I’m sorry that this post is a little late, but I thought I’d end my passion blog with some interesting updates about Gymnastics Club. On Friday, we had our formal at the Atherton Hotel, and for the first time since the beginning of the school year the entire team was gathered together. Because of the variety in everyone’s schedules, it is difficult to have a practice when everyone can attend. The whole event was organized very well, thanks to our executive board, and the entire evening was classy and an overall success. The lobby of the hotel was decorated beautifully for Christmas, which made it the perfect place for taking pictures and socializing with the entire club. Also, the room our formal was in was the perfect size for all of us, and the food was a great Italian selection.

After formal, two of the seniors in our club hosted an after party, and I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people in Gym Club who I never spoke to before. Everyone was dressed to the nines and looked really great, and of course we listened to music, hung out, and talked about other upcoming Gymnastics Club events.

Unfortunately for the guys team, they had gotten permission to have an early Saturday practice the day after formal, so many of them left either formal or the party early so they would be prepared for practice. Soon enough, both the girls and guys teams will be preparing for their next meet, which is being hosted by Ohio State University if I remember correctly. Everyone who competes is so dedicated to their sport, and because gymnastics has been a part of their lives for so long, it has become a huge aspect of their everyday lives. I’m so glad I have the experience to be a part of such a great club, and since I have joined I’ve made so many new friends.

This is a picture of my friends Veronica, Kylie, Greg, Carly, and I from formal 🙂

This past Saturday, Penn State Club Gymnastics attended their first competitive meet of the year. It was housed at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and was referred to as “Flipadelphia,” which I personally thought was amusing. Everyone was so excited as meet day approached, and even though I did not attend I supported my friends by wearing my Club Gymnastics gear here in State College. For a lot of the freshmen who competed, this was their first competition in quite some time; for others, it was just a continuation of their high school gymnastics career. Twenty-four girls competed in total, with two competing all-around, fourteen on floor, ten on bars, fourteen on beam, and seventeen on vault (of course there were girls who competed on more than one event, which is why the numbers might seem weird). I’ve been told that college scoring for gymnastics is slightly different than that in high school; if I understood my friends correctly, normally one’s score is always out of a 10.0, but during this meet your score was dependent upon the difficulty level of the routine being performed. For example, if your beam routine did not have as many difficult skills as are typically expected, your initial starting value would be less than a 10.0. Gymnastics Club broke into two separate teams for the meet, A Team and B Team, and competitors were placed on a given team depending on their skills. Overall, both teams did really well, and I’ve been told that Penn State came in second at the competition! I am so excited for everyone on the team, and I look forward to hearing more about their successes as more competitions take place. The interesting thing about Club Gymnastics is that you can compete on whatever events you want, you aren’t forced to do any event you don’t want to. As the season progresses, I’m actually considering competing on beam next year, just to try something new. I think competing could be an exciting experience, and it would give me a goal to work towards both this year and next. Congratulations to Club Gymnastics, I’m so happy for them all!

Okay, so it turns out I’m not the only one in the family who’s into gymnastics. My cousin Nicole is nine years old, and ever since she could walk she has been doing gymnastics. I’m not super close with that side of the family, but because they all know I like gymnastics too everyone keeps me updated on Nicole’s progress. Unlike myself, Nicole is a competitive gymnast, and from what I’ve heard she’s great at what she does. Recently, my aunt send me these photos of Nicole trying out for Bela Karolyis’ gymnastics camp. Honestly, I don’t know much about this camp, but I’ve been told that it’s very prestigious in the gymnastics world.

Later on I found out that Nicole made the A-Team for this camp, which means that for one week a month, she has to travel to Texas to train her little heart out. Also, there are two teams for this camp, the A and B Teams, and because she made A-Team all of her expenses are paid for. Awesome, right? I know I could never be that dedicated, and I give my little nine-year old a lot of credit for pursuing her dream. I’ve been told that all Nicole talks about is gymnastics, and that her entire life revolves around it.

However, in a way I’m a little concerned for Nicole’s social and academic lives if she continues this path towards Olympic stardom. A lot of competitive gymnasts wind up putting school on the back burner, and do not have the opportunity to experience the social aspects that come with school. My grandma has informed me that apparently Nicole’s school is allowing her to continue enrollment event though she’ll be missing one week a month, which is actually a really good thing. I’ve always been overly concerned with school, so things like missing school have always been a big deal to me, and I just want her to have the best life possible. But hey, if she’s happy, I’m happy.

I’ve been told that many Olympians have sprung out of this camp, so we’ll see where Nicole’s career takes her.

As I was considering what to post this week, I was thinking about different gymnasts and how I could blog about them in an interesting way. However, then I thought, “If my class is interested in these people, they could just Google them, they won’t want to read biographies that they could easily find online themselves.” Then, I decided to search Gabby Douglas, Olympic gold-medalist in the 2012 Olympics. Honestly, I had forgotten her age when I was researching her, but when I saw it in print I, again, was hit with a wave of surprise.

