Bars

The second event in the official order is bars. So, here you go: the best overview of bars that I can provide for you.

Bars is different for boys and girls gymnastics. Boys gymnastics has two different events that include bars, but I know basically nothing about those events, so today I will just stick to talking about what I know. Women's gymnastics has an event called the Uneven Bars. The name is literal: there are two wooden bars that are connected but are at different heights, one low bar and one high bar, and are different lengths apart based on how far apart certain gymnasts need them to be. At competitions, every gymnast performs a bar routine. Your level determines how many elements or skills are required for your routine. For me, I am required to have eight elements in my routine. One must be a mount, or way you get onto the bar (there are plenty to choose from) and a dismount, how you get off the bar (there are also plenty of dismounts to choose from). Most girls don't have an identical bar routine because of the number of different elements that you can choose to put in your routine. Of course, the element must be difficult enough but not too difficult for your level. Certain girls definitely have more skills than others. Unfortunately for me, I am not one of the girls who has a lot of bar skills. I have the bare minimum, to say the least.

Basic Mounts
Pull-overs and kips are the only two mounts I have ever done. A pull-over is when you literally pull yourself over the bar into a front-support position, which is when you are on the bar, supporting yourself with your arms, which are straight. A kip is more difficult. You glide on the bar to get into a kip and then you do a certain motion that also has you end up in a front-support. A kip is kind of hard to explain without a visual or tutorial video, which is why a link to one is included at the bottom.

Basic Dismounts
Many dismounts I have done are too difficult to explain, but I will try to explain one that might be easier for you to understand. A fly-away is the basic dismount. And once you have it, and it is pretty difficult to get, you do more difficult dismounts that are built off of a simple fly-away. You basically are in a front-support on the high bar, you cast (swing your legs back and drive your heels down and out) and swing around the bar and let go when you are at about 180 degrees and you flip off and land on a mat in front of the high bar. Once you get the fly-away, you begin to straighten out. You originally get it in a tuck position, then you get a pike (when your legs are flat and your knees are touching your stomach), and then eventually a layout (flat body).

Rips
Rips are another thing you should be prepared for if you want to become a gymnast. You get a rip once you swing on the bar so much that you literally rip off a layer of your skin. Often times you also bleed where you got the rip. Also, many girls don't rip. Obviously, everyone has different types of skin and girls who have thicker skin don't rip as often. Again, unfortunately for me, I don't have very thick skin on my hands, which is probably why I rip so often. That's basically the only disclaimer for bars, except for the chance of falling off, but that doesn't happen very often at all.

Grips
You should also know about grips. Once you reach a certain level or once you begin to do certain skills that require them, you must get a pair of grips. They are made of leathery  material and cover the palms of your hands to help prevent rips (which doesn't work for me) and to help you keep your grip on the bar during skills where it is possible you could lose your grip. When you first get a pair of grips you have to break them in. Breaking them in is a long process and is kind of painful, but once you finally do break them in, you can't imagine what bars was like without them.

~Once I am able to do gymnastics again, I will be sure to post some of my own videos, but in the meantime, here are some links to videos showing basic bar skills:
pull-over video
kip video
back hip circle video
front-hip-circle video
free-hip/clear-hip video
cast handstand video
squat on video
fly away video

*this is a picture of a standard set of uneven bars*

Competition Day

What goes through your mind
Most gymnasts get really nervous for meets, as is expected. You typically get more nervous for invitational and state-wide and regional competitions than you do for little meets that don't count for much, but all different kinds of competitions are still atleast a little bit nerve-wracking. For me and some of the girls on my team, the panic sets in around 3 or 4 days prior to the competition day.

Why you get nervous
We are mostly worried about a new skill if we are doing it for the first time in competition, but mainly we worry about sticking our beam routine. Because, basically, if you fall off beam in a meet, you get a .5 deduction from your score of a maximum of 10.0, and that .5 ruins usually ruins your all-around score, so if you fall, it is hard to place in the AA, which everyone hopes to do at meets. Also, other things like: relatives coming to watch, pressure from your coaches to do well, first competition at a new level, or if how well you do at that competition determines whether or not you can qualify for a following meet can make you extra nervous. 

Judging
As I mentioned before, each event is scored out of a 10.0 and the judges who judge you write down all the errors they see and then add up all the deductions and give you your total score. A 40.0 is the highest possible all-around score you can get, but that never happens. A mid-high 35 or a 36 is usually a good enough score to place in the AA, but nothing is ever guaranteed. Even if you get the highest all-around of your life, you could still get 2nd AA because someone else in your age group could have done even better than you. 

Location
Meet locations vary, depending on the host gym and the type of competition. If it is a little meet that is basically entered for practice or to prepare for bigger meets, then sometimes the host gym has it in their actual gym. But, if it is an invitational, it is usually in a ballroom at a hotel or in a high school. State competitions are usually at a high school in the middle of the state. And regional competitions are somewhere in New England. For example, last year, regionals were in central Massachusetts in a ballroom at a hotel. 

Check-in, warm-up, march-in, compete

You arrive at the location of the meet and you go to a table that is labeled "gymnast check-in". Once you check yourself in, you go into the gym, put down your bag, meet up with your coach, and begin warming up whenever you are told you may begin. Check-in, warmup, march-in, competition, and awards all have a designated time, but meets often run late due to issues in the previous session. 

