Well, we have our second official optional meet under our belts. There were highs and there were lows, but we definitely know where we are going.
This week was a bit odd because Z had a week-long science camp with her school to attend. As such, she missed three days of practice this week. It would have been four, but I picked her up on Thursday from camp, took her to practice and then back to camp in time for bed. I could tell watching her practice both Thursday and Friday that she was tired and tired quickly during practices. In hindsight, her father thinks we shouldn't have let her go to camp, but I was not about to take that opportunity away from her.
While we were getting ready on Saturday morning, I asked Z what event she wanted to start on and she said beam. I figured it was because it is her weakest event and she wanted to get it out of the way. Well, she got her wish--beam was up first. Her warm up looked good and so did her routine. We were more than excited when her score flashed as a 9.425. This is her highest beam score ever--she had only scored a 9 twice before, a 9.100 at level 3 and a 9.000 at level 5 states--so this was a big deal. Although this was the highest score for quite a while, she wound up in 3rd place.
Floor was up next and I did see a few bobbles, but her score was still a 9.300, which is good in my book. This wound up as 5th place.
Vault is normally a no-brainer for Z and she almost always scores over a 9.000. But not this time. Her score was an 8.675, which I was confused about but her coach indicated that he agreed with the score. I'm not going to question him since he is a level 9 judge.
Bars was last--what has become one of her best events. Warm-up looked really good, although she was not really making her monkey swing, so it looked like she was just going to do a squat-on. I watched her start her routine and she looked amazing. After the squat on and jump to high bar, she did her kip and then a really large cast to do her lay-out fly-away dismount. Unfortunately, she went big and completely over-rotated her fly-away and landed on her back. This caused a reduction in her start value, along with the fall and other deductions. She scored an 8.550, but her coach said she had 1.300 in deductions, which means she would have potentially had a 9.850.
Her all-around score was a 35.950, enough for 8th place, with no medals on vault or bars. She was very upset and frustrated at herself, but I was able to remind her that even her "bad" day, gave her an all around score that is in the top half of those she had gotten in the past, and was better than some girls on a "good" day.
We know she has the potential to do really well, she has shown it in the past and I know she will do well this weekend. We have a full week of practice and a private on Wednesday. I'm thinking things will be just fine.
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