In honor of National Gymnastics Day this year, I am going to dedicate this post to the sport that I lived and breathed for 16 years. In those 16 years, it slowly went from being just a sport, to my life. Gymnastics has played a critical role in developing me to be the person I am. It has taught me lessons far beyond anything related to gymnastics. Usually I would celebrate this day at practice with my team, and posting my "fail" pictures with a funny caption (below is a great example), but since my unexpected retirement due to nerve damage in my ribs and spine, I am celebrating by putting all of my appreciation into words. I am sure that any person reading this can substitute their sport/hobby in place of gymnastics, and be able to relate to this post and the love they feel for what they do. With that being said, here are the most important elements that gymnastics has taught me! FYI...if you miss one foot on your beam dismount, I advise to not attempt to flip like I did below!
1. Time Management
This seems like one of those basic skills that you list as a skill you have on a resume, but I truly learned what it means to manage my time. This especially helped me as I became a college athlete, and even now as a regular college student. I started competing competitively at TAGS Gymnastics in third grade. Growing up as a competitive club gymnast, I had to learn to prioritize what was most important as I moved up levels, and my training schedule became more demanding. Often times, my social life took the hardest hit such as Friday night football games (never missed homecoming though!!), or outings with my friends. Before making the jump from club gymnastics to high school gymnastics, my training schedule was 20 hours a week; 4:30-8:30 Monday through Friday, and 8:30-12:30 every Saturday. On top of that, I was juggling taking all AP and Honors classes. There was not a lot of time to study or do homework, but I found windows throughout the day, and used my study halls, or any time before classes started to get it done. Any down time I had was used for homework, but that didn't eliminate the late nights. As much as I loved my second home at TAGS, I wanted to have a little more time for friends and family while still taking challenging courses, so I made the decision to compete for my high school my sophomore year. I can remember one of my teammates at TAGS looking at me like I was crazy when I told them I was taking all Honors and AP classes, and honestly, I was barely able to stay above the water with managing everything at that point. My time management definitely helped me with this transition as well because competing for Eastview didn't mean it was any less competitive than club. Gaining that extra hour from a three hour practice compared to a four hour practice helped me immensely. Both experiences taught me different ways to manage my time, which is why I now have a habit of getting my homework done 1-2 weeks in advance even though I have no reason to get it done so urgently anymore! Ask anyone, I really can't stop. Old habits die hard.
2. What being a team means
Since I was with my team 20 hours a week, you can imagine we became very close. Gymnastics is interesting in the sense that it is both a team sport, and an individual sport. You can place individually on each event, but the ultimate goal is to compete to get the highest score to contribute to the team score. In club, teams usually changed every year depending on who moved up levels and who remained on the same level. It started at training team, to level 5, all the way to 10. Regardless of all that, I loved my team at every level, and every place. Our team dynamic was one that knew how to have fun, but also knew when it was time to work hard. Some of my favorite memories were our travel meets; taking us to St. Louis, Arizona, Wisconsin Dells, Iowa, the WIAC schools, and the lovely Watertown, MN. It was so much fun representing the club and team we loved all around the country, and seeing all the other teams. I even got the opportunity to meet Chow (Shawn Johnson's coach), and still get the chills thinking back to when he told me "you will achieve great things someday" despite the fact he had never seen me in his life! I took pride in being a part of a team that all wanted the same goal, and one of my greatest memories was winning State when I was a level 5. Being able to share that moment with the two coaches (you know who you are) I loved so much was priceless. That was the year that I really got to see how success can be reached if the whole team is in the right mindset and constantly hungry to improve. I'm grateful to have been a part of the Gustavus Gymnastics team before retiring because some of my greatest college memories were made that season. Team dynamics aren't just a concept, it is real, and can be felt.
