Emma's Gymnastics Story

First Time

"Are you ready for your first gymnastics practice?" my dad asked, opening the door for me.

I stepped into the car and said,"I'm excited!"

"You sure look excited!" he said and got into the car, starting it.

He drove the car all the way to California Gymnastics Academy.

"Bye, Dad!" I said, hugging him.

He was filming me in the entrance of the gym, sitting on the chair.The coach looked pretty friendly. She had a dark brown bun with a Nike sports bra and shorts. There was a lot of other girls sitting there, too.

We started by stretching to do splits. Then we did handstands, backbends, rolls, and simple stuff like that. Then, we moved on to the next event, which was the beam. Katie, my coach, told me to do soldier kicks. She explained to me that a soldier kick is when you walk while kicking your leg up high. I practiced doing that and I practiced walking backwards. Then she told me to practice some jumps, like a straight jump. I tried it and stuck it, thankfully.

Our next event was the vault.

Leah said,"My sister does gymnastics and she's level 5. She hates vault! So I'm pretty scared."

And Leah made me feel scared to. But level 1 vault should be crazy easy, right?

"Well level one vault shouldn't be hard. You just run and lay down quickly!" I said knowingly.

Katie announced that we all will get one turn and we'll get a sticker if we pass! I want a sticker so I hope I pass!

When it was my turn, I ran and bounced onto the vault thing and I did a handstand then fell on my back.

"Good job!" Katie clapped and gave me a sticker that read, Well Done!

After that event, we had bars. I was excited because maybe we'd learn how to do a pullover today!

The coach demonstrated and explained what we were supposed to do.

"So I want you to do this," she said. "Hold the bar and push both of your legs as high as you can to the bar."

Everyone got a chance. I pushed my legs both up until they touched the bars.

"Now let's try to do a pullover!" said Katie happily. "Run and jump onto the bars. Then we'll try to do some kind of pullover on the bars!"

When it was my turn, I ran and jumped onto the bar. My coach guided me to pullover. She helped push me to pull over.

"That was fun!" I said enthusiastically.

"Was it?" she said.

After doing some more fun stuff in gymnastics, it was time to go. I was so excited for my next practice, which is next week, because today I had so much fun! I made new friends and I had such a fun time doing cool stuff.

At home, my mom asked how was my first  gymnastics practice.

"Hey Emma!" Mom said. "how was your firsts gymnastics practice? Was it fun?"

I smiled and said,"Mommy, it was so fun! I made new friends and it was just sooo fun! I cant wait til next practice!"

"That's my big girl!" Mom said and hugged me.