Here is Natalie’s bar routine at the Derby Classic. She scored a 9.1 and earned 4th place in the 8 JR age group.
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Category Archives: Natalie
Gymnastics – Vault
Here is Natalie’s vault at the Derby Classic. She scored a 9.05.
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Gymnastics – Floor Exercise
Here is Natalie’s floor exercise at the Derby Classic. She scored a 9.1.
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Gymnastics – Beam
Here is Natalie’s balance beam at the Derby Classic. She scored a 9.3 and earned 2nd place in the 8 JR age group.
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Goodridge Elementary Science Project
On Friday (02/19/09) Natalie was awarded 1st place among 2nd grade entries in the 2009 Goodridge science fair. The project was a study to determine kids M&M color preference. Then compare the likes to see if Mars packs the candy to match the kids preference.
The project started almost a month ago with a little research on the web to find age appropriate science projects. Natalie narrowed down the selection between two projects. She was leaning towards the experiment that studied meteorites hitting the earth. It used marbles and sand. After a little discussion, it seemed that the M&M project would be much easier to manage between the data collection and the display.
The beginning of the project started with the great M&M count. Natalie started with 5 small bags of plain M&Ms, 2 medium bags of Peanut M&Ms, and 2 medium bags of Peanut Butter M&Ms. Each bag was sorted into seperate bowls by one of the six colors (blue, green, red, yellow, brown, or orange). Once separated, she counted the number of each M&M and recorded the results.
The next step was to take a poll of the 2nd grade students at Goodridge. Natalie went to school and collected votes about which color M&M was their favorite. She collected and recorded the data.
Natalie concluded that based on her collected data that the M&Ms are not packed to match the preference shown by the kids in Goodridge Elementary. The kids picked red and blue as their favorites, yet the M&M packages seemed to not favor a specific color.
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KC’s Sweetheart Spectacular
Today, Sunday (02/15/09) was the third competition, KC’s Sweetheart Spectacular, attended by the Level 3 team from 5-Star Gymnastics this season. The meet was held in Danville, KY at KC’s Gymnastics. Given the early start time for the level 3 team of 7:45, we drove down on Saturday evening and stay in a hotel close to the location.
During the early morning preparation prior to the competition, Natalie set a goal for herself. She wanted to score a least a 9 on every event. Shelley and I both told her to do her best and worry about just focusing on each routine and not the score.
The team started out on floor exercise, Natalie went last in the rotation. She had a very nice routine with only a few minor errors. She scored a 9.1 – she was smiling from ear to ear.
The next event was the vault. Natalie was placed in the middle of the rotation. Her first vault was very clean with good height and a stuck landing. The next vault was not a clean and the landing had a considerable step. The better of the two runs earned her a 9.3 (her highest event score this season). So far 2 for 2, now on to the dreaded uneven bars.
The last competition showed how unforgiving the bars can be with an average team score of 7.6 out of 10. Falls and lack of concentration plagued the whole team. Natalie went in the middle of the rotation and delivered the best bar routine that I have seen her perform. She got a 9.4 (now her highest score of season). The bars will not beat the 5 Star team today. They averaged an 8.8.
On to the final event, balance beam. Natalie was again last in the rotation. The team proceeded to move throughout the rotation, but this event was producing lower scores. It appears this judge is being more critical or the girls are just running out of gas. Prior to Natalie’s start, Shelley had to change locations within the crowd in order to relieve her anxiety and to put some distance between her and Natalie’s distracted eyes. As Natalie approached the beam, nobody had scored above an 8.7. Yikes! This does not bode well for maintaining the run of 9s today. She started with a slight bobble on the mount and my heart sank. She recovered and proceeded on through the routine. It was without major issue, but as she ended, Shelley and I looked at each other in agreement…not a 9. However, we were surprised to see that the judge disagreed with our sub 9 assessment. Natalie scored a 9.0. She could hardly contain herself. She was jumping and smiling in amazement.
On to the awards ceremony. Natalie and her best friend Brooklyn are both classified in the 8 JR age group. There were only 5 girls competing in this specific age category. Natalie placed 2nd in every event with Brooklyn taking 1st in the uneven bars. After the individual events were awarded, the all around was next. The announcer proceeded to call out the names for the 5 positions. Brooklyn placed 3rd and Natalie was visibly excited for her best friend’s win. Then we all held our breath as the 2nd position was called…it was not Natalie. As she realized that her name was not called for 2nd place, she placed her hands over her mouth in order to cover the gasp. She was beaming!
The rest of the awards were handed out for the 8Sr, 9, and 10-13. Then the team awards. The 5 Star team placed 3rd with a 109.7. The 2nd place team scored a 110.1 and the 1st place team scored a 110.2. Very close among the top three team. Here is a recap of the scores of the entire level 3 5-Star team.
You can find videos of each of Natalie’s events: Vault, Bars, Balance beam, and Floor exercise.
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Gymnastics – Bars
Here is Natalie’s bars at the KC’s Sweetheart Spectacular. She scored a 9.4 and earned 2nd place in the 8 JR age group.
Gymnastics – Beam
Here is Natalie’s balance beam at the KC’s Sweetheart Spectacular. She scored a 9.0 and earned 2nc place in the 8 JR age group.
Gymnastics – Floor Exercise
Here is Natalie’s floor exercise at the KC’s Sweetheart Spectacular. She scored a 9.1 and earned 2nc place in the 8 JR age group.
Gymnastics – Vault
Here is Natalie’s vault at the KC’s Sweetheart Spectacular. She scored a 9.40 and earned 2nd place in the 8 JR age group.
Round-Off Back Handspring Video
Here is a video of Natalie starting to master the round-off back handspring.
Tumble in the Bluegrass
This past Saturday (01/10/09) was the second competition, Tumble in the Bluegrass, attended by the Level 3 team from 5-Star Gymnastics this season. The meet was held in Louisville, KY at Stuart Elementary School and was hosted by Wild Card Gymnastics. Given the early start time for the level 3 team of 7:45, we drove down on Friday evening and stay in a hotel close to the location. The recommended hotel was a Holiday Inn with an indoor swimming pool and the kids enjoyed this immensely.
Here is the scores of the level 3 5-Star team.
You can find videos of each of Natalie’s events: Vault, Bars, Balance beam, and Floor exercise.
I took a few still shots, but it is clear that my point and shoot Canon is not going be the best tool for distance action shots.
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