The Last Meet Before States! 

Last night, MAG level 5 boys pulled off 2nd place overall.  It is fun watching these boys grow into their sport.  While this was not a great event for some individually; together they make a great time.

This meet was rough for Nolan.  The second event was mushroom (pommel) and he made a mistake. This is HIS is event, he crushes it normally.  As the mom who is learning the skills and terminology his flares were too slow and that is what caused him to fall.  He went back finished the routine and then sat down and lost it.  As a parent this is one of the hardest things to see and know that you can't do anything to fix the situation or help your child.  Once the event was completed for all the boys, I called him over because he was still crying and very upset.  I gave him a hug and told him he still did great.  His response was "I did something so stupid". I gently reminded him that it didn't matter as long as he did his best!  Again, the tug on the heart strings!!  I reminded him that we saw some great gymnasts last week have rough meets. We went to the UM vs Minnesota meet, where Shane Wiskus fall from the high bar!  Shane Wiskus for those that might not know is on the Men's National gymnastics team and has the potential to be in the Olympics this year.  I told Nolan to continue to do his best and not let this event shake his confidence in the following 4 events.

Nolan doing his rings routine; showing the lever!  This might be my favorite event.

The rest of the meet went well with Nolan he even managed to improve his parallel bar routine.  The last event was high bar, an event N does quite well with.  Well as fate would have it, he fumbled this event as well.  He was not a shaken with this mistake, but you could see his disappointment.  Again, one of the hardest things to see!  But maybe my little talk earlier helped.

As we waited for awards, I told myself this was the meet we had been waiting for.  The meet where Nolan would learn a little humility.  You see, all of the meets to date N has "medaled" in all events and ended up either first or second all around.  That is no easy feat as it means that his scores were consistently high. Last night, Nolan placed 4th all around.  He medaled 1st in vault and floor, 4th in rings and parallel bars, 5th in high bar, and 6th in pommel.  I will explain scoring in another blog post.

Nolan receiving his 1st place medal for vault.

When we finally got home last night I said to Nolan well now you know how some of your teammates feel.  He replied "No, I still did pretty good."  Sigh!!! The path for humility continues......

Meet # 5 - Michigan Open

We are half way through the 2nd competition season and Nolan continues to improve and surprise us with his talent.  Nolan started his gymnastics journey a little over 3 years ago.  His passion and drive for this sport is amazing given he is only 11 years old.  This blog is to document his journey as he had big goals for being a gymnast for the University of Michigan and competing in the 2028 Olympics.

Today was the 5th meet in Southgate, Michigan.  The team did a fantastic job.  They took 1st place as a team and every boy walked away with medals.  They have a rough season but are managing to work through their struggles and it showed today!

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