Devastation

Thursday night we had it! {r} learned that she was being moved out of preteam gymnastics and back down to rec. She isn't advancing as quickly as the other girls so they want her to go down to rec and work on the little things she needs. . . hopefully she will get it and move back up to preteam soon (basically body awareness; ie: don't arch her back, don't stick her butt out so much, keep a flat belly). She was completely devastated. Not only because she was being moved back, but because just the week before her coach said she was progressing which is all they look for so they would be keeping her (basically the surprise plus the sadness = devastation). Really, it isn't so much that she is advancing more slowly than the other girls it is just that they are finally at a point where they are picking it up and advancing and she isn't. All the other girls have been in this class since June, she has only been in for 3 weeks so that is pretty much to be expected. She will be in the preteam class for 3 more weeks, until the next rec session starts. Her coach did say though that if things all of a sudden started to click with her then she would likely just stay in preteam. One thing her coach mentioned was her needing to get better at her back handspring. She needed a lot of spotting when doing them and she was keeping her back straight instead of arching . . . until today!

I have been telling her for weeks to try the back handspring by herself but she has been too scared. Today she asked if I would help her, so I told her to go clean off the trampoline and I would spot her. When I got out there she was already trying to do it by herself. After about 7 tries, she got it!
Mom, I know you won't be able to see the video so here are pictures showing what she is doing (to tide you over until you get here Tuesday and can see for yourself).