Hey guys, this is your favorite junior Cami with this weeks Gym Talk. The Ladies started the week with a great intrasquad on bars, beam, and floor. Shoutout to everyone who competed and stepped up for the Ladies.
Next up, we had an exciting day as we unloaded lots of new equipment for both our practice gym and our competition gym. We got a new floor for the Gold Dome, so when you come to see us compete, we will be flying higher than ever as we flip and twist our way into your hearts! We also got a truckload of new matting for the Gold Dome, so we will be able to transition some of our old competition mats over to our practice facility. We can't wait to test out the new equipment come this meet season.
On Tuesday, we all got loaded up with our team apparel. Now, we have been dressing out for practices – which makes us feel even more like a team in the gym. It's so exciting to once again look the same and become one unit!!!
Practices this week were so strong and energetic after coming off a high from the intrasquad: we started putting together full sets and doing real dismounts on bars and beam, along with putting parts together on floor. One of our team goals for this year, and setting the tone in preseason, is to focus more on hits rather than just doing. This week, the Ladies have been building on our conditioning and going hard. We are working on getting stronger so the full sets will become easier than they already are.
Toward the end of the week, the Ladies hosted four awesome recruits. While the recruits were here we went to eat at Marilyn's place as a team so they could each get to know of us. At Marilyn's Place the Ladies enjoyed some delicious beignets while Coach Jackie was there (she gave us permission).
A couple shoutouts to my teammates: Aspen for turning her drills in a beautiful and consistent Jaeger, Kendall Knaps for turning those drills into a super high half-in, half-out dismount on bars, Tavia for improving on her already beautiful double lays off bars. We also stepped it up on vault as we started our new twisting vaults onto mats this week; Kendall Sanders, Jerrica, and me had great halves, T showing out with her full and Kendall Knaps for doing tuck fulls. Also, Navia, who is working hard on a new vault, which is sure to surprise all of you!
We had two big announcements at practice this past Sunday; first we named our captains and leadership council. Our co-captains this year are seniors Liz Sander and Aspen Hattley. Our representatives from each class are: yours truly for the junior class, Sierra (Sisi) for the sophomores and Kendall Sanders for the freshmen!
We also started a new weekly award called the "Beast Award." This award is to honor our former teammate and assistant coach, Sylvia Keiter, who was killed this past summer when she stopped to help a motorist in need and was hit by a drunk driver. The award will go to the gymnast who best exemplifies the traits that made Sylvia so special: unstoppable, relentless, committed, exuberant, selfless/team first attitude and a run through a brick wall mentality. The first recipient of the award was me! Coach Jackie choose me because I was struggling mentally early in the week but I didn't let that stop me and was able to turn it around to come back with some of my best practices of the year, including doing my new vault.
Now, the Ladies are ready to start a new week and become stronger. Thanks for reading guys.
XOXO
Cami