As a child, gymnastics was my absolute favorite thing to do. One night I was at practice later than everyone else, I was determined to perfect my vault before the big meet the next day. I wanted to win every event at this meet and nothing was going to stop me. I was testing out the spring board when my heel slipped off. There was a crunching and a sudden pain. Immediately, I knew I had done something very wrong to my foot. At this point I had two options: tell my coach and give up the meet, or continue through the pain. There wasn’t even a choice, of course I was not going to give up all my hard work now, so I continued to practice that night despite my pain. The pain was horrible, but nothing I couldn’t ignore in order to be the best. After practice, we …show more content…
I still had not told anyone about my foot when one of my coaches noticed the huge lump on the side of my foot; she immediately got an ice bucket. My coach would have let me scratch out of the meet and not compete that day, and she would have fully supported it because of my injury, but there was no way I would do that. So throughout the meet, I carried around my ice bucket and dunk my foot into it. When it came time to compete, I dried it off, warmed up, and did what I had to do. Although there was an agonizing pain, I put it aside and competed beautifully. The feeling of triumph I received when they announced my name for the all around champion was incomparable to the torment of the injury. Eventually, my mother managed to get me into the doctor after a week or so later. My tendon had chipped off a piece of my bone, meaning I had competed through a broken foot- and won. When I have a passion for something, I devote myself into it completely. Very few people have this kind of drive and commitment that I have had throughout my life, and still have today for my education and future. I would love to continue my studies at SIUE, receiving a high quality
By universal definition, "sport" is listed as "an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively." Football, basketball, baseball, soccer and other primary activities have always been concretely defined as sports in society. However, one of the most physically demanding activities is constantly forgotten when it comes to the realm of sports- dance. Dance requires a tremendous amount of training and creates an aura of competition in which people compete to be the best, win, and take home the trophy- just like in traditionally accepted sports. These sports, however, do not possess an element of psychological health threats that some competitive dancers unfortunately must account for due to the emphasis placed on physical appearance.
Be strong, i’m here for you, why do you feel the need to do this to yourself? Those are some common phrases I hear from day to day. I have always been a happy girl, I have a good family good house and a amazing gymnastics career, but two years ago my life changed forever. Ever since I was a little girl I had always known my goal and pushed myself to the highest levels to get it. My goal was the olympics and there was nothing holding me back or at least that's what I thought.
Movies portray cheerleaders as the popular girls that everyone likes and aspires to be. But when reality hits at Salem High School, it’s a completely different story. Cheerleading was taken as a joke by the other athletes and even students. It was considered a hobby, but to me it was a passion and something I worked hard to be. Being on the cheer squad in high school was difficult to deal with in school because we were constantly being snubbed by the other athletes and students in our school ever since we were kids in junior high which should not happen because everyone has the right to do what they love and they should not be judged for it being different than everyone else. It was always us versus them up until my junior year of high school when we finally earned the respect of our peers.
Naturally, I faced the competition of other gymnasts, however, meets were not where my most valuable lessons were learned. The impact was greater in times I wanted to quit, and didn’t. For instance, my flyway, a skill I acquired as a child, became impossible for me to execute as a teenager. Each time I attempted to perform it, I froze, fear lingering in my mind. Frustrated, I contemplated abandoning my passion, yet, due to my persistence, I overcame the obstacle. I found quitting would never provide me the satisfaction I hungered for. Gymnastics also challenged my body. I suffered more injuries than the average gymnast with broken feet, fingers, toes, and elbows, a concussion, and two stress fractures in two years. My final injury, a torn labrum, resulted in hip surgery, six months of physical therapy, and the death of my college gymnastics dream. Through disaster emerged strength to cope with every roadblock I encounter. All of my life I had worked towards that goal, and with the lift of a scalpel, it was shattered. Thankfully, the qualities gymnastics has given me has transferred to every aspect of my life including my academic career. I have put in just as much effort in the classroom as I have in the
It’s a time out, all of those Friday night lights, shining in your face as you toss your best friend into the air as she kicks and twists and lands right back in your arms. Football season, every high school cheerleaders favorite season. Down on the track, lined in perfect lines, they yell at the crowd, “Are you proud to be a Tiger?” and the immediate reaction from the football fans in unison was, “Yes we are!” Most people say they’re at the games for the attention during school, but if you’d take the time to ask the cheerleaders why they do what they do, you’d get the same answer that I got from my sister when I interviewed her. She took the time to explain to me why she became a cheerleader and then progressed into saying, “I stick with it [cheerleading] because
Gymnasts are more vulnerable to the onset of distorted eating than other teenagers in society, due to the very nature of what makes for athletic success in the sport. Gymnasts’ bodies have to be young, healthy, petite and muscular, therefore they have to do large amounts of conditioning and eat the proper amounts and type of food. The main factor to gymnasts being vulnerable to distorted eating is because they are at very young ages when they excel in the sport. Gymnastics is structured around young fit bodies, so these athletes are facing a lot of pure pressure and big decisions at young ages. They may start to restrict their diet because, in the sport, it is expected for them to have petite and fit bodies and they are receiving pressure from their coaches and others opinions. A Canadian study of youth gymnasts at an average age of 13.4 years old, reported that 10.5% saw themselves as overweight, 27% were worried about the way they looked and 39% reported dieting behaviors (momsteen.com). When gymnasts restrict their food intake it will not enhance their performance, instead it will harm it because of their weakened bodies condition. They decide to reduce their food intake because of what their body, as a gymnast, is supposed to look like. With the average age of gymnasts being 13.4 years old, they are at the age where it is very easy to feel insecure about their body due to others around them, but it is very unhealthy for high-level gymnasts to not be fueling their body with the proper foods thy need. The sports nature also plays a large role in how far the athletes will go for success. Gymnastics is a very involving sport that requires very long training hours for the young athletes. The proper amount of training hours for the ...
