Project#13: The power of cute, or how H got her groove back

Meet Little Flat Chicky! (LFC)

At the end of February, my daughter H, 8 years old started competing at provincial level gymnastics meets.  It was scary – understandable I would say.  First consider doing a walkover on a beam 4 inches wide, then imagine judges watching you do it and judging you on it.   Nerves got to her and she lost her round-off-back-handspring, which sounds impressive, but it was an old standby skill for many months. Less than a week later, she competed again at her home gym club.  It went much better.  A very small part played by Little Flat Chicky, sewed into her gym suit.  A reminder of a favourite friend …

Big Fat Chicky! (BFC)

and to have fun….

H has gotten over her competition nerves and her round-off-back-handspring is back. We have worked on breathing together and talked through a lot of stuff.  She didn’t need LFC at the most recent competition, although she did bring along BFC to sit in the stands. She likes competitions and she summed it up recently saying, “you get what you get and you don’t get upset”.  That is a saying borrowed from one of her classmates at school.  Got to love what 8 year olds can teach you.

Here’s a photo of H and BFC at the Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival.
and one of H doing a back tuck dismount from the beam.

I was inspired to make LFC, (so I could deal with my mom worries and not pass them on to H), by the books by Aranzi Aronzo, The Cute Book, in particular, which I found at the library, as well as being available at the usual on-line book stores.

Re-groovenated!

June Written by:

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