This chapter was originally going to be chapter two, but I decided to take out the first chapter because it was really long and just make a prologue. So a few of you have probably read this before, but I made a lot of changes and I added a glossary and the end.

December 2004

As I hit my hands together white flakes of chalk fell from my grips and floated down to the floor. I took a deep breath and stepped into my ready stance in front of the uneven bars . I looked up to face two monsters dressed in blue ensemble, the judges. Behind them, hundreds of people staring back at me, shifting anxiously in the hard wooden bleachers. I watched as the judges scribbled markings, I couldn’t see what they were, on their pads of paper. I nervously started to fidget with my grips, waiting for the judges.

I noticed one of the judges pass the piece of paper she had finished writing on and looked up to face me. She raised her right arm, giving me the okay to begin my routine . I presented back, as was costume before gymnasts start any routine and turned to face still feeling her gaze on me. I tool another deep breath and took a step forward to prepare for my mount .

Kip , cast , free hip , followed by a glide kip was the beginning of my routine, and I flowed through all of them perfectly. The uneven bars was my best event so I didn’t really have anything to worry about. I cast again but this time I put my feet on the low bar and stood up to face the high bar. This was the part of my routine that I was most worried about. I had to perform one of the elements that I had never had to in a competition. A back giant . “Come on Amanda!” I herd one of my teammates yell from behind me. I jumped and grabbed the high bar, doing another kip, cast, and fell back down and around the bar to begin my giants.

Fall, tap, scoop . I said to myself after I was in my handstand on the top of the bar. These were all of the things that were necessary for the giant to be completed. I started to fall to begin my first giant. I made it around, and took my original position on the top of the bar. I heard a scream from my teammates, excited that I had done at least one giant. I had only one more giant to go before my dismount , when my routine ended, along with my nervousness.

I repeated the words in my head as I fell to start my second giant. This time though I repositioned my hands as I was falling. I felt a rush of adrenaline go through my body as I tried to fix my fault. I passed under the bar and felt as my grip slipped off of the bar. The next thing I new I was flying through the air and all I could see was the ceiling, and I knew that I had just peeled . I heard the crowd gasp, and my coach who was standing next to the bars step onto the mat, in an attempt to loosen my fall. I knew that there was nothing that I could do at this point but wait for me to hit the cold, hard ground, and hope not to be injured.

I wrenched open my eyes, and stared at the blue carpeted floor. I had my head in my arms and I was lying on the gymnastics floor in our gym. I sat up quickly and looked around. I found all of my teammates lined up next to me still in the position that I was just in.

“Amanda are you done visualizing?” said a stern voice behind me which made me jump. I turned around to find my couch Buzz walking past the beams toward me. I nodded. “All of your routines?” I nodded again. “Perfect?”

“Yes all of them!” I said annoyed, but knowing that I hadn't been visualizimg my routines. Usually you didn't do giants until you were an optional. Which I should be, I thought. Visualizing was a big thing in the gymnastics world, especially to Buzz. Proven studies had found that visualizing while you were injured, helped gymnast’s routines, and helped them get better all-around scores. Buzz had told us many storing about when he was in gymnastics, and injured how he would watch videos of gymnasts and would come back from the injury and be able to through tricks he never was able to before. But Buzz made us visualize in we were injured or not.

“Well,” he said to me scratching his bald head. “You have a practice meet this weekend. I guess you can go home now.” I stood up and walked across the floor, pass the bar to the lockers. I opened my locker and took out my practice bag, sweatpants, and baggy sweatshirt. Before I slipped on my pants I examined the red square welts on my legs. They were from earlier in practice and my other coach, Becky’s plan to fix bent legs. She would take a paint stirring stick that she have gotten from Home Depot and smack us as hard as she cold on the legs if the were bend while we were tumbling. I was so used to this I would even sometimes smack my self in the leg every time before my tumbling pass in practice, so that I wouldn’t bend them.

I looked up and noticed that some of my teammates were also finished visualizing and making their way toward the lockers. I hurried to get dressed so that I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. I was still really upset that I wasn’t moved up to level 7 and I didn’t want that subject to be brought up.

“Are you ready for the meet tomorrow?” my teammate Sierra asked me as she retrieved her things from her locker.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I replied sitting on the bench and putting on my shoes.

“Yeah,” she replied with a smile on her face.

“Well, I have to go,” I said getting up and stretching my sore legs. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I picked up my things and waved goodbye to her as I headed out the door.

