First meet of the season! Super excited to show of my awesome new skills that I have been working incredibly hard on for the last 3 months since returning from tour. When I am not touring with Smirkus, I am a USAG Level 9 competitive gymnast.
Our first meet is a home meet that our gym hosts. Since the Level 10 gymnasts will finish the meet on the floor, the level 9’s are required to start on beam. You see, if you didn’t know it, the rotational order of a meet is in alphabetical order – Bars, Beam, Floor, Vault. The L10’s started on vault so they would end on floor (always a crowd fave), therefore the L 9’s had to start on Beam – since we’re the next highest level. 🙂
Beam has historically been my best event, earning me several state championship titles and in our gym, I have been referred to as the “beam queen” a time or two. I walk on a 1″ wire, performing on a 4″ beam should be a breeze, right? Not so much, lol.
At this meet, one of my big moments in a series is a back tuck on beam. During warm ups, I was actually warming up a different series and felt myself go a little “off” so instead of continuing through, I decided I would warm up my back tuck just….”one more time”. You know the old saying that you should never do something just one more time? Proved to be true once again. I missed my landing entirely with one foot and caught my other foot on the beam bending it in half breaking my tibia at the growth plate. 😦
4-6 weeks recovery they said……because of the extreme nature of my sports, they are being extremely cautious so that I do not stress or reinjure the bone quickly so I am in a boot non-weight bearing. Totally sucks! I had plans to participate with Smirkus at First Night and this was the very first meet of the year, which means that my competition season is cut incredibly short and my chances of qualifying to compete at the state and/or regional meets is reduced every day I am wearing this boot.
Sooooo, if you’re reading this……and you’re a gymnast……it’s always better to land on the beam and never, ever do something just “one more time”. 🙂
❤ Hannah
Tales From the Tightwire 