Naughty or Nice Meet!

Hello Friends!

As I previously mentioned other blog posts, I will be blogging about all of my competitions this year.  The first meet this year is called the "Naughty or Nice" meet.  Otherwise known as the Christmas meet.  This meet was held in South Jordan at the other Black Diamond.

*GOOD NEWS!!!!*
I mentioned in my previous post that Kylie and I would not compete as a team this year, but FEAR NOT! My coach bumped Tasia AND Brenna up to gold so that we would have a team this year!!

Current Mood:

Photo Creds: car memes

Now some depressing news...Three days before the meet, Kylie cut her hand really bad in FACS and was not allowed to compete. :(  The gold team was only three girls; Tasia, Brenna and Me.

So any who, back to the meet. Xcel gold (das me) competed Friday, the 5th. Open stretch started at 6:00 and march in started at 6:30. March in is when all the gymnasts walk on to the floor and solute everybody in the crowd while the announcer says the names of our gyms...I know, I know, VERY exciting.  This meet was an "Icebreaker" meet, it was only between a couple of gyms.  Because of this, there were no awards, and we wore our ugly short sleeve competition leos. (and because our new competition leos are on back order and they didn't come in time.)

Our first event was vault.  Both of my warm-ups were awful, because I'm pretty sure my coach did not set the vault right.  I asked her and she just waved her hand and told me to go away.  My vaults both sucked...I got an 8.00.  I'm pretty sure this is what happened: one day at practice, about a year ago,  I asked Tina why the vault was so low in the last competition.  She told me that in competition, she lowers the vault so that we "fly over".  I don't think she understands, however, that this totally screws us up! I'm setting the vault next meet!!

Next, we went to bars.  My warm-ups were ok, but my foot was really hurting after vault. (I injured my foot about a week ago and it still hasn't healed so it really hurt the whole competition). My routine was fine, but not my best. I got an 8.55.

Beam. Now let me tell you something, as if beam couldn't be any worse, in competition, you only get around 30 seconds to warm up your beam routine before you compete...so that sucks.  My beam routine was...interesting...  I wobbled in just about every skill.  I almost fell off after my handstand, my full turn, and my cartwheel, but by some miracle of the lord, I stayed on the beam the whole time. I did stick my dismount though, a front tuck off the end of the beam.  I don't know why but me and Kylie found my beam routine to be the greatest thing ever! We laughed about it for like 10 minutes! Even though it was like the wobbliest routine of my life, I stayed on the beam and that was the most important thing to me! I got an 8.55.

Me wobbling on beam...

After beam, I could breathe a sigh of relief.  Our last event was floor, my fave!  I stuck about every tumbling pass and stayed right with my music! I got deducted though because my round-off double back handspring didn't look very pretty.  My foot was killing me! I scored a 9.00.

Overall, this was not my best meet...my worst one actually. But who cares right?! It was just an Icebreaker meet and the first meet of the season.  It was fun to have Kylie there with me cheering me on even though she wasn't competing.  After the competition, my mom took me and Kylie to Noodles and Company!

Yes...I did draw the noodles and company logo...

Ta Ta,
Maggie

Goodbye Cody ❤︎

Hello,

This is going to be a very sad post :(

My best friend and teammate, Cody Googin has made the decision to quit gymnastics. This is not breaking news, she told me this about a month ago, but I think I should talk about it because it is something that has been really hard on me.

Let's start from the beginning...

On my very first day of Xcel, I was really shy and didn't really think I would make many friends on my first day.  I however, was very wrong.  This is because of Cody.  She was the first to say hi and to welcome me to the team.  Since my first day with her, she has been the bubbliest, funniest, and kindest person I know.  We instantly became best friends and started hanging out outside of gym.  We would go to the movies, go bowling, shopping, and one of my favorite things to do... VideoStar.

 Cody and I have so many memories together that I don't think I've had with any of my other friends.  Since we were on the same gymnastics team together, we saw each other two or three times a week, and we hung out almost every weekend.  Another great thing about being on the same team as Cody what's that we got the opportunity to travel to Tucson, Arizona last spring for regionals. We had an amazing time! We also decided to keep a photo journal using Cody's Polaroid camera, here are some of the pages...

I think that me and Cody are such good friends because we practically spent every day together at practice, we have both teeny tiny girls who look like they are 11, and we are both super sassy.  We have so many great memories together that it would take me hours and hours to name them all.  I have had so many great experiences with Cody that I couldn't have with anybody else because it just wouldn't be the same. I am still kind of in shock from when Cody told me that she was quitting. I was really sad and depressed when I found out, and it made me less motivated to go to gym each day.

