I have been so bad about posting--life just seems to get away from me. This one will be a long one since we have already had three meets this season. Whew--where does the time go???
So our first meet of the season was Judge's Cup. We've never done this competition before, but it is at a gym where we have competed before, so the girls were comfortable with where we were going. For the most part Z has been doing well with practices. She is just having problems with her fly-away dismount on bars. She has worked on it a lot, but wasn't really comfortable.
Our first rotation was vault. Something that Z is normally pretty good at. But she just didn't seem ready and scored an 8.8. She seemed nervous more than anything. Bars was next and I was really nervous. She had told me before the meet that she wasn't sure if she would do bars, but she did. Her coach was on the side to spot her if necessary--and it was. She hit her feet on the high bar during her dismount and the coach caught her. She scored an 8.0, which isn't bad considering the fall. Beam was next and she looked great in warm-up. Unfortunately, she fell on her back walkover, but still scored an 8.55. Floor was next, and as she has in the past, she shined. She scored a 9.150, which gave her an all-around score of 34.500. At Level 5, she only needs a 32.00 to qualify for States, so she definitely qualified. She said that she was nervous about bars and that was why she faltered on vault. Overall, she seemed pretty happy and her coach was happy with her performance.
Two weeks later we had the River City Classic. We did this meet last year, but this year seemed different. We again started on vault, which is our favorite since we end on floor. To me (and later her coach said to him) it seemed like she vaulted better than the first meet, but she wound up with the same exact score, an 8.8. Back to bars--and she did the exact same thing, hit her feet on the bar on the dismount and again the same score, an 8.0. This was just weird. Next up was beam and she fell again on her back walkover, but this time scored an 8.775. This was better than last time, with the same fall. Floor was last and again she nailed it with a 9.250. All around was 34.825.
This past weekend we had the Gold Country Classic. This was one of our favorite meets from last year because it is small and at a small gym. I warned her coach that he had a reputation to uphold--last year it was this meet where Z finally did a clean bar routine with no falls. Z has been working on her flyaway and doing it as a layout instead of a tuck and it seems to be going much better for her.
We started on bars--which is what we started on last year as well. This time, Z did not hit her feet on the bar, but instead did a beautiful layout flyaway. She scored an 8.950, which would have been a 9.250 if she had a better cast on high bar. What a great way to start the meet. Beam was next and darn it if Z didn't fall on the back walkover again. She does them great in warm-up and then just can't do it during actual competition. Unfortunately, she had a lot of wobbles and scored a 7.950, her lowest beam score. At this point, she was more than a point behind the girl who was in first place in all around. I thought for sure that she would not make it. Then came floor and that girl can perform. She got a 9.300, I was so excited for her. Last event was vault. I was joking with my parents that she only needed a 9.800 to score a 36.00 all around--but that would be a full point ahead of what she has done so far this year. Well, the girl surprised us all and despite a shaky warm up, wound up with a 9.500--her highest vault score ever. I was able to mime the score to her and she was thrilled--her coach said he got a bit teary seeing us because he knew the 9.500 was a goal of hers. She didn't wind up with a 36, but did get a 35.700 all around. She placed first in vault, floor and all around, second in bars and third in beam.
Now we have three weekends off before our next meet. Then we will have three weekends in a row of competition--Disco Tech, Halloween Jamboree and Level 5 States. We will definitely be working on the beam and bars. I'm sure she will do fine, but it is fun to watch.
They are also starting to really work on some optional skills. More dance and tumbling and bars. This is going to be fun for the rest of the season--then we will see how we do with optional season starting in January.