3. Work ethic
In gymnastics, it is not uncommon to see the "natural" gymnasts who are really just born to be in gymnastics (Simone Biles). But there are also the ones that can't do double doubles as their last floor pass like a piece of cake. I am one of those people! It always felt like I had to work so much harder to get a skill (I now know that it is because my form was not the best, which made it harder for me to learn the skill). Regardless, gymnastics is hard work, and not a natural thing at all! As a gymnast, I learned that not giving every turn, rep, or routine my 100% effort and attention just led to more problems, and stopped me from getting to where I wanted to be. My goal ever since I was little was to be a level 10, the highest level, and going on to compete in college (no, not the Olympics). Having that constant goal to work towards was what fueled my motivation to work my hardest everyday, condition hard, and push myself on every killer, beam push up, or set of bleachers we ran. My work ethic, and ability to push myself in the gym, soon spilled over into all aspects of my life, and definitely was present in my school work. I am pretty sure gymnastics is the reason I am a perfectionist! In fact, I know it is the reason because the legendary gymnastics movie "Stick It" says that gymnastics is a sport where you are judged on how close to perfect you can get. Perfect being, that perfect 10, and it is true, so that's always been my mindset! My work ethic was also able to be seen and measured when it came to competitions because of the scores, as well as performing new skills and moving up levels. I will never forget the time in 8th grade where I had a week to get a skill on bars after being cleared from being in a back brace for three months. Usually this skill takes months to learn, but I wanted to compete in the state qualifier that next week so badly. I ended up learning the skill two days before the qualifier, allowing me to compete in my first meet back from my injury, and qualified for State. When I have a goal in mind, I will not stop until I get there. As you read in one of my past posts, leaving something unfinished is not an option for me. Gymnastics really has created some great habits that have transferred into my everyday life.
4. Fearless
One of thing things I find the most interesting, and quite comical now, is just how fearless I was. Now that I have retired, looking back on all of the crazy and just downright dangerous things I did as a gymnast is insane. Back then, I gave it no second thought, I just "chucked it" as I would say. Who in their right mind would willingly flip on a four inch piece of wood and think that was fun? Or swing around on a bar nine feet off the ground,and with one wrong move could instantly fly off? That never went through my mind back then. I truly was fearless and was not afraid of what could happen. Over the years, I've realized that in order to be a great gymnast, you can't be held back with the thought of all that could go wrong, because your chance that it could go right is just as great as the wrong. You just have to be willing to take that chance. I remember one time at practice I got up on the beam and decided to throw a backhandspring backhandspring by myself, which I had never done before. I ended up veering off on the second one, straddling the beam, and landing on the ground giving myself whiplash, but I got up again and redeemed myself the next day. Our coaches always told us to get back up and try it again so we wouldn't remain scared to try it again, so that's what I did. My mind back then never believed anything bad would happen, which was why I was perfectly ok hurling myself through the air from the high bar to low bar, and trying new skills without any spotters. I absolutely hated getting spot, because I wanted to do it myself. If a skill felt a little off, or I missed a foot on my beam dismount like I did in the first picture of this post, I still went! I was even told by one of my spotters on vault that he got scared when it was my turn because he knew that if I had a horrible entry, I would still attempt to flip when it would be much safer not to. The thought never occurred to me that I actually could land on my head, because I always thought that I was invincible. There have been times that I really have been scared to try something, but I made myself do it anyways because I knew that if I didn't go that day, it would drive me crazy until I did go. I think I liked having a challenge set before me, and feeling the adrenaline rush through me after I attempted something and didn't crash. I liked being known as the one that had no fears, except the fear of not trying. Living life a little dangerously in the gym was what I lived for.
5. Don't sweat the little things
This is another concept that has carried over into my everyday life. In a sport full of rules, three of the most important rules I had to follow set by my coaches were 1. no crying, 2. don't look at your scores, and 3. leave your personal life at the door. These three rules were set in order to keep our mental game intact, and keep our focus on what we were doing. Not being totally 100% in the zone in gymnastics can be very dangerous. Believe it or not, it is very hard to flip through the air while tears are blurring your vision! It is easy to become distracted by the little things such as a bad score, a bad practice, frustration, or even a bad test grade at school. I soon learned that ruminating about these things didn't improve anything, didn't change the outcome, and made everything worse. Once I learned to accept it and move on, I realized just how much it benefitted my practices and work ethic, as well as my mood in general! I am thankful that I have learned to shake off the little things because as a perfectionist, getting a bad test grade would be stuck in my mind for eternity! Separating school from gymnastics was easy, in fact, if something was bothering me about school, I would use that energy and blow off some steam on vault as I sprinted down the runway and hit that springboard as hard as I could. I will admit that sometimes I imagined my current crush at the time was watching me at practice, and I seriously did so much better using that tactic! On the flip side, keeping gymnastics out of everything else was not easy which is why the no crying rule carried over into everyday life, making me into one that does not like to show much emotion since I was so used to "being in the zone." To this day, I never like to look at my test scores just like we weren't allowed to look at our meet scores. I was never able to leave gymnastics at the door when I got to school leading to handstands down the hallways, and visualizing routines during class. I can confidently say that I am not as stoic as I used to be, which is not a bad thing, and that the no crying rule has gone to the dumps as I have faced the stressors that college brings!