I pushed open the door and stepped into the lobby which was buzzing with the parents of the children from the younger classes. I was checking my box for mail when Becky came out of the back office. “How are your legs doing Amanda,” she said looking over the front desk at the fading red marks on my legs. “I hope you’ll keep them straight now.” She folded her arms, and laughed in a way that drove me crazy.

“Yeah,” I said with a little smile. Ever since Becky had denied me the change of going to level seven I hadn’t really wanted to be around her let alone talk to her. And now with the birth of her baby she was threatening to quit coaching. Becky had coached me for as long as I could remember, and it angered me how she was just going to get up and leave.

I grabbed my mail and right as I was heading out the door Becky yelled at me, “Bye Amanda,” and headed back into her office. I didn't say anything or even look back as I pushed open the glass door and stepped outside.

*****

The freshly fallen snow crunched under my feet as I jumped out of my mother’s car. The winter morning air was cold and fog covered. I loved the first snow of the winter, which was a sure sign that competition season was about to begin.

My chestnut colored hair was pulled tightly back into a pony tail, and I had my gray and black long sleeved gymnastic suit on with my same colored warm ups over it.

I knew that I was going to be late but I didn't hurry. I sat outside in the chilly air looking across the railroad tracks that ran right past the gym. I took a deep breath and finally forced myself to go inside the gym. A warm air covered my face as I pulled open the glass door. I made my way through all of the parents of my teammates and into the gym.

All of my level six teammates were already there talking and giggling by the lockers. They were sitting in their warm up on and ready to go. I went walked over to where they were and set my grip bag and shoes in my locker. "Ready, Amanda," Sierra asked me, sitting on the bench next to my locker.

“Ready for the season to be over," I replied setting myself down next to her. “I’m ready to compete Level seven."

"All in good time Amanda," my other teammate, April said getting up from where she was sitting. I gave her a little smile, and watched her as she made her way to the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Lately I had been getting the feeling that people had been getting annoyed with me complaining about not moving up. I knew that April understood what I was going through. She had always been the one who I could connect with. She had also wanted to move up, but unlike me hadn't been told by Becky that she could if she wanted to. April and me had always been really close, but I felt that we had never had a relationship bigger then teammates.

Okay, girls. Lets warm up!" Becky yelled across the gym at us as she came out of the lobby. "Five laps around the floor each way!" We all got up and April came out of the bathroom, and followed us onto the floor.

We jogged around the floor and then stretched. Becky separated the Level Fives and Sixes, sending the littler ones to beam, and us to floor. I noticed that the parents were now filing up stair onto the balcony. "Oh, no! Karen’s judging floor!" April said as we waited in line to warm up out tumbling passes. I looked over and saw her in her blue blazer getting her judging materials organized on a colorful P-bar box that was to be her table. "I wouldn't mind her judging anything else, but floor is my worst event!" April said as another one of my teammates in front of me started her tumbling pass. Karen was one of the hardest judges in the state of Montana. If you even thought about making a mistake she would nail you for it.

"I didn’t recognize any of the other judges as I looked around. I supposed that they had been last minute resort enable to find judges. "It's your turn, Amanda,” April said tapping me on the shoulder. I snapped back from my daze and noticed everyone waiting for me. I stood in the corner and prepared for my tumbling pass, then ran to start my fist tumbling pass.

*****

After the meet was over I sat on the floor with the rest of my teammates. I laid on the floor with my hands underneath my head thinking and listening to my teammates laughing. I had done okay in the meet, even thought I knew I could have been better. I wasn't in the best of moods today. I sat up and looked at all of my teammates. "The awards are going to take forever." Every body agreed with me, and all decided to have a handstand contest.

Buzz had said that I had one of the best handstands, or at least better then anyone else in the gym, and won most of the contests. After we were board with that then we moved on to headstands, which I wasn't as well at. Finally Becky came out the lobby with metals in had. I waited patiently as she went through the Level Five awards. It was now turn for the Level Sixes. Maegen, my twin sister, received 6th place, I received 3rd, followed by Sierra who got 2nd, and April who took first.

After the award Becky made all of us help clean up the things from the meet. After we were all done with that all of the Level Fives filed out and left with their parents. A few of the Level Sixes went with them, but me, Maegen, Sierra, April, and another one our teammates Sierra Corkin, all stayed and tumbled a little more, while Becky talked quietly to our parent at the door of the gym. "What do you think their talking about?" I asked. I thought I knew though. Becky had been having trouble, having a new baby and all. I had heard that her husband had gotten fired from his job, and the was Becky was in a squeeze for money. She was now working two jobs with now sympathy from her husband.