Cody, if you are reading this, I want you to know that you are my best friend and even though you are quitting, I will never forget the amazing memories we share.  You are truly the reason that I do gymnastics, you were an amazing gymnast and I still do not know why you quit, but I want you to know that the whole team, especially me, misses you like crazy.

Single Tear...

-Maggie

Some More Funny Stories

Hey Guys

So apparently you liked my other post about funny stories, so because I'm a people pleaser, I'm gonna write another one!

1. "It's not that hard!"
Once upon a gym practice, the whole squad was on beam.  We were basically all having the exact same mental block...leaps on beam. Now let me tell you something...you don't know real pain until you split the beam.  If you don't know what that means...

Courtesy of: Gif Shot

Yeah...that's what splitting the beam looks like...So back to the story, we were all being wimps and not wanting to do leaps because doing a leap gives you probably the highest risk of splitting the beam...here's why...

That's me by the way

After watching that video, imagine what would have happened if my foot had slipped when I landed...ouch.  I would have fallen, smashed into the beam, crashed onto the mat and lay on the ground in pain curled up in a ball holding my leg/ankle/whatever I hit on the way down for about five minutes.  It is not fun.  It's happened to me more times than I can count. In fact, it happened to me last night...   Oh my, this post is turning into a beam rant. Back to the story. So Tina, my coach, was getting mad at us for not being "brave" and just "going for it". She then proceeded to step onto the low beam, after screaming to us for ten minutes about how easy it was and how we wouldn't get hurt. She told us that it was so easy, she could do it.  What happened next was hilarious.  She did her leap on the low beam, landed wrong, rolled her ankle, fell on the ground and her ankle started to swell up....Yeah.  After this whole lecture of how "it isn't that hard" and how "we wont get hurt."  We didn't do leaps on beam that day...Her ankle was purple and swollen for like two weeks.

2. Little Tree
I don't know if you guys will find this story is funny as I do… but let's just give it a whirl.  Before we vault, we have to move mats and stuff so we can get it how we like.  My team does this thing called "ants “ where we get the mat and put it over our head and carry it like that because it's a lot lighter that way… kind of like ants… so one thing about ants is that if you're in the front, carrying the front of the mat, you better be really quick to duck when we throw the mat.  Okay slowdown Maggie… what I mean by throw the mat is when we get the mat to the destination we want it at, we all just throw it forward.  Sometimes we don't throw it hard enough and the person in the front gets knocked down by the end of the mat.  So we were moving a dead mat one time, A dead mat is just a mat that has been used so much that it's just floppy and dead, Tasia was in the front and we threw the mat, it landed on her head.  It was really funny because as you probably know, Tasia is freakishly tall, and basically she was standing there and the mat was flopped over her so she looked like a tree or a mountain or something.  We all laughed and said she looked like a little tree and now we call her "LT".

So I only told two stories because if I wrote another one i'd be hella over my word limit.
Vote on my poll!!

Maggie

How a Gymnastics Competition Works

Hello Friends,

So as I have previously mentioned, I am going to be blogging about all of my competitions or "meets" this year, so I thought you might want some background info.  A gymnastics competition is referred to as a "meet". Don't ask me why, it just is.  So in my level, we have around 5-6 meets per competition season, plus state meet, and if we qualify, regionals.  Normally, all of our meets are in Utah except for regionals.  Regionals is out of state, last year it was in Arizona, and this year it will be in California!

Every year, around the end of October, we receive a "meet schedule".  It pretty much tells us what meets we are going to that competition season and when.  My meet schedule for this season looks like this...

My competition schedule.

Competition season for gymnastics is usually from December-May.

So now into how a meet works.
There are two parts to a gymnastics meet.  Individual awards and Team awards.  Individual awards are First, Second, Third place for one gymnast.  The top three scores from one team are averaged and entered into team awards.  Team awards are First, Second, Third place for the entire team.  So there's a basic explanation of how awards works.  Now onto some technical stuff…

In gymnastics there are four events, beam, bars, floor and vault. Each gymnast competes every event and receives a score from the judges out of 10.  A gymnasts score starts from 10 and for every mistake they make in their routine, the get deductions.  (I know, super positive right?) On every event there are two judges, they each give the athlete a score out of 10, and then their two scores are averaged to make your final score.  You get one try for your routine on every event, except for vault.  For vault, you get to do two vaults, whichever vault scores higher is the one that stays.  There are five sections for individual awards; bars, beam, floor, vault and all-around.  All around is where you average all of your scores for all four events.  To win first place on all-around is a HUGE deal!

