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PARENTS
PAGE
COUNTDOWN
TO
STATES
By
Brian Bakalar
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SPECIAL
feature countdown
to states part
Four |
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This
is the fourth and final article in the special
series, “Countdown to States.”
These articles feature three gymnasts from
Gymnastics Revolution’s Level 6 Compulsory Team.
These girls have moved through the ranks
quickly at Gymnastics Revolution; all were Level
5’s last year, and all have become strong Level
6’s this year.
Katie, Megan, and Lizzie stepped into the
arena at Southern Connecticut State University
last weekend, as prepared as they had ever been
for a gymnastics meet.
In sports, we learn to deal with unexpected
obstacles. The reason the girls trained as hard as they did, and became
as competent as they did, was to eliminate as many
variables on the day of the competition as
possible.
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Unfortunately,
one such variable came up, and before the start of
the State Championships, Katie fell very ill, and
was unable to compete. Lizzie and Megan dealt this distraction, and the
disappointment of a “fallen” teammate as best
as they could, and as expected, pressed forward.
Megan’s
very first turn on the Bars was an eye-opener for
her. She
missed a kip, and broke form on every element
during her warm-ups, and had to be reminded by her
coach that her focus needed a very extreme, and
very fast, redirection. As if reminded of why she had come to the meet, Megan
relaxed, and with that new sense of calm, she
cleaned up her lines and improved her performance.
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Lizzie’s
determination was “on” from the start.
She warmed up with enthusiasm on the floor,
and tumbled higher than she ever had.
The only coaching Lizzie needed during her
floor exercise performance was a quick reminder
about her form on her split leaps.
Her tumbling was powerful, her dance was
better than she had ever done before.
It was evident that Lizzie had come to
compete.
As
the day moved on, the girls picked up excitement,
and transferred it into their performances.
Both girls took first place on Vault,
Lizzie with the highest vault score of the meet.
They placed first and second on Bars, and
Megan took first place on Balance Beam and second
on the floor.
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Both
girls had their small problems – the balance
beam routines had their wobbles – but in the
end, the training, the countless hours of
practice, paid off.
As the girls relied on their strong base of
preparedness, their coach continually relied on
the cues from the past weeks of practice to keep
the girls directed.
As planned, Lizzie and Megan did exactly
what they had done so many times before in
practice. The
pressure of the meet, the crowds, the other
competitors, was unnoticed, and the girls simply
performed the same routines that they had trained
thousands of times.
In fact, this thought was echoed in their
coaching over the last 3 months, and the girls
knew that the reason for all their work was so
that when it “counted,” they could do exactly
what they always did.
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Lizzie
and Megan were not strangers on the Awards Stand. Lizzie took 6th place in the All Around division,
and Megan was crowned State Champion, with a first
place finish.
The final lesson that they took from the
day was that there simply is no secret to
preparedness. Hard work, goals, strength, and focus are the ingredients for
success. |
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Tel: 203-798-8651