Tuesday 10 May 2016
Monday 9 May 2016
January 2016 - March 21st, 2016, Training and UCIC Competition
The first days of January, I had some fun with family over New Years' holiday and tried to forget about the 'boot' on my left foot. I got really good at hopping on my right foot. At least the right toe was finally healed so I could do that! Up and down our hall and all over the gym I hopped. I kept the boot off at home and on at training. I didn't do any weight bearing of course, but it was nice to be free of the restriction for a time.
Training with the boot was a challenge. I continued to do swing events with an ankle weight to even out my legs. P bars I mainly did with spot, high bar over the pit and pommel whatever I could do on two handle. I did lots of visualizing my routines and skills while conditioning.
Four weeks after the boot was put on, the orthopedic specialist took another x ray and figured out that my foot never was broken! It was just a bad sprain. My physiotherapist, Nicole, said it was good that it was immobilized so that the soft tissues could really heal. Still, now I had lots to do to get foot and calf flexibility back. About mid February I was feeling better on my foot, jogging, doing a little bit of easy tumbling and conditioning.
My first competition back from the original wrist surgery in 2014 would be the University of Calgary International Cup March 19th -21st, 2016, a full 23 months since I last competed and only a few weeks out of my left foot air cast. Coach Bin Fan decided we would not push floor and vault by competing them. I would keep gaining leg strength and skills for Provincials. At UCIC I would compete Rings, High Bar, Parallel Bars and Pommel Horse.
By the beginning of March, routines were coming together and I was feeling pretty comfortable with the compulsories and most of the optionals. I was doing tkatchev in routine, double twisting dismount on high bar in training outside of routine, healy's, pretty much all my p bars difficulty except peach without spot, rings with all difficulty (small spot on cross). My wrist started bugging me again so pommel was a struggle, especially my optional routine.
The week before UCIC, Bin took out some of my high bar difficulty because it just wasn't on that week. He wanted my first competition back to be smooth and safe. Then, when we got to the venue, we saw that the landing mats were all brand new. That meant hard landings for my left foot. We tested things out and went with the double tuck on p bars and double straight on high bar to be conservative. We took out the healy's and tkatchev to avoid a fall on a really hard mat.
The competition went really well! Day 1 was optionals. We decided to scratch pommel. My wrist was not holding up that week. Parallel bars was my first event. My heart was beating through my singlet! Warm up had gone fine, so I just focused on breathing and starting a solid routine. Kip, handstand, diamidov (yes, made it!), giant, giant, tippelt, press to handstand, pirouette, cast, cut through, handstand (didn't hold so took a swing), stutz, not quite handstand so took a swing, double tuck. Routine one was done!
High bar was much simpler without the difficulty. I just focused on clean lines and a good dismount. It went fine. Rings was my last event. I was really happy I could hold my handstands after front and back giants! I need better strength and form on planche, but the rest was fine. Day one was done! It was great to rotate around the events with my friend Ashton from Saskatchewan. It was also a lot of fun to see friends, judges and coaches that I hadn't seen in a long long time.
Day 2 of the UCIC competition I was even more comfortable. I added in pommel which went ok. One fall on turn in, but I had made it in warm up, so that was good. Rings went really well. I could still improve planche, but the landing was much better. Parallel bars went well. I made an attempt at peach. It was low, but can be improved. I improved stutz from day one and got it right to handstand. High bar I was really happy with. I made all the compulsory bonuses and did a decent landing to the open double tuck.
I ended up with gold on the three events I competed both day 1 and day 2. I proved to myself that I could come back and compete decently after a long time away. I also had a lot of fun!!
Training with the boot was a challenge. I continued to do swing events with an ankle weight to even out my legs. P bars I mainly did with spot, high bar over the pit and pommel whatever I could do on two handle. I did lots of visualizing my routines and skills while conditioning.
Four weeks after the boot was put on, the orthopedic specialist took another x ray and figured out that my foot never was broken! It was just a bad sprain. My physiotherapist, Nicole, said it was good that it was immobilized so that the soft tissues could really heal. Still, now I had lots to do to get foot and calf flexibility back. About mid February I was feeling better on my foot, jogging, doing a little bit of easy tumbling and conditioning.
My first competition back from the original wrist surgery in 2014 would be the University of Calgary International Cup March 19th -21st, 2016, a full 23 months since I last competed and only a few weeks out of my left foot air cast. Coach Bin Fan decided we would not push floor and vault by competing them. I would keep gaining leg strength and skills for Provincials. At UCIC I would compete Rings, High Bar, Parallel Bars and Pommel Horse.
By the beginning of March, routines were coming together and I was feeling pretty comfortable with the compulsories and most of the optionals. I was doing tkatchev in routine, double twisting dismount on high bar in training outside of routine, healy's, pretty much all my p bars difficulty except peach without spot, rings with all difficulty (small spot on cross). My wrist started bugging me again so pommel was a struggle, especially my optional routine.
The week before UCIC, Bin took out some of my high bar difficulty because it just wasn't on that week. He wanted my first competition back to be smooth and safe. Then, when we got to the venue, we saw that the landing mats were all brand new. That meant hard landings for my left foot. We tested things out and went with the double tuck on p bars and double straight on high bar to be conservative. We took out the healy's and tkatchev to avoid a fall on a really hard mat.
The competition went really well! Day 1 was optionals. We decided to scratch pommel. My wrist was not holding up that week. Parallel bars was my first event. My heart was beating through my singlet! Warm up had gone fine, so I just focused on breathing and starting a solid routine. Kip, handstand, diamidov (yes, made it!), giant, giant, tippelt, press to handstand, pirouette, cast, cut through, handstand (didn't hold so took a swing), stutz, not quite handstand so took a swing, double tuck. Routine one was done!
High bar was much simpler without the difficulty. I just focused on clean lines and a good dismount. It went fine. Rings was my last event. I was really happy I could hold my handstands after front and back giants! I need better strength and form on planche, but the rest was fine. Day one was done! It was great to rotate around the events with my friend Ashton from Saskatchewan. It was also a lot of fun to see friends, judges and coaches that I hadn't seen in a long long time.
Day 2 of the UCIC competition I was even more comfortable. I added in pommel which went ok. One fall on turn in, but I had made it in warm up, so that was good. Rings went really well. I could still improve planche, but the landing was much better. Parallel bars went well. I made an attempt at peach. It was low, but can be improved. I improved stutz from day one and got it right to handstand. High bar I was really happy with. I made all the compulsory bonuses and did a decent landing to the open double tuck.
I ended up with gold on the three events I competed both day 1 and day 2. I proved to myself that I could come back and compete decently after a long time away. I also had a lot of fun!!
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