I do a gymnastics program called Xcel.  There are five levels in Xcel; bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond.  This competition season,  here's what my team looks like...

Tasia: Silver 
Brenna: silver
Emery: silver
Kylie: gold
Maggie: gold

Since my whole team is silver and gold, we will most likely be going to meets at around the same times.  The only exception will be when Kylie go to meets where Silver and gold do not compete at the same time.  Unfortunately for me and Kylie, this year, Cody has decided that she no longer wants to do gymnastics, it is very sad because Cody is like my sister,  I don't want to talk too much about it in this post, but basically we don't have a gold team this year.  The reason for this is, in order to have a team, you must have at least three gymnasts competing in the same level.  Me and Kylie will not be competing for team awards this year. ☹

So there you have it, a basic rundown of how these competitions will work.  Sorry if this post was kind of boring, but I thought you might need to know some of this stuff for my future posts about competitions.

Me and Cody last year after winning first place
in team awards. (single tear)

Ta Ta,
Maggie

6 Things Normal People Don't Understand About Gymnasts.

1. We spit on our grips.
So grips are those things that gymnasts wear on there hands during bars.

Photo Creds: inthecompanyofstrangers

<------those things

So in order to keep the chalk on our grips, we use water...or spit. So anyway, people think that it's weird that we spit on our grips.  I don't know why... I mean, we also use water on them and spit is stickier sooo...

2. We are OBSESSED with leotards

Nobody knows why, but at least in my team, we are OBSESSED with leos.  They are just so fun and colorful and YAHS! Whenever somebody on our team gets a new leo we all get super excited and it's like they're getting married or something.  Everybody crowds around them and tells them how cute they look in in and ask where they got it from.  So yeah...we love leos.

I'm getting better at the whole "drawing" thing

My Leo Collection. I have like...a lot

3.  The bond in our team

So our team has a family-like bond.  Now I only see my team at practice 2-3 times a week...not as much as the elite gymnasts...but still.  We basically see each other every weekend and practice 2 and a half hours together every day.  We laugh with each other.  Cry in front of each other.  Practically know everything about each other. Nobody but the people in the team can understand but basically my team is my second family.

4. DON'T BREAK THE CHALK BLOCKS!!!!

So on bars, we use chalk on our grips to help our grips grip to the bar better so that we don't fall off when we are up on the high bar.  The thing is, it's way easier to load your grips up with chalk when using a block because you can pretty much just rub it over your grips and BOOM...all chalked up.  It is much harder, however, to chalk up your grips with loose chalk because you have to rub it into your grips and it just takes longer.  Anywho, it really sucks when people crush up the chalk blocks because, then theres no more blocks left.  So if we catch somebody crushing up the chalk blocks...we get mad.

This is a chalk block.
(how cool are my zebra grips?!?)

5.  The floor is NOT a trampoline
If you were to actually jump on the floor, you would be surprised as to how un-bouncy it was. The reason everybody thinks that the floor is so bouncy is because when olympic gymnasts do floor the go super high because well...they're olympians.

6. We are super exited to learn our routines!
So one thing you should know is that over the summer we don't have routines, we pretty much just learn new skills and such, so it's really exciting to be able to learn a brand-new routine made specially for you right before the start of competition season.  It's fun to discover what skills you will be competing that season and it is especially exciting to hear your new floor music for the first time ever.  It's just super fun in general to learn new routines!

So yeah, those are some of the things that normal people don't understand about gymnasts/gymnastics. If you want, leave a comment telling me what I should post about next. Vote on my poll!! Ok that's all bye.
-Maggie

Some Funny Stories

Ok, so here are some stories of funny things that have happened at gym.  These are mostly inside jokes that my team and I have with each other. Enjoy…

1. I NEED A BAGEL!

Ok, so every day at gym, we stretch for about 15 minutes, and then we condition.  Conditioning, for those of you who don’t know, is basically doing hard stuff to make you stronger…(push-ups, burpies, pull ups, running, etc.)  Ok, so we were in the middle of doing push-ups, and Sophie was almost done.  She was getting slower and her arms were shaking and you could tell she was tired.  All of a sudden she screamed, “I NEED A BAGEL!!” and then, her arms gave out and she collapsed on the ground.  We were laughing so hard because we didn’t know why she said that.  Anyway, now we bring her bagels to every competition. 

