Back to the Grind

The Fall practice schedule for Sophia started up this week!  Her official schedule is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 4-7:30 and Saturday 9-1!  She was invited by her coaches to join the Wednesday optionals' practice from 5-9!  So yes, you have read that correctly!  She is practicing 6 days a week!  She has not officially had a full week back at the gym yet since Monday was Labor Day, so we will have to wait and see how she does with such a full workout schedule!  Her gym time adds up to 22 hours a week!  As a level 6 gymnast, she is at the gym more days than the optional girls (they, of course, have more accumulated hours)!  Sean and I have made it clear to her that school will always come first and that if we find that she is not pulling her weight in the classroom and at home, gym time will change!!  At the rate she is going, she should probably just sleep over at the gym!!  Hahaha!!  Just kidding!!  I'd miss her too much!!

Well, I had the opportunity to watch her practice on Wednesday this week!!  She was working with the optional team girls - in which she LOVES to do!!!  Apparently, the Wednesday practice consists of levels 8-10 -- which means there is a smaller number of girls overall working out together!!  Sophia is very fortunate to have this chance to work with the higher level girls -- it is definitely helping her push past some blocks she has been having!!  She also gets to work with her friends and teammates Caroline, Becca and Sidney on these days (as well as the rest of the workout schedule) - which she absolutely LOVES!!  This week, I reminded Sophia of a quote I recently came across, in hopes of helping her overcome her issue with trying to do giants on bars!  I also mentioned something to a few of her optional teammates about 'encouraging' her to try to do giants!!  The girls were up to the challenge and when Sophia got out on bars with Ivan, she did it!!! She finally did giants on the bars with Ivan!!!  I am so immensely proud of her for getting up there and facing her fear and conquering it!!  Afterwards, she told me how fun they were to do!!!  Way to go baby!!!

When she moved on to beam, I was able to witness, firsthand, Sophia doing backhandsprings with and without a step out!!  I have been told that the backhandspring with 2 foot landing (no step out) is incredibly hard to do and she did them - beautifully!!!  Wednesday is definitely a day for her to work on the higher skills I know she is dying to try!!  Sophia's hard work and dedication were very apparent that day!!  I couldn't be more proud!!

I didn't get the chance to see her practice on Tuesday (she rides to the gym and home with a friend) but I did get to see a little of her practices on Thursday, Friday and all of today's practice!!  Thursday was just the level 6 girls - amazing!!  I couldn't believe it!!  There were no other compulsory girls practicing with them!  I am glad that the L6 girls get the opportunity to work one on one with the coaches!!  Friday practice was the L5 and L6 girls - which was a nice change of pace!!  Today's practice was pretty full with levels 4-6 as well as the advanced pre-team girls but I still felt like Sophia and her teammates got the necessary amount of attention to help them continue to grow as gymnasts!!  I just love watching her and her teammates practice!! I love watching the progression they make when learning new skills and moving onto refining them!!  I get a good feeling when watching this team practice - they are a great group of gymnasts!!!

I wanted to end this post with the quote I found to help inspire Sophia!!  I hope you enjoy it and please check back soon -- I should hopefully find out the meet schedule within the next few weeks!!  I hope to also be able to get some pictures and videos of Sophia in the gym soon!!!  Take care friends and family!!

"All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will come of it!"  - Benjamin Mee  

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