Once warm up is over, you go over to whichever event you are competing on first, introduce yourself to the judge, get another short warmup, and then compete, in whichever order you are put in. The rotation for the events is vault, bars, beam, floor, but everyone can't start at vault, so whichever event you start on, you follow the pattern to determine the rest of your order of events. 

Right before and right after you compete, you salute to the judge. A salute is basically putting up both of your arms by your arms while looking at the judge. Once you salute after your routine, indicating that you are done, the judge tallies up all the errors they wrote down and they flash you score and write it on your scorecard. Out of a 10.0, your goal is to get in the 9's, but sometimes that isn't as easy as it sounds. Mid-eights and nines are what you want to get for a score, if you want to place on that event. 

Competition usually takes anywhere from 2 hours to 4 hours, if the meet is really slow-moving. After you are completely done competing, you are escorted to awards, where you wait to see how you did. I will soon be writing another post all about awards, so I will talk about awards in that post!

This picture is of a panoramic view of a competition I worked at a few weeks ago, I'm hoping this helps you imagine what being at a competition is like! 

States

Mentality
The State Championship Competition is the most important day of your entire season. You work all year for this- the frustration, the pain, the sweat, the tears, everything is done for this one competition. It determines how well you are doing in your level and shows how much you have improved over the entire year and the season. It is important because if you don't do well, you sometimes think that your whole season was for nothing because you ended it on a bad note. And, to be honest, ending anything, especially an entire season, on a bad note is never a fun experience.

Dates
States for Xcel bronze, silver, and gold are usually the second weekend in May. However, for platinum and diamond, states are the second weekend of March. And that date is fast approaching. This will be the first time I will ever have had states in March instead of May.

My Past Experiences
I have been to states five times and I'm going to explain my experiences at states from the past all the way up until now. 2009 was the year of my first states. I was a Prep Opt Novice at that time (what is now known as Xcel Silver). That year, it was particularly nerve-wracking for me because it was my very first states, ever. I managed to stay on beam and did okay on all the other events. I placed 6th in the All-Around, 2nd on vault, and I actually ended up being the floor state champion for my age group. I consider my first states to be pretty successful!

2010 I was a second-year Prep Novice/Xcel Silver. So, since it was my second time, it was a little less scary for me. That year, that competition, was the one of best competitions of my entire life, if not the very best one. I placed in the top 5 on bars, floor, and vault, and I was the beam and All-Around State Champion for my age!! And the trophy I received at that meet is my favorite, still to this day:)

2011 was a rough year for me. I broke my legs a month before states, and thought I couldn't compete, but I ended up getting special permission from my doctor that I could compete if I iced between events and I was taped a up a certain way by the trainer. This states was a little fuzzy for me, but I do know that I ended up placing 5th place All-Around, as a first-year Prep Intermediate/Xcel Gold.

2012 honestly isn't even worth talking about because that was also a rough year and a rough states for me because I was recovering from injuries and a surgery so it took a while for me to get back in the game and get all my skills back. I placed 4th on floor and vault at that meet and didn't place in the all-around. But, with success comes failure, so I was able to accept the fact that even though I didn't place in the AA, I'll do better next year!

2013, however, as a third-year Xcel Gold, I did pretty well. I got 6th on bars, 5th on floor, 3rd on beam, and I was the vault state champion in addition to getting 2nd place All-Around!! That, in my opinion, was a good way to end my career as an Xcel Gold. I actually qualified for the regional championships based on my performance at states last year, but I will have a separate post all about regionals.

This year, states 2014, are unfortunately not in the cards for me. I am still out on injury for another 6 weeks and states are next weekend, but I am planning to go and support my teammates:)

But, I will hopefully be able to compete at States next year!

This is a picture of me and all of my teammates at States in 2012 when we were the 3rd place team!!!

Please, feel free to comment with any questions you have about any of my experiences or any questions you have about states or gymnastics in general!

AT&T American Cup 2014

The American Cup was this past weekend and it was amazing! The American Cup is one of the first international competitions of the season for the men and women. There were many breathtaking  performances by gymnasts all around the world, especially competitors from the US! This year's AT&T American Cup was held in North Carolina.

Women
The representatives for the women were Brenna Dowell and Elizabeth Price. Both girls are elite American gymnasts who qualified to participate in this elite competition. They both rocked all four events and took the 1st and 2nd place All-Around spots, with Elizabeth winning the whole competition and Brenna coming in a close second!

Men
As for the men, they also did really well! The two US representatives were Sam Mikulak and John Orozco, both elite American gymnasts. John Orozco did well enough but had a few mistakes causing it not to be his best day, and Sam Mikulak was neck-in-neck with a Chinese gymnast for most of the competition, but ended up pulling out a win for the US!

My Favorites
There are many gymnasts, world-wide, who inspire me and really continue to amaze me year after year. Some of whom were present in the AT&T American Cup. Below, I have included links to what I think were the best performances of the competition and you really don't want to miss!

Highlights from the meet:

-Victoria Moors' (Canada) breathtaking floor routine

-Vanessa Ferrari's (Italy) powerful floor routine

-Brenna Dowell's (US) new and improved bar routine

-Elizabeth Price's (US) incredible vault

This image shows Sam Mikulak and Elizabeth Price celebrating their incredible wins!