Gymnastics at its Finest

Chapter 6

We walk into the enormous gym. It's huge. There are at least 10 beams, and like 5 sets of uneven bars. There are 2 big floors, and like 4 tumbling strips. There is one gigantic cheese pit with a pit bar and a vault going into it. There are 3 vault tables. This gym is incredible. I can see why they're so good. 

I see a man who looks like the head coach working in the office. I kinda look over at him and give my mom a look. 

My mom goes over to talk to the front desk lady, while Liv and I continue to admire the amazing gym. It's seriously so big. There is so much more than what I described, and all of the girls look determined and consistent. The coaches here must be really good. 

I see one group on bars and one group on beam. The bars group appears to be doing routines, and the beam group looks to be doing dismounts. The levels look as though they range from about 7-Elite. I overhear my mom talking to the front desk lady, and I hear her say something about a "daytime program." That sounds like what I did. The lady says that girls in that program do homeschooling, and train 7 hours a day. That's one more hour than we were doing at our old gym, but I think we can adjust. 

The lady goes into the office and begins talking to the guy who I assumed was the head coach. The head coach comes out and shakes my hand, then shakes Olivia's. We introduce ourselves, and tell him the levels we were in before. He then brings us out onto the floor to do an "evaluation."

He lets us warm up, then brings us to vault. He asks us what the most difficult vault we could do was. 

"Well I worked my yurchenko one and a half at practice, but I only got to compete a full." I say. 

"And you?" he says to Olivia. 

"Oh, same for me... Sir?" says Liv. 

"You don't have to call me sir," he says with a laugh. "You can just call me Cliff."

Okay. This guy was shaping up to be a pretty good guy. 

"So, let's see your yurchenko. Do you need to warm up with a timer?"

"Yes please." Liv and I say in unison. Then we look at each other and laugh. 

We both do our timers pretty quickly. I then do a yurchenko full easily. I've been working that one for quite a while, plus my adrenaline was pumping being in a new gym. 

Liv does a yurchenko full, but stumbles a bit on the landing. Cliff gives her a few corrections as I walk to the end of the runway. This time, I was going to throw the one and a half. 

I look at the numbers on the floor, and make sure to start at my number, 71.5. I stand on my toes, lean, and sprint. I sprint as hard as I possibly could, hurdle really long, and push off my arms in the round off. I land with my legs perfectly tight so I get lots of bounce, and go for the handspring. I then set super high into the air, twist a full, and then one more half, and land it perfectly. Stuck like a knife into the ground. 

"Wow." Cliff says. "That was amazing. Have you ever thrown a double?"

"No." I say. "My vault and floor coach, Dave, never really believed in me."

"Well I do. Throw a double next time. I understand it might be scary, but I truly think you can do it."

"Ok." I say. "I'll try it."

While Olivia does another yurchenko full, (flawlessly, I might add) I walk to the end of the runway, talking to myself as I go. 

I stand at the end of the runway. I begin sprinting, as hard as I can, and do an amazing round off backhandspring. I set as high as I ever have, and twist quickly and aggressively. I find the floor, and land, facing the table. I take one step forward, but other than that, it felt pretty good. 

Cliff claps, and says, "Wow. Incredible. You've really never tried that before?" I shake my head. "Well, that was amazing. Great job. You just need to work on the landing a little bit, but I completely understand with it being your very first time. Just keep your chest up as you land. You can get your grips on and get ready for bars." he gives me a quick hug and then goes back to watching Liv.

If this guy could get me a yurchenko double full in like, 15 minutes, what could he get me if I trained here everyday? This was definitely the right decision.