Skill Explanation: Yurchenko Vault

This week I decided to do a skill explanation because I don't have any competitions, and I also just haven't done one in a while. This week's skill: Yurchenko Vault.

Event: Vault
Type: Umm, it's a vault?
Difficulty: Depends on what type of flip you do out of it. (B,C,D,E)

Competition #2: Phoenix

I'm writing this on the airplane back form Phoenix, looking out my window at the Grand Canyon. Can I just point out how cool it is? So anyway, I'm really supposed to be talking about my trip, which was also pretty darn cool.

We left for Phoenix on Friday after school, and unfortunately missed the team dinner. We stayed at the Arizona Grand Resort which is huge and was pretty eerie at night. We went to bed pretty much right away because we had to get up at 6:00 to get ready for my meet the next morning. In the morning, we did my hair, had some breakfast, and walked to the meet.

Competition #1: Seattle/Tacoma

Well, I competed at my first meet in one and a half years! As I said in one of my previous posts, this meet was in the Seattle area, Tacoma specifically. My trip included three caesar salads, an extremely special floor routine, a Toblerone bar, and lots of glass.

We flew in late Thursday, and had a late dinner in the hotel restaurant. Friday morning, we got up around 9:00 AM, ordered room service for breakfast, and then went to the glass museum. I must mention that the glass museum was very, very cool. The first part was wandering around the gallery, where there were many different styles of glass artwork. Then, we went into the "Hotshop."There were live artists who actually blew glass right in front of you. It was pretty interesting to me, especially since I didn't know anything about glass art. (I didn't even know that glass was actually blown-- *facepalm.)

Holiday Extravaganzas!

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope everyone has been having a good break. I've had so much stuff going on lately and it's all been great. Two full weeks of "break" is great, but as one of my friends put it (check out her page here), teachers use it as an opportunity to load us with crap. I have had two huge projects, four finals to study for, and a few extra assignments. Yay!

For the entire first week, I procrastinated with everything. I pretty much just laid around with the occasional gymnastics practice. Then, I sort of got this sense of urgency (ohmygoshthesemesterendsinaweek) and got myself out of bed for reasons other than food, family, and gymnastics. Success!

SUCCESS! Photo courtesy: Satyavrat

The Long Recovery of a Concussion

About two weeks ago, I got a concussion. I could pretend that I was doing something awesome and then go on to explain my crazy, eye-widening story, but then I would be lying.

I over-rotated on a single back tuck.

I know. I'm special. Photo courtesy of: knowyourmeme

The One and Only Meetersquad

It's not a typo. Meetersquad is a cross between a meet and intersquad. We had our first meetersquad on Saturday. Three of my teammates competed also. Jamie, Patrisha, and Gen. This competition was just like a meet with other gymnasts from other teams and real judges, but it was a "soft-landing" meet. That's when coaches can throw mats on the floor, spot gymnasts with less deduction, and gymnasts can land on soft, squishy mats.

Another Intersquad!!

We had another intersquad. Yay!! It was great...... not. One short explanation? We were all sick, including myself. I could barely get through a beam routine without getting out of breath. Well, we weren't also that ready, but let's blame it on the sickness.

This time, we competed vault. Mine were very weird and slow, and I barely made the flip around. My vault is a Yurchanko Pike (Weird names, I know). This time, I hit my beam routine. I thought it was great until the judge told me I had to many acro skills (A.K.A. flipping skills). How can you have too many acro skills? Isn't this gymnastics? Anyway, now I have to change my routine, so I am adding a sheep jump. I guess that'll look cool.