"May be we could do a fundraiser to help her," someone had suggested. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but after a while realized that there was nothing we could do, but watched and hoped that this time would pass with little trouble involved.

"I know," April said all of the sudden." I heard that she was quitting." This news hit me really hard. I could feel the tears coming to my eyes but didn't want to cry in front of my teammates, so I held them back. I looked around at all the rest of the girls who had all gone silent. Becky leaving the gym was something that we all didn't want to happen. I had always thought that the gym would fall apart without Becky there. Ever since Buzz and Debby had gotten divorced, Buzz hadn't proven to be the best coach. From leaving his optional girls at a gymnastics meet, so that he could go and pick up his girlfriend, to just getting up and leaving them during practice.

And on top of that Buzz was selling the Gymnastics Center to Debby, but he was still going to coach there. I knew that there was no possible way that with Debby and Buzz working together could end well, and it wouldn’t be until years later, that it turned out that I was right.

Glossary:

Grips: Grips are the leather straps that gymnasts wear to help keep a better grip on the uneven bars. The purpose of grips is to help maintain a firm grip on the equipment and to help minimize the occurrence of rips.(rip: In gymnastics, a rip occurs is when a gymnast works so hard on the bars or rings that they tear off a flap of skin from their hand. The injury is like a blister that breaks open.

Uneven Bars: A women’s gymnastics apparatus consisting of two fiberglass composite bars - a low bar 148 centimeters high and a high bar 228 centimeters high and set a maximum of 150 centimeters apart.

Routine: In gymnastics, a routine is combination of skill elements on one apparatus or event. The number and difficulty of skills depends on the competition format, and skill level of the competitors.

Mount: This term is used both to identify the first skill with which the gymnast starts a gymnastics routine and also means to get up onto a gymnastics apparatus.

Kip: A gymnastics bar skill move designed to move from a glide or hang on the bars to a support position. The skill is uses transfer of momentum and is done by swinging or gliding bringing the toes to the bar, jamming up the leg and pulling with straight arms up to a front support position. This is a basic bar skill and is first used in the USA Gymnastics compulsory at Level 5.

Cast: A gymnastics bar skill move designed to perform after a kip. This skill is preformed by the hip being forced off the bar so that the gymnastics supported by their hands.

Free Hip: Also known as a Clear Hip. A back hip circle in which the body hips do not touch the bar. At the optional level, the skill should start and finish in a handstand(back hip circle: a gymnastics bar skill in which the gymnast goes fully around the bar without the hips leaving the bar.)

Glide Kip: A gymnastics bar skill, usually performed after a skill which drops the gymnast below the low bar and requires the to get back above the bar. This skill is just like a kip except for the gymnasts feet do not hit the floor.

Back Giant: A circling skill done on high bar, parallel bars and uneven bars that begins and finishes in a handstand and circles around the bar in a fully extended position, often using an arch/hollow tap swing action.

Fall, Tap, Scoop: All of these elements are all needed in order to complete a giant successfully. The fall is the first part, performed above the low bar, in which a gymnast drops then pikes to avoid hitting the low bar. The tap starts after the feet have passed the low bar, in which the gymnast gets their feet as close as they can to the bottom of the low bar without hitting it and arches when the passes under the high bar. The final element in a giant is the scoop in which the gymnast snaps from the arch position into a hollow position and back into a handstand on the top of the bar. (Pike: A gymnastics body position where the body is bent forward at the waist with the legs kept straight; Arch: A position, in which the back is curved backwards, the chest is open and. the body takes on a convex shape; Hollow: A term referring to a gymnastics body position, where hips are turned under, the butt is tucked in and the chest is rounded forward. This is a very important body position in the sport of gymnastics and must be memorized and strengthened.)

Handstand: An inverted gymnastics control skill performed by supporting the body on both hands, with the arms straight and the body vertical. It is a core gymnastics skill and used or passed through on every gymnastics event.

Dismount: The term used for the last skill in a gymnastics routine. For most events the method used to get off of the event apparatus.

Peel: Peeling off of a gymnastics apparatus refers to a situation where a gymnast involuntarily lets go of the apparatus with their hands causing their body to fly away from the apparatus and often resulting in an almost immediate impact with the ground. Peeling off occurs primarily on bars

Levels: In women’s gymnastics there are 10 levels. The level a gymnast is in is determined by the degree of difficulty a gymnast can before.