Well, everyone survived the past week consumed by academic insanity and we've now made it to the next stop on our journey! I know I've told ya'll Sarah's philosophy on Thanksgiving in regard to the grand scheme of the season: wherever you are gymnastically going into the break is typically where you start off in competition. So here we are and I think all the girls, coaches, trainers, and managers will attest to the fact we have worked so hard to get ourselves to this place. With such an auspicious postion, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for these next five months.
As a final evaluation of everyone's progress and current status going into the Holiday, we had bars and beam intrasquads on Sunday. We even brought in a judge to give her input on routines and help simulate the pressure of a competition. On bars, our team consisted of Amanda, Ricki, Morgan, Brittany, Kayla, and Kassi. Kayla had a break, but the other five nailed their sets. Usually at this time of year it's satisfactory to have everyone hit and stay on the equipment, but you expect to see hops on dismounts or slightly missed handstands. Not this year. These routines were executed in postseason fashion:) There is such a high standard in the gym this year and each of the girls are making the lineups extremely difficult to break into. We are still without Terin in our bar intrasquads as her elbow is still giving her problems on some of her skills.
The beam intrasquad was equally impressive. Casey lead us off with a solid set, who was then followed by Amanda with a routine packed full with bonus connections. Ricki rocked her routine "SEC Beam Champion style" with her signature stuck dismount. Brittany's routine was honestly close to perfect and an incredible set up for Kayla and Terin to both score big with such amazing and difficult routines as well. All in all, it was an awesome beam line up, but there is still so much depth behind those six. Morgan, Kassi, and Ashley O are all right there and have the potential to be competing also.
Another highlight to our week was Thanksgiving Dinner over at Sarah and David's house. It was another recruiting weekend so we got the chance to show the recruits what being an Alabama Gymnast was all about.
I know I keep saying over and over how excited I am, so I apologize for repeating myself, but when you get to see this team for yourself you'll completely understand my enthusiasm. I'm telling ya'll, there is just something special about these fifteen girls. Of the three teams I've been part of, I've never experienced this sort of camaraderie. Everyone shares the same love and desire for gymnastics and is willing to do anything to help the team. We all share the same ultimate goal and each person is one piece of the puzzle. With so many different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, everyone has to work together to make the pieces all fit. Without one piece, the puzzle just wouldn't be complete and we wouldn't be able to achieve that final product. To help us all understand this illustration, the coaches had each of us write a note to one another expressing what we were thankful for in that individual. It was really cool because on Friday night, we all had Thanksgiving dinner at the Patterson's and each one of us got a festive piece of paper with everyone's comments accumulated on it. It was so nice and encouraging to read the notes because far too often we forget to say thank you or let someone know how much we appreciate them.
On that note, I'm going to wrap this up and encourage all you readers to let your loved ones know how much they mean to you. Thank them for the little things, because to them it may be a big thing:) I hope everyone has a super Thanksgiving!! Enjoy the time with family and friends...I know we all will:)
