It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged gym stuff. There are lots of reasons for this, time being one of them. One day I’ll write more of what I think about it all but now is probably not the time. The girls still get a great deal out of it, though it has less of a hold on Fran and Amelie than it did. Fran is now quite a committed sports person and beginning to be called by athletics in a big way. Amelie is a dancer first and foremost. Josie is probably the one who will do best out of gym if she wants to; she is a good blend of Fran and Amelie. I don’t think the opportunity will come up for her to get pushed the way Amelie got that chance but as doing that pretty much broke Amelie’s gym soul, that’s maybe no bad thing. I regret that so much still. It was the first time Amelie got told she was no good and it really broke her spirit. She’s not up to the lifestyle and mental stamina gym at that level needs. Poor girl.Am so hoping that her new coach will inject some confidence back into her. She’s had a lot of coaches and some have been brilliant for her and some less so. One thing Amelie doesn’t cope well with is not feeling important to her coach (slight character failing) but she seems to be coping well with her new one. I wonder if a male coach makes her react differently; he’s got a very dry humour she likes and is very constructive and unemotional in his help. Maybe that will break the ‘love me, love me!’ cycle she gets stuck in.
Anyway, gym has provided something like 4 competitions since the new year in various combinations. Amelie has done all of them and been from very to mildly successful with one full on blow out of rubbishness (from which she learned to be less cocky). Fran enjoyed some decent recent success and Josie did her first ever competition.
Let the records show the following. (You don’t have to look, I just want them to be there in 30 years!)
Fran on floor (not at her best I think, it was a new routine).
Amelie on floor with a decent flic.
Josie panicked and stopped the first time. As it was her first comp they let her restart and she got through. Her first go was sort of funny. She just stopped and shrugged 🙂
Fran competed long and short upstart for the first time.
Amelie’s tumble routine.
Fran’s tumble routine. First time she competed a tuck back I think. She got it ages ago (and has moved on since) but has been too far behind on beam to do comps at the level she can tumble on.
Fran on beam. She got off the beam and cried after this which was sad as it is probably the best beam routine I have seen her do. SHe was gutted not to stick the walkover as she really thought she might and scared herself. Still. Huge improvement on being too scared to do it.
Amelie on beam. She’s off form a bit on this just now but I was SO happy to see her try the cartwheel. I wish I could go back to the day I should have marched on to the floor and taken her away from being made to do them until she lost all her nerve and spirit. It’s my greatest regret about parenting her so far I think. I was totally wrong not to follow my instincts that day.
The first comp they all passed their grade and Fran got joint first overall (there were only 3 of them!) and the second Amelie got gold on bars (but the video is rubbish, I need to try and sort it out a bit) and Fran got a clutch of them, 3 bronzes and a silver. I have no idea what silver was for… floor? There were 5 in her group so she did well as at least one of the others does a good few more hours than her. So she was fairly and rightly beaten there. He face when she got bronze for beam was a picture. The whole audience laughed 🙂
Gold on Bars
Before medals.
A good bit happier.
Hurrah!
Too much gym in my short life already.
Congrats on the great victory!