2. Red Scrunchie

So we have pretty ugly competition leotards and we have been asking our coach, Tina, to get us new ones for years.  So one day we were on bars and I just made a comment like, “yeah, that'll happen as soon as we get new competition leos.” (meaning: that'll never happen)  Then tasia says to me, “Ms. Tina told me we were getting new ones!”  Naturally I ran over to Tina to ask her if it was true.  She said yes, we were getting long-sleeve, red and white leos.  Now I was super exited…but after a couple minutes, I started thinking.  Now heres a little bit of background info,  I loooooooovvve to have super cute braided/twisted/sparkly hair for competitions.  So I was thinking about my hair scrunchie collection… no red!!! This couldn’t be happening!  My hair always has to be on point for meets.  I looked over at Tina, she saw the panic in my face and asked what was wrong.  I asked, “The new leos…do they come with a red scrunchie??”  She thought that this was the funniest thing in the world because she literally fell on the ground laughing.  I guess you had to be there…Yeah, i’m pretty much a dork.

3. BONUS POINTS!!

So we were vaulting and there was another class that was using the end of the vault runway to do tricks into the pit.  So Tasia was just having a really sucky day because she was in a lot of pain because her foot was really hurting her.  So one of the idiots in the other class thought it would be a funny idea to throw foam blocks from the pit at Tasia when she was vaulting.

This is what a pit block looks like

Photo Courtesy of: funandfunction

Anyways, so Tasia was running full speed, ready to vault, when this kid throws a foam block at her face. Tasia, naturally still vaulted because if she didn't, she would smash full speed into a big chunk of metal and foam.  So she vaulted...it was bad...she landed...and then she tripped...into the wall.  Luckily she was smart enough to do an okay enough vault that she didn't get hurt.  She was just in a lot of pain because of her foot.  Ms. Tina, my coach, told us that we were done with vault.  When she asked Tasia what was wrong, she told her that some kid was throwing stuff at her. Tina told us, "boys are idiots, they don't think, you just have to think for them." -ok I promise this story gets funny soon- 

So Cody was just like...

Photo Courtesy of: memegenerator

She was like, "how are we supposed to think for them when they're throwing stuff at us?!"

Cody:

"How to vault"

1. Run as fast as you can

2. Make sure to dodge the flying objects

3. If you punch them away...BONUS POINTS!"

Idk...it was funny at the time...heres a picture...

I know, I know...I have a gift

That's all byeeeeeee!

PS vote on my poll!

Some Stories of my Stupidity

So I guess you guys want to hear some stories of my stupidity. >

So that makes me feel great.  Just kidding, this will be a fun post!

1. The Karate Kick

Ok, so Cody and I were standing around, waiting at bars because we only got one bar set or something like that that day.  I don’t know, we were standing.  So anyways, I asked cody what sports her little sister, Tracy did.  She said that she did karate at Bobby Lawrence.  So we were joking around and for some reason I thought that I was a karate ninja and I could do a super cool karate kick.  I can’t.  So basically,  I ran and jumped up in the air and kicked my foot really high and cool.  It was awesome! Until…so I guess I kicked my leg too hard and I basically landed on my neck because my whole body slipped out from under me. …Twas not ninja-like.

2. The Leg Smash

So we were all standing around at bars… wow, a lot of terrible things happened me at bars… anyways, I was talking to Cody or someone I forget who, but anyways I didn't realize that Tasia was up on high bar and I jumped the bar and did a kip.  Right as I extended my legs out, tasia casted away from the bar, and swung down. Both of our legs smacked into each other with tons of force.  It hurts so bad and we both collapsed to the ground hugging our throbbing shins. The funny thing is neither of us realize that the other one was on the bars… that's a stupid we were.  Then we started laughing so hard that we cried!  It was a special time.

3. The Vault Flight

Ok, so we were vaulting.  It was my turn to go, and it was my first vault of the day.  Our coach, Ms. Tina, told us to warm up by just running, and jumping onto the vault (run, jump on springboard, land with feet on top of vault table).  Naturally, my first Vault of the day would be pretty bad… I ran as fast as I could and slammed my feet on the spring board.  Right in that second, I totally forgot what I was doing and my feet never quite made it onto the vault table.  Instead…this happened.  

I ran…

Vault Courtesy of: illpop

I jumped (by this point I kinda knew I was screwed)…

Springboard courtesy of: turngeraete24

I flew…all the way over the vault…

Girl courtesy of: clipartpanda

So basically I just kind-of hit the springboard and flew straight over the vault…It would have been cool…if I had landed it. Nope.  I hit the ground on my knees and rolled away.  It was very terrifying but then when I got up, my whole team was laughing and clapping!  Because apparently when I was in midair, I made a really loud bird-like sound.  Anywho…

I hope you enjoyed and don’t forget to vote on my new poll————>

Maggie 

Beam, Bars, Floor, Vault

The events...pretty much what makes up Gymnastics.  I'm just gonna give you a brief description of all of the events because...yolo.

