Third Class Sport

Here I am, sitting alone against a wall in gymnastics practice, and am using the stretching block as a desk for my laptop. You might wonder why I’m not practicing. That’s because there is just too much homework that is due tomorrow. But I really want to workout because today my coaches, Mili and Lei, are actually making everyone be productive. There are four groups today rather than the normal two. One group is tumbling on floor, having fun doing front tucks and baranis off the mini tramp. I just saw one of my teammates land flat on her face during a front tuck. I don’t want to be mean or anything, but that was kind of funny. There was a really loud smack when her face hit the mat, that the wrestlers on the other side of the blue tarp heard that for sure. She is a diver too, so I guess she is used to a 1-½ somersault in which one enters head first into the water. I had a few face smackings too, but face smacking on a gym mat isn’t nearly as painful as a body flop off the diving board. Once I hit the water so hard, I ended up getting big purple bruises on my leg. Haha, right after that incident, a guy walking past me just tripped on a mat, I actually laughed out loud for that one. I know I shouldn’t be laughing because I’m pretty clumsy myself. I even trip over my own foot sometimes. I guess that’s ironic because gymnasts are supposed to elegant and agile.
Gymnastics is so entertaining to watch, much more entertaining than any other sport I know. Sports like football, basketball, and track can be exciting to watch, but it’s only exciting when there is competition. After all, football player only tackle and run, basketball players only run and put the basket into a hoop, and runners just put one step in front of the other. Gymnasts on the other hand, risk their lives everyday, tumbling sky high without landing on our heads, doing stunts on a four inch wide, four feet high beam, running as fast as we can towards a stationary object, and swinging high on a set of bars with bloody hands. Many ordinary people can’t do stunts as most gymnasts can, while many people can throw a football, shoot a basket, and run. I don’t have anything against such athletes, or anything, it’s just that I think more people should appreciate gymnastics as a sport, rather than thinking it’s too easy to even be considered as a sport. Many don’t realize how much it takes to be an exceptional gymnast because of how easy such stunts can look. An average competitive gymnast has to spend around 20 hours a week in order to keep up with new skills and conditioning. Unlike any other sport, it is pretty much impossible to keep up with skills even after a short vacation. It’s actually hard to keep in shape too. I never thought in a million years I would say this, but I actually miss those brutal conditioning days. When I was doing club gymnastics, I was actually in shape, even though I didn’t believe it then. Now, only a year after I quit doing club gymnastics, I have gained about 10 pounds, and am not in condition whatsoever. I thought I would be able to condition on my own time after I quit so that I would stay in shape. However, I wasn’t as disciplined as I thought. Even though we condition in ILH, it isn’t at all how it used to be. I honestly don’t think that we’re going to get much stronger with their conditioning. Even though I miss some aspects of competitive gymnastics, I don’t regret quitting at all. I now have more time to myself, rather than spending most of my time at the gym, being able to try new things at the same time.