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| Coach Dan was judging high bar this time around |
James's first gymnastics meet was on Friday. It was a lot of fun! (It was a very long day, though. Brockport is about an hour's drive away. We had to be there at 4 PM, and warmups took two hours -- the meet didn't even start until six. It was close to 10 by the time the awards ceremony was finished! Matthew was a very good boy the whole time. Fortunately, he had his iPad, pizza, and granola bars to keep him occupied.)
I've come to the conclusion that the hardest event in boys' gymnastics is the wardrobe changes. :) On the parallel bars warmup, James ended up with one white sock and one black sock. (No one informed us about the need for black socks, which was a little annoying -- luckily, I threw them in the bag because they'd used them for the team picture, but they weren't athletic socks. They were the dress socks I got for them to wear to cousin Chris's wedding! So, not the easiest to get on for him.) And then on the pommel horse/mushroom warmup, James had his pants on inside out. Fortunately, the coaches helped him out and he looked presentable for the main events!
For this meet, the boys went in alphabetical order, which meant that James was first on each event. (So, he didn't even have the advantage of watching the other kids! But that's okay.) The coach did need to remind him about things like saluting the judges at the beginning and end, but it turned out several of the other kids needed those reminders as well. :)
Overall, James did a great job, especially for his first meet! On the rings, he fell forward on his landing, but it didn't phase him (he popped right up, saluted, and said, "what did I get?") He still ended up with a 7.7, which he was happy with.
I didn't expect him to get any awards this time around. His scores weren't the highest on his team -- a lot of the other boys competed last year, and James is still working on some of his skills. So it was a fun surprise when he won two medals -- fourth place on floor and third place on vault. He was thrilled! (It turns out that the many of the other boys on his team were in different age groups and/or divisions, so James wasn't actually competing against them this time around.) Hooray for James!
His team also won first place in the team competition for the Level 4s. So, it was worth waiting around until the end of the awards ceremony. :)
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| The little guys do the "mushroom" instead of pommel horse |
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| James and Coach Joe |
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| Turning around to smile at the judge isn't an official part of the routine |
I've come to the conclusion that the hardest event in boys' gymnastics is the wardrobe changes. :) On the parallel bars warmup, James ended up with one white sock and one black sock. (No one informed us about the need for black socks, which was a little annoying -- luckily, I threw them in the bag because they'd used them for the team picture, but they weren't athletic socks. They were the dress socks I got for them to wear to cousin Chris's wedding! So, not the easiest to get on for him.) And then on the pommel horse/mushroom warmup, James had his pants on inside out. Fortunately, the coaches helped him out and he looked presentable for the main events!
For this meet, the boys went in alphabetical order, which meant that James was first on each event. (So, he didn't even have the advantage of watching the other kids! But that's okay.) The coach did need to remind him about things like saluting the judges at the beginning and end, but it turned out several of the other kids needed those reminders as well. :)
His team also won first place in the team competition for the Level 4s. So, it was worth waiting around until the end of the awards ceremony. :)
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