Gymnastics

Due to the fact that our daughter is complete monkey and loves to hang and swing on anything she can reach her little hands on, we decided that she may really take a liking to gymnastics. Here are a few examples of what I am talking about…

After looking into a few different gymnastic places for toddlers (Lily Gultch Community Center, The Little Gym, Etc.) we finally settled on a place called Jet Gymnastics. My neighbor takes her 3 year old daughter there and gave it rave reviews, even after she tried two of the other places we also looked into. We took Autumn there one afternoon to get some info and check the place out and we really liked it. We really liked how focused they are at teaching these kids actual Gymnastics, rather than just singing and playing with the equipment, at such young ages. Any who, they go off of 12 week sessions and the next one starts on Nov. 13th. We decided before paying for the full 12 week session we should take her to a trial class to test it out first. I took her this past Thursday to the trial class while Owen was at pre-school. Technically she is supposed to be in a Mommy & Me class since she isn’t 2 1/2 yet, but since they were aware of her insanely good upper body strength they decided to try her in the 2 1/2 year old class to see how she did. I was a teeny bit worried since she can be pretty clingy in new surroundings, (especially without Owen by her side) but much to my surprise, she walked right in there, introduced herself to the coach and waved goodbye to me. I could not be more proud, and it brought me so much joy to see her enjoying herself so much. She absolutely 100% LOVED it. Needless to say she is all signed up and ready to start her official first 12 week gymnastics session starting Nov. 13th. She will go every Thursday @10:00am for 50 minutes, which works out great since Owen will be in school. While she is in class I sit in some bleachers on the other side of a half wall so she was kind of far away at times, but I did my best in trying to get some good pictures of her in her 1st gymnastics class. I also met some really sweet ladies (mom’s of the other gymnastics teammates) while I was there so I think this will be good for me too! I am so excited to see how the next 12 weeks unfold.

 

My sweet little girl all ready for Gymnastics. It is not required, but it is strongly encouraged that your child wears proper gymnastics attire (ex: leotard) and their hair should be properly pulled back from their face. So I took it upon myself to go to a local consignment shop and found her two adorable and almost brand new leotards for $4 each. She looked so adorable in her gymnastics getup!

I think their were about 8-10 kids in her class, most of them were about to turn 3 and their were two coaches. They warmed up all together as a group and then separated into two groups for more one on one interaction with the kids.

Most of the kids in her class have been doing gymnastics for at least 6 months so Autumn was definitely the newbie, but that little girl walked right in there and started doing exactly what the other kids were doing as if she had been their the whole time. I love the confidence that child has. There was another little girl in the class that was named Autumn too. The coach called them ‘Autumn’ and ‘Little Autumn’, can you guess who was who? Hahaha. There was also 1 little boy in her class and his name was Owen so she felt right at home. Lol

Check out her flexibility! Wish I could do that, you go Autumn!

Autumn’s One on One coach was Instructor Lizzie. She really seemed to like her :)

They did a lot of Obstacle Course type activities to teach them to follow instructions. Here they had to crawl in the tent, grab a orange pumpkin ball and then walk across the balance beam carrying the ball.

Coach Lizzie tried to help ‘Little’ Autumn across and Autumn looked up at her and said, “No Coach Lizzie, I do all myself.” Hahaha

Autumn did an excellent job at waiting her turn.

Not sure if you can tell by Coach Lizzie’s facial expression, but Autumn thoroughly impressed her with her strength on the bar. The Coaches exact words were, “Wow, you’re a strong little thing.” Lol

They were supposed to do the position she asked them to do and then yell the position they were in before dismounting. So Autumn got up there, yelled “Straddle” and then jumped down. She did it flawlessly.

And here they had to hold the bar and prop their feet up on the lower bar and walk sideways. Again, she was an ole pro.

And they ended with the rings. Once they were finished they had a quick circle time and all got stamps on their feet. They all got to chose a candy from the candy bowl and it was over. Autumn had tiny sweat beads on her forehead when she came running over to me with the biggest cheek to cheek smile I have ever seen. Her first words she said to me were, “Mommy, I come back to gymnastics again?”

I am so excited I get this one on one time with Autumn each week while Owen is at school watching her do something she honestly wholeheartedly loves. I think we found her passion and calling! I hope she sticks with this for a long time because I believe she has a true God given talent for the sport. Watch out Summer Olympics 2024, here comes Autumn Burgess from the USA!

The coach came up to me afterwards and raved to me about how well Autumn did. She then asked me when Autumn would be turning 3. I told her Autumn had barely turned two 3 months ago and she was shocked. She said Autumn talks and communicates extremely well for her age and was very strong.  I could not be more proud of this girl!