My Experience

My journey through gymnastics started when I was thirteen years old, and lasted till I was almost fifteen years old. I was intrigued by gymnast when I would watch them on tv and think to myself how awesome it would be to get to do such a sport. It took a little convincing but my mom finally agreed and enrolled me in a gymnastics center, where i met lovely coaches and gymnasts. When I started I was already fairly good at gymnastics because I had been doing it at home for a while. After a few months I was upgraded to a higher level and started to learn things like back handsprings and back hip circles on the bars. This took a lot of training to be able to do, and I had to work hard to reach that spot. It took dedication, which included constant practice at home. After my first week or so, my little sister was also intrigued by gymnastics and also joined.

This gave me an opportunity to practice at home with another person and get to teach her the things I had learned in my higher level class. Gymnastics has ran in my family for a little while, my mom was a gymnast her whole teenage life and so was my grandma when she was young. Me and my sister carried that role on, until about a year and a half ago I quit. I loved the sport but I no longer had time between homework and a personal life. Although I did not participate in a gymnast center anymore I did continuing doing it around the house and would teach my friends new things every one in awhile. During the summer I think I will start back up again, because during summer I don’t have school and homework to worry about and I have more free time. Taking up gymnastics again would be a awesome thing for me, it keeps you in great shape.

@NBCOlympics. "Gymnastics." NBC Olympics. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2016.

Four Components

Gymnastics has some of the most amazing stunts you will ever see, ones that take practice, a good coach, and a good spot to perform. There are four different components to stunts and where they take place. The first is beam, a balance beam is long and narrow, usually made of wood or metal. Gymnasts use balance beams to perform on, it's a fabulous way to show a gymnasts talent when it comes to balance and agility. The second component is bars, this is a long bar that is held up on metals post. The bars take a gymnast with a lot of upper body strength and core strength. The bars require to be able to hold oneself up on the bars also while performing cool stunts such as back hip circles.

Floor is another section of gymnastics that is very common, it is a surface with springs underneath for extra bouncy support, making it easier for a gymnast to perform stunts on. Floor is used to do tumbling, that is why the floors are made to be soft and bouncy to make it one, safe for someone to land on and two, easier for someone to get higher during their stunt. Floor is known as a surface for "exercise” and also needs a gymnast with lots of strength throughout their whole body. The final section to gymnastics is vault, gymnast vault over a piece called, the table. The table is a metal piece, that kind of looks like a table and has a padded and springy cover. This is used to approach from a far away distance and the table is the target, as a gymnast reaches the table, they will do some sort of stunt on it, something like a twist or a flip. The vault is a very intense part of gymnastics and includes massive upper body strength, balance, a strong core, and leg strength.