The End

I am sad to report that Boo has decided to quit gymnastics. The stress and frustration have gotten to be too intense for her to bear and she tells me that her body hurts all the time. As you know, she has suffered several injuries already during her time in this sport and she has far too many aches and pains for one so young. Her six years in the sport has been a wild ride to be sure but now she is ready to move on. Thank you all for your support over the years. We have enjoyed sharing her journey with you and we wish you and yours the very best.

Beam Routine and Level Determination

Boo had a private lesson with her beam coach today to learn her new routine. It is so cute! She is doing a straddle mount, split leap-split jump, and a tuck jump-sissone. Her series is a back walkover- back handspring. Her favorite part is a squat pivot turn.

That said, her coaches have decided to keep her at level 7 for this season. She needs more time to get her Yurchenko vault and she’s still got some work to do on tumbling on floor. She’s a tiny bit disappointed at not moving up but she’s also happy because she knows she’ll have a chance at a really great season of level 7. She’s excited about that. As her mom, I agree with her. I’m also relieved because the stress she puts on herself to hurry up and get the next skills is heavy. I’m glad she can relax and enjoy herself now and know that she has more time for those bigger skills.

And the training goes on...

There is new training video up now. Boo has come a really long way in such a short time. All of her skills are very much improved. She is now doing a kip cast handstand, free hip handstand, giant, giant, flyaway on the high bar and it looks really good! She is doing her back tucks and layouts on floor up onto a 3’ mat to work on getting more height and she’s starting to work a few front layouts on the trampoline, too. She is doing Yurchenko timers (round off to springboard, back handspring onto table) over the vault table now, but she’s not flipping yet. She has the back handspring series on a medium beam now (no more high beam; still working on that one) and she is doing back handspring to two feet on the high beam. She is also working on a hurdle-cartwheel-back tuck dismount in anticipation of a round off-back tuck.

Summer Training

There has not been too much to report this summer. Boo is finally starting to win the battle of the knee. She is now able to do most of practice on most days without the knee brace and without any ibuprofen, either. She says it still twinges sometimes and some days are better than others but all in all she’s on the mend.

She got her new floor routine last week and she loves it. The music is much faster than she’s had before and there’s a lot more to the routine (it has more dance and is longer) but she’s having lots of fun with it.

She is also going back to basics and really working hard to fix her form and improve her strength and power. She has worked her way back up to doing two back handsprings on the high beam and has even connected her front walkover- back handspring. Bars has been all about cast handstands with straight legs and giants with no arch. She’s doing her giant-giant-flyaway again now and is working on getting the flyaway nice and high. On floor she is working on getting her tumbling higher and hopes to start working on front handspring-front pike soon. Vault is all about the round off to the spring board in preparation for the Yurchenko. We don’t know yet whether she’ll compete level 7 or level 8 next season but she is doing great and is very happy at gym and that’s what matter most.

Again with the knee

Boo’s knee has been bothering her a lot these last couple of weeks. So, today we went back to the doctor. The good news is that the ligaments and tendons all look good. Her knee is “structurally sound,” according to the doctor. But, the kneecap is still not tracking quite straight in the joint, which is what’s causing her pain. So, it’s back to the physical therapy exercise with the goal of strengthening her quad muscles enough that she won’t need to wear the knee braces. We’re happy that it isn’t “injured” and it’s something that can be fixed, or at least controlled. Good news.

Flip Fest and Summer Practice

Boo went to Flip Fest camp in TN and had an awesome time. I am so proud of her because she tried lots of new “camp” things this time, including tubing (which she absolutely loved), the giant rope swing that flies out over the lake, and the “mile high balance beam”- a log suspended way up above the ropes course. For gym time, she was in training group 1, which is the highest level training group at camp. She got to practice with girls in levels 9 and 10! She thinks she was the only level 8 in the group and she was, of course, the youngest, too. But, she loved it and even got a new skill, a cartwheel back tuck dismount on beam. She had so much fun she’s already talking about going again next summer!

Back in the gym, today was the first day of summer practice and Boo had a great time. She really likes her new training group. Her hours are increasing, as is the intensity of the training, but she loved it today. I imagine she’s going to be sore and tired by week’s end but for now she’s very happy and that’s what we love to see.

Quick Update

There’s not really much to report right now. Boo has been working hard on her skills for level 8. She got her full on the floor (yay!) and is working on her pirouette and free hip-giant on bars. She is still having some knee pain so we’ve decided to have her take a couple of weeks off of practice to try to let it heal. She has Flip Fest at the end of this month and hopes to be in good shape for that. Cross your fingers!