State and Regional

I am a bit behind on blogging for my competitions. Recently I had state. In my parents and my coaches eyes I did great. After a mere 5 months of being on the events, I was able to take second. I did not think I did so well. I could have done much better on parallel bars especially. All in all though I was pleased with this meet. Regional competition is coming soon. I am very excited about it. Regional competition will take place in Montana.

Second Competition

I had my second competition this weekend. We only did trampoline and double mini there was no tumbling. It was quite a small competition so every competed against each other (boys and girls). Usually it's boys against boys and girls against girls. But this time it was boys and girls all competing together. But still I got first place on double mini and on trampoline. I also got my state qualifying score trampoline so I don't have to worry about that. I did much better on trampoline this time. My score improved 31 tenths. That's a whopping 3 points (and one tenth). The meet was small and still crazy. One kid actually kicked the wall in the middle of his back flip!!! Luckliy he managed to land on his back out of it though and he didn't face plant. Anyways I did well and am hoping to improve much more before my next meet. Which happens to be next weekend!!!

-Red

Useful tips

Getting ready for a meet is sometimes more stressful on me than it is the boys. There are several tips that I have learned over the years that help.

1. For the boys uniforms, I keep their uniform (pants, leo, shorts, socks) together in a mesh bag and hang it on the hanger along with their warm-up. This keeps their uniform together so that we are not hunting for it and keeps it chalk free. We put this in the car the night before.

2. Because a meet takes so long, we have learned to take snacks. Our favorite is to make our own trail mix (raw walnuts, cashews, pecans, dark chocolate chips, and dried cranberries). It is just sweet enough and is packed full of protein. We also like sesame sticks or pretzels, granola bars, and frozen grapes in a small cup with lid. I also put a couple of wet ones in a Ziploc baggie. I put all of the small Ziplocs/containers in a gallon size baggie. It keeps all of the food together in one place and keeps it from being squished into the grips or gym bag. We also send them a liter water bottle.

3. If your child gets nervous or bored waiting, pack them their favorite thing to do. For Damian, he always has a book in his gym bag. Dakotah likes to bring a deck of cards. Some other items to consider are an ipod or video game system.

4. Damian has a latex allergy. He has a full non-latex medical kit in his gym bag along with his saline solution, an extra contact case, and his glasses in there.

These are just a few things that we do. How do you get ready for a meet?

Meets

Meets can be very long. They usually last any where from 3-4 hours. It is just to hard on the littlest family members to make it to every meet, so either Tom or I stay home with the little ones while the other of us is with the boys. We do take the little ones for state, regionals, and nationals. This time Tom was the lucky one. It was the first time that he had seen Damian as a level 7 and the first time that he had seen Red on trampoline. He would call and kept saying how impressed he was with their growth. It always amazes me too. Here is Red doing his Double Mini routine and his trampoline routine. Enjoy!

First Meet

Whats up, whats down, whats flippin around.??? I am!!! I had my first competition last weekend. I got a First on double mini. That's right gold medal Baby!!! I got second on tumbling and I got third on trampoline. But at least I didn't terminate (to terminate means that i missed a skill or fell. The judges stop scoring as soon as I terminate). I had fun and did well, and know I have scores to beat. My next meet is this weekend and I am very excited.

-Red

Small Perfect Meet(that was not so perfect)

I would have blogged about my last meet sooner but I have just been soooo busy with my homework. Since I am carrying all honors classes I have a lot of work to do for school. But enough about school. The last meet I went to was a very small meet with much older equipment than I am used to. I was the only level 7. I also fell about a dozen times on their pommel horse. This aside it was a perfect meet for me because it was low pressure and I was able to get used to doing a flyaway on equipment I was not used to. One of the weirdest things about the meet was that they had the high bar under the rings and only two judges. Though these were weird the were also pretty cool and I had a lot of fun. That same weekend my brother had a TnT(tumble and trampoline) competition so I was able to watch him after my meet.

It's getting busy now

Wouldn't you know it, both boys have a meet this weekend at different gyms. Damian's begins at 11:30 and Red's begins at 2. At least it is in the same town. Damian has been working very hard to clean up his routines. I am really looking forward to seeing his improvements.
Red will have his first Tumble and Trampoline (TNT) meet. I am extremely excited to see him compete because I haven't even seen him practice since he switched from men's artistic to TNT.