Gymnastics. ? ! Yes, we were all a little perplexed by just how we would complete these events. M took it upon herself to search until she found a local gym that was willing to hold classes for adults. Apparently they used to have open hours for adults to come use equipment, but haven't in some time. So we filled out our waivers and undertook an 8 week adventure into these events.
We started out in October, arriving at
Sokol Gymnastics to meet the owner as well as our coach for the next couple of months. They had taken the time to actually put together routines for us to do for all the events, so each week, we would practice two events, then have a grand finale night where we'd each complete each routine. The routines were comparable to what they would teach non-competitive Level 1 gymnasts (5-6 year olds!).
Week 1 started off with different mats on the floor to teach us basic tumbling - somersaults, cartwheels, back rolls and handstands. These were all easy as kids, but we found our now more aged bodies fought some of these simple moves! I will say that the springs under the floor made things sooooo much easier.
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| Working on the beginning of our floor routine - simple somersaults |
Okay, so we were getting the hang of tumbling, but how on earth would we actually be able to do a vault? Or bars? Our coach did a great job helping us slowly build up to actually do something of value on these apparatus. The first day we went to the uneven bars, he helped us all do a backward roll from standing up onto the lower bar. Just doing that was amazing enough to me!
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| L1 starting her uneven bar routine |
Next we tried out the balance beam. Luckily, we started on beams that were almost on the ground. Balance wasn't easy for all of us, and the concept of jumping and landing back on the 4" wide beam was a bit terrifying. Some, like M, really got the hang of it. Others, like me, figured getting just enough height to see light under the feet was good enough.
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| K running through the beam routine |
Level 1 gymnasts do not actually use a vault for safety reasons - only a springboard and a large landing pad. Still, it was hard to imagine doing what we ended up doing dozens of times. Run as fast as possible down the runway, hit the board square, place hands down on edge of mat, then spring arms straight to land flat on our backs. We started in the piked position, then our coach explained how we should be able to kick our legs out to a fully open position. Try as we might, no one got there. In the infinitesimal amount of time we were in the air, we just couldn't get that signal to our legs to KICK! It still looked good doing it - and was so much fun.
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| L2 on the vault |
Our second to last week, we worked with the owner of the gym to learn Rhythmic Gymnastics. She had competed when she was young, for an Eastern European country. Some of us were familiar with the implements - ribbon, ball, hoop, rope and club - but had never seen competition. We learned that, for the most part, the moves are the same regardless of the implement, so our coach gave us the basic moves, then let us practice with each implement and pick our favorite. We then put together our own routine made up of the minimum required leaps, balances, pirouettes and movements of the implement.
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| M balancing during her ribbon routine |
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| R throwing the ball and leaping during her routine |
It was a long 8 weeks, but rewarding to actually complete each event, at least in my eyes, to a much higher degree than anticipated going in. The final week, Sokol had a mini medal ceremony for us, complete with a REAL torch from a past Olympics to carry, our own medals and a make-shift podium. All the little girls who had enjoyed the entertainment of watching us over the weeks cheered and we wrapped up this part of our adventure.
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| K holding the torch after receiving her medal |
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| Gymnastics complete! |
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