Bama-rama

Emily went to her first gymnastics meet of the season on Friday. She was very excited and she ended up doing very well. The meet was held in Tuscaloosa and was hosted by the University of Alabama. Even though Emily is a big Auburn fan, she is quick to point out that Alabama has better gymnastics. Last year their team finished 6th in the NCAA Championships.

Emily placed 7th on bars, 2nd on floor and vault, 1st on beam, and 1st all-around. Along with her medals she got 2 trophies, she got to have her picture taken with some of the university gymnasts, and she even got an Alabama Gymnastics t-shirt. Talk about excitement! Her goal was to score more than a 31 all-around so that she could exit level five, and she ended-up scoring a 36.5.

For those of you who don't live and breathe gymnastics, USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic program is divided into 10 levels. Basically, gymnasts have the choice of competing in levels 1-4 but levels 5 and 6 are compulsory. All level 5 gymnasts in the whole country do the exact same routines to the exact same music (same with level 6), and you have to score a minimum of 31 points in a meet to exit out of the level. Levels 7-10 are called Optionals and this is more like what you see on TV where each gymnast has her own routine and music. There are certain skills that gymnasts in each level must do and you have to score a 34 to move up to the next level.

So now Emily has exited level 5, but she is not quite ready for level six. She is still learning a flyaway on the bars which is the last level 6 skill that she has to learn. She will probably compete level 5 again at her next meet (in 2 weeks) and then she might be able to do level 6 in the spring. If not, she will compete in a different program called Prepratory Optionals (prep-opt) until she is ready for level 6. Prep-opt is separate from USA Gymnastics and is basically a program for gymnasts who are in between levels (exited 4 but not ready for 5 or exited 5 but not ready for 6, etc). This is the program that she did last year when she went to State and Regionals.

Here are the highlights of Emily's Bama-rama meet:
(FYI--She is not falling off the bars at the end of her routine. That is the dismount that they do for level 5. Go Figure.)