my feat

There once was a time when something scared me more than anything had every scared me before. It scared me more than Spiders or Sharks. It scared me more than tornadoes or plane crashes. So lets just say I was terrified. and everybody knew it. You want to know what this fantastically terrifying thing is? Its the pit. I know what your thinking "how can you be scared of the pit. It's foam." But it wasn't the foam that scared me. It was the long drop into the foam and the fact that I had seen many people smack their face on the end of the floor going into it. I refused to go in. My teammates would joke around and say "hey Whit lets go play in the pit." I would literally say "no way" and hide behind the red double mini as if they where going to try and pull me in. It came to a point where I really needed to get over this fear so my coach came up to me and told me I was going to get over it. I told him I didn't want anyone to see because I knew tears would be involved. I come to open gym every week and open gym is from 8:30 to 9:30. He made a deal with me that if I would work hard he would stay after with me and help me do pit. So it was Me, my coach, my dad, and one of my team mates at about 9:45 at night in a silent gym. The last kids had just left and it was my turn. yay me! I stood at the end of the spring board shaking. I couldn't get my self to do it. It was if I was frozen and something had taken over my body. My coach, my dad, and my team mate yelling encouragement from the end of the floor. I tried to believe them but I couldn't. All they wanted me to do was round off, backhandspring, back tuck. Which I had been able to do on the floor for about 3 years and could do it in my sleep. I stood there at the end of the mat as tears started to roll down my face. I had never cried in the gym before. It took me about 45 minutes to move. By the time I did everybody was cheering. I did round off-backhandspring-stop. I tried that again and again. It was as if there was something that made it as if I couldn't go any farther. Eventually my coach just threw me in as my arms and legs flailing every which way. That was enough for that day. We where all tired and wanted to go home. My coach made me do 100 sit ups for not going in and sent me home. The next week the exact same thing happened only with more sit ups and some push ups started to join the party. This happened for a few weeks when one day I went for it. My body feeling like lead as I ran down the spring board. My coach doing most of the work for me but I did it! Now I know what your thinking. I was over my fear and we all lived happily ever after right? wrong. As I climbed out my face looked as if I had seen a ghost. My coach told me to do it again and once again It was round off backhandspring stop. This continued for a while. Sometimes I would go in but not often. When one day I found the poem titled "the beast" (http://eatsleeptumble.blogspot.com/search?q=the+beast)  the line "they set and they go they don't stop to think" repeated in my brain over and over again. Then all of the sudden I was in the pit!!! then I got out and did it again! Now I do pit every week and can do my double back tuck! I love the pit. I had it in me all along I just needed something to bring it out of me. So thanks to my amazing coach, my team mates, and my dad who stood by my side and pushed me along. You guys are amazing and I couldn't do it with out you.