Nov. 3, 2005
The week before Halloween can be a hectic one with exams, practice, and trying to fit in a few haunted houses, costume parties and scary movies. However we managed to stay focused in the gym and have a great week! New skills are being put on the hard floor and high beams and we couldn't look better doing them. Everyday in practice, at least half of our team comments on how great we look and how we are even more prepared than last year at this same time.
As for me, I am getting a little nervous, as competition season is around the corner and I am still trying to get all of my skills back after surgery. I had surgery in the middle of September to remove some bone spurs that had been inhibiting me from vault and floor this past summer. I'm just now starting to tumble on hard floor and my ankle is feeling great! (It's about time since I have had three surgeries on the same ankle! lol) I also started twisting yurchenko layout fulls on vault and it is coming back to me a lot faster than I expected. On the plus side of having surgery, I have been getting a lot better at bars and beam, which I have always struggled on a little bit more than vault and floor. My beam is becoming more consistent, which is good for me and the team when we do "Team Beam". In "Team Beam", there are about 6 people on beam and we all have to hit our flight series in a row. Sometimes Kira, our beam and dance coach will have us go around twice without people falling and sometimes we will have to hit 10 in a row. Even though some of us get frustrated when someone falls and we have to start our assignment over again, we all come together, regroup and encourage each other to finish strong. "Team Beam" is a great team building activity that builds trust and confidence for everyone.
Another team building activity that we did this year was pumpkin carving! We all went over to Paul's house for this holiday activity to get messy and have some fun. Everyone carved silly faces or saying on their pumpkins that were really goofy. But Lindsey and Kelley's pumpkins were the best. They went all out and brought their own carving tools and carved detailed cat faces. All this fun was topped off with some delicious treats that Tracy, Paul's wife had made for us. Well that's the week, now it's time to study and get ready for the great next week to come!
GO TIGERS!!