Before this week's meet, we had a private lesson with Z's coach to focus primarily on bars--specifically, her squat on sequence. This is where she has had issues since the beginning of the season. I actually had the time to go watch her private session and was really impressed with the change in her confidence and ability. Unfortunately, she got a rather large blood blister and that created some problems. The private lesson was Wednesday, and competition was on Saturday. Luckily, with the help of her coach, we got the blister issue resolved and she was able to practice on Thursday and Friday. By Saturday morning, her hand was looking pretty good.
Since this meet was about twenty minutes from my parent's house, we decided to stay there the night before. The other girls all opted to drive down the morning of the meet, but I'm really glad we made the decision to stay the night instead of driving almost three hours the morning of the meet--especially since it takes a good 40-45 minutes to do her hair. The other benefit to staying at my parent's house is that we were able to Skype with Z's big brother while I was doing her hair. He had been gone for two full weeks and this gave her a chance to say hi and for me to catch up a bit as well (it is difficult having him off at college).
After practice on Friday, Z kept telling me that she "had her squat on." She was so excited that it seemed to be working. And I was so happy that she seemed to be more confident.
Once we got to the gym and the coach checked in, we found out that we would be starting the competition on bars. This was definitely going to test her practice, drive and the results of the extra practice. Not only were we starting on bars, but Z was going first. I was very nervous, but during her warm up, she seemed strong and ready to go. Luckily, her routine proved that the practice was worth it. She made the squat on, didn't fall and completed her routine, scoring an 8.850. This was two full points over her score from last week and almost a full point over the first week. She got a big hi-five from her coach, that I was lucky enough to catch on camera.
Next was beam. She looked really strong during warm up, and was slated to go third from her team. The first two girls both fell on their cartwheel and I was nervous. Z tends to watch the other girls and sometimes it gets to her. This was one of those times. She also fell on her cartwheel, and had a couple of other big bobbles. Her final score was an 8.450.
Floor was next. One of her teammates, who always does well, scored high. Z was next and also did really well, scoring a 9.350. The other girls, however, all scored below a 9.00, which is not really normal for our team. I'm not sure what was up, but I could see that they were not completely into their routines.
Vault was next. During warm-ups, Z was having definite problems. Her first attempt during warm up was not very good, barely making it over the vault table. The second warm up attempt was a balk--which is not like her. When she got ready to go, I could see that she was starting back farther than she had during the second warm up. I'm not sure if that made the difference, but she did well, scoring an 8.800, which was the highest on her team. Her overall all around score was a 35.450, which was a personal best for Level 4.
When it came time for awards, I was again pleasantly surprised. She wound up first on vault, fifth on bars, tied for second on floor and came in second all around! This was a HUGE improvement over last week. Our team came in third overall.
I think her confidence was really boosted by her extra practice and the fact that they had the Level 5 girls competing with them. Normally the two girls that are Level 5 compete in their own session, but this time, they got to compete with our girls. It was a lot of fun to watch the older girls, plus I think they got an energy boost from having the extra cheering. They both did their personal bests and qualified for state competition.
The next competition is Disco-Tech. We have two weeks between meets this time, so I'm hoping that the extra little bit of rest helps her out. She does have to be at that competition very early in the morning, so we will be staying at my sister's house. Last year Disco-Tech was not one of our best meets, but I'm hoping that she will do well on the heels of this meet.
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