was in shock and awe, especially watching the older girls do their stuff. I was completely fascinated with floor routines. The music, and the dance, and the tumbling. . . At the time, it was all uphill from that exact moment because I had become a "real" gymnast.

Goals: Turnout, stamina

Days till worlds: 76