Josie's Big Day.

A very long time ago, Josie did her first ever gym competition. She was terribly nervous and although she did fine, forgetting her floor routine mid dance had a big impact on her and she said she would never do another one. Move on a year or move and I was a bit surprised to find she was incredibly excited about doing another one – in fact I was far more nervous than she was. I didn’t want to go back there and face people when I had left in a flurry of crossness at all! Turns out that her coolness was right on the mark – and my anxiety was way off the mark. I had some friendly chats with several coaches that have looked after the girls in the past and I hope we’ve all put that to bed now.

Anyway.

The day started early; their new club Footworks, newest gymnastics club in Peterborough, decided on a club hairdo, which meant we all arrived early to meet together and “do hair”. My skills are not required for this (I have NO hair skills) but it was a lovely way for all the mums to bunch together and get some atmosphere going. I love the club feeling we get there, they have it just right. It really struck me how much support the girls had when I saw the number of girls and parents turning up to cheer them on who weren’t even competing. My others were at rugby, which was a shame, but there was plenty of cheerleaders.

What a look. 🙂 It’s a really nice club leotard too and they looked a real team. My only complaint is half the time I was squinting across trying to see which one was actually Josie (answer, the really short one!)

She was as cool as a cucumber the whole way round – I was a little awed by the composure she showed – and they all did really well.

Here is a little shot of Josie on beam.

And on floor.

And here she is collecting joint silver for beam, which was well deserved 🙂

She also got bronze on bars – major result!

Here she is on beam – 30 second video.

She’s right in the centre, bit small but you can see her.

And here she is on floor.

Couple of little errors but my word she can build on that. She’s so poised – and as one of her old coaches said afterwards – she has LEGS!

And 10 seconds of bars, right in the back corner.

She was so happy she did gym all afternoon – this is her holding her body weight on my bedknob!

I don’t think she slept in them, but the medals were certainly on very early the next day.

Congratulations Footworks; we are really proud to be part of you! Loads of medals and (more importantly really) happy girls, happy parents and a great atmosphere.