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 ﻿ **Gymnastics is an individual sport that most people classify as artistic; but other than artistic, it involves hard work and determination. You have to be willing to get hurt, keeping in mind your goal to accomplish something great. **
 *  Gymnastics **

Gymnastics is a beautiful sport that was created in the early ancient Greek times. I Gymnastics originated in Ancient Greece. They wanted to stay fit and prepare for war. They practiced long days and nights, and they built their strength up and were well prepared for war. Gymnastics is still carried out today and is now one of the most watched sports in the world. It takes a lot to be a gymnast. You have to have strength, flexibility, and determination, because as a gymnast I know first hand the pain, injuries, rips, falls, fails at getting a skill, and the pressure it takes to memorize a routine. No matter how bad it may seem at times you have to keep going and not give up. We looked at this, and we saw the strength, flexibility, endurance, and perseverance it took and we changed it into an American sport.

**To be a gymnast, you need to have: Strength, Flexibility, Speed, Power, Air Awareness, Coordination, Grace, and Dedication. **Strength is required to complete the most difficult elements compares to the strength of any football player or weight lifter. Strength is necessary to hold oneself in many of the hand-supported positions in gymnastics, such as handstands and handsprings. Flexibility determines whether or not you can complete a skill. A flexible gymnast will not only execute split leaps and jumps more beautifully, but she will be able to perform certain difficult elements that require this characteristic including artistic tumbling. Without tremendous speed, events such as the vault and the floor exercise cannot be completed. A good vault comes from a fast run and punch of the spring board, and all tumbling elements require a fast approach or quick muscle movement to initiate the skill. The gymnast needs the speed of a sprinter to achieve the most advanced skills of gymnastics. Without power, a gymnast won’t be able to run fast and punch high. A gymnast needs power to get her high in the air so she has enough time to complete her skill and stick the landing. Air Awareness means, at all times a gymnast knows where she is and where the ground is. If the gymnast doesn’t know where the ground is, she won’t be able to stick it and may possibly get hurt. A gymnast needs coordination to be balanced and connect her skills. Grace is the flowing dance parts to the routine. Without this you’d be all power and no grace. Dedication is perseverance. A good and dedicated gymnast wants to be at the top. She wants to go all the way and doesn’t let anything stand in her way. She knows her limits and when she can’t handle it anymore. She knows when she needs to stop.  **Gymnasts go through a lot physically and mentally. They have to deal with the pressure of being judged 24/7 by coaches, teammates, and judges. All of that puts a lot of pressure on a gymnast to be flawless at all times. Some gymnasts feel that with all of this pressure to be perfect, that they have to change themselves to meet these requirements. Some develop eating disorders in the pressure to become skinny. It’s hard not to be self conscious about your body when you are being judged 24/7. You have to be strong throughout your career, and you have to not only tell yourself your fine the way you are, but feel that way to. It’s not enough to exercise a lot, because you need to eat right too. As long as you maintain a healthy strength/weight ratio, you are in good shape. Don't try to change yourself because you think it will help your gymnastics, because it will actually do more harm than good. **  **Gymnasts Should Keep their strength up by lifting, doing push ups, chin ups, and any other kind of strength exercise. You should eat right and do exercises so your strength to weight ratio is in your target range. To prevent getting injured, you can wear braces and ice regularly. If there is swelling than you can soak it in Epsom salt. Injuries sometimes take a while to heal so rest it and don’t do much activity on it until the doctor says it’s okay. Rips are a form of injury. They happen when your calluses build up and eventually are torn off by the bar. To prevent rips, wear grips. If you already ripped, than put a band-aid on it, pre-wrap your hand, and then put athletic tape over it. This will prevent any other rips. **  **Gymnastics is more than just a sport. It’s a job. You have to dedicate most of your time to gymnastics. People say it’s an artistic sport, and it’s just beauty and grace, but in reality it is much more. It is the sweat, time, injuries, power, strength, flexibility, endurance, and balance it takes to love the sport and want to win. You have to think like a winner, and you have to think toward your future career and where you see yourself, where you want to be, and what you can see yourself accomplishing. Gymnastics is one of the hardest sports, because you need to accept the injuries and use it as a learning experience. You need to be able to accept defeat, and use it as a learning experience. Use it to know what you need to work on and what you have down. Gymnastics is not only an individual sport, but a team sport. You need to support your teammates and help them, but you have to also accept the criticism they give you and not take it the wrong way. You need to take it as a friend trying to help a friend. You need the support of everyone, because they give you the confidence that you can win. **