Midget's 1st Real Meet of the Season

Saturday was Midget's first real gymnastics meet of the season. She competes in the United Alliance Gymnastics League (UAGL) which is a fun centered non-sanctioned meet that serves as a great intro to competitive gymnastics. She did really well last year as a level 2 and this year she has moved up to level 3.

When we got to the meet, which is in Paducah, KY and about 2.5 hours away, we learned that she would compete as a 7 year old. This is because she will turn 7 prior to the final qualifier in January. This revelation brought on a small case of nerves for both myself and my wife, and we debated on whether or not we should set the stage for a potential loss due to the other girls being older. We decided not to based on the simple fact that if she did well we would never hear the end of it.

She started on beam and I was a nervous wreck! Beam has the potential to be great but just by the nature of the event it is so easy to fall. Add to that she had earlier admitted that she was nervous about beam because she was afraid to fall and get hurt. This is new for her but it comes from a fall she had a few weeks back on bars where she hurt her arm. She now realizes that getting hurt can happen. But the kid is a trooper. She got up there and she rocked out a 9.05! Best score she has ever gotten on beam, and honestly I think she got scored low, but WOW!!!

Next up was floor, probably her best event. She did absolutely beautiful. A few really minor bobbles but she got a 9.2! 2 9s! Another first for her as she has never gotten 2 9s in a meet before.

On to vault. Vault is funny for her. She has this odd run where she sometimes turns her right foot in and it gives her this weird frog run thing. Her warm-up runs were really awful though no frog run. Instead she did this odd really short steps for the first half and then these long gazelle like bounds for the second half. But it all cleared up for her first vault and she nailed it and got a 9.2!! Oh wow! 3 9s!!

One thing about these meets. There is a Red and a Blue division. Red is for the newer girls, with Blue for the more experienced. If you get a 34 AA you get moved up to Blue in THAT meet. Midget was obviously really close. She just needed a 6.55 on Bars and she was being moved up, and honestly that scared me cause those girls were all much older and were 2nd year L3s.

On bars is where it got just plain odd. First off Midget is really nervous about her dismount ever since she wiped out and got hurt. So she tends to come off the bar too early now. Which makes her wipe out again. Which is what happened during warm-ups. But then she got it again and all seemed good. Her mount was great, but her Mill Circle is still a work in progress. And then she fell on the dismount. Pretty much face planted. But overall not bad, and then the score flashed. 6.4?

Turns out it was a small coaching adjustment. Her leg cuts, and those of her team mates, need to be one motion without resting their legs on the bar. Big deductions for both the cut in and the cut out. Easily fixed according to the coach though. But she missed moving up to the Blue division by .15. She was upset, but I was pretty happy with it as those girls all seemed a bit older and I think several of them were repeating the level.

Apparently everybody struggled on bars though because even with the 6.4 on bars she swept Gold.

Good thing we had not said anything or she would be driving us nuts with "I told you so's."

She is bound and determined to get to Blue next meet though. Should be interesting.