Competitive gymnastics is a very demanding sport, both physically and mentally.  A gymnast must be strong.  He or she must have physical strength and train their mind to allow themselves to perform the skills.  Also, in order to be a competitive gymnast, one must dedicate much time to the gym and training.  Gymnastics takes determination, great balance and a lot of focus.

In women’s gymnastics four events are competed.  These events include: vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor.  For a gymnast to compete vault, it requires them to have power to punch off the springboard and correct timing to block off the table.  The basic vault is a front handspring.  With much training a handspring turns into a tsukahara or a yurchenko.  Bars take upper body strength to cast, swing or pirouette while supporting the body weight.  Probably one of the hardest skills a gymnast will learn is a kip on bars.  Coaches teach it while kids are young and they use it for the rest of their gymnastics career.  As for beam, we all know it takes incredible balance.  Gymnasts must train this event for a long time building up to skills that are even done on the floor.  Timing, concentration and balance are key to stay on the, 4 inch wide 4 foot high, beam.  Floor is a combination of tumbling and dance.  Floor demands endurance, grace and coordination.

At a gymnastics meet or competition, gymnasts start on their assigned event, but always rotate in Olympic order: vault, bars, beam, then floor.  After being judged and given a score on each individual event, those scores are then added up and become the gymnast’s all around score.  Awards are given for each individual event, as well as all around.  At the end of a season a gymnast may earn a score that is high enough to qualify them to further meets.  Depending on the level, they may have the opportunity to qualify to State, Regionals, Western Nationals, and Nationals.

I am a competitive gymnast and I compete for GymStars Modesto.  My competitive season is January through May, but we practice year round. I practice 20 hours a week; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 4 hours a day.  My favorite and best event is beam.  I am currently a level nine.  Last year, I qualified as far as I could for my level.  I placed top twelve at the regional meet, making me eligible to compete at the Western Nationals.  Our region contains Nor Cal, So Cal,Arizona,Nevada, andUtah.  The other qualifiers as well as myself received a leotard, warm ups, sweatshirt, shirt, shorts, a bag and flip flops.  We came together as a team and competed against four other regions.  I am proud to report that we took first as a team.  It was such a great experience and a wonderful opportunity to meet new girls my age who enjoy the same lifestyle as me.