For as long as I can remember, I was always tumbling around. At the age of four, I began tumbling classes. I don’t remember a lot about these years except for looking back on recital pictures. However, when I got a little bit older, I switched to a gymnastics gym. Little did I know at the time how much this sport would become a part of my life. Everyone has a sport they’ve fallen in love with, whether it’s playing or participating. Gymnastics was mine. The gym became somewhat of a second home to me; it was definitely one of my favorite places to be. I spent 14 years of my life as a gymnast and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Sometimes, I still step back into gymnastics mode and I’ll throw in a handstand, balk walkover, front walkover, and back handspring’s, really anything that my body can still to these days. Now, I was nowhere near on track to become an Olympic gymnast, or even college for that matter. Although some days I still wish I would have pursued it further. Gymnastics and being a competitive gymnast taught me a lot of things and there are always things that I still carry with me and remember about my days in the gym. In light of the Olympics going on, I thought I would share with you what it’s like to be a gymnast and what I’ve learned through that time in my life.

I’ll begin with the life lessons I learned in the gym. Getting into gymnastics was a great social avenue for me. I was a pretty shy little girl and making friends wasn’t the easiest thing for me to do. Spending time in a gymnastics class introduced me to a whole new pool of girls my age from different towns in my area. I made some good friends in those years and was excited to see when they were there for class on those days. Being able to make friends in a different setting rather than at school helped me expand my friendship circle and know what it is like to have a different social circle to be involved in. Not only did I make friends within the gym, but also as part of the competition team I got to meet other gymnasts around the state at different competitions.

Not only was I able to make friends here, I also learned to step out of my comfort zone a little bit. Along with my shy personality, I hated getting up in front of people; to this day, giving a speech still gives me anxiety. But in a competition, I was able to complete my routines up in front of the judges, in front of the crowd, and in front of my competition. I learned to shut out the crowd and focus. I found a new confidence when performing my routines, I was nervous, but I learned how to control it and perform with confidence. It took me quite a few years to overcome my shyness, but my time as a gymnast laid the groundwork for that change.

Because gymnastics was really the first sport I was introduced to, it was the first time I had ever had a coach. In all my years of sports, I have had some really great coaches and some not so great ones. But my first coach set a pretty high bar. In gymnastics, there is a lot of trust needed between gymnast and coach. There were times I literally had to trust that my coach would catch me if I lost my balance or was about to land on my head. (And there were times she probably had to). Tami pushed me to be my best, to make the most of my time in the gym, to get me to stop thinking so much, and most importantly to keep my legs straight and toes pointed. She taught me how to compete and that the only scores that I was competing against were truly my own. And when I didn’t do so well, she was never disappointed in me even when I was disappointed in myself although she always knew I could do better. When I look back on my years as a gymnast, I appreciate all the coaching it took to get me to where I was. All of the spotting, criticism, teaching, reminding, and having to let me figure something out on my own, helped me be a better gymnast and improve. I am so thankful to have had a coach like Tami and to have shared the moments with her that I have. Even though some of our stories involve me injuring her during a spot, she always got right back between me and the mat, and now that we can laugh about all those times. Coaches make a huge impact.

As a competitive gymnast, I learned a lot about the importance of hard work, practice, and competition. One of my favorite memories of the time I spent in the gym was when I was working out independently. In these moments, I would work really hard on skills I was struggling with over and over again. These moments are where I learned to work hard, practice hard and be determined enough to keep going. I learned that the only way I could overcome the skill and improve was to keep working at it. I also learned that practice does not make perfect, practice makes better. I was determined to be better and was willing to put in the time, effort and repetition it took to get there. I remember always leaving the gym feeling great after these practices, knowing that I worked hard. All that hard work eventually paid off when I began competing. I learned a lot about competition and being competitive. I miss these days a lot. During a competition, I knew I wanted to get a better score than the girls I was competing against. But what I also learned is at the end of the day if I improved my score from my last competition I was still a winner. A lot of times when you compete the only person you should compete against is yourself. If you do better than you did before you’re golden. It’s all about improving yourself and the only person you can compare yourself to is you. The only scores you can measure yourself up to are your own.

Being a gymnast taught me a lot, and it also gave me a lot of memories. You know you were a former gymnast if...

You remember the gym smell, usually involving the smell of chalk.

You remember little things about each event you did.

Bars - not my favorite. Oh, but the feeling of blisters and rips. Looking at my

hands now and still being able to see the callus spots from so many bar

routines and opened blisters.

Beam - the feel of the leather beam, trying to keep your balance as you turn,

leap and jump across a four-inch wide platform. And to this day, having to

balance and walk across anything that remotely looks beam like.

Vault - the feeling of running toward a stationary object and to flip over it.

One of my favorites for sure.

Floor - by far my favorite. The music choices not so much, but loved the

feeling of being out on the floor. Feeling powerful during a tumbling pass and the

feeling of nailing the dance moves. Every time you see a wide-open space you

think this would be great for a floor routine or tumbling pass.

You’ve probably choreographed your own floor routine to music when know one is around. Or thought to yourself a certain part of a song would make for a great tumbling pass combination.

You constantly still point your toes, even when just jumping on a trampoline. It’s so ingrained that you do it automatically without even trying. I literally point my toes every time they are in the air.

You occasionally brush up on some skills whenever there is an opportunity. Randomly throwing a handstand or balk walkover into your daily routine. Back handsprings are my favorite.

Watching the Olympics or any gymnastics meet makes you tense up and literally makes you feel like you are there competing when in reality you are just sitting on the couch.

Watching the Olympics also makes you regret growing up and not continuing to pursue your gymnastics career. It’s really bittersweet.

My gymnastics life was easily one of my favorite parts of my childhood/teenage years. Gymnastics is a great all around sport. It has taught me a lot through the 14 years of my gymnastics career. I am proud and thankful to be a former gymnast and I would recommend the sport to anyone.

Once a gymnast, always a gymnast at heart.