6. I'm not an introvert in the gym
I will go ahead and admit that I am an introvert. I need my alone time to recharge, and tend to be quiet at school and in public. But at gymnastics? I am a different person. I loved to mess around with my teammates when it was appropriate. Practices were so much more successful when the mood was fun and light, so that is the atmosphere I tried to create at practice. I remember trying to learn a front handspring on beam one summer, and was a little nervous of crotching the beam since it was a blind landing. There was a pair of random hockey breezers sitting outside the door, so I grabbed them and put them on, explaining that they would protect me if I did straddle the beam. (I now realize how gross this is, but like I said, I was fearless back then and no hockey smell was going to stop me). My teammates and coaches weren't surprised when they saw me standing on the beam in those things, because that's just how I was. I always had hopes that this feeling of being yourself would rub off on my teammates, because it makes practices so much more effective, fun, and boosts confidence so much. I wasn't afraid to do something weird or embarrassing in the gym, but once I stepped out of the gym, I became more self conscious. Competitions also were a setting where my introverted self disappeared. One of my favorite feelings was stepping out onto the floor and acting like I owned it. I loved performing my choreography, head up, as confident as can be. When I got to the part of my routine where I had a shimmy, or a booty shake, I did not hold back! I loved striking my poses right on the beat to the music. No other feeling replicates the one of finishing my final tumbling pass, hitting my end pose right on the beat, totally out of breath, as the final note of my music rang throughout the gym. For me, it really was a performance, and I loved having an audience to perform to. I also got this same feeling on beam, and learned that performing with confidence led to stronger routines! I wish this confidence and performance mindset would transition over to public speaking, but sadly, it never did. Check out some of my floor routines below!
7. Mental strength is more important than physical
In gymnastics, it is so easy to get scared and not go for a skill (we call this balking). I experienced this when trying to learn a flyaway in level 5, a backflip dismount off the high bar. As much as my mind told me to just let go of the bar, my hands WOULD NOT let go. It drove me insane, and it was all I ever thought about 24/7. I even practiced doing flips off the swing in the backyard and pretended I was on the bar. One day, I just let go, and I have no idea what in my mind finally gave my hands the permission to release the bar from my death grip. The mind can be so strange! You can be the strongest person in the world, but not having the mental strength to actually do what you are trying to do makes it useless. There is one exact moment when I realized just how important mental strength is, and this is when our coach brought in a sport psychologist to meet with our team and talk about our fears (my inspiration for wanting to be a sport psychologist since 7th grade). We did one exercise where we wrote down a fear, and then visualized doing that skill. At the time, this was a backhandspring on high beam for me. That night, I went home, laid in bed, and visualized myself doing the skill. The next day at practice, I got up on that beam and did it right away with no fear! Ever since that instance, I flipped the switch to fearless as I mentioned above. My coach, Mindy, also told us one day that the fake it till you make concept is legit. She explained that if you are not feeling good, tell yourself that you are feeling absolutely fantastic, and your mind will start to believe it. I used this so much during practice, and also at school. It was extremely helpful when I competed in Sections my junior year with a 102 degree fever. They say gymnastics is 80% mental and 20% physical..as much as I want to agree with that, I'd say the ratio is a bit off because it does take a lot to flip upside down and still be alive. But all in all, mindset is everything!
8. True dedication
Gymnastics has shown me what it means to be truly dedicated and devoted to something. When I wasn't doing school work, or at practice, I was watching gymnastics YouTube videos, reading books about gymnastics, looking at my form in videos from meets, drawing gymnastics shorthand, practicing at home, daydreaming about gymnastics, making up choreography, researching gymnastics etc.. anything to improve! I'm pretty sure if I could eat gymnastics in some form I would have done that too. You bet I bought all the clothes that had the word "Gymnast" on it at Justice. Walking into the gym everyday, I loved the smell. My family always said it smelled like a mix of sweaty feet and chalk, but to me, it smelled amazing. Gymnastics really has been my life, and I have loved every minute of it. I love being able to speak the gymnast language even though no one understands what a Tkatchev, Tsukahara, Shiposhnikova, Yurchenko, Arabian, Amanar, Rudy, Strugg, or double double are. (I could keep going, but I won't put you all through that, just try to sound it out). Every time gymnastics is on TV, it feels like it is Christmas morning, and to this day my face still lights up whenever I see it. Throughout the years, my mind has automatically learned to tune out lyrics to songs to see if the instrumentals would be possible options as floor music. My last example of true dedication, is the tattoo I got after I retired on my inner left ankle . It is the gymnastics symbol for split leap in honor of my gymnastics career. Getting the staple split leap picture during my meets was always important to me because I thought they looked so cool, and it is a skill that carried on through every level. I have a split leap picture from every year I competed. You can take the gymnast out of gymnastics, but you can never take gymnastics out of the gymnast!
