Maile’ana
Kanewa-Herme-
lyn, the team’s assistant coach
who specializes in the balance
beam, attempted to teach me how
to turn on the beam. Unsurpris-
ingly, I couldn’t balance, and in-
stead took steps off — costing my-
self a half point deduction. This
seemingly-slight metric is more
than enough to lose a meet, where
the results often come down to
hundredths of points — for exam-
ple, Michigan’s 2021 national title
was only won by .0175 of a point.
My lack of balance was clearly a
disqualifying trait, and it was a
good thing none of the athletes
were like me in this respect.
After fooling around for a lit-
tle while on the beam, sophomore
Ashley Lane, was kind enough
to take me through her jumping
and flipping drills. The gym is
riddled with pits filled with fluffy
blue pillows, providing a safe
landing spot for risky attempts
at new skills. Lane and I took
turns jumping in. She would first
demonstrate a beautiful leap, and
soon after I would attempt to rep-
licate it, never coming quite close.
Lane, an ever-patient and ridicu-
lously friendly teacher, walked me
through her front and back aerial
progressions, an awesomely intel-
ligent way to learn these insane
skills — a method that translates
to the outside of the gym world,
one of the many lessons I learned.
If you simply slow down and work
your way up to the difficult parts
of life, for example by starting
with one-handed cartwheels, you
can work up and achieve goals
faster and more efficiently, for ex-
ample completing an aerial. I real-
ly appreciate this lent insight from
these athletes. I can’t do an aerial,
but I can apply their knowledge.
The limited skills I could at-
tempt were physically challeng-
ing, so much so, that I took a sit-
ting (and panting) break until the
athletes were ready to move to the
uneven bars — where my lack of
strength really shined through.
After coating my hands in chalk, I
was allowed to jump and grab the
high bar. Freshman Paige Thax-
ton, encouraged me to try and
swing. My core engaged and my
arms flexed, I piked my legs and
tried. After about four seconds,
I couldn’t hang on any longer
because my hands burned like I
had just put my palm down on the
stove.
The confines of the gym seem
no different than what we all go
through in the outside world — we
win and lose, and we put so much
love into what we do. We fall un-
abashedly fall and then we get up
and try again.
Part two: Engaging off the
mat
The other half of this immer-
sion was much more special to me:
I got the privilege to watch these
athletes put in some truly incred-
ible hard work. What stuck out to
me was the self-sufficiency: They
were almost coaching each other.
How? I don’t know. I can barely
motivate three classmates to actu-
ally finish our group project, yet
somehow these athletes, my age
nonetheless, were able to guide
and help each other through some
truly complicated gymnastics with
veritable confidence.
There was a lot of beauty
to the team environment. They
worked as a cohesive, familial
unit — dropping the individuality
of the sport at the door. Helping
each other not only profession-
ally, but efficiently. Not putting
themselves first, but the team
— so extremely obviously. With
sunlight streaming in, music
humming in the background and
cheers of encouragement fill-
ing the foreground it seemed so
clear, they love this school and
their team enough to achieve all
of their dreams.
The gym also buzzed with
joy. Not only were the gymnasts
falling and getting up, they all had
smiles plastered to their faces.
And I felt it too — the contagious
joy. I mean, after doing hand-
stands or cartwheels the smile
could not be wiped off my face.
Joy in the hard work, the process
if you will, doesn’t come often or
easily, and this team has it. The
gymnasts cheered after falls or
perfect landings, recognizing the
work, not the result. All of this
seemed to be powered by love and
respect — for the sport and each
other.
***
Getting a whistle and a
“woo-hoo” from Plocki for sim-
ply swinging on the uneven bars,
while these girls do things like
deltchev’s (a D-rated skill entail-
ing a 180° into a forward salto in
straddled position), is just one ex-
ample of how awesome this expe-
rience and environment was. This
team’s magnum opus has yet to
come, despite the 2021 National
Championship. And if they keep
working like they are — which I
have no doubt they will — their
potential is limitless.
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 // The Statement — 3
JENNA HICKEY/Daily
JENNA HICKEY/Daily
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