Gymnastics is a very demanding sport and with that comes responsibility for the equipment that you will need. When starting out in gymanstics you will first need to buy some leos. My favorite place to buy leos would be GK. I like the material and fit of the leos. Here is the website for GK so you can start shopping! https://www.gkdgymnastics.com/essential-leotards/

Once your daughter or son starts to get into the compulsory level they will need to purchase some grips. Men typically get the grips with three holes while women use the ones with just two holes. Here is where I normally purchase my grips! https://www.gymsupply.com/grips.aspx

Once your daughter starts to learn new tricks at practice she will want to work on them at home. You should probably buy a small gymanstics matt for her to practice one so she won’t get hurt. You can check out a few on this website! https://www.greatmats.com/gymnastic-mats.php?gclid=CjwKCAjw0N3nBRBvEiwAHMwvNow3ijyzaiF3Vr2Y7hgoS0U3SKCZhp6FWIp934LwQEE-lZYq-JSnqBoCznEQAvD_BwE

Something really cool that my parents did for me when I was a kid was get a balance beam for my sister and I to practice on. It was not the regular size beam but a small floor beam that I could still practice skills on. If you are interested here is the link to find some balance beams! https://www.thebeamstore.com/gym-equipment/4ft-beams?gclid=CjwKCAjw0N3nBRBvEiwAHMwvNtxxjzy1w0a6J8HIneE1SyZEre6yPK-C3a0MP5e9O76FhOCV8CLcyhoCwDcQAvD_BwE

Lastly, the one thing that every gymnast will eventually use is tape and pre-wrap. Whether it be for a injury, a tapped ankle, or under your wristbands, it is always a good thing to have. Here is where I get my tape and pre-wrap. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pre+wrap+and+athletic+tape&gclid=CjwKCAjw0N3nBRBvEiwAHMwvNrCYjW4ChF-PJuZ5e69w7Cw22KnSl2yFtadiyi8Zkamw1ENG-4FrLhoC4zsQAvD_BwE&hvadid=177813738709&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9021431&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=10224415836614388332&hvtargid=kwd-20352192964&hydadcr=21883_9712095&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_5dsulgpnr7_e

• 

My junior year of high school was one of the most exciting years of my life. My team got 3rd place in state. We went in with no expectations and left with a trophy in our hands. We hit 20 for 20 routines that day. I can still hear the crowd cheering, the feeling of goosebumps when I stepped onto the floor to do my routine. It is all still fresh in my mind. Even though we didn’t end up getting 1st place, we still felt like we were on top of the world. Getting 3rd place was just as good as us getting 1st because we did the absolute best we could that day.

Throughout my gymnastics career I have had multiple people I have looked up to. Just to name a few would be my older sister, Ally Raisman, Simone Biles, and Shawn Johnson. No one is ever perfect and you will see that in the video that Shawn Johnson posted. She talks about one of the many obsticales she has had to over come in gymanstics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEmtRuJwb7A

Another amazing gymnast I wanted to talk about is Ally Raisman. She is one of the older gymnasts who have stuck with the sport for so long. In her last olypmics she was 22 years old. Most gymnasts stop after they turn 17 or 18. She continues to amaze the nation not only for her age but also her difficult floor routine. Below is a video break down of her first tumbling pass on floor.

One very hard thing to do in gymnastics is to stop doing it for a while. It takes so much time and mental strenght to gain back everything you have lost over the period of time you were not doing it. In this video below olympic gold medalist Simone Biles talks about her road to getting back into the gym after taking sometime off to enjoy herself after the 2016 Rio Olypmic Games. Like any other gymnast Simone also runs into some difficult situations that she has to overcome.

Gymnastics is a year round sport. There is no “off” season. I started gymnastics when I was just two years old. It is all I have ever known and it still continues to be part of my life. Doing gymnastics has taught me many life skills: disipline, team work, time management, and dedication. Besides all of the good things it has taught me it came with a price. I had a stress fracture in my back my sophomore year of high school. I chose to sit out for a year and then to come back and finish my junior and senior year. I am even on the club gymnastics team at Xavier. Continuing to do gymnastics for this long comes at a price. Your body becomes worn out and can start to break down.

Here are some other gymnastics blogs that helped me think about what I wanted to write about and just some things you can learn about gymanstics if you have never done it.

• 

https://gymblogcentral.com

https://thegymter.net/2019/06/03/around-the-gymternet-aint-nothing-but-a-heartache/

http://www.thecouchgymnast.com/2019/04/18/the-list-fit-to-be-tied/

http://gymgabblog.com/25-gymnastics-questions/

http://gymgabblog.com/meet-season-good-knows/