9. It is not lifelong
When I was little, I always told myself that I would do gymnastics forever. I learned very soon after, that this expectation was literally impossible. Due to the fact that bending in half, flipping upside down, landing on hard surfaces, and twisting is not what God intended for the human body to do, my body started to have a hard time keeping up. As I got older, it became clear as to why not many gymnasts made it to the highest levels. Their bodies simply couldn't take it anymore. Near the end of my career, a good day was being able to breathe without my ribs hurting thanks to the steroid injections I received from Mayo Clinic, and only having one ankle taped instead of both. I am so thankful that my body did last that long, and that I didn't have any major injuries. I learned the importance of recovery, and self care. Ice, my foam roller, and tape became my buddies, as well as my chiropractor that put me back together time and time again. I spent a lot of time doing injury prevention exercises, as well as rehab for my ankles, wrists, and whatever else was hurting at the time. The number of times I killed my ankles on floor and vault is honestly ridiculous, and I definitely can still feel all that when I wake up every morning as all body parts snap crackle and pop louder than Rice Krispies. I like to say that I am a 20 year old with the joints of a 90 year old. As much as this sport has hurt me, you know what they say, love hurts :)
10. There is a world beyond gymnastics
While the saying"if you love something, let it go" is incredibly cheesy, it holds some truth to it. Because of the fact that I knew gymnastics wasn't lifelong, I had in the back of my mind that there would be an end at some point, I just always thought it would be after college was done. Entering college, the thought of what my life would be like once my career ended scared me, and always put me in a sad mood. When my body made its decision that it would have to cut my final years of my career short, I was not prepared at all. I always I would be able to "let it go" on my own time. That first day that I got done with classes and didn't directly go back to my room to put on my leotard was one of the weirdest days of my life! I had so much time that I didn't know what to do with myself. I even started to miss getting chalk in my eyes at that point. The first summer without training was also a weird feeling, as I actually had to go get a job like a normal college student. I was so used to the routine of school then practice for the last 16 years that I felt like I had lost my identity for a bit. Once I adjusted, joined sorority, and got involved more in my major, I realized that being "Lauren the gymnast" wasn't my identity like I always thought it was. I became "Lauren the psychology major" and the most common one now "Lauren the short little blonde girl." I thought that not being in gymnastics would turn my world upside down (pun intended), but now that I am out, I am now at peace and honestly relieved because I don't hurt everywhere anymore! Gymnastics will always be a part of me, but I have come to love what I am involved in now, too. As I have said this whole time, gymnastics has actually helped me with what I am in now because of all that I have taken away from it. I loved the 16 year relationship I was in. My running joke was that I had a boyfriend named Jim Nastics, and like every relationship, it had its ups and downs, milestones, and compromises. There are days that I struggle with the fact that I am no longer able to go back to that chapter, but I am ready to move on to the next endeavors that are set before me, taking all that I have learned with me.
I'm not going to lie, I got a little emotional writing this one (didn't cry though, because 1. no crying). My years being a gymnast were really some of my greatest memories I've ever had, and digging back into the pictures and my memory bank was harder to do than I thought. There is still nothing that gives me a rush like a stuck landing or new skill used to. I still miss it everyday, and often wonder how many more skills I had left in me to conquer and was capable of doing. Just because I can't do a backhandspring on a beam anymore (honestly don't want to), and all the other skills that took me months to learn, doesn't mean I love the sport any less! Looking back on all the successes, crashes, stuck landings, crotched beams, good scores, leotard wedgies, pit foam in the eye, ripped hands, broken toes, missed releases, sprained ankles, faceplants, and Tom the weasel in the pit..yes, a weasel was in the pit, it doesn't seem like that was 10+ years ago, but that just shows how much I cherish and remember every horrible, hurtful, and humbling memory. I love what this sport has taught me, and the kind of person it has made me to be. That is why this day is so important to me!
Happy National Gymnastics Day, everyone! Hopefully this helped you see that this sport isn't just about prancing around in sparkly leotards. If this is still what you think, challenge me to a handstand contest, I dare you.
Have a flipping awesome day!
~Lauren