Here's a picture I drew you of the events.

Vault.   Here's how it goes down.  You run as fast as you can, jump on a springy thing, put your hands on a big table thing,  do a couple of flips, and land (hopefully). Here is a gif to help your brain.

Courtesy of: The Wire

Beam.  *shiver goes down my spine*.  So if you are good at doing backflips, on a four inch piece of wood, four feet off the ground, then beam is for you!! Unfortunately, I am not good at doing backflips, on a four inch piece of wood, four feet off the ground. And mostly it's because i'm afraid of this...

Courtesy of: Gif Shot

Here is a picture of me falling off the beam...

#acurate

So to sum it up...I HATE BEAM!!

Bars.  Bars is a pretty fun event.  I personally think that it is the most difficult event because it requires a HUGE amount of strength.  One of the first skills you learn on bars is the Kip. A kip is that swingy thing that all gymnasts do when the start their bar routines...i'll just show you.

Courtesy of: Wikia

Anyway, it is like, a HUGE deal when a gymnast gets their first kip. It personally only took me about a month to get my Kip, but it was still like the coolest thing ever when I could finally do it. So enough about kips, bars is a cool event.

Floor.  Floor is pretty chill, everybody likes floor.  I think that it is the least nerve racking event, but the most dangerous event, because of the extreme tumbling combinations.  Floor is mostly jumping around and doing flips on a floor that is a little more bouncy than normal.  Floor is my strongest event because I have tons of power and I'm not afraid to try new tumbling skills.

Here is what floor looks like...

Soooooo...yeah! That's a basic rundown of all of the events in gymnastics!

Bye,

Maggie

My Teammates

Oh dear God where do I start? Well i’m just going to wing it and give you a brief explanation of all of my teammates.  We all do gymnastics at Black Diamond Gymnastics. My teammates are: Cody, Tasia, Kylie, Emery, Sophie, and Brenna. 

Cody. I've been teammates with Cody for the longest out of everybody. Cody is in eighth grade and is 12 (just a little bit younger than me, so we are always competing in the same age division (against each other)).  She has been doing gymnastics for two years longer than me,  and she's really good!  She's really funny… not in a joking kind of way… in a dry sense of humor kind of way… like instead of encouraging us when we are having an off day, she will say things like, “MAGGIE, YOU SUCK!!” Which makes us laugh even when she's not trying to be funny. Me and Cody are pretty much like twins, we always try to wear our hair   the same way at practice and we try to coordinate leotard colors for practice.

Me and Cody after a competition last year.

Tasia… Tasia, Tasia, Tasia… where do I begin?  So Tasia  is pretty much a tree… she's really tall and really skinny!  Her nickname is ”LT” which stands for  “Little tree”. She has the weirdest sense of humor and there is literally never a time at practice when she isn't making me laugh! We also like to call her “Fish” because sometimes when she's on bars she flops around like a fish.  Tasia is one of the newest members on our team… she's only been here for like a year… but it feels like I've known her my whole life.  She is just so fun to be around in general. (also her mom is a nail artist and she always does my nails! YAY!)

I couldn't find a picture of me and Tasia, 

so I drew one...you're welcome.

Kylie.  Kylie is in seventh grade, but we look like we're pretty much the same age.  Kylie used to be a level 7 gymnast, but then she quit because she broke her ankle.  Now she is back at the gym again, but she lost a lot of her skills.  Because she used to be in such a high level, she is really, really, really, good!!  Also, me,   Cody, and Kylie are all the same leotard size so we all share leotards with each other!

Me and Kylie

Emery and Sophie are both in the same grade. They're both really short and I both really funny! Sophie especially has a really weird sense of humor, like one day we were doing push-ups and all of a sudden she goes, “I NEED A BAGEL!” So now we always bring her bagels at practice and competitions.  Emery is a total goofball and is always finding some way to make us  all laugh.

Me and Emery

(I couldn't find a picture of me and Sophie)

Brenna. I have been doing gymnastics with Brenna for as long as I have with Cody. She's the same age as Tasia, and really likes trying new skills that she has no idea how to do… and sometimes she lands them!  Fun fact, Brenna is like… really good at Ariels!

So yeah that's pretty much it! I hope you enjoyed this post about my teammates, my crazy friends, my family. Okay byeeeee!