Princess !Kaboom strikes again.

[saffronhare]

Recap of the weekend's gymnastics meet, with link to photos.

This weekend, PK had her third gymnastics meet. She's really getting the hang of it now, and hardly seems nervous at all. Once again, she was the smallest and youngest there (the only five-year-old). I swear, if she weren't so very calm and cool, I'd really wonder if she should be competing. She did pretty well. This time, they gave out medals for places in each event as well as all-around. First in vault; second on bars and floor; fourth on beam; and fourth overall. Medals for firsth through third places...ribbons for fourth and beyond.

As the season goes on, she's beginning to take some calculated risks. For instance, on the bars, she did not want the coach helping her on her stride circle. It's a skill she hasn't quite managed on her own, but she was certain she could do it. I know this because she was filled with chatter about it on the way to the meet, and I said it was between her and her coaches. See, it's a neutral deduction if the coach touches or otherwise assists the gymnast. (Neutral, meaning the coach either touches the kid or doesn't touch the kid. It's not a matter of subjectivity.) She wanted to try it without the coach touching her. She tried it, and ended up nearly falling off the bar, but the coach had stayed close enough to catch her and help her scramble back up. Then, she went on to do her dismount without coach assistance -- that was a first too.

Then, on balance beam, she asked the coach not to talk her through the routine. (She doesn't have it quite memorized, but again: coach assistance equals deduction.) As it happens, she got through the routine okay except for the handstand -- for which she asked the coach to spot her, thank heavens -- and for the one element she forgot completely. That cost her a lot. Oh, well. I could see the coach explain this to her once she'd managed her dismount unassisted, and see Fiona nod in a satisfied, business-like manner, give the coach a high-five, and trot back to her seat. I also heard a little joke about balance beam routines.

Do you know why balance beam routines have a time limit of 60 seconds?
Because that's about how long parents can hold their breath.

Overall, a good meet, I think. She's learning a lot about competition, and I'm really pleased with how the coaches deal with them wanting to take risks and helping them to understand how to do better, etc. She's also getting the hang of letting the real competition be against her own previous best, rather than any single girl there. There are three meets in February (eep!) and then the competitive season is over for her level. Whew.

This link will take you to the Family Fun gallery. The meet pics are the only pictures there for now. Sorry they're so awful. I'm not so great at photography anyway, but they also forbid flash photography at the meets and I forgot to turn it back on for the awards ceremony. Oh, well. At least it didn't take four months to upload the darn things.

http://pics.livejournal.com/saffronhare/gallery/0000athx

Comments

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

I performed a bit of pixel-fu on the dark images, and managed to resurrect a bit of detail. I'm uploading the new ones here so you can download them at your leisure.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Yay! Props for the auntie-fu! Will replace those pretty darn soon. :)

[hekatatia.livejournal.com]

She looks so cute and perky in the photos. I loved gymnastics - wish I could have done it at that age!