Our Busy Weekend - Part Emmy

Well, this was a bit of a heart-breaker meet for Emmy (and, thus, her mom!).  She just didn't receive good scores and was quite devastated by it (as was her mom . . .).  I get choked up right now just thinking of her sadness and her crying and her hurt and disappointment.  She was so excited for this meet!  But she just gets soooo nervous.  Like sooooooooo nervous.  Like soooooooooo nervous she forgets half of her beam routine/skills and gets one of the lowest scores I've seen.  I won't say her scores until/unless I get permission from her . . . :)

Emmy had two teammates with her - Natasha and Jhoselin.  They had the same rotation that Lucy had:  bars, beam, floor, and vault.  Emmy has had her kip on and off in the past couple of months.  She had done them solidly the Thursday before the meet and so she was feeling pretty positive about it.  And . . . she did them both (one on the high bar and one on the low bar) at her competition.  Which made her feel good about her routine . . .until she got her score.  She got a 7.5 and I could tell she was really bummed by it.  I gave her two-thumbs ups, but she just shook her head at me.

Next was the beam.  She didn't have a great warm-up, but did stick her cartwheel.  Unfortunately, she fell at the end of her cartwheel and maybe that's what threw her off?  Honestly, I was just videoing it . . . and not watching it.  Yes, I'm nuts.  I get nervous watching beam.  So she finished, I cheered.  Then I saw her score and was like, "What?!?!"  Emmy was crying as soon as she finished.  I'm not supposed to go to her, so I didn't.  Natasha consoled her.  My heart was sad.  As I watched and re-watched the video trying to figure out what went so terribly wrong, I finally realized that she had missed key elements - or skills - in the routine.  She just pretty much didn't do a bunch of skills and was all messed up.  Emmy and her nerves.  Obviously she wasn't happier after beam.

Then on to floor.  Floor is pretty harmless as this level.  Emmy did a pretty solid routine - perhaps a few legs-not-together and a few bent-legs (including her back walk-over, which I've never seen her with bent legs before!), but it was good none the less!  Her score was less than I thought and hoped - as well as Emmy, I'm sure.  She got an 8.15.

Vault was last.  I don't know why her vault isn't stronger.  She had a fabulous vault in level 3 that should have transitioned in to a great (or at least good) vault.  She was scared of the vault for quite some time and then finally got over that.  So she'll do the front hand-spring, just with bad form.  I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just bummed that her vault isn't where it should be.  And I'm not just blaming Emmy . . . I think some better coaching should be happening.  Coach Kirk is great in many ways, but I also think he's missing some things.  Our gym girls do not compare to all the other teams that were there.

Anyways, I love Emmy and told her she's way better than her scores reflected today.

Poor girl didn't have a real smile until about 4 hours after the meet.  Sniff, sniff.

 BEFORE Emmy - all smiling and happy for her turn to compete.

 AFTER EMMY - She didn't want to come up and get her "bronze" medal - but she put on a fake smile for it anyhow.  Remember, everyone got a medal.

The level 4 team - Jhoselin, Natasha, Emmy, and Coach Kirk.  Again, a fake smile.  She was tearing-up again right before this.

Her routines on video: