The younger kidlet had her first gymnastic competition last night. It was a stressful couple of days leading up to it. She had put so much pressure on herself to succeed that she literally was in tears from it. To the point where the night before she was freaking out, refusing to go to bed because she was afraid of tomorrow. I ended up laying in bed with her, in the dark reminding her over and over that the most important part of it all was that she have fun. We didn't care if she came in first or last all we wanted was for her to do her best and have the experience. It took a while, but she finally calmed down and started listening.
I know a lot of had to do with the fear of the unknown. There was also something that I hadn't realized until after we talked for a while. Long ago we have watched some of the Olympic gymnastic routines and she had in her head that she was going to be in a big arena with hundreds of people watching her. Poor thing no wonder she was stressed. Once it was explained that the competition was going to be held in a place similar to her home gym then she calmed down immensely. We went a hour early so she could watch the flight before hers,and see some of the older girls on her team go through their routines. That helped her relax even more and by the time it was time for her to go with her team she was smiling and laughing.
I was still a nervous wreck LOL. I knew if she didn't do well then she would be so hard on herself no matter what we said. Thankfully the kidlet did awesome!
7th~ Beam (she slipped off in the middle of her routine)
4th ~ Vault
3rd ~ Bars
2nd ~ Floor
4th ~ Overall
She was happy and hasn't taken her medals off yet. Now, she is looking forward to her next competition in a couple weeks.
2 comments:
"slipped off the beam"...ouch ouch ouch
Good for Ryleigh!!
How exciting! Yay Ryliegh. Sorry I wasent there but it was to far to walk.
Post a Comment