I remember a couple of years ago when I was in level seven and trying to get to level eight. In gymnastics, I have to achieve a certain all-around score, all four events scores added together. I also have to be able to complete my skills for the next level before a certain date that my coach chooses. I was working hard, but I could not quite do the skills I needed. I was specifically struggling with bars and beam. I just needed some more time to get my tumbling series on beam and my flight skill on bars. I tried many drills and repetitions but I just seemed to let myself down. Little did I know this process would come in quite handy one day.

At my last level eight meet, I needed a 34.0 all-around score to qualify to level nine. So far this season I have only had one meet where I didn’t fall on anything. I knew that I needed to be at my best today in order to qualify. I had already done vault, bars, and beam. All three events went well. All I had left was floor.

My coach told me, “All you have to do is your normal floor routine.”

I stood at the edge of the floor waiting for the judge to raise their hand. Finally, after what felt like forever, the judge was ready and I saluted. I walked onto the floor and stood in my starting pose. The music started, and I went along with it. I tumbled, danced, tumbled, and danced. Eventually I got to my last of three tumbling passes. If I made this pass, I would most likely qualify. If I fell, there would be no level 9 next season. I threw the tumbling pass, a front handspring-front layout. I made it, a huge smile on my face appeared. I saluted the judge, signaling my routine was over. I got off of the floor awaiting my score. When it flashed, I was nervous. The score was an 8.9. Usually I receive around a 9.1.

I looked at my coach, and she asked, “Do you feel as if that was enough?”

I nodded.

“Even if you didn’t qualify?” she asked.

I didn’t know how to respond. I knew that I really wanted to have qualified, but I also knew that I would have to get over it if I didn’t. I eventually nodded. She gave me my paper with the rest of my scores, and we added them up. The score ended up being a 34.125. I qualified, just barely though. I was ecstatic, even though I knew I could do much better because I had gotten higher all-around scores in the previous years. I know many girls, and even myself at times, would be almost ashamed to have gotten that score.

After that meet, we went back to the gym and started to work on new skills. Even though the score to qualify wasn’t very high of a score, the skills I needed were quite difficult. It was a huge jump from level eight to level nine. The skills I specifically worked on were for level nine. I had new skills to learn on all four events. On vault I had to learn a yurchenko. This is where you round-off so your feet hit the board, and then back handspring onto the table, your hands hit the table. Then, you do a back flip in the air before your feet hit the ground. On bars I had to learn bails/overshoots. In this skill, you swing from the high bar down to the low bar. The goal is to catch the low bar in a handstand position. On beam I had to learn a back handspring-layout step out, a switch leap-back tuck, and a back half dismount. The back handspring-layout step out is a series, two elements connected together. It is a back handspring then a laid out back flip with a step out. Next, a switch leap, a dance skill, is connected with a normal back flip. Finally the dismount is just a back flip with a half turn before the landing. You do this off of the end of the beam. On floor I had to learn a one-and-a-half twist. This is a round-off-back handspring-laid out back flip and twisting one-and-a-half times before the landing. I practiced these new skills every day in the gym, over and over again.

Further into the summer, about mid-July, we started to put together new routines. We don’t compete until January, but routines take a while to create and perfect. Vault was easy because it was just one skill. My bars routine was somewhat easy, I just had to create a continuous routine and be able to complete the hard skills during the routine. Beam was fun to choreograph. I have always liked to create new beam routines. I put the tumbling skills at the beginning to get them over with. Then I do the leaps, jumps, and turns. Obviously, the dismount comes last. Floor routines on the other hand, are so much more difficult. This is because you have to match your choreography to the music and it is a minute and half long. The music I had chosen was one I had used before called “Kryptonite”. It is an older classic rock music selection. My coach helped me choreograph it with my level nine skills in it.

Now that I had my new routines, all I had to do was get the new level nine skills before the deadline in the middle of August. This deadline is to make sure that we have time afterwards to make the skills perfect and consistent before competition season. The day was coming closer and closer. It was like I was back in level seven trying to get to level eight. My coach and I talked about it all, why I wanted to go so badly, if I thought I was ready, more goals for the year after, etc. I finally felt as if it was okay if I didn’t make it to level nine after all. The deadline came around, and I knew I wasn’t ready. However, I was ready for an awesome year of level eight.

After all the hard work I had put into making those level nine routines, I had to change them back to level eight routines. It was frustrating. Luckily, routines could stay the same length and I could keep most of the choreography, just not all the same skills. I was beyond frustrated with this, having dealt with this in the years prior in level seven. Vault and bars were simple because I kept the same routines as the year before. For beam I kept the same choreography, but changed the skills. I got frustrated when I didn’t end in the correct spot for my dismount. I had to tweak it a little bit. Floor was really frustrating because changing the tumbling passes change the direction of my routine and it messes up the other tumbling passes. I ended up keeping the first tumbling pass the same as I had it in order to save me the frustration of changing it. Fortunately, it all worked out, and now I have four routines that I can complete.

After changing the routines, I had to work on all of my level eight skills again to get them where they needed to be. I could still do most of them, but beam was tough because I had been working different tumbling series and skills, so to go back to easier ones was a little frightening and stressful. I could do the skills by themselves with no issues. The connecting of the skills is what held me back slightly. Fortunately, with the help of my coaches and encouragement from my teammates, I was able to overcome those fears and get back the minimum level eight skills.

Even though I have the skills that I need in order to compete, I want to get some higher level eight skills. This can both help you and hurt you in competition. The judges can see that you are working towards the next level and that you are a gymnast that can qualify to both the state and regional competitions just by what skills you compete and how well you do them. If you don’t them cleanly though, it will hurt your score. I am currently working some of these skills right now. Every day at practice, I start with some of the skills that I have. Then I move onto the skills I still need work on or the skills that I want to achieve. Right now it’s all about getting myself to go for these skills and making them consistent.

  I know that I didn’t achieve my goal of going to level nine. I am a little bummed, but I know that I am capable of having an awesome level eight season. I know this because I have worked hard and because it happened to me in level seven. In level seven when I was trying to go to level eight, I struggled. I struggled because I was afraid to do the skills I needed to do. In the end, I had had an amazing season and it ended with a gold medal on beam at the state meet. As long as I believe in myself and continue to work hard, I can achieve much greater things this year. I would really like to qualify to regionals and place in the top three at the state meet this year in level eight.