Growing up, one of the most common questions we get asked is “what sports do you play.” I didn’t “play” a sport, I WAS a gymnast. Starting gymnastics when you are 18 months old, three years old, or even 5 years old is different than starting football when you are in kindergarten. When you play soccer or football when you are little, you maybe practice once a week and have a game once a week. It’s not taken very seriously and most of the time it is a bunch of little kids running around having no idea what they are doing.

Gymnastics is different. At the age of 5, you have to decide whether you are serious about this sport or not. At the age of 5, you have to decide whether you want to dedicate a great deal of your life to practicing 3 or 4 days a week so that you can go to a competition maybe once a month. Most 5 year olds are not mature enough to make this decision, but that’s one thing gymnastics does. Gymnastics makes you grow up pretty darn fast. Not in a bad way, but along with being a competitive gymnast, come a lot of responsibility.

Gymnastics taught me so much more than how to flip around on a 4-inch piece of wood, or swing from one bar to another. Gymnastics taught me to be the person I am today, and for that, I am grateful. Of course, gymnasts are very strong physically, but in the end, gymnastics makes you stronger mentally. Here are some of the most important things I learned from being gymnast:

1.Determination and Ambition:

Gymnastics teaches you a great deal of determination. In order to get to the next level, you have to put your mind to the end goal which you want to achieve. If you do not believe that you can do it, you are going to have an extremely hard time excelling.

2.Dedication:

Gymnastics is expensive, when you decide to be a competitive gymnast, you must dedicate yourself to be the absolute best gymnast you can be. You must go into the gym every day ready to work as hard as you possibly came. There are going to be bad days in the gym, but you cannot let those days transfer to the next and you must treat every day like a new day.

3.Respect:

One of the major things gymnastics taught me was respect. You have to learn to not only respect your coaches, but your teammates as well. If a coach ever found out that you were being disrespectful to anyone in that gym, you had a great deal of conditioning coming your way, and nobody wants extra V-ups!!! Learning to respect your teammates, also means that when you leave that gym, you are going to have respect for most kids around your age.

4.Responsibility:

When you have to practice 3, 4, 5 or even 6 days a week for 3 or 4 hours at a time, you learn how to balance your life pretty well. If I came home from school and my homework was not done or almost done, I was not allowed to go to practice. School always came first in reality, but I wanted to go to gymnastics more, so obviously I got all of my work done. You learn to use up those study halls and get as much done in 45 minutes as possible.

5.Sportsmanship:

Yes, gymnastics is an individual sport. You compete for your own score and try to do the best that you possibly can for yourself. At the same time, you are part of a team. The girls which you practice with every day, the girls that wear the same leotard as you at a competition, they are all a part of your team. Gymnastics teaches you that even if someone on your team does better than you, or you do better than them, you are always going to cheer them on. Even if you are competing individually, you are still there to cheer on your teammates.

6.Toughness:

Gymnastics teaches you how to be tough both physically and mentally. You will be put through a great deal of physical pain, but you cannot let it stop you. There will be days that you wake up and can’t move from the conditioning you did the day before, and there will be days you do not want to go to practice. As I was always told, if you’re not sore from conditioning, you’re doing it wrong. It’s not that the coaches want to hurt you, they just want you to be the best you can possibly be. You also learn mental toughness. Chances are you’re not going to get a new skill the first time you try it, and you’re going to fall a few times, but you have to have to strength to get back up and try it again.

For me, gymnastics was an emotional rollercoaster, but without gymnastics I would not be the person I am today. I would not have the same goals and drive which is now getting me through college and helping me pursue my career goals. Without gymnastics, my whole life would be in a different place right now. So, thank you, Gymnastics, for making me into what I am today.