We love watching Alex do his gymnastics routines, even when he’s not having his best day. He thinks he had a terrible meet. We continue to be amazed by what he does.
The first event on Friday was the rings. He did a good routine and scored a 12.0, his best score on the rings ever.
The next skill was the vault. The vault happens pretty fast. The whole thing only lasts a few seconds. He got wrong-footed on the approach; so right as he hit the vault (he told us later), he changed what he was going to do and did a vault that better fit the approach. How do you do that in microseconds? He took a side step on the landing, but still scored a respectable 12.2.
The first big mistake of the day was on the parallel bars. He got just off-center and fell out of a skill that he never falls on.
Still scored an 11.3.
He missed two moves on the high bar. The first one happened right after the start and he ended up briefly right up against the bar with no momentum. At this level there shouldn’t be any hesitations. A short while later, he didn’t get all the way around on a giant and had to bail while he was still upside down, but still somehow landed on his feet. I asked him later how he had the presence to do that and he answered “I fall a lot in practice.”
He scored a 10, his lowest score of the day.
He did well on the floor. Took a couple extra steps on landings, but did some wonderfully difficult maneuvers.
12.4.
His final event, the pommel. That fall looked tough. We head the thud from across the gym. The skills were difficult enough that he still scored an 11.8.
His target at this level is to score 75 points total in a meet. That’s what he needs to be doing to be around the podium at the end, but he hasn’t done that yet. He has scored in the low 70s, but hasn’t hit 75. In this meet, with the falls, he scored 69.7. Each fall is a one point deduction. When he can do these routines without the falls, he’s right in there.
In sports, it’s all about winning. That’s what you’re there for. I think there are important lessons in losing too though. We watch him fall, brush it off, get back up there, and finish.
We’re so proud of him.
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