Gymnastics is the physical activity that create and show quality, parity, and nimbleness performed on or with specific device. Cheerleading is one who drives the cheering of observers, as at a games challenge. On the off chance that you haven't saw yet, the definitions are totally distinctive. Gymnastics is the superior sport to cheerleading, which is not in any case considered a sport. Gymnastics is an overall better, including cost and the numerous advantages aerobatic offers.
Especially in high school, you see and interact with many people on a day-to-day basis. Some are your close friends you know really well, while others you barely know. Therefore, one of the struggles of high school is getting to know people you don’t usually see outside of class. Having to interview Marissa Braddock, someone I don’t see outside of class, gave me an opportunity to learn new things about her. Being involved in multiple athletics, being extremely committed to family, and having dreams and aspirations to travel when she’s older reveals Marissa to be a very well rounded girl.
She immediately scheduled an appointment with an ankle specialist, who diagnosed me with hairline fractures throughout my ankle. At this moment, I thought that my career in sports was over as I would never come back from the months spent in a boot, unable to participate in any form of physical activity, and the months of therapy that followed, but I persevered and returned to playing condition before too long. Some people aren’t so fortunate. They sustain career ending injuries which often include soft tissue damage. The problem with injuries like these is not that they will never heal, as many of them will, but the time it takes for them to heal.
I didn’t care I still tried out. The cheers they had us do were easy the jumps were jumps I was doing in first grade. I made the team. I was happy even though deep down I was upset that I could be on the worst team in history. So as I started on the team, I soon realized that my idiot brother had no idea what he was talking about and it was a good team. I wanted to go back to my old coach so that I could learn how to do a back hand spring because everywhere I went I just couldn’t get myself to do it. Some coaches told me that it might be because I don’t trust them enough to do it. So I had a private class with her before her normal cheer practices. We were working on my round offs and cart wheels when she walked away to go answer her phone I went for my round off and didn’t land right and fell because it felt like my knee gave out. I got up and kept trying. When it was time for her teams to practice I was sitting on the floor in pain doing stretches with the girls thinking maybe if I just stretch it out itll feel better it didn’t I ignored it for a while till I went home and took my shoes off my foot swelled up like a balloon. I could barely walk
The scariest thing that I have ever experienced was dislocating my knee during my high school basketball game. While attending Forestview High in 2013 the second game of the season, I acquired my knee injury against Highland Tech. I was very excited about the game because I worked very hard to take a senior spot and was finally getting the opportunity that I was waiting for. Everyday during practice, I gave my all, all the blood, sweat, and tears that I experienced I just knew it was my time. Tuesday, November 22 we get to Highland, warm up, and finally it's time for tip-off. The first quarter I get off to a rough start getting all the jitters out. Second quarter arrives, then I began to get the feel of the game. As I penetrated down the lane after hitting a mean crossover, I came to a jump stop
This injury lasted the duration of my junior year, and I was unable to play. I remained a part of the team, going to every practice and going to every game, but it was during this time that I truly began to shift my focus toward being a student. My senior year, I was faced with a decision that resulted in me walking down to the athletic center that brisk fall morning. I decided that my days of playing baseball were finished. It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life, yet motivated me and empowered me in ways I never thought possible. Giving up baseball has given me the strength to stand on my own, and has cemented my self-confidence. Giving up baseball, my first love, has allowed me to pursue my more recent passion and love for
You walk into the room and feel a warm gust of air greet you at the door. The smell of cleaner fills your nose as your shoes squeak along the freshly mopped mats. The clock strikes 3:30 and the coach blows his whistle that seems to penetrate your ears with a piercing screech. Your body aches and your mind tells you to leave and quit. On the other hand, your heart tells you to go on. Through all the pain, your heart always seems to whisper to you, “This will make you great. This extra day of pain will make the difference.” Even though practice makes your bones ache, your joints grind, your skin bleed, and your body swell; there is a greater hardship to come.
My injury was an accident, but I viewed it as a failure. Not only have I believed I failed my team and parents, I thought I failed myself. I had a goal for myself and that was to bring a championship to the program. But for it to end so suddenly caused negativity to fly around in my head, constantly bringing me down. I let my “failure” affect me mentally and a result of that, I was
It was the start of summer 2002, and the Mid America Youth Basketball (MAYB) national tournament was taking place in Andover, Kansas. Along with the rest of the team, I was excited to play some basketball for the first time since the middle school basketball season was over. Our team, Carlon Oil, had been together and played every summer for the last four years. We were a really good team, with an overall record of 65-4 over those four years and were hoping to continue our legacy. Lonnie Lollar, our coach for the summer, was also the coach of our high school basketball team. I had a history of groin injuries, and every summer it seemed that I would have to sit out at least a game on the bench icing my groin. But this summer was different, and I along with everyone in the gym wouldn't have expected my summer to end with a injury such as a broken leg.