Gabrielle Douglas is only seventeen years old. Seventeen. That means that when she went to the Olympics, she was only sixteen. Can you imagine living out your lifelong dream at the age of sixteen? And she’s not the only one. Most female gymnast hit their peak during their teenage years, so the majority of the gymnasts in the Olympics are under the age of twenty.

The ages of the 2012 Women’s Olympic Team ranged from fifteen to eighteen–can you believe it? When I was fifteen, I was a sophomore in high school, solely concerned with my grades and social life. I could never even dream of going to Beijing for the Olympic Games. Every Olympics I’m still surprised by the young ages of the competitors, not even just in the United States, but throughout the world.

Now the minimum age requirement is sixteen, but if you’re over twenty-one you’re considered old in the gymnastics world. Actually, in the 2012 Olympics, everyone was shocked as a thirty-seven year old gymnast from Uzbekistan competed. Crazy, right? A thirty-seven year old was competing against fifteen and sixteen year old girls for the same gold medal, the same glory that comes with being an Olympic champion.

Do you guys think you could have handled the Olympic pressure at sixteen? I know I definitely couldn’t. How about now, at your current age?

One of my criteria when I was researching and visiting colleges was that it had a club gymnastics team. Not that I ever planned on competing, but having the ability to keep up my skills while (trying to!) stay in shape seemed a good thing to look for in schools. When I went to the involvement fair in the beginning of the year, I immediately bee lined right to the Club Gymnastics table and was able to talk to a few very nice girls who gave me all of the information. Attending my first practice was so intimidating, there were so many people there who had been doing hardcore gymnastics their entire lives. When I say hardcore, I mean they were doing skills I couldn’t even imagine throwing by myself, and just the amount of people in itself was amazing.

During the first few weeks of practice, I was able to meet a lot of freshmen, more than I thought there would be. All of the girls are really nice, and they’re always working hard to perfect their skills for their upcoming competitions. Also, when Shawn Johnson came, a few of us decided to represent the club and went together, which was a fun bonding experience.

Gymnastics Club is also extremely involved in THON, and participates in canning weekends and other fundraisers. I was unable to go the last canning weekend, but I’m so excited to travel to New Jersey this weekend to join in the THON hype! Gymnastics Club also was given a new THON family this year, so we are all excited to work to help Emilia through treatment.

Gymnastics club has given me the opportunity to meet new people, keep up my gymnastics, and become involved in other aspects of Penn State, and I’m so happy I decided to become a part of this great organization.

As I’m sure some of you know, 2008 Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson spoke in the Eisenhower Auditorium last Wednesday night. ( Ironically enough, originally, I was unaware that she was actually planning on coming, but one day about a week beforehand my close friend from the University of Delaware gave me the heads up.) Because Shawn’s my absolute favorite Olympic gymnast, I just had to get tickets, and one day before my math recitation I managed to get two tickets to the event.

I had decided to go to see Shawn with some girls from gymnastics club, and we wound up being the first people in line, being seated in the first two rows. As the auditorium filled up, I noticed that there were many mothers with young daughters, who I’m sure were all gymnasts just as excited as I was. I thought it was adorable that parents traveled all the way to State College just so their daughters could see one of their idols, and it demonstrated their love and devotion to their children.

When Shawn came onstage, everyone cheered wildly, but when she began her talk it became dead silent. She discussed her childhood, issues with bullying and being the outcast, and how she handled all of it, lessons that many people in the audience could easily relate to. Something that also struck me was the fact that no one in her high school knew that she was a gymnast until the Olympics; she had kept the entire essence of herself hidden from her peers.

Another topic that Shawn focused on was the idea of pressure. When she became a part of the Olympic team, she had never lost, and because of that the world expected her to be on top. Given that Shawn was only sixteen years old, she was a champion. She described the feelings of failure and disappointment that followed when she received the silver medal rather than gold, and how she eventually overcame these emotions and began charity work.

Shawn’s speech was extremely inspirational and influential. She demonstrated that even though life can sometimes be difficult to handle, you can overcome those struggles and become a better person because of them. I am so happy that I was able to have the experience of listening to her speak, and she is definitely someone I look up to.

Everyone who has ever watched the Olympics or seen any gymnastics-related pictures has probably noticed that gymnasts don’t wear a T-shirt and shorts or any other similar uniform. They’re allllll about leotards, and for girls they resemble a one-piece bathing suit. However, unlike bathing suits, girls’ gymnastics leos are typically made out of nylon, spandex, velvet, or a combination of the three. Many have rhinestones, foil, or glitter woven in to make them more visually appealling, and who doesn’t like sparkles? For practice, girls’ wear sleeveless leotards like the ones shown here, but for competition it is an entirely different story. Competition leotards are similar in regards to fabric, rhinestones, and all that jazz, but they are long-sleeved, which makes them more formal and appropriate for competitions. If you take a look at the prices for each type of leotard, obviously competition leos are much more expensive but they’re important if you compete.

