Finding Balance

Chapter 26: The Interview

"Good morning Em," my coach said as she was finishing writing my conditioning schedule on the board.

"Good morning coach," I replied while heading into the locker room.

I quickly threw my unnecessary items into my locker, and stood still while looking into one of the many mirrors that hung from the walls.

I placed my hand on my stomach and breathed in and out. Everything was going to be okay. I was just freaking out over a simple interview, I was blowing this out of proportion.

I walked out of the locker room, and was immediately stopped by a tall woman with blond hair.

"Good morning, Emily !" The woman cheered.

"My name is Kayla Folknore, and I'll be interviewing you today," she reached out her hand . I smiled and shook it.

"Nice to meet you, " I replied.
I then met Steven Young who would be in charge of the cameras.

I followed Kayla into one of the small rooms that branched off of the gym.

There was a large black chair covered in chalk in the center of the room. I've been living here for a couple of months and I have never been in this room.

She helped me with attaching a small microphone to my leotard and sat in a chair across from me.

My heart was racing and I could feel it almost explode out of my chest.

"Are you ready ?" she asked.
I nodded my head and he gave the thumbs up to Steven.

She started off with some simple questions about the apparatuses and how training was going. We also discussed some of the new skills I was currently training and some of my dream skills. I kept waiting for the why did you move to Russia question, but it never came
I could feel my nerves slowly calm down as we continued to talk.

"So you are currently coming off of your first big competition here in Russia, Chornoso, what was it like ?" she asked.

"I had so many nerves going into that meet, and I think it really showed. I started on uneven bars which isn't my strongest event. I remember standing in front of that bar shaking. I had never been so nervous before in my life, and then I got nervous about people noticing that I was nervous. I remember praying that they wouldn't have a closeup on my hands or something because they were trembling," I replied while laughing.

"How did you overcome your nerves ?" she quickly asked.

I chuckled to myself and replied, "this is going to sound silly, but I calmed myself down by convincing myself that no one would be watching the routine. There were other gymnasts competing at the same time, so I just figured the camera wasn't live. I then ended up having one of the best routine I've competed in a long time."

"Usually when a gymnast nails their routine for their roughest apparatus, they gain confidence and perform extremely well in the next apparatus," she added.

"Which I did not. The second I walked off of the floor my coach came to me and told me to control my energy. To be honest I really wanted to make it into the floor finals. Floor is one of my favorite event to perform because you can really express yourself. I was immediately disappointed in myself the second I finished my routine because I knew I could do better. I knew after the second time that I stepped out of bounds that there was no way I would be in the finals," I sadly replied. I closed my eyes, and I was imagining the scoreboard that listed who made it into the finals. The scoreboard that didn't have my name on it.

"Now I have to say that your form for your vaulting is some of the best I have seen in a long time, and with Russia not really having any strong consistent vaulters I feel like that is a place where you WILL make a name for yourself," she sweetly mentioned in order to cheer me up.

"Thank you ! I just wish I performed that vault the way I train it. After floor I really wanted to stick the vault and attempt to make up the points because I had fallen behind in the all around. Sadly, the exact opposite happened and I ended off the mat. I probably shouldn't say this, but I honestly wanted to cry then and there. I had worked so hard on getting that vault to look perfect. I spent hours ,upon hours, upon hours in the gym in order to get that vault perfect, and it just didn't happen," I replied. This interview was getting very depressing very fast.

"I remember watching you during beam warmups, and wanting to go out and give you a hug. You fell on almost every single skill during warmups, how did you manage to stay on the beam when you had to compete," she asked.

"My coach...I couldn't have done it without her. After the warm ups she pulled me to the side and gave me a mini pep talk like one from a movie. She basically said something along the lines of that I cannot let a single mistake or fall define how my meet was going to be. I remember being disappointed in myself after my beam routine because I did miss a lot of connections, but my coach was proud of me," I replied. I couldn't help, but smile when I thought about that beam routine. Of course it was not a good routine, but I survived it. I stayed on the beam.

"Can you tell me what it was like competing in the bars final?"

"Amazing ! Of course I was disappointed I didn't get a medal, but 4th is still pretty good. My coach and I are really trying to take advantage of technology and use it to our advantage. For example, we have been doing a lot of slow motion recordings to see where my form breaks. We then go back to the basics in attempt to fix it. It is never easy going back to the basics, but if I want to be in contention for the top spot I really have to focus and improve on my execution score," I cheered.

"Now, Russian Championships are right around the corner, when you and your coach focusing on ?"

"Defiantly execution ! I really want to bring that score up, so my coach and I are working on a lot of drills and flexibility exercises. The only problem is that improving your execution score doesn't happen over night. We are also working on trying to calm my nerves, so we do a lot of breathing exercises," I replied.

"What is your goal going into Russian Championships ?"

I paused for a second before I said anything. Of course I wanted to be the all around champion, but was that even possible ? I had messed up 3/4 of my routines and I didn't even make the all around finals.
"My goal going into Russian Championships is to not let any mistake carry over to the next apparatus. I know I won't be perfect. I have to accept what happened and move on, which is far much easier said then done," I answered.

We then finished the first half of the interview, and headed to the gym to start recording some of my training.

----------

More coming soon, thank you for reading !!
-Bailey