Friday, December 2, 2011

Teammates > Coaches

Coming into Davis my freshman year, I went through lots of changes.  Again, I’m not trying to make it sound like I don’t like it here in California, cause I do… but I just had to deal with a lot of adjustments.  Most significantly, college gymnastics was very different from club/ high school gymnastics.  Parts of it I liked more; others I liked less. 

For example, the team environment in college is unlike anything I experienced in high school.  I love every single one of them, and I love being apart of this team.  It really is my favorite part.  I love college meets, how loud, how energetic, and how supportive everyone is.  However last year when I first started working out with the team, I felt out of my league.  I knew that that was a strong possibility.  After all, I was a walk-on and on a team with a bunch of National Qualifiers and people who had been on significantly better club teams than me.  But as I have said over and over, I didn’t need to be the star of the team—the fact that I wasn’t the best wasn’t what bothered me.

No matter how out of my league I felt, I figured there were still at least three ways I could contribute on the team without actually making line-up come competition season.
1.     I could have the best attitude possible.
2.     I could cheer for my teammates and support them at all times.
3.     I could work my ass off at practice.

So last year, that’s what I did.  I worked hard every single practice, so that one day, I could make line up.  When that day would be, I had no idea.  But as long as I did my very best, and gave 100%, I had every hope in the world that it wouldn't matter.

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