D had a gymnastic strength meet the last Saturday. It’s an introductory meet to get them used to being out on the floor and wached but without having to remember their routines – plus it’s just fun. The boys didn’t compete against each other, they were just showing the best they could do. The gymnasts got to show off their strength with a timed hand stand against a wall, they held themselves up on the rings, leg ups, “L” holds on the parallel bars and climbing a 20ft tall rope. They got more points for climbing the rope just using their hands, bonus points for doing chin ups with their knees bent, etc. I was really impressed that all the boys could climb the rope. I don’t think I could pull myself 3 feet up. They were also timed on how long they could hold themselves up on the rings for a max of 30 seconds. One of his favorite things was at the end. The had all the 6 to 10 year old boys come out on the floor and see who could hold a headstand longest. When so many stayed up, they started having hem go into straddle, back up, tuck, back up, clap. D managed to be about the 5th to fall out of about60 kids. We don’t really know how D did on the competition; they gave him 4th place for the 8 year olds – but he just turned 7. It was hand scored with about 100 kids and they said the got it all goofed up. Oh well. He had a lot of fun.
When the boys were done showing off their muscles, the men’s ASU team started showing off theirs. The meet is a fund raiser for their team and many of them were there as coaches for the little boys teams, including D’s. They can do some amazing things. They can jump and flip as if they can defy gravity. Usually you only see adults doing gymnastics on TV; not sitting on the corner of the mat. The can get so amazingly high. They seemed like they were having a good time just flipping and and spinning above the mat, laughing and goofing and not being judged. The ASU guys also did a few routines on the high bar. They would spin and spin and do some really crazy release moves since they weren’t being scored and it didn’t matter if they could stick the landing. The boys thought it was great seeing what the big guys could do.
