Parenting Win–Super Brave Ally

This season Ally moved up a level at Gymnastics. She is now a Shooting Star! This was a big goal for her and Ally worked really hard all summer to get moved up to this level. Practice is once a week for 90 minutes and she is the youngest girl in her class (again). Most of the girls are 9 and 10.

While she loves it and her skills have improved incredibly – this upper level means more challenging and for Ally “scary” elements. She has mastered one handed cartwheels, almost has the back walk over down, and is learning how to do a back handspring! Ally told me one night – “it’s a little scary doing flips” we talked about good scary or too scary and how she needs to to what her coach asks her to do, even if its scary. That part of getting better at gymnastics and growing up is being brave and doing things you are scared of.

I told her the story about how in college I went to Africa. I did not know any one I went with and it was a long way from home, and they ate different food and everyone in Africa looked different than me. She seemed marginally interested in my story – the moral of which was – I did something really scary to me, but I felt good about it and I had fun. New and different can be scary, but it can also be fun.

Then the next day as we waited for class to start I reminded her about how she needed to do what her coach asked her to do. (She sometimes shakes her head no at his request and refuses to do a skill she is afraid to do.)  I told her she does what her teachers at school ask of her and she needed to do what the coach asked as well. She asked me “what happens if I don’t?”…”don’t do what?” I asked “what happens if I don’t do it” she said. I replied “I don’t know…” and let her think about it.

Well class started right then and off to run and warm up she went. About half way thru the session the girls were working on the bar. The high bar. The bar that Ally usually refuses to even swing from because it is so high up off the ground.

Her coach had piled mats up so he could stand at the high bar and spot the girls as they did their skills on that bar – the same skills they do on the low bar. I should say Ally doesn’t always do her skills on the low bar, because that is high for her – she can’t even reach the low bar from standing. So the low bar is high to her – I sat in the parents waiting area with baited breath wondering what she would do when her turn came.

She did it! Ally chalked up her hands and climbed up the mats and performed her skills on the high bar. Her coach was so proud of her he called over her other coach to show her and pretty much 2 classes of girls stopped to watch little Ally way up there on the high bar. And wow – it was high. I will admit I was a little scared for her – it is really high up there. But mostly I was and still am, so very proud of Ally.

I was too stunned the first rotation to take pictures but her second time up there I managed to take these to show Becky, and posterity what Ally accomplished.

 

The upper bar is just over 8' feet high.

Go Ally Go!