By: Danielle 11/3/04

There are not that many people at IHM who are gymnasts. Some of the people that do gymnastics are Danielle, Jenny, Stephanie, Melina, and Lauren. The sport of gymnastics is all about balance and handling fear. There are four events in gymnastics. They are: floor, beam, bars, and vault. They each have their own special unique things about them. Floor is dancing around a 40’ by 40’ spring mat while adding tumbling passes. The beam is a 4 inch wide long piece of wood on which gymnasts dance and tumble. Bars is swinging on a set of uneven parallel bars and the gymnast does different skills that meet the requirements needed for each level. Vault is running down a long strip of carpet and bouncing on a spring board and then doing a trick over the table. Each of these events is set to a level and the levels get harder when the gymnast moves up to the next one. The highest level that a gymnast can get to is Level 10. Then the gymnast moves unto the Elite level which is like the Junior Olympics. After the Elite level the gymnast may move on to the Olympics.

I asked some of the kids that go to Fltyz USA some questions about gymnastics. Most of the gymnasts like doing their own dance floor routines the best. Some of them said that they like to compete in meets. They all said that they like Coach Dawn the best. They said she helps them with problems like fear, doing new skills, and just making them a better gymnast. Some of the peoples’ fears usually involve bars. Many don’t like doing giant, flyaways. A giant is when the gymnast goes around the uneven bar with her hands holding onto the bar, and the gymnast does a complete circle around the bar passing through a handstand. A flyaway is a dismount that she may do off of the uneven parallel bars. All of the others fears involve beam, such as doing back-handsprings, or just mainly doing flight on beam. Flight is when you are in the air without any body parts touching the beam. Some of the people got into gymnastics because they saw the Olympics on T.V. One girl is in gymnastics because her two older sisters were in it and her mom decided to put her in also. She ended up really liking it and she stayed with it. She is still in gymnastics now. Most of the girls’ goals for life are to go to college and have a family. The girls that I interviewed go to Flytz and are all in Level 7.

This is the Flytz optional gymnastics area.

The Flytz compulsory gymnastics beam area.

This is the Fltyz vaulting pit area.