My Gymnastics Career

I grew up in a small down in Northern Arizona called Flagstaff. My family and I lived on a dirt road where there were many other kids our age. A neighbor had told me about how she was in gymnastics and she was going to be in the Olympics one day. Instantly I knew I too wanted the same things she did. My mom got me enrolled in a gymnastics class at the local gym, Summit Gymnastics Academy.

I began as a seven year old, in a beginner class, level two. I quickly moved up to “Pre-Team” which was the class right before you trained for competitions. I worked hard to get myself to “Team” where I would wear a sparkly leotard and compete against many other teams, just like the girls in the Olympics.

I competed in the compulsory levels, which basically means everyone competes the same routines, until I finally moved up to “Optionals”. This meant I was one of the “big girls” and I got to compete routines that were choreographed specifically to me.

After competing a few years of optionals, I began to crave something new. I decided the season of 2015 would most likely be my last. I began my first competition of the season, when I tore a ligament in my elbow completely in half.

Long story short, that was the end of my gymnastics career, the only lifetyle I’d known my whole life. The road to recovery was long and hard, but I loved the gym too much to leave it behind.

And that is what lead me to coaching.

Coaching experience

The transition from gymnast to coach was a generally smooth one.

I had received the corrections, feedback, and ideas that my coaches had used for years, so I had a very good idea of what I had to do.

In the beginning the hardest part was remembering the very basics. After competing at such a high level it was astonishing that people couldn’t even do a handstand the proper way.

After gaining a few years of experience, I quickly realized that learning skills and technique was not what was important about the sport.

It was everything that came with it.

Hours of mentally and physically challenging practices, 5 times a week for children is not exactly a walk in the park.

Gymnastics had taught me respect for my coaches and for others. It taught me work ethic; when times were tough, you needed to be tougher. Gymnastics taught me how to produce motivation when there was none, it taught me discipline, to act like someone was always watching… because most times they were. And not only that, but along with being watched, you were constantly being judged and critiqued. Gymnastics taught me perseverance. Getting through practices that were tiring, scary, and discouraging was no easy task.

And when all of this had come flooding back to me, I realized that the lives and lessons of dozens of young girls rested heavily in the palms of my hands.

I had the power to shape and help these girls become better humans through the sport of gymnastics. Gymnastics is what sparked the fire where my love and passion began to burn for helping people …and the fire is steadily continuing on to this day.