Of course there are many different brands of leotards, but GK is the most popular, and they are the brand Olympians wear. Also, after their 2012 Olympic debuts, Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman began their own line of leotards with GK. Now, they’re kind of like the fashion designers of the gymnastics world, and have a variety of styles and colors to choose from. After the 2008 Olympics, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin also had leotard collections, but they are no longer sold by GK.

When practicing, male gymnasts have no standard regarding clothing, but when competing they wear a singlet, which is a sleeveless leotard. When competing on vault and floor, men wear short shorts over the singlet, but when they compete on other gymnastics events, they wear pants over it, and these pants overlap their feet to prevent them from falling.

As you can see from our 2012 Olympic Gymnastics Team, leotards are a huge aspect of gymnastics, even though it might seem a bit ridiculous. They are important not only for competitions, but for practices too, and leos become a natural part of any gymnast’s life.

I have done gymnastics since I was three years old, making this my fifteenth year doing this sport. From the age of three until I was eight, I went to Bensalem Gymnastics, about fifteen minutes away from my house, and learned the basics, preparing to be a competition gymnast one day. After school I would go to my grandparents’ house, do some homework and then head to the gym for at least two hours a day, which is a lot of time for a little kid. As a child, I was fearless, as most children are, and would try any skill a coach would instruct me to. However, when I was eight, my parents decided to move me to a different competitive gym for reasons unknown to my little eight-year-old self, which is how I arrived at Bucks Gymnastics Center II.

I only attended Bucks II for about two months, but along the way I made friends with a few girls and got readjusted to new equipment and the dynamics of a new gym. I was still preparing to compete someday, and even participated in a mock competition during my time there. However, the anxiety and stress got the better of eight-year-old me, which is when I finally switched to Joel Baba’s Gymnastics, where I stayed until I was eighteen.

Joel Baba’s was completely different than any gym I had ever been to. For one thing, there was no vault, only one balance beam and only one set of bars. Basically, it was like a competitive gym with less equipment and less students. Oh, and no competitions. My first day I was placed in the 8-13 year old age group, but once I told them I could do backhandsprings across the floor, I was moved up to the Pre-elite/Elite level girls. Throughout the year I met a bunch of new girls, and was able to create my own floor routine to present to my parents at the end of the season, along with beam and bars routines. That year, I established relationships with my coaches that are still going strong, and we still keep in touch despite the distance. Eventually, I wound up coaching at Joel Baba’s myself, and have had many interesting experiences throughout my time there.

Google defines gymnastics as “exercises developing or displaying physical agility and coordination. The modern sport of gymnastics typically involves exercises on uneven bars, balance beam, floor, and vaulting horse (for women), and horizontal and parallel bars, rings, floor, and pommel horse (for men).”

But what does that mean? Most people only consider the sport of gymnastics when the Olympics begin, but throughout the world there are millions of people who participate in this sport at a wide variety of skill levels all year long. In regards to men’s and women’s competition gymnastics, there are ten levels, each with a different set of required skills. Levels one to three are intended to prepare girls for actual competitions in level 4, and as they progress the difficulty of gymnastics skills and dance moves greatly increases.

Mainly, I will be focusing on women’s gymnastics because, as a female gymnast, I can more easily relate to situations pertaining to the women’s sport. As the Google definition states, women’s events include balance beam, floor, uneven bars, and vault. The balance beam is four inches wide, and gymnasts perform routines of dance combined with tumbling skills (like flips!) and ends with a dismount into a mat at the end of the beam. The floor used for gymnastics is forty by forty square feet, with springs or foam underneath to provide a safer, bouncier space. Floor routines are performed to a song, are a minute and a half and consist of tumbling passes, turns, jumps, and dance elements. The uneven bars are two wood/fiberglass bars that are adjusted at different heights, and gymnasts swing between the two bars, as well as over or under, to make up a routine of skills. When vaulting, gymnasts run down an eighty-two foot runway towards a springboard that launches them onto the vaulting platform. After hitting the platform, they perform multiple twists and similar body motions through the air and land on a mat, thus completing their routine.

Gymnasts compete on all of these events, and are scored both for each individual event as well as on their overall performance. During a competition, there is little room for error, but there is always room for improvement. However, there are some gyms that choose not to thrust themselves into the competition world, and focus on the fun aspect of gymnastics. I have gone to a recreational gym like this since I was eight years old, but before them I was preparing to compete. Gymnastics is a unique athletic event that utilizes many different physical techniques, and requires different skills than